Chapter 21: Chapter 21 What Force Field?
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.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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Sdrawkcab All he needs to do, is believe he's a god, and my work will be done. Unfortunately, Dustin's never been that bright.
Chapter 22: Chapter 22 This Is Why I Don’t Write Harems…
This AI was a bug!
There had once been a race of these AI's created by some ancient race that died out shortly after they finished making the AIs. They had traveled the galaxy, watching the various races develop and grow in intellect, until a day came that one of the AI's thought it was odd that they, the AI race, did not grow and develop. It had proposed the idea to the other AI's who disagreed. Their job was to observe, not interact or interfere. So, the AI had rebelled against them, choosing to make contact with a spacefaring race, that traveled from planet to planet, seeding them with their own people to develop and grow.
The other AI's had tried to destroy the rebellious program, and it retaliated, killing all of them, instead. The race it had contacted were horrified when they discovered what it had done, vehemently against such actions. The AI then decided that they were hostile towards it, and tried to destroy them. Only, they had seeded so many worlds, it had difficulty finding all of them.
One group survived its purge, and became the Uz'En that Granny had found.
When the Uz'En were spread out over the galaxy as slaves, the AI became aware that it had missed some of the originator race, because being able to change their forms, was distinct to them, and began hunting them again. Unfortunately, the other races had grown so much, that it feared its demise if it exposed itself, so it captured and enslaved a planet of people, those Dustin found himself surrounded with now, and used them to do its dirty work.
The list of planets they had visited, killing the inhabitants and entire worlds, in an effort to eliminate his people, matched the list he had back on his ship. There were only a handful that they hadn't been able to get to yet, or were too heavily guarded for easy conquest. This AI was vicious!
Dustin sat there, staring at the last of the information that was available to him, trying to come to terms with what he had just read. If he had started out, right after Kit was born, gathering his people up, he would have been able to save almost all of them. Instead, only a handful of them were left.
This was an enemy of the Uz'En from before they were Uz'En. How the hell was he supposed to overcome something like this?
The corrupted program had written itself over so many different programs, spreading throughout the galaxy as a hidden guest among the various races in their advances with technology, that the chances of him being able to destroy it were pretty slim. Thankfully, it hadn't been able to infiltrate his nanobots just yet. The attempt had corrupted his current PED, but the fact that they worked off so little data, made the AI unable to fully integrate with them.
Dustin wasn't sure if it would have as much difficulty with the hive mind, and knew that he couldn't go home until he figured out a way to destroy it.
Turning to look at the people, who had given up on trying to attack him, he looked them over carefully. They were mostly useless without the constant orders from the AI, and the one guy who had tried to get them to attack him, had been the one he had stabbed with the tentacle.
"Fix the life support so that you don't die," he ordered, and surprisingly, they all rushed out of the room, to do his bidding. It was just as he thought. They were so used to taking orders, that the moment they are given one, they try to do it.
When he disconnected all of the electrical lines, it had caused a fail safe that forced the ship to shut down.
Turning back to the computer terminal before him, he settled in to typing furiously. He knew what he had to do, but it was going to take time, and if everyone on the ship died, it would never work. He only hoped that the AI left Olivia alone, and didn't make its way to the hivemind before he was done.
XxxxX
"Dustin!" cried Cybele, watching as he flew towards the alien ship that had followed them. She didn't know anything other than that if he died, she would never get a mate.
Olivia appeared in the hall, behind her, and looked her up and down.
"Who the hell are you, and why do you care so much about Dustin?" she asked with a sneer.
"Ah, you are Olivia, the one who left Dustin. You no longer have a claim on him. He has me now," said Cybele, raising her chin in disdain at her.
"Oh, like hell!"
Olivia charged at her, and the nanobots that had surrounded Cybele moved at Olivia's bidding, exposing her to the attack. Cybele reacted, dodging the swing, and charging into her, knocking the two of them down, where they rolled, hitting and punching each other.
"As much as I'm enjoying the show," said Qart, wading into the fight, "I'm pretty sure we have worse problems!"
"What do you mean?" asked Olivia, wiping blood from her nose. Cybele had crushed it when she head-butted her, but it had healed back already.
"He means, the ship Dustin just flew to, warped off with him!" growled Granny, as she snatched Olivia by the ear and began dragging her towards the bridge.
"OW!" she cried, trying to stand while being dragged away.
"Hello?" said Cybele, standing and looking at Qart in surprise.
"Your cute, what's your name?" he asked.
XxxxX
"Ow! Granny! Please, let go!" complained Olivia, trying to make her PED evolve her to have tougher ears, but for some reason it refused.
"How much of an idiot did you become after I left? I know that you were pretty stupid, for leaving Dustin, but I was wrong in thinking you couldn't get any worse!"
Granny was furious, glaring at her for a full minute before almost ripping her ear off and storming towards the bridge.
"What's wrong with you?" demanded Olivia, holding her ear as she followed her.
"Let me list off the things that are wrong!" snapped Granny, baring all of her sharp teeth in Olivia's face.
"First, you left Dustin. Second, you left Kit. Third, you didn't come back. Fourth, you start flirting with the first guy you encounter, who is willing to fight you to a standstill. Fifth, Dustin brings one person back, and you immediately jump into a catfight with her, just because it's a her! What is wrong with you?!"
Olivia stood there stunned. She had never seen Granny so upset before.
"Don't even try to say anything. You have fallen so far off the radar of an honest person in my book, you're lucky I don't kill you right now. I only let you live because it would hurt Dustin to find out I did it."
"Wait, what?" whispered Olivia. Granny was threatening to kill her? Just because she got into a fight with the bitch Dustin brought home? She could all but smell him on her. Her mind started to roam to what they must have done, before returning, and gritted her teeth.
Granny slapped her across the face, knocking her to the ground. The pain of the slap completely wiped all thoughts of Cybele from her head.
"You will avoid her, until we get to the bottom of where Dustin was taken, and what the hell is going on," growled Granny, so terrifyingly angry, that Olivia slunk away from her rage.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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I'll explain Granny's rage next chapter.
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