"Computer, give me the details on this planet here," said Olivia, touching the next closest Uz'En world on Dustin's list.
"Nanobots were able to determine that Uz'En were on the planet, but all attempts to get further information, have been hampered by a pretty intense war. The solar system in question has three known races, and all three declared war on each other several years back. Since the war began, all attempts to contact the Uz'En, or gather information about them, has met with failure."
"Sounds familiar, alright, so, what do you know about the three races?"
"The solar system, where they originate, was becoming crowded, and overpopulated. There have been wars in their history, over who owns what worlds, in order to allow expansion, but this war seems to have been much worse than any of the previous ones. General knowledge, from other sources, claim that all contact with the three races should be kept to a minimum, as they were incredibly aggressive and suspicious of any outsiders."
"Wonderful. So, how did the Uz'En play into all of this?" she asked, leaning back in her chair.
"According to business logs, found when purging the A'Dfukl homeworld, a group of Uz'En were gifted one of the three races, as an attempt to begin a business relation with them. It appears that the gift was accepted, but no business was ever commenced."
"So, not a lot of people. That's good. I guess we need to jump just outside their solar system to see what's going on," said Olivia, sitting up in her chair and punching in the required information to initiate the jump. She could have let the computer do the work, but she needed to feel useful.
A few short minutes later, she was staring out at a scene that looked very familiar.
"It's like that graveyard we visited fifteen years ago."
"I have information about that visit, but I am not detecting any life forms living in the center of this mess."
The space around the many planets was littered with debris. A massive fight had occurred here, and it looked like no one had won. It had been so long, that some of the debris had started to get pulled into the planets as they circled the sun.
"It's going to be difficult to navigate this, Olivia. Do you mind if I take over the controls?" asked the computer after a moment of silence.
She nodded, still astonished at the sight before her. How many people had died in this war?
According to the information on the screen, there should have been seven inhabited planets, but as they began to make their way past them, Olivia could tell that each one was covered in a dense black cloud. The upper atmosphere in each of the inhabited planets, was thickly filled with dust and pollutants.
"What happened to them?" she asked.
"It appears that nuclear devices were used. I am not detecting any life on any of the planets."
"What about the one that was supposed to have the Uz'En?"
The computer was silent for a while as they approached the last planet. It was just as black as the others.
"I am detecting some life on this one. Perhaps the Uz'En were able to survive?"
"We should hurry down to find out!"
The computer turned the ship, to comply, and they were soon completely immersed in the dense cloud. Next to no light was making it through to the surface of the planet, and as they finally broke through, Olivia was saddened to see that the entire planet was frozen.
Buildings and structures were destroyed, and everything was covered in thick ice.
"The life forms, that I detected, are below us, under the ice. Do you wish for me to land here?"
"Yes, I'll see if I can find them and bring them back," said Olivia standing up and heading for the airlock.
"Be careful, I am still detecting high levels of radiation."
"After so long? I hate to think what it was before. No wonder nothing else survived. I wonder how they survived."
'PED, change me into a form that can survive the intense cold, and high levels of radiation."
She began to grow thick layers of blubber and hair. Holding her arm out, she sighed and decided it had to be done. Opening the door, the blast of cold air took the breath from her lungs, and she had to force herself to breathe.
Stepping out onto the ice, she could see snow piled up against the side of a building in front of her. Through one of the ice-covered windows, she could see a light, so she moved towards it.
Using the thick claws she had grown, she began to dig at the ice around one of the windows, until she could see clearly, into the room. The sight before her, made her pause, then she began to laugh. If Dustin was here, he would have freaked and left these people to die.
With a heavy swing, she broke the last of the ice and the window, and found herself tumbling into the room. Cursing at her luck, she half expected to land on something hard, but surprisingly, found her landing cushioned by empty boxes.
Climbing to her feet, she moved over to the group of fifteen, who were watching her warily.
"I am Uz'En, like you. I have come to rescue you," she said, pointing back towards her ship. They people looked at each other, conversing for a few minutes in clicks and whirs, before nodding at her, and following her back towards the ship. There was no way she was going to let them stay in their current forms.
Rushing through the cold, they all made it back to her ship in one piece. With a shake, she began to change back into her normal, human-looking form. The bug-people around her also began to change.
"Thank you for rescuing us, but how did you know we were there? It's been seven years since the war," said the leader, a short woman with wide cheeks.
"The leader of the Uz'En is currently rescuing all of our kind from around the galaxy, and I am helping him. I'll take you to our homeworld, where my son, the current king, rules. We have a very nice program set up to help those who are new, integrate into our society easier. It's a really great place, that I'm sure you will enjoy."
"Is there sunlight and food, a quiet place that's warm, and not irradiated?" asked one of the men, scowling at the sealed door behind them.
"Yes, on all of those accounts. If you will follow me, I'll take you to the mess hall, where you can enjoy some real food."
"It was real food, we were eating, just not the best," said the leader, following her.
"What took you so long, if I may ask?" asked another woman, near the man who had spoken up.
"Well, we had sent out tiny robots, to scout for Uz'En, but they never returned when we sent them here. I think the high levels of radiation probably had something to do with it. I'm just glad you guys were all in one place, and not scattered around. It made finding and rescuing you much easier."
They were silent after that, probably thinking about the ones that hadn't made it, and the horrors they had lived through during the past years. Olivia took them to the mess hall, and started to fix them a nice warm meal while the computer guided the ship back through the debris field. She didn't want to suck some of the debris back with her, if they jumped in the middle of it, and she didn't want them to know that she was on the ship alone. Having lived for so long, in such conditions, Olivia had no idea what they might try to do, if they knew she was here alone.
It was just good that they had found a form that could handle both the intense cold and high level of radiation, even if it did mean being a hairy bug.