Chapter 1
"So, how long do they think it will take Goku to heal?" Bulma asked Kuririn, grimacing as she bent over to pick up her bag. She considered even that simple action a blessing. She had been lucky. She hadn't been hurt too seriously in the battle with Vegita. The doctors said that aside from some minor cuts, bruises and scrapes, she had only badly bruised her ribs and her nose. Much against their orders, she was leaving the hospital today. She was still a little sore, but her rate of healing was a little better than the typical human female's, and besides, she had to help her father with that spaceship.
"They don't know yet," Kuririn replied. "The head doctor says that it could be months before they even remove the bandages, and with Kame Sen'nin hangin' around all the time, he thinks it might take even longer."
Bulma laughed. "You know, I have a feeling that Goku isn't even the main reason Roshi keeps hanging around. I think he's more interested in those pretty nurses than he is in our injured Saiyan friend."
Kuririn laughed. "Well, anyway, I just stopped by to say goodbye again and drop this off." He handed her a small notepad. "Mr. Popo told me to give this to you," he said. "He said you'd know what to do with it."
"Great!" She exclaimed, flipping through the pages slowly. "This must be all of the Namek language he could remember. I'll have to commit this to memory."
"It's a good thing he knew about that Namek spaceship," Kuririn said, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "If we'd had to rely on Nappa's pod we would have been in bad shape."
"Quit bringing that up, will you already?" She snapped angrily. "Geez! You blow up one Saiyan space pod and you're branded for life!"
Kuririn shook his head, chuckling. "You know that we're never going to let you live that one down, Bulma. You're our technical genius all right, but you sure screwed up with that one!"
"I still say it was all that pain medication they had me on," she grumbled. "If I had been thinking clearly I wouldn't have pressed the wrong button."
"Yeah, whatever, Bulma," Kuririn laughed. "Well, just take it easy, alright? Try not to hurt yourself any worse. You know we want to get started as soon as possible, but if you push yourself too hard you may end up bedridden for a few days."
"Don't worry about me," she said, dropping the notepad into her overnight bag. "You just keep Goku in high spirits and make sure you and Gohan get lots of rest. You need to be fully healed by the time that spaceship is ready to fly us to Namek." With that she left the room and headed for the hospital exit.
"Good luck!" Kuririn called after her. "Gohan and I should be outta here in three or four more days. We'll see you then!"
She waved back at him and walked toward the receptionist's desk to check out. She was glad she was finally going to get out of this place. She was dying to see that spaceship and how it worked. She would have gone with Mr. Popo to check it out yesterday, but the doctor sternly warned her that she was dangerously close to cracking her ribs, and flying around in a spaceship would definitely not be a good idea. So she called her dad and asked him to come to the hospital. He'd had no idea what had happened to her, so when he got there he was shocked and extremely concerned.
It had taken her nearly an hour, but she'd finally gotten her dumbfounded father up to speed on the events of the past year. Of course, she also had to explain about her training with Yamucha, but he seemed to believe that a little more easily than he did her story of the fight with the Saiyans. The television station he had been watching had lost its broadcast of the fight after Tenshinhan's demise, due to all the energy in the air, so he had missed his daughter's big entrance and everything afterwards. He had a little trouble believing that his "little Bulma" was that skilled as a fighter, but after Kuririn, Goku, and Gohan backed her up, he finally was convinced. After filling him in on the situation, she sent him with Popo to check out the spaceship. Not only did it fly, but it had also reached Jupiter within seconds of blastoff!
They had discovered that it only responded to Namekian vocal commands, so Popo had offered to teach Bulma everything he knew about the language. She gladly accepted, knowing also that such knowledge might come in handy on Namek, since it wasn't very likely that the Nameks spoke her language.
Bulma, now in the hospital parking lot, suddenly realized that she didn't have any automobile capsules with her. "Oh well," she thought with a grin as she floated up into the air. "At least I have an alternate mode of transportation!" She flew off slowly toward her parents' house, wondering what a Namekian spaceship would look like.
On to the next Chapter!
