The New Age Empire v2: Book 2

~Chapter Three: Flight of the King or The Day Vegeta Ran Away~

The first thing Vegeta awoke to was a siren. A damn police siren. He sat up and instantly wondered if he had fallen alseep in front of the television again. Then it came back to him and he remembered that there was no television.

"Vegeta," Don's calm voice came over the speakers in his room, "I didn't want to wake you but..."

He sighed and tugged on his shoes. "I'm almost afraid to ask what's going on."

"It seems that we were going too fast. There is a ship following us with its light's flashing. Would you like me to stop?"

"You mean to say that a cop is chasing us?!"

Don did his mechanical equivalent to thinking. "Yes, that is what you call them. Police officers."

"Of course stop."

When he made it to be bridge Goten was already there rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Why is there a cop following us?"

"You're asking me?" He sat down in the captain's chair and punched a button on the console to activate the main viewing window. An angry blue-skinned humanoid with pointed ears appeared on the screen. It was a woman, at least they thought so. She had no hair but short blue fur covered all visible skin and ahe was wearing a dark green uniform complete with a matching hat with white trim. "Can we help you officer?"

Her eyes narrowed and she spoke in a language they had never heard in their entire life. They knew she was annoyed, that much was true. At halfway out of the northern section of the universe there was hardly anything to police. There were a few planets that sustained life but they were either not beyond their version of the Middle Ages or completely devoid of space technology.

"I can translate to English Standard if you want me to," Don informed them.

Vegeta waved his hand to give him the go ahead. Goten had already fallen back to sleep in the chair.

"I will not be made a fool of any longer," the words were clear but her accent was thick, "You will allow me to board your ship and issue you a ticket for excessive speed so that I can go home."

"Now wait a minute lady!" He said, irritated. How dare she just come out of no where and try to enforce some law that they had never even heard of before. How could you be going too fast in outerspace? It was mindboggling. But he told Don to open the airlock anyway and after it was depressurized, he let her in.

"You are not from around here, are you?" She looked down at him while tapping the ticket pad against her thigh.

"Are you really going to give us a ticket? We didn't know that we were doing something wrong! Honest!" Vegeta used his charm on her but it seemed that she was oblivious.

"I ask the questions around here, boy!" She shouted this as she whipped out a pen. Goten jerked awake, snorting, and his eyes grew wide as he saw her only a mere few inches from his seat. The officer wrote down something rapidly and pointed to a spot on the paper. "Sign here."

He did as she said, not wanting any more trouble. "And just where the hell do we go to pay this?"

"Galaxy Headquarters," she said as if it should be common knowledge. "You have three days then a fine of one-hundred rubians will be added onto your amount." She ripped the piece of paper from her pad and handed it to Vegeta.

"Um, miss? What's a rubian? Where is your headquarters? What did we do?!" Goten was as confused as it got.

"Officer," Don added a lot of weird noises that they assumed was her surname, "has fined you for speeding. Now you must pay the written amount within three days' time. I can show you where headquarters is located and even how to obtain the proper amount of currency."

"You can do anything!" Goten said in awe.

Don's voice was tinged with faint modesty. "Why thank you."

"Papa is going to kill me," Vegeta groaned. "This is going to take *way* longer than two weeks."

"The space police headquarters for this galaxy is only a few hours away. Officer, if you would be so kind as to tell me the coordinates, you can be on your way." Don was polite to her while Vegeta wanted to murder her.

"Certainly. It's x3495, y2003." She glared at Vegeta and Goten one final time. "Don't make me have to hunt you down because you didn't pay. I may not know what planet you're from now but I'll find out." She nodded briefly in the direction of the place where Don was installed. "Farewell."

As soon as she was gone, Vegeta launched tired that insulted generations of her family and called her the worst names imaginable. Goten just yawned and wondered what some of the profanity meant. Finally he wound down and decided to make a call back to Chikyuu.

"I'm just warning someone we might be a little late. Papa really wants his strength water." Punching in the exact frequency that Gohan and written down, the screen went to static for a few moments before someone appeared on the screen.

"Oh hi Niichan!" Jakina said with a big smile. "What's goin' on?"

"Jackie-chan, why are you in Kaasan's lab?"

"There's a science fair at school and I want to enter. Who else would I go to for help? Papa?" She, Vegeta, and Goten began to laugh at the mere thought of Vegeta assembling a volcano or a model of the universe made entirely out of candy. She ducked off screen for a moment and returned later with her mother in tow. Waving, she walked away.

"What's the problem?" Bulma asked with a smile. "Did you get lost?"

"Kaasan, did you know that there were space police?"

She shook her head with a puzzled expression. "No... I've only been in space once with Krillin and Gohan and we never got pulled over by the cops. Wait, I'll transfer the call to your father. He would know better than I would." A few seconds and a few more button presses later, the call was taken by Vegeta.

"The Space Police, eh? They are just as annoying as ningen cops."

"How come you didn't tell us about them?" V. J. was beyond mad.

"You didn't ask," he said in a bland voice.

"We got a ticket for speeding Vegeta-ojisan!" Goten told him. "Now we gotta go and pay it at Galaxy Headqarters. Vegeta just wanted to call so that you wouldn't freak out and send tousan after us if we're a little late."

"Whatever," Vegeta said, "I'm hanging up. Call me again when you actually get to Agalar." Then he disconnected the call before either could say anything else.

"That was rude," Goten frowned slightly.

"Yes," the A.I. agreed, "it was."

"Don, please set a course for this Galaxy's Space Police Headquarters. Take the fasted route possible to get there."

"If I use the hyperdrive and make a jump, we should be there within a few hours."

"Okay, do it." Vegeta commanded.

"But if I *do* use the hyperdrive, it may have to be repaired soon after. Bulma hasn't really tested it yet."

"I don't think kaasan has tested any aspect of this ship," Vegeta mused. "How long would it take without warp speed?"

"A day."

"Do it then," he told him. "We have to be on our way before this day is over."

"Vegeta!" Goten protested. "Buma-san hasn't tested this yet! Something bad could happen!"

The other young man grinned at him. "What would you rather experience, asphyxiation in the vacuum of space or being slowly burned to death by a ki blast that has left my father's hand?"

Goten nodded toward where Don's hardware existed. "What are you waiting for Don? Let's get to it!"

He leaned back into his chair and laced his fingers behind his head. "I knew you would see it my way."

***

All of the paperwork was slowly driving Vegeta insane. It seemed that the humans didn't have anything better to do but propose silly laws or fight stupid wars. When Goku deposited another armfull of documents onto his already crowded desk, he slammed his hands down on the table and jumped to his feet.

"That's it!" he shouted. "I can't sit here any longer looking over inane documents!" He waited for Goku to say something, but merely looked at him placidly. Vegeta growled and glared at him.

"What do you want me to say Veggie-chan?" he asked.

"Your line is 'Everything will be fine Veggie-chan! I'll take over from here!' and then I'm supposed to comment on how stupid you are and you're going to do something to prove it like hugging me or something."

"Not this time." He began to turn away and leave the room.

"Let's do something today, Kakarott!" Vegeta said in an extremely desperate voice. "We can spend that 'best-buddy time' you so often talk about."

"Wow, Vegeta. You must really need to get away." Then a huge grin spead across his face. "Let's go!"

As soon as he said those two words, Vegeta was regretting even bringing it up. He knew that he had a sort of warrior bond with the man, but he really didn't want to spend time with him. Even if he did act intelligent now and then. He scribbled a quick note and taped it to his desk chair just in case anyone came looking for him. Goku grabbed his arm and a moment later they teleported away. The door opened just as they vanished.

"Oh Papa!" Bra called as she carried in yet another stack of paper. She saw the yellow Post-It note and read it quickly. Here eyes widened and she ran from the room, waving the paper in the air.

"Kaasan! Papa ran away!"

***

The stars litterally 'popped' into view when they made the transition back into normal space. A large, brightly lit space station stood before them in the darkness.

"This must be the Galaxy Headquarters," Vegeta said aloud. He had gotten himself a snack and Goten had once again fallen asleep in his chair. Don maneuvered the ship skillfully towards the docking area and cut the power.

"I will guard the ship until your return," he said as Vegeta woke Goten. As soon as the words rang in the air, there was a loud clanking sound and then a slight rattle.

"What the hell was that?!" Vegeta asked in surprise.

"*That*," Don said, "was the hyperdrive. It went, as you say, kaput. By the way that sounded, you may need a replacement. These people here may have even better and faster technology."

"I knew it!" Goten moaned. "There's no telling how long we'll be stranded here!"

"Did I explain myself incorrectly, Goten?" Don inquired. "If so, I apologize. The hyperdrive in need of repair, but the rest of the ship is perfectly fine. You do not need the hyperdriver to operate this ship."

"First things first," V.J. bent down and slid on his boots. "We need to pay that damn ticket."

Goten scratched his head. "Oh yeah! I had forgotten all about that."

V.J. hit him before he carefully folded the ticket to put into his pocket. "Baka."

"There should be somewhere to exchange your money close to the entrance."

"Don, what if they don't accept our yen?"

"Oh," he said in his calm voice, "then they may be a problem. If that occurs, I suggest you two get jobs."

"Me? Working?" Vegeta's voice rose two octaves.

"What's wrong, rich boy? Afraid to stoop down to the peasant level?" Goten asked.

"It's not that," he answered in a low voice. "It's just..." His voice dropped even lower. "I don't know how to do anything."

"We'll see about that when we get to it," Goten grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the ship and down the small bridge toward the elevator that would take them to the first level.

***

"What is this place?" Vegeta asked his companion when he returned from purchasing food.

Goku handed him a large soda and dug into his cheese fries. "Satan City Bowl. You've never been before?"

"Of course not!" He glanced around at all the people that was in that place even in early evening. So far Goku had taken him to one baseball game, one arcade, and one outdoor rock concert. Surprisingly, he was having fun.

Then he became confused when they had to rent shoes that someone else's feet had been in already. Goku just cheerfully requested a pair for each of them (how he knew his shoe size was beyond him) and left him at a lane.

"This is how it works," Goku said. First you put your name into the machine here." He pressed in G-O-K-U. Vegeta followed with K-I-N-G V-E-G-E-T-A.

"Um, okay," Goku was beyond amused. "I go first."

Sitting down his fries, he walked to the ball rack behind him and motioned for Vegeta to follow. "Each ball weighs differently, so you have to pick one that's perfect for you." Goku swept top-to-bottom for the perfect ball and found it in dark blue. Vegeta soon found a black one. "Now this is the important part. You aim for the arrows on the floor depending on what pin you are trying to hit. The object of the game, Veggie, is to knock them all down on the first try."

"That's easy," he smirked as he took a seat.

"I use this lane," he motioned to the left, "and you use that one. Okay?" Then Goku showed him where to put his fingers and executed a smooth throw and the ball headed straight for the center pin. He tensed up and held his breath until all ten had fallen down.

"You see?" Vegeta said as he retrieved his ball from the holder. He walked to the edge of the foul line stared hard at the center pin and was just about to throw it when a loud, human female shrieked out a question.

"Hey! Isn't that Vegeta-oui?!"

Instead of the ball gliding effortlessly down the lane, he dropped it directly onto his right foot. Vegeta hissed in pain.

"SHIT!"

"Are you alright Vegeta?" Goku asked worriedly.

"I'm fine," he forced out between gritted teeth. "But I am ready to kill that ningen."

Goku immediately decided to shoo away the small crowd of spectators. It wouldn't do to have the headlines reading 'VEGETA-OUI KILLS SUBJECTS IN FIT OF RAGE'. He had just about suceeded when Bulma strode into the alley with the kids and ChiChi right behind her.

"How dare you run off to play games with Goku!" She shouted at him.

"Bulma please!" Vegeta was over the throbbing of his toes. "I needed a break!"

Everyone crowded around the two lanes to whitness the royal argument. Bulma realized what was going on and shut up. "Vegeta, dear, you go ahead and bowl with Goku. We're just going to watch. And place bets," she added in a whisper to ChiChi.

Vegeta felt as if his honor was all riding on a bowling competition with Goku. So what did he do?

"I accept the challenge."

 

Now does anyone want me to elaborate about the match, or just continue directly onto Vegeta and Goten's dilemma?