Okay, here's another one. I forgot during previous chapters, but I'd like to thank everyone who helped me get this started again… especially TURMOIL. I took her advice, with a few adaptations, and now I think I'm finally on a roll… at least, I will be until school starts again. Eeeek!

I do not own DBZ.

Saiyan Pod

"S-supreme Kai, I don't know what to tell you… no one from Earth has died from extra-ordinary reasons today… well, there was a farmer who was attacked by a strange-looking man, he said, but other than that…" King Yamma trailed off, sorry that he didn't have any better information. The Supreme Kai had never just shown up at the check-in station before, and it was a great honor to even be in his presence.

The Supreme Kai smiled sadly, nodding. "It's okay, King Yamma, I don't exactly know what I'm looking for. It's just… something has happened, something that's not supposed to happen."

King Yamma looked thoughtful for a moment. He thought of something, and was about to say it, when he shook his head. "I'm sorry… I don't know what I can do to help."

Supreme Kai cocked his head. "You were about to say something, King Yamma. What was it? Anything can help, even if it's something small and insignificant."

King Yamma sighed. "Well, I don't know how much help it is, or even if it's important at all. It's just, when you were saying something happened that wasn't supposed to… it reminded me of this one Saiyan we have down in HFIL. He was going on about something that was supposed to happen… we just figured he was crazy."

Supreme Kai raised an eyebrow. "A Saiyan? But… that man from my dream was a Saiyan. Tell me, what was his name?"

King Yamma looked in his books. "Hmm… Bardock. Born on the planet Vegeta, died in a fight with someone named Frieza…. He has two sons still alive, Radditz and Kakarrot." He looked up at the Supreme Kai. "Bardock has been given the gift of visions, it seems. Maybe he wasn't crazy after all…"

Supreme Kai nodded, then turned to go, but something made him stop. Those names… "Wait… Radditz… he was in my dream," he said, then turned back to King Yamma. "Tell me… what do you know about Radditz and Bardock's other son, Kakarrot?"

King Yamma checked his book again. "Hmm… Radditz has a lot of deaths on his head… these Saiyans lately have all been going to HFIL… now that's strange. Looks like Kakarrot's an exception… he's been spending his life protecting people… on Earth." He looked back up at the Supreme Kai, both of them recognizing the connection. Looking back at the book, he continued to read. "Hmm… a double entry," he mused, then flipped the pages in his book back.

"Double entry?" Supreme Kai asked.

King Yamma nodded. "Yes, we try to keep our records as accurate as possible, but sometimes one of these mortals changes their name, and… here we go. Goku, also known as Kakarrot, son of Bardock, brother of Radditz, father of Gohan. Looks like he's been one of Earth's major protectors."

So, the Supreme Kai thought to himself, Gohan. He was the boy from his dream. But what did this all mean? And why did he feel like this wasn't supposed to happen? "King Yamma," he said. Yamma looked up. "I think it's time I spoke to this Bardock. If he's been given the gift of foresight, he may be of some help."

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The radio droned on, filling the otherwise silent room. Bulma sat at her computer, going over calculation after calculation, hoping for something, anything, that might help. They had found Goku's old ship, and, while it was very small and slightly damaged by time and the crash, Bulma had managed to not only fix it, but also to retrieve all the information from its databanks, including the location of all the major outposts in Frieza's empire, the empire to which the Saiyans belonged.

It had turned out that the Saiyans were not the ones in charge, despite what Radditz had led them to believe. This Frieza guy had his clutches all over the known universe, a universe which had just gotten a lot bigger to Bulma. Earth was insignificant in light of what else was out there… truly, the only reason Earth hadn't been destroyed yet was because Frieza and his men hadn't gotten around to it yet.

That wasn't entirely true. They had sent Goku.

Bulma was amazed at a race that would send small children to fight, even to kill people. Goku had only been one of hundreds of children who had been sent out to smaller planets, although Goku had been the only one to be sent when the planet Vegeta exploded. Most children returned within a year or so, as the pod was programmed to return automatically to the launch site as soon as the child in question returned to it. They found that out when Goku got into the pod earlier. Bulma had had to completely shut the computer down before it took off with him in it. Now he was out there, somewhere, headed to the nearest outpost of Frieza's, keeping in contact with them via a device they had found within the pod similar to the one Radditz had worn over his eye. It had been pretty easy for Bulma to translate the information within the computer enough to re-program it… the Saiyan language was pretty straight-forward and direct, and the pod's functions were simple. Keeping the pod from emitting the sleeping gas in-flight was a little tricky, but the rest was just a matter of setting new coordinates based on those Bulma had found in the computer. A piece of cake.

But Bulma had known all along that, if they did find Goku's old ship, getting out into space would be the easy part. The hard part was all up to Goku… finding Gohan in the vast expanse of space, with any number of enemies as powerful as Radditz, if not more powerful, trying to kill him.

"Hey, Bulma, are you there?" a voice broke into her musings. It was coming from Goku's communication device. Bulma turned off the radio and flipped the switch on her own version of the device.

"I can hear you, Goku. Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Sure… but I think I know why the ship is supposed to put you to sleep. I'm starving, and it doesn't look like these Saiyans keep food in these things," he said, and Bulma could hear a low rumbling in the background.

Of course, Bulma thought to herself. Goku would be thinking about food right now. "Goku, you're wrong. The Saiyans did keep food with them… a lot of it, at least if you can call it food. If you look up to your left, you'll see a small compartment with green symbols on it. Do you see it?" she asked.

There was a pause, before Goku answered. "Yeah, I see it. Now what?"

"Well, open it, silly! There's a button by the symbol, just push it."

Another pause. "Uh… wow, that's tiny!" he said in response, and Bulma put her hand to her head.

"Goku, it's compressed food. Just swallow the pill, and you'll be full in a few seconds. Trust me. Oh, and drink plenty of water… it's right beside the food compartment."

Bulma waited patiently, wondering if Goku had signed off when the pause became longer and longer. Then, finally, "Oh, man. I see what you mean. It's not as much fun as eating, but I'm definitely not hungry any more."

Bulma smiled, shaking her head. "I only wish we had known about those pills sooner. It would have saved me and Lunch a lot of cooking," she said lightly.

There was a laugh at the other end. "Well, thanks, Bulma. Oh… have you spoken to Chichi yet?" he asked hesitantly. Somehow, Bulma thought he was thankful to be out in space, so that he wouldn't have to be around when Chichi found out her son was missing.

She sighed. "Yeah, Krillen spoke to her. He said it didn't go well. I really hope you find Gohan, Goku," she said softly, knowing this was really tearing up her friend inside.

"I will," Goku said seriously. "I won't rest until I've found him. Let Chichi know I'm doing my best to find our son, okay?"

"Okay, Goku. You'd better sign off now, to conserve the energy cells of the pod. I charged them up as much as I could, but it is pretty old…" Bulma warned.

"Signing off, then. Oh, and Bulma?"

"Yes, Goku?"

"Thanks."

There was a click, and Bulma smiled past the worry in her heart. It had always been Goku's job to be the optimistic one, and hers to think of all the things that could possibly go wrong, even when they were kids. And now she went back to her computer, doing just that, going over every problem Goku could possibly face, trying to find a way to make finding Gohan possible, if not easier.

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A/N: Okay, hypothetically, if any of my readers are wondering if I'm going to put Videl into this story, that would be a no. If you haven't guessed it from reading the summary, the story does not have Goku finding his son and bringing him safely home, though I realized it would be against his nature not to try. In Toriyama's version, they had to use Kami's old ship to get to Namek, because Piccollo destroyed Goku's old ship, Gohan destroyed Radditz's ship, Bulma accidentally destroyed Nappa's ship with the remote control, and Vegeta took off in his. But since none of that has happened… well, you get the picture. The most tricky part of this story is trying to dance around all the little 'coincidences' in Toriyama's story that made everything happen the way it did. I've found that, even the most insignificant little detail changes the entire layout of the story, so that even the bad guys are necessary to make a happy ending. That's really why I wrote this… to show that, one small little change, like Radditz deciding to believe his scouter reading, changes the entire flow of destiny. Of course, I don't think the Supreme Kai likes my version…. Oops! Gotta run!

Supreme Kai: Hello? Is someone there? Hmm… I could have sworn I sensed somebody. Why do I feel like I may have just missed all the answers to my questions? Oh, well…