The Trepidation of the Spheres A Dragonball Z fanfic by Stella Quetzacotl First created: Sep 27, 2002 Last modified: Sep 27, 2002 ~~~~~Legal Stuff~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a work of fiction written for entertainment purposes only. All DBZ characters are the property of Akira Toriyama and FUNimation. All other characters are the property of the author. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~Text Conventions~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [This is a character thought] /This is a voice within a character's head/ *This is emphasized text* Chapter 5: A Single Step "This is the GSS SpaceCadet calling Colony Kudamono, via neutrino transmission. Please respond." Bulma and Chichi stood quietly if tensely behind a Teluvian officer, who was speaking into a cube-shaped microphone hanging from the ceiling. "Repeat. This is the GSS SpaceCadet calling Colony Kudamono." "We read you, SpaceCadet," said a barely understandable crackle from two speakers on either side of the officer's console. "What's the news?" "We're carrying all the supplies you ordered one-half rotations ago, plus some salvage off a space wreck we're hoping to find a buyer for." "No shortage of buyers here, SpaceCadet. When can we expect your arrival?" "Give it three rotations, Kudamono, two and a half if nothing breaks down." "Acknowledged, SpaceCadet." The officer paused. "We're also carrying some passengers who're looking for a Saiyan who we believe might have found his way to your colony." This particular conjecture Bulma had deduced after getting a look at the SpaceCadet's routine flight schedule. "If Goku's still alive," she'd said, "then there's a good chance he's not still with Raditz, so he has to be somewhere else. And this Saiyan colony is as good a place as any to start looking for him." "No shortage of Saiyans here, either," the speakers blared. "Give me his name, let me punch him up in our database." "Son Goku." The officer spelled it, using unfamiliar letters. There was a pause, during which Chichi clasped her hands over her heart and Bulma leaned forward hungrily. "Ah, we are not showing any Saiyan by that name, SpaceCadet," the speakers said. "If this man exists, he is most likely - " The voice was cut short. "Kudamono?" the officer prompted. "Come in, Kudamono. Kudamono!" "Goku," Chichi breathed. Bulma laid a hand on her shoulder. A new voice answered - younger, female. "My apologies for the wait. Son Goku is indeed on this colony, SpaceCadet." The officer opened his mouth to reply, but never got the chance before Chichi batted him aside. "How is he?" she demanded, her worry making her angry. "What did Raditz do to him? *Where* is he?" "Ma'am," said the voice, patiently, "are you one of his friends?" "Friends, nothing! I happen to be Goku's wife," Chichi snapped. There was a smile in the voice now. "Son Goku is fine," she said. "His wounds have been healed, and he is currently in training to regain his strength. Would you like to relay a message?" "Training?" Chichi demanded. "Isn't that just like Goku. Leaves me a nervous wreck, I leave my home and my poor father by himself just to *find* him and now I find he's *training*!" She sighed. "Just - tell him his family is coming. And to stay there!" she added, forcefully. "I do *not* want to lose him again." "Acknowledged, ma'am," said the voice, now not just smiling but actually amused. "Was there anything else?" The Teluvian officer finally succeeded in regaining his station from Chichi. "No, Kudamono, that's all." "All right then. Kudamono out." It was a lucky thing that Chichi had a near-infallible sense of direction, because as vast and labyrinthine as the SpaceCadet was, it would have been vastly easy to get lost. [Especially,] Chichi thought ruefully, [if you're just wandering aimlessly.] It was strange behavior for the young woman because Chichi was not an aimless person. Everything she did in life had a purpose, a goal. When she was a little girl, it had been taking care of her well- meaning but thick-headed father, the Ox King; later, it had been snaring the clueless-but-purehearted youth Son Goku as a husband; then, it had been taking care of said husband and the eventual product of that union, Gohan. Chichi had always been perversely proud of her goal-oriented nature. It meant character flaws, she knew, but if she could make her family happy and whole, she could stand it if a few people didn't like her. It had been a great boon for Chichi when she and Bulma had become friends. Chichi had had many playmates growing up, but few *friends* - her father had been too scary. Especially female friends, who tended to lump Chichi in with the Ox King and avoid them both. In many ways, Chichi and Bulma were alike - Bulma was as goal-driven as Chichi, and she had a very close relationship with her parents, especially her father. But it was the ways they were different that Chichi and Bulma balanced each other. Unlike Chichi, Bulma cared what people thought of her, so she'd learned early the art of using the right words to get people to like her while still getting what she wanted. Chichi got her way through brusqueness and commands and sheer force of will. On the other hand, Chichi was a solid, home-and-hearth woman, devoted to her family, whereas Bulma had always been more of a loose cannon as far as relationships were concerned. They were like two pieces of a puzzle - they fit together, the same way Goku's unassuming, ego-devoid confidence and Krillin's self-conscious determination fit together. Chichi sighed and let her hand trail along the cold metal wall. One major way in which she and Bulma differed was that although Bulma had a boyfriend, she didn't have a husband or a child. When Chichi had lost both, the older woman had been able to console but not truly understand. [I didn't understand why they'd been taken away from me,] Chichi reflected, her fingertips meeting door seam after door seam. [I blamed myself. If I'd been more forceful about Goku not taking Gohan to that reunion... or even if I'd gone with them myself...] Chichi shook her head angrily. These kinds of thoughts were useless. She had to focus now on getting Goku back home safely, not on stupid regrets or what-iffing. Chichi had always been a strong person - there was no reason to quit now. By and by Chichi found herself wandering by the magnet-sealed training area. As the SpaceCadet crew reckoned the passage of time, it was late morning, so most of the translucent glass bubbles that were individual training rooms were empty - evening was when this place got truly crowded. Here and there, the slender-bodied Teluvian males who made up most of the SpaceCadet's crew worked out with weights or resistance machines, their forms wavery beneath the glass domes as if they were underwater. A few simply stood still, alone or in pairs, their antennae standing straight up and quivering. Chichi put this down to some odd alien ritual. A loud hiss of escaping air made Chichi jump. Clearing her throat, the woman regained her composure and turned to find that the single door to the training bubble behind her was opening, sliding up over the bubble's outside surface. Cool steam obscured the features of the figure emerging through the doorway, but somewhere behind Chichi a fan clicked on and dispersed the steam. Chichi relaxed. "Oh - it's you, Miss Torara." "Call me Arissa," the Ctarl-Ctarl security officer answered, rubbing her stone-blue hair vigorously with a towel. "If you're looking for Gohan-kit, he's over there - " she pointed ahead and to her right, with a slender finger topped with a silver claw - "with his teacher." Chichi started to say that she hadn't been looking for him, then shut her mouth over the words. "Thank you." She'd been meaning to talk with both Gohan and Piccolo, anyway. Well, with Gohan anyway; she intended to give Piccolo more of a talking-*to*. "Answer me a question," Arissa said suddenly. She'd finished toweling her hair and was now just standing there, her eyes cold on Chichi's face. "Your boy - he is the son of a Saiyan?" If Arissa was ice, Chichi was boiling water. "I don't even know what a Saiyan *is*!" she said vehemently. "All I know is that awful Raditz stole my Goku away from me and that I need to get him back, so he and Gohan and I can be a family again." She sighed, some frustration finally spent. "Goku was always - different. Special, not like any other boy I'd ever met. He wasn't afraid of *anything,* not even my father. It was like he didn't even know how to be afraid. I guess..." Chichi stopped with an effort of will, forced her thoughts into order. "Goku being an alien makes a strange kind of sense. It certainly explains a few things. But no matter what he is - " her voice grew hard - "he is my husband and always will be. No half- witted meat-headed space mercenary is going to change that." Arissa was staring at her, a strange expression on her feline face. Chichi looked away, embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to spill all that on you - it's just - " "You don't need to explain yourself to me," Arissa said, and Chichi turned back to the Ctarl-Ctarl security chief. "You're strong, strong-*willed* I should say, impressively so. I'm not surprised your Saiyan mate chose you to father a son on." "It wasn't exactly like that," Chichi demurred. "Goku hadn't even thought about children when he married me." She smiled at the memory, but didn't elaborate the fact that Goku hadn't even known what a wedding was at first. "We fell in love, we got married, and then one day I was pregnant with Gohan. I still remember how surprised he was." Arissa looked surprised. "He wasn't looking to father a child. For what purpose did he mate with you, then?" "Purpose?" Chichi frowned. "We were in love. What other purpose do you need?" "Love." Arissa said the word flatly, like she'd never heard it before. "A Saiyan." Chichi's frown deepened. "Yes." "A Saiyan. Loved you." Arissa's brow wrinkled. "And you love him." "That's right." Chichi put her hands on her hips. "You say that like you don't know what love is, Arissa Torara." The use of Arissa's full name was a measure of Chichi's irritation. This cat-girl was being quite rude indeed! "Don't they have love where you come from?" The words brought Arissa's head up. In her startled gold eyes Chichi read things that brought her dangerously close to being frightened. Pain, and fear and hatred, and bloody memories. "Oh, on my planet, yes," Arissa muttered, her developed muscles tensing. "On the Saiyan homeworld, no." Tail lashing, she pushed past Chichi and walked away. Her back was ramrod-straight, her body language angry. Two young Teluvians, seeing her, quickly got out of her way. Chichi frowned at the retreating woman. [She just doesn't know Goku,] she told herself. [Goku isn't anything like other Saiyans.] Shaking her head, she continued toward the bubble where her son trained. When Chichi figured out how to open the bubble and stepped in, Piccolo and Gohan were both immersed in a sparring bout that rebounded off the round walls like a pinball on a caffeine high. After a few moments of near-blurred motion, Gohan was knocked against a wall and slid down to sit there, stunned. "Get up, Gohan," Piccolo ordered. "You can take more than that." Gohan shook his head, then glanced up. "Um - hi, Mom," he said sheepishly, scrambling to his feet. "What are you doing here, mate of Son Goku?" Piccolo demanded, annoyance furrowing his features. "That's 'Miss Chichi' to you," Chichi told him. "And I think it should be obvious what I'm doing here." Gohan started, unconsciously edging closer to Piccolo who was at least more familiar than this suddenly strange version of his mother. Chichi was dressed in loose-fitting gi-style pants and a high-necked tank top, black and blue-violet respectively. Her impossibly straight black hair was tied at the nape of her neck in a sensible doubled ponytail. She looked, in a word, martial. Gohan had never seen her before wearing anything but dresses and a semi-ornate bun. Piccolo, having had practically no contact with Chichi over the years, didn't catch the import of Chichi's dress and therefore was not impressed. "Training? This facility is in use." He moved forward, squaring his shoulders to look even more imposing than he already was, fixing a scowl on his face. "Go somewhere else for your women's aerobics." Chichi smiled. "Been hanging around the Turtle Hermit a little too long, have we?" When Piccolo just looked at her stonily, the woman put her fists on her hips and stepped closer to him. Next to the Demon King, Chichi did not cut an imposing figure - her face was level with the middle of his chest - but, like a small dog barking at a bigger one, she made up in sheer reckless bravery what she lacked in impressiveness. "Don't underestimate me, Piccolo - I'm a martial artist too, you know. Perhaps I slacked off a bit when Gohan was born, but - " here she grinned harshly, an expression that would have made any Saiyan quiver - "after *you* took him, I had a lot of free time on my hands." "I take it I'm supposed to be impressed." Piccolo's lip curled. "I'm not." He turned away, the sharpness of his movement causing his cape to snap out at Chichi's face. She caught it, yanked, and as Piccolo went back from the unexpected weight, she squatted and performed a leg-whip that sent him sprawling. "Now are you impressed?" she demanded as the green man got to his feet. "Was that a challenge?" he growled. Forgotten, Gohan scrambled back against the wall. If there was one thing he'd learned from both Chichi and Piccolo, it was when to get the heck out of the way. "You better believe it was a challenge." Chichi bent her knees in a low horse stance, bringing her hands up to face level. "Come on, Demon King..." "...and show me what you've got." Goku powered up, sweating from the added strain on his already overtired muscles. "Hyaah..." He leaped for Okura, fist first. Okura stepped aside easily, letting Goku careen into a wall. "Not bad. But you're still too easy to read. You might as well stamp your intentions on your forehead." Goku didn't respond. Instead, he picked himself up and moved into a low horse stance. It was an Earth stance, something Okura had had no success in getting him to unlearn, but after her glare and a moment of hesitation Goku modified it to include Saiyan-style double- fisted arm positioning. To Okura's eyes the combination looked odd and unbalanced, like two photos torn in half and then having their halves switched. Goku moved, and Okura pivoted in the direction of the lunge; but somehow Goku was behind her and sent her flying with a side kick to the small of the back. "Oomph." Okura struggled to her feet. [He must've bruised my spinal cord. Hard to move my legs.] "Impressive," she said to Goku, evenly. "Was that less obvious?" The question was not the eager questing for approval expected from a novice student. It was more of a challenge, fighter to fighter. "It was," Okura motioned for him to come at her again. "Care to duplicate it?" "I don't think I oughta answer that." Goku lunged again. Okura turned to the other side, thinking he was trying the same move, but Goku was instead executing a straight-on body check that took Okura before she could move. The two crashed into another wall, cracking it. Okura pushed Goku away with a cry of anger and kick to the stomach. "You're getting awfully cheeky, offworlder," she snarled. "Fury Ray!" A bright blue energy beam, shaped like a sine wave, erupted from her outstretched hand and made a beeline for Goku's head. Goku ducked, but not quite quickly enough - Goku prodded his scalp gingerly as the scent of burnt hair filled the room. Okura grinned at her student, but then had to roll out of the way as a Goku embedded a flying kick into the wall where her head had been. Quick as lightning Okura feinted and drove in, burying the point of her elbow into Goku's diaphragm. Goku gave a hoarse 'huff' and stumbled back, letting loose a wild backhand that Okura took on the chin. The two Saiyans jumped back and faced off - Okura in a classic Saiyan pose, Goku in another odd amalgam of Earthling and Saiyan styles. They froze that way for a moment. Then, in unison, their stomachs growled loudly. The electric moment was dissolved in laughter. "I think - that's enough for now - " Okura managed around her mirth. "Gravity - return to normal." The lights in the underground training facility flickered and then brightened as the gravity generator complied. Goku straightened as the tons fell away, rubbing his shoulders gratefully. "Whew," he breathed. Okura snorted. "Ten times normal gravity and you're still wiped? You've got a lot of work to do if you ever hope to beat Raditz, offworlder." "I know," her newest pupil answered, wiping his forehead. "It's a hundred times normal gravity for an Earthling." "Lucky you're a Saiyan," Okura answered, moving toward the door. "I imagine a regular Earthling would have been crushed." Goku followed her, not bothering to correct her on the subject of his origins. Raima was waiting on the other side of the doorway. "I have a message for you, Goku," she said, by way of greeting. "From your wife." "Chichi?" Goku pushed past Okura to grip Raima's arm. "Wh-what did she say? Is Gohan all right? What about Krillin and Master Roshi?" "Whoa, whoa!" Raima raised her hands. "One question at a time! Your wife's message," she continued once Goku calmed down, "was that your family is coming. And to stay here." Goku let that sink in. "She said 'family'... that must mean - " His eyes widened. "He's all right! Gohan's okay!" He lifted Raima up in the air joyfully, swinging her in two complete circles before the younger Saiyan managed to break his grip. Even that didn't sober Goku's jubilance much. "So who's Gohan?" Okura said conversationally as Raima continued her efforts to extricate herself from Goku's display of happiness. "Gohan's my son," Goku explained as Raima retreated to the other side of the room. "I thought he was hurt when Raditz came to Earth - but he's all right!" "Wonderful," Okura said dryly. "You planning on paralyzing Raditz with your brat's cuteness?" Goku was too ecstatic to even attempt to formulate a reply. "By the way, Goku," Raima inserted, offhandedly, "not to change the subject, but whenever you're ready I wouldn't mind testing myself against you." Goku switched gears after only a moment's hesitation. "You mean, fight? Sure, if you really want to." "I do," Raima affirmed. "As do my friends. We all need all the extra training we can get." "True," Goku admitted. "Well, I'm ready whenever you are - " His stomach growled protestingly. "As soon as I get something to eat," he amended. Next chapter... Saiyan lunch break! Eat fast, because the great Goku vs. Zakuro matchup is coming!