Chapter Thirty - Gorneo

"Lord Cold! Lord Cold!" a voice cried through the halls. Cold and Inferna turned from the room they were now exploring, a large round room with some sort of unknown machine at its center. They'd been attempting to determine what it might be, without activating it in case it was dangerous, for a couple of hours or so, as far as Cold could tell. Though the message in the Record Orb had proven accurate, time was effectively a nonexistent thing on this world, what seemed like an hour to one group might only be a few minutes or even a few days to another.

A moment later the source of the voice appeared in the doorway. One of Cold's men, wearing the ice blue, orange, and black trimmed armor of one of his science staff. "What is it?" he asked.

"The translation of the Grand Hall." the man panted.

"It's finished?"

"No." he said, shaking his head. "Not entirely. There are sections, entire passages, we can't read, written in languages we don't know, and large areas we've not even gotten to yet. We're still deciphering those, using context from other areas to figure them out. But... we have deciphered enough of the wall, translated enough of the writing, to understand parts. And... it's not their history. It's ours. If it even is history."

"What do you mean?" asked Inferna.

"We've not found anything on the wall that references this world." he said. "But there are a lot of mentions of the four galaxies. The writing is odd, the wording isn't always very clear on matters, but some of us think we recognize descriptions of events. Things that happened in the North Galaxy. And one section, we think it's talking about Master Kakkarotto's fight with Buu."

Cold's eyes widened a little at that and he turned fully to face the man now. "Are you certain?"

"Not entirely, sir. It's the wording. The passage goes 'And the Demon shall be freed from its twice fold confinement, the shell of Rock and the shell of Good, and set to bring Death to the stars. But The False Gods shall know of it and stand against it before its terror truly beings, and the Evil shall die and the Good shall live and the False Gods will rise higher in their power.' We've seen mention of 'The False Gods' elsewhere and we think they're talking about the Masters. One section says 'And The False Gods shall then come through a union of powers, the Horned and the Newly Tailless, and they shall seize the universe and lead it to the End of Days.' I don't know about this 'End of Days' stuff but...."

Cold nodded. The Sai-jins had certainly been 'newly tailless' and he was most certainly horned, and they had made a 'union of powers' that had seized the universe.

"But then... the writing on those walls... is prophecy?" asked Inferna.

"Not unheard of." said Cold. "The Kanassans have the power to see the future, to a limited extent. It's not controllable and often limited to events that directly effect the individual seeing them, though. If these truly are prophecies that the former inhabitants witnessed and wrote down then their ability exceeds that of the Kanassans. And the information on those walls would be invaluable to us."

"Agreed." said Inferna, making her way from the room, Cold right behind. "Anything else of interest that you've managed to translate?" she asked the researcher.

"A few places." he said. "There's a passage near what we think is the end of the writing that we've only got partly deciphered so far but already has us interested. It goes...." He pursed his lips for a moment, thinking. "'Having been planted long before, the seeds of...' and then we can't read a few lines, but it continues '...and from the Blood shall be born the Destroyer, and from the Mind the Creator. He shall come to End them all, she shall come to Defend them all. Innocent and Evil and False God, their Fates to be determined by their Wills alone.'"

"Interesting." said Cold, as they entered the Grand Hall again. It sounded like a prophecy about the end of the world, or rather, end of the universe. And, by the sound of it, the outcome of the battle could go either way. There were mentions in old documents left by the Ancients of a 'great battle' that would one day decide the fate of the universe. No reference to any gods in said battle, though they did mention that the 'child gods' would be destroyed before the battle began. Those documents also said that the fate of the universe, to be destroyed or to be preserved, was up to those who lived in it.

The researcher lead him and Inferna over to the wall by the door out of the building. There were six others already at the wall apparently in the midst of a heated debate. "I'm telling you, it means 'those who defied them'." said one of the researchers.

"And I'm telling you it means 'those who died'." said another.

"How does that make any sense?" asked a third. "How can 'those who died' lead anything? They're dead."

"What's up?" asked the researcher who'd come to find Cold.

"We're in a disagreement over what part of the writing says." answered one of the others. "We're split, three to three, over the meaning of a word. We believe it means 'died' while they think 'defied'."

"And I'm telling you, 'died' is impossible."

"Read it to me." said Cold.

The researchers blinked, having not noticed Cold or Inferna until he'd spoken. One of them turned to the wall and read the line in question. "Those who died..." he said, emphasizing the word. "Shall rise and lead the charge against The False Gods, and those who turned away shall come again, and they shall stand with those who died...." He turned from the wall again. "And that's all we've managed so far."

"Like I said, 'died' is impossible." said one of the other researchers. "Once you're dead that's it, you can't lead shit."

"We're talking end of the world stuff, here." countered another. "People returning from the dead is a fairly common theme in most end of the world myths. I think that's what it means by 'rise and lead the charge', they're somehow restored to life."

"How? I mean, what could possibly bring the dead back?"

"Parunga, for one." said Cold. The researchers stopped in their debate and turned to the Changeling. "From my understanding even Shenron had the power to revive the dead, Parunga is supposed to be even more powerful. Still, both translations make some level of sense. I'd imagine any who died and would come against us had also already defied us."

"Dual meaning?" asked one of the researchers, looking at the passage again. "Could that be it?"

"Maybe...." agreed another.

"Let's leave it as an 'and/or' thing for now." said the first. "If we can find the word elsewhere on these walls maybe we can get a better meaning from it."

XXX

Trunks sighed as he switched off his computer terminal. The worst part about being a Master, as far as he was concerned, was all of the boring reports he had to wade through on a daily basis. Half of which never really mattered in the end, anyway, and half of those that did matter were often old and out dated by the time he got to them. Like the one he'd just read about the Talon having been hit by unknown attackers and now being stranded out in the middle of nowhere. Six days old, his father and Gero had already dealt with it and arranged for a rescue transport to pick them up. Not that it would even get there for over a month.

The ones that never mattered in the end were things like new Imperial postings, like the one he'd read the other morning that had finally gone through about his and Marron's imminent arrival at the Gorneo facility. Not only did he already know about that, since it was about him, but by the end of the day there wouldn't be a Gorneo facility anymore. Equally boring and annoying were the occasional field reports that had nothing in them. Like the one he'd just read that went on for five pages and just said 'We've not found any trace of Tao yet' in the longest and most boring way possible.

Standing up he reached up and pulled off his scouter, dropped it onto his chair, and rubbed his eyes. He couldn't wait to get out of this damned ship and stretch his legs some. And he couldn't deny he was looking forward to the coming mission, at least to some degree. He was dreading Bra or 18 learning about it any time in the next hundred or so years, give them both time to get over the whole mess before they found out and the backlash wouldn't be so severe. But he hadn't had any kind of mission in ages, and hadn't gotten to really let loose for almost as long.

Beyond that, though, there was the fact that Marron was a babe. Considering that she wouldn't be talking to Bra or 18 to report any... er, 'bad behavior' on his part, he had no reason to be 'good'. He grinned, thinking about that. Within the hour he'd have her screaming in, he was sure, more ways than one. He'd just have to be careful in case of a power flare up. If she had another of those, like back on Saiya, she could do serious damage. Hell, unless he was transformed she'd be more than strong enough to kill him. Without even trying.

"Maybe I should transform first, just to be safe." he thought. He was just about to pick his scouter back up when he heard a knock at his door so he turned from his chair, walked over to the door, and opened it. "Oh, hey Marron." he said, finding her standing there. "What's up?"

"The Captain asked me to come down and get you." she said. "He needs you up on the bridge. Something about a Clearance Code error?"

Trunks sighed. "Alright, I'm coming." he said.

She walked with him through the ship up to the bridge. "What's a Clearance Code error?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, installation worlds like this one have strict regulations on ship arrivals." he explained. "Any ship intending to land on the planet needs to transmit a Clearance Code down first. Once it's verified the ship is given landing permission. Try to land without a code and...." he shrugged. "Mom and Gero built some high powered energy cannons that they'll use to blast the ship into oblivion. An error means that our code, for whatever reason, isn't being accepted."

"Are they going to shoot us?"

"Nah, not so long as we don't try to land." said Trunks. "Which is why the Captain wants me. Under normal circumstances he'd have to call back to Saiya for a new code and he could be stuck in orbit for days waiting for it to be processed. But, well, I'm a Master so...."

"You just show your face and instant clearance?" she asked, laughing.

Trunks nodded. "Pretty much." he said as they reached the bridge.

Trunks made his way over to the Captain, who was talking to someone on the planet. "I know, just give... ah, here we are." he said, spotting Trunks. "I told you it would only take a few minutes."

The man on the screen turned his gaze from the Captain to Trunks. "Oh, Master Trunks." he said, nodding. "We'd heard you were coming. Sorry for the inconvenience, but...."

Trunks waved it off. "Doesn't matter, it happens." he said. "Besides, I knew it would." he thought. It had been part of the arrangements his father had made. He'd included it in a special report, one that Trunks had already destroyed. The bad Clearance Code would be logged in the computer network, as would the fact that no replacement code had been requested. No records were kept of good codes, just the bad ones, so no one would know it had been his ship with the bad code. Instead, they could pass it off as Slug attempting to get onto the planet with the bad code.

"Alright, clearance granted. You can land when ready, Captain."

The Captain nodded. "Ma'am, Master Trunks, you may want to take a seat." he said, before turning to his pilot. "Alright, set us down." Trunks and Marron quickly grabbed empty chairs on the bridge and strapped themselves in as the ship began its descent. It was fairly smooth for the first few moments and then the rocking and jostling started as they hit the atmosphere and grew worse as they pushed further in. Saucer ships weren't particularly aerodynamic so landings were never very smooth but Marron felt this one was the worst she'd ever gone through, even if it was only her third.

So she was quite happy when, after a few minutes, the bouncing settled down and then stopped. A moment later she felt the light shudder of touchdown and then the Captain spoke up again. "Landing complete. Attention all passengers and crew, we have arrived on Gorneo. Those disembarking are to report to their designated exit."

Trunks un-strapped himself and stood. "Well, come on Marron. Let's go get you settled in with the guy running this place."

Marron swallowed down her nervousness and nodded as she got up and followed him off the bridge. They'd only gone a short distance down the hall before reaching an exit and making their way out of the ship. The two of them descended the stairs down to the landing pad and Trunks pointed out the main building of operations to Marron. Meanwhile, in Trunks's quarters on the ship, his scouter, still laying on his chair, began to beep, indicating an incoming message.

XXX

Vegeta came to a stop in front of his private terminal and quickly brought it on-line. Once it was up and running he accessed the ComNet and sent a message out to Trunks's scouter. "Come on, damn it." he growled, watching the flashing 'Waiting for Connection' message. After two minutes he gave up on the scouter, Trunks apparently didn't have it on or near him. Instead, he searched through the transmission codes on his terminal for Gorneo's planetary transmission frequency, since he didn't know the code. But after another five minutes of searching he couldn't find it. "Damn it!" he cried, turning from the terminal and hurrying from the room.

He'd need to go talk to Gero.

XXX

"Ah, Master Trunks." a man standing at the doors to the main building said, bowing. He was ten feet tall, dark green skinned, with long blue hair half way down his back, black eyes, and wearing a brown business suit. "And you must be Mistress 18's daughter. Lady Marron, yes?"

Marron nodded. "Yeah."

"Welcome, welcome." the man said. "I'm Gene, head of the Gorneo Research Center. I've seen your application papers and knowledge base and I must say I'm glad to have you here."

"Y-you are?" Marron asked, shocked.

Gene nodded. "Quite glad, in fact. We've been having a string of... er... bad luck with a few projects of ours, ones I think you are well suited for. I think fresh eyes are what we need."

"Already found a place for her?" Trunks asked. "I'm impressed."

"Well, she wont be starting right away." said Gene. "A few days to settle in, time to get acquainted with the staff, read up on the projects, all of that."

Trunks nodded. "Well, I'll let you two talk for now." he said. "I need to head over to the ComCenter and take care of a few matters."

"It's just over there." Gene said, pointing to another building not more than a thousand feet away. "And I do hope you have more luck than us with it."

"What do you mean?" Trunks asked.

Gene shrugged. "Solar flare activity." he said. "Been randomly screwing up transmissions for the last couple of days. We've not been able to get anything to go more than five million miles since yesterday morning, even with the stronger transmitters at the Center. Personal coms equipment hasn't worked over more than a mile for a week. I don't think you'll be getting through to anyone unless you've got a Class A transmitter with you."

Trunks had to force himself not to grin. He'd expected to have to wipe out all communications on the planet first and fast. This made things easier. He could blast the ComCenter, take out the ship ports, and then relax and take his time from there. "Well, I'll give it shot." he said, turning and leaving.

Marron watched him walk off for a moment then turned back to Gene. "So, um, what's this project?" she asked.

"Ah, right, that. Come inside and I'll explain. I'll even be able to point a few things out, I think." he said, opening the door and leading her into the building. Marron's eyes widened as she got a look inside. The room they'd just entered was massive, at least five hundred feet across, another six hundred wide, and she figured about seven stories tall. Despite the size it was still heavily crowded. Computer terminals were set about all over the place, hundreds of people were milling about running from station to station, working at the terminals, calling off data feed readings from various monitors.

"Here we are." said Gene as he lead her to one of the larger terminal stations. The terminal was attached to a holo-projector unit, had five keyboards, three screens, and ten people standing around it. "This group is doing some research into the Sarinora virus. As I'm sure you know it is one of the most deadly viruses in the entire North Galaxy. As such we very rarely work with the real thing and instead use computer simulations." He motioned to one such simulation currently running on the holo-projector. "We've actually got three projects involving Sarinora. A vaccine research project and two engineering projects."

"Engineering?" Marron asked. "You're trying to alter it?"

Gene nodded. "We want to make it a benign carrier." he said. "Sarinora is easily and highly transmittable. Carrier Project A is seeking to use it as a base for a 'communicable cure'. Something we can give to only a few people and have it spread. A cure that works like a disease. Carrier Project B wants to use it as a control mechanism in a genetic computer. Sarinora naturally exchanges genetic material with its host. If we can control the exchange we can finally realize DNA based computers."

Marron nodded. "I see. And which project did you want me on?" she asked.

"Well, you're highly qualified for all three, and all three are behind schedule." said Gene. "So any of the three you want to work on is good by m...." He trailed off as the ground suddenly shuddered violently, a thunderous explosion tearing through even the noise of the large room. "What the hell was that!?" he cried, turning back toward the doors. Suddenly three more massive explosions rocked the building and people began rushing toward the doors to see what was up.

Marron heard a few startled gasps from the front of the crowd as she pushed her way through, with Gene, to see what was up. And then she left out one of her own as she saw Trunks fire an energy blast into the ship the two of them had arrived on, blowing the entire thing to pieces.

XXX

Gero turned at the sound of a loud bang and saw Vegeta walking into the lab. The bang had been the door slamming into the wall. "What is it?"

"I need you to contact Gorneo." Vegeta said. "I don't know the planetary communications frequency and I couldn't find it in my terminal."

"Gorneo?" Gero asked, walking from the station he'd been at and over to another. Bending over they keys he began entering a series of commands. "Would this be related to 18's unexpected detour?" He asked as he worked. Getting no answer he glanced back and saw that Vegeta was staring at the monitor and seemed preoccupied. Turning back to the keyboard he finished entering the commands and straightened up again. The large screen shifted from the data he'd been working on to a flashing 'Connecting....' message.

However, twenty seconds went by and no connection formed. Finding this odd Gero bent over they keys again and quickly typed in a new set of commands. 'Connecting....' vanished and was replaced with 'Searching....' which remained, flashing, on the screen for nearly five minutes. Finally it vanished and was replaced with 'No corresponding signal detected'. Gero turned from the screen to face Vegeta. "I think, perhaps, you should fill me in." he said. "It seems that Gorneo is no longer on the ComNet."

Vegeta closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down some. He was too tense and he knew it. With Gorneo off the ComNet that meant that Trunks had already begun the mission. There was no way now to tell him to postpone his orders until after 18 had come and gone. So long as Trunks kept his wits, and18 didn't realize exactly what was occurring, he could handle the woman, Vegeta knew that. Opening his eyes again he sighed. "Trunks is on a covert mission, one I didn't want getting out to 18."

"Oh? Something to do with her daughter, I suppose?"

Vegeta nodded. "The girl displayed some sort of odd power spike a while back." he said. "While Kakkarotto was off fighting Buu. Apparently to a level near matching that of Gohan."

Gero's eyes widened. "Interesting. I hadn't thought she would be any different than a normal Human.... 18's genetic tweaks aren't for the purposes of power but for managing her systems."

"Whatever the cause was we decided she was a threat that needed removed." Vegeta said. "Especially considering her father and the fact she didn't grow up here with us. So I sent Trunks with her to take care of it in a way that would look like an attack by Slug."

Gero nodded. "I see. And he's apparently started, then, with the planet being off the ComNet." Gero moved from the terminal he was at and over to another one. "And now 18 is soon to arrive on the planet as well."

"Exactly. Transformed, Trunks could deal with her, but there's no guarantee he'd get the chance to transform. If she arrives before he finishes up his cover will be shot."

"Let's see where she's at." said Gero, bending over the keyboard of the new terminal. 'Accessing Android 18 Command Systems....' appeared on the screen a few seconds later. "Hmm, odd...."

"What?" Vegeta demanded.

"I'm having trouble establishing a system lock." explained Gero. "Hang on." He moved over to a third terminal now and quickly ran a deep scan of the Gorneo system to try and trace the interference. A few moments later a stream of data filled the screen. "Well, this explains things, but it makes things difficult." he said.

"What is it?" asked the Sai-jin. He was quickly becoming tense again.

"High solar activity." explained Gero. "There's a massive Solar Storm occurring on the surface of the system's star. The solar flares are causing transmission problems."

"Can you still get through to her?"

"I should be able to, yes." said Gero. "I'll need to boost the signal some, and possibly run through a relay net. It'll take some time, though."

XXX

Marron was having trouble believing what she was seeing as she watched the remains of the ship rain down. Her eyes roamed up to where Trunks floated and she saw him turn to look her way and swallowed. He floated toward them and she heard people behind her shifting and moving back but she was rooted where she stood. She couldn't figure out what was going on, why he'd blow up the ship like that, or the other buildings she could now see laying in ruins. "Wh-what's going on...?" she asked as Trunks landed in front of her.

He shrugged. "Father's decided to close the facilities here." he said, raising an arm.

Marron's eyes widened in shock as she heard and felt a sudden blast of energy rush past her head. And then there was a deafening boom and a sudden shockwave that flung her forward into Trunks. Her ears still ringing she moved back a few steps from him, turned, and stared in disbelief at what she saw. The interior of the building was now a smoking, smoldering, pile of rubble. The people behind her were gone and, as the ringing in her ears faded, she could hear some people crying and screaming for help. "I... I don't under-understand...." she stammered, turning back to Trunks.

Trunks sighed as he lowered his arm and reached the hand toward her. She flinched instinctively but he just brushed a strand of hair back off her face and behind her ear. "Bra's going to be a mess for weeks, if not months, over your death." he said, shaking his head. "But orders are orders."

"M-my... my death?" Marron stammered, eyes widening more, as she took a half step back. "Orders? What... I don't...."

"Do you remember?" Trunks asked. "The spar? The stray energy blast that nearly killed you?"

"What...?"

Trunks shook his head. "Bra didn't save you." he said. "You saved yourself. I don't know how but you had a power spike, at least equal to Gohan's base level, way above the rest of our bases. Dad...." he shrugged. "As you can imagine it concerned him, given who your father was and that you didn't grow up with us. So, I was sent along. Partly to shut down the project here, it's been nothing but a drain on resources for the last few years, and partly to deal with you. Father decided it best to just eliminate your threat. Gotta put on a good show for 18, and Bra now as well I suppose, so your death and the destruction of the facility here is going to be pinned on Slug."

Marron blinked a few times, still unable to fully grasp what Trunks was saying. "You...." she started, as it started to sink in. "You came... came along to... kill me?"

"Yep. Sorry." he said. Marron took a few steps back as Trunks suddenly smiled. "Though that will have to wait a little while, I want to have a little fun, first."

XXX

18 scowled at the display screen of her pod. "What the hell is up?" she wondered. She'd been trying for the last five minutes to re-establish a connection with Gorneo. She'd had one, for all of two seconds, and then it went dead. She couldn't even get a signal lock now. "This doesn't make any sense, I'm too close to the planet for the solar flares to be causing this much interference." she said, crossing her arms. She debated diverting her course to orbit the planet instead of staying on her landing course for a moment. She'd not been able to transmit her Clearance Code so it was possible they'd shoot at her.

Pods were a lot harder to track and hit than ships, though. So even if they did shoot there was a good chance they'd miss. Beyond that, the only explanation she could think of for the sudden communications loss was damage to the ComCenter's transmission and reception towers. And if they were damaged that likely meant some sort of trouble. Shutting off her ComLink she checked her landing coordinates and ETA. She was only a minute away from the atmosphere now, no time to turn even if she wanted and she didn't want to. With the small size of Gorneo it had a smaller atmosphere as well, so she'd be down on the planet's surface in eight minutes.

Reaching over she patched in to Faith's pod. "We'll be landing soon." she said. "And there's something wrong."

"Wrong?"

"Communications are out, I can't get through to anyone on the surface. When we land stay with the pods, I'll go check it out."

"Alright."

XXX

Vegeta tapped his foot as he watched the screen, waiting for something, anything, to come up for several minutes. Gero had boosted the output of his transmitter and re-directed the beam into a smaller field, plus he was relaying the signal through several booster satelites in the area. So far, though, reception had remained spotty. They got a ping off of 18's tracer twice, once just beyond the planet's atmosphere and once on the planet, a couple miles beyond the limits of the Research Center's perimeter. The problem now wasn't getting the signal out, it was getting one back from her.

Suddenly the sceen seemed to shift and distort and then the lock that Gero had just gotten again, this one somewhere inside the complex, vanished. "What is it?" he demanded.

"Another signal loss." Gero replied. "No matter, the next lock we get will be enough for the shut down command to go through, I've already got it...." he stopped then as a flashing message appeared on the screen. ANDROID 18 FAILSAFE FIVE ACTIVATION - SECURITY LOCKOUT ENGAGED.

"What's that?" Vegeta demanded.

"Not good, that's what." replied Gero. "I disabled that failsafe years ago...."

"But what is it?"

"A security measure I took while still on Earth." replied Gero. "Back then I couldn't guarantee that no one had access to my computers. There was always the possibility that someone in the Resistance would catch on to what I was doing and use the failsafes in 17 and 18 to shut them down, leaving me in a bad position. So I created Failsafe Five as a security measure in case of a breech. Upon discovery and recognition of an enemy at my computer the failsafe would engage, disable the tracer, and lock the computer out.

"I shut it down once I moved here to Saiya, though. I don't get how it's working now...." He sighed. "Unfortunately it means that your son is on his own, and in danger. The only reason this would have engaged now is if 18 has realized that Trunks is behind what has happened on Gorneo and now considers all of us her enemies."

"And you can't deactivate it?"

"No, I'm afraid not." said Gero. "The entire point was to stop people from getting into her systems. It will only deactivate when she no longer percieves enemy control of the computer."

"Damn it." Vegeta muttered, rubbing his forehead. He was a bit calmer now, at least. The shock had faded. He knew Trunks could deal with 18 so long as he recognized she was a danger. Still, this made a mess of things. He'd have no choice, now, but to tell everyone at least some of what happened. No matter what happened on Gorneo now it was going to cause problems. Especially with it happening on top of Cold and Inferna's disappearance.

"Can we at least get a power reading from the planet?" he asked at last. If he couldn't stop 18 he could at least try and watch if she and Trunks fought. Gero nodded and set to work on that. It only took about two minutes before the screen was displaying power levels from the planet, and one of them shot up not even five seconds later to over seventy million. Trunks had just transformed which meant 18 had confronted him. "Well, that settles it then." Vegeta said, turning from the screen. "Trunks will be fine now that he's aware of her presence. Gero, see if you can try and get some sort of transmission to the planet to contact him."

"Sure." Gero replied, turning the scanner off again and going to back to his efforts to get a solid signal through to the planet. "Will you be informing the others?"

Vegeta sighed. "I've no choice at this point." he said. He glanced at a clock on the wall then. "I've got a meeting with all the heads in about fifteen minutes to go over this Cold matter. I'll bring it up then."