"I hope you have a really good idea of what you're doing!" grumbled Granny threateningly, as she steered the ship through a debris field. "This ship doesn't have any guns or weapons!"
"Don't worry! I have this!" He said, watching the front screen carefully.
The debris was made up of bits and pieces of ships that had been blown up before. Walter and Granny had both agreed this was the largest battle site that they knew of, which surprised them both. They couldn't stay long, because the field was claimed by an alien race that lived here. They were the reason for the debris. Occasionally an arm or leg of some unfortunate individual floated by, but Dustin had his eyes on the largest intact ship. It just happened to be near the center.
"I'm going to be with Trey and Sherry," Walter said, looking tired.
"No, I want you to watch this," said Dustin, holding up a hand. "Stop there, Granny."
They stopped right in front of the ship. It was easily twice as big as their own.
"Must have been overlooked during the battle because it's so small."
"That's small?" choked Walter, glancing at Granny incredulously.
"Oh, yea! Those battle ships could be mistaken for moons during the war. This might have been an escape pod, but I doubt it. There's guns mounted on it."
Dustin ignored them as he directed the nanobots. This was tricky, because his range wasn't that far, so they had to form a type of rope, to be able to pass orders down the line.
"The guns will be nice, since this ship has no weapons…" muttered Dustin, causing Granny and Walter to stop talking and pay attention to the screen.
The nanobot rope seemed to slice the guns off, transferring them along the length back to the ship, where they were reattached temporarily. Then, as everyone watched, they systematically took the ship apart. Parts were transferred to their own ship, and quick welded to the ship for later use. Dustin was so intent on what they were doing, he didn't notice the alien ships approaching.
"We have incoming!" cried Granny reaching for the controls.
"No, wait, stay still, I'm almost done!" Dustin shouted.
"They're charging weapons!" Granny was almost vibrating as she held her hands over the controls.
Dustin recalled the nanobots, setting the wreckage in front of them splitting apart and spinning outward, intercepting the first blasts from the alien ships.
"Alright, Granny, get us out of here!" he cried, receiving confirmation of all of the nanobots having reattached themselves to the hull of the ship.
Granny wasted no time in grabbing the controls and spinning the ship away from the aliens. Her hands flew over her console as she guided them through the debris. The aliens gave chase, but couldn't keep up with Granny's expertise in traversing through the field. By the time they reached the edge, they had enough time to plot their course before jumping.
Walter was holding his chair with wide eyes.
"Where did you learn to fly like that?" he asked in wonder.
"Well, I had a job that was rather dangerous for a long time, that required reflexes at the helm." She grinned, showing off her teeth, and Walter dropped it.
Dustin shook his head, knowing that 'job' that she mentioned involved stealing supplies from pirates at one point. He remembered the stories she used to tell him to get him to calm down and sleep. They didn't calm him much, but the dreams were fantastic!
"While that was impressive, do you mind if I go rest now?"
Dustin glanced at him, and had to admit that he did look like shit. "Have you had the robot medic scan you yet to try and figure out what kind of drug you need?"
"No, it said the scan might take hours to figure out. I didn't think you would appreciate that, since you wanted me to watch you tear a ship apart with your tiny robots."
"Nanobots. They're called nanobots. Go get scanned. Let me know what it says as soon as it knows."
Walter left a bit more quickly then he probably should, and Dustin couldn't help chuckling.
"You're incorrigible, just like you were when you were little," said Granny turning back to her console.
They were floating in space, on the outer edges of a solar system that had four planets. Granny was steering them towards the outermost one. It was nothing more than a ball of rock, with no atmosphere.
"I'm not sure how long it will take me to finish the modifications I want to do," said Dustin heading towards the airlock.
"That's alright, I don't mind taking a nap," Granny assured him as he left the bridge.
Shaking his head, he stopped to check on the Uz'En in the cafeteria. He had found some uniforms in one of the rooms so they had changed out of the suits of armor and into the clothing.
"Dustin!" cried the boy, running up to him excited to see him. "Are we almost to our home planet?"
"Not yet, we have a few more stops first. But don't worry, I'm working on it. How's everyone doing?" asked Dustin kneeling down to talk to the kid face to face.
"The women are scared that they'll be attacked, and a lot of the men are scared that this is a trick, but I know its not! You're our king! You'll take care of us now!" His face beamed with such surety that Dustin's heart lurched.
Reaching out to ruffle his hair, he couldn't help but grin back at him.
"What's the news?" asked one of the men, stepping up next to him.
"We've stopped for a short while to work on the ship, then we're heading to our next destination. I have to make sure that the ship is upgraded well enough before we encounter any enemies."
"What enemies?" asked one of the women. She held her arms to her chest in fear. Dustin wondered what had happened to these people before he found them, but had a feeling he didn't want to know.
"Whoever shows up isn't getting you, don't worry about that. I have to go. There's no atmosphere here, so I have to go out myself to work on the ship."
"Will we get devices like you someday?" asked the boy as he turned to leave.
"Sure, why not? You're all Uz'En," he said with a laugh.
The looks on their faces proved the doubt they had. He would have to do that first. They needed to trust him to make sure they didn't do anything stupid.
'PED, my space form please.'
(INITIATING EVOLUTION)