Chapter 12 - Part One

Bulma stopped flying and looked around. Yes, this would do. She had
flown for hours -- even if she had stopped time -- and must be at least
five hundred miles away from Freeza’s compound by now. A little
fatigued by her long sprint, Bulma descended to the ground and allowed
time to flow normally again.

Now, first things first. She had to find out the location of the
dragonballs. Whichever one or ones were closest to her would be the
ones she’d have to retrieve first. She couldn’t keep zooming around
and teleporting like this and expect to stay energetic forever. Bulma
bent down and pulled her capsule case out of its compartment in her
boot. Her father -- as ingenious as ever -- had thought of that; he
didn’t ‘want his daughter traipsing about on a new planet fighting
baddies without her capsules.’ Bulma had laughed at him then, but now
she was glad he’d thought of it. She opened up the case and took out
the travel bag capsule. She popped it open and dug around in the large
suitcase until she found her scouter.

Bulma put on her new dragon radar and switched it on. Much to her
surprise -- and utter delight, I might add -- she saw that she was only
about two miles away from the nearest dragonball. Even more surprising,
she was hundreds of miles away from the group of five that Vegita
stole, and nearly a thousand away from the other single that he
supposedly had to begin with.

Happy that she didn’t have to deal with Vegita just yet, Bulma focused
her senses on the location of the closest dragonball. There were two
kis over there... one very weak one, and another somewhat weak one that
felt almost suppressed. Maybe someone else on this planet knew how to
mask his ki. It made Bulma wonder just who was out there. The idea that
Freeza had set up another base out there seemed unlikely, especially
since she didn’t think that any of his minions were smart enough to
know how to mask their kis. Besides, those kis out there actually felt
friendly. It suddenly dawned on Bulma that they must be Nameks. Yes,
that would explain it. She smiled. Finally, she would get to meet
someone on this planet that didn’t work for Freeza! Well, if they were
Nameks, she certainly didn’t want to visit them looking like one of
Freeza’s soldiers. She was sure that those kis were in the same place
as the dragonball, so she didn’t need her scouter any more anyway.
After putting it back in her travel bag, she recapsulized it, and put
the capsule back in her capsule case, which then went back into the
little compartment in her boot. Having done that, she took off at a
moderate pace toward the ki sources ahead of her. She didn’t want to
teleport; she wanted the Nameks to know she was coming. But at the same
time she knew that by revealing herself like this she was probably
letting Freeza know where she was too. She’d have to tell the Nameks
this up front. If she was putting them in danger along with herself,
she planned to take full responsibility and get them all to safety if
necessary.

As Bulma flew on, she noticed a tall pillar of rock in the distance. At
the top of it she could see a white speck, and it was from there that
she sensed the kis. She pressed on, and the white speck slowly grew and
began to show its true shape. When Bulma was able to see it for what it
really was, she smiled in relief. It was a building, and it bore such
a strong resemblance to her ship that she was certain it was Namek-made.
She flew the rest of the way over and landed lightly on the grass out
in front of the white, spiky house. She saw that the entrance was open.
Bulma thought about walking in, but she decided against it. Not only
would that be rude, but she might not be welcomed as easily if she just
walked in without a greeting. Bulma walked closer to the entrance of
the Namekian house, until she was about three feet away, and peered
inside. Why hadn’t anyone come out yet? Were they hiding in there? Is
it possible that they could be afraid of her?

Bulma was about to call out to the inhabitants when a figure suddenly
appeared in the doorway. Bulma jumped back defensively before she could
catch herself. The figure stepped out into the light, and Bulma gasped
in surprise. He was almost an exact copy of Piccolo! Bulma just stared
at him, not knowing what to say. How should she begin?

The Namek spoke first. "What business have you here?" He asked Bulma in
the Namek language. "Why have you come to our planet?"

Bulma started in surprise. She’d forgotten about the possibility that
the Nameks didn’t speak her language. She supposed it was fortunate
that she knew a little bit about theirs. She smiled politely at him and
bowed in greeting. "Please forgive me if I have frightened you or the
other one in your dwelling," she began slowly, carefully choosing her
words. "My name is Bulma. I also hope you’ll forgive me for my crude
use of your language, as I don’t know much of it."

The Namek did a double take and gaped at Bulma in surprise. Apparently
he hadn’t expected her to know how to speak his language! Bulma, now
encouraged by his reaction, continued.

"I hope I can take that to mean that you understand me?" she asked. The
Namek nodded, still staring at her in disbelief. "Good," Bulma sighed
with relief. "I was afraid that my accent was so bad that you wouldn’t
understand me. Well, I won’t waste your time," she said, exchanging her
expression for a more serious one. "I won’t lie to you either. There
are some very bad men on your planet. I don’t know if your language has
the word I’m looking for to describe them, but in my language we’d call
them ‘evil.’ Well, these evil men have done some terrible things. I
don’t know exactly how to tell you this, as there’s no encouraging way
to put it. I suppose I’ll just have to say it. These men, and
especially Freeza, the worst of all of them, have already killed off at
least five entire villages of your people." She expected the Namek to
at least be surprised at this, but much to her own surprise, he wasn’t.
He just waited patiently for her to continue. His calm, expressionless
features really reminded her of Piccolo. She continued. "Their only
reason for doing such a terrible thing is that they are trying to gather
all the dragonballs to make a wish. Or to be more specific, Freeza
wants to make a wish. He wants to wish for immortality. If he were to
succeed," she added, "we’d all be doomed to die by his hand, and the
rest of the universe will be under his tyrannical rule. I can’t allow
that to happen. I want to gather the dragonballs before he does so that
I can make my wish and keep him from winning. That’s why I’m here," she
said, gesturing toward the house. "I detected a dragonball here earlier,
and since Freeza is off trying to get others, I’m going after this one."

"What would you wish for if you were to gather all seven of the
dragonballs?" He asked her, watching her expression closely.

Bulma told him about the fight with Vegita on Earth and how her friends
had died. She explained about the dragonballs on Earth, and how they
had found out from the Saiyans that there was another set of
dragonballs on Namek. "So," she said, "Gohan, Kuririn and I came here
to your planet to ask if we could use your dragonballs. But when we got
here, we found that Freeza had beaten us here and was already wreaking
havoc. It hadn’t even occurred to me that he was killing your people
until Kuririn and Gohan came back with Dende from the fifth village –
and with Dodoria, another of Freeza’s henchmen, right behind them."

"What?" The Namek said, suddenly becoming interested. "Dende? Did he
escape?"

"Oh yes," Bulma said, smiling. "I made sure of that. I told my friends
to take him and go back to the cave and hide, while I stayed behind to
hold Dodoria off. It wasn’t easy; I was badly beaten and was captured,
but I know that they got away safely."

"Humph," he said, assuming a stoic expression again. "So you met
Freeza?" He added casually. Bulma told him everything that had taken
place from her defeat by Dodoria on until when she escaped from Freeza.
"And then I came here, hoping to find another dragonball," she finished.

"You did all that for a child you didn’t even know," he muttered
quietly, not sure he should believe what he had heard..

Bulma smiled. "That doesn’t matter," she said. "Dende was no match for
Dodoria, and he needed my help. That’s all there was to it. My friends
would have done the same thing. They risked being chased back by Freeza
to rescue Dende, and let me tell you, that took a lot of bravery.
Please believe me," she pleaded. "We’re here to help. But we can’t help
you if you don’t help us. I know that you have a dragonball here. I
won’t force you to give it to me, but I really hope that you will.
Because I know that Freeza wouldn’t give a second thought to killing
you for it."

"It’s not me I’m worried about," he said softly, looking back toward
the house. He looked back at Bulma and sighed. "All right," he said.
"I believe you enough to bring you in to talk to him."

"Who?" Bulma asked, suddenly curious. "I sensed another presence in
there when I first came, but you were the only one who came out. Is he
the one you’re talking about?"

"Yes," he replied. "He is the Saichorou. He is the oldest of all us
Nameks, and is our father on top of that. He’s a very kind, generous
leader, and there isn’t a Namek alive who wouldn’t give his life to
save him. But," he added sadly, "he’s very old, and I don’t think he
has much time left. Which is all the more reason that we get you to
use the dragonballs soon. He is their creator, and if he dies, then
they go with him." He pointed toward the house’s entrance, and began
speaking in Bulma’s language. "Please come in," he said.

Bulma was so shocked that she nearly tripped over. "Wait a minute!" She
cried. "Why didn’t you tell me you could speak my language?"

He laughed, and for the first time, Bulma saw him smile. "You have such
a mastery of our tongue that I just wanted to hear you speak it. You
have an odd but pleasant accent."

"You gave me quite a workout," she said, laughing nervously. "I suppose
it’s a good thing that I studied it so extensively on the trip to your
planet."

He smiled. Suddenly he seemed to remember something. "I’m sorry," he
said, bowing politely as Bulma had done. "I had forgotten to introduce
myself earlier. My name is Nail. I am an assistant and companion to
Saichorou. Forgive me if I seemed rude to you; it’s just that I’m very
protective of him. He’s very weak right now, and very vulnerable, and
I’d never let anything threaten him."

"I understand," Bulma said, nodding. He motioned for her to follow him
again, and she walked with him into the white house. It was dimly lit
by sunlight, but the room inside seemed to have no features. Before
she could comment on this, the ground jolted beneath her. Suddenly she
and Nail were being elevated on a circular platform, similar to the
one on her ship. She waited patiently until the platform came to a halt
on the new level. What she saw left her so astonished that she dared
not speak. Sitting before her was an enormous, old Namek. He had to
have been at least twenty feet high just sitting down! He was covered
with wrinkles too, so much so, in fact, that she couldn’t even make out
his eyes on his face. But aside from that superficial nonsense, there
was something warm and reassuring about him. He reminded her of a
benevolent old grandfather. Bulma could tell right away that this was
a man of kindness. Nail stepped forward toward the immense Namek.

"Saichorou," he said. "This is Bulma. She is the person that we sensed
earlier, and I think that you should meet her. She said some things to
me outside that I really think you should hear."

"Thank you, Nail," Saichorou replied, smiling at Bulma. "I would like
very much to speak with her. If," he added, addressing her, "you don’t
mind, that is."

"No sir," she said, bowing respectfully. "I would be most honored."

"Please," he said warmly. "There’s no need to be so formal. Come a
little closer so that I can see you better."

Bulma obliged, and she walked up to him until she was about five feet
in front of him. "Can you see me all right now?" She asked.

"Yes, that’s much better," he replied. "Thank you. Now, since Nail has
no doubt told you who I am, why don’t you tell me who you are and how
you came to end up on our peaceful planet?"

"I would gladly do so, sir," Bulma said anxiously. "But before I do, I
feel I should warn you that by my being here, you and Nail may be in
danger, and if that’s the case we don’t have much time."

"Well, in that case, why don’t we do this by a faster method, then?"
He said, smiling. "Don’t get so agitated, child. Here. Come let me
place my hand on your head."

Bulma found it exceedingly easy to trust him, so even though she didn’t
know why he wanted to touch her head, she did as he asked. "What are
you doing?" She asked after a few seconds, puzzled by his behavior. Was
this some kind of Namek custom?

Saichorou laughed. "No, this is not a custom of ours," he chuckled. "I
rarely do this."

"You read my mind!" Bulma exclaimed. "Literally!"


On to Chapter Twelve - Part Two...