Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Second Chances for Love ❯ Potential in Death ( Chapter 3 )

Second Chances for Love

By Trynia Merin

Summary: What if instead of going to the past with the Time Machine, Future Trunks instead used a spaceship to go to New Namek? What dangers does he encounter along the way, and can he make it in time?

Author Notes: This story was written for the contest at Boxer and Rice. It was written with ideas given to me by Truhania, to whom I owe many thanks for getting me started on this!

Chapter 3 Potential in Death

He could hear an incessant electronic beep grating at his ears. Creamy arms wrapped around his torso Trunks snapped his eyes open. In the glass of the mirror before him, he saw not only himself, but also see Gohan's arm clutched overtop and feel the press of his chin into his shoulder. Yet that noise intruding on his recollecting caused Trunks to grit his teeth in impatience. It grew far louder, tugging him reluctantly from the comfort of his memories to rude reality.

He recognized the cadence of the beep accompanied by the flashing red of the cabin lights. Cursing under his breath Trunks spun from his reflection and dashed across the flight deck to the ladder leading down to the controls. He slid down the spiral banister, his feet contacting the metal almost denting it in his impatience. With each step, the capsule dangling on a chain around his neck thumped and Trunks barely reached the panels glistening with hundreds of lights like fireflies. Rather all around him he saw the cluster of searing hot sparks past the viewports. He slid into the chair and glided his fingers across the keys of the coordinate programmer setting it to manual.

“Damn it… out in this sector?” he wondered. A quick burst of the retro engines veered him out of the path of what seemed to be a rogue trail of debris. Adrenaline pounded in his system and he saw more pieces of flotsam and rock gliding past the ship. Just what had happened to cause this debris field to spontaneously pop out of nowhere. Not to mention, why?

Then as suddenly as the field of gleaming particles had appeared, open space pushed them aside to reveal glowing bands of shimmering space dust. Keys clicked and soon yielded the answer on the navigational screen. He followed the trail of text that spelled out, “Theliera sector.” A quick comparison to his mother's old star charts punched in long ago confirmed something must have diverted him through a system when he should be careening through open space. Even though New Namek was light years away, it was closer to Namek's original position then it was to Earth.

Yet it looked like a nebula. What was a nebula doing in the place of what would be a planetary system?

“How did I get HERE? I was supposed to bypass this system altogether!” he mumbled, and then checked the star maps. A quick tug on the astral scope to his eye and he blinked at the gleaming misty ring shimmering like a rainbow. Where there should be a G sequence star much like earth he instead saw a tiny white dwarf. More frantic glances through the scope clued him in on the structure of the rainbow nebula and the size of the gravity well.

“The star's dead,” he whispered. Theleria Minor had cast off its outer layers and shed them after expanding to a red giant years ago. Now all he saw was the expanding layer of nebula drifting into space like a soap bubble blown out from a central location. Other calculations and observations told Trunks that only two of the planets out of five charted here remained.

On their way to Namek, his mother, Krillin and Gohan had added many star systems to the database of the Capsule computers. Even before they left Namek after being wished off by the Dragon Balls, Bulma had transmitted all her data by subspace frequency to Earth, so Goku's capsule ship could reach Namek safely to help them. In addition, his mother had downloaded all logs of his father's flight to find Goku into the banks as well, providing a thorough accounting of a vast array of planetary systems in the galaxy. When the Namekians had returned to their home world, telepathically Muuri had transmitted the location to Piccolo and Dende, so the coordinates were well known. Through the combination of weeks of number crunching, Capsule's battered computers and Trunks own calculations had charted the best and shortest route.

All the data though was twenty or more years old, and things can happen even in the lives of stars. Through the whole expanse of time on earth that the Androids had existed, a star once like any other had died and retired from a red giant to a white dwarf and a beautiful ring nebula. Even in death, it shimmered and cast its silent radiance on whatever planets still existed.

“What else has changed in twenty years out h ere,” he wondered, fixing the gravity well calculations and steering the ship clear of the deviation. Although it had projected a much deeper dent in space-time, instead the ship encountered shallower one left by a system of a white dwarf, nebula, and two lifeless icy planets, as well as a ring of asteroids with which he had narrowly avoided collision.

Even in its death, the star would provide the basic building blocks for life, Trunks reflected, pressing his palm to the computer screen. Just what prompted him to think that he didn't question, rather he took the small revelation and added it to the store of others he accumulated on the long voyage. Gohan had seen new star systems at a much different stage in its life. Not this one. However, someone else had. Trunks own father Vegeta, a person he knew precious little about and had asked Bulma many times for information. She had little to say, either out of the desire to protect him for disappointment or for her own personal reasons. Gohan was the source he most trusted for data, because they had fought together on Namek.

Now his eyes beheld all the sorts of wonders that his lover had years ago. To peer at a phenomenon like Gohan had for the first time in trepidation brought the reality that much closer. Still keeping his hand on the screen beside the image of the rainbow soap bubble ringing the white dwarf, he reached his other up to clench around the capsule dangling around his neck. Fingering it he hoped to reclaim the safety of his recollections and recapture that elusive moment where he swore he could see Gohan standing behind him in that mirror.

A moment's concentration of looking at the Ring Nebula around its parent star opened the doors to his memories again. Freed from the urgency of the situation now corrected he slumped back into the chair again, running his other hand over the column of his abs to rest just above his waistband, before he diverted it to slide along his left leg. For a moment, he closed his eyes, remembering the rough yet wonderful pressure of Gohan's fingers along his back loosening every tight knot that night. Calling to recollection the fresh scent of fabric softener on his own clothes and sheets that were peeled back and tangled around bronze legs. Better yet the salty tang of essence clinging to his tongue as he…

Blood flooded his cheeks and he let out a small chuckle. Each first that they had passed was a milestone that he wanted to last the rest of his life. Storing up a treasure trove of memories to last the rest of a lonely and long life of serving the needs of others was the goal of those days of youth. Gohan forged enough images of the feel of touch and proximity that was the ultimate expression of love to carry him through what he would face. Yet it wasn't enough. Was it worth risking his own safety and the fate of his world on an elusive whim?

“You are worth it Gohan. You've given so much to the world, it's our turn now. My turn now. You gave me that last sensu bean and the chance to live. It's only fair that I return the compliment. Only fair that I bring you home…”

Wasn't he only doing what Gohan had done before? Gathering the dragon balls on Namek to call up a hero that earth sorely needed. Why with all he had learned in the year since Gohan's death alone, Trunks would fight at his side and not be a liability but an asset. The sudden prickling of hairs at the nape of his neck made him shiver, and he opened his eyes to stare at his own reflection in the computer screen. Superimposed over the nebula he could see his own angular features, and discern a familiar pair of eyes not too far from his own.

“Gohan,” he mouthed before the image was gone, and all he saw was himself. Was his mind playing tricks on him in his long isolation? His mother had the company of Krillin and Gohan, while he only had those of his memories. Extending one long slender finger, he punched the button on the entertainment console, bringing to life the stereo system of the ship and breaking the silence. The vibrating bass interweaving with the complex riffs of electronic music and traditional symphony filled the emptiness for a time and he gathered his emotional energy to face his daily routine.

Breakfast was followed by an intense workout. Plunged into red the world would accelerate to another 10 G's, and push him to the limit. Just as Goku had done years ago, he used this opportunity to increase his own power in the vacuum of space. Two months without training was a long time, and he had gained too much ground to lose it by simply sitting around. That's why he wrapped his hands behind his head and lay on the flight deck, curling his abdomen up into his thousandth sit up. Why his skin gleamed oily slick and his long tendrils of hair were plastered on his forehead though gathered in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. His hair always grew fast, and he hadn't bothered to cut it since Gohan's death.

Only another day's journey would bring him to new Namek, or at least according to the blinking green numbers on the nearby computer display. It effectively set up a timer of how long the trip should take, and just how much time had elapsed. Though the little surprise of this morning had caused some deviation, he was still on course.