Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Barracks ❯ Part 55 ( Chapter 55 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
Kusostarsforever: Thanks for your comment ^_^ Happy New Year!
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z – it belongs to its respective owners. This fan fiction is not a commercial project, and I am not making any money from writing it.
Warnings: Alternate Universe. Yaoi (male x male). Goten x Trunks and vice versa. Other pairings.
Barracks
by chayron (lttomb@yahoo.com)
Part 55
Bruminan Station or Eden – as it was commonly called by Humans – had been the first choice for colonization back when Humans still believed that they were alone in the universe. They had put tremendous effort into making the small planet habitable. A few decades later, they had made contact with other races, adopted and improved on their technologies, and spread through the universe like wildfire. Bruminan Station had mostly been abandoned and only recently had started to be used as a central hub for ships traveling to and from Earth. The station had a large military force with a private fleet to defend itself from possible pirate attacks.
The specific design of the station and the large number of Human inhabitants and travelers clearly marked it as Human territory. While following the second-class warrior, Goten had noticed a handful of soldiers from different races, but they were wearing varicolored uniforms which meant that they were just escorts for leaders and diplomats from their respective nations.
The door opened and Goten averted his eyes from the peculiar ceiling lamp he had been inspecting. The second-class that had led them here motioned for them to enter. It appeared that Goten’s guess about his father lounging in the local cafeteria had been wrong. Unsure, Reyn and Goten looked at each other, then back at the soldier. Goten weighed his suitcase in his hand awkwardly and moved towards the door. He still didn’t quite believe that Kakarott could be behind that door.
The large control room had no windows but it was well-lit by the same oddly designed ceiling lamps. There were about forty people sitting at various terminals around the room. Most of them were Humans but there were a few other races. A handful of second-class Saiyans wearing blue air-craft uniforms were standing in a ring around one of the desks. All of them turned to stare at Goten and Reyn when they entered. Among them was Kakarott. Reyn recognized him instantly and blinked in surprise at how a father and a son could look so similar. He watched Kakarott leave the desk and approach them.
Unconsciously, Goten’s face stretched into a grin. “Hi,” he said, not certain what to do with the suitcase in his hand. He felt a little lightheaded. He couldn’t shake off the feeling that this could not be happening – he had half-expected that the impending attack on the station was only a figment of his imagination. Yet, his father was really here.
“Hey,” Kakarott answered with the same wide grin. He patted Goten’s head awkwardly, then turned around. “My son,” he said to the soldiers at the desk, affection clear in his voice.
There was a silent pause, then laughter and a few amused sniggers broke out around the room.
“Yeah, that’s kind of obvious,” one of the Humans sitting at a terminal chuckled. “The spitting image.”
Seeing his son struggling with his suitcase, Kakarott turned to the same second-class who had brought Goten here. “See him to my hotel room.” Then Kakarott’s eye caught Reyn at Goten’s side. Slowly, a spark of recognition lit up his face. Goten’s lover.
Confused by the look on the older man’s face, Reyn nodded. “Hello.”
“Hello,” Kakarott said. He turned to Goten and his eyebrows rose at his son questioningly. Then he turned back to the second-class again. “On the other hand, I’ll see these two to the hotel room by myself.”
Goten’s mood dropped a little; he was going to be reprimanded for dragging Reyn here with him. He had already reprimanded himself many times.
It took them about ten minutes of walking through the halls and corridors to reach the hotel room. It was in a different building but the two were connected by an underground passage for travelers’ convenience. It was a fancy mid-sized room with a window facing the street. The isolation was very good, though, so no sound entered the room from the outside. There were two beds on one side of the room, between which there was a bedside cabinet, and a small desk sat against the opposite wall. Heavy yellow curtains fell on each side of the window, matching the cream-colored walls. There was also a wardrobe and Goten jogged over to it to store his luggage inside.
Reyn was looking through the window and, using the opportunity, Kakarott leaned toward his son. “What is he doing here?” he whispered.
“Um, I sort of told him everything,” Goten said sheepishly, his fingers plucking at the buttons on his uniform. The confusion was so apparent on his father’s face that he felt even guiltier.
“Why?”
“Err… Well, I thought he could help us,” Goten explained. He cast a glance at Reyn’s back. “He’s just like us.”
Kakarott stared at Goten, then turned his head to look at Reyn standing by the window. “Like us?” he asked with a frown on his face.
Goten nodded eagerly. “Yeah.” His father, though, didn’t appear to be overjoyed with the news.
“Riiiight,” Kakarott drawled with a sigh and turned back to his son.
“Um, yeah, so don’t power up anywhere near him,” Goten warned.
Kakarott frowned again, then rolled his eyes. “Oh, right, I forgot that bit.”
“More importantly,” Goten started in a louder voice, attempting to steer the conversation away, “what’s going on here? Those second-classes in the control room… Don’t they know you’re a third-class? How did you even get here? And how…?”
“They think I’m a National Security agent,” Kakarott interrupted the downpour of questions.
Goten was taken aback. “How so?”
“Well, I’ve got a card proving it,” Kakarott said, pulling an NS card out of his jacket pocket. “So have you,” he added, fishing in his other pocket. He retrieved another plastic card and held it out for his son. “I didn’t think he’d come, though,” he said motioning at Reyn with his head. The flight officer shrugged at him.
Uncertain, Goten took the card. “Is it real?” he wondered, turning it this way and that. It looked the same as the cards he had seen some people wearing at the National Air Force Head Quarters.
“Not exactly,” Kakarott said. He hummed and cleared his throat when his son frowned at him, not understanding. “Well, it is real, but we aren’t National Security agents, right?”
“So it’s real,” Reyn stated.
“Yeah,” Goten agreed, amazed. He brushed over the smooth plastic with his fingers, then scratched at it with his fingernails. “How did you get them?”
“Just asked someone to return a favor.”
Goten opened his mouth to ask more questions since he was curious, but the sudden frown on his father’s face was an indication that it would get him nowhere. He fastened his card to the front of his shirt. There were many National Security agents around due to the conference and someone might become suspicious. The card, however, was the best way to be in the centre of events. Reyn would have to stick near either him or his father if he wanted to get someplace with tighter security.
“What?” Goten asked when he noticed Reyn giving them a funny look.
The flight officer pointed his index finger at him, then his father. “It’s so obvious that you two are related. Won’t it appear strange?”
Kakarott raised his eyebrows at Reyn. “And what’s wrong with a son trying to follow in his father’s footsteps?” he asked with a pat on Goten’s shoulder.
Reyn gave some thought to this cover story, then shrugged. It didn’t sound very convincing, but it would probably work. “So what now? Did you get any leads on that Imperial Destroyer?” he asked Kakarott.
Kakarott gave his son one more meaningful look, then shook his head. “Nothing yet. We’ve been checking all incoming Imperial Star Destroyers but none of them appear suspicious yet. The last ones are coming tomorrow evening.”
“When exactly does the conference start?” Reyn asked.
“The day after tomorrow, ten in the morning, standard time.”
“We don’t really have much time, do we?” Goten muttered. “Have you found out anything at all?”
Kakarott shook his head. “I looked around but… If they are going to blow it up from space, they won’t even set foot on the station. I checked the conference hall, talked to a few acquaintances here. Nothing.”
“How many Imperial Destroyers are supposed to arrive altogether?” Reyn asked.
“Eight of them,” Kakarott answered. “But, the thing is, I’m not certain it will be an Imperial Destroyer. It’s just the most plausible scenario.”
“Did you get the codes to the station defense system?” Goten asked.
Kakarott nodded. “Yes. In the worst case scenario, if we still haven’t found that ship by the time the conference starts, we’ll just have to take over the control room and take down all the ships.”
There was a pause. “They’ll hunt us down,” Goten muttered, finally.
Kakarott stared at him for a few seconds, surprise clear on his face, then rolled his eyes. “With what? All ships will be down and their defense system out of order. I am a passable pilot too. Well, as long as we don’t need to maneuver a lot. Landing is also tricky but…”
“Don’t worry about it,” Goten interrupted him, “Reyn’s a flight officer, so no problem there.”
“Well, as long as it’s not a ZIR or an MIAB,” Reyn added. “I can pretty much pilot everything else.”
Kakarott’s face brightened. “That’s good to know. I’ve set my eyes on an MIRG 891 docked on launch pad 3. It’s closest to the control room.”
“Yeah, no problem with that one,” Reyn reassured them.
“So we blow the ships up, shut down the security system and run to the launch pad,” Goten summed up. “Can you show it to us?”
“Sure.”
They left the hotel room and returned to the hangar with the launch pads. After showing them around, Kakarott left them at the cafeteria to have their lunch and returned to the control room. There was nothing new there. Security cameras showed nothing unusual and the only two passenger ships that had arrived were no threat since their weaponry could not do much damage to the station. Without much interest, Kakarott leafed through the printed out documents containing information on the two ships, then lowered them back onto the desk. He turned to the terminal on his desk and brought up the information on screen. It was the fifth time he was reading the data. He was halfway through the second ship's data when one of the second-class officers informed him that he had a visitor. Kakarott’s first thought was that Reyn had gotten lost but the look on the second-class’s face was quite disturbed.
When he opened the door, he was met by a burly Saiyan female. She was an elite and was holding a cat in front of her by the scruff of its neck. They stared at each other in confusion.
“You’re not the Bardock I wanted,” she declared suddenly. “Where’s Goten?”
“Goten?” Kakarott drawled, even more confused. “What do you want with him?” Then he noticed a Human behind the elite. It was a petite female, and she was trying to take the cat away from the elite. It wasn't working as the elite just raised the cat higher so that it was above the Human’s head. Kakarott suddenly had the feeling that he knew whose fault this chaos was.
“Ma’am, with all due respect, the cat needs to be quarantined. Please, do you hear what I’m saying?”
“The cat is fine,” the elite said dismissively to the Human. “Get lost.”
“It can infect other animals or can get infected itself,” the Human female protested. She gave a helpless look to Kakarott but it was obvious that she didn’t expect much from a second-class. Elites were pretty much left to do what they wanted.
“Why don’t you just put it in a box somewhere ?” Kakarott suggested.
The elite snorted. “It was in a box. It shat in it.”
“Ah.” Kakarott turned to the Human female. “Could you get us a new box, please?” The female nodded and disappeared quickly. Kakarott turned back to the elite. He pointed at the cat. “Is it Goten’s?”
“Yeah. He asked me to take care of it, but I changed my mind. I don't want those two lovebirds to take all the glory.”
Kakarott stared at her for a few seconds, then slapped himself on his forehead. He couldn’t believe this. Just how many people knew about the upcoming attempt on the Crown Prince? And what was with this elite female?
The guard at the door to the control room had the most interesting facial expression on him and Kakarott knew rumors were going to start. An elite female with a stinky cat looking for his son…
The Human female returned with a special box for cats and, finally, the unlucky creature was given a rest. The female still insisted on quarantining the cat but the elite didn’t even pretend to be listening. The situation improved a little when Kakarott suggested leaving the cat in his hotel room.
“Oh, right, I need a place to stay,” the elite said as if she had just realized that now. She turned to the Human female. “You. Find me a room,” she ordered.
The other woman sputtered in indignation, turned away from the elite, and marched off without saying a word.
“That takes care of her,” the elite said with a chuckle. “I should have done that from the start.”
“I’ll talk to the manager of the hotel we are staying at,” Kakarott said. He knew hotels always left a spare room or two for emergency situations, so maybe they would get one. He doubted it though.
“Awesome,” the elite said.
The cat let out a long discontent meow and the elite shook the box to make it quiet. The cat, however, took this as a personal insult and a string of spitting and hissing followed. Kakarott motioned further down the corridor. He wished to get away from the guard’s overly curious eyes as quickly as possible.
“Let’s go to my hotel room and leave it there.”
On their way, Kakarott shared his information, or the lack of it, with the elite. She asked a lot of questions and was making him quite uncomfortable. When they were in the room, Kakarott finally asked her name.
“Almanda,” the elite said.
A little surprised, Kakarott waited for her surname but it never came, the elite mostly ignoring him.
“Almanda Grendal?” he asked to make sure.
Almanda gave Kakarott an evaluating look. While Goten was a social idiot, his father seemed to be a much more knowledgeable man in that sense. She nodded.
Kakarott grunted. Now it was clear that she didn’t come here chasing Goten. He watched her lower the box with the angry cat by the window. It was probably hungry. She probably was as well.
“Let’s go to the cafeteria,” Kakarott said, motioning at the door. A thought that he was wasting precious time passed through his head but they didn’t have any leads at all and looking through the same data for the sixth time was probably not going to change anything. Almanda had connections, though.
The cafeteria was almost empty: there were only two people other than Goten and Reyn. They were done eating and were already leaving their table. Goten nearly dropped his tray at the sight of Almanda. Reyn didn’t appear so surprised – he rolled his eyes as if he had expected this to happen. Both men lowered their trays back to the table and waited for Kakarott and the elite to approach.
“What are you doing here?” Goten hissed when the two sat down at their table. “Didn’t I tell you not to come?”
“Yeah, and so what?” Almanda sniggered. “I’m my own keeper.” She reached out across the table and patted Gotten on his head. “Now, now, don’t be so angry. It’s bad for your health.”
“Ah, godsdamnit!” Goten grunted, smacking at her hand. “Exploding with this station is not going to be of any benefit to your health either!”
“Goten,” Kakarott said warningly, his eyes motioning toward the two people sitting at a nearby table. They were watching their small circle with unconcealed interest. If they had been Saiyans, they would have already demanded Goten’s head for treating an elite female like that.
“So where’s the damn cat?” Goten demanded.
“It’s in our room,” Kakarott said. “I’ll go get some food for it.” Goten was still busy cursing and glaring daggers at the elite. Kakarott turned to Reyn.
“Any meat or fish is fine,” the flight officer told him.
When Kakarott moved to the counter, Reyn also left his chair. He carried his tray to a table in front of the window and sat down. He thought about returning to the table, then decided that he had no wish to hear Goten and Almanda arguing. There was no point in that anyway – she was here and nothing was going to change that. Instead, he went to see what Kakarott was buying.
Kakarott was torn between buying a steak and a lamb chop.
“Get them both,” Reyn told him. “Later we might not have enough time for this. They are cooked so they should be alright for a few days.”
Kakarott nodded and bought three times as many as he had intended to in the first place. He saw the other third-class give him an amused look when he took the package of meat. Goten and Almanda were still hissing at each other at the table, and, with a tortured sigh, Kakarott leaned against the counter. He could see that Reyn was also ignoring them.
“What’s with those two?” he asked.
Reyn shrugged. “They know each other from officer school. She seems totally fascinated with him.”
Kakarott turned to him. “You don’t mind?”
The flight officer shrugged again. “What’s there to mind?”
Kakarott scratched the back of his head. “Perhaps…” he hummed but never finished the thought. That wasn’t his business.
“So…” the flight officer drawled after an awkward pause, “you have the same type of dreams that Goten does, don’t you?”
Kakarott cleared his throat and his eyes narrowed. Across the canteen, they set on his son’s forehead as if wishing to burn a hole there. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Yeah? Okay.”
Silence settled in again. Kakarott scratched the back of his head sheepishly. It seemed like a simple attempt at conversation. There was probably no harm in telling Reyn what he had already presumed.
“You know,” Reyn started innocently, “he had a dream about himself being poisoned by these royal asses we are trying to save.” Now he had Kakarott’s absolute attention; the older man stared at him in disbelief.
“They what?”
Reyn nodded. “Yeah, so I thought you may know more.” He waited for Kakarott to say something but the older man just shook his head. He was still thinking. The look in his eyes was dark, dangerous, and Reyn thought that now he looked just like Goten when he was angry.
“Which one exactly?” Kakarott asked.
“He doesn’t know. Or maybe just doesn’t remember.”
Kakarott cursed softly. He knew the youngster worked as a shaii at Goten’s officer school. But that had only been a coincidence. He cursed again. “Well, thanks for telling me – I’ll look into it.”
Reyn wanted to ask him how exactly he was going to do that, but then thought that maybe the answer was his “secret buddy” who got him and Goten NS identification cards.
The argument at the table seemed to have tapered off and the loud thump of Goten’s forehead hitting the table announced its end. The last of the resistance left Goten with a loud helpless grunt. Reyn and Kakarott approached him and the elite.
“Done here?” Reyn asked, indicating the tray on the table. Goten’s head turned to look up at him from the table. Reyn rolled his eyes at the miserable look the other third-class gave him.
“I’m done but she is not; she hasn’t even had breakfast yet,” Goten informed them.
With a sigh, Reyn sat down. They waited for the elite to get her food and return with a full tray. At the sight of it, Kakarott suddenly got hungry and bought himself some food as well. He had eaten only an hour ago, but Reyn’s disturbing idea about possible lack of meals in the near future was impossible to overlook.
“So how did you get here?” Reyn asked.
“I hid in the shutt-”
“She deserted,” Goten spat out bitterly, cutting her off.
“Oh, shut up,” Almanda waved off. “I didn’t desert. I just made a detour.”
Goten grinned at her mirthlessly. “You can tell that to the military tribunal.”
“Shut up, Goten,” Reyn told him. He turned to the elite. “When will they figure out that you’re not on the ship?”
Almanda shrugged. “The girls will cover for me, so it should take them at least a day. Two maybe? And if I’m extremely lucky, then they won’t notice until the ship reaches Earth.”
“Not too bad, then,” Kakarott said. “We’ve got enough time.”
“And what about later?” Goten snorted. “How do you…”
“Goten, sweetheart,” Almanda hissed at him,” if you open your mouth one more time, I’ll fucking punch your head off.”
Goten glared back at her, his lips moving to form a word, then closing again. “Fuck you,” he said finally. He got to his feet and started marching to the exit. With a roll of his eyes, Reyn took Goten’s tray of empty dishes, then reached for the cat food in Kakarott’s hand.
“I’ll go after him. He’ll either get lost or attract unwanted attention.”
“Both,” Almanda said, munching on her steak.
Still chuckling, Reyn caught up with Goten on his way back to the hotel room. The younger third-class was still obviously fuming, so he just walked next to him silently. A few minutes later, Goten turned around and started walking back. Reyn thought that he intended to return to the cafeteria, but then Goten turned in the direction of the shopping center.
“Do you need anything?” Reyn asked.
“I don’t,” Goten spat, “but that idiot needs a mattress. I don’t think there will be a free room and even if there were, leaving her alone is… Arrghh! That stupid bitch!”
“Hmm… Actually, I think it is safer to let her stay separately from us. That way she’d probably arouse less suspicion than hanging around a bunch of supposed second-classes.”
Goten threw his arms up in defeat. “She’ll hang around us one way or another.”
Reyn sighed. “True.”
Goten didn’t have much cash, but using their credit cards was out of the question. Of course, he and Reyn could be traced by checking the transfer orders but their credit cards would give away their exact location in an instant.
They ended up spending most of their cash on an air mattress, a few covers, socks, underwear and some civilian clothes. The rest of it was put aside for food. They decided to withdraw the money on their cards on the day of the assassination attempt. After the attempt, they would not be able to use their cards one way or the other.
When they returned to the hotel room, there was no one there except discontent Mr. Elite. Goten thought about releasing the cat but realized that it would be nearly impossible to find it again if it escaped the room.
“The box stinks,” Goten said. He opened the small door a little to drop the steak inside.
“It’s the stress,” Reyn said. “Just bring it to the bathroom; he can stink all he wants in there.” Grinning, he watched Goten feeding it.
“What?” the younger male wondered.
Reyn shook his head. “Nah, nothing. Just feels somehow hilariously stupid – us fucking around with a cat when we might die in two days.”
“Stupidly hilarious, you mean?”
“Yeah, probably.”
Goten did as told, then stuffed the new clothes into his suitcase and contacted his father. It appeared that he and Almanda were doing another sweep of the hall where the meeting was going to take place. Goten could only imagine what they looked like snooping around, pretending to be NS agents.
The search gave no results and all of them met back in the control room. It was already getting late, but all three of them checked the current data on all Imperial Destroyers stationed near Bruminan. Kakarott had hoped that a fresh look at the records might yield a clue or two but nothing of the sort happened. They returned to the hotel room trying not to lose their spirit.
“Well,” Goten said flopping down onto the bed near the window, “we’ve still got two days.”
“One day and a bit,” Almanda corrected him. She was inspecting the mattress the men bought her. She knocked on the small air pump and looked around for an electric outlet.
“I think its battery has still got enough charge,” Kakarott told her. He motioned at his bed. “If you want, we can switch, though.”
“Don’t you fucking patronize me,” the elite told him, showing him two fingers at once.
Reyn chuckled and sat down on the bed next to Goten. He watched Almanda attach the pump to the mattress and soon a soft buzz filled the room. He felt Goten shift and flop onto his back, and the next second there was a horrible crash as their mattress slammed against the floor.
“Ugh,” Goten said, sitting up. Two wooden planks separated from the end of the bed and fell off, making him cringe. “They will make us pay for it, won’t they?”
“What are you worried about?” Reyn muttered. “We might not even survive to pay for it. And if we do, we’ll be too busy doing a runner to pay. I’m more worried about how we’ll sleep.” He moved about on the mattress but it didn’t seem to be uncomfortable, just closer to the ground. “Well, not too bad.”
“That was obviously not meant for two Saiyans,” Kakarott said. “The weight difference is quite big after all.”
“If my mattress explodes,” Almanda said pointing at Goten, “I’ll freaking gut you!”
“Be grateful I got you one at all,” Goten pointed out. “You don’t do anything else but complain.”
“No, it’s you who complains all the time,” the elite said. “I didn’t even ask you to buy a mattress.”
“Oh, gods,” Reyn groaned, burying his face into a pillow. “Here they go again.” He had a feeling that by the time the conference started, he would be begging to be killed.
ooOoOoOoo
Kakarott woke up first. Soft snoring was heard from the other bed and he looked over. Both Goten and Reyn had somehow managed to sprawl all over the small single bed. Reyn was on his back, his right arm thrown over Goten’s waist. Goten was on his stomach, one of his legs thrown over Reyn, the other hanging over the edge of the bed, suspended in the air. The cover was pooling on the ground, the end of it wrapped around Goten’s foot.
Kakarott looked at the mattress on the floor. Almanda was on her side, facing the wall, wrapped into her blanket as if it were a cocoon. Kakarott laid his head back onto the pillow. Younglings. Goten was an idiot for dragging them here. There were times when one could not change anything even if the future was known. He had never told Goten how his grandfather had died. There had been no need until now. Gohan’s death was another matter no one had been able to change. He had so many things to tell Goten. If only they had more time.
After about five minutes of aimless wandering, he figured out that he was on a spaceship. The writing on the walls and doors were in a language he didn’t understand, but this was definitely a spaceship. The Leiadors were also speaking their own language amongst themselves. The people seemed elated, though he couldn’t understand what the reason was.
He knew perfectly well that he should be doing something here, but all attempts to converse or reach some kind of destination ended in failure. That was until he saw Gohan at the end of one of corridors. Goten quickened his step, but the imposter turned around and started walking away. Goten stopped in disbelief.
“Hey!”
There was no reaction to his protest and Goten broke into a run to catch up with the quickly receding back. He tried calling Gohan’s imposter a few more times but he never turned around or lessened his pace. Goten chased him through a few corridors, then, after a sudden turn, lost him altogether. Panting, he looked around. He cursed at the sight of the cabin he had woken up in; the imposter was making fun of him.
“So what are you going to do now?”
Goten turned sharply and saw the imposter leaning against the opposite wall. His face was still missing, but instead of being see-through, it was somehow shapeless now. He could still recognize the main facial features but the entire face was blurry, as if someone had painted it on. He was still wearing Gohan’s officer school uniform.
“First, I’m going to punch you for making me run needlessly.”
The imposter rolled his eyes. “We both know that you aren’t going to do that.”
“I just might. Just to spite you.” Looking around, Goten threw his arms apart. “What am I supposed to do here?”
“Why are you asking me things you already know?” the imposter asked without much interest. He motioned back at the corridor Goten had just run from. “Go on and listen. And listen well, so that you hear.”
“Why do you look like my brother?”
The imposter raised an eyebrow. “You have a very short memory.”
Goten’s brow furrowed. He didn’t remember asking that, but then, he hardly remembered anything from these dreams.
“Don’t waste time, go on,” the imposter said, motioning at the corridor again. His face was becoming more and more blurred. A part of his hand disappeared then reappeared again.
Goten snorted. “And you’re telling me this after making me chase you all over the ship?”
The imposter’s laughter echoed through the metallic corridors. He winked at Goten with his blurry eye. “But I’m allowed to have fun,” he said. “Go on, or you’ll meet your brother faster than you or he would like.”
Goten opened his mouth to ask what he meant by that, but the imposter was so blurry now that it made it impossible to look at him. Blinking his eyes, the third-class turned away. When he looked back, the imposter was gone. Goten didn’t expect him to answer but still called him a few times. Finally, he gave up and looked around the corridor again. Looking through the cabin once more made him notice a magazine on the bedside cabinet. He walked over to pick it up. It was an old magazine for spaceships lovers. A wide, green snout was brightly grinning from its cover. Goten leafed through the grand photos of spaceships and shuttles quickly but nothing special caught his eye – it seemed similar to what he had seen in hundreds of other magazines he had read. And yet there was something strange about the magazine. Goten didn’t have time to study it in more detail, thus he rolled it into a tube and stuck in into the pocket of his pants. He hurried down the corridor the imposter had insisted he check out.
After a few blind turns, Goten suddenly found himself at a locked door. He could not read the writing on it, but he knew that it had to be the door to the captain’s bridge. This was probably where Gohan’s imposer had sent him. Unsure, Goten looked back at the lengthy corridor. He had to get in somehow. Pressing random buttons on the key lock only earned him blinking red lights and a lot of beeping.
Goten knocked on the door politely. He had not expected it to work but was still disappointed when no one opened the door. Finally, he powered up and kicked the door down. Surprised, he stared at the Leiadors who were frozen, their eyes wide. All of them were gaping at the door that had just slammed itself into one of the terminals, smashing it to smithereens.
The captain, or whoever was sitting in the captain’s chair, suddenly started shouting orders and even if Goten couldn’t understand anything, the violent urgency in the man’s voice made him nervous. The other three people in the cabin shook themselves out of their stupor and turned to their terminals. Goten moved forward to see what they were doing. The largest screen in the front of the room was focused on a planet that Goten quickly recognized as Bruminan Station.
The captain barked out a few more orders, startling Goten. The third-class looked over at him, growing confused as the ship lightly vibrated under his feet. His disbelieving gaze was suddenly drawn to a flicker on the main screen. In a few seconds the station lit up. In a few more it turned into a flaming ball.
Goten turned to the captain, who was watching the flaming screen with a neutral expression on his face, his eyes hard. Reaching out, Goten whacked him over the head with the magazine. Then he hit him again and again and again until the overwhelming wave of the explosion from the planet reached and swallowed the ship in one gulp.
“Did I kick you out?”
Goten shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.” He touched his nose to check if he had broken it. Lowering his hand, he looked around the hotel room to discover that his father and Almanda were missing. They must have already gone to the control room.
“What time is it?” Goten wondered, his gaze going to the window. The curtains were still drawn but he could see light seeping through them. “I think we overslept spectacularly.” He heard Reyn curse softly and the older man rolled out of bed.
Goten took a bundle of clothes off the chair and tossed half of it for Reyn to catch. Dressing, Goten turned back to the bed and his fingers froze on the buttons. Something glossy was protruding from under the cover. Disbelieving, Goten leaned down and brushed the cover aside. It was the same magazine he remembered taking from the spaceship he had just been to. He picked it up and leafed through a few pages filled with spaceships and descriptions. He closed it and stared at the cover, not certain what it was about. Maybe he had been reading it before he had gone to sleep and that’s why it appeared in his dream. He knew that was not the way it had happened, though.
“Do you really have the time to be reading?” Reyn eyed the magazine disapprovingly from afar.
Goten raised his eyes off the magazine to look at him. “It is important,” he said, waving the magazine in the air. “I just don’t know why yet.” Afraid to let the magazine go lest it somehow disappear, Goten ransacked the nearby bedside cabinet for his scouter.
The urgency in his son’s voice convinced Kakarott to come to the hotel room immediately. Goten also told him to make sure that Almanda didn’t follow him. Thus, with a horribly screwed face and a hasty lie about a bathroom break, Kakarott rushed out of the control room. He found Reyn and Goten sitting at the desk. Kakarott tensed when he saw the magazine in Goten’s hand.
“You’re not supposed to take things from there,” he said softly.
Goten looked at him in surprise. Curious, he lowered his eyes to inspect the magazine again. It didn’t look any different than a common magazine. He wondered how his father could tell. He hoped they’d have more time soon and he would be able to ask all these question he had accumulated.
“I think I know what the captain who is going to order the destruction of the station looks like,” Goten said. “I saw him clearly.”
Both Kakarott and Reyn stared at him. Reyn motioned at him with his head. “Go on.”
“I don’t really remember his face,” Goten said a little awkwardly, “but I’m certain I’ll remember as soon as I see his photo. We can check the captains of each and every ship, right?”
Kakarott scratched his head. “Yeah, we can check them easily. You should probably start right away since there isn’t much time left.” He was already walking back to the door, then turned around to give the magazine a curious look. “What did you take it for?”
Goten shook his head. “I don’t know. I just took it. Is it bad?”
Kakarott shrugged. “Well, it may cause trouble if someone misses it. It may also affect the ties between these two realities. Let’s just hope that no one will notice that it’s gone.”
“If they do, then it won’t be for long,” Goten muttered. “That ship is going to get swallowed by the explosion as well.”
“Oh?” Kakarott wondered. He saw Goten and Reyn stop on their way. They must have also realized the same thing. He had mainly been after an Imperial Destroyer because it packed a lot of power and could deliver a blast from far away while staying unscathed itself. He had more or less ruled out the possibility of a suicide attack since it wasn’t common in Saiyan culture.
“So it’s probably not an Imperial Destroyer after all,” Reyn muttered. “Then it’s a shitload of ships we will have to check.”
Two other men agreed with soft grunts. They went to the control room and Kakarott pulled out the personal files of the captains and, just in case, backup captains. First, they started with the Imperial Destroyers. It took Goten only about ten minutes to reject them all. Then they started to work their way through other ships, taking a particular type at a time.
After an hour, Reyn left Goten in the control room and went to have breakfast. Once done, he bought Goten some food as well and returned. There was still no news and, lowering the packet near the keyboard, he settled in a chair near Goten’s. The younger male was chewing on his lips while his eyes were following the changing photos on the screen. He was ignoring the bag of food and Reyn took it off the desk to unwrap. To Almanda’s amusement, he had come close to just sticking a bun up to Goten’s mouth when the younger male snatched it from his hand and started chewing on it absently.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing,” Goten groaned after having checked all the captains twice. “I was certain I would be able to remember the face.”
Kakarott looked at the clock on the terminal’s screen. It was nearly four in the afternoon. They had just wasted more than half of a precious day. He cursed, drawing people’s attention in the room.
“Ah, fucking shit!” Goten agreed with him, angrily brushing a few empty packets of food off the desk. He accidentally caught the corner of a pile of documents with the magazine on top and all of them burst into the air. He cursed again and got up to gather the papers. His hand froze above the open magazine. He brushed a few documents off it to see the whole photograph of a modern spaceship and the photos of three men underneath it.
“It’s him,” Goten said, pointing at one of the photographs. “That’s the guy!”
Reyn leaned in to see a Leiador’s green face. “Isn’t that the Leiador ambassador to Earth Republic?”
TBC
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z – it belongs to its respective owners. This fan fiction is not a commercial project, and I am not making any money from writing it.
Warnings: Alternate Universe. Yaoi (male x male). Goten x Trunks and vice versa. Other pairings.
Barracks
by chayron (lttomb@yahoo.com)
Part 55
Bruminan Station or Eden – as it was commonly called by Humans – had been the first choice for colonization back when Humans still believed that they were alone in the universe. They had put tremendous effort into making the small planet habitable. A few decades later, they had made contact with other races, adopted and improved on their technologies, and spread through the universe like wildfire. Bruminan Station had mostly been abandoned and only recently had started to be used as a central hub for ships traveling to and from Earth. The station had a large military force with a private fleet to defend itself from possible pirate attacks.
The specific design of the station and the large number of Human inhabitants and travelers clearly marked it as Human territory. While following the second-class warrior, Goten had noticed a handful of soldiers from different races, but they were wearing varicolored uniforms which meant that they were just escorts for leaders and diplomats from their respective nations.
The door opened and Goten averted his eyes from the peculiar ceiling lamp he had been inspecting. The second-class that had led them here motioned for them to enter. It appeared that Goten’s guess about his father lounging in the local cafeteria had been wrong. Unsure, Reyn and Goten looked at each other, then back at the soldier. Goten weighed his suitcase in his hand awkwardly and moved towards the door. He still didn’t quite believe that Kakarott could be behind that door.
The large control room had no windows but it was well-lit by the same oddly designed ceiling lamps. There were about forty people sitting at various terminals around the room. Most of them were Humans but there were a few other races. A handful of second-class Saiyans wearing blue air-craft uniforms were standing in a ring around one of the desks. All of them turned to stare at Goten and Reyn when they entered. Among them was Kakarott. Reyn recognized him instantly and blinked in surprise at how a father and a son could look so similar. He watched Kakarott leave the desk and approach them.
Unconsciously, Goten’s face stretched into a grin. “Hi,” he said, not certain what to do with the suitcase in his hand. He felt a little lightheaded. He couldn’t shake off the feeling that this could not be happening – he had half-expected that the impending attack on the station was only a figment of his imagination. Yet, his father was really here.
“Hey,” Kakarott answered with the same wide grin. He patted Goten’s head awkwardly, then turned around. “My son,” he said to the soldiers at the desk, affection clear in his voice.
There was a silent pause, then laughter and a few amused sniggers broke out around the room.
“Yeah, that’s kind of obvious,” one of the Humans sitting at a terminal chuckled. “The spitting image.”
Seeing his son struggling with his suitcase, Kakarott turned to the same second-class who had brought Goten here. “See him to my hotel room.” Then Kakarott’s eye caught Reyn at Goten’s side. Slowly, a spark of recognition lit up his face. Goten’s lover.
Confused by the look on the older man’s face, Reyn nodded. “Hello.”
“Hello,” Kakarott said. He turned to Goten and his eyebrows rose at his son questioningly. Then he turned back to the second-class again. “On the other hand, I’ll see these two to the hotel room by myself.”
Goten’s mood dropped a little; he was going to be reprimanded for dragging Reyn here with him. He had already reprimanded himself many times.
It took them about ten minutes of walking through the halls and corridors to reach the hotel room. It was in a different building but the two were connected by an underground passage for travelers’ convenience. It was a fancy mid-sized room with a window facing the street. The isolation was very good, though, so no sound entered the room from the outside. There were two beds on one side of the room, between which there was a bedside cabinet, and a small desk sat against the opposite wall. Heavy yellow curtains fell on each side of the window, matching the cream-colored walls. There was also a wardrobe and Goten jogged over to it to store his luggage inside.
Reyn was looking through the window and, using the opportunity, Kakarott leaned toward his son. “What is he doing here?” he whispered.
“Um, I sort of told him everything,” Goten said sheepishly, his fingers plucking at the buttons on his uniform. The confusion was so apparent on his father’s face that he felt even guiltier.
“Why?”
“Err… Well, I thought he could help us,” Goten explained. He cast a glance at Reyn’s back. “He’s just like us.”
Kakarott stared at Goten, then turned his head to look at Reyn standing by the window. “Like us?” he asked with a frown on his face.
Goten nodded eagerly. “Yeah.” His father, though, didn’t appear to be overjoyed with the news.
“Riiiight,” Kakarott drawled with a sigh and turned back to his son.
“Um, yeah, so don’t power up anywhere near him,” Goten warned.
Kakarott frowned again, then rolled his eyes. “Oh, right, I forgot that bit.”
“More importantly,” Goten started in a louder voice, attempting to steer the conversation away, “what’s going on here? Those second-classes in the control room… Don’t they know you’re a third-class? How did you even get here? And how…?”
“They think I’m a National Security agent,” Kakarott interrupted the downpour of questions.
Goten was taken aback. “How so?”
“Well, I’ve got a card proving it,” Kakarott said, pulling an NS card out of his jacket pocket. “So have you,” he added, fishing in his other pocket. He retrieved another plastic card and held it out for his son. “I didn’t think he’d come, though,” he said motioning at Reyn with his head. The flight officer shrugged at him.
Uncertain, Goten took the card. “Is it real?” he wondered, turning it this way and that. It looked the same as the cards he had seen some people wearing at the National Air Force Head Quarters.
“Not exactly,” Kakarott said. He hummed and cleared his throat when his son frowned at him, not understanding. “Well, it is real, but we aren’t National Security agents, right?”
“So it’s real,” Reyn stated.
“Yeah,” Goten agreed, amazed. He brushed over the smooth plastic with his fingers, then scratched at it with his fingernails. “How did you get them?”
“Just asked someone to return a favor.”
Goten opened his mouth to ask more questions since he was curious, but the sudden frown on his father’s face was an indication that it would get him nowhere. He fastened his card to the front of his shirt. There were many National Security agents around due to the conference and someone might become suspicious. The card, however, was the best way to be in the centre of events. Reyn would have to stick near either him or his father if he wanted to get someplace with tighter security.
“What?” Goten asked when he noticed Reyn giving them a funny look.
The flight officer pointed his index finger at him, then his father. “It’s so obvious that you two are related. Won’t it appear strange?”
Kakarott raised his eyebrows at Reyn. “And what’s wrong with a son trying to follow in his father’s footsteps?” he asked with a pat on Goten’s shoulder.
Reyn gave some thought to this cover story, then shrugged. It didn’t sound very convincing, but it would probably work. “So what now? Did you get any leads on that Imperial Destroyer?” he asked Kakarott.
Kakarott gave his son one more meaningful look, then shook his head. “Nothing yet. We’ve been checking all incoming Imperial Star Destroyers but none of them appear suspicious yet. The last ones are coming tomorrow evening.”
“When exactly does the conference start?” Reyn asked.
“The day after tomorrow, ten in the morning, standard time.”
“We don’t really have much time, do we?” Goten muttered. “Have you found out anything at all?”
Kakarott shook his head. “I looked around but… If they are going to blow it up from space, they won’t even set foot on the station. I checked the conference hall, talked to a few acquaintances here. Nothing.”
“How many Imperial Destroyers are supposed to arrive altogether?” Reyn asked.
“Eight of them,” Kakarott answered. “But, the thing is, I’m not certain it will be an Imperial Destroyer. It’s just the most plausible scenario.”
“Did you get the codes to the station defense system?” Goten asked.
Kakarott nodded. “Yes. In the worst case scenario, if we still haven’t found that ship by the time the conference starts, we’ll just have to take over the control room and take down all the ships.”
There was a pause. “They’ll hunt us down,” Goten muttered, finally.
Kakarott stared at him for a few seconds, surprise clear on his face, then rolled his eyes. “With what? All ships will be down and their defense system out of order. I am a passable pilot too. Well, as long as we don’t need to maneuver a lot. Landing is also tricky but…”
“Don’t worry about it,” Goten interrupted him, “Reyn’s a flight officer, so no problem there.”
“Well, as long as it’s not a ZIR or an MIAB,” Reyn added. “I can pretty much pilot everything else.”
Kakarott’s face brightened. “That’s good to know. I’ve set my eyes on an MIRG 891 docked on launch pad 3. It’s closest to the control room.”
“Yeah, no problem with that one,” Reyn reassured them.
“So we blow the ships up, shut down the security system and run to the launch pad,” Goten summed up. “Can you show it to us?”
“Sure.”
They left the hotel room and returned to the hangar with the launch pads. After showing them around, Kakarott left them at the cafeteria to have their lunch and returned to the control room. There was nothing new there. Security cameras showed nothing unusual and the only two passenger ships that had arrived were no threat since their weaponry could not do much damage to the station. Without much interest, Kakarott leafed through the printed out documents containing information on the two ships, then lowered them back onto the desk. He turned to the terminal on his desk and brought up the information on screen. It was the fifth time he was reading the data. He was halfway through the second ship's data when one of the second-class officers informed him that he had a visitor. Kakarott’s first thought was that Reyn had gotten lost but the look on the second-class’s face was quite disturbed.
When he opened the door, he was met by a burly Saiyan female. She was an elite and was holding a cat in front of her by the scruff of its neck. They stared at each other in confusion.
“You’re not the Bardock I wanted,” she declared suddenly. “Where’s Goten?”
“Goten?” Kakarott drawled, even more confused. “What do you want with him?” Then he noticed a Human behind the elite. It was a petite female, and she was trying to take the cat away from the elite. It wasn't working as the elite just raised the cat higher so that it was above the Human’s head. Kakarott suddenly had the feeling that he knew whose fault this chaos was.
“Ma’am, with all due respect, the cat needs to be quarantined. Please, do you hear what I’m saying?”
“The cat is fine,” the elite said dismissively to the Human. “Get lost.”
“It can infect other animals or can get infected itself,” the Human female protested. She gave a helpless look to Kakarott but it was obvious that she didn’t expect much from a second-class. Elites were pretty much left to do what they wanted.
“Why don’t you just put it in a box somewhere ?” Kakarott suggested.
The elite snorted. “It was in a box. It shat in it.”
“Ah.” Kakarott turned to the Human female. “Could you get us a new box, please?” The female nodded and disappeared quickly. Kakarott turned back to the elite. He pointed at the cat. “Is it Goten’s?”
“Yeah. He asked me to take care of it, but I changed my mind. I don't want those two lovebirds to take all the glory.”
Kakarott stared at her for a few seconds, then slapped himself on his forehead. He couldn’t believe this. Just how many people knew about the upcoming attempt on the Crown Prince? And what was with this elite female?
The guard at the door to the control room had the most interesting facial expression on him and Kakarott knew rumors were going to start. An elite female with a stinky cat looking for his son…
The Human female returned with a special box for cats and, finally, the unlucky creature was given a rest. The female still insisted on quarantining the cat but the elite didn’t even pretend to be listening. The situation improved a little when Kakarott suggested leaving the cat in his hotel room.
“Oh, right, I need a place to stay,” the elite said as if she had just realized that now. She turned to the Human female. “You. Find me a room,” she ordered.
The other woman sputtered in indignation, turned away from the elite, and marched off without saying a word.
“That takes care of her,” the elite said with a chuckle. “I should have done that from the start.”
“I’ll talk to the manager of the hotel we are staying at,” Kakarott said. He knew hotels always left a spare room or two for emergency situations, so maybe they would get one. He doubted it though.
“Awesome,” the elite said.
The cat let out a long discontent meow and the elite shook the box to make it quiet. The cat, however, took this as a personal insult and a string of spitting and hissing followed. Kakarott motioned further down the corridor. He wished to get away from the guard’s overly curious eyes as quickly as possible.
“Let’s go to my hotel room and leave it there.”
On their way, Kakarott shared his information, or the lack of it, with the elite. She asked a lot of questions and was making him quite uncomfortable. When they were in the room, Kakarott finally asked her name.
“Almanda,” the elite said.
A little surprised, Kakarott waited for her surname but it never came, the elite mostly ignoring him.
“Almanda Grendal?” he asked to make sure.
Almanda gave Kakarott an evaluating look. While Goten was a social idiot, his father seemed to be a much more knowledgeable man in that sense. She nodded.
Kakarott grunted. Now it was clear that she didn’t come here chasing Goten. He watched her lower the box with the angry cat by the window. It was probably hungry. She probably was as well.
“Let’s go to the cafeteria,” Kakarott said, motioning at the door. A thought that he was wasting precious time passed through his head but they didn’t have any leads at all and looking through the same data for the sixth time was probably not going to change anything. Almanda had connections, though.
The cafeteria was almost empty: there were only two people other than Goten and Reyn. They were done eating and were already leaving their table. Goten nearly dropped his tray at the sight of Almanda. Reyn didn’t appear so surprised – he rolled his eyes as if he had expected this to happen. Both men lowered their trays back to the table and waited for Kakarott and the elite to approach.
“What are you doing here?” Goten hissed when the two sat down at their table. “Didn’t I tell you not to come?”
“Yeah, and so what?” Almanda sniggered. “I’m my own keeper.” She reached out across the table and patted Gotten on his head. “Now, now, don’t be so angry. It’s bad for your health.”
“Ah, godsdamnit!” Goten grunted, smacking at her hand. “Exploding with this station is not going to be of any benefit to your health either!”
“Goten,” Kakarott said warningly, his eyes motioning toward the two people sitting at a nearby table. They were watching their small circle with unconcealed interest. If they had been Saiyans, they would have already demanded Goten’s head for treating an elite female like that.
“So where’s the damn cat?” Goten demanded.
“It’s in our room,” Kakarott said. “I’ll go get some food for it.” Goten was still busy cursing and glaring daggers at the elite. Kakarott turned to Reyn.
“Any meat or fish is fine,” the flight officer told him.
When Kakarott moved to the counter, Reyn also left his chair. He carried his tray to a table in front of the window and sat down. He thought about returning to the table, then decided that he had no wish to hear Goten and Almanda arguing. There was no point in that anyway – she was here and nothing was going to change that. Instead, he went to see what Kakarott was buying.
Kakarott was torn between buying a steak and a lamb chop.
“Get them both,” Reyn told him. “Later we might not have enough time for this. They are cooked so they should be alright for a few days.”
Kakarott nodded and bought three times as many as he had intended to in the first place. He saw the other third-class give him an amused look when he took the package of meat. Goten and Almanda were still hissing at each other at the table, and, with a tortured sigh, Kakarott leaned against the counter. He could see that Reyn was also ignoring them.
“What’s with those two?” he asked.
Reyn shrugged. “They know each other from officer school. She seems totally fascinated with him.”
Kakarott turned to him. “You don’t mind?”
The flight officer shrugged again. “What’s there to mind?”
Kakarott scratched the back of his head. “Perhaps…” he hummed but never finished the thought. That wasn’t his business.
“So…” the flight officer drawled after an awkward pause, “you have the same type of dreams that Goten does, don’t you?”
Kakarott cleared his throat and his eyes narrowed. Across the canteen, they set on his son’s forehead as if wishing to burn a hole there. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Yeah? Okay.”
Silence settled in again. Kakarott scratched the back of his head sheepishly. It seemed like a simple attempt at conversation. There was probably no harm in telling Reyn what he had already presumed.
“You know,” Reyn started innocently, “he had a dream about himself being poisoned by these royal asses we are trying to save.” Now he had Kakarott’s absolute attention; the older man stared at him in disbelief.
“They what?”
Reyn nodded. “Yeah, so I thought you may know more.” He waited for Kakarott to say something but the older man just shook his head. He was still thinking. The look in his eyes was dark, dangerous, and Reyn thought that now he looked just like Goten when he was angry.
“Which one exactly?” Kakarott asked.
“He doesn’t know. Or maybe just doesn’t remember.”
Kakarott cursed softly. He knew the youngster worked as a shaii at Goten’s officer school. But that had only been a coincidence. He cursed again. “Well, thanks for telling me – I’ll look into it.”
Reyn wanted to ask him how exactly he was going to do that, but then thought that maybe the answer was his “secret buddy” who got him and Goten NS identification cards.
The argument at the table seemed to have tapered off and the loud thump of Goten’s forehead hitting the table announced its end. The last of the resistance left Goten with a loud helpless grunt. Reyn and Kakarott approached him and the elite.
“Done here?” Reyn asked, indicating the tray on the table. Goten’s head turned to look up at him from the table. Reyn rolled his eyes at the miserable look the other third-class gave him.
“I’m done but she is not; she hasn’t even had breakfast yet,” Goten informed them.
With a sigh, Reyn sat down. They waited for the elite to get her food and return with a full tray. At the sight of it, Kakarott suddenly got hungry and bought himself some food as well. He had eaten only an hour ago, but Reyn’s disturbing idea about possible lack of meals in the near future was impossible to overlook.
“So how did you get here?” Reyn asked.
“I hid in the shutt-”
“She deserted,” Goten spat out bitterly, cutting her off.
“Oh, shut up,” Almanda waved off. “I didn’t desert. I just made a detour.”
Goten grinned at her mirthlessly. “You can tell that to the military tribunal.”
“Shut up, Goten,” Reyn told him. He turned to the elite. “When will they figure out that you’re not on the ship?”
Almanda shrugged. “The girls will cover for me, so it should take them at least a day. Two maybe? And if I’m extremely lucky, then they won’t notice until the ship reaches Earth.”
“Not too bad, then,” Kakarott said. “We’ve got enough time.”
“And what about later?” Goten snorted. “How do you…”
“Goten, sweetheart,” Almanda hissed at him,” if you open your mouth one more time, I’ll fucking punch your head off.”
Goten glared back at her, his lips moving to form a word, then closing again. “Fuck you,” he said finally. He got to his feet and started marching to the exit. With a roll of his eyes, Reyn took Goten’s tray of empty dishes, then reached for the cat food in Kakarott’s hand.
“I’ll go after him. He’ll either get lost or attract unwanted attention.”
“Both,” Almanda said, munching on her steak.
Still chuckling, Reyn caught up with Goten on his way back to the hotel room. The younger third-class was still obviously fuming, so he just walked next to him silently. A few minutes later, Goten turned around and started walking back. Reyn thought that he intended to return to the cafeteria, but then Goten turned in the direction of the shopping center.
“Do you need anything?” Reyn asked.
“I don’t,” Goten spat, “but that idiot needs a mattress. I don’t think there will be a free room and even if there were, leaving her alone is… Arrghh! That stupid bitch!”
“Hmm… Actually, I think it is safer to let her stay separately from us. That way she’d probably arouse less suspicion than hanging around a bunch of supposed second-classes.”
Goten threw his arms up in defeat. “She’ll hang around us one way or another.”
Reyn sighed. “True.”
Goten didn’t have much cash, but using their credit cards was out of the question. Of course, he and Reyn could be traced by checking the transfer orders but their credit cards would give away their exact location in an instant.
They ended up spending most of their cash on an air mattress, a few covers, socks, underwear and some civilian clothes. The rest of it was put aside for food. They decided to withdraw the money on their cards on the day of the assassination attempt. After the attempt, they would not be able to use their cards one way or the other.
When they returned to the hotel room, there was no one there except discontent Mr. Elite. Goten thought about releasing the cat but realized that it would be nearly impossible to find it again if it escaped the room.
“The box stinks,” Goten said. He opened the small door a little to drop the steak inside.
“It’s the stress,” Reyn said. “Just bring it to the bathroom; he can stink all he wants in there.” Grinning, he watched Goten feeding it.
“What?” the younger male wondered.
Reyn shook his head. “Nah, nothing. Just feels somehow hilariously stupid – us fucking around with a cat when we might die in two days.”
“Stupidly hilarious, you mean?”
“Yeah, probably.”
Goten did as told, then stuffed the new clothes into his suitcase and contacted his father. It appeared that he and Almanda were doing another sweep of the hall where the meeting was going to take place. Goten could only imagine what they looked like snooping around, pretending to be NS agents.
The search gave no results and all of them met back in the control room. It was already getting late, but all three of them checked the current data on all Imperial Destroyers stationed near Bruminan. Kakarott had hoped that a fresh look at the records might yield a clue or two but nothing of the sort happened. They returned to the hotel room trying not to lose their spirit.
“Well,” Goten said flopping down onto the bed near the window, “we’ve still got two days.”
“One day and a bit,” Almanda corrected him. She was inspecting the mattress the men bought her. She knocked on the small air pump and looked around for an electric outlet.
“I think its battery has still got enough charge,” Kakarott told her. He motioned at his bed. “If you want, we can switch, though.”
“Don’t you fucking patronize me,” the elite told him, showing him two fingers at once.
Reyn chuckled and sat down on the bed next to Goten. He watched Almanda attach the pump to the mattress and soon a soft buzz filled the room. He felt Goten shift and flop onto his back, and the next second there was a horrible crash as their mattress slammed against the floor.
“Ugh,” Goten said, sitting up. Two wooden planks separated from the end of the bed and fell off, making him cringe. “They will make us pay for it, won’t they?”
“What are you worried about?” Reyn muttered. “We might not even survive to pay for it. And if we do, we’ll be too busy doing a runner to pay. I’m more worried about how we’ll sleep.” He moved about on the mattress but it didn’t seem to be uncomfortable, just closer to the ground. “Well, not too bad.”
“That was obviously not meant for two Saiyans,” Kakarott said. “The weight difference is quite big after all.”
“If my mattress explodes,” Almanda said pointing at Goten, “I’ll freaking gut you!”
“Be grateful I got you one at all,” Goten pointed out. “You don’t do anything else but complain.”
“No, it’s you who complains all the time,” the elite said. “I didn’t even ask you to buy a mattress.”
“Oh, gods,” Reyn groaned, burying his face into a pillow. “Here they go again.” He had a feeling that by the time the conference started, he would be begging to be killed.
ooOoOoOoo
Kakarott woke up first. Soft snoring was heard from the other bed and he looked over. Both Goten and Reyn had somehow managed to sprawl all over the small single bed. Reyn was on his back, his right arm thrown over Goten’s waist. Goten was on his stomach, one of his legs thrown over Reyn, the other hanging over the edge of the bed, suspended in the air. The cover was pooling on the ground, the end of it wrapped around Goten’s foot.
Kakarott looked at the mattress on the floor. Almanda was on her side, facing the wall, wrapped into her blanket as if it were a cocoon. Kakarott laid his head back onto the pillow. Younglings. Goten was an idiot for dragging them here. There were times when one could not change anything even if the future was known. He had never told Goten how his grandfather had died. There had been no need until now. Gohan’s death was another matter no one had been able to change. He had so many things to tell Goten. If only they had more time.
ooOoOoOoo
Goten opened his eyes and sat up straight in his bed. He was alone on a bunk. Wracking his head about what was going on, he pushed the covers aside. He was only in his underwear but his clothes were on the floor and he bent down to gather them quickly. Looking around what seemed to be a windowless cabin, he dressed. The cabin was not what he was used to and it made him wonder where exactly he was. The pass button worked perfectly and the door hissed open to reveal a corridor lined with doors. Now he knew why everything looked so different – he was in Leiador territory. The green longhaired creatures were walking around without paying him any attention. Lost, Goten looked both ways down the corridor.After about five minutes of aimless wandering, he figured out that he was on a spaceship. The writing on the walls and doors were in a language he didn’t understand, but this was definitely a spaceship. The Leiadors were also speaking their own language amongst themselves. The people seemed elated, though he couldn’t understand what the reason was.
He knew perfectly well that he should be doing something here, but all attempts to converse or reach some kind of destination ended in failure. That was until he saw Gohan at the end of one of corridors. Goten quickened his step, but the imposter turned around and started walking away. Goten stopped in disbelief.
“Hey!”
There was no reaction to his protest and Goten broke into a run to catch up with the quickly receding back. He tried calling Gohan’s imposter a few more times but he never turned around or lessened his pace. Goten chased him through a few corridors, then, after a sudden turn, lost him altogether. Panting, he looked around. He cursed at the sight of the cabin he had woken up in; the imposter was making fun of him.
“So what are you going to do now?”
Goten turned sharply and saw the imposter leaning against the opposite wall. His face was still missing, but instead of being see-through, it was somehow shapeless now. He could still recognize the main facial features but the entire face was blurry, as if someone had painted it on. He was still wearing Gohan’s officer school uniform.
“First, I’m going to punch you for making me run needlessly.”
The imposter rolled his eyes. “We both know that you aren’t going to do that.”
“I just might. Just to spite you.” Looking around, Goten threw his arms apart. “What am I supposed to do here?”
“Why are you asking me things you already know?” the imposter asked without much interest. He motioned back at the corridor Goten had just run from. “Go on and listen. And listen well, so that you hear.”
“Why do you look like my brother?”
The imposter raised an eyebrow. “You have a very short memory.”
Goten’s brow furrowed. He didn’t remember asking that, but then, he hardly remembered anything from these dreams.
“Don’t waste time, go on,” the imposter said, motioning at the corridor again. His face was becoming more and more blurred. A part of his hand disappeared then reappeared again.
Goten snorted. “And you’re telling me this after making me chase you all over the ship?”
The imposter’s laughter echoed through the metallic corridors. He winked at Goten with his blurry eye. “But I’m allowed to have fun,” he said. “Go on, or you’ll meet your brother faster than you or he would like.”
Goten opened his mouth to ask what he meant by that, but the imposter was so blurry now that it made it impossible to look at him. Blinking his eyes, the third-class turned away. When he looked back, the imposter was gone. Goten didn’t expect him to answer but still called him a few times. Finally, he gave up and looked around the corridor again. Looking through the cabin once more made him notice a magazine on the bedside cabinet. He walked over to pick it up. It was an old magazine for spaceships lovers. A wide, green snout was brightly grinning from its cover. Goten leafed through the grand photos of spaceships and shuttles quickly but nothing special caught his eye – it seemed similar to what he had seen in hundreds of other magazines he had read. And yet there was something strange about the magazine. Goten didn’t have time to study it in more detail, thus he rolled it into a tube and stuck in into the pocket of his pants. He hurried down the corridor the imposter had insisted he check out.
After a few blind turns, Goten suddenly found himself at a locked door. He could not read the writing on it, but he knew that it had to be the door to the captain’s bridge. This was probably where Gohan’s imposer had sent him. Unsure, Goten looked back at the lengthy corridor. He had to get in somehow. Pressing random buttons on the key lock only earned him blinking red lights and a lot of beeping.
Goten knocked on the door politely. He had not expected it to work but was still disappointed when no one opened the door. Finally, he powered up and kicked the door down. Surprised, he stared at the Leiadors who were frozen, their eyes wide. All of them were gaping at the door that had just slammed itself into one of the terminals, smashing it to smithereens.
The captain, or whoever was sitting in the captain’s chair, suddenly started shouting orders and even if Goten couldn’t understand anything, the violent urgency in the man’s voice made him nervous. The other three people in the cabin shook themselves out of their stupor and turned to their terminals. Goten moved forward to see what they were doing. The largest screen in the front of the room was focused on a planet that Goten quickly recognized as Bruminan Station.
The captain barked out a few more orders, startling Goten. The third-class looked over at him, growing confused as the ship lightly vibrated under his feet. His disbelieving gaze was suddenly drawn to a flicker on the main screen. In a few seconds the station lit up. In a few more it turned into a flaming ball.
Goten turned to the captain, who was watching the flaming screen with a neutral expression on his face, his eyes hard. Reaching out, Goten whacked him over the head with the magazine. Then he hit him again and again and again until the overwhelming wave of the explosion from the planet reached and swallowed the ship in one gulp.
ooOoOoOoo
Reyn’s eyes flew open at a loud thump somewhere nearby. Someone cursed. Alarmed, the flight officer looked around the room quickly. It took him a few moments to realize where he was. Then his eyes were drawn toward movement by the bed. Goten was on the floor, clambering to his feet.“Did I kick you out?”
Goten shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.” He touched his nose to check if he had broken it. Lowering his hand, he looked around the hotel room to discover that his father and Almanda were missing. They must have already gone to the control room.
“What time is it?” Goten wondered, his gaze going to the window. The curtains were still drawn but he could see light seeping through them. “I think we overslept spectacularly.” He heard Reyn curse softly and the older man rolled out of bed.
Goten took a bundle of clothes off the chair and tossed half of it for Reyn to catch. Dressing, Goten turned back to the bed and his fingers froze on the buttons. Something glossy was protruding from under the cover. Disbelieving, Goten leaned down and brushed the cover aside. It was the same magazine he remembered taking from the spaceship he had just been to. He picked it up and leafed through a few pages filled with spaceships and descriptions. He closed it and stared at the cover, not certain what it was about. Maybe he had been reading it before he had gone to sleep and that’s why it appeared in his dream. He knew that was not the way it had happened, though.
“Do you really have the time to be reading?” Reyn eyed the magazine disapprovingly from afar.
Goten raised his eyes off the magazine to look at him. “It is important,” he said, waving the magazine in the air. “I just don’t know why yet.” Afraid to let the magazine go lest it somehow disappear, Goten ransacked the nearby bedside cabinet for his scouter.
The urgency in his son’s voice convinced Kakarott to come to the hotel room immediately. Goten also told him to make sure that Almanda didn’t follow him. Thus, with a horribly screwed face and a hasty lie about a bathroom break, Kakarott rushed out of the control room. He found Reyn and Goten sitting at the desk. Kakarott tensed when he saw the magazine in Goten’s hand.
“You’re not supposed to take things from there,” he said softly.
Goten looked at him in surprise. Curious, he lowered his eyes to inspect the magazine again. It didn’t look any different than a common magazine. He wondered how his father could tell. He hoped they’d have more time soon and he would be able to ask all these question he had accumulated.
“I think I know what the captain who is going to order the destruction of the station looks like,” Goten said. “I saw him clearly.”
Both Kakarott and Reyn stared at him. Reyn motioned at him with his head. “Go on.”
“I don’t really remember his face,” Goten said a little awkwardly, “but I’m certain I’ll remember as soon as I see his photo. We can check the captains of each and every ship, right?”
Kakarott scratched his head. “Yeah, we can check them easily. You should probably start right away since there isn’t much time left.” He was already walking back to the door, then turned around to give the magazine a curious look. “What did you take it for?”
Goten shook his head. “I don’t know. I just took it. Is it bad?”
Kakarott shrugged. “Well, it may cause trouble if someone misses it. It may also affect the ties between these two realities. Let’s just hope that no one will notice that it’s gone.”
“If they do, then it won’t be for long,” Goten muttered. “That ship is going to get swallowed by the explosion as well.”
“Oh?” Kakarott wondered. He saw Goten and Reyn stop on their way. They must have also realized the same thing. He had mainly been after an Imperial Destroyer because it packed a lot of power and could deliver a blast from far away while staying unscathed itself. He had more or less ruled out the possibility of a suicide attack since it wasn’t common in Saiyan culture.
“So it’s probably not an Imperial Destroyer after all,” Reyn muttered. “Then it’s a shitload of ships we will have to check.”
Two other men agreed with soft grunts. They went to the control room and Kakarott pulled out the personal files of the captains and, just in case, backup captains. First, they started with the Imperial Destroyers. It took Goten only about ten minutes to reject them all. Then they started to work their way through other ships, taking a particular type at a time.
After an hour, Reyn left Goten in the control room and went to have breakfast. Once done, he bought Goten some food as well and returned. There was still no news and, lowering the packet near the keyboard, he settled in a chair near Goten’s. The younger male was chewing on his lips while his eyes were following the changing photos on the screen. He was ignoring the bag of food and Reyn took it off the desk to unwrap. To Almanda’s amusement, he had come close to just sticking a bun up to Goten’s mouth when the younger male snatched it from his hand and started chewing on it absently.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing,” Goten groaned after having checked all the captains twice. “I was certain I would be able to remember the face.”
Kakarott looked at the clock on the terminal’s screen. It was nearly four in the afternoon. They had just wasted more than half of a precious day. He cursed, drawing people’s attention in the room.
“Ah, fucking shit!” Goten agreed with him, angrily brushing a few empty packets of food off the desk. He accidentally caught the corner of a pile of documents with the magazine on top and all of them burst into the air. He cursed again and got up to gather the papers. His hand froze above the open magazine. He brushed a few documents off it to see the whole photograph of a modern spaceship and the photos of three men underneath it.
“It’s him,” Goten said, pointing at one of the photographs. “That’s the guy!”
Reyn leaned in to see a Leiador’s green face. “Isn’t that the Leiador ambassador to Earth Republic?”
TBC