21 Chapter 21 What Force Field?

The ship seemed to have been made by someone who was absurdly anal. As Dustin jogged down the hall, he couldn't help but remember the guy his son had hired to design buildings for people to gather in for games and activities. The man had driving Dustin crazy with his math. They ended up reassigning him to accounting. These halls were straight, with doors exactly the same distance apart. There were no signs anywhere, to mark what was behind the doors or down the halls. If it wasn't for the electrical sense, he had left over from his space worm form, he would have been wandering around forever.

Coming around a corner, another group of soldiers were waiting, letting loose with their dissolving guns the moment he turned the corner. As the mist settled and dissipated, he stood there, unharmed. He had an energy field protecting him, that he had activated as soon as he realized they would be using these weapons on him.

The soldiers freaked when he was still standing there, dropping their weapons and trying to flee. Every time one of them did turn, they would only manage a few steps before falling to their knees in pain. It was obvious the AI was forcing them to fight him.

Dustin walked through the middle of them, not caring if they were in pain, or afraid of him. He only cared to get to his destination. The one guy who tried to grab him, ended up on the floor with a broken arm, after Dustin snapped it.

Turning another corner, he half expected there to be more soldiers, but instead, an alarm sounded and a force field appeared in front of him, blocking his path. He didn't hesitate, turning and trying to open the nearest door to him. When it too, formed a forcefield before he could reach it, he knew that it was time to pull out the big guns.

Going right up to the force field that was blocking his path, he rubbed his hands together, then reached out to touch it. Sparks flew between his hand and the field, causing him to grit his teeth, but he didn't stop. He was counting on the electrical field he had, and the crystals in his skin, to protect him as he forced his way through the field.

The soldiers that were running to get to the field, slowed then stopped as he pushed his entire body through the field.

"How are we supposed to deal with that?" one asked another.

"We already know our guns don't work," said another.

"It is our job to keep this thing from reaching the bridge before we reach our destination," said the leader, lifting his gun and aiming it at Dustin.

While they formed up and readied themselves, Dustin finished pushing through the field, then charged right at them. They fired again, this time, live ammo hit him. While the bullets stung, they couldn't pierce his crystals. With a laugh, Dustin dived past them, rolling forward and back onto his feet, continuing his run down the hall and crashed through the doors that led to the bridge.

Several people were scrambling to barricade the door, but they didn't succeed before he arrived.

A quick glance at the screen of the nearest monitor confirmed his suspicions. They had an advance form of warp that was far better than anything he had seen before. Only his jump technology, with his nanobots rivaled it in speed. No wonder his worm form had passed out on the side of the ship.

He had to work quick, to keep them from setting a self-destruct. Jumping to a control panel, he ignored the people who rushed to type furiously, and ripped off the cover. Grabbing the giant cluster of wires running to breakers, he started pulling the wires loose. There were immediately screams as alarms started to sound.

The ship came out of warp, and the lights flickered, going out.

The silence was almost deafening. Dustin turned to look at the people in the room, and saw that they were looking around in confusion. Some were looking down at their hands, and others were looking at him in confusion.

"Where are we?" asked someone quietly.

Dustin ignored them all, moving to the console near the front of the ship, that was still active. The electrical wires going to this monitor were the only ones that didn't go through the control panel he just destroyed.

Sitting down, he started typing. The people around him weren't sure if they should be scared of him, or not, since he looked so different, but wasn't attacking them.

Dustin knew it was only going to be a few minutes before the AI figured out how to gain control back of the ship. He wanted to know how it could control so much, over so vast a distance. He had never been able to overcome that when controlling his nanobots. Also, he wanted to know everything he could about this damn AI, so he could destroy it, and keep it from infiltrating his nanobot hivemind.

He was almost through the security, when a group of the soldiers burst through the door.

"There! Stop him! He's about to make the ship blow up!"

It was a wonderful tactic to get the people to attack him, and distract him from completing his goal, but Dustin had been waiting for this. As soon as the first man got close, he shot out a tentacle from his back, tipped with a crystal spearhead, that impaled him, then threw his body at the next closest person. Two eyes opened on the back of his head to control the tentacles, and his fingers never stopped typing. He had split his mind into two awarenesses, to be able to do two tasks at once.

While this was a fantastic way to throw the people into a panic, and to keep them off of him, he knew that if they attempted a more complicated tactic, to stop him, he would have to stop what he was doing, because his second mind was only able to react.

With a cry of success, Dustin broke through the security wall that the AI had placed up before being kicked from the ship, and found himself staring at an immense amount of information. Without the nanobots to store the information for him, he had a moment of panic, before deciding he needed a memory that was capable of remembering everything he read. Hunkering down in front of the monitor, he began to read faster and faster as his mind upgraded itself using the genetic codes available to it.

With the tentacles whipping in the air, striking at anyone who approached, he discovered enough to chill him to the bone.