When Walter turned to look at him, he almost fell down. Dustin had the nanobots cover him like he was wearing a suit just like Walter's.
"We found this ship, and flew it here, hoping for help."
Walter just nodded in agreement. Dustin wondered if he was hurt worse than he was letting on.
The men outside were very professional, swarming the small ship and verifying that there were only the four of them. They were taken into the hanger proper, and allowed to rest in a debriefing room. Stretchers were used for Trey and Sherry, since they couldn't walk. Dustin spied a very nice ship in hanger three as they were hurried along to the debriefing room. Granny was lurking in the shadows as they passed, and he made sure not to look at her.
"Who are you?" asked a woman, entering the room after only a few moments.
"We're refugees trying to get back home, and were attacked by some aliens. We barely managed to crash land here after our warp failed," explained Dustin
"If your warp failed, it's a miracle you ever survived to make it here."
"We think micro meteors were to blame, ma'am." Walter's tired voice was very convincing.
The woman's eyes lingered on Dustin, and he suddenly realized they knew he was a Uz'En. He saw in her eyes intense interest in him, and nothing for the others. She was going to kill them, and try to take him prisoner.
"Which alien group attacked you?" she asked, moving back towards the door.
"The Josagn," answered Dustin, watching for any tells from her at that name.
She froze with her hand half raised.
"Josagn?" she asked, turning back to him.
"Yes, ma'am. They seemed very interested in catching us, though I'm not sure why."
"You have no idea?" she asked, looking him pointedly in the eyes.
"It could be because I killed all of the ones living around the death planet, and blew up a couple of their stations, but I would just be guessing."
Walter was staring at him in shock, but the look on the woman's face was worth it.
"Or it could have been the A'Dfukl. I killed a ship full of them too. The Gaklut were just mad because we jumped into their space by accident."
The woman was obviously uncertain and scared. She couldn't seem to move. Her mouth fought to open, and a high-pitched squeak squeezed out of her frozen lips.
"What's going on?" asked Walter.
"It's time for us to go," said Dustin, motioning for him to replace his helmet, which Walter quickly obliged.
"They were going to kill all of you," he said, sending nanobots to pick up the stretchers with Trey and Sherry.
Facing the wall into the hangar, he held up a hand. Nanobots streamed to it, eating through the concrete and metal, quickly forming a hole. The large beautiful ship he had spied before was surrounded by men trying to get inside of it. Behind them, alarms started to sound as the air breech was detected. The woman's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped to the ground unconscious, as the nanobots Dustin had sent to paralyze her rushed back to him.
Leading the floating stretchers with Walter bringing up the rear, Dustin walked calmly towards the ship. Nanobots swarmed around him, forming a visible cloud that protected them from any stray shots that came at them.
The men around the ship, quickly spied them, and ran towards them, shooting wildly. Nanobots intercepted each shot, almost frantic to keep them safe. When one got close enough, Dustin shot out a tentacle, and lifted him high into the air, for all to see. The others stopped running towards them, and started to flee instead.
Throwing the man to the side, he calmly had the nanobots stream back up his arm, as if his tentacle was returning to that of an arm. Walter was close enough to see what was really happening, but to everyone else, it looked like he had grown a tentacle super-fast and then returned back to the form of a man.
When they reached the ship, Granny opened the door, letting them in.
"I had no idea you were capable of so much," Walter murmured in amazement as he stumbled onto the ship last.
"You learn a thing or two when everyone wants to kill you."
Dustin turned to smirk at him, but ended up catching him as he slumped to the ground.
"Follow me, I'll show you to the medical area," said Granny, turning at the door. She had only just arrived in time to see Walter faint.
Having the nanobots carry the stretchers behind him, he followed her to a very nice medical facility. It had six beds and special machines designed to do complex procedures. It didn't take long for them to have everyone one a bed, being evaluated.
"I told you humans are weak," complained Granny when they got the results.
Dustin just sighed. All three of them had massive amounts of poison in their systems. That, coupled with the damage from the crash, meant that none of them had much time left on their hands.
"Bet you've been poisoned too," she said, nodding at him.
"I can metabolize it," he said, thoughtfully. They had to get off this planet, before the people in the base blew them up, but he was wondering if there were any Uz'En captured here. They had shown a lot of interest in him, and the woman had known every alien race he mentioned.
"Steer the ship away from the base, and have the machines start purging their systems of the poison. These machines are pretty high tech, they might be able to save them. I'm going to go see what I can find out on their database before we leave."
"Alright," sighed Granny, moving to the console next to Walter's bed first. "Just be careful. You haven't seen everything that's out there yet, and…"
Dustin didn't wait to hear what else she had to say, he had already left the room and was heading back towards the airlock door. The people he had been traveling with hadn't shown him any hostility, but the ones in the base had. They were hiding something, and he was going to find out what.
I wonder if they know more about his people here?
"Damn it, Jake! Hold up!" Olivia stopped to rest, leaning against the nearest tree. Her belly was getting huge and she was having trouble keeping up.
"Sorry, Olivia," said Jake, returning to her side. He kept looking around in excitement at all of the sights and sounds around them.
Olivia watched him, amazed at the change in his behavior since his PED had finished upgrading and syncing with him. Apparently, he had poor eyesight. The PED had corrected that as soon as he woke up. She was a little jealous that his PED was better than hers. Because it was made from nanobots, it wasn't a large hulking piece of metal attached to his arm, but could change and move throughout his body. He didn't have the genetic material she did, but that didn't mean much to him, as he hadn't had a PED before.
"Is the baby going to be born soon?" he asked, touching her belly softly.
She laid her hand on her belly and laughed. "I don't know when it will be born. I hope not. It's a lot safer in there then it would be out here."
Jake nodded, jerking his head to the side at a noise. It was only a bird, so he relaxed, but she understood. The nanobots had killed all of the robots they encountered, but the aliens were getting more persistent in trying to find and capture them. She didn't want to think about what may have happened to Dustin. Hopefully he would come back soon, from wherever he went.
"Okay, I'm ready. We can go again."
Jake nodded and started leading her through the forest again. They had left the last military base when it was completely trashed. Everything had been left when they left, but someone had gone back and torn everything that might have been useful up. She didn't believe the natives could have done some of the damage, she was leaning towards the aliens being behind the destruction.
Hopefully the next base, which was the last one, would still be intact.
As they broke through some thick brush, a landslide came into view. It looked recent, and Olivia's heart sank.
"The entrance is over here," said Jake, leading her around the landslide.
Pushing some bushes aside, she saw a door, half open and filled with a lot of dirt.
"The hill collapsed after a really bad rain a couple years ago." Explained Jake as they made their way into the darkness.
'PED, can you make the nanobots light up like Dustin had them do before?'
(THEIR BATTERIES WILL DRAIN QUICKLY, BUT I CAN HAVE THEM CYCLE OUT TO ENSURE THAT THERE IS A LIGHT FOR YOU TO SEE DURING YOUR STAY HERE.)
'Thanks.'
A small glowing orb appeared in front of them, and they made their way deeper inside. The hall became cleaner the deeper they went. The air wasn't too stale, thankfully, and soon, they found themselves in a large open hangar. Planes and ships were still sitting, waiting for someone to use them.
Sending a silent thanks to whoever might be watching over them, Olivia rushed up to the first ship, but it had no power. Checking each one out, it became obvious really quickly, that despite them being in good condition, none would work without help. Unfortunately, she didn't have a clue on how to fix them.
'PED, can the nanobots fix the ships?'
(NOT WITHOUT GUIDANCE.)
She sighed and led Jake away from them. They would have to wait for Dustin. Maybe he would get there soon.
XxxxX
Another body went flying through the air as Dustin moved through the hall. They had stopped trying to shoot him. His nanobots were too numerous for any shot to get through.
Reaching the next lab, he opened the door and stepped inside. The sight before him almost made him puke. Bodies were in different stages of dissection on tables throughout the room. He could tell right away they were his people, and a few had even had PED's.
Rage boiled up and he almost lost it, until he spied a computer. Rushing over to it, he used the nanobots to hard hack it. Pulling up information, he quickly found out why the people here had known the names of the aliens involved. They were all part of a massive slave trade hunt. These people were part of a human organization set up by the ancient human military, to discover the secrets of his people. They paid the aliens handsomely for information about them and for any they handed over to them for experimentation.
The number one thing they wanted to know about was his PED. It wouldn't work for anyone other than one of his race, and while he knew it was because his people could change without a PED, they didn't and were determined to discover why.
As he dug deeper, he saw that they were also interested in an ability that he had only seen mentioned once before, an ability they knew of, but hadn't found any specimens with the ability, chrono skimming. It allowed the user to access memories from the past, and not only from their own life, but from everyone they were related to. He scrunched his face in confusion as he read the details they had on the ability. How could they know of such a thing, if they had never encountered it before?
Finally, he found what he was looking for. There was a reference of a specimen with the ability, that had been captured prior to the Josagn War. That specimen was him.
Cursing, Dustin realized all of his people were suffering because of him. They were being hunted and killed because of his PED's and an ability he had as their king.
Skimming through the information he could find, he found a holding cell they had of his people in another area, and information of holding locations scattered throughout the galaxy where they conducted similar experiments.
Crushing the computer, he turned to leave, determined that no more of his people would be killed because of him, only to find himself facing a group of Josagn. The looks in their eyes chilled him, but he only smirked. He wasn't the same Dustin that had gone up against them as before. When they raised their guns, he saw that they were the ones that melted things. Olivia would like a few of those. They were her favorite guns. Maybe if he brought her some, she would forgive him for leaving without warning.
Sorry for no chapter yesterday, I was laid up with a horrible migraine. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
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