24 Chapter 24 Assassins and Worms

"Hello?" came a voice from the console next to her.

Olivia turned and hit a button. "Hello, Kit."

"What's going on? The nanobots are going crazy, and it has everyone freaking out down here."

"Your father is dealing with some unexpected guests," said Olivia, glancing at Granny.

"Anything I can do?"

"Actually…"

Half an hour later, several small ships were flying back down to the planet with everyone from the ship, except Granny and Olivia. The other Gooblens had hated leaving her, but she insisted they would be safer down on the planet.

"What did you mean by, don't eat anyone or anything important?" asked Olivia, sitting in the captain's seat while Granny sat in the co-pilot seat.

"I meant exactly what I said. My people are being hunted by everyone for a reason."

"You eat people?" asked Olivia, incredulously. She let her watch her baby!

"Only in dire times of need, stress, or anger," she said, matter-of-factly.

"What else is your people known for?" she asked tentatively.

"For disassembling things."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Gooblens have this love for taking things apart, until they are completely disassembled, then putting them back together again."

Olivia was quiet for a moment, thinking that over. "Why is that so bad?"

"Well, we can survive in space, without space suits for longer than most species, other than you Uz'En, so when we find ourselves on a space ship, with other races, they tend to freak."

"Oh," said Olivia, turning back to her console. "Well, any leads on where your people might be?"

"There's only one place that I know to look, and I've avoided it like the plague."

"Where's that?" she asked, glancing over at her.

Granny grimaced. "The planet EEchol. It used to be the home world of the Tik, but they advanced so quickly, inviting other races to live on their highly technical world, that it eventually became overcrowded."

"And why do you think they might be there? I would imagine if it was highly technical, it would be easy to hack their computers to find out."

"You would think so, but most of their tech is illegal. The planet is controlled by a group known to employ one of the best assassin groups in the galaxy."

"Then that should be the last place Gooblens would go, if they are being hunted!"

"While you are correct, it can often be easier hiding on the back of the monster, than out where it might find you."

Olivia looked over at Granny, who was typing the coordinates into the computer.

"Oh! It looks like there were some Uz'En there for Dustin to pick up!" said Granny, surprised.

Olivia shrugged, and said, "Alright, then let's go check it out."

Cloaking before they jumped, Olivia was rather intrigued about this planet. It sounded very interesting.

XxxxX

Dustin sighed as he grew another set of fruit, and tossed them over to the people behind him. He was already having to cycle the air because the power-loss caused the air scrubbers to burn out and short circuit. He didn't want to take the time to try and fix them, as he was having to make tons of mini viruses.

To fight the AI, he decided to create hundreds of tiny viruses, or worms, that don't have very long code, and target specific parts of the AI program. Each worm targeted different parts, so the AI was too busy trying to fight them off to focus on much else. He was hoping to overwhelm it and take it out, since the areas targeted were core programs that the AI couldn't overwrite. Because it couldn't overwrite them, it couldn't rewrite them, once they were damaged by his worms.

It was a long process.

His fingers hurt, and his back was cramping, but he continued on, afraid to stop. Already the AI had tried to send several ships to acquire the ship, since it was damaged and had lost contact with it, but Dustin just used that as an opportunity to throw more worms at it. He knew it wouldn't be long before the AI figure out this ship was the origin of all of the worms and just came to destroy it.

Glancing over at the group of twenty people, he wasn't sure why he was going to so much trouble to keep them alive. Before he met Cybele, he would have just let them all die, since they weren't Uz'En, but now, he was starting to think that maybe he should try and save the entire race. It was a very odd thought.

The one thing he did know, was that he had to get this ship moved, along with all of the survivors, to a new location, and then he needed to find the rest of his people. He was starting to take on too many tasks!

Letting his fingers rest for a moment, he watched as the worms were systematically destroyed, but not until after key parts of the AI program were eaten away by them. While he could see the program, he couldn't get in to change it himself. He wasn't even sure how he could see it, but it was there.

Beginning to type again, Dustin was hit with the idea that maybe the reason he could see the code, was because the AI hadn't bothered to put up a firewall to block anyone on the ship from seeing it. All of those on the ship would have been under its control, and it probably never anticipated someone hijacking the ship.

Growing a couple of extra arms, he stretched and managed to reach another terminal. It was time for him to start making a new program. This terminal wasn't connected anymore, to the mainframe of the ship. Generating power to run it, he began to create a master program that would create the worms for him, randomizing the locations they would target, while he continued to make the worms themselves.

His dual mind was being stretched to the max, and he was starting to get a headache. Dustin could tell that he was never intended to do two things at once. Whatever the consequences, he had to keep going, or risk losing to the AI. This threat had to be dealt with now, not later, because if he stopped, it would throw up so many virus protections, he would never be able to get in again.

And then a warship appeared.