3 Chapter 3 Trash World
'PED, initiate evolution to a space worm."
(INITIATING EVOLUTION.)
Dustin reached out with his hand to hit the button that opened the airlock as they both started to shrink and change. Their forms became long and thin, with wispy frills that billowed out around them, as if they were floating in water. If anyone had seen them at this moment, they would have been described as iridescent frilly flatworms.
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)
Fluttering his frills, he could feel the energy all around him. Whoever thought space was empty, never bothered to investigate the energy. It was everywhere.
As they left the ship, he could sense the fence that marked the boundaries of the space claimed by these aliens. If they could avoid the detection lasers that rotated and spun, none of the many military vessels that patrolled the area would investigate.
Arching and twisting, Dustin avoided them all. Feeling accomplished, he watched as Olivia avoided the lasers and joined him as they flew towards the planet of trash. A feeling of calm and peace came over him with her beside him, and he knew that he missed her. Maybe they could work through what had happened, and get back together?
'Cloak so we don't get caught by those military vessels,' said Dustin, through the nanobots.
'You don't want to take them out?' she asked, even though they both knew the answer to that. They would never be able to get the people out of this space, if the aliens knew they were there.
'I'm sure there will be all sorts of monsters on the trash planet for you to fight,' he replied.
As they reached the planet, huge ships were dropping trash from high in the air, so that none of the life that had been dumped could try and escape. There was an atmosphere, somehow, that allowed things to survive, but there couldn't be seen any plant life, or bodies of water, under all of the trash that was piled miles high, all over the planet.
As they got closer to the atmosphere, their space worm form started to panic.
'Initiate evolution to allow reentry into atmosphere,' Dustin told his PED.
(INITIATING EVOLUTION.)
Olivia had done the same because her worm form melted and a large shell began to form on her back. Using the last of her frills, she flipped herself over so that the shell would take the brunt of the heat from reentry. Dustin quickly followed her lead, as the last of his frills disappeared.
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)
As they got further into the atmosphere, they flattened themselves out more and more, until they had slowed enough to flip over and change again.
'Initiate evolution to allow flight and survival in present atmosphere.'
(INITIATING EVOLUTION.)
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)
Their shell disappeared, and they freefell for a few feet as they grew massive wings. This form didn't have any legs, to allow them to land, but they could always change that later. For now, they needed to figure out what this world had in the way of survivors and life.
Using the nanobots to cloak, they swooped low to see forms scrambling over the piles of trash, scrounging for necessities.
Great four-legged beasts, with thick scaly plates covering their hides, used massive mouths to dig and chew anything that could be chewed. Dustin quickly confirmed that those were not transformed Uz'En, and they moved on.
They flew around a mountain of trash, and found a group of dark-skinned people climbing, and scavenging. Their hair was a dark brown, and they wore next to no clothes. Wraps of cloth covered their sensitive areas and their feet, and they had strapped bags to themselves, in order to hold anything they might find as they scavenged.
They skimmed low over them, still invisible, as Dustin checked to see if they were Uz'En, but the nanobots said no. He wondered who they might be as they turned to fly away. There must be other races thrown away to this trash heap.
Unfortunately, for them, he was only here for the Uz'En.
Heading further away from the active areas where the ships were in the process of dumping the trash, they started to notice were tunnels had been dug and piles were made. Dustin was glad that they were flying. He couldn't imagine how long it would have taken if they were on the ground. There wasn't a flat space anywhere in sight.
Gliding down into a valley, they stopped short at the condition of the people here.
The Uz'En were filthy and starving. They dug through the trash, looking for food, water, and whatever they could. He had no doubt these people were his, but he sent out the nanobots to make sure.
People had moved into concrete tubes, sleeping and storing their scant belongings. It didn't seem to matter how old they were, the very young and the very old all worked, digging and sorting for anything of value.
'These people are dying,' said Olivia, through the nanobots. 'We need to get them out of here, but how?'
'I can give them PED's to survive, but I'm not sure that's a good idea. A couple of the groups that the nanobots brought back, couldn't handle them and had to be rehabilitated. It took years for them to be able to function in normal society, and I'm not sure they all could very well, by the end.'
"I don't imagine this is the only pocket of them. You best send out the nanobots to find them all, while we make contact and try to see if they can be saved.'
He used the surrounding materials to make more nanobots, then sent them out to search the small planet. If there were other pockets, they would send a signal back to him.
Flying over to the other side of what looked like a bus, he told his PED, 'Initiate a change to appear similar to the Uz'En here.'
(INITIATING EVOLUTION.)
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)
Dustin stepped out from behind the bus and wiped the sweat off his brow. He could understand why the other race was in a glorified bikini. This place was hot!
