Chapter 37: Chapter 37 Kitteral
Dustin disconnected from the computer and made his way as quickly as possible to the exterior hull. Taking a moment to prepare himself, he changed himself to be able to handle the cold, then began eating through the hull. The vacuum sucked him out, far from the ship, and he allowed himself to drift farther and farther away. Changing himself here and there, to deal with the cold vacuum of space, he wondered what would happen if he just allowed himself to drift forever.
He thought about Kit, the other Uz'En, and Granny with her Gooblens, and wondered what would happen if he just stopped trying so hard. This AI was impossibly difficult. It had even infiltrated his hive mind of nanobots. While he didn't know why it wanted his body, he knew that as long as he was missing, it wouldn't kill any of them with the kill switch. They were too tempting to use as hostages. Then Olivia popped into his mind.
Why did he try so hard after she left him? It didn't make any sense. Anyone else would have just given up and moved on. Why did he even bother to try and save her so many times? There really wasn't a logical reason for him to go to so much effort time and time again, to save her. He had thought at one point he loved her, but now he wasn't so sure. She obviously didn't love him. So, what was it?
Granny had mentioned something to him once that what Olivia had done shouldn't have been possible. They even had a kid between them, so why did she leave? She had told him that Olivia would come to her senses, when she left to find the rest of her people, and he had believed her because she was so confident of it.
When the ship exploded, and debris flew past and through him, he snatched it and stored it inside his slime body in order to dissolve and eat later. He was preparing to shut himself down and sleep for however long it took for him to drift in space, when he felt a nudge. Something was actively trying to get his attention.
Forming an eye in the middle of his body, he looked at the creature that was nudging at him and was surprised to see behind it, a ship far larger than any he had ever seen before in his life. It was the size of a small planet.
The space creature was translucent, with a long slug-like body, that had six appendages spreading out on either side, waving in the energy of space. It looked at him out of a face that had large blue eyes and a small circular mouth. It nudged him again, with its nose, away from the ship, and turned to see how close the ship had gotten. Apparently, it had gotten far closer, because the creature seemed to panic and nudged him more urgently.
The next time it touched him, Dustin borrowed some of its genetics, and changed himself to look like it. It watched the entire time, then sped off, far faster than the space worm had ever traveled, away from the incoming ship.
He had no idea what was going on, but for a lack of other options, he followed it, amazed at the difference in speed he was able to achieve. Each little fan of his appendages caught minute particles of energy, and enabled him to speed up even more. Soon they were zooming through space, distancing themselves from the ship very quickly.
As they pulled around a field of asteroids, the creature slowed down, and checked on the ship again. Dustin pulled up next to it, noting that he couldn't see the ship anywhere. It turned, satisfied, and waved a fan at him to follow it. He almost didn't. This was just too weird, but again, a lack of options presented itself, so he followed.
It headed deep into the asteroid field, dodging them as they moved slowly. Taking a quick turn at a particularly large asteroid, it slipped into a crack and disappeared. Dustin paused for only a moment before joining it inside the asteroid. There sat a small ship, pieced together with random pieces that didn't match.
Dustin followed it, suddenly very interested, as it flew to an open hatch and went inside. He followed it, and the hatch closed behind him.
XxxxX
Olivia sat in her ship, cloaked, watching the group of hunters swarm over the station. She wasn't sure how to find where Dustin had been taken, and was hoping that one of these guys would be able to take her there. But choosing which one to follow was going to be difficult. There were easily fifteen different aliens, all looking to cash in on Dustin's misfortune.
Granny sat next to her, watching as well, waiting for her to make up her mind. The ship was full of Gooblens, sleeping off the feast they had just enjoyed. Apparently, none of the emergency protocols had been functioning when Dustin made a hole in the side of the station, so no one had noticed there was an air leak until it was far too late to try and fix. The entire atmosphere in the station had been bled out.
"What are the chances that the AI is watching us, right now?" wondered Olivia out loud.
"The AI?" asked Granny, looking away from the screen.
"This AI has itself entrenched into every nanobot Dustin ever made. It could probably kill the entire Uz'En race whenever it wanted."
"Then why hasn't it?" asked Granny.
"What does Dustin have that it wants so bad?" Olivia mused, watching the ships start to pull away from the station.
"Let's think about this for a moment," said Granny, "The Uz'En, as a race, only has the ability to change themselves into anything else that they want, except Dustin has the ability to tinker with electronics. He's single-handedly built the nanobots, the nanobot hive mind, and jump gates for instantaneous travel. That doesn't include all of the other stuff he did as a kid before he was captured. There's no telling what else he might be able to pull off, the more time he's allowed to tinker with things."
Olivia glanced over at Granny thoughtfully. It almost seemed like there was more to what she was telling her. "What else?"
Old Motha leaned forward, waking briefly from her nap, "Don't forget to tell her about the king, what's his name?"
Granny looked uncomfortable, as if she wasn't really wanting to talk about that.
"The king?" asked Olivia. "You mean Kit?"
"Yea! That was it! Kitteral," said Old Motha, leaning back in her chair. "Now he was an impressive fella."
Granny sighed as Olivia whipped back around to look at her again.
"Granny, you have some explaining to do. If you haven't seen your mom in a really long time, and we were in storage for almost 200 years, then the timing of Old Motha knowing about Dustin's dad, doesn't match."
"It is incredibly rare among the royal line, but it has been known to happen that they can stop aging. One of the reasons why I tried so hard to keep you and Dustin safe as kids, was because his dad was one of those people."
"So, wait, you mean that Dustin's dad was super old?" asked Olivia.
Granny nodded.
"When I first found the Uz'En on your original home world, Kitteral was a young boy."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Sdrawkcab
Sdrawkcab And the plot thickens!
Chapter 38: Chapter 38 Wayfarer Father
"Dustin, I can't believe how much you've grown! Your mother would be so proud!" said the man, standing before him.
Dustin had changed back into his normal form when the other person had done so as well. The moment the hatch had closed, the room had flooded with breathable air. The man looked like an unimpressive human, with brown hair and dark brown eyes. His chin was covered in short black stubble, as if he needed to shave, but there really wasn't anything about him that would catch someone's eye.
"Who are you?" he asked, a suspicion forming in his head, but he wasn't willing to accept it. It was too ludicrous.
"I'm your father, son. I'm sorry that I wasn't there to save you, or to keep you safe. I had hoped that if I stayed hidden, the AI would leave you and Olivia alone."
Dustin watched as the guy hung his head and shook it in sadness. He didn't buy it.
"That's not possible. I remember watching your ship explode. It's been over 200 years since that day. You can't be my dad."
"I can't?" asked the man, raising his head and looking at Dustin curiously. "That's funny, I tend to recall your birth pretty clearly, and your mother would probably take offense if she heard you denounce me."
"Don't you dare talk about mom," said Dustin in a low growl, surprising himself. He barely remembered her, but this man had no right to talk about her.
"Ah, that's what it is," said the man softly to himself. He stood up straight and began to change his features. The stubble on his chin was gone, and his eyes changed to a bright blue. Dimples formed along his cheeks, and he smiled softly at Dustin.
Dustin's breath caught in his throat as memories flooded in, of this man. He had picked him up and thrown him into the air, laughing at his squeals of glee. This man, who he had called Daddy…
"How do I know this isn't a trick? The man that was my father should be dead."
"Dustin, I'm sorry I wasn't there when you were young. I wanted you to be safe. Granny was supposed to keep the AI from finding you, but obviously she failed," he spat in disgust.
"Granny was there when I needed her! She kept me safe from those military thugs who wanted to splatter my brains across the floor! Time after time she managed to get us out of tight spots, until she couldn't anymore!"
The memories of that day flooded his mind. He had wanted to go get more parts to work on his current contraption, and Granny had just left. Olivia tried to talk him out of it, but he was sure it wouldn't take very long. Trying to imagine what Granny thought when she returned to an empty house brought tears to his eyes.
"If you really are my father, then why the hell didn't you help when you were really needed?" growled Dustin, balling his fists as he fought the urge to cry.
"I'm surprised to see that you're alive, too. I thought when Granny lost you, that you were gone. I've lost so many families over the years, I never tried to find you. When I saw your video…I knew that you were still alive, and after so long, it could only mean that you have the same abilities I do…"
The man didn't hesitate to start blubbering, and Dustin was disgusted. This guy was a mess.
Wiping his nose on a rag that was hanging by the door, he motioned for Dustin to follow him further into the ship. It was just as pieced together on the inside as it was on the outside.
"I never had the technological abilities you do, so this is probably pretty poor in comparison to what you call home, but it works," he said, showing him a small cramped compartment he probably called a bedroom, and there on the other side of the small hall was a room stuffed with supplies, probably passing for a dining area.
The front deck was a little more spacious with a reclining pilot seat and multiple devices for piloting the ship. Everything screamed homeless bachelor.
"What abilities do you mean?" asked Dustin, turning away from the mess of wires and tangled computer parts.
"Why, the abilities to change your molecular structure into whatever you need. Including the ability to prevent aging."
Dustin looked at this man who claimed to be his father. He had to be Uz'En. The ability to change screamed that. The fact he knew about Granny should have been sufficient to prove his claim, but Dustin had too much thrown at him over the years to blindly accept things anymore.
"Prove to me that you are my father, and then tell me about our people. None of those I've rescued know our history. Even Granny only told me a little bit."
"She would withhold info. She hated to give anything away for free. It was pretty hard to get her to watch over you kids when you were little. She always was greedy."
Dustin crossed his arms, waiting.
"All right! Let's see. Your mother named you for a famous human who made her laugh when she was pregnant with you. You would kick whenever she laughed, and we would joke about how you felt like she was laughing at you. Or that you thought you would be far funnier than he was." He got a distant look in his eyes as he talked.
"You would steal all sorts of mechanical things, from the time you could crawl, and we would find them hidden in your bed, or down your pants." He smiled at that.
Dustin sighed. "I don't remember any of that. You could just be making that stuff up."
"Well, the day I found out about the AI, I tried to bargain with it. It was determined to destroy all Uz'En, and I wanted to try and save at least you and your mother. Our agreement was that it would get my body, and leave the rest of the Uz'En alone. It wanted to steal my unaging abilities to use on its own race of slaves in an attempt to prolong their lives. It was tired of getting attached to them and then they would die of old age.
"I told your mom I had important business to attend to, and left on a ship heading towards the AI. Once the ship was high enough that I could escape through space, I detonated the bomb I had brought, blowing up the ship. I had wanted to reconnect with you and your mom later, but she was already dead. I made a deal with Granny to keep you safe as long as she could, while I tried to find us a safe place to live. She owed me big time, so she agreed. But when I came back, she was alone. You were already gone."
"And Olivia?" asked Dustin, starting to think that maybe this guy could be his father.
"She was a bit of a surprise, because she came from the hunter sect of our people. Normally the royalties and the hunters never bonded, but the two of you seemed to have bonded the moment you first met. Is she still alive, too?"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Sdrawkcab
Sdrawkcab
Finally, we get to learn a little about the Uz'En as a race. More in the next chapter. This AI has been a pain in the butt for a long time, but why hasn't it reared its head until now?
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
0 Power
stone You may also Like
Paragraph comment