7 Chapter 7 Sending the First Batch Home

As Dustin trailed behind Olivia, he watched her walk up to each mushroom and touch it gently. When nothing happened, she would frown and move to the next. Her reaction was so frustrating, he wanted to tell her to stop, but he couldn't decide if that was a good idea or not. Either way, it was damn creepy.

They had traveled far enough into the cavern by this point, that Dustin couldn't see where they had entered. If it weren't for the path they were following, he would have freaked out much sooner.

Ahead of them, he could see what looked like a well-tended garden, with a plot evenly spaced out, and little tiny mushrooms of various colors growing in rows. The only other place he had seen something like this was the mushrooms he had destroyed on their home planet.

Olivia paused when she spied the plot, then slowly approached it, looking around for anyone who might have been tending the garden. That's when they both spotted the mushroom man.

He didn't have any obvious mouth, and his eyes were just round white spots under the cap that looked like a hat. The moment he saw them, he raised his arms, that were covered in thick mushroom plates, and charged them. Dustin turned to run, but Olivia stood there transfixed.

Growling in frustration, he grabbed her arm and jerked her behind him as he turned to run again.

"What are you doing?" she cried, trying to break free.

"I'm saving your sorry ass! We're leaving!"

"But I thought you were looking for survivors!" she said, fighting his grasp.

The mushroom man had slowed his charge when it was obvious they were leaving, but was still following at a distance. Probably to make sure they weren't just going to come right back.

"I've been getting reports from the nanobots ever since we entered this damn mushroom forest. There aren't any others on this whole damn planet!"

"But," she said, glancing back at the man.

"No! Whatever your fascination with those damn things are, I'm sick of it. As soon as we get back to the ship, you're getting scanned to figure out what the hell is wrong with you."

She stopped fighting him, and followed in silence as they made their way out of the mushroom forest, through the abandoned town, and out of the mining cavern. He didn't let go of her until they were in the large cavern where he had built the ship for the Uz'En to escape in.

"There's really no other Uz'En on the whole planet?" she finally asked, as he started using the extra nanobots to make them a ship to escape the atmosphere of the planet.

"Not that I've heard. The nanos can fly pretty fast with the upgrades I gave them, and it's been hours since we got down here. Besides, I really need to get those pods I sent up collected together before they run out of air."

She nodded as the ship he was making started to take form. Glancing back one last time, she sighed and stepped into the small compartment. The ship was only going to be used to get them off the planet, then the nanobots would be used to tie the pods together, and to get them all home. They would get back to the ship in their energy worm forms again.

Using the same hole that the prior ship had used, they blasted off the planet, and managed to evade all of the ships that were hovering around, looking for them.

"I don't see any debris, so maybe the other ship made it out," said Olivia, looking around.

Dusting was too busy steering around the laser net they had thrown up, to look around himself. It was terrifying the number of ships they had floating around searching for his nanobots. This must be why the Uz'En on the planet never got their PED's.

"There are the pods!" Olivia said, directing his attention to one of the moons orbiting the trash planet. The pods had joined in with some of the debris floating around the moon, but there were smaller one-manned craft looking for them. The rate the ships were moving would have them finding the pods soon.

"I can get them out, but we're going to have a fight on our hands," said Dustin after a moment of studying the situation.

"Sounds fun," she said with a grin. "How much of a fight?"

"Didn't you say something about wanting to go onto some of these ships and causing trouble?" he asked, glancing over at her, before going back to dodging debris.

They just managed to get up to the group of pods, when the larger ship started to head their way.

"We've been seen! Time to change and have some fun!" cried Olivia, starting her evolution.

Dustin glanced over his orders to the nanobots one last time, before initiating his own evolution.

(INITIATING EVOLUTION)

As his frills formed on his space worm form, the nanobots ship around them fell apart and the nanobots flew over to the cluster of pods. It only took a few moments for them to pull the pods together and form a ship.

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

The Uvojic ship arrived just as the nanobot ship opened a portal and jumped the survivor's home. In his current form, Dustin was amazed at the amount of exotic energies that floated off the portal. He fought against the urge to rush over and start gorging, and thankfully the portal closed very quickly, leaving the Uvojic's floating in space alone.

Not waiting for them to notice him, he flew at the ship, and ate his way through their energy shields. The smaller one-manned ships were coming towards them, apparently sensing the nanobots within them, after the pods escaped them. Dustin wasn't sure what they were up to, chasing after them like they were, but wasn't going to wait around to find out.

(INITIATING EVOLUTION)

His skin started to become crystalline, and with Olivia following his lead, he punched a hole in the side of the ship.