Pendulum Control

The Skirmish in Space

If there was one thing that pleased Vegeta about the growing distance between the ship and Earth, it was that he could now argue with Kakarot without the lives of his loved ones being threatened.

Once the Earth had shrunk to the size of a blue-green soccer ball, Vegeta turned to the man he once knew as an ally and opened his mouth to tell him exactly what he thought of him and his idiotic impulses. During the time it took the ship to reach this distance from the planet, the former prince had been mentally constructing an impressive line of deprecating adjectives to direct at Kakarot once they'd achieved a safe distance. However, before the barrage of insults could burst from his lips, the other Saiyan, who had been keeping oddly quiet throughout the ascent, took to his feet.

“Welp!” he said, giving a great long stretch, “I'm pooped! Wake me when we come up on an inhabited planet.”

Vegeta watched, mouth open slightly, as the Saiyan then turned and briskly left the command deck.

“Kakarot!” he called after him, confusion and frustration evident in his voice.

There was no answer and Vegeta seethed to himself. Immediately, he set to scanning the control panels for an escape pod or, at the very least, controls for locking down specific parts of the ship. If anything, he could close off Kakarot in the master bedroom for a while. To Vegeta's upheaval, nowhere on the keys did he find the slightest hint of precautionary or emergency procedures. He couldn't believe it. The ship truly was strictly luxury.

After some time of futilely hunting for a single practical button on the large panel, Vegeta, annoyed, left the controls for the time being and turned instead to the artificial sky. It was turning a darker hue and thin clouds began quietly rolling in. Despite-- or perhaps due to-- his frustration and the tension of the current situation, he found himself growing tired. He looked to the darkened hallway where his single shipmate had disappeared into earlier. If he did succumb to sleep, Vegeta decided, he wouldn't do it anywhere in the vicinity of Kakarot. The recent fatal mood swings of the younger Saiyan had Vegeta feeling on edge, to say the least.

The emotionally exhausted Saiyan finally plopped down in one of the two captain's chairs and watched out of the large monitor as stars moved by at a sluggish pace; The ship had two speeds: sludge slow for enjoying the scenery and hyper fast for reaching specific destinations. As they currently had no set destination, they just cruised along until, Vegeta assumed, Kakarot deemed a spot suitable.

Very soon, Vegeta was dozing, propped up in the seat and head lulling on his chest. Kakarot hadn't once emerged from his quarters and it was two hours later before Vegeta was awoken by the the gentle chirping of the monitor.

Vegeta slowly opened his eyes and immediately noticed the red light illuminating his body. He looked up and saw a blinking red message on the screen.

It said “Unidentified craft approaching.”

Some good distance ahead of the Luxury Ship, Vegeta could barely make out a small, squarish structure approaching at a steady rate.

Vegeta stared at the ship. He read over the message again. For some time he alternated uneasy stares between the two. Finally he thought aloud, “So?”

The monitor, apparently responding to Vegeta's voice, recycled its first message and the new one read, “Permission to assume unidentified craft is unfriendly and initiate evasion program...”

Vegeta watched the ship as it continued to approach. He couldn't determine the size of it due to the distance, nor whether there was any significant alien insignia on its surface. He did remember the Doctor saying that the vacation ship didn't have any weapons or shields installed. This conflicted Vegeta for a moment as his pride wretched at the idea of fleeing. However, as they had no defense against a possible foe, he decided to be safe. He told the computer to go ahead with the evasive maneuvers and the ship quickly fired up its components in preparation to comply.

Vegeta listened to the ship flaring it's engines and felt it begin to rattle as it prepared to boost into hyper drive and then, amidst all the commotion, the monitor began chirping again. The engines slowly died down and the control deck stilled. Vegeta looked around, baffled by the anticlimactic silence and then finally turned to the screen where a new message blinked patiently.

“Approaching ship wishes to extend communication. Accept?”

Vegeta frowned slightly at the monitor before reluctantly accepting.

The screen was promptly filled with the live feed from the approaching ship's own command deck. Once connected with the luxury ship's command deck, the strange captain immediately began speaking at Vegeta in shouted and threatening tones. Vegeta was not familiar with the language and couldn't understand until the computer made a slight adjustment and began to translate.

“-And if you do not allow us to overtake your ship, we will open fire. And as your ship does not appear to have shields of any kind, it would be in your best interest to comply.” said the captain of the approaching ship. They were a bulky and broad shouldered race whose skin was variant shades of purple and green. They had bug eyes that were widely set on either side of their flattish heads and long, thin mouths that would open astonishingly wide when they barked commands. Vegeta thought they looked like frogs on steroids.

When the captain was finished laying out his demands, Vegeta thought for a while. Were these aliens some kind of space pirates? Was he being robbed? He couldn't believe that the minute they got off the planet they ran into bandits. He set aside his disbelief for the moment and considered the situation seriously. Vegeta knew it would not be wise to invite open fire but he was far from surrendering.

“Alright, come aboard then! You're free to try and overtake this ship.” Vegeta said with a sneer.

The bandit leader did not seem to catch the challenge in the Saiyan's tone and did begin calibrating what Vegeta assumed to be a transport beam.

“We will come aboard and you will surrender your weapons. If you comply, we will not harm your crew,” As the captain continued his practiced demands, the bandit ship at last came to a stop in front of the luxury cruiser. Vegeta glanced out of the command deck window and saw a ship the size of a mini van carrying tiny green men in the head of it.

Vegeta let out a great howling laugh, interrupting the bandit captain in the middle of his list of orders.

“Oh, Please!” Vegeta screamed, holding his stomach, “Oh, you're joking!”

The bandits stared at their lone captive in the monitor, looking increasingly uncomfortable as he succumbed to fits of laughter.

“You-- you can't possibly think that you're going to overtake this ship? You can't! Really?” he continued, barely able to get the words out between howls.

The bandit captain's greenish skin tone took on a more red hue and he clenched his bulky fists.

“You find this funny?” he said slowly, though his tightened lips which now looked even thinner.

Vegeta attempted to explain to the captain how it was funny that they tried to be threatening when they looked like a bunch of tiny peas in a cute little pod, but he gave up and just he fell to his knees in laughter.

The bandit did not find this so funny and in fact was shaking in repressed fury. Then without words (though admittedly, he didn't seem capable of them at the moment), he indicated something to a crew member off screen.

Vegeta's laughter slowly died down and an new, eerie sort of beeping echoed in the control deck. Vegeta stood and looked up to the monitor to see a new message that read, “Incoming fire.”.

The ugly captain now dawned a broad grin on his frog-like face.

Vegeta was suddenly knocked back to the ground as the Ship was hit with multiple missiles.

The control deck echoed with alien laughter for a moment before the live feed to the bandit ship was promptly terminated. The only sound was that of the luxury ship taking repeated damage from continuous fire and, once again, the dull beeping.

When Vegeta was able to focus on the shaking screen, he saw a new message.

“The ship is under fire. Take evasive action?”

“Of course!” Vegeta spat back, and before he could gain his feet again, he was knocked back by the ship's hyper drive.

From a crumpled heap against the wall some amount of time later, Vegeta craned his head up to look out of the vast window. The ship's new location presented nothing remarkably different from the old one, but there was now no tiny bandit ship packing huge artillery and that was a good change. The former prince massaged his head where he felt a sharp ache. The kick into hyper speed had thrown him into the far wall of the command deck and he wondered if he'd been knocked unconscious.

He had been on Earth for so long, Vegeta had nearly forgotten what it was like to be on a ship moving at hyper speed. It gave his insides a lunge feeling that reminded him of flying at optimum energy, except when he flew he was in control. He thought again for a moment then decided that hyper speed was more like being thrown through three consecutive mountains. He grabbed his mid section as he attempted to push himself off the of polished floor. Vegeta gave a heave and a grunt but fell back against the wall just the same. He realized then that he would have to get used to hyper speed all over again. As he lay, waiting for the feeling to fully return to his legs he didn't notice his awoken shipmate enter the command deck.

Kakarot, disheveled and drone-like in his morning form, remained silent as he looked around the large room. He took in the long, precarious looking crack along the viewing window, some shattered lights that seemed to have fallen from the kitchen area but had landed in the lounge, a large round dent in the wall above the grounded Vegeta and lastly, he noticed the blinking red message on the computer screen that read, “Safely evaded destruction.”

A cough to Vegeta's right brought the prone prince's attention to the Saiyan standing stone-faced in the entrance of the room. The tall man wore a thick blanket around his shoulders and appeared to have just woken up.

“Oh, good,” Vegeta grunted as he used the wall to gain his feet, “glad you could join the battle. By the way, great idea picking the luxury ship to venture into perilous space. A few more hits and the thing would have been reduced to rubble. We might as well just be floating around in a cottage! Are you listening to me, Kakarot?”

Kakarot stomped sleepily to the front of the room, blanket flapping behind him like a cape, to the control panel. He must have pressed something significant because in an instant the blinking and beeping message vanished. He sighed then turned around, looking satisfied.

“Finally!” he said, leaning against the panel, “That beeping woke me up from the best dream...” Kakarot turned and looked at Vegeta, who was hunched against the dented wall and looking harassed. He immediately strode over to the smaller man, apparently noticing something was amiss.

“Are you alright?” he asked, looking the other Saiyan up and down. He let his large blanket leave his shoulders only to hold it out in offering to his shaken-looking comrade.

Vegeta huffed, paying no mind to the offering, “Are you insane?” he said, sounding genuinely concerned, “You realize we've just been attacked?”

Kakarot smiled as he heedlessly threw the blanket over the other's shoulders. Then he turned and strode to the kitchen, fully awake now and ready to kick off the day.

“Wow!” he said good-naturedly, as he opened the expansive fridge, “already getting started, Vegeta? I should have known you'd be out here staking your claim, the pure blooded Saiyan you are. That'll teach me to turn my back on you!”

Vegeta let the blanket fall to the floor, “You dragged me into this, you moron!” he shouted at the other Saiyan, whose head was now fully immersed in the fridge. “I'm not staking my claim anywhere! We were attacked and we're in a highly under-equipped ship. This has become ridiculously unsafe and I demand we turn around at once!”

Kakarot's head popped up from behind the door, cheeks stuffed with mostly unchewed muffin. He said something entirely muffled and Vegeta didn't dignify the lack of etiquette with a response. Kakarot then fully stood up and with a great loud gulp, emptied his mouth.

“But we haven't even started.” he repeated with an evident whine.

Vegeta found he was already missing the brash and fatal side of Kakarot he'd encountered earlier that morning and wondered where that man had gone to.

“I didn't want to come along on this charade, remember?” The short-tempered Saiyan shouted. His already foul mood had taken a dive, “Now you're here napping and sighing and stuffing your face with muffins while both our lives are being endangered on this damned impractical ship!

Kakarot, who seemed to resemble Goku more and more, exhaled and seemed to feel guilty about the situation. He closed the fridge and approached the other Saiyan. Vegeta's head was defiantly turned and his arms were folded guardedly over his chest.

Kakarot seemed to be delicately choosing his words, “I'm sorry, Vegeta. I didn't know we'd get attacked so soon. I'm sure there's at least a minor shield on the ship--”

“There isn't.”

“Well there has to be some kind of--”

“I searched!”

Kakarot paused, looking over the tense prince and feeling a growing tension in himself.

“Alright,“ he said calmly, “Alright, Vegeta. We'll stop at the nearest planet and get the ship equipped with shields and weapons.”

Kakarot didn't wait for a response from the prince. Having known the stubborn Saiyan for as long as he had, he didn't expect one. He merely reached down and grabbed the blanked that had pooled around Vegeta's booted feet. Returning it to the slighter Saiyan's shoulders, he smiled.

“Alright, Prince.” He said, without a hint of ridicule in his voice, “let's get you some breakfast. Have you eaten yet?”

“I'm not hungry.” was all Vegeta said.

“Well it's morning, look!” Kakarot pointed to the artificial sky which was no longer starry and was turning a lighter shade of blue.

“I don't care.”

“Well I'll make something anyway and you can decide whether or not you want to eat it.”

Kakarot walked happily to the kitchen. Vegeta stared after him, despite himself. He doubted that anything the clumsy Saiyan made would be edible. As the the cheerful Saiyan set to humming away over the stove, cracking eggs into a large frying pan and tossing in various ingredients, Vegeta found himself drawn into the kitchen. He quietly sat down on one of the tall stools around the island taking in the unexpectedly good smell.

After a while in which the only sound was that of food being fried, a steaming plate was slid in front of Vegeta.

It was an omelet. Vegeta eyed the meal reservedly, remembering his own, much less passable attempt at the same dish the morning prior. Beside him, Kakarot took a stool and immediately began shoveling large bites of the omelet in his mouth. It was quickly vanishing before his eyes only moments after being created.

Vegeta mumbled something under his breath, apparently thinking aloud.

Kakarot slowed his messy assault on the meal and eyed his company inquisitively.

“Hm?”

“I said, you are Kakarot.” Vegeta repeated.

A large gulp, “Well of course I am, Vegeta.” Kakarot said, looking a bit concerned.

“Well you can't blame me for thinking otherwise, the way you're been behaving.”

Kakarot stared off, considering this. Vegeta took advantage of the gentle moment to speak candidly. He didn't know when he would next get the chance.

“Kakarot, what is happening?” he turned to face the man fully, “what are we doing in space?”

The preoccupied Saiyan stared down at his mostly eaten breakfast, brow furrowing in thought.

“Why don't we go back, stop this foolishness,” Vegeta pressed gently. He watched his old ally, considering the countless battles he'd faced, the piles of surmounted foes he'd beaten, the fields of bloodshed-- the amount of blood Goku had lost alone could fill at least ten people-- and was in wonderment that the Saiyan could still manage to look like a hopeless little boy at times.

Vegeta's quiet moment of reflection over the child-like nature of the other Saiyan was cut short when the hopeless little boy suddenly vanished. In his place emerged a cold and decisive warrior.

“No,” said Kakarot and he stood from the table, “we stay the course. We won't be turning back so you might as well put it out of your mind.” His eyes hit Vegeta's with blunt force.

Vegeta held the stare with a quiet desperation as he questioned the other without words. But it was like trying to connect with a brick wall. The stony face of Kakarot offered no answers. The resolute Saiyan strode from the room without another word.

The almost instantaneous switch from the gentle Saiyan he knew and the new side of him sent a chill down Vegeta's spine. He realized with a decided revulsion that he still wore the blanket the other had wrapped around him earlier. He threw it off him with such force that the woolly cloth hit the wall with a solid 'wack!'

He folded his arms over his chest.

Kakarot was a roller coaster, Vegeta seethed, a roller coaster with a gap in the rail. How was he supposed to keep up with the man when he constantly broke from what was expected. His moods and actions had become completely unpredictable from one second to the next. Vegeta had no idea how to cope with it.

How about if the ship blew up, what then? Kakarot would surely feel like a prize doofus then, dragging them into space without any plan. Vegeta began to quietly wish that an errant meteor would strike them just to spite other Saiyan.

Vegeta sighed, and his eyes wandered over to the discarded scraps of omelet on the abandoned dish beside his. He didn't care if, in Kakarot's current delirium, he crowned himself 'King of The Ship' and threw another royal tantrum-- Vegeta wasn't cleaning up after him.