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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Sdrawkcab Dustin is captured, and Olivia has to find him, while babysitting the Gooblens...
Chapter 35: Chapter 35 Big Guns Needed
Olivia studied the screen of her monitor, trying to make sense of the information she was pulling up. The AI, that Dustin had declared an enemy of the galaxy, had intercepted the virus laden video, before it had left the station, but then it allowed it to leave. That explained why the Tik thought the AI was behind the damage on its planet, despite the fact that Dustin had made the virus and released it. The part that she couldn't understand, was the schematics for Dustin's abilities that had pulled up on the station's computers.
She read through a communication that had been sent to the trash, but wasn't destroyed before the system went down. The AI had been talking to the station owner, and had made an agreement for them to keep Dustin there, until it could procure a way to retrieve him. In payment, it would provide them with a brand-new station, once he was acquired.
Digging further, she discovered that the AI had lain in wait, on the ship he had captured, acquiring information from his nanobots about everything he was capable of, until he connected with the station in preparation for releasing the video. The AI then took that information, and used the station to broadcast his abilities to every major assassin group in the galaxy, as a potential target. The things it had promised them were hard to conceive of, and really made her realize how much this AI had itself entrenched into everything.
Saving the information, she thought back about how the hive mind had guaranteed her that it had protected itself against the video. Could the AI have infiltrated it? It already knew how to steal information from the nanobots. An uneasy feeling overcame her, as she thought about how they were inside her, as well, and inside every single Uz'En they had found and brought to one place.
If this AI decided that they were a threat to get rid of, it would only need to take over the nanobots for a few minutes.
She sat there for several minutes, contemplating the implications, and a chill ran down her spine. If Dustin knew half of this, it was no wonder he had decided he needed to do something drastic to take out this AI.
Turning back to her monitor, she found where the alien thugs had arrived to acquire him, and the station owner had contacted the AI to see about payment of the new station. It had only happened a few hours ago. She had a few videos from surveillance cameras, that were strangely working at the time, showing Dustin stepping out of the ship, before it undocked, causing the atmosphere to be sucked out of the station, killing the owner and the thugs that were there to get him. Another had him flying to the thug's ship and willingly entering it, after someone tried to fire a weapon at him.
She had no doubt the AI was behind the camera's and was probably using the footage to entice others to want to hunt them down. Then she started to think back on all of the planets where she had been searching for Uz'En, and found nothing but destruction. The AI must have been hunting them for a long time!
Granny came in and threw herself into a chair, breathing hard and looking flushed, which was a very odd look on a green skinned person.
"What's wrong with you? You look like someone stepped on your tail and insulted you for it," she said, glancing at Olivia's monitor, where the videos of Dustin were playing on repeat.
Leaning forward, Granny's face went blank as she watched him go onto the ship, and then it warped away.
"This AI is dangerous," said Olivia, touching her arm where she had first had her PED.
Granny glanced at her, then down at her own PED, that wasn't able to integrate with her as well because she wasn't Uz'En.
"What do you want to do?" asked Granny.
"I'm torn. I want to go after Dustin, and save him, but at the same time, I'm worried about Kit and the rest of the Uz'En. If this AI infiltrated the hive mind…"
Granny watched her for a moment, then leaned back into her seat. "What do you want to do the most?"
Olivia looked down at her lap as she wondered that herself. "Dustin doesn't have much of a chance, without his PED, if the AI has infiltrated it. Plus, with those thugs knowing everything he can do, they'll have a counter for everything he tries. I'm not sure if they will be able to kill him, without destroying his body, which the AI wants to study, and won't pay them if they don't turn it over, so he's probably not dead yet."
Granny looked up at the ceiling, deep in thought. She didn't know everything, having been out babysitting the Gooblens, but she knew this was serious.
"If the hive mind has been infiltrated and can be controlled by the AI, then everyone in the galaxy is in danger. But the only person I know, who would have a prayer of fixing them, would be Dustin," said Granny finally.
Olivia nodded.
"I guess we need Dustin, to save the galaxy?"
"Sure, we can claim that. Want me to gather the Gooblens? I'm not thinking you really want to leave them here. They'll eat everything," she said chuckling.
"Yeah," nodded Olivia, still not looking up.
Another thought had occurred to her, while Granny left to fetch all of the Gooblens. If they were going to go up against an AI that had mastered the ability to infiltrate all computers, she would be a liability for Dustin. She wasn't completely sure that she loved him, but the thought of losing him definitely made her stomach sour. If he saw her get hurt, he might be willing to sacrifice himself, and they needed him to make sure that AI was destroyed. By the time Granny had all of the Gooblens on board, she knew that if worse came to worse, she would have to sacrifice herself.
Or get some really big, impressive guns. Yeah, big guns would fix everything. Maybe if she told herself that enough times, it would become true.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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Hope this clears up some confusion, as to how the thugs from last chapter knew exactly how to counter his abilities. Next chapter: Finding Dustin.
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