Chapter 33: Chapter 33 No Gooblens Allowed
Dustin paced, thinking hard. He had done everything he could to try and make a virus to stop his virus, but it wasn't working. He glanced over at the people watching him from the doorway, and sighed. It was useless. By this point the damage was already done. It was five days since he had released the virus, basically shutting down the entire galaxy.
While the people on the station hadn't figured out the scope of what he had done, they had definitely been unhappy about the damages he had caused. The goodwill from them had crumbled within minutes when they discovered he was the reason everything had failed. Despite his success in getting things back up and running, to save their lives, they had strongly recommended he stay on board his ship until he was able to leave. It only made sense that he wasn't needed after he had fixed things.
"Dustin, there is a group of people approaching the station that are looking for you," said one of the people at the door.
Dustin looked over at her, "Why do you say that?"
"They just did a general hail, to everyone, asking if you were here."
Dustin glanced at the tablet in her hand, then turned to his own screen to see the message himself.
XxxxX
"Did the virus affect the nanobot hive mind?" asked Granny, as they approached the Uz'En home world.
"Doesn't look like it," said Olivia, glancing over at the swarms of nanobots approaching them.
Once they confirmed that they were friendly, the swarm left again, to rejoin the mass surrounding the planet.
"There's so many of them!" wondered Old Motha.
"They must have mined out the entire asteroid belt to make that many. The hive mind is probably making sure that they are well protected after those aliens showed up and took Dustin away," said Olivia.
"Olivia," came a voice through the ship's communications. "We have managed to prevent the virus that Dustin released from affecting our planet, and have traced back where he is located, but we have also discovered communications between two entities discussing his demise. We would recommend you retrieve him before this is attempted."
"Who is that?" asked Granny, taken aback.
"This is the hive mind, Granny. We are sure that Dustin will be glad to see you."
"I don't mind going to get him, hive mind, but I need to do something with the ship full of Gooblens that I currently have."
"We will send food and supplies to you, for them, but we strongly recommend you keep them on board, rather than having them taken down to the planet. The prior ones have caused a lot of damage on planet."
Old Motha and Granny both sighed.
"Can you tell how extensive the damage is, from the virus?" asked Olivia.
"We have not been able to contact any of our prior contacts. It would seem that all electrical life in the galaxy has been stopped. Though, the communication we received, does hint at the survival of the AI Dustin seems to be at war with."
"The AI must be the same one who contacted the Tik, trying to get the assassins to kill him. It must have found someone else to try and do it," said Olivia.
"They might be the assassins' rivals," suggested Old Motha, thoughtfully.
"It doesn't matter who it is, if they went after Dustin, he will wipe them off the face of the planet they call home," said Olivia with a shake of her head.
"Let's see if we can go get him before they do," said Granny.
A shipment of supplies was quickly transferred into the cargo hold of the ship, and they turned away from the planet Hope, towards a small space station floating in the middle of nowhere.
XxxxX
Dustin directed the people on his ship to move back into the cafeteria, and turned to his monitor. The ship had a very rudimentary computer, that he had been working on between everything else. If these people looking for him were trouble, he wanted to make sure the ship made its way back to his home planet.
Typing everything he could think of, as fast as he could, Dustin glanced back over it, to make sure that his message was clear, then headed for the airlock. With the mood the station owners were in, they would probably turn him in to these guys very quickly.
Arriving at the airlock, he spied a group of large-muscled aliens, with dark green skin, moving towards him. Based on the looks on their faces, he was relatively certain they weren't there to shake his hand and congratulate him on a job well done.
"Hey! We told you to stay on your ship!" cried the small station owner hidden behind the bulk of the thugs.
"Yeah, but it got kind of stuffy in there, and I thought I'd go out for some air," Dustin said, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder.
The airlock on his ship shut tight, and his ship disconnected from the station, creating a huge hole that immediately sucked him into space. He had already modified himself, to survive the horrors of space, but the others were caught unawares. The station owner was the first to succumb, floating slowly away, as crystals formed on his skin. The thugs had managed to grab the edge of the airlock, and were holding on, fighting against the rush of air that was flowing out of the station.
Dustin knew that they hadn't repaired the emergency functions on the station yet, which meant that they would probably lose all of their air in that entire sector, if not the entire station. Turning his head, he watched the ship drift away from the station, then warp away. It would jump three times, before turning to his home world, and making one final jump, depleting all of the fuel. Hopefully that would keep anyone from following it.
Turning his attention back to the airlock, he spied their ship, who apparently noticed what had happened. It was rushing over, possibly to save the thugs who were struggling at the airlock. As it turned its weapons on him, he realized they were actually coming for him. With a smile, he used the almost invisible tendrils from his worm form, that he had grown along his arms and legs, to move him towards the ship. To anyone watching, it looked like he could fly through space, unaided. Dustin knew he was awesome, and it was time to teach these guys that.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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Sdrawkcab Awesome fight scene, next chapter.
Chapter 34: Chapter 34 Fighting Thugs
The guns fired only a couple of shots, before the cargo hold opened, and someone in a spacesuit exited the ship, tethered somewhere in the hold. Dustin smirked, thinking they were going to try and talk to him, until he saw the strange contraption the person was holding.
The guy held it up, and shot a bolt at him, causing him to fly back into the hold. Dustin watched the bolt as it hit him in the chest, and bounced off the crystal plates under his skin. Using his worm tendrils, he stopped his spin, and righting himself, headed back towards the ship. His torn skin had healed by the time he reached the cargo hold, and saw the figure tangled in his own line.
Dustin stepped into the cargo hold, noting the two small flyers that were parked there, and slapped the exterior button that closed the hold doors. As soon as they shut, the gravity field kicked in, and atmosphere began flooding the hold. Making his way to the figure, Dustin watched as he stood up and took off his helmet. There weren't any eyes to be seen on his bare head, but his mouth opened to expose rows of teeth like a shark.
Preparing to punch the guy, Dustin was caught off guard when he swung around, holding his gun, and shot him point blank in the chest. He went flying back, crashing into a wall covered in various tools. The crystals just under his skin had prevented the hits from damaging his organs, but Dustin could feel something spreading throughout his system, and was amused when he realized it was a tranquilizer of some kind.
Standing slowly, Dustin directed his system to analyze and ignore the stuff. He remained slumped over, as if fighting the affects, as the alien thug drew closer to him. The space suit was gone, and Dustin could see the thorn-like protrusions on his skin, as he stopped just out of reach, in case Dustin planned to lunge out at him.
But he didn't know Dustin had tentacles on his back. The moment Dustin saw him stop, he shot out those tentacles, with poison tips on them. If he could land even one blow, just a scratch would be enough to lay the alien out.
He was ready for it, dodging them and moving even further away. Dustin jumped at him, having reconfigured his leg muscles to allow better distance, landing on him, and shooting his tentacles down. The thug responded by holding up a small taser, and shooting him with it. Dustin was stunned just long enough for the alien to get away, while he adjusted his system again, to deal with the new form of damage.
This was starting to get annoying, and Dustin turned towards the alien, who was standing against the wall, holding a strange box. As he prepared to charge, the guy pressed a button, causing a force field to form around him. Dustin smiled, and placed his hand against the field, noting the frequency and taste of it, as he utilized the space worm's ability to eat energy.
The alien didn't waste any time, and as soon as Dustin started draining the field, he used a small crane to move a large clear box into place. Dustin sped up his absorption, but couldn't get the field to crash before the box crashed down on top of him, cutting off the field, and trapping him inside of it. Saying several colorful things, he watched the thug grin as he walked around him, Dustin noted that the box couldn't be airtight. If he went into his slime form, to escape, he would have to leave the crystal inside of him, that trapped the nanobots. Thinking for only a moment, as the alien began to secure the box so it wouldn't be able to move, Dustin made up his mind.
These guys were obviously bounty hunters of some kind, probably sent by the AI to capture and kill him, if they could. While there was always the chance, they were sent by someone else, who was ticked off by the virus on his video, Dustin doubted that very much. Anyone else with the capabilities to overcome his virus, would have had much better weapons and traps. Knowing that what they planned for him wasn't going to be good, Dustin began to change from the inside out. His slime form could dissolve just about anything, so by changing on the inside, he could focus on dissolving the crystal and nanobots first. It would be a pain in the butt later, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. The nanobots were at risk from the AI, and anything they had on their memory banks, had been backed up in the hive mind.
The alien tugged on one of the lines, and turned to jeer at him again, only to stop when it saw him slipping through the crack of the tank as a slime.
The noise it made would have been horribly amusing to Dustin, had he been able to hear it, but he was both blind and deaf while in his slime form.
As Dustin started to escape, he was hit with a blast of cold that caused his slime to harden almost immediately. It was so sudden; he didn't have a chance to counter it. Everything slowed down, even his mind. The alien effectively froze him, and after returning him to the cage, proceeded to seal the gap he had been escaping through. Dustin was effectively caught.
XxxxX
"The hive mind said that the transmissions originated from this station," said Olivia as they came out of the jump gate. The lights were still on, but there wasn't any motion from any of the ships docked to it.
"Are you sure? I don't see any life here," said Granny.
"It has been several days, so maybe Dustin has everyone locked down, into a smaller area while he fixes the damage his virus caused?" guessed Olivia, guiding the ship towards the only air lock she could see.
Their first clue something wasn't right, was when they bumped against a dead body, that was floating just outside the open air lock.
"Someone must have left in a hurry, and let all of the atmosphere out," said Granny.
"Let's see what we can salvage," said Old Motha, excitedly, causing the other two to look at each other.
"You guys can do what you want, I'm going to see what I can find out about Dustin," said Olivia, directing the computer to link up to the station's computer, as she locked onto the air lock.
Only a few minutes later, her ship was emptied of Gooblens, who were ready to stretch their legs and eat the dead. Granny opted to stay by her side, but only until Old Motha directed her to oversee the Gooblens. They would need someone responsible enough to beat the crap out of them, if they tried to hurt anyone still alive, or tear into something important.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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Dustin is captured, and Olivia has to find him, while babysitting the Gooblens...
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