Contradicting Mission

Part 7

The rest of the check-ups went without occurance, Bojack and Garlic each checking out within fifteen minutes apart from one another. Freeza was soon handed his licence by the receptionist along with an apology for the wait. They were told to go to Habitation Booth 27-C to be assigned a temporary location to stay in. The doctor emerged from his office to say a quick good bye and they were off.

As the door to Identification Booth 31-K opened to allow the party of four to exit, Son Gohan suddenly became aware of how warm the caverns were compared to the inside of the office. He had adjusted quickly to the low temperature once he had entered, but now that he emerged back into the dark, widing caves he realized just how cold it had been. It made the tunnels seem like a sauna.

"Why do we need to be assigned a place to stay?" Bojack asked as they walked down one tunnel, following Freeza by the waning light of the flourecent plants Gohan still carried with him. They turned left, then right, then right again, then they came to a sudden, dramatic down slope that they were forced to fly down for nearly six minutes, "Why can't we just stay out side where the temperature is more agreeable?"

Freeza didn't answer right away. He led them right two more times, then down a gradual bend to the left. His small pale body casting strange shadows in the dying black light, his skin hardly glowed now that the plant was nearly burned up; rather, he looked like an shadowy ghost, barely flitting in and out of sight. Soon he would vanish all together and they would have to follow him by sound alone.

"It's hardly ment for our comfort," he finally said, vanishing around a right turn, "It's for them to keep track of us until we leave."

The others quickened their pace lest they lose sight of him for good.

"They only collected you three's genes; they haven't tested them yet," he continued once he was sure they were following him again. It was sickening how lacking their navigation skills were, "So until they're sure how safe it is for you to roam around it the public, they'd like to keep an eye on you."

"I'm probably older than you," Bojack said, "I don't need people to 'keep an eye on me.'"

Freeza's shrug was barely audible in the dark, "Like they care. Besides, they don't really trust off-planet Aeesu-jin anyway."

"Who are 'they'?" Gohan asked quietly, rubbing one of the planet leaves between his thumb and forefinger. The juices that came out shone brighter than the dim leaves. He smeared the juice on the other fronds where they sank it, temporarily making the plant glow brighter. It wasn't much of a difference, but it was enough to keep the light going a few more minutes. He said a silent thanks to doctor Koda for telling him about that little trick.

"Them. The guys in control," Freeza snorted, "Of all the corperations on the top floor, I don't think there's a handful that have any real trust or liking to off-worlders. Chief Bureau of Legislature, Backlash, the Three Bureaus of Corperate Safety and Public Protection; the list goes on. Within the next hundred years about two hundred more will sprout up."

Gohan acknowledged with silence as he rolled a second leaf between his fingers, releasing the juices and rubbing them on the plant's other leaves. It was dying out faster now, some of the leaves had already given way to darkness, it was almost incredible to Gohan at how fast the dead leaves withered and shrivled and shrunk the instant the light left them. Behind them was a trail of dead leaves that had fallen off on their own.

And still they continued down the tunnels; up, down, right, right, left. It was a rediculious trail that left Gohan dizzy as he wondered how deep this mountain went and how many miles of tunnels spanned the entire civilization in all. Then he wondered if there were other mountains with caves just like this one. He wondered if he had greatly underestimated the size of the population on the planet.

The kept moving, never slowing their pace because Freeza never slowed his, despite the fact that the once lush leaves had dwindled down to a sorry number of four and were dying fast. Gohan continued to rub the leaves for their shining juices, but the instant he did they were fading again.

Another leaf died and fell off.

Down to three leaves.

They followed the small, agile form of the petite Aeesu-jin as he continued to dart from one hall way to another. They traveled in silence, their feet moving with the grace and nimbleness of a expirianced warrior--silent and stelthful as ninjas and uncountable more deadly.

Two more rights, down for five minuted, left, left, right.

Down to two leaves.

They had to squint their eyes to see, and despite the pethetic amount of light Freeza seemed to pick up his pace, increasing his speed to an all out run. The others were now less silent in their travel, their toes snagged on unseen rocks that jutted up beneath their feet. They bumped into eachother occationally, shoulders brushing together as they tried their damndest to keep up. Each time the contacted the sprang away from eachother in revultion.

Downward for three minutes, left, right, right, up for one minute, left.

Down to one leaf.

It was now a mass of stumbling feet. Gohan, unaccustomed to clausterphobia, was begining to feel closed in. His insticts screamed for wide open spaces, a reassuring breeze, hell, sight! He and the others kept right at Freeza's heels to keep sight of him so that they wouldn't get lost in this dark, cold hell where they would soon surely go mad and start to blast their way to the freedom above. Bojack stumbled onto the back of Freeza's feet, causing the Aeesu-jin to momentarily stumble. Everyone behind him had to come to a screeching halt to avoid a pile-up. Freeza ran even faster, the three following him did the same.

Left, right, right, sharp turn left, gradual turn left.

The final leaf fell to the ground where it was instantly trampled under foot.

In that one instant of total darkness, hardly half a second before Gohan felt he would scream that he was suffucating, Freeza stopped short infront of a door leading off of the hall way. The other three slammed into him, having not seen he had stopped. There was a brief untangling of limbs before the four of them quickly moved away from one another--each repulsed and horrified that they had even came into contact.

There was a brief pause as they gained their breath. Though the trek itself had cost them hardly an ounce of power to travel, with exception for Freeza, the closed in environment had their nerves suffering, their hearts racing, and their chi's hardly in line. In the silence, the darkness could almost be felt, smothering, suffocating, clogging pores. Despite the chill, Gohan was sweating. It just didn't feel natural to him--the total and absolute lightlessness. The cramped, winding tunnels. The cold. He wondered momentarily if this was what if felt like to be dead.

The thought made Gohan sudder, and mentally scold himself for being so childish as to be afraid of something as meanial as the dark when he should more be concerned about the three antagonists he was traveling with.

Only then did he notice that there was a dim light flitting down on them from above. Looking up, he saw that the door Freeza had stopped in front of had the words 'Habitation Booth 27-C' printed above it in flourecent fibers hardly thicker than strands of hair. He sagged with relief. They were finally there.

Freeza thumbed a button off to the side, and like all the other doors they had thus encountered, this one slid open with a pleasant swish. The entire hall was immidiatly cast into eye-scalding light from within, it wrapped around each side of the door frame, casing paler light down either side of the hall ways. The darkness that was out of the light's reach looked even darker than it had when Gohan and the others were in it.

The boy's eyes crossed involuntarily and squinted as he tried to shield his face from the sudden intensely bright on-slaught, while at the same time enjoying sight once again. The ability to make out detail never felt better. He was the first one to get out of the hall way and through the door, no sure exactly were he would be stepping into but reasoning that it would have to be better than that maddening darkness.

And he was right. Even as the other four crowded into the well light room before them, Gohan was already taking in the room's design. It wasn't much different than Identification Booth 31-K, which caused Gohan to assume that Aeesu-jin weren't very elaborate when it came to decor. Still, like the other place, it was not an unpleasant atmosphere. The carpet in this room was a powder blue, which accented the sky blue walls, and the cealing was lined with too-bright lights that burned the eyes. There were two walls of seats in this room as well, just like the Identification office, and a similar receptionist desk sat in one corner. The only difference this room had in design from the other room was that one solid wall was nothing but a mirror, it stretched from the point the walls met the carpet, straight up to the cealing.

Gohan was too busy examining the theme of the room to immidiatly notice his reflection in the mirror. When he did see himself, he was more than a little surprised. Since he was standing almost right next to Bojack, he looked smaller than ever, dwarfed, tiny, vulnerable. He wondered if that was how Bojack saw him, and hoped not. His size was not the only thing that troubled him. From the long-term exposure to the darkness, his pupils were dilated, making him look hazy, listless, disoriented. There were the begining of bags under his eyes--proof that he hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before--which added to the disgruntled look. His hair was even wilder than usual, he hadn't had time to brush it this morning, so while the top part of his head was covered in irrational, wild spikes that jutted out every which-way, his bangs hung down speratically over his eyes and ears.

He looked terrible.

Besides that, now that he had stopped moving, his body started to inform him about the lack of sleep the bags under his eyes so loudly described. His arms and legs felt akward, his fingers felt thick, his eyes felt muddy, his skin felt greasy and unwashed.The light above still seemed to hone in on his squinting eyes.

Why am I only feeling this now? He asked himself.

He assumed his curiosity and enthusiasm about coming into contact with a new cultur had helped him forget he was tired. His conversation with Dr. Koda had been so refreshing it had once again banished his tiredness right from him. But now that he was here, after the nerve wracking ordeal of having to travel through nearly total darkness, he was finally paying the toll as acute drowsiness crept across him like a warm, fuzzy blanket.

He suddenly had to jerk his head up as he almost fell right off his own feet. He hadn't even noticed his eyes had closed, and he hadn't been aware he was unsteadily swaying back and forth in exhasted delirium. He shook his head violently in a feeble attempt to rid himself of the grody feeling. It only partially worked and his sight cleared enough to make out the form of Freeza standing at the receptionist desk, Bojack and Garlic on either side of him.

The boy didn't bother joining them. He made his way closer to the mirror, hardly three inches between his nose and his reflection's. He squinted into his own eyes, pulled back one eye lid to expose slightly blood shot eyes. He groaned quietly to himself as he saw that his fingers were stained slightly blue from the plant juice he had rubbed between them. It smelled slightly acidic.

He hoped that wherever he was going after this, there would be a bath.

"Just can't stop staring at yourself, can you?" Garlic's voice grated on Gohan's nerves.

The boy glanced back to see that the three of them had finished talking to the receptionist and were making their way to a different door than the one they had entered through.

"We have to go back into the dark?" Gohan found himself asking, his voice not so much as scared as frustrated, "The plant we used is totally gone, we won't be able to see."

"Idiot," Freeza's voice had the peculiar way of murmuring and exclaiming at the same time, "If you had been paying attention, you would have heard we here entering the inhabited area of this specific civilization. It's well light were there's heavy population."

Gohan turned his ebony eyes on the floor to avoid them betraying any feelings he was expiriancing. He never had been good at acting. Still, the flush of embarassment that creeped subtly across his cheeks also held a minute amount of adrenaline. Just the thing he would need for another heckic, dizzying journey. Aside from that, even his groggy mind registered the small fact about lighing. His thoughts flipped to the large cavern they had started in, teeming with errant Aeesu-jin going from point A to point B with seeming little else on their mind. Obviously, it was a heavily populated area. It had been well light.

While he had been going through the dark, smothering tunnels, he didn't believe they had seen a single person besides themselves. It was unpopulated, thus unlight. It made sense when thought of that way. The mountain was incredibly large from the outiside, inside it was beyond simply large, it was monsterious; Gohan had no doubt it spanned miles underground as well. Lighing it must take phenominal amounts of energy. By lighting only the areas that needed it, they were saving energy that could be used for the puplic's benefit.

It made perfect sense to Gohan.

Thinking about the benefits of light conservation had saved Gohan from further embarassment, as the red flush that rested on his cheeks deminished and the situation was forgotten.

Freeza led them out of Habitation Booth 27-C and through a new door. Then entered into a hall that was a far cry from the primitive, unkept caves they had, as of yet, been using; Gohan was now begining to realize they had been using not only unpopulated tunnels, but unused ones. Ones that, maybe, hadn't been used for years before them. This hall was a pleasant, simple, efficiant use of space, it had a cream-colored tile floor, beige textured walls and a cealing that was lined with halogen lights as far as they eyes could see. And there were Aeesu-jin, lots of them.

"There aren't many off-planet Aeesu-jin visitors, are there," Gohan asked quietly, wondering again why, through all his control of motor skills, he still hadn't managed to sever the link that connected his mouth to his curiosity. He hadn't intended to ask anything. Once again he damned his curiosity.

"I told you, off-planets aren't exactly liked, much less made welcome. If one's born an off-planet, they would do good to remain that way," Freeza's voice was shockingly similar to the monotone the other on-planet Aeesu-jin had used. Gohan supposed he was either falling back into the habit without realizing it, or he was trying to appear more like the on-planets so he would better fit in. Freeza added to his last statement, "Now, shut up."

Gohan didn't bother even being offended. Kami knew he had been told to shut up by Vegita enough that he should be used to it. If what Freeza said was indeed true, it would once again corrospond with the circumstances Freeza had lived in. The Aeesu-jin must have been born off-planet, King Kold, Gohan suspected, had been an off-planet since birth as well. And perhaps his father. The young halfling had a feeling the off-planets and the on-planets didn't change their roles very much; perhaps hundreds of generations of Aeesu-jin had only seen their home planet once or twice at best.

It was baffling, facsinating, and intriguing to the boy all at once. He had to all but swollow his tounge to keep him from persuing the topic.

The four of them--an odd bunch indeed, when compared to the normalicy of the other Aeesu-jin in the hall--had an uncomparably easier time following Freeza than they had in the tomb-like maze. With the bright lights over-head and the well defined floor, walls and cealing, it was merely a task of navigating through the other people.

And even the other Aeesu-jin around them were interesting. They came in every size, shape and color--ranging from hardly up to Gohan's hip to twice, hell, three times his size, towering over him as they passed one another without even a glance in his direction. Some of them had horns, jutting our from the backs of their heads, the sides, from below their ears from above their temples to one very conspicuious Aeesu-jin that caught Gohan's eye who had a single horn pointing out from between his eyes. Some didn't have any horns at all. Most had shiny, metalic looking accessories on their heads and shoulders, varying from gleaming black to pure, snowy white. Burnt ocr and sandy yellow, hunter green to bright emerald, purple, violet, lavender, saphire, and a couple bloody reds. The only real thing they had in common were their long, thick tails that waved confidentally behind them.

Time past far quicker now. Too fast for Gohan, who was soaking in each different looking Aeesu-jin like they were the sweetest of eye candy. Eyes wide, he never looked in the same place for too long; once again his chronic curiosity slammed the tiredness right out of him.

He also noticed, however, that the other Aeesu-jin were staring at him, Freeza, Garlic and Bojack with somewhat less enthusiasm than Gohan was looking at them. They were downright glaring, and Gohan was nerviously reminded that on-planet Aeesu-jin didn't like off-planets, and that dislike would no doubt be passed on to the non-Aeesu-jin people with them. Gohan felt momentarily unnerved by the united look of dissapproval.

The only question that nibbled at him at the moment was how the blasted on-planets knew Freeza was an off-planet in the first place! He dismissed it as he allowed himself the luxury of lackadaisical observation. Might as well not wonder.

Freeza led them at a more leasurly pace through the still winding, but not smothering halls. Left, right, right again, Gohan couldn't keep track of their path. Occationally, the only inclination that they were going any other way than horizontal would be when he noticed his ankles were pivoting more and more to accomidate a steeper slope to the tiled floor. The slope was nearly always downward, causing Gohan to wonder just how many miles below ground they had travled.

Freeza turned down one more hall way that led hardly ten feet until it narrowed and stopped short at a different looking door. This door was narrower, the top of the door was hardly a foot above Gohan's head--custom made to comfotably allow passage to a smaller, younger Aeesu-jin. It would be a tough squeeze for Bojack, the boy could tell merely by looking.

When Freeza hit a button to the side--one amoung many, Gohan noted--the door didn't slid open like the others did. Rather, a chiming sound could be heard from the other side of the door. Like a door bell. In such a foreign place, the boy hadn't thought something so familiar could have been found. It was mildly amusing.

A younger sounding voice could be heard inside--the door was too thick to make out distinct words, but Gohan thought he heard something like, "Papa, someone's at the door." An older sounding voice said something even less audible; there was a quick shuffling from inside, a thump, a little more shuffling, then nothing.

Gohan, Freeza, Bojack and Garlic waited in silence before the door for an instant.

A quiet swish later, and the door finally opened, revealing a slightly flustered looking Aeesu-jin. Light green skin and eyes, horns that swept back like a billy-goat and a slightly stubby tail, perhaps mildly scrawny arms and legs, his eye-level was dead even with Gohan's chin. He wasn't exactly a shining example of the race, but he had a soft featured face and a quick smile; Gohan could find no complaint with his appearance.

The youth was also pleased to find he wasn't greeted by a frigid attack of air when the door opened. Rather, the air inside seemed slightly warmer, soothing to his skin, which was slightly raw from constant exposure to the low tempurature.

"Are you Sunow?" Freeza asked as, without invitation, he shouldered his way past the smaller Aeesu-jin and inside. Garlic and Bojack pushed in behind him, the latter having to duck and turn sideways to enter.

"Yes, welcome to my home, you must be Freeza," Sunow said, drawing his lips tight to keep from snarling--since his first meeting with an off-planet traveler, he had come to see most of them were rude, pushy, and probably a bad influance to his children. This one didn't seem to be any exception.

He turned his eyes back to the door way to see that the last member of the group was still standing in the hallway outside the door. Sunow was surprised to see it was only a child, perhaps a few years younger than Forester. His short, coal black hair dangling down over his coal black eyes; the boy glared through the doorway at Freeza and the other two. He looked as discusted about their rudeness as Sunow felt. The Aeesu-jin kept his face straight, resisting a smile of amusement.

"Please," he said with a gesture, stepping out of the way, "Come in."

The boy smiled a mixture of politeness and shyness and silently slipped past him and inside.

"I hope my home suits you during your stay here, Freeza-san," Sunow said, hands folded in front of him, "I'm afraid I wasn't informed you had so many men with you or else you might have been put in a more suiting location. We have only three bedrooms."

Freeza didn't say anything as he walked around the room, inspecting corners and running his pale finger tips along table tops. His eyes narrowed as he scrutanized a couch that lined one wall, picking distanefully at a piece of lint nestled on one of the cusions. Finally, he sighed condecendingly and folded his arms across his chest.

"It will have to do."

Sunow noticed the boy narrow his eyes and tighten his lips, as though he were about to chastize the other Aeesu-jin but was resisting.

"Am......well, since you will be staying here, I think it would be nice to make proper introductions. As you four may have caught, my name is Sunow. I have two children--they're in their rooms right now--Forester and Eesei. I hope they don't bother you during your stay."

The boy with the coal colored hair paused for a second before saying in a polite, yet surprisingly confident voice, "I'm Son Gohan."

The other three's introductions were far less protocal, quite literally, they merely grunted their names before returning to disinterestedly inspect his house.

"Freeza."

"Bojack."

"Garlic."

Sunow found his attention riveting it's way back to the boy, who, unlike the others, stood quietly by, allowing only his eyes to do the inspecting, "My son might be around your age, how old are you Son Gohan?"

They boy tapped at the ground with a toe, his furry brown tail, which Sunow only now noticed, curled down around one of his legs, hooking absent-mindedly around one of his ankles, "Juusan-sai, thirteen."

A few years younger, Sunow reasoned, but seeming decades more mature.

"We'll have to introduce the two of you."

The boy only smiled and tilted his head back to look down the hallway leading to the bedrooms. A silence filled the room, broken only by the occational squeeking sound that came from Bojack's boots as he paced the room.

"Oh, Sunow-san?"

The Aeesu-jin turned his head to the quiet voice of Son Gohan, realizing this was the first time the boy had spoken without being spoken to first. "Yes?"

"Would this place by any chance have a bath?" His face was slightly red as he asked, his tail curling tighter around his leg, the end tapping at the toe of his boot.

"Of coarse, down the hall, first door on the left. Take your time, we even have warm water here," the Aeesu-jin smiled. He had noticed the boy had his arms wrapped around his shoulders from the instant he came in. Warm-blooded organisms never really did well on planet Aeesu.

"Thanks," Gohan said, already half-way down the hall.

To be continued..............