Chapter 68: Chapter 68 Granny, Again
"This looks nothing like it did," Dustin said, looking around at the ship after the nanobots were done redoing it. He would be able to jump to his destinations now, instead of having to warp everywhere.
"It looks much better than that glorified airplane we were in," said Olivia, getting back from checking out the interior.
His mother came up to the ship, her arms full of some kind of purple fruit that tasted a little like bananas, and ignored the outside of the ship completely, until she had gotten inside and found herself lost.
"Where do I put these?" she hollered back at them.
"Oh! I'll show you!" said Olivia, rushing to help her.
Glancing around one last time, Dustin climbed onto the ship as well, and prepared to leave. Sliding into his seat, he couldn't help but smile at the familiarity. Double checking on the systems, he missed his AI computer from the military science station. Leaving the planet behind, he prepared to jump to the military base where Granny was currently. Making sure that the cloaking was on, he jumped.
If anyone had ever seen an angry beehive, they would have found similarities with the military base when he first arrived. Ships of all sizes were flying all over the place, and he couldn't help but having to change his location several times to keep from being hit. He didn't think that, had he jumped in uncloaked, anyone would have questioned his presence.
"What's going on?" asked Olivia, sliding into the seat she had sat in, in the virtual world.
"If you look over there, you'll see that there are space worms attacking their station," said Dustin, remembering what Granny had told him about why the station was abandoned.
His mother joined them, and they all craned their necks to see the worms as they ate holes in the solar collectors. The military was in the process of evacuating the station, and that was why they were zipping around like crazy.
"Why don't they attack them?" asked his mom.
"They can't. All of their weapons are dodged, if they are solid, or absorbed if they are energy," said Dustin, moving the ship again, to avoid a collision with a large hauler.
"They eat energy?" asked Olivia.
"Yea, and it is delicious, if you change into one of them. Swimming through space is so much fun. It's like swimming through water."
"But how? There's nothing out there!" exclaimed his mother.
"Sure, there is! There are so many different energy waves, from the suns, and everything, you just can't see them."
"I think I'll take your word for it," laughed Olivia, as his mother shook her head and sat in the seat his father had used.
"I'm going to dock over there. That should be the closest port to where Granny was being kept, when I found her," said Dustin, moving the ship towards the port. The military had moved to a different section of the station to evacuate.
"What if we run into anyone?" asked his mother, looking worried.
"Don't worry, I'll have everyone turn into crystal lizards, to keep any of their weapons from bothering us."
"Crystal lizards?" asked his mother, not looking very relieved.
"Trust me!" laughed Dustin, connecting to their PED's and sharing the form he intended to take.
The three of them made their way towards the air lock, as the ship finished docking by itself, their new crystal lizard forms catching the light and sparkling. Stepping onto the military station, Dustin couldn't help but notice that the emergency lights hadn't been flashing the last time he was there. It also wasn't that cold, which meant the heaters and air systems were probably still working, too.
"We'll follow you," said Olivia, running her tongue over her sharp teeth, as she fell in behind him.
He made his way quickly to the room that held the containment tanks, and paused when he came face to face with his dad. His mother gave a shriek of delight, and went to throw herself at him.
Several things happened all at once, which Dustin would later blame himself for.
His father, believing that he was under attack by a strange crystal lizard person, raised his weapon to defend himself, shooting her point blank in the chest. Because of the crystal scales, the energy beam bounced off of her, and hit him, in the chest, blasting him back onto his butt.
She screamed, slamming her hand down on the PED, changing herself back to her human form, and grabbed him up, sobbing.
Dustin could only sigh and rush to his dad's side. The poor man!
Not knowing if he had perfected his ability to change yet, Dustin could only hope that his enhanced speed at healing would help. Calling his nanobots from the ship, he had them bundle his father up, and take him and his mother, who was too busy sobbing to do much of anything, back to the ships medical bay.
Almost twenty minutes later, Olivia stood by his side, waiting for him to show her which of the floating creatures in the various tanks around them, were Granny. Dustin couldn't help but look around in amazement. All of these creatures had been dead and decayed, by the time he had come to the station. Right now, they were all still asleep. Could he rescue any of them, too? Better wait and ask Granny, first.
Finding her tucked away in the very back, just like he remembered, Dustin started the sequence to wake her up and let her out.
"Who the hell are you, and do you have anything to eat?" she asked.
"I'm Dustin, and this is Olivia. If you come with me, I'll explain everything, and feed you. I know where the cafeteria is, and they left a lot of food behind."
She looked at him for a moment, the slimy fluid she had been floating in was still dripping off of her, before finally nodding. Olivia gave him a careful look, when she turned to follow, but didn't say anything.
Dustin only hoped this went well, because Granny didn't know who he was, and Gooblens were not to be trifled with!
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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Chapter 69: Chapter 69 New Haven
"You just jumped us? We didn't warp?" asked his dad, as they floated near the planet he would claim as Haven.
"Don't you have eyes in that big head of yours, Kitteral?" asked Granny, grinning ear to ear, literally.
"I just can't understand it," he said, shaking his head.
Dustin's mother was clinging to him, with a huge grin on her face, not caring that he seemed perplexed. She hadn't let go of him since he woke up in the medical bay. And Dustin had noticed his father had a death grip on the back of her shirt.
He noted the strange readings from the sun, and made sure to keep a moon between them and the dangerous rays that were coming off of it. The nanobots were sent to destroy the mushrooms that had affected Olivia so bad in the virtual world, and to harvest materials from the surrounding planets and asteroids for the jump gate he would need to move the planet. The only thing he needed to check on, was who were currently living on the planet.
"Why are we here again?" asked Olivia.
"The sun looks to be destabilizing," noted Granny, turning her head to look at the readings on her monitor. She had been thrilled when Dustin explained it was hers, but he still didn't have her convinced that he knew so much because of the virtual world he had lived in for the past twenty years. She knew about chrono skimming, but had never heard of it manifesting in that manner.
"So, this is the planet that I moved to become the Uz'En homeworld. I named it Haven."
"That's a lame name," chuckled his father, but stopped when everyone turned to look at him. Even his mother was glaring up at him. "What?"
"Our son is about to move a planet to a new solar system, and give our race a home for the first time in forever, and you complain about the name?" complained his mother.
"The only problem I have, is that there are three military bases of the humans' on this planet, that I need to get off. I think I might just use the nanobots to jump them back to earth, and leave the Uz'En on the planet. I'll have to time it just right, because I don't want them to be sending an investigation team here, before we can jump the planet."
"That sounds like a good idea," said Granny. "With the readings that I'm getting from this sun, I wouldn't give it two hundred years before it blows up."
"How can you tell?" asked Kitteral.
"That's what Dustin said was going to happen," she said, shrugging at him.
He rolled his eyes.
Dustin made sure the nanobots took out the communications from the military bases, so they couldn't contact anyone off planet, then kept an eye on the construction of the jump gate. The hive mind was already built, and ready to go, complete with every anti-viral and anti-hacking trick he could muster.
His parents went to find something to eat in the kitchen, and Granny thought that was a fantastic idea, thought Dustin knew she was kind of scared of what he was doing, and was obviously looking for something else to focus on.
"So, you said we got together?" asked Olivia, once they were alone.
"Yep, and we had a kid, too."
"Only one?" she asked, surprised.
"You didn't like kids, and well, it's kind of a long story," he said, trying to get out of explaining everything. He should have known it wouldn't work.
"I want to know. It's not like we have anything else to do at the moment," she said, squashing his hopes of getting out of telling her what had happened.
"You were contaminated by a mushroom that affected your brain. I destroyed all of them, so that it doesn't happen again, but it caused you to not bond correctly to me, like Uz'En are supposed to. You left me five years after Kit was born, and we didn't get back together until right before I woke up."
"Which is why, when you saw me, you acted so strangely," she said, nodding in understanding.
He gaped at her, not believing she accepted it all so quickly.
"What? You steal me away from a planet, introduce me to alien technology that I never even thought possible, and taught me to do things I didn't know I could. Why shouldn't I believe I have an allergy to some alien mushrooms?"
He opened his mouth to correct her, then decided it wasn't worth it.
"So, we're going to have a boy first? I like the name Kit."
He whipped his head around to look at her, and saw her smiling at him. "So, you'll marry me?" he asked breathlessly. He hadn't managed to get up the nerve to actually ask her, and now, he didn't have to.
"Of course! It's not like I'm willing to go gallivanting across the galaxy with just anyone," she laughed. "But you have to show me how to regrow some organs first."
"They should already be regrown," he said with a frown. "When you changed back to this form, from the lizard form, any missing organs would have been replaced."
It was her turn to look startled. "That's handy."
"I don't think I want to travel all over the galaxy grabbing people, this time. It was pretty dangerous in the virtual world. Since no one has any way to block my nanobots at the moment, I think I'm just going to kidnap every Uz'En and bring them here. It should be much easier on me."
"Those poor people are going to be so traumatized. A swarm of mechanical bugs are going to descend on them, and steal them all away to some strange new planet. You should at least get things ready for them, so they aren't trying to camp in the woods."
"I've done this before. I fully intend to have the nanobots start building cities as soon as the planet is moved."
"Well, as long as you have this all figured out, I'll leave you to it."
"Good," he laughed. It wasn't like she had any other option. Besides, Kit was so good at fixing the mess he made when he kidnapped people, surely it couldn't go any other way. Right?
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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One more chapter, I think, and this story will be complete.
Thank you to everyone who followed along on Dustin's journey. You can find the first two, available in paperback format on lulu.com and amazon.com. This third story will soon be joining them, as soon as I can get the editing done.
Check out some of my other works, here on webnovel, and if you feel so inclined, check me out on patre*n.
Thanks!
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