Chapter 43: Chapter 43 Chaos
If this form could have grinned, Dustin would have. As the nanobots got close enough, he sucked the energy out of them, and swam through them. They were powerless to stop him as he headed straight for the hive mind. The hive tried to mobilize itself, but he was too quick, latching onto the side of it, and shoving his finger into a port.
Technically, the hivemind should have been able to disassemble itself in order to either attack him, or escape, but in order to do that, it would have had to dissolve its mind. Dustin knew it wouldn't want to do that, and banked on the fact that it had evolved to a point that it saw itself as a person. Dissolving itself would have presented the possibility of death, and everyone is afraid of death.
Diving into the computer, Dustin searched the massive landscape that presented itself, for the insidious programs of the AI. Spying several, that were contingent on each other, he watched them, amused for a moment, as they freaked out and tried to search for him inside the system. The AI would know after this that he was invisible to it, and that would cause it even more distress. He had to work quick before it learned how to spot him.
He studied their interconnections, and planned his attack. Sending tendrils of his awareness to each of the programs, he inserted the same line of code into each of them at the same time, in just the right spot, to minimize their recognition of what he was doing, then backed off and watched.
The AI had inserted codes to take control of the hivemind, without the hivemind being aware of the takeover. Dustin just inserted code into the programs to notify the hivemind of the attack, and left the hivemind to deal with the intruders itself. It was fascinating to watch. The hivemind realized what had happened, and immediately attacked the foreign code, trying to destroy them and cut off their control. He was surprised to see a part of the code, that had been inactive in the AI programs, activate. Instead of trying to control the hivemind, it was going to destroy it.
Moving quickly, Dustin tried to stop the ensuing mess, but wasn't fast enough. There was a flash, and the next thing he knew, he was back in his body, floating several feet from the hivemind. No power was emanating from it, and he knew without a doubt, it was dead.
Reaching for the port he had used, he saw streaks of black along the metal, signaling that it had evicted him forcefully. With determination, Dustin shoved his finger into the port and focused. Organs inside of him shifted as they changed. An electrical field began to develop around him. Taking a moment to steal himself, he shoved the buildup of power into the hivemind.
Rather than letting it just be a large jolt, he rode the wave of energy, and sent it to specific places. Those areas that were too damaged, he bypassed. Forcing new nanobots to move in and take over those damaged areas, recycling bots arrived to eat those who were too damaged to function, and then new bots were produced to replace them.
As the hivemind slowly came back online, he took measures to make sure that the AI couldn't reinsert new programs. If he was still in his body, he would never have been able to work as fast as he was now, he physically couldn't move his fingers fast enough, however, he knew that his own brain could function far faster than a computer could, if freed from the restrictions of the physical body.
Dustin took over the functions of the hivemind, and with his mind controlling everything, he prepared to launch an attack on the AI when the enemy ships arrived. He watched, from the multiple eyes of the nanobots as the enemy ships moved up next to his ship, with the assumption that the hivemind was nonfunctioning. He came up with a plan very quickly, and enacted it, hoping everyone fell for it.
XxxxX
Olivia watched in horror as the nanobots attacked Dustin in waves, but every time they came in contact with him, they would float dead, away from him. He rushed at the hivemind, but was only up against it for a moment, before there was a large flash, and everything seemed to float dead. His body floated free of the hivemind, before jerking and floating slowly back over to the dark hivemind and settling against it again.
She covered her face, wondering if he was dead.
"There are incoming vessels," said the ship's computer, and she looked up to see five large ships, of the same design as the one he had been taken in before.
Old Motha sighed and got up and left the room. Kitteral sat down heavily in the seat she had left.
"That's it. We tried, didn't we?" he asked them with a slow shake of his head.
"Maybe Dustin can pull off something?" said Olivia, not wanting to give up. "Does the ship have guns?"
"No, Dustin never intended to get into a fight with anyone," said the computer.
"That's stupid! He should have asked me!" she cried in anger, slamming her fists down on the console in front of her.
"Olivia, he didn't trust you," said Granny, watching as they got close enough to attempt boarding.
"I know. I was stupid," she said, hanging her head in defeat.
There was a jerk, and they both looked at each other. They knew that was the ship boarding. Granny grinned as she remembered that there were Gooblens waiting at the airlock, and it took Olivia a moment to realize why she was grinning.
"Dustin wouldn't want us to go down easy," said Granny.
"Let's go cause that distraction he was wanting," she said, changing her hands into crystalline claws and heading for the door.
XxxxX
Dustin watched the ship dock, and glee danced along his nerves as he imagined the Gooblens pouring into the ship unchecked. He almost felt pity for the people on that ship, then turned his attention to work. Using the connection, the AI programs had before they self-destructed, he was able to connect to the AI ship. Barely registering the chaos that was going on there, he followed the path all the way back to the AI that was busy trying to figure out how to deal with rampaging Gooblens.
It was time to cause a little chaos of his own.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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Sdrawkcab Bringing the fight to the AI.
Chapter 44: Chapter 44 A Need For Speed
By the time Olivia reached the airlock door, there was only bits of blood to show that someone had died here. Following Granny inside the AI's ship, she couldn't help but wonder if that was such a good idea. She knew that the AI could hack the nanobots, but so far nothing had come of it. Picking up a bar that had been chewed off the wall, she hefted it and decided it would make a decent weapon.
Bite marks on the doorways and supports along the wall, showed that the Gooblens had passed this way. It wasn't until they reached the power core room, that Olivia spied any Gooblens. Old Motha was cackling, rubbing her stomach and ordering the Gooblens around her to carry her back to the ship.
"Did you eat the power core?" asked Olivia flabbergasted. A huge empty space sat where the power core had been. How were the lights still on?
"My favorite flavor!" purred Old Motha, as the Gooblen hefted her onto their shoulders and carried her bloated frame past them.
Granny turned to her, and said, "We should probably get you out of this room. There's still some random radiation bouncing around."
Olivia allowed Granny to push her out of the room, as she noticed figures in the corners. Rolling her eyes, she figured out that random radiation must mean Gooblens getting it on. Despite her doubts about the radiation, she followed Granny towards the bridge. There must have been an emergency backup battery, should the power core fail, that was keeping the lights and life support running.
Before they got there, the whole ship rocked, and the artificial gravity gave out. As it rocked again, Olivia realized the ship was being shot at! Turning back towards her ship, she grew a worm tail to propel her faster, despite the pain that came with it. The worm really didn't like being in atmosphere, so as soon as she was back at her ship, she absorbed it.
"Get all of the Gooblens back on board! We need to disconnect immediately!" she cried, rushing to the bridge.
Granny turned and gave a sharp whistle, that hurt her ears, but Olivia kept going. Sliding into her seat, she glanced up at the screen and saw that the other AI ship was actually shooting at her, but her shields were bouncing the shots back onto the other ship. Its shields were down, so the blasts were chewing huge holes into it.
"Computer, is there any way to reconfigure the shields to bounce those blasts back at the ship that shot them?"
"Computing," said the computer.
As she watched the next blast head their way, it seemed to hit and pause before bouncing straight back at the incoming ship. It obviously wasn't expecting it, and had a huge hole blasted into its side. Shields popped up on it, ceasing the loss if atmosphere that shot several people into space, and it stopped shooting at them.
"Dustin, I wish you were here to tell me what to do," she moaned, watching as the ship attached to them disconnected, and began to fall into the atmosphere of the planet.
XxxxX
Dustin looked over the intricate jumble of programs before him, making up the main AI. He knew he had to move fast, faster than the AI could keep up, and his movements had to be random, so the programs couldn't predict his next move. Cracking his mental knuckles, he dived in.
Cutting a program here and a program there, he removed the ability for the AI to notice things outside itself, in the immediate area around its mainframe. It hadn't noticed him just yet, but Dustin could see yellow flags popping up, as it seemed to realize something was going on.
"Olivia," he said, contacting her through the communications of the ship, with the hivemind. "Do whatever you can to distract this thing!"
He saw her eyes widen before focusing back on the chaos before him. He reached out and began cutting major program strings, watching the red flags pop up all over the place. Ignoring them, he continued to carve his way to the core of the AI.
The ability to contact smaller pieces of itself was cut. Its control of nanobots he cut with relish. When he found a program that manipulated numbers among economies all over the galaxy, he could only be amazed at as it tore it into shreds. As the core of the AI drew close, he felt the first signs of impending attack. The AI was stretching itself, trying to find him amongst itself, and it was right on the brink of being able to detect him, when he saw it. The core of the AI was a small star.
The AI had built itself around a star, and was siphoning power from it to keep its massive energy needs met.
He didn't have time to marvel at the sight, because just then the AI had found him. Moving faster than he had ever moved before, he could feel the hivemind straining at his speed, as he raced to the program that controlled the siphon. At the same time the AI was racing to cut him off from the hivemind, and destroy his body.
XxxxX
Olivia gaped at the monitor before her, where Dustin's voice had yelled at her to do whatever she could to distract the AI. She hadn't recognized the squiggles that had flashed on the screen as him, but would recognize his voice anywhere.
Drawing her eyebrows together in determination, she began to type.
"I can't do that, Olivia," said the computer.
She kept her head down, and continued typing.
"I can't do that either," said the computer again.
As she typed the last bit, the computer stayed silent for a moment.
"Now that, I can do!"
Grinning, Olivia rose from her seat to watch the scene outside unfold.
The AI ship that had been shooting at them had begun to turn, preparing to fire on the hive mind, she was sure, but before it could, all of the nanobots on the ship shot out, grabbing hold of it, through its shields, and they began to eat at the ship.
Dustin may not have installed any weapons on this ship, because he already had some. She just had to hope that the AI didn't take control of them, as she knew it could.
Sure enough, the computer went silent, and the nanobots went dead. Licking her lips in panic, she realized she could feel pain within her. The AI had decided to have the nanobots eat her alive. A grunt behind her told her they were attacking Granny too. Turning her eyes to the planet below them, she whispered at Dustin to hurry up.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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Thanks for understanding about no chapter yesterday. I feel much better today.
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