บท 15: Chapter 15 A Secret Revealed

"Olivia!" Dustin screamed as she stopped breathing.

(HOST OLIVIA IS CURRENTLY UNABLE TO GO THROUGH A COMPLETE EVOLUTION. MODIFIED HEALING HAS INSTEAD BEEN INITIATED.)

He watched as she suddenly gasped and started coughing. Her skin had taken on a dusky blue color, but it now returned to its proper hue. Her eyes flew open and she stared around in panic. Lifting her PED she gasped when she saw it was connected to his.

"Oh, thank god!" he exclaimed, hanging his head in relief. The torture he was about to go through was gone.

"Oh god! The baby!" she grabbed her belly and then relaxed after a moment. Until she saw his face.

Dustin was frozen. Did she just say baby? Had he misheard? She had said she didn't want kids. His mind was a jumbled mess as he turned to look at her. She looked away for a moment, sitting up painfully.

"Is it true?" he asked, barely above a whisper.

She turned to look at him, then nodded. "I didn't tell you because I wasn't sure what you would do."

Giving a whoop of glee, he jumped into the air.

"Kids! I'm going to have kids!"

"One, only one," she said, narrowing her eyes.

"Don't give me that crap! If you didn't want to have kids, you would have lost that one in a heartbeat. You can't tell me that the PED wouldn't give you that option."

She was quiet as she climbed to her feet.

"The PED told me I had a parasite, and asked me if I wanted to have it removed, right after we… well, you know."

"It was great," he couldn't stop grinning. Olivia was going to have a baby, and he was going to have the kids he wanted. The world could be ending and he didn't care. He was in a wonderful mood.

"But it means I can't do any evolutions. If I do, the baby could be hurt or killed."

"So that's why you had me disable it!"

"It was going crazy! I couldn't risk it."

Dustin thought about that. The computers in the underground base had way more protection, from being so far underground, but they still showed signs of intense corruption. According to the reports they had read, the sun was going haywire and burning through things. If they were going to stay here, it might be okay, but he wasn't sure how much worse this sun could get. And if they were going to leave, he needed to get everything going as soon as possible and get away from the sun before everything was burned up. He was already going to have to compute a short jump away from this solar system by himself, to ensure the math wasn't corrupted.

He had no ideas what kind of radiation and crap they were being exposed to. Nope, the only thing for it, was to get the hell off this planet. With a sigh, he turned to her.

"We have to get off this planet."

"Seems like deja vu." She smirked as he disconnected the wires between their PED's and turned to Jake.

"Help me get to those other bases fast, so we can get off this planet, and I'll take you with us."

Jake nodded carefully, with a wince. He had a pretty nasty bump forming on his head, where he was thrown into the door.

"The way isn't easy," he said standing up.

"Of course, it isn't."

XxxxX

The forest was beautiful. Too bad it was filled with killer robots. At least they weren't shooting lasers at them, or sending killer bugs, or trying to mess with their minds, like the Josagn had.

Dustin stood looking out over a raging river. They had been able to hear it for hours as they approached it. The land dropped off before him, and a steep cliff overlooked the raging torrent below. A waterfall to his left caused water vapor to collect on everything, leaving the forest around them more like the jungle they had left on the last planet.

If it was just him, he wouldn't have any problems getting to the other side, but Olivia couldn't change, and Jake was suffering from a mild concussion. He couldn't focus well and kept tripping. If he found enough parts in the next base, he was thinking of make a PED for him.

Stairs had been etched into the cliff facing, at one point, and connected to a rope bridge that spanned in front of the waterfall. The bridge was long gone, but the stairs were still there. He was trying to decide if he wanted to try and make a bridge with his nanobots for them to cross, when a noise behind him heralded an attack.

Olivia grabbed a tree trunk beside her, and swung behind it, Jake ducked down under some low branches beside the trail, and Dustin only just managed to turn, half ducking to the side, when the robot barreled into him, knocking him off the cliff. He heard Olivia cry out his name, right before he was slammed into the river below.

(INITIATING EVOLUTION)

Dustin could suddenly breath, when before he was drowning. The force of the water had blasted all of the air out of his lungs, and the robot was busy trying to shove its nanobots into his mouth and throat.

Biting down, he intentionally swallowed the bots, then using the fins he had grown, he propelled the robot to the bottom of the falls, where the force of the water hampered its movements.

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

(DESTRUCTION OF ENEMY ALPHA BOT COMPLETE, ACQUISITION OF MORE NANOBOTS COMPLETE)

'As soon as I get out of the water, return me to my prior form, and let's get this nanobot bridge built.'

The walls of the cliff were incredibly slippery. Dustin changed his hands to intricate claws, to allow for better climbing, and helped both Olivia and Jake down the treacherous steps, across the nanobot bridge and up the stairs on the other side.

"How far are we from the base?" asked Olivia as Dustin changed his hands back.

"Only a little ways now," said Jake.

There was a fog that seemed to be flowing through the forest as the sun started to set.

"I don't like to be out after dark. Not over here." He looked around fearfully.

"I'll carry you. Nothing can hurt us, and they can't reach you on my shoulders. We can also move faster that way." Dustin lifted the boy up onto his shoulders, and was surprised at how little the boy weighted. He would have to definitely focus on feeding him better.

"Why don't you like to be out after dark?" asked Olivia.

"The hunters come out after dark. They probably can't hurt you, but I would be a snack."

It wasn't long after he said those words, that Dustin realized the boy had drifted off to sleep, resting his head on top of his own. Sleep would probably be good for all of them, but he refused to stop. He couldn't imagine what the various radiation was doing to his kid.