Dangerous Bond

Chapter 20 : Weapons offline

A medium sized pale silver ship shot out of the gravity of Earth, its hull glowing red at the pressure. Inside it a certain Saiya-jin prince was sat back in his seat, a scowl plastered on his handsome face. He killed some of his ship's speed and scanned the surrounding area. His scowl deepened, there was a much larger vessel not too far to port side.

Vegeta turned the ship and sped after the other.

'This is insane. I don't even have a way of getting on board... Think, Vegeta, think. There has to be a way to do this...'

Inside her cell on board the Harathokin ship a cold and damp Bulma crawled over to the doorway of her prison. It was made of thick steel, the only window striped with huge iron bars. Peering between the poles she caught sight of a security panel on the right side of the door frame, its many buttons lighting up before darkening once again.

Reaching into her pocket Bulma drew out capsule 4. With a bang and a fair amount of smoke the scientist's took box sat on the floor beside her.

'This is so crude, you'd think I'd have something slightly more techy in this brain of mine...'

Pushing her long handled spanner through the bars Bulma used it to hit buttons on the security pad in the sequence her guard had done yesterday. There was a slight hiss and the door slid open.

Recapsuling her tool box but keeping her spanner out as a weapon, Bulma crept out of her cell and out into the metallic corridor of the ship. She had only moved two steps when the sound of voices alerted her to the approach of two Harathokin guards.

The onna ducked underneath a hefty control panel but caught sight of her cell door, still gaping open.

"Shit." She cursed and ran to it, using the pad to close the steel barricade before running back to her hiding place just as the Harathokin pair appeared around the corner, talking and laughing to each other.

They stopped right next to the empty cell, the larger one leaning against the heavy metal door with his arms behind his bald head. Neither seemed to notice the little human female crouched under a glowing panel, or even the fact that the cell they were standing before was hers.

"I've heard that these monkeys hate the cold." One of them commented.

"Yeah? Well, not this one. They say Freiza threw him in the snow an' left him there until he went blue then came back and beat him up. Apparently he barely feels the cold anymore."

"But that means our plan won't work..." The first one whined. Bulma surpressed the urge to cheer at that.

His companion shook its head. "No, they changed the plans."

'Boo!'

"I mean, this ship is the most heavily armed in the known galaxy. There's no way our little monkey friend's going to get on board or even get within ten miles of us."

The two of them laughed loudly and left, their footsteps echoing along the corridor.

'Oh Kami! Vegeta! They're gonna kill him before he knows what hit him! But I'm a techy!! There's gotta be something I can do..."

She wriggled out from her hiding space and stood up, looking around for something, ANYTHING, that could help her save her Saiya-jin prince. Her eyes settled on the computer she had been hiding under. Tapping it lightly with the trimmed fingernail of a slender finger Bulma woke the machine and flicked her eyes over it.

'GOOOOOOOLD!!'

Vegeta looked up from the controls of his ship and shook his head.

"I swear," He muttered to himself, "That onna gets crazier every day."

'~Vegeta!~' She called straight into his head, '~You've gotta be careful! These things say that they've got the most heavily armed battleship in around and they're not kidding! I swear, there's gotta be enough firepower here to blow Chikyuusei into space dust.~'

'~I'm ALWAYS careful woman!~'

'~Oh yeah, I'm sure~'

Growling something to himself about onnas and cheek Vegeta activated his shields to maximum, hoping despite himself that it would be enough.

Back on the Harathokin craft Bulma squeezed along a line shaft, trying to make as little noise as possible. More difficult than you'd think. What she'd discovered earlier had been a map of the ship. According to that the wires to all the weapon systems were along here above the bridge. She could hear the crew working beneath her and prayed to Kami they couldn't hear her.

'Ah! There!'

The shaft widened suddenly and there stood the biggest and most complex array of technology Bulma had ever seen.

"I wish I wasn't a sabotagist right now..." She muttered, fingers itching to play with this amazing contraption.

Now able to stand up she did, removing her shoes and tiptoeing over to the machine of her dreams.

'All right.' She cracked her knuckles, 'Time to get messy!'

It didn't take long before she knew which buttons to press and which wires to remove. Reaching out she disabled the first three guns undisturbed. With every wire removed without fault Bulma felt her ego grow.

"Man, this is easy!' She said to herself, placing both hands on the wires of the forth weapon.

As soon as she pulled a siren went off, its low wail making Bulma's ears tingle. She pulled back with shock and looked around nervously. The shouts of Harathokin crew members below her echoed along the shaft, scaring the human witless.

'They're gonna get me! Oh Kami, help!'

"SHUT UP!!" One of the Harathokins bellowed from below and suddenly the entire bridge was silent, save for the continuing drone of the siren. "GET TO YOUR STATIONS AND DO THE WORK SET FOR YOU IMMEDIATELY!!" {Sounds like my Maths teacher...>.<}

There was a frantic shuffling of feet and the siren was turned off. Bulma frowned, if they weren't looking for her that meant the siren indicated...

"Shit!"

She began to pull wires from the weapon system, electricity sparking across its metallic face as more and more guns were put off line. Not fast enough and she knew it.

A sudden explosion sent Bulma flying backward down the shaft. Her head hit the metallic surface with a resounding thud but, luckily for her, the Harathokins below were too busy trying to fire disabled guns to hear the noise above them.

'W-what was that?!' Her mind raced frantically, 'He's firing on us? With me in here? No! Impossible! We don't HAVE any armed ships at CC... But that had to be...'

Getting her mind to accept the fact that Vegeta had an ARMED ship, Bulma got up and went back to her work. Only then did she realise.

'Oh Kami, Vegeta, no...'

'~Vegeta!~' She called, '~Don't fire at the weapon system! I'm already here, most guns are off-line.~'

'~Nani?~'

'~You heard me! Now don't shoot me again!~'

On the much smaller Saiya-jin ship Vegeta began to formulate a plan.

'~How many have you disabled?~' He demanded.

'~All that I can see...~'

'~Good.~'

Reaching out a gloved hand the prince tapped a button.

"Harathokins!" He thundered down the com link, "Your weapons are off-line! Return the human female and I'll let you go."

"We know what she means to you, monkey." Came the growled reply of the chief Harathokin, "You wouldn't blow us up for fear of destroying her!"

"Hmph, is that what you believe? That I, the Saiya-jin no Ouji, could actually care for a human? Don't make me laugh."

All of the crew watched their leader nervously, not willing to put their lives at stake by further angering the enemy.

"Sir," One suggested, "Perhaps we should listen to him. Our weapons ARE off line, we no longer have any defences..."

An evil smirk crept over the leader's thin purple face as Bulma was brought down from the shaft. "That's where you're wrong, officer." He re-established the link he had terminated and addressed Vegeta. "We accept your offer, monkey prince. My officer will bring her to you."

The creature holding Bulma's arm teleported her to Vegeta's ship, returning alone seconds later in a mass of swirling black smoke.

"I hope you are pleased, monkey."

"I have nothing else to say."

Bulma found herself alone in a short corridor, surrounded by clean and shiny white metal and numerous different coloured flashing lights.

"Vegeta?" She called uncertainly as she made her way along.

The door in front of her opened, revealing her Saiya-jin beau and the bridge of the ship.

"Vegeta!!"

She leapt at him with enough force for them both to end up in a tangled heap on the floor.

"Oh man, I thought I was a goner!" She cried, wrapping both arms around her prince in a vicious hug, "I thought I'd never see you or mama or dad ever again..."

"You doubted me that much?" He inquired, gently stroking her long turquoise hair as his tail wrapped itself around her waist.

With a gentle finger he lifted her chin so he could see her face. To his surprise her cheeks were streaked with tears.

"I was just so afraid..." She whispered, leaning her head back onto his chest.

Vegeta was amazed. While they had been separated she'd shown no sign of being anything but her normal self. Now... here she was, sobbing into the white armour that covered his chest. His tail moved from her waist to between her shoulder blades, rubbing slightly to comfort her like he had done when she had had her nightmare.

Bulma snuggled closer to him.

"I'm sorry... For being like this." She said after a while. "I know you don't like to see me cry."

"You're allowed to if you want." He assured her, "I'm not going to force you to do anything..."

"Thanx, Geta."

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