The New Age Empire v2: Book 2

~Chapter Two: Go Forth Brave Adventurers~

The more he thought about it, the more Agalar was just screaming for someone to come and explore it. Vegeta chose carefully who he would be sending to the planet and was was tempted to include Kakarott just because he could teleport them back to Chikyuu if things got out of hand. But in the end he chose only Goten and Vegeta Jr. since they had no responsibilities.

"Before you three ask," he said sternly to Pan, Bra, and Jakina, "the answer is no."

Pan made a face and he shoved her feet off the coffee table. "Stop putting your feet on our table, brat. Do you do that at your own house?" he asked more out of habit than anything else.

"Hai," she smirked. "I live here now too, remember?" Bulma had made Gohan a member of the science board so he thought it would be better to live closer to her and since they had all of that extra space...

Bra, Jakina, and Magori were delighted. Having four young children and one baby around the house was slowly driving Vegeta insane.

The living room they all occupied now was the informal one. Of course they had another to entertain foreign guests. It was ultra modern with thick white carpet and completely white furniture though the family room was its exact opposite at black. Chinese paintings covered the walls and a white grand piano sat in one corner. Bulma told them right away that the piano wasn't just for decoration. She wanted someone to learn how to play it and regale her with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony or some other similar piece. Vegeta just wanted it to resemble some form of a song and not just a lot of noise. So far Jakina could play Chopsticks and Pan could peck out Mary Had a Little Lamb with one finger. At this rate, they would be adults before they had any real skills.

"I want you to leave as soon as possible," Vegeta informed his son and 'adopted' nephew. "I also want you to take as many containers as you can so that you can bring the stuff home with you. We can make good profit from it."

It just so happens that Bulma was passing by when he said that. She paused in shock and then began to yell at him.

"How dare you con our people!"

"Onna you don't know what you're talking about! That stuff is real!"

She blinked once and picked up Jakina so that she could sit down on the couch. "Seriously?"

"Seriously Mama," Jakina said from her lap. "The Suk'dn said so."

"Give me one good reason to believe them," she demanded. "I've never met any of them."

V.J. chuckled darkly, not unlike his father. "They're terrified that we're going to withdraw our protection. Of course they would give us a little something occasionally so that we don't change our minds."

"Why would we do something like that?" Bulma asked. "It would be too cruel."

He shrugged with almost indifference. "Ask Papa."

So turned to look at him in questioning and unknowingly Jakina plastered a similar expression onto her face.

For some odd reason Vegeta was reluctant to tell her. But he knew she would never leave it alone unless she did. "There are many reasons, onna. One could be that they no longer have anything left to offer to the Empire."

"Is it their technology? Or would it be the quality of the potential slaves? Kami Vegeta, why can't you do something for someone just for the sake of doing? Why do you always have to seek something to gain?"

Vegeta forced himself to look straight into her eyes. "It is the Saiyan way, Bulma. It is who I am and who I will remain until the day I die."

She smiled at him, sadly, and returned her seat back to her youngest. "Sometimes it's good to forget what you used to be." She turned and walked soundlessly from the room in the direction of her lab.

No one said anything for long minutes. Vegeta sat there contemplating it all but couldn't really find anything to argue with her about later. Bulma was right. He knew that she was right just like everyone in that room knew that she was right. Perhaps even little Jakina knew that her mother was right. He shook his head to clear it. There was nothing that he could do about that now. He had a mission to launch.

***

"At my calculation," Gohan said while pushing his glasses back upon his nose with his index finger. He was doing the whole pre-flight check because Bulma was still angry about the whole thing. "The whole trip in space should only take around ten days."

"That's all? I thought it would at least take a month." Goten asked. "Great! Then I can be home again. This is ruining my sparring and best-buddy time with Trunks."

V.J. rolled his eyes. "He's vice president of Capsule Corp. He doesn't have time for you. You need a life."

Goten growled at him. "Don't make me hurt you little boy."

"I'm only two years younger than you so don't call me little boy!"

"Guys!" Gohan shouted. "This isn't getting us anywhere."

They both shut up immediately and nodded. "Gomen niichan." "Gomen Gohan-san."

Hardly anyone had come to see them off. The kids and Mia were all at school, Trunks had to work, Vegeta had more laws to reject, and Bulma was sitting pissed in her lab. But Goku was there as well as ChiChi and Videl.

"Say bye-bye to Goten-ojichan!" Videl said to little Moura. The small girl giggled and patted Goten on his arm.

"Bye-Bye!"

Goten smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "Be good for mommy and daddy okay?"

"Now Goten-chan, you better call when you get into space, call when you get to Agalar, and call when you're about to come home."

"Kaasan," he said hugging her. "I'll be fine."

Goku hugged him too. "Veggie-chan made me promise to tell you that if you aren't back in two weeks, that he would send me after you."

"Oh?" ChiChi said. "Mr. Vegeta-oui is too special to go himself?"

"It's not like that ChiChi. He has too much to do and since I can teleport there in a second..."

She sighed. "I understand."

Gohan stood from where he was working and cleared his throat formally. "As Vegeta would say if her were here, 'No sightseeing, no sidetrips...' "

Everyone finished in unison. "....and no conversing with friendly natives."

They all laughed and an irritated voice shouted from the doorway. "I heard that!"

Vegeta emerged from Bulma's lab pulling a wagon filled with glass jars of every conceivable size. They blinked at him and then shook their heads.

"You were serious!" Goten exclaimed.

"Of course I was boy!" He pointed to the jars. "The bigger ones are for me. I want you to label each one and get a full jar from each and every spring." He leaned closer to V.J. "Especially get some from the Spring of Longevity and the Spring of Power."

"Er, I see Papa." He took it from him and rolled his eyes when his back was turned.

They boarded a ship that was Bulma had been designing ever since Trunks had given her a picture of modern Lyz'dian spaceships. Gone was the round design but a more horizontal one similar to an airplane. It made a lot of sense as she added the hardware to just do away with the old design.

It was rounded in the front with two fins that jutted out from the sides and hidden seamless spaces on the hull that turned into laser cannons when a single button was pressed. It was easily boardable by the small door on the side that was also very seamless when closed. The kids are argued over what color to paint it and finally they decided on a deep red. Everyone thought it was great and Bulma considered it her pride and joy.

"This baby," she had said as she patted the side tenderly, "could get you to Namek-sei and back within a few days."

"But that-that's impossible!" Trunks gasped.

She grinned. "Not anymore."

The standard equipment of the ship included a hyperdrive for the necessary jump to lightspeed, a fully stocked kitchen that could last even a full Saiyan six months with snacks, a weapon's arsenal that would make ChiChi jealous, king size beds, a gravity chamber that went higher than Vegeta's current one, and many more special features including the giant hot tub that Vegeta Jr. had begged and pleaded for. Bulma and her team of engineers had gotten almost every single bug out of it and even added an experimental artificial intelligence to see if it would be worth it to expand into that area. So far the computer was silent.

"Uh, computer?" Goten hesitated. He looked around as if trying to figure out where the brain was exactly. There was a main computer console in front of the pilot and co-pilot's seats when a lot of flashing buttons that he could never hope to figure out. On one side there was a monitor about the size of a nineteen inch television screen with a few buttons below it and in front there was a huge viewing window that could be transparent or opaque at the press of a button.

"Yes, demi-saiyan?" it said this with a note of amusement.

"Are you trying to tell me that you have a name?" he asked as he took a seat.

"Of course. You wouldn't like it if someone called you by your species now would you? Even A.I.s like to be called something other than simply 'computer'."

"What's your name then?" Vegeta asked as he took the seat next to Goten. The voice that spoke to them sounded male so it was easy to apply a male pronoun.

"Formally I am called Donovan G692735-"

"Wait a minute!" Goten cut him off. "Can we just call you Don?"

"I don't see why not. May I call you Goten and your friend Vegeta?"

"Of course! How do you know our names?"

"Bulma has programmed many things into me including biographies about everyone around her. That includes her children, her mate, her friends, and co-workers. I know your ages, your heights, even your blood types."

Their was a static noise and Gohan's face appeared on the monitor. "Are you two going to leave anytime soon?"

"Oh yeah sure!" Goten was sheepish. "We were getting to know Don here."

Gohan smiled. "He's brilliant, isn't he? We worked the hardest on him hoping that one day artificial intelligence would be commonplace in society."

"That's wonderful and all Niichan, but we really should be leaving," Goten interrupted him knowing that if Gohan got going on one subject for too long, they would never be able to shut him up. "Strap yourself in Vegeta, this may be a bumpy ride."

"I should hope not!" Don exclaimed, mildly offended. "I will use the utmost care in liftoff."

"Sorry 'bout that. Of course you will." He glanced over at his friend who was staring at all of the technology with great interest similar to the way he had been just a few minutes earlier. But Vegeta had grown up around this stuff his entire life, Goten was just getting used to having robot servants make his bed and sometimes cook his meals.

"It's just that I've never seen the finished product before," he explained to the other young man. "Kaasan would always show us when it was just unfinished sketches on napkins or whatever. She had high hopes for this, you know, even before the War."

"And then," he voice fell lower, "I became too busy to listen to her speak of propulsion engines and maintenance systems."

"Busy doing *what*?" Goten asked. "Like me, you don't want to go to college yet. What could you be doing that requires you to be constantly busy?"

He glared at him. "Would you let me finish, baka?" Goten shut his mouth. "Arigatou. Anyway, I would always find somewhere to be or something to do. I think she was disappointed that her two eldest children weren't as interested in her work as she was. But now I see this and wish that I could be there as they put it together. I wish that I was around when they created something as amazing at Don. Do you understand?"

"Of course I do," Goten snapped. "I'm not the baka you think I am."

"Sometimes I wonder."

 

Sorry, nothing really happens yet. I'm still trying to work on my descriptive skills and my overuse of the words 'but' and 'anyway'. For those of you who think Vegeta is incredibly soft, just wait.