Trunks opened his eyes and sleepily looked around the room. The first person he saw was Tayhei, grabbing the ship’s controls and shouting something to Gohan. He watched her blatantly, thinking that he had never seen her look so perfect. Her beautiful face looked more confidant and strong than he had ever seen it, and she was moving so gracefully that it looked as though they were underwater. He had to admit, there was something admirable about Tayhei. And at least life with her would never be boring. There was some kindness in her, he was sure of it. He had seen it with Bra, and in a few other moments. He thought he remembered her saying something before; something about why she had always been so mean to him, but his head hurt too much to remember it.

“Okay, we’re taking off.” She said loudly, and her eyes focused on something out the front window. Trunks looked down and saw that he had been strapped in his seat carefully. To his left, his mother was appeared to be unconscious, with blood running down the side of her head. He felt his own head, and noticed that blood had matted his hair down against his head. Luck must run in the family. He thought sarcastically.

Vejiita sat on the other side of him, and he was looking at Tayhei as well, but with a more loathing expression. When the ship started to finally move and they were thrown against the backs of their seats, Vejiita’s expression still didn’t change. He glared at Tayhei as if his eyes could burn holes clear through her.

Tayhei gripped the controls as tightly as she could without breaking her fingers. The other ships immediately sprung to life when she started to maneuver the ship away, and a few of them moved in front to fire again. When they fired a blast directly at the front window, she didn’t even flinch. She was well aware of how strong the window was, and though it would shake the ship like crazy, she knew the blast wouldn’t be able to kill them.

Several people cried out when the blast came hurtling at them, and when the ship started shaking and spinning violently from the impact, just about everyone screamed. Tayhei almost lost the controls, but held on and took a sharp turn, knocking right into the enemy ship. The smaller ship didn’t fair well and it flew haphazardly off to the side, crashing into another enemy ship. Tayhei smiled and pushed the button to fire.

A missile shot out from under the ship’s right side and hit one of the ships. It exploded on impact, and the flames from the burst caused the other ship to explode as well. Tayhei grinned and slammed the ship’s controls to the further to the left, where the other enemy ships were waiting. All of them began firing as soon as she turned, and the sight of fire and explosions in front of them became almost too much for Tayhei to see through. She squinted through the window, which was cracked and fogged over, then looked down at the radar screen on the control panel. She’d have to use that instead.

It was easier to see all of the enemy ships that way, and Tayhei began to pick them off, one by one. The ship had enough ammunition to fight a small world war, so she wasn’t worried about misses or running out of firepower. Patience would pay off in the end, she was sure of it. The enemy ships had a couple of really good hits on her, and at one point, smoke started coming into the control room from another part of the ship. Her passengers started coughing and hacking and complaining.

“This can’t be good!” Kuririn whined, waving his hand back in forth to get rid of the smoke. “Are we in trouble Tayhei? We aren’t going to crash, are we?”

“Iie.” She reported, looking carefully at all of the monitors. “We’re fine. Just a little bit of damage.”

“Whoa! They’re….They’re….” Someone shouted, and Tayhei rose her eyes to the window. One of the enemy ships was dangerously close. So close that Tayhei could see his eyes, pure black and glaring, just like Vejiita’s eyes. There was no doubt about it, they were Saiya-jin. And they were firing, point blank.

“Hold on, everyone!” She yelled, and flipped the reverse switch on the ship. They went flying backwards, but the enemy ship followed, power building up to shoot.

“Kuso!” She said under her breath, and jerked the controls to the right as far as they could go and held them there. In response, the ship started into a fast spin to the right, and kept on spinning until everything outside of the window started to blur.

“What in the hell are you doing, baka?!” Vejiita’s deep voice demanded.

“Confusing them!” She replied, then suddenly jerked the controls the other way, and changed spinning directions. Vejiita started shouting obscenities at her, but she paid no attention to him. They were in too much danger to start a verbal sparring match. Besides, she thought. I know I’d win anyway.

When they had spun enough, she pulled the controls straight again and looked out. The enemy ships, or what was left of them, were farther away and appeared to be apprehensive about attacking again. She took that as a sign of weakness and immediately fired. The blasts shook the ship as they excited, and managed to hit most of the targets she was going after. Bits of metal and parts of the ships went flying, accompanied by large blasts of fire and smoke. Tayhei pictured their evil Saiya-jin faces in fear and almost smiled. After a moment of hesitation, the other ships began to turn and fly into the distance.

“We won!” She cried, throwing a fist into the air. “Yes! I kicked ass! They won’t bother us anymore.”

“They’re retreating?” Gohan asked, looking out the window.

“Hai! They’re gone!” She answered, and she turned the ship slightly, doing somewhat of an in-air victory dance. She glanced down at the monitors to check the damages and paused. “But….”

“But what?” Someone demanded from behind her.

“We have a lot of damage.” She answered, flipping another switch to see the engine monitor. “It is fixable, but we’re going to have to be on stable ground to fix it. One of their shots must have damaged the engine somehow. We’re going to have to land.”

“We have to land?” Kuririn asked hesitantly. “Can we fix it when we get back to Earth?”

“Iie.” She answered, turning around to meet his eyes. “If we tried to return to Earth at this point, the ship would stall and eventually die. We wouldn’t be able to get back home.”

“We can’t go back?!” Videl screamed, her eyes welling up with tears. Gohan, who was sitting next to her, patted her hand reassuringly, but she wrenched it away. “What do you mean we can’t get back home? I have a little girl that I need to take care of!”

“Whoa!” Tayhei said, staring at Videl disapprovingly. She never wanted to be that openly emotional, and hoped that she never would be. “I didn’t say we could never get back home. I said, if we left for Earth before fixing the ship we wouldn’t make it back. We need to land somewhere so we can fix the ship, and then we’ll be okay.”

“Where are we supposed to land?” Gokuu asked, finally getting what Tayhei was trying to say.

She pointed to the map tacked up on the wall. “The closest planet is Sukuashi.”

“No way!” Kuririn protested, unbuckling his seat belt and standing up. “We can’t land there! What about Marron? Let’s just try and make it back to Earth. Maybe you miscalculated, Tayhei.”

“Me? Miscalculate?” She laughed. “I don’t think so. We’re not going to make it back to Earth unless we fix the ship. Half way there, the engine would explode and the whole ship would catch on fire. If we were lucky enough to stop the flames, we’d die of starvation months later because we wouldn’t be able to fly anywhere and we only have so much food. Plus, there is a possibility that he engine explosion could tear a hole in the ship, which would create a vacuum into space. If anyone went in there to try and fix the engine, they would be sucked out into the deep black yonder and since we aren’t equipped with proper oxygen suits, they would probably die of suffocation, if the pressure didn’t cause their internal organs to burst and their body to implode first.”

Kuririn sat back down and shut his mouth.

“We need to land.” Tayhei stressed, trying her best to look professional. “And soon. Sukuashi is the closest planet, and I really feel that with the ships condition, it is our only choice.”

Gohan nodded. “I agree. And although I respect your decision, Tousan, I can’t imagine going there and not attempting to rescue Kaasan. We should at least try while we are there, and since it is necessary to land anyway….”

“I understand.” Gokuu said. His face was painful to watch. Beneath that sadness, there was just the faintest, most beautiful flicker of hope. Tears almost came to Tayhei’s eyes, and she knew she had done the right thing.

“Then it’s settled.” Tayhei announced, and pushed a few buttons before steadying the controls and unbuckling her seat belt. “I’ll put this on auto pilot on course to Sukuashi until we’re close enough to land.” She jumped out of the pilot’s seat and brushed herself off. “Oh, and I’m sorry for the rough ride, everyone.”

Yamucha smiled. “You did a wonderful job, Tayhei. Don’t be sorry. You saved all of our lives.”

She beamed at him, then threw a smirk at Vejiita. “Oh? Maybe I am useful after all….”

Vejiita snorted and looked away. “Don’t get too cocky. You still are not welcome on this ship. I don’t care if you save my life a thousand times --- I still hate you. You haven’t proved anything to me. Anyone could have done what you did if they knew how to work the ship.”

Gohan frowned. “Arigatou, Tayhei. I am very grateful. You did a great job.” His face lightened a bit. “And now there is actually a chance that we can save Kaasan too.”

She nodded, and then yawned. “Well, I think I need just a little nap. The ship should be fine on it’s own for a little while.” Everyone else began unbuckling their seat belts and chatting away, except for Bulma, who was still unconscious. Even Trunks was awake now.

Tayhei smiled at him. “Amazing. You’re actually alive. I thought for sure I’d get you on that last turn. Revenge for nearly crushing me earlier.”

He didn’t smile, but pulled her aside, where no one could hear. “You’re lying, aren’t you?” He accused in a very soft voice. “There’s no engine damage, is there?”

She paused, then sighed. “If there was, it wouldn’t be serious enough to land.”

“So you lied.”

“Hai. But---”

Trunks suddenly gave her a warm smile. “You did a very nice thing. For Goten, for Gohan, for Gokuu….And I’m sure ChiChi will be very thankful when this is all over with.” He put an arm around her. “I do believe you’re going soft, Tayhei.”

She laughed. “No way. I just wanted some adventure.”

They smiled at each other, both well aware that she was lying again.

Chapter 36
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