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32.85% Evolutionary Liberator / Chapter 23: Chapter 23 Granny’s Past

Chapter 23: Chapter 23 Granny’s Past

"Why are you so mad?" asked Olivia, climbing to her feet, flabbergasted. "If you had such a problem with me leaving Dustin, why didn't you say something before you left?"

Granny stopped pacing, and glared at Olivia. "You don't know, so I will explain it to you, in easy enough terms that you might be able to understand. Uz'En bond with their first mates, for life. LIFE. Do you understand what that means?"

Olivia paused as Granny's words registered. That meant…

"You shouldn't be able to flirt with anyone. Leaving Dustin boggled my mind, but I was sure you would eventually get your wits about you, and return to him, but obviously that didn't happen. You're broken, and it's all my fault."

"Wait, what? How?"

"Sit, I'll bring up a diagram," said Granny, pointing to the seat Dustin had been sitting in, when Olivia first entered this room.

She sat without a word, confusion the main emotion that was swirling in her mind.

Granny punched in a command into the other console and a hologram of Olivia's body appeared.

"When I first encountered you, you had just had Kit, remember?" Her words had softened as she seemed to remember the occasion fondly.

"I thought you were another monster to try and kill me, and all I could think of was protecting Kit and Jake." Olivia closed her eyes, remembering the panic, and the pain, when she ripped herself on the inside, jumping to protect them.

"Your spirit was torn and ragged, as if you had been in some nasty fight. It was too damaged to heal on its own, and you would have died, if I hadn't tried to help."

"I remember only that I could breath again, but that if I fell asleep, I would have died."

They were both quiet for a moment, lost in the memory of the past.

"When I tried to heal the rifts and tears, there were extra pieces that I thought were torn from you, and needed to be reattached."

Olivia watched as Granny typed in another command, and a misty white form appeared floating above Olivia's holographic form. There were tears as if some monster with large claws had swiped at her, leaving gashes in the white. As Granny pointed, Olivia could see small pieces that looked like they had separated from the whole, but hadn't drifted away yet.

"When I learned how to heal the spirits of those who could be healed, my mother cautioned me not to bond two spirits together. I'm afraid that is what I may have done, and why you were not bonded correctly with Dustin."

"Is that also why I never gained those memories, that you said I should have gained?" asked Olivia, fear threading its way into her mind.

"Your original form and all of your sister clones, are dead. There's no doubt about that. The memories of your former self, should have made their way to you by now. The fact that they haven't, only proves that I messed up. This whole damn mess is my fault. And if any of my people find out…" Granny stopped speaking, as real fear broke out over her face.

"What do you mean?" asked Olivia. She may have just been in a fight with her, but this small green monster saved her life, and taught her how to raise her child, when she didn't know how to do it.

"If they find out I messed up someone's spirit, even by accident, it's a death sentence. Do you know how hard it is to kill a Gooblen? And even if they take pity on me, I would become an outcast. No Gooblen would ever agree to be my mate, or talk to me ever again. I don't think I could live with that."

The look of fear on Granny's face broke Olivia. She looked away, and said, "So, how do we fix me? Can you just take the extra spirit pieces away?"

"Oh, no! I don't know how to do that, but I know someone who does. The problem is, I haven't been able to find her. My mom was excellent at protecting the little Gooblens when everyone started hunting them. Too good for me to find them."

"Wait, your mom?" Olivia looked at the wizened green figure before her, and tried to imagine someone that looked like her, only older. She had to shake her head. There was no way.

"How do you know she's still alive?" she asked.

Granny smiled and lifted her shirt before Olivia knew what she was doing.

Olivia went to cry out and look away, convinced she was going to be scarred for life, but the sight that appeared before her, only confused her instead. A gem, imbedded into her skin, glowed a soft orange. It was obvious that the skin had just pulled back to expose it.

"Every Gooblen is born with a gem seed in their abdomen. They know when their mother dies, because that seed will stop glowing and die. It's how my people kept track of who was in charge, over large distances. Our society is matriarchal. If we were sent on a task, that took us far away, we would know to return if our mother died. It's complicated and involves far more than just that, but you understand now, why I know my mother still lives."

"Wow," whispered Olivia. She wasn't sure if she was more impressed with the system they had developed, or the knowledge that there was someone out there, older than Granny.

"My mom will know as soon as she looks at your spirit, that I messed it up, but she's the only one that can fix you." Granny looked away, swiping at the hologram to make it go away.

Granny was the closest thing Olivia had to a mother. The green skinned Gooblen had taught her how to feed and care for Kit, when there was no one else to teach her.

"Surely your mom will understand and not condemn you! You did what you thought was best, to save my life."

"I was never formally taught to heal spirits, despite my advanced abilities. I had been caught trying to watch my mom heal someone, which was a huge mistake. If I had distracted her at the wrong time, it could have killed both the patient and my mom. That is the worst crime a Gooblen can commit, trying to kill their mother, even if it's by accident. My mom was in tears when she punished me. I was refused the lessons necessary to heal spirits. It broke her heart, and mine. I was to be a prodigy, and it was taken away because of my own stupidity. I left home the next day, and never went back."


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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Granny's a treasure troll LOL

My husband pointed this out to me while I was reading it to him, to make sure it sounded right. I'm too lazy to change it.

Chapter 24: Chapter 24 Assassins and Worms

"Hello?" came a voice from the console next to her.

Olivia turned and hit a button. "Hello, Kit."

"What's going on? The nanobots are going crazy, and it has everyone freaking out down here."

"Your father is dealing with some unexpected guests," said Olivia, glancing at Granny.

"Anything I can do?"

"Actually…"

Half an hour later, several small ships were flying back down to the planet with everyone from the ship, except Granny and Olivia. The other Gooblens had hated leaving her, but she insisted they would be safer down on the planet.

"What did you mean by, don't eat anyone or anything important?" asked Olivia, sitting in the captain's seat while Granny sat in the co-pilot seat.

"I meant exactly what I said. My people are being hunted by everyone for a reason."

"You eat people?" asked Olivia, incredulously. She let her watch her baby!

"Only in dire times of need, stress, or anger," she said, matter-of-factly.

"What else is your people known for?" she asked tentatively.

"For disassembling things."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Gooblens have this love for taking things apart, until they are completely disassembled, then putting them back together again."

Olivia was quiet for a moment, thinking that over. "Why is that so bad?"

"Well, we can survive in space, without space suits for longer than most species, other than you Uz'En, so when we find ourselves on a space ship, with other races, they tend to freak."

"Oh," said Olivia, turning back to her console. "Well, any leads on where your people might be?"

"There's only one place that I know to look, and I've avoided it like the plague."

"Where's that?" she asked, glancing over at her.

Granny grimaced. "The planet EEchol. It used to be the home world of the Tik, but they advanced so quickly, inviting other races to live on their highly technical world, that it eventually became overcrowded."

"And why do you think they might be there? I would imagine if it was highly technical, it would be easy to hack their computers to find out."

"You would think so, but most of their tech is illegal. The planet is controlled by a group known to employ one of the best assassin groups in the galaxy."

"Then that should be the last place Gooblens would go, if they are being hunted!"

"While you are correct, it can often be easier hiding on the back of the monster, than out where it might find you."

Olivia looked over at Granny, who was typing the coordinates into the computer.

"Oh! It looks like there were some Uz'En there for Dustin to pick up!" said Granny, surprised.

Olivia shrugged, and said, "Alright, then let's go check it out."

Cloaking before they jumped, Olivia was rather intrigued about this planet. It sounded very interesting.

XxxxX

Dustin sighed as he grew another set of fruit, and tossed them over to the people behind him. He was already having to cycle the air because the power-loss caused the air scrubbers to burn out and short circuit. He didn't want to take the time to try and fix them, as he was having to make tons of mini viruses.

To fight the AI, he decided to create hundreds of tiny viruses, or worms, that don't have very long code, and target specific parts of the AI program. Each worm targeted different parts, so the AI was too busy trying to fight them off to focus on much else. He was hoping to overwhelm it and take it out, since the areas targeted were core programs that the AI couldn't overwrite. Because it couldn't overwrite them, it couldn't rewrite them, once they were damaged by his worms.

It was a long process.

His fingers hurt, and his back was cramping, but he continued on, afraid to stop. Already the AI had tried to send several ships to acquire the ship, since it was damaged and had lost contact with it, but Dustin just used that as an opportunity to throw more worms at it. He knew it wouldn't be long before the AI figure out this ship was the origin of all of the worms and just came to destroy it.

Glancing over at the group of twenty people, he wasn't sure why he was going to so much trouble to keep them alive. Before he met Cybele, he would have just let them all die, since they weren't Uz'En, but now, he was starting to think that maybe he should try and save the entire race. It was a very odd thought.

The one thing he did know, was that he had to get this ship moved, along with all of the survivors, to a new location, and then he needed to find the rest of his people. He was starting to take on too many tasks!

Letting his fingers rest for a moment, he watched as the worms were systematically destroyed, but not until after key parts of the AI program were eaten away by them. While he could see the program, he couldn't get in to change it himself. He wasn't even sure how he could see it, but it was there.

Beginning to type again, Dustin was hit with the idea that maybe the reason he could see the code, was because the AI hadn't bothered to put up a firewall to block anyone on the ship from seeing it. All of those on the ship would have been under its control, and it probably never anticipated someone hijacking the ship.

Growing a couple of extra arms, he stretched and managed to reach another terminal. It was time for him to start making a new program. This terminal wasn't connected anymore, to the mainframe of the ship. Generating power to run it, he began to create a master program that would create the worms for him, randomizing the locations they would target, while he continued to make the worms themselves.

His dual mind was being stretched to the max, and he was starting to get a headache. Dustin could tell that he was never intended to do two things at once. Whatever the consequences, he had to keep going, or risk losing to the AI. This threat had to be dealt with now, not later, because if he stopped, it would throw up so many virus protections, he would never be able to get in again.

And then a warship appeared.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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