DB series Story collection

Point of no return II

His anxiety and despair melted away as he realized that right there, at his fingertips, he had the power to change his course trajectory. If he could just figure out how to set the coordinates for Earth...

His blue eyes narrowed in concentration as he studied the controls. There were various lights, tons of switches, and very little that made any sense to him. Trunks chanced a glance up through his oval window, and just managed to see Nappa's space pod closing after him. Vegeta, though, was still standing where he had been.

And the prince was staring right at him.

Trunks leaned back again, his heart pounding. He looked down at the controls again.

Try his hand at setting coordinates that were likely to fail, or accompany his father on not just one, but two purging missions?

Did he dare?

His hand was shaking again as he reached out to the controls. Trunks frowned and clenched his fist tightly, willing the shaking to stop. He blinked as sweat ran into his eyes, and cursed mentally as he wiped it away with his other hand.

He went for it and pressed a button.

"Space pod communication system disengaged."

Trunks blinked and looked around him, as if expecting something else to happen. Nothing else did.

"Raditz?" he asked out loud in a wary voice. He got no response, and tried again. "Nappa? You guys there?"

He got nothing. Trunks' mind began to race, and he finally felt a flicker of hope. If they couldn't hear him, then he could try a verbal command.

"Destination?" he asked curiously.

"Destination set to: Rithica, galaxy #13 in the north sector."

His eyes widened; this was his key! Trunks was just opening his mouth to set a new destination when he was shot back into his seat as his space pod took off with its usual acceleration. He grit his teeth as he slowly got accustomed to the acceleration again. Both of his hands were trembling now, and Trunks clenched them tightly. He would have questioned his anxiety more, but he was too preoccupied with this potential opportunity to escape the madness of his father's world.

"Computer, change destination to the planet Earth," the teenager ordered in a firm voice.

"Authorization to overwrite destination denied."

"Fuck!" Trunks yelled angrily, slamming his fist down into his thigh. He leaned his head forward into his hands and groaned into them, his elbows on his knees. He brought his hands up into his hair and stayed that way for hours.

What do I do? he wondered to himself in desperation. He could not actively participate in these purges. To do so would make him a monster just like the androids of his time... Trunks refused to hurt innocent beings just because Frieza wanted him to. The teenager brought his hands down and covered his face with them.

Vegeta was going to order him to do it, and to disobey him would undoubtedly create serious problems. It was either follow his father's orders, or be prepared to fight Vegeta, potentially to the death.

Trunks groaned into his hands again. His father might have been a cold and heartless bastard, but Trunks didn't have it in him to hurt him.

What the hell was he going to do?

"Destination overwrite set by Vegeta, soldier rank 3," the computer said in its monotone voice, startling Trunks. "Updating coordinates."

Trunks looked out of the space pod window, and could see two space pods flying just ahead of his. That assuaged his fear a bit that Vegeta had only changed his pod destination. The teenager sighed and focused on the sights he was seeing to get his mind off what he was going to do next. He was once again blown away by the vastness of the universe. So large, so endless... so much emptiness. Somewhere out there, was a little blue planet with everything Trunks loved.