"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?
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!
Dustin stood on the balcony of his penthouse suite and looked out over the vast city that stretched before him for miles and miles. Olivia was almost ready to leave, and the twins were down for the night. Granny should be there any minute, to babysit for them.
Turning at the sound of the balcony door, he smiled to see Olivia waddle into view. Her belly was huge with another set of twins.
"Are you sure you want to go out? We could order food in and watch shows on the T.V.?"
"Oh, you!" she laughed. "The PED tells me I have another week before they'll be ready. Stop worrying!"
"Mom and dad should be meeting us at the restaurant. I can't believe how well Kit is doing this time around. Getting all of the people brought here, without bartering or arguing, has been so much easier this time around."
"I can't believe how good Granny is with little kids. Who knew our kids could grow so fast?"
"I'm just glad you're not all psycho this time around. I'm really enjoying having an actual wife and more than just the one kid."
"Let's go, before either of the twins wake up and ask where we are."
"Is Granny here all ready?"
"Yeah, she finished talking with her mom, Old Motha, earlier then she thought she would, so she was able to get here early."
"I told her that her mother wouldn't mind her showing back up. I'm glad they haven't had any issues with Gooblens not being born with crystals yet."
"That's kind of freaky to know about. I would never have thought they had crystals in their stomachs."
"I'm just glad Granny was willing to let me get a sample of her genetic data so I could figure out what was wrong. She wouldn't let me do it before."
Olivia grimaced. "I'm a little sorry I was there when you found out what was wrong. Who would have thought it was possible for them to have a nutrient deficiency with all the crap they eat?"
Dustin nodded gravely. He wished he didn't know, after finding out. Though they had readily agreed to keep the fermenting on their planet. Their outrageous appetites died down a lot once they started getting the right foods.
"So, are you going to request any crazy foods this time? The pickles and brownies were a bit hard to watch last time."
"They were interesting, but the pickle crunch just did not go with the brownie flavor…don't worry, I'm not currently having any cravings," she laughed at his panicked look.
Taking her arm, Dustin stepped off the balcony onto the waiting nanobot cab. They made wonderful taxi's when they weren't needed in construction.
Dodging through the traffic, they arrived at the restaurant just in time to see his parents stepping out of their own nanobot cab.
"Olivia! Look at how big you've gotten!" exclaimed his mother, rushing over to give her a hug.
"Not as big as you!" she responded, holding his mother out at arms reach to look her over.
Dustin's mother was expecting the very first set of triplets, ever recorded being born among the Uz'En. Everyone was excited to see how they turned out. Even Granny and Old Motha were enthusiastically waiting.
"Has she picked out names yet?" asked Dustin to his dad.
"No, she was going to ask Kit to help her, and they haven't been able to meet up," he said, shaking his head.
Looking over the menus, after being seated in a reserved seat in the back, his mom looked over at him and said, "You know, Dustin. You should really write a book about your adventures in the virtual world, just so we can all see the difference it made when you woke up."
Olivia laughed, "There's no way it would all fit into one book!"
Dustin shrugged. "Then I'll write three. The kids would love to read them, I'm sure."
"Keep out some of the more saucy moments, then," said Olivia, blushing as everyone laughed.
"How many planets do you have floating around our sun now?" asked his dad, after their food had arrived and everyone had a chance to eat something.
"Six. I don't think I want to bring in any more. Though there are some really nice asteroid belts that I've found, that I want to claim. We could use the extra materials to help with the city building on planet three. The Gooblens went through a lot of their materials before we found out what they needed to eat."
"No! You are not going to talk about that here!" exclaimed Olivia, glaring at him, and he laughed.
"All right, all right. We should probably head home soon. I want to make sure we're home before Granny decides the kids aren't getting enough to eat and make her slurry sludge for them to eat."
His mother frowned. "I don't know what that stuff is, but all of the kids love it, and it really seems to make them grow better. I wonder how she ever came up with it."
"She learned it from my mom," said Kitteral, thoughtfully. "It was a staple on our home world, before the incident occurred."
"The one that Granny caused?" asked Dustin, rolling his eyes.
"What? No! Granny was staying with us and, I think, hiding among us, when the slavers came. She even tried to fight them off. There were too many, and they bombarded her with missiles until she passed out. I thought she was dead until she showed up later and rescued me and my dad. I wish my dad had been willing to listen to her, he might still be alive today if he had."
"Sorry, I had no idea," said Dustin, feeling like an idiot.
"No worries, you didn't know. You're right, we should probably be getting home. Even if there is a couple of weeks before the babies are due, we probably shouldn't stress them too much. It was good seeing you guys. We should do this again," said his dad with a chuckle.
"Don't worry, we will," said Dustin, helping Olivia up from her seat.
"You say that as if you know for a fact that we will," said his mother, struggling to stand herself.
"That's because I do," he said laughing and giving her a wink, as he left with Olivia.
Well, that's it. They live happily ever after. I really don't have anything more to add to this. If anyone has any questions they want answered, let me know. Thank you so much for reading!
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