CHAPTER 12:
Distress Signal

All the lights were out in the cockpit except for the screen that pinpointed coordinates. The small source of green light cast slight shadows in the room and on a certain demi-saiyan who was leaning back in his chair with his legs propped up on the dashboard. He was staring out into space, relaxing and enjoying the view. There wasn't anything as peaceful as looking out upon the vast nothingness with billion of tiny balls of light glittering in its wake.

Everything was quiet on the ship. The other two had retired to bed soon after they were out of the planet's orbit. It had been several hours, but it was easy to lose track of time when in space. The only time that existed here was the lifespan of stars and the fastest light could travel. Trunks yawned slightly, but did not feel tired. He figured that he would nap when the others were awake, so at least someone could be at the bridge at all times just in case of emergency.

It was at these moments he found his thoughts wandering toward home. They had been gone almost a year. He wondered if his sister had grown at all or if Goten finally found himself a steady girlfriend. His thoughts lingered on Goten for a bit before he started to think of his job. There had been several companies that Capsule Corporation was in the process of buying out. He wondered how that process went. They also were considering taking Capsule Corporation public, putting it on the Japanese stock market. It would be beneficial to the company for sure, and if everything went right, he could finally retire and not feel guilty about it. He absolutely hated his job. Every day was exactly the same thing, dealing with the same people, putting up with the same excuses, the same this, the same that. He often found himself escaping out the window when the pile of legal briefs and contracts got too high on his desk.

He started subconsciously playing with his brown gloves he wore, pulling the fingers in thought. It was just so peaceful. This was the best part of the trip by far. Being by himself and thinking, watching the stars, not having to worry about what trouble they would get into next. His eyes glazed as he daydreamed again, of what he would do with his life once he retired. He could travel, or… he could actually invent things of his own. He loved working with his mother on projects. It made him feel as if he was actually making a difference with the company. However, being its current President, he was forced to do all the paperwork. He hadn't been able to tinker with circuits in a long, long time. Several years, in fact. That was, until now. That's something he loved about this trip. He could repair damage to the ship easily. It came naturally to him and he got a high off of it. Yes, when he would retire, he'd build his own space ships. That would be really fun.

During his thoughts, he pulled his glove off his left hand. Although the lights were off, the small light from the coordinate monitor helped him to dimly make out the silhouette of his hand in front of the window. He was still wearing the wedding ring from earlier. He seriously considered taking it off now, but he was afraid of somehow hurting Pan's feelings if he did that so soon. It really didn't matter, anyway. He often wore his brown gloves that would hide his ring so he would never have to think about it. He'd take it off later before they would return to Earth. That way, Pan would understand why he would be removing it and not be offended.

He slid his glove back on and began playing with the leather fingers again. Within the past few days, they had had more of an adventure than the last several months combined. So much had happened. He really hoped, more than anything, that things would go smoothly for the rest of the ride and no more life-altering things would pop up. He was getting pretty sick of having to figure his way out of a situation that Pan would lead them into. He moved his right hand up and started playing with his hair, curling it around his finger for amusement. He definitely needed a hair trim. Perhaps he could ask Pan to do it again. When she would wake up, that would be on his list of things to talk to her about.

He was jerked out of his thoughts when a small red light began to blink on the dashboard. He set his feet back on the ground and leaned forward in his chair. That was odd. That light had never blinked before. What could that mean? He stood up and turned on the cabin lights to get a better look.

"What the…" Trunks looked at the label under the light. It was an emergency light, but what was the problem? The ship wasn't damaged at all. There would be more than one light blinking if there were an oxygen leak. What could that be?

On the coordinate monitor a message began to flash in red: 'Transmission pending.' Trunks hesitantly turned on the radio, unsure of what to expect.

The radio crackled in static, a voice sounding frantic: "…help…..attack on the ship…..-crackle-" The static returned for a moment as Trunks stood in a stupor. "need assistance…..if anyone can hear…. the coordinates are…" Trunks grabbed a pen, tore off a page from the instruction manual under the dashboard and scribbled the numbers down as fast as he could. Some ship needed help out there, and he couldn't ignore a distress signal.

The transmission ended and the radio turned itself off, going on 'standby' mode. Trunks quickly entered the coordinate numbers into his monitor and realized the ship was not even an hour away from their own location.

Trunks bolted out of the cockpit and ran through the ship, stopping by the bedroom and slamming the door open. "Guys, wake up. We have to rescue a ship!"

Pan moaned and turned over in her bunk, pulling the covers above her. Goku stirred and mumbled something under his breath. Trunks turned on the lights, earning groans from under Pan's covers. "Come on, wake up. We have to get in our space gear."

Pan threw back the covers angrily and sat up, squinting in the light and shielding her eyes with her right hand. "Trunks, can't we rescue them in a few hours?"

"I got a distress signal from some ship that is fifty minutes away, less now, and we're the only ship in the vicinity that can help them. So, get up!"

"Ohhh…. Ohhh, ahh…" Goku sat up groggily, rubbing his eyes. "Oh man, I'm so hungry. Do you think you could make us some breakfast while we're getting ready?"

"Worry about eating later. I'm going to change. I suggest you two do the same." Trunks grabbed his spacesuit from his closet and left the room.

Goku watched him go and felt a deep rumbling in his stomach. His stomach hurt so much, he wasn't sure if he would even have the strength to get out of bed. He was starving. "Pan…? Could you make me anything?"

"Grandpa, don't talk to me right now." Pan jumped down from the bed and slowly staggered toward her closet. "I feel like... my head is going to explode..."

"Pan, I'm so hungry. Even some eggs would be really great."

"Is that all you can think about!" She spun around in anger, "If you can't fight, you have to eat! Grandpa, make yourself something." She grabbed her suit and began to leave the room. "I'm sick of cooking for you! Why don't you cook for us once in a while and stop complaining about your stomach!" As she left, she slammed the door, leaving a stunned Goku behind.

"Wow," Goku got out of bed and scratched his head, "She sure is in a bad mood today…"

––––––––

Pan stormed into the cockpit and sat down in her seat, crossing her arms and huffing. Those space suits took forever to put on and were itchy. All she wanted to do was get this over with. She glared over at Trunks, who was reading something on the monitor and punching some buttons. "And then you tell me that I am always the one trying to play 'hero.' Am I correct, Trunks?"

He chortled a bit and looked at her with a grin. "How are you feeling today?"

"You… you want to know how I'm feeling!" She felt like wringing his neck. "In addition to my pounding headache, my sore muscles, my tired body, and my itchy suit, I'd say I'm just peachy!"

Trunks looked back at the monitor, still grinning. "Just have a few glasses of water. You'll feel better in a little bit."

"I'm not thirsty. Plus, if I go to the kitchen, Grandpa is going to assume I'm willing to cook him something. He's like a leech! He just feeds off you, sticking to you like glue because you provide meals for him."

Trunks laughed and looked at Pan again, "That's exactly what my mom says about my dad. I guess it's just a Saiyan thing."

"He can't do anything by himself. Just watch, he's going to call out to me for help because he can't figure out how to put on his spacesuit. I give him twenty seconds."

Trunks' eyebrows raised. "No!"

"Bet?" She reached out her hand, grinning.

"Bet." He shook her hand and watched his watch. "Sixteen seconds….ten seconds…"

"Paaaaan!" they heard from the other room, "How do you put on this helmet!"

Both Trunks and Pan laughed aloud. Goku really was that predictable. Trunks shook his head in disbelief, grinning widely and crossing his arms. "Okay Pan, you won. What do I owe?"

"You cook for us next time, no way out of it."

"Sounds fair." Trunks looked over to the entrance. Goku stood there, holding his helmet in his hands, his spacesuit completely backwards. "Goku!" He hung his head in his hands. "You're a lost cause, you know that?"

"What?" Goku blinked.

"Pan, don't worry, I'll help him out. You watch the monitor and tell me if the ship appears on the scanner." Trunks walked over to the Goku, put his arm around the boy's right shoulder, and escorted him over to the changing room.

Pan leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes for a moment. She was so tired, but at the same time, she was too awake to fall back asleep. She looked at the monitor and only saw blank space. Nothing was showing up.

She stood and began to pace. It felt good to move. She didn't feel as sick when her body was active. Maybe after this, she and her grandpa could have a good spar. She stopped pacing in front of Trunks' chair and sat in it. It was still warm from when he was sitting in it. She smiled to herself thinking of how nice it would be when he could cook for them tonight. It would be her night off. She stretched her arms and put them behind her head, leaning back and staring at the monitor.

A good few minutes passed. Pan was getting bored and extremely impatient. Trunks was still doing Kami-knows-what with Goku while she just sat there staring at the screen.

Suddenly, a little blip appeared on the monitor. It was a teeny white dot, but it was getting closer to the ship as they were approaching it. "Trunks!" She called out, hoping he would hear. "Trunks!"

In a flash, he was in the room with Goku trailing not far behind, fixing his helmet. "Thanks, Pan, I can handle it from here."

Pan stood up and returned to her seat, which was cold. She looked over to Trunks, who was programming something into the computer database. It suddenly struck her that Trunks was a genius. For being the overgrown oaf that he was, he still was possibly one of the smartest people she'd ever know in her life. Because of that, she felt a tremendous respect for him. She was glad he came on the trip. If it weren't for him, they probably would never have gotten out of some of those sticky situations they got into.

Another few minutes passed, and as Pan looked out the cockpit window, she could see something in the distance. It was a large star they were approaching. A little too large. She began to realize the thing was gigantic… and they were heading right for it!

"Trunks, slow down, we're going to head right through that star!" Pan gripped the sides of her seat in terror, trying hard not to imagine herself being burnt to a crisp within minutes.

"I know, apparently the ship is entering the corona."

"Wow," Goku squirmed in his chair, "That's pretty dangerous, don't you think? I mean, I've heard of people relying on the sun to get tans, but I think they went a little too far for this one."

"Giru Giru!" The robot suddenly entered the bridge and flew around Trunks' head. "Giru senses danger! Danger! Danger! Giru, Giru."

"There it is!" Pan pointed to a large cruise spaceship that was heading straight for a star. "Wow, I can see why they made the distress call. It looks like the ship can't escape the star's gravitational pull."

"No," Trunks swatted Giru away from his face with a confused expression, "The call was about an attack. I don't understand what happened. They didn't say anything about being pulled into a star." He stood up, left the cockpit, and began walking over to the launching bay. "In any case, let's rescue as many people as we can. Giru?"

"Giru coming!" The robot flew out of the room and hovered before Trunks. "Giru ready for action, Giru, Giru."

"Giru, about how much time do we have until that ship falls into the star?" As he was asking this, Trunks burst through the launching bay doors and headed over to a table that lay in the corner.

"About ten minutes, Giru Giru."

Trunks took out a metal box, opened it, and threw out three capsules. They exploded into three ships. Pan and Goku each took one. Trunks grabbed Giru and headed to the third.

"Alright guys, let's head out. We have a time limit, so let's snap to it."

––––––––

The ship automatically opened its cargo bay doors to let the trio in. After they landed, Trunks went first, leading them through the halls. They were completely empty, as if everyone had abandoned ship.

"Hello?" Pan called out, cupping her hands to her mouth. "Is anyone alive in here?"

"That's funny," Trunks shook his head, "I could have sworn they said they were being attacked, but I don't see any dead bodies. It just doesn't make any sense."

"Giri senses danger. Danger! Danger!"

"Calm down, Giru. Where is this danger?" Trunks tried catching Giru, but the robot flew out of his grasp. "Giru, come back here."

"Giru senses life force!" The robot spun down the halls.

"Giru! Wait up!" Pan ran after the robot and Trunks was about to follow, but he heard something crash behind him.

"What was that?" He looked toward Goku and then glanced behind him.

Goku turned around and found himself looking up and up and up and…"Woah! That thing is huge!" He stepped back a bit to get a better view.

"Goku, watch out!"

A hoard of missles were fired straight at the two saiyans. Trunks and Goku split up, moving at lightning-fast speed, catching all the missles before they hit anything to cause further damage to the ship. They each held six with a seventh in their teeth by the time they were done. They lowered them gently to the floor, making sure nothing would trigger them to go off. They looked back up at the robot and tried to calculate the damage that this robot could do.

"Do you think this thing caused the attack?" Trunks looked to Goku as they got into fighting stances.

"No way. This thing is not nearly powerful enough to take down everyone at once without any survivors. Something else must have gotten here first. In any case, let's take it down!"

Working together, Trunks and Goku broke the machine part, limb by limb. A few ki blasts to its joints brought the entire thing down in shambles. It was possibly the easiest fight they had had so far on the trip. It was too easy. Trunks realized Goku was right. Something else must have caused all this damage… but what?

"Hey you two! I found a survivor!" Pan returned from around the hall, carrying a boy with green hair on her back. Giru followed closely behind. "This boy needs some serious medical attention."

"Giru, how much time until the ship crashes into the star?" Trunks reached into his pocket.

"Five minutes, Giru Giru."

"Great. Okay." Trunks pulled out a capsule and threw it on the ground. It exploded to become a wardrobe of space suits. "Let's get this guy into a suit and let's get out of here."

Pan laid him down and they suited him up as quickly as they could manage. The boy was out cold no matter how much they struggled to get his suit on his body. When they were done, Trunks picked him up and carried him in both hands.

"Two minutes! Two minutes remaining!"

The ship was beginning to melt. The ground felt hot under their feet. "Okay guys, I take it that that's our cue to start flying!" They left the ground and flew as fast as they could toward the cargo bay. They reached their ships in record time. While Pan ran to the control panel, pressing any buttons she could manage, Trunks ran over to his ship and tried to fit the boy in with him.

"No good! The boy can't fit."

"I'll take him." Goku grabbed him and threw him into his own pod. "Pan, hit the button that opens the doors!"

"I'm trying! It's not working!" Her voice was filled with panic. "The doors won't open, guys! What should we do!"

"Thirty seconds remaining! Twenty-nine, twenty-eight…"

"Pan, get in a pod, NOW, we're blasting out of here!" Goku stood in front of his pod and aimed for the cargo doors. A large yellow ball of ki blasted from his hands and made a gigantic hole that led to outer space. "Let's go!" He jumped into his pod and shut the lid.

All three pods made it out just as the ship exploded into the star. At first they had a good start with decent speed. They seemed to be escaping from the star for a few moments, but then the ships started slowing down, no matter how hard they programmed it to speed up faster.

"What's going on?" Pan screamed over the intercom. "We're not moving!"

Goku shouted back "The gravity is pulling us in!"

"This isn't going to work guys, what should we do!" Trunks pounded on his control panel, trying to boost the pod's energy. Nothing was working.

"We have to fly! It's the only way we can get back." Goku opened his lid, grabbed the boy and pushed his ki behind him as hard as he could to get away from the star.

Pan and Trunks abandoned their pods as well, with Trunks holding a hysterical robot which was sending out distress signals by the hundreds. They both pushed their kis behind them as hard as they could manage to keep up with Goku, who was in the lead in the race for the ship.

A quick glance behind herself, Pan realized their pods were crashing into the star's chromosphere. In her terror, she began to lose her concentration on flying. They were all going to die. Not like this. I can't die like this… She tried to focus her thoughts on flying, pushing all of her ki. She could feel herself slipping. She just couldn't keep up.

"Pan, push harder! You can do it!" Goku tried to cheer her on, but it wasn't getting through. Images of her father and mother flashed before her eyes. Thoughts of her loved ones, of her whole life that she lived, and the life that she could have lived, flashed in her mind. She was going to die because she wasn't strong enough. She could feel tears forming. She was going to die.

Suddenly, she felt a hand grasp hers. Trunks was holding onto her, supporting her as he flew as hard as he could to get them out of their gravitational pull. It might not have meant much to him, but to her, it felt like he just saved her life. If he had waited any longer, or if her energy would have faltered in the slightest, she would have died. She would have been lost forever. It snapped her out of her panic and she began to fly as hard as she could again. If she couldn't do it to save her own life, then she'd do it to save Trunks'. She would help them catch up to Goku.

It was as if a new channel of energy snapped awake inside of her. She suddenly felt as if she had twice as much energy. She felt alive with power, and she used it to push as hard as she could. It wasn't much compared to the pull, but it was enough so that they caught up to her grandpa. As soon as she lessened it, however, it once again seemed just out of her grasp. Whatever energy she had just tapped into was once again walled up inside her.

"Listen guys, I have an idea. Grab onto me. I'll give us an extra boost to make it to the ship!"

Trunks broke his hold with Pan and they both held onto Goku as Giru shot out a grappling hook to secure them to the ship. If Goku didn't do something now, their own ship would be pulled in as well.

"Ka…me…ha…me….HAAAAA!"

The force of his blast sent them hurtling toward the ship at full speed. They would have missed it completely if Trunks hadn't reached out and grabbed one of the ship's legs and stopped them.

They managed to pull themselves into the launching area in record time, but they weren't safe yet. As soon as Trunks locked the outer doors, he bolted to the cockpit to rev up the engines for a narrow escape.

Pan watched Trunks leave and stood there panting alongside Goku. She removed her helmet and dropped it beside the boy who was lying on the floor. Pan was shaking from fear. She had never felt that scared in her life. Nothing had ever terrified her as much as that incident that just happened. They were so close to dying. She was so close… but Trunks saved her. In her slight shock and adrenalin rush still going on in her body, she felt tears well up in her eyes again. She fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably as her body trembled. She felt Goku put his hand on her shoulder to try to calm her, but it only made her cry harder.

"Grandpa…!" She stood and nearly toppled him a tight hug, squeezing him with all her might as he hugged her back. She buried her face in his suit, choking in tears. He rubbed her back soothingly to put her at ease.

"It's over Panny. You don't have to cry. We're safe."

She sniffled into him. "I miss Papa…"

Goku smiled into her hair. "You'll see him soon. Only two more dragonballs left. Don't worry, we'll have a fun last few months on the trip. I'll make sure of that!"

She pulled away from him with a weak smile. Her eyes were puffy from tears and she tried to wipe them away with her glove. "I think…" She sniffled a few times, trying to make her sentence as clear as possible. "I think I'm going to go lie down for a bit."

"I think I'll join you. I'll let the boy take my side of the bed, though. I'll sleep on the floor."

Goku picked up the unconscious boy and followed Pan toward the bedroom. After a nice long rest, they'd make it to the Planet Vidal. There, they could get this boy a doctor and Trunks could restock some supplies. They needed this break. The planet would be peaceful, and there would be no dragonballs to worry about.

With everything looking good so far, it was hard to even fathom what could possibly go wrong.

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–10/12/05–