Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Colours Within ❯ Prince's Worth ( Chapter 10 )

ten. prince's worth.

 

“Bulma? Bulma, wake up. Bulma, it's time to get up.”

 

Bulma grunted and rolled over, away from the sound.

 

“Bulma, you need to get up now.”

 

“Later,” she mumbled.

 

“No, now. You need to get up now.”

 

She rolled back over and pulled her head out from underneath her arm to see her father standing beside her bed. He looked concerned.

 

“What happened?” she grunted, stifling a yawn.

 

“Something's very wrong,” he said.

 

She was in the lab within ten minutes and Dr. Briefs stood by the gravity room's communication system, pushing a button every few moments or so, but in general just watching it thoughtfully.

 

“What's up?” Bulma asked as she approached her father.

 

“Vegeta's in trouble.”

 

“How can you tell? I thought he blew up the communications.”

 

“Yes, he did, but all that means is that we can't contact him or vice versa. That doesn't mean I can't still keep tabs on the ship itself - and Houston, we have a problem.”

 

“What?”

 

“Engine failure.”

 

“That's not hard to fix,” Bulma said.

 

“I suspect the cooling system failed and the engine became extremely overheated. It's not a matter of fixing the oil, although that may also be necessary, or turning it over again. He would have to fix the cooling system and then probably need to replace the entire engine,” Dr. Briefs explained.

 

“This is his own fault!” Bulma said angrily. “If he hadn't been so stubborn and not rushed out he could have taken the newer gravity room I was working on.”

 

“Does that mean you don't want to help?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Dr. Briefs shook his head. “Not everyone deserves help,” he said, “but when people refuse to help others it is more a measure of their character than that of those who are in need. And I know you are a better person than to just let him float around in space for eternity.”

 

Bulma's eyebrows lowered in agitation. “I'm fairly certain he can take care of himself.”

 

“Why, did you include a how-to manual so he can fix the cooling system? And is there a spare engine on board?”

 

“Vegeta's smarter than you may think.”

 

“One is only as smart as the tools that are available.”

 

“Well what the hell are we supposed to do from here anyway?” Bulma demanded.

 

Dr. Briefs smiled, sensing that she was going to help despite all her protests. “Just because the engine's failed doesn't mean the computer has. I want to try to hack into the navigational computer and see if we can't set him on a specific course. There's no guarantee he'll get there with no engine, but I'm hoping he hasn't gotten trapped in an orbit and will float along in the direction we set for him.”

 

“You want to try to bring him back to Earth?”

 

“No, I suspect he's too far away for that. It'll be too risky. Our solar system has far too many moons and planets that can trap him in their orbit. I want to try to bring him to the nearest merchant planet so he can purchase the equipment he needs to repair his ship.”

 

Bulma sighed heavily. “Why do you need me to help? Can't you do this on your own?”

 

“Yes, but that'll take much longer and time is the one thing Vegeta doesn't have a lot of right now. I'm going to try to locate his co-ordinates and then the co-ordinates of the closest trading planet. In the meantime I want you to work on hacking his navigations.”

 

“How long has his engine been out?” Bulma asked.

 

Dr. Briefs frowned. “I'm not sure. I haven't been in here to check up on him in a few days. If I had to take a guess I'd go for either the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth. Though it could have even been as early as the twenty-third.”

 

“At the most, then, he's had no engine power for five days. And at the least three days.”

 

“Correct. Even a few hours is enough for the gravity room to be pulled into an orbit, so I suggest we work as quickly as possible.”

 

“What if he blocks my hack?” Bulma asked.

 

Dr. Briefs eyed her skeptically. “If you were on a ship with no working engine in the middle of space would you be concerned with watching your navigation system for a hack? Or would you be more concerned with trying to find out the source of the engine damage to fix it? I wouldn't worry about him blocking your hack - and besides, I designed this system. I know more about it than he does and together we'll have no problem getting into it.”

 

Dr. Briefs found Vegeta's co-ordinates in no time, and located an appropriate planet for Vegeta to land on within the hour.

 

“This planet is approximately two days from Vegeta, but this time frame takes into account a working engine. It could take him up to several months to reach these co-ordinates if he runs into obstacles,” Dr. Briefs said.

 

“Any luck on the hacking?”

 

Bulma snarled in frustration. “He's put a lock on them. At first I was trying to guess the password but after a few wrong tries it locked me out. So now I'm trying to bypass the password altogether which is a lot harder.”

 

Dr. Briefs nodded knowingly as he watched the stream of data on the computer screen. “The password program is in the third layer of code,” he explained. “It looks like you're on the second. If you can get into the third you may be able to break the program. See if you can get into the program and delete the passwording option.”

 

“You built this!” Bulma cried. “Why can't you do it?”

 

“Why can't you? You're smart enough. And you care about Vegeta's welfare more than I do, which grants you more incentive to work harder.”

 

Bulma's fingers stopped moving across the keys as she turned to glare at her father.

 

“`Vegeta's welfare'? I couldn't care less about Vegeta's welfare! Maybe it's a good thing he's stuck out in space. Maybe he'll die out there!”

 

“Do you really want that?” Dr. Briefs asked her. “Would you want that resting on your conscience knowing you could have done something to prevent it?”

 

“What is it with you and trying to guilt me into helping him?” she demanded. “Why is he worth so much to you?”

 

Dr. Briefs looked at her evenly. “He's not,” he said. “He murdered millions of innocent people, and there is no way I would ever condone that. He is worth very little to me, in fact. But Earth is worth a great deal, as are the people who live here. And if he is willing to put an end to the massacre the androids will bring, then I will do everything in my power to ensure he stays alive and well long enough to aid us. Is Earth not worth that much to you?”

 

Bulma didn't reply as she mulled this over. Vegeta didn't deserve her help - he had attacked her, after all. But the people of Earth deserved his help, and if the only way they could receive that was if she helped Vegeta first, then she supposed she would. It is what Goku would do, she reasoned; wordlessly she returned to the computer screen.

 

***

 

Vegeta sat crumpled on the floor beside the disassembled engine, contemplating death. Death was a topic with which he was thoroughly acquainted, but he had always imagined his own demise to be the result of the bloodiest of battles, not dehydration. And he certainly never expected to die alone on the hard tile floor of the human-made gravity room.

 

He turned a piece of the engine over in his oil-stained hands before letting it drop to the floor with a metallic clang. He felt both ridiculous and infuriated. He had accepted that fact that he could not repair the engine and felt completely useless. When had the Saiya-jin prince been stripped of so much dignity that he now sat cross-legged on the floor unable to do anything to save himself? He was completely at the mercy of the humans - Dr. Briefs and Bulma in particular - and their shitty piece of machinery had malfunctioned.

 

Perhaps they had meant to murder him silently in space, he mused. Perhaps that had been the plan all along, to tamper with the equipment so that it worked well enough to launch him into the galaxy, and then unexpectedly break down to such an extent that it was unfixable.

 

Perhaps it was that Yamcha. It was no secret that Yamcha despised Vegeta. Vegeta even suspected Yamcha was somewhat jealous of him, though for what the prince could not fathom. It wasn't because of Vegeta's strength - Kakarrot was more powerful than him, yet Yamcha got along with him just fine. It had to be something else, something belonging to Vegeta alone.

 

He could sense the jealousy in Yamcha's obnoxious glares. He could feel it in the way Yamcha arrogantly moved away from him when they crossed paths at the Capsule Corporation. He could taste it in the way Yamcha spoke to him, on the rare occasions that he did speak to him. He could discern it in the way Yamcha talked of his accomplishments within earshot of Vegeta. It hung thick in the air whenever the two crossed paths.

 

Vegeta couldn't blame Yamcha for hating him. Vegeta had inadvertently sent Yamcha to Otherworld, after all. He had similarly murdered several of his friends and injured others. He had scared his precious girlfriend shitless on Namek in his madcap plan to gather the Dragonballs. And despite the fact that Vegeta had ultimately aided the Z Fighters in the battle against Frieza and had offered to help them destroy the androids, he could reasonably understand that Yamcha disliked him. Vegeta suspected he would dislike himself were he in that position.

 

But for the human to be jealous of him - that was something he couldn't quite wrap his head around. Unless he was mistaken and completely off the mark, which he guessed was possible though unlikely. He believed his intuition to be fairly well developed; it didn't often let him down.

 

“Now on course to Madan-sei. Destination: Madan-sei.”

 

The voice of the navigational computer bounced towards him from the cockpit and his head whipped around in surprise.

 

Who had set his course? And why had they set his co-ordinates for Madan-sei? And, most importantly, how had they hacked his password? Were they also responsible for the destruction of his engine? Was it sabotage?

 

He was in the cockpit in a matter of seconds, running a check on his new destination. He learned it was a trading planet, and that it was approximately two days away. But what a waste of time it had been for the hacker to hack his system. Without any engine power it would take ages to reach Madan-sei, if he was lucky enough to be on a clear course and reach it at all.

 

“Locked onto co-ordinates of Madan-sei. Destination: Madan-sei.”

 

Was it a trap? Vegeta thought wildly. Was he at that very moment being lured into someone's grasp, someone who awaited him on Madan-sei? But why would this be, and what role would he play?

 

The computer flashed and streams of data began pouring across the screen. His navigational program opened of its own accord but where the co-ordinate input boxes had once sat there was now a message:

 

Heard you were having engine trouble. Stick to these co-ordinates and I'm sure you can locate the tools and help you need. Next time don't run off without bringing necessary equipment of your own.

 

-B.B.

 

P.S. There's a spacesuit in the closet at the back of the cockpit. The boots are magnetized so you can walk on the outside of the G.R. A Ki blast will push your ship in the right direction and help you reach Madan-sei a lot sooner. It's been known to work.

 

By the end of the week Vegeta had a new engine and some extra cash and food, the latter having been earned through various forms of violence and illegal activity.

 

The mechanic had surveyed his work and wiped the grease from his hands. “It should be good,” he grunted. “You're one lucky sonova bitch that you even made it here with your engine as fucked up as it was. How'd you manage to bump into this shithole anyway?”

 

“I was sent the co-ordinates and told what to do to get it here.”

 

The mechanic whistled between his teeth. “You've got some great friends. Some smart, great friends. You're one lucky bastard.” He clapped Vegeta on the back and exited the ship before Vegeta could protest against his “friends.”