Chapter 4
Bulma yawned. She'd been doing the same things for the past eight days and she was sick of all of it. If she ever had to open that stupid Namek notepad again she was going to scream. She'd learned all of it by heart and was so sick of reading it that it took all of her self-control to keep from jettisoning it out into space. But at least she knew its contents so well by now that she wouldn't HAVE to open the damn thing again.
She checked the ship's coordinates again. Good. They were still on the right track. Her dad's calculations were way more precise than her original ones had been. She just hoped that nothing would knock them off course. It would be terribly difficult to get the ship back on its original flight path if they got sidetracked somehow.
She got up and walked back to see what Gohan and Kuririn were up to. They were mentally sparring again. They had let Bulma try her luck at it, but she just couldn't seem to get the hang of it. She kept trying to throw real blasts and punches at them, so Gohan and Kuririn had told her they'd teach her later, in a place where her blasts wouldn't run the risk of tearing the ship apart.
Bulma turned around and walked back to her "room." She was going to go crazy if she couldn't find anything to keep her occupied on this stupid journey. They still had more than a week to go before they even entered Namek's galaxy, and she had no idea what she could do until then. She'd even beaten the video game twice in between study sessions. There was nothing to do but sleep until she had to check the ship's coordinates again.
She settled into her seat and closed her eyes. She hated taking so many naps. She was certain that if she didn't start working out soon she was going to get weaker. Sighing, she thought of her fights on earth. They'd made her stronger, both in will and in body. Still, she wasn't near the level of Goku, or even Gohan and Kuririn for that matter. But at least she knew one technique that they didn't.
Bulma thought of how fun it was to see time stand still as she was teleporting. Everything was silenced and stopped, except for her, of course. She was the only one that moved while she teleported.
Suddenly she realized something. Time's stopping had unaffected her, and therefore, her body had gone through all its normal functions, such blood flow and breathing. And if she breathed air, then that would mean that she had moved the air. Even though all motion on earth had stopped, she had created motion. What if she were able to move more than air? She jumped up out of her chair as she was struck by another possibility. What if she could manipulate and move other objects as she teleported? If that were possible, then she might be able to fight during a teleport! Imagine being able to fight an opponent that can't hit you back! She grinned. If she were able to do that then it wouldn't matter as much if she were the weaker fighter. What an advantage that would be! She had to test her theory out. She had to know if it was possible.
She looked around. Was it safe to test her theory out here? She didn't want to do anything that might put their lives in danger. Her curiosity outweighed her fear, though. She didn't think it would harm anything to try, as long as she didn't crash into any walls.
She looked back at Kuririn and Gohan. They were talking about something and couldn't see her. Smiling, Bulma thought of a great way to test her theory. She dug around in her clothing bag until she found her red scarf. Turning toward the boys' quarters, she began to power up.
"Huh?" She heard Kuririn say. "Bulma, is that you?"
"Rapid teleport!" was her only reply. Once again she was immersed in a still, blue environment. Gingerly, she tried walking back towards Gohan and Kuririn. She was amazed! It hardly took any strength at all to walk as she teleported. She walked back into the boys' cabin. She laughed at the expressions on their faces. Gohan seemed puzzled enough, but Kuririn was halfway off the bed, eyes wide open and mouth agape. Bulma pushed his eyelids down. They stayed where she pushed them! She hopped up behind him on the bed and tied her scarf around his head, covering his eyes. She let go of the ends of the scarf and nearly lost all concentration. They hung suspended in the air, just where she had let them go! She touched one. It left a little imprint where her finger had connected, but didn't move back. She looked down at the bed. Her footprints were still totally intact! Giggling, she shaped the ends of the scarf into long bunny ears above Kuririn's head. She got down off the bed and laughed. It was too amazing! How could she have missed such an amazing discovery before?
Well, she was finally satisfied. She snapped back into real time and stepped out of Kuririn's way as he stumbled forward and cried out in surprise.
"What in the world?" He exclaimed. "Yaaaah! I can't see! I'm blind!" His hands flew to his eyes and his horrified expression changed to one of confusion as he touched the scarf. Bulma lost it.
"Oh, Kuririn! I'm sorry I did this to you, but I just couldn't resist!" She laughed, helping him untie her scarf.
"How did you do that, Bulma?" He asked, trying to regain his dignity after flipping out like that. "It just appeared all of the sudden!"
"Yeah," Gohan gasped. "And so did you, Bulma! What happened?"
"Just calm down, and I'll tell you how I did it," she said, sitting down next to Kuririn on the bed. She felt she owed at least Kuririn a big explanation for this.
She told them about her discovery, and what advantages it could give them. They were both very excited about the possibilities. With a skill like that, they would have a fighting chance if Vegita did show up on Namek! Shoot, maybe they wouldn't even need Goku!
They had almost convinced her to show them again when suddenly one of the ship's alarms went off. Everyone jumped in surprise. Something was wrong!
Bulma ran to the control panel to see what had set the alarm off. There was a large blip on the radar screen. Maybe it was an asteroid. But whatever it was, Bulma wasn't very happy about it.
"What is it, Bulma?" Gohan asked her. "Is something wrong with the ship?"
"No," she said, checking blip's trajectory and flight path. "Something big's appeared on the radar screen. Normally the ship's radar alarm system shouldn't kick in unless it picks up a large object that could potentially enter our flight path. I need to see if there's a possibility of a collision." She entered a few variables into the ship's main computer. The reply she got back was worse than she had expected. The object wasn't an asteroid. Judging from its varying speed and direction changes, it was being piloted by someone, or maybe even something!
"There seems to be a very large spacecraft making a direct approach toward us," she said anxiously. "I don't know if whoever's piloting the thing is friendly, but I don't exactly feel like risking it."
"Look!" Gohan exclaimed, pointing to a swarm of small objects coming at them. "What are they?"
His question was promptly answered when one of the small crafts fired a laser beam at them, grazing the top of the ship. Soon the swarm was all around them, each one equipped with it's own laser beam.
"Buckle up. NOW!" Bulma barked. Kuririn and Gohan did as they were told, and Bulma activated the ship's self defense system. The Namek ship was remarkably well equipped. Whenever it's radar picked up one of the little attackers, it blasted it with its own beam of energy. Soon the attack was over, and all of their enemies had either retreated or been blown to bits.
"Whew!" Bulma breathed. "That was close! I guess now we know that they aren't friendly. I don't see any more little attack pods on the radar, but that big ship is still ahead of us."
"I don't see anything," Kuririn said, looking out the window.
"Wait a minute!" Bulma said. "What's that?" She pointed to a small white speck off in the distance. They all watched as it grew larger. Soon they could see its features clearly.
"That looks just like our ship!" Gohan exclaimed. "Maybe some Nameks came to meet us halfway?"
"I don't know," Bulma said, as the ship came even closer. "But if they don't turn around we're going to collide!"
"Uh... Bulma?" Kuririn said nervously. "Maybe we should get out of its way."
"I think that's a very good idea," Bulma said, and gave the ship the order to turn right. "This is going to be close!"
"It's turning too," Gohan said, watching in horror.
"Look out! We're going to crash!" Bulma yelled. They all braced themselves for the impact. Just as they were going to hit, something odd happened. They were suddenly surrounded by darkness!
"What happened?" Bulma wondered.
On to the next Chapter!
