Dustin floated in panic, realizing that his PED was compromised. The AI of these people must have hacked his PED somehow, and had been tracking him and stealing information about him all this time.
That was how the Xalkak were able to arrive when they did. The AI already knew everything.
Floating in the tank, he watched, helpless as the people studied him like a lab rat. He couldn't escape, and he could feel his worm body growing weaker and weaker as the affects of the chemicals in the fluid he floated in, killed him.
Curling into a ball, Dustin couldn't imagine them gaining more information about him, specifically to kill him. Maybe if he willed himself to die faster, they couldn't get any more information. It was just lucky the hive mind was so smart, maybe they would be able to figure out how to stop this menace.
As his mind grew dimmer and dimmer, a thought occurred to him. If the AI could infiltrate his PED, which was made of nanobots, what was to stop it from infiltrating the hive mind, and using the nanobots to take over the galaxy?
Visions of his son flashed into his mind. The boy was smart, and had this king thing down, but what did he have to offer him? Because of Dustin, their whole race was doomed. The only thing he had contributed to the entire race, other than the chance for freedom, and a home, were the PED's to help them be able to change…
Dustin gave a start, causing the people on the other side of the glass to jump. His vitals had fallen so low, they had thought he was dying, but now, as they watched, he grew more and more energetic, thrashing around inside his tank. His vitals were so erratic, they were having trouble keeping track of them. And then it happened.
Dustin began to change.
He realized, as he was on the brink of death, that he didn't need the PED to change, that was something he had already been able to do. All it did, was speed the process up and force it to happen faster. Well, it was time to take off the training wheels.
Focusing on his body, he imagined the form he wanted, and willed it to change.
Dustin had more practice changing, than any other Uz'En in the galaxy. And he had more practice changing quickly, than any other Uz'En, ever.
Forcing all of the nanobots in his body to a central location, he encased them in crystal, so that the AI couldn't cause him any damage because of them, and then he began to grow. The entire genetic spectrum of millions of different species floated within him, in a more complex program than he could ever hope to write, and he took advantage of it, allowing his entire genetic makeup to rearrange itself, as it had been forced to do countless times already, but this time on its own.
It was strangely exhilarating as he opened his eyes and grinned with his new razor toothed maw.
The people on the other side of the glass had backed up in panic, and Dustin gave them a new reason to know fear as he slammed against the glass, causing cracks to form. One more good hit, and it splintered, breaking and spewing the murky liquid across the floor. Pulling himself up, off the floor, he turned his grin towards the three people, who promptly turned tail and ran. He looked like his normal human form; except he was encased in crystal like the crystal prince had been back on the death planet. Nothing could penetrate his crystal, and flexing his new claws, he couldn't wait to try them out.
He didn't allow them a chance to get far. The first man was yanked off his feet, as Dusting grabbed his shoulder, and bit through his other shoulder. The venom he had envisioned, entered the man's system, causing him to immediately start spasming and screaming. As he frothed at the mouth, Dustin dropped him and without breaking stride, grabbed the woman next.
Throwing her across the room, she hit the table hard, and slid across the top of it, knocking all sorts of expensive looking equipment onto the floor, and breaking it. She probably wasn't going to get up after she crumpled against the wall at the end of the table.
The last man had managed to reach the door, but Dustin was amused to see the light above it had turned red.
"No! Please! Let me out!"
Before Dustin could reach for the man, a small hatch opened above the man's head, and it began spitting a thick gas out.
The man reacted almost immediately, hacking and coughing, falling to his knees and then to his side.
Sliding a crystal across his eyes, Dustin walked calmly to the door, ignoring the gas, and began hitting it. As soon as a decent dent had appeared, he used his crystal claws to scratch a line in the metal of the door, in a circular pattern.
When it was obvious that the gas was having no effect, he heard another hatch pop open, venting everything in the room into space. He quickly punched forward, at the spot he had scratched, puncturing the metal of the door and causing the purge of atmosphere to stop immediately or risk venting the entire ship.
Smirking, without opening himself up to the gas, Dustin proceeded to peel the door open enough to allow him access to the hall.
A group of soldiers were waiting for him. They held guns he recognized. They were Olivia's favorite. The one that dissolved flesh. Chuckling to himself, Dustin charged them, ignoring the guns when they blasted them at him. He jumped before the dissolving cloud hit him, pushing off from the wall and propelled himself over the cloud, near the ceiling, spinning and landing behind them.
He didn't wait to see if they stopped pressing the trigger before turning to follow him, dashing off down the hall towards where he knew the bridge had to be. He could feel the flow of the electricity in the ship. The largest concentration had to be the engines themselves. The next largest had to be the bridge. And if he was wrong, he was curious to see what it was instead.
BEST CHAPTER EVER!
I'm pretty sure of all of the chapters I've written up to this point, this is my favorite. MC growth for the win!
The ship seemed to have been made by someone who was absurdly anal. As Dustin jogged down the hall, he couldn't help but remember the guy his son had hired to design buildings for people to gather in for games and activities. The man had driving Dustin crazy with his math. They ended up reassigning him to accounting. These halls were straight, with doors exactly the same distance apart. There were no signs anywhere, to mark what was behind the doors or down the halls. If it wasn't for the electrical sense, he had left over from his space worm form, he would have been wandering around forever.
Coming around a corner, another group of soldiers were waiting, letting loose with their dissolving guns the moment he turned the corner. As the mist settled and dissipated, he stood there, unharmed. He had an energy field protecting him, that he had activated as soon as he realized they would be using these weapons on him.
The soldiers freaked when he was still standing there, dropping their weapons and trying to flee. Every time one of them did turn, they would only manage a few steps before falling to their knees in pain. It was obvious the AI was forcing them to fight him.
Dustin walked through the middle of them, not caring if they were in pain, or afraid of him. He only cared to get to his destination. The one guy who tried to grab him, ended up on the floor with a broken arm, after Dustin snapped it.
Turning another corner, he half expected there to be more soldiers, but instead, an alarm sounded and a force field appeared in front of him, blocking his path. He didn't hesitate, turning and trying to open the nearest door to him. When it too, formed a forcefield before he could reach it, he knew that it was time to pull out the big guns.
Going right up to the force field that was blocking his path, he rubbed his hands together, then reached out to touch it. Sparks flew between his hand and the field, causing him to grit his teeth, but he didn't stop. He was counting on the electrical field he had, and the crystals in his skin, to protect him as he forced his way through the field.
The soldiers that were running to get to the field, slowed then stopped as he pushed his entire body through the field.
"How are we supposed to deal with that?" one asked another.
"We already know our guns don't work," said another.
"It is our job to keep this thing from reaching the bridge before we reach our destination," said the leader, lifting his gun and aiming it at Dustin.
While they formed up and readied themselves, Dustin finished pushing through the field, then charged right at them. They fired again, this time, live ammo hit him. While the bullets stung, they couldn't pierce his crystals. With a laugh, Dustin dived past them, rolling forward and back onto his feet, continuing his run down the hall and crashed through the doors that led to the bridge.
Several people were scrambling to barricade the door, but they didn't succeed before he arrived.
A quick glance at the screen of the nearest monitor confirmed his suspicions. They had an advance form of warp that was far better than anything he had seen before. Only his jump technology, with his nanobots rivaled it in speed. No wonder his worm form had passed out on the side of the ship.
He had to work quick, to keep them from setting a self-destruct. Jumping to a control panel, he ignored the people who rushed to type furiously, and ripped off the cover. Grabbing the giant cluster of wires running to breakers, he started pulling the wires loose. There were immediately screams as alarms started to sound.
The ship came out of warp, and the lights flickered, going out.
The silence was almost deafening. Dustin turned to look at the people in the room, and saw that they were looking around in confusion. Some were looking down at their hands, and others were looking at him in confusion.
"Where are we?" asked someone quietly.
Dustin ignored them all, moving to the console near the front of the ship, that was still active. The electrical wires going to this monitor were the only ones that didn't go through the control panel he just destroyed.
Sitting down, he started typing. The people around him weren't sure if they should be scared of him, or not, since he looked so different, but wasn't attacking them.
Dustin knew it was only going to be a few minutes before the AI figured out how to gain control back of the ship. He wanted to know how it could control so much, over so vast a distance. He had never been able to overcome that when controlling his nanobots. Also, he wanted to know everything he could about this damn AI, so he could destroy it, and keep it from infiltrating his nanobot hivemind.
He was almost through the security, when a group of the soldiers burst through the door.
"There! Stop him! He's about to make the ship blow up!"
It was a wonderful tactic to get the people to attack him, and distract him from completing his goal, but Dustin had been waiting for this. As soon as the first man got close, he shot out a tentacle from his back, tipped with a crystal spearhead, that impaled him, then threw his body at the next closest person. Two eyes opened on the back of his head to control the tentacles, and his fingers never stopped typing. He had split his mind into two awarenesses, to be able to do two tasks at once.
While this was a fantastic way to throw the people into a panic, and to keep them off of him, he knew that if they attempted a more complicated tactic, to stop him, he would have to stop what he was doing, because his second mind was only able to react.
With a cry of success, Dustin broke through the security wall that the AI had placed up before being kicked from the ship, and found himself staring at an immense amount of information. Without the nanobots to store the information for him, he had a moment of panic, before deciding he needed a memory that was capable of remembering everything he read. Hunkering down in front of the monitor, he began to read faster and faster as his mind upgraded itself using the genetic codes available to it.
With the tentacles whipping in the air, striking at anyone who approached, he discovered enough to chill him to the bone.
All he needs to do, is believe he's a god, and my work will be done. Unfortunately, Dustin's never been that bright.
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