When Walter turned to look at him, he almost fell down. Dustin had the nanobots cover him like he was wearing a suit just like Walter's.
"We found this ship, and flew it here, hoping for help."
Walter just nodded in agreement. Dustin wondered if he was hurt worse than he was letting on.
The men outside were very professional, swarming the small ship and verifying that there were only the four of them. They were taken into the hanger proper, and allowed to rest in a debriefing room. Stretchers were used for Trey and Sherry, since they couldn't walk. Dustin spied a very nice ship in hanger three as they were hurried along to the debriefing room. Granny was lurking in the shadows as they passed, and he made sure not to look at her.
"Who are you?" asked a woman, entering the room after only a few moments.
"We're refugees trying to get back home, and were attacked by some aliens. We barely managed to crash land here after our warp failed," explained Dustin
"If your warp failed, it's a miracle you ever survived to make it here."
"We think micro meteors were to blame, ma'am." Walter's tired voice was very convincing.
The woman's eyes lingered on Dustin, and he suddenly realized they knew he was a Uz'En. He saw in her eyes intense interest in him, and nothing for the others. She was going to kill them, and try to take him prisoner.
"Which alien group attacked you?" she asked, moving back towards the door.
"The Josagn," answered Dustin, watching for any tells from her at that name.
She froze with her hand half raised.
"Josagn?" she asked, turning back to him.
"Yes, ma'am. They seemed very interested in catching us, though I'm not sure why."
"You have no idea?" she asked, looking him pointedly in the eyes.
"It could be because I killed all of the ones living around the death planet, and blew up a couple of their stations, but I would just be guessing."
Walter was staring at him in shock, but the look on the woman's face was worth it.
"Or it could have been the A'Dfukl. I killed a ship full of them too. The Gaklut were just mad because we jumped into their space by accident."
The woman was obviously uncertain and scared. She couldn't seem to move. Her mouth fought to open, and a high-pitched squeak squeezed out of her frozen lips.
"What's going on?" asked Walter.
"It's time for us to go," said Dustin, motioning for him to replace his helmet, which Walter quickly obliged.
"They were going to kill all of you," he said, sending nanobots to pick up the stretchers with Trey and Sherry.
Facing the wall into the hangar, he held up a hand. Nanobots streamed to it, eating through the concrete and metal, quickly forming a hole. The large beautiful ship he had spied before was surrounded by men trying to get inside of it. Behind them, alarms started to sound as the air breech was detected. The woman's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped to the ground unconscious, as the nanobots Dustin had sent to paralyze her rushed back to him.
Leading the floating stretchers with Walter bringing up the rear, Dustin walked calmly towards the ship. Nanobots swarmed around him, forming a visible cloud that protected them from any stray shots that came at them.
The men around the ship, quickly spied them, and ran towards them, shooting wildly. Nanobots intercepted each shot, almost frantic to keep them safe. When one got close enough, Dustin shot out a tentacle, and lifted him high into the air, for all to see. The others stopped running towards them, and started to flee instead.
Throwing the man to the side, he calmly had the nanobots stream back up his arm, as if his tentacle was returning to that of an arm. Walter was close enough to see what was really happening, but to everyone else, it looked like he had grown a tentacle super-fast and then returned back to the form of a man.
When they reached the ship, Granny opened the door, letting them in.
"I had no idea you were capable of so much," Walter murmured in amazement as he stumbled onto the ship last.
"You learn a thing or two when everyone wants to kill you."
Dustin turned to smirk at him, but ended up catching him as he slumped to the ground.
"Follow me, I'll show you to the medical area," said Granny, turning at the door. She had only just arrived in time to see Walter faint.
Having the nanobots carry the stretchers behind him, he followed her to a very nice medical facility. It had six beds and special machines designed to do complex procedures. It didn't take long for them to have everyone one a bed, being evaluated.
"I told you humans are weak," complained Granny when they got the results.
Dustin just sighed. All three of them had massive amounts of poison in their systems. That, coupled with the damage from the crash, meant that none of them had much time left on their hands.
"Bet you've been poisoned too," she said, nodding at him.
"I can metabolize it," he said, thoughtfully. They had to get off this planet, before the people in the base blew them up, but he was wondering if there were any Uz'En captured here. They had shown a lot of interest in him, and the woman had known every alien race he mentioned.
"Steer the ship away from the base, and have the machines start purging their systems of the poison. These machines are pretty high tech, they might be able to save them. I'm going to go see what I can find out on their database before we leave."
"Alright," sighed Granny, moving to the console next to Walter's bed first. "Just be careful. You haven't seen everything that's out there yet, and…"
Dustin didn't wait to hear what else she had to say, he had already left the room and was heading back towards the airlock door. The people he had been traveling with hadn't shown him any hostility, but the ones in the base had. They were hiding something, and he was going to find out what.