Chapter 52: Chapter 52 Zombies
They sat in their ship, cloaked, watching alien ships assemble just outside a solar system.
"So, what's going on?" asked Kitteral, entering the bridge after a nap.
"There's Uz'En on the planet these guys are getting ready to decimate," said Granny, without taking her eyes off the screen.
"And why are they getting ready to decimate the planet?" he asked, sitting in his chair.
"Apparently, there's some kind of virus that got loose, and they can't seem to figure it out. Their communication channels are full of talk about zombies and other trash," said Dustin, tapping the console in front of him thoughtfully.
"Should we go ahead and check it out?" asked Olivia.
"We need to. If there are any Uz'En left, we need to get them out before they start bombing the surface."
"Can't you just get some nanobots going, to collect them, like what you've done before?" asked his father, leaning back in his chair and stretching.
"They've got some of those damn nanobot jammers on the planet, like I was telling you about?" said Dustin, guiding the ship past the ships towards the planet.
"Whatever for? That seems like such a waste of resources," said Kitteral.
"Those who lived on the planet before the virus used the jammers to protect themselves against rogue nanobot swarms, and no one's been able to get a drone close enough to shut them off," explained Olivia.
"I suppose that makes sense, but doesn't that mean…" started Kitteral.
"That Olivia and Granny can't help out this time. And I can't take the ship very close either," said Dustin, not looking at his dad. The man just wasn't everything he had thought he would be. He was actually really lazy, and often went out of his way to avoid work.
"Will you be okay?" asked Olivia, obviously not happy with the situation.
"I'll be fine. We only have a few planets left to get Uz'En off of, and then we'll be done."
No one asked him what he planned to do once that happened, because they weren't sure they wanted to hear his answer. Dustin hadn't been quiet about the fact he wasn't interested in returning to the increasingly more and more crowded planet.
"I'll head for the jammers first. It will take too long to try and find every Uz'En that's hiding on the planet. Once the jammers are disabled, we can send the nanobots to grab them all."
"We'll be scanning from orbit, to try and figure out what's going on, so we don't accidentally take some horrible virus home with us," said Granny, typing a few things on her console.
"I also have the nanobots scavenging from the trash floating around the planet, to start making the extra nanobots for the grab and go mission."
Dustin nodded his thanks to Olivia, as she sent the orders through her console. Not looking at his dad, who was particularly quiet, he headed for the airlock.
Getting to the surface wasn't a problem. He was in the form of a large bird, soaring over the city below him, towards to the site of the first jammer. Below him he could see what honestly looked like real zombies, but there was no way, right?
"Dustin?" came Granny's voice in his ear. The communication device he had, was working. It was made from nanobots, but wasn't a nanobot anymore, so they hadn't been sure if it would work in the jammer's range.
"It looks like the people who are zombies, are actually infected with a parasite, instead of a virus," she continued, since he had no way to respond.
"Unless you want to get us a sample, to double check the readings," said Olivia, "then, every Uz'En we grab will probably have this xeno-parasite. The computer scans say that they become unstable when they infect the aliens that lived on this planet, causing the host to become aggressive as the parasite starts to die. It puts off pheromones to deter other parasite-laden hosts from attacking each other, giving the parasite an opportunity to transfer to a new host, which doesn't seem to have worked out for them."
"It looks like the Uz'En might kill and absorb them, when they become infected, but the scans can't tell how long it takes, or if there are side effects when they do that. Be careful down there," said Granny.
Dustin spied the building that had the jammer, and dived for it. Avoiding the front lawn, that had several zombies stumbling around, he landed on the roof. Changing into his crystal lizard form, he ripped the roof door off its hinges and entered the building. The entire second story building was taken up by a massive coil, that was emitting a jamming signal. He stood on the railing overlooking the coil, studying its design for a few moments before heading for the stairs.
Two zombies were in the building, too far gone to be able to figure out how to open a door. He sidestepped the one that lay on the ground, weakly reaching for his ankle, and slammed a chair into the other one when it turned towards him. The chair slammed into its face, causing blood to splatter everywhere, and it fell to the ground dead.
With a grunt of annoyance, Dustin stepped up to the control panel and quickly shut off the jammer. Someone was intelligent, having designed an off button, so he didn't have to do ninja computer things to get it to turn off. Shedding the blood splattered crystals, so he didn't accidentally become infected, Dustin transformed into his bird form, and flew back up out of the building.
There were two more jammers he had to disable before the nanobots could be released to grab up the Uz'En on the planet. Changing into a faster bird form, he prepared to travel as fast as he could, when he spied a man fighting off a zombie on the roof of another building. A crowd was forming around the building, which meant the man was trapped. If he didn't save him, the guy was doomed.
Changing his form to that of a half bird, half human, Dustin flew over.
"I'm going to grab you, raise your arms out so I get a good grip!" he shouted, swooping for the guy.
Without pausing, the guy, held his arms out and Dustin grabbed his arms, close to his body, and pulled him away before the next zombie could land a blow.
"Who are you?" asked the guy breathlessly, as Dustin swooped back towards the jammer building's roof.
Setting him down, Dustin thought about how to answer that.
"Look, I don't have time to explain, because they're about to fire bomb the planet. I have to shut down the other two jammers so we can send in a nanobot swarm to grab the survivors," said Dustin, turning to leave.
"Wait! I can help you! I know how to shut them all down from here!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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Sdrawkcab Only a few planets to go...then what? Any ideas?
Chapter 53: Chapter 53 Kill Switch
"How?" asked Dustin, pausing at the edge of the roof.
"There's a kill switch at every site, that will remotely shut down all three jammers. I was one of the workers who was in charge of upkeep on them."
The guy looked pretty sincere, so Dustin decided to trust him. It would save them some serious time, if he could shut them all down from here.
"Alright, but hurry, we don't have a lot of time!"
The guy dashed for the door, barely pausing when he noticed the door had been ripped off its hinges, and Dustin watched as he scrambled down the stairs, leaped over the still living zombie, and dived at the console that Dustin had already been at. Fumbling with the side panel, he finally managed to get it open, and flipped a red switch that was hidden underneath it.
"You did it! That was fast! Great job!" cried Granny in his ear.
"I'm releasing the swarm now, get out of there!" Olivia said.
"The alien ships are approaching; we need to hurry!" said Kitteral.
Dustin watched the guy as he turned to look at him with a wide grin.
"Get back up here, and I'll make sure you live at least," called Dustin.
Without wasting any time, the guy dashed back towards him. "Do you think you could take me home? I have a family…"
"Of course, you do," sighed Dustin. Grabbing the guy by his arms, he swept back up into the sky, and they were quickly heading towards the center of town.
"This is awesome!" cried the guy as they swooped down towards the house that the guy pointed out as being his.
There weren't that many zombies here, as the man had explained that the outbreak occurred during the day, when everyone was at work and school, but his wife and kids had been home that day. He had been trying to get back to them every since, and hadn't been able to make it. The outbreak had only been going on for about a week.
Dustin didn't like that the powers that be were already willing to firebomb the planet, rather than try and save people, or eradicate the parasites. If his computer could find them, then other computer scanners could to. Some kind of corruption was in play here.
Setting the guy down in his back yard, where a wood fence blocked them from any zombies in the area, Dustin watched him rush inside to find his family.
"Dustin! We're getting signals from the incoming ships that are similar to that AI you destroyed, what do we do?"
How could that be? He was sure he had destroyed that damn AI.
"He can't respond, Olivia, we're going to have to deal with them ourselves," said Granny.
"Dustin, we're going to send the nanobots to slow them down, and buy you some more time. Hurry your ass up, son!" said Kitteral after a few moments of silence.
Dustin glanced up at the sky, watching lights appearing briefly as a fight broke out above his head. Shaking his head in disbelief, he took a couple of steps towards the house, only to have the guy return with a woman and two small children in their arms. The look of relief on their faces warmed his heart for a moment, as he finally got a thanks from someone after all of the trouble, he had been through trying to rescue people. Before he could say anything, the nanobots descended upon them, wrapping their startled faces up into cocoons of ships, and zooming the capsules back up into the air.
Watching the capsules as long as he could see them, Dustin shook his head and jumped into the air. They needed him up above, in space, to fight an enemy that should have been dead.
Changing his form as the atmosphere got too thin, he tried to run possibilities through his head. How could the AI still be functioning? Could there be some random programs still functioning, where the AI had sent them to do specific jobs, without it checking in to keep them working? Did the AI have a second body as a backup?
If the latter were the case, he was going to be royally pissed.
The battle scene became clearer as he drew closer. The nanobots were doing a fantastic job of eating away at the hulls of the incoming ships, causing them all sorts of issues. They were trying to shoot the larger clusters of them, since they were visible in the larger clusters, but it really didn't do any good, because the new shields he had programmed into them, absorbed the blast force, and transferred it to charging their batteries back up.
If he could have grinned, he would have. Settling by the air lock, he let himself in, and quickly made his way back to the bridge. Everyone was busy watching the activity around them, so Dustin quickly settled into his seat and began working too.
The ships that were coming to destroy the surface of the planet would soon be floating coffins, as the atmosphere inside them bled out to space, and the inhabitants died. The Uz'En on the planet would soon be evacuated and on their way to the Uz'En homeworld, so that only left the dying zombies on a perfectly good planet.
"I thought you destroyed the AI," said his father, not looking at him.
"So, did I," responded Dustin, preparing to diving and check on the computer systems of the other ships as they went silent and still.
"We've got everything handled, here," said Granny, knowing what he was planning to do.
Nodding, he shoved his finger into the port that opened before him, and dived.
Following the path of the AI signal the computer had detected, he quickly found himself in the alien computers. What he found both annoyed and intrigued him. The AI program was only a partial program, sent to finish decimating the remaining Uz'En if anything happened to the main AI, but what intrigued him was the fact that this program was sentient, not just a mindless program going about with its programmed functions.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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Now, is it the AI trying to rebuild itself, a remaining program that evaded destruction, or something new?
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