DB SF ch 12: first hint

In a lonely spaceship time was wandering by very slowly. Even Goku, the model of a sport-focused man, began to feel bored with his daily training routine. Okay, it  was a continuous challenge to his body to raise the gravity whenever he felt it, but in the end it felt a bit hollow. The new possibility to train with Sedri made that feeling subside for a good while- the girl was eager to train and to get stronger- but day after day, week after week, he felt ready for a landtrip.
"That's a nice planet there!" he said and indicated a planet on the screen. "Let's go there!"
"What? That one? If you really want, but that planet is under Freezas control…"
"WHAT??? Even that one? Aren't there any free planets out there anymore?!" the frustrated Saiyan yelled out. He made an angry face and sighed. "I don't care. Really. Then we just have to watch our backs."

The name of that planet was Kiirou, a world mostly covered by dry deserts; only interrupted by some big rivers, on which riversides grew a surprisingly rich vegetation. The sky shined in a rather strange yellow-orange cloudless colour. On the surface blew a wind, as hot and dry like it was on planet Byakku.
The spaceship landed on a plateau far from the big space-station; before they set their foot on that new planet they checked for lifesigns in the neighbourhood. As it was negative, they went out. Sedri was wearing again her usual armour, to "fit in there better", as she said. Goku just shrugged.
A boast of wind blew him in the face. "Wow, kinda windy here…" Goku was wearing again his dark pants, a dark-green shirt and a red bandana on his head to hide his hair. Goku put the spaceship into the capsule, after that they flew to the spacestation some kilometres down the river.
The station was quite huge; it looked more like city than a mere station on a planet surface. But even from the distance they could see that it was watched by some soldiers. After they landed Goku fastened the bandana, he was afraid of being discovered. Then he looked at Sedri, who seemed to be not worried about that.
"And you? Don't you think they will recognize you on the spot?"
The woman grinned knowing. "Don't you think somebody like me, who is running under Freezas radar for years, hasn't something up his sleeve? I'll show you something interesting… A technique of the Alarians!"
She made some gestures with her fingers, and then she focused on something spiritual.  Little clouds of steam surrounded her body and hid it for some seconds. As they freed it from their shadows her body had muted: on the place of her feminine body now there was a muscular creature, with long sharp teeth and long dirty hair. It wore a complete armour and smelled disgusting. "What do you think now? My shape-shifting technique." her voice, now as deep as a bass growled out.
Goku was speechless. "Wow… amazing! It's better than Oolong!" he couldn't believe his own eyes and surveyed her from all angles. "It looks perfect! Can you teach me this?"
"It's only an illusion, as long I don't have to fight at full force I think it will do it. It took me years to get on this level. But I can hold this form only for 3 hours, so let's hurry."
In this form, one of the few Klorians still around, they could move freely. Nobody dared to come too close; Sedri knew well the reason why she chose this form. Whenever she set her foot into a bar wherever tried to approach her changed his mind and walked way very quickly, letting her alone sitting on the table. Only the barkeeper dared to ask her for her wishes, and so she could start a conversation. Goku just stood there some meters apart and just  listened. It was clear that her questions aimed to mainly get information about the Saiyan and their last movements. The first tries ended in a fiasco, while the fifth location hid a bit of interesting information. One guy- quite drunk- said that he had heard that the for Saiyans that they were scheduled to attack a fare away planet named Namek. That world was located in a less discovered part of the galaxy, and he wasn't really sure about that. But as soon Goku had heard the word "Saiyans" he couldn't care less, his mind ran on full speed.
"What? Four?! You said four? What… Why are they four now?" he busted out spoiling the discussion. Sedri noticed his sudden change of expression.
"Yo! Yupp! Four… dere ish also a…a kiddo… a real busta!" the drunk guy nodded. "They say he's tha son of tha longhaired guy… What wash hish name again… Hic!"
"Radditz." Goku and Sedri told him in sync.
"Yeash. Hic! That one… now… lemme sleep… 'night…"
The man let his huge head fall onto the table and began to snore loudly two seconds later. That signed the end of the conversation, the two Saiyans left the bar a bit puzzled an unsure what to think about that.
"That was sure interesting… but… can we buy it?" Goku asked her as soon they were out of the bar, supposedly unwatched.
Sedri shrugged. "Dunno. His speech about that planet Namek sounded a bit confused… but he as sure about that boy… do you think it was your son?"
The Saiyan nodded, his expression dark, he scratched the back of his head and suspired. There was no direct evidence that that Saiyan kid was indeed his son, but on the other hand it would be logical for his brother to present Gohan as his son. Who would question that? It wasn't even a complete lie, but he had to admit that it stung a bit. And he began to wonder how his son could have changed in the meantime, during his life as a Saiyan warrior. What would happen if he would succeed in finding him, would he have to fight over Gohan? Would he have to kill his brother? Would he be able to do that? So many questions that only time can answer.
Sedri watched Goku silently, she could see the sorrow and the longing for his son in his face, she struggled to hide a sudden flow of jealousy that was about to overwhelm her. Luckly for her in her transformation he couldn't see that, even as he looked in her face without a warning, catching her off guard.
"What now?" she wanted to know.
"How far away is Namek?"
That question took her aback. "WHAT?! Don't tell me you want to go there? It's… it's really far away…" Sedri took a deep breath and began again. "Do you really believe that this dude in there, drunk as he is, can say the difference between Namek and Tayara?! I don't buy that. We should double- check it first. Don't run too fast, Goku!"
It seemed indeed that Goku didn't think about the reliability of the whole story, without Sedri he would have rushed straight to this planet without thinking twice. But after hearing her point of view now he had to admit she was right.
"Uh… well… it won't hurt, I guess… Ok. But as soon somebody else says the same, I'll take it as an evidence!"
That was a compromise both could live with; without losing time they searched for the next pub. But in the moment they were about to turn around the wall of a building Goku almost crashed into a tall muscular grumpy soldier who barked angry:
"Hey, idiot! Use your eyes for watching out!!"
The Saiyan looked into his fire-red eyes, which still irradiated coldness, and fell the impressive energy the solder was emitting even staying at ease. The man had also red hair, which was standing on top of his head in iroqouis style, he seemed almost human from the outside, but his aura said otherwise. Their glances met for some moments; they began to study each other silently. As they didn't move Sedri was worried about a fight, but the soldier just sniffed and laughed shortly, then he slowly walked past Goku, their glances still fixed on each other. The Saiyan followed him with his eyes until he vanished into the next street, then he shrugged. His expression of seriousness was replaced with an expecting smile: the next street was filled with the smell of some delicious food! Perfect timing, is stomach was about to start growling.
"What about lunch? You can hear it loud enough."
The woman couldn't help but giggle. "Understood. But we better hurry up. I feel I won't be able to hold this form for much longer. Something to take away and then we hide somewhere."

They entered the next suitable restaurant; while Sedri continued with her interviews Goku ordered six big portions of a dish that resembled his beloved ramen and smelled really tempting. A bit faster than they wanted to they searched a lonesome alley, their senses still searching for some unwanted guests in the neighbourhood. Once they felt secure Sedri made again some strange gestures and returned to her normal form. As she finally could throw away a heavy weight from her shoulders she breathed out loud.
"Finally. I have to rest a bit. And to eat. What, only six portions? Well, better than nothing…"
"What?! Well, you cannot deny your ancestry… with your appetite…"

The two Saiyans sat down at the stairs of an old rusty house and began to eat like there's no tomorrow. But even during that they didn't forget to scan their surroundings for some unwanted spectators; but their "scouter" worked only on living creatures. That was the cause why their sharp senses didn't detect a small flying device, big only as a small bird. It was flying over the houses, noiseless like a ghost, and began to descend as soon he had detected something interesting. The device was armed with a powerful camera which was able to shot perfect pictures even from a great distance. The target was already set: Sedri and Goku.
The person controlling it was already looking at the fresh –shot pictures on is screen and smirked: "I knew I've seen that face somewhere…" It was the unfriendly soldier from some hours before, who had bumped into Goku on that street corner. He had recognized him on the spot; in his profession as a head-hunter he knew every face on the manhunt-table. On the second screen on his left he saw Gokus photo, which was shot back on planet Byakku; under that there was written the information about him: name, known fight-power and of course the reward. 23 million. Near Gokus photo there was also an older picture of Sedri, her head had more than 120 million of reward.
He nodded and made a call with his scouter. "Ringok here. We got a big fish to catch! Be ready!"
Some seconds later four voices yelled a loud "Aye Sir!" in the microphone.

The two targets of that manhunt didn't know about that incoming danger yet. It took them only some minutes to gulp down their meals and to ease the worst hunger.
"Uff! Yeah, now I'm feeling better!" Goku laughed out and let himself fall on his back, very happy now. "And you?"
"Me too. But I would recommend changing location now. I don't want to be in one place for too long, I got a strange feeling…" the woman replied sternly, while she threw the packages into a container like a skilled basketball-player. "Don't worry, now I feel better. I can go on for another couple of hours. Com on, hurry!"
"Hey, slow down a bit…" the Saiyan growled annoyed and rose up.
"I am on the run for six years; I know what I have to do!" Sedri hissed at him suddenly angered. "My instinct has saved me many times already! So, would you please come with me??"
Goku blinked a bit startled; this kind of burst-outs he only knew from Chichi or Bulma. "OK! OK! I get it! Calm down!" he sighed in defeat, and stood up to ran after her.

Well, the Saiyan maybe couldn't know how good it was for him to have followed that invitation; only few minutes after their departure five strange figures came and searched for something specific. It was Ringoks team; while his four underlings did their research he was standing in the middle of the road, his arms crossed while waiting silently for some results.
"Sir, the two suspects aren't here anymore!" one of the Four reported, a short fat guy with purple skin.
"I can see that too, idiot!" the Captain sighed. "Have you found something I don't know?"
"Sir! I found something!" another soldier yelled, an almost human-looking man with green hair and big pointed ears, in his hands the packaging paper of the meals. "With some luck we could get the genetic fingerprint of the male!"
"Good job, Tanfo. Finally someone with come brain…" Ringok nodded in acknowledgment. Ok, we'll head back to the central and wait for the results. I guess we'll see them again very soon!"

Sedri and Goku, not knowing about that, walked through the streets, but it wasn't a typical sightseeing. They were in constant alert, looking for something suspect or a hint that somebody head recognized them. While Sedri acted naturally, Goku was visibly nervous. Too visibly for the woman's taste.
"Is it really that necessary to act like that?" she hissed a bit annoyed. "It's like you're yelling out loud that you hide something…!"
"What? What do I wrong now??" Goku answered even more annoyed. He began to feel like a child with his mother who did all wrong and being scolded.
"Don't look around like that…! It's too obvious. C'mon, I would buy a pair of sunglasses, so you can continue to watch the others while being unnoticed."
Goku was about to give back an answer to free part of his irritation, as his glance fell on the wall of a house in front of them , and he froze. Right in front of his eyes, visible to everyone, he saw a poster with his face and his name. He was wanted.
"Oh shit…"
Sedri followed his glance and nodded. "Yepp, you said it. Shit. Well, do you believe me now?"
The pressure of that realization hit the Saiyan like a punch; from that moment he felt like the eyes of everyone was nailed on him, even of that was only his impression. It was this unknown feeling of being wanted that haunted him all of sudden. As a random man near him noted, that, whoever this guy was, he must be a complete idiot for trying to revolt against Freeza, he almost jumped. Fortunately the man didn't recognize him- even he was standing next to that "idiot".
It was time for a discreet retreat manoeuvre.