Chapter 60: Chapter 60 Slavers Reallocated
The council woman looked at the proposal for a few minutes, before scowling at it, and sending it on, with a long memo to every single member of the council. Dustin traveled along with the proposal, watching the many different reactions, as the council members read through it.
He had intentionally left out all mention of anything political, so Kit could handle that as he saw fit. There was no reason to make promises to these people, only to have Kit be tied to them. And it was a good thing to, as the council members began contacting each other to discuss the proposal. It was amazing to him, how many connections they had within the council itself, all of the spider webs of political maneuvering that was going on. It was obvious almost from the beginning that it would go through, but he watched in amazement as the decision was trickled through all of them, until they finally got to a point of voting. The vote was almost expected by the end, with just enough votes going through, to make it seem like it was a close thing.
By that evening, they had manipulated the general populace into believing that the decision was one they had been deliberating on for months, and they had finally given in, when the first child with genetic issues was born. They had even fabricated a news interview of the mother in tears over the fears of what the future would bring. Dustin couldn't believe it.
As soon as he got this planet moved, he was going to recommend his son completely overhaul the system that this group of people had, because of the political corruption that was so entrenched.
Receiving a message from the chancellor, once the vote was for his move proposal, he didn't even bother to surface from his dive, controlling the nanobots to start construction on the jump ring from where he was. Thinking about his new energy source, he decided using the fuel from a nearby gas giant would be far better then trying to redesign the jump gate to utilize the new source. He didn't want the council to get cold feet before he could initiate the jump. This planet was the last planet of Uz'En in the galaxy, that he needed to bring home, and he wasn't going to let them get out of it.
Thinking about his dad, while the nanobots talked back and forth doing their jobs, he wondered about his apathy. The man didn't seem to be the same person he had memories of. Could the time spent apart, granted it was two HUNDRED years, have really been so much to change him into a whole different person? He remembered stories of smaller events causing people to change like that, but those were stories of humans, not Uz'En. How did they cope with unaging?
His dad said he didn't have anything to live for, maybe he needed something to do, to occupy his time, and get him back into the swing of life. Dustin was looking forward to his time to himself, after he was done 'rescuing' or 'liberating' all of the Uz'En in the galaxy, even if he didn't know what he was going to be doing.
Watching the ring start to form, just as it had the previous two times, he made sure to utilize materials from the other planets and asteroids in the solar system, so that those materials could be brought along when they closed the gate. Sending a large force to one of the gas giants for fuel, he noticed a group of ships that had just warped into the solar system.
With a curse, he recognized them as the trouble makers the council had been mentioning, as the ones who were trying to enslave the people on this planet. The ships looked to be outfitted with all manner of weapons, probably to try and break through the security system they had around the planet. If those ships noticed his ring, they could damage it, or cause him no end of headaches.
All of his nanobots were busy, with only a handful still at the ship for general purposes, so, thinking quickly, he opted to use the ones he had sent to the gas giant to attack the ships. They weren't really made to attack ships, so it would be a slow attack until they had acquired enough materials from the ships themselves, to build more nanobots.
Waiting impatiently for word on how well their attacks went, he watched them get closer and closer to the planet. The security system had already noticed them, and was reacting accordingly, powering up all of the defenses that normally remained on standby. Dustin couldn't believe the complexity as he watched it jump into action. If he hadn't hacked the system to watch from inside, he would have been even more thrilled at how well it was designed. This was almost worth the trouble of having the planet jumped, just to get the system for his planet, Haven.
Before the system could actively attack, the ships came to a halt just next to the ring and Dustin smugly ordered the nanobots to focus on using materials from the ships to use on the ring. There were still aliens alive inside the ships, having taken shelter in emergency pods that refused to launch, and space suits that only had a limited amount of air. They could watch his ring finish being completed with the parts from their ships, before their air gave out and they died.
The comments from the council were totally worth his efforts, because they were suddenly doubting the agreement, they had made with him. The fact that he could have taken their planet without their approval, was made blaringly clear with the destruction of the invaders and his subsequent disassembly of their ships. He even used their warp drives and fuel to supply the ring with power.
Double checking the math, Dustin prepared to jump the planet before any other interruptions could happen. He had a feeling that the council was going to be sending someone towards their ship, based on the communications he was eavesdropping on, so he wanted to make sure this was done quickly. He was so close to being done!
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Sdrawkcab
Sdrawkcab Almost done! What could possibly go wrong?
Chapter 61: Chapter 61 It Is Done
"Dustin! We have incoming!" cried Olivia.
"I know, we have time," he said, watching the jump gate come online and stop in space. It was awesome to watch from the surface of the planet.
He had returned to his body, and had the front screen showing them what was visible in the night sky. The ring gate glowed in so many different colors, they looked like they were pulsing as the planet approached it.
The council had an emergency meeting, as the method of his relocation had not been discussed. They had all assumed he would provide that next, not immediately jump into actually moving the planet. He wasn't about to let them back out of it now, and was intentionally ignoring all of the communications efforts they had tried, to inform him of such. In their meeting, they decided the only thing left to do, was to attack his ship and force him to stop. The only problem with that, was that he had cloaked the ship, and moved it out onto a small island in the middle of the ocean. Their sensors couldn't find him, because he had placed a bug in, that ignored the few traces they could detect.
"Is everything going alright?" asked Kitteral, looking up from his game as everyone went quiet.
The scene on the screen was going to get too big to show, so Dustin jumped up and headed for the airlock. He wanted to see this from the outside, even if the scout ships found them. It was far too late to stop anything at this point.
Granny and Olivia rushed to follow him, as Kitteral gazed at the screen in silence.
They stood, leaning against the ship, as the gate got closer and closer. Only moments remained, before they would fly through and be in the next system. Dustin was ecstatic. He was almost done. Kit could handle whatever drama that came, and he could finally take that nap, knowing that there wasn't anything more for him to do.
"Dustin! Quick! Get back on the ship!" cried Kitteral, looking crazed.
A whine in the air was the only warning they had of the blast that came next.
*KABOOM*
XxxxX
Dustin opened his eyes to darkness. The first thing he did was heal himself, before he even checked to see what damage he had taken.
The room was dark, so he hadn't been blind. Outside he could hear children laughing as they played some game. The smell of vegetable soup, his son's favorite, wafted in the air.
Sitting up, Dustin looked around, and saw that he was in his old room, on Haven. What had happened? Climbing out of bed, he moved to the door and listened as he heard voices. It sounded like Granny was talking softly to Kit at the dinner table.
"What happened again?" asked Kit, as the sounds of bowls being set down reached his ears.
"Kitteral jumped at us, blocking most of the blast, and Olivia was just able to move in front of Dustin, taking the rest. I think the missile must have hit the ground right in front of us, because the damage to the ship was pretty severe. The nanobots were barely able to patch it up enough for us to escape the rest of the incoming missiles."
"But I don't understand how mom and grandpa didn't make it," whispered Kit.
Dustin froze. He hadn't been moving, but suddenly the world froze around him. Did he need to breathe? Did his heart really need to beat? How could they both be gone? The old man wasn't much of a father, but he had been his dad. And Olivia? Maybe he had misheard…
"I was barely able to scrape enough of your dad together to drag onto the ship. There wasn't enough of the others to grab anything… I'm sorry…" Granny's voice trailed away and there was silence. Not even the sound of spoons moving in the imitation of eating.
Dustin sat on the bed. The world was a haze. Nothing seemed to make sense.
He looked around the room, not recognizing any of it as his. Had Kit reorganized? No, there was the desk the nanobot hivemind had made for him from wood bits pieced together. Over there were the pictures that Kit had drawn when he was very small, organized in no particular order. Next to his closet was the hamper he only sometimes used.
"The tranquilizer I gave your dad should be wearing off soon. I think I'm going to go, before he wakes," said Granny, as the sound of a chair gently scraping across the floor echoed in the silent apartment.
"Thank you for bringing back my dad," choked Kit, who was obviously crying.
Tears were no where for Dustin. Hearing his boy cry meant nothing to him. He was too numb to even register the outer door softly opening and shutting. Granny had known he was awake, and left anyway. She had told him what had happened, and left. Even that wouldn't register with any emotions.
Laying back down on the bed, Dustin looked up at the ceiling, trying to find the tears that should have been falling, and was reminded of all the times he had stared at that ceiling, thinking of where Olivia might be, and why she wasn't with him.
A nap. He had accomplished everything he had sought out to do. He had brought back all of the Uz'En from around the galaxy. They had a home that was safe, whether they wanted it or not. The hivemind was there to study the galaxy and to keep them safe. And as far as he knew, there wasn't any aliens out there who wanted to hunt them down and kill them. A nap sounded just fine. That was what he had told Olivia he would do when he was done, so why not?
Closing his eyes, Dustin willed himself to fall asleep, and the sounds of the children playing outside drifted away.
XxxxX
"Prisoner 313564, has completed his sentencing of one year on the virtual planet 3.54365. Commencing waking sequence."
The mechanical voice echoed in his ears as the sounds of rustling filled the silence.
"His stats look good, he should be fully awake in thirty minutes," said a deep male voice.
"Holy crap, did you see the time dilation?" exclaimed a raspy male voice.
"Shit! How the hell did this guy survive twenty years?! We have to do something!"
"What? Why?"
"This guy was sent to the Death World for a year! If this is true, he spent twenty years there instead! He's going to be a fucking psychopath! We'll lose our jobs over this!"
"But it's not our fault he reacted this way! How can they blame us?"
"We were supposed to keep an eye on him over the past year. This should have been caught on day two! They'll know we've been skipping out, and not doing everything!"
"Shit! You're right!" cursed the raspy guy.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Sdrawkcab
Sdrawkcab
Maybe only a chapter or two left! I hope you have enjoyed this wild ride of Dustin's. Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on this plot twist!
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
0 Power
stone 
Paragraph comment