There was a distant rumble, and Dustin rose out of his small cave, listening as the denizens of this underground community rushed around in response.
"We are under attack," said the father, turning away from them. "Those searching for you are coming."
"We must leave, so they do not harm my people," said the girl, looking at him for a moment, before motioning for him to follow her.
Dustin spent the next twenty minutes following the very well-defined back end of the woman who wished to marry him. They traveled quickly through tunnels that had been dug through solid rock. The sounds of fighting diminished until the only sound he could hear were the noises they made brushing against the rock, or their breathing. It reminded him of the time he had traveled through the caves with Olivia on the death world. He was just glad his vision allowed him to be able to see. This would have been entirely different otherwise.
When they finally reached the exit, Dustin stood and stared out at the landscape before him. He stood on a ledge in a cliff face that looked out over a thick jungle. A clear lake lay below them, and even from this distance, he could see the small specks of things swimming in the waters.
"This way," she said, turning to her right, and walking along a ledge that was barely as wide as her shoulders.
While she walked, as if there were nothing to worry about, Dustin turned sideways with his back against the wall to make his way along the ledge.
"Is there something wrong? You should be healed enough to walk normally. You won't fall, unless you want to?" She seemed confused by his actions.
"Look, you may be completely right, and I won't fall, but this is not my idea of an easy trail to follow."
A noise above him drew his attention, and with a curse, he turned to run. A small one-person flyer was speeding towards them. Cybele ran ahead of him, giving him enough warning when she jumped over a collapsed section for him to jump as well. The only thing Dustin allowed himself to worry about was where he placed his next step. The edge of the ledge was ignored for his own sanity.
The path they were following stopped to double back the way they had come, but instead of turning to follow it, Cybele jumped. Dustin didn't have a chance to second guess her, as the ship was right behind him, shooting bolts of energy. He jumped through the thick branches of leaves, hoping there was something soft to land in, on the other side.
The sight of a pool of water in front of him, calmed him somewhat, as he dived into it, seconds after Cybele. She had continued swimming down, so he followed her, entering another cave under the roots of a tree. They surfaced inside the tree trunk, that was actually hollow all the way up.
Treading water, they waited to see if the flyer would stick around to try and follow them, but it sped away. The branches they jumped through were too dense for it to follow them.
"They'll be back, we need to move!" Dustin hissed, taking a breath and diving to leave.
She followed him, and allowed him to take the lead as he took off at a steady jog across the forest floor. They moved at a steady pace that ate up the miles quickly. She didn't question him, only followed. He wondered why she wanted to be with him so bad, and what Olivia would say.
With a shake of his head, he paused at a clearing, and crouched behind some bushes to make sure there wasn't a trap waiting for them in the clearing. It didn't matter what Olivia thought. She left him, meaning he was free to hook up with whoever he wanted. The fact that he hadn't hooked up with anyone in the past ten years was his own fault. Maybe he should give this Cybele a chance.
"Do you still plan to leave the planet?" she asked, as he thought about his next move.
"Yes, do you still plan to come with me?"
"Yes."
He nodded and turned to glance back over the clearing. It looked fine, but someone could be scanning the area, and this would be too easy for them to see him, so he would go around it.
'PED?'
(BOOT UP COMPLETE.)
(APOLOGIES FOR THE TIME REQUIRED. DAMAGE WAS MORE EXTENSIVE THAN BELIEVED. I MAY NEED YOU TO SCAN ME FOR ANY ERRORS THAT I MISSED DURING BOOT UP.)
'That will have to wait until I can get to a computer. I'm trapped on this world and need some nanos to build a ship to escape.'
(SCANS INDICATE THAT THIS AREA IS DEVOID OF THE NECESSARY MATERIALS TO MANUFACTURE NANOBOTS. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT YOU FIND A SUFFICIENT SOURCE OF MINERALS AND ALLOYS.)
"Hey Cybele, do you know where any metals might be?" he asked, starting to move around the clearing cautiously.
"I am not familiar with any metals. Is that what your 'ship' was made of?"
"Yes, and what those things flying around trying to attack us are," he said, starting to jog again, once he was past the clearing.
"I have never seen a source of that sort of thing before. Perhaps my world does not have it?"
"That would be a shame," he said, slowing his pace as he realized his only chance of escape may be to take out enough of those ships to salvage for materials.
"Alright, change of plans."
She stopped behind him, barely breathing hard.
"I need those materials in order to get off this planet," he said, turning to look behind them. They had been running for roughly an hour, it would take him an hour to run back.
"For your nanobots," she said, showing that she really had been in his head.
"Yes, I'll use them to build the ship to get out of here."
A thought occurred to him, and he looked at her.
"Can I see your hand?" he asked, holding his own out.
She scrunched up her face in confusion, but held out her hand.
'PED, scan her genetic material and see if there's any chance she is an Uz'En, or a precursor."
(NO, SHE HAS NO GENETIC SIMILARITIES WITH THE UZ'EN.)
'She said she had changed to be more like what I would like,' he said with a shake of his head, letting go of her hand.
(HER RACE HAS THE ABILITY TO MODIFY THEIR LOOKS WHEN THEY REACH MATURITY, SIMILAR TO HOW FROGS CHANGE FROM TADPOLES TO FROGS, BUT THEY HAVE MORE CONTROL OVER THE CHANGE.)
'Can I change her to Uz'En, like I did that station of people?' he asked, starting to head back the way they had come.
(ATTEMPTING TO CHANGE HER, MAY KILL HER. BUT YOU COULD CHANGE INTO HER RACE, AND BREED WITH HER?)
Dustin sighed. That wasn't exactly what he was wanting, but it was better than nothing.
"If you are looking to fight those things, there is a better place than where we were just at," said Cybele, pulling up next to him.
With a nod, he allowed her to take the lead, and they changed the direction they were heading in. It was a couple of hours before they arrived at the top of a plateau. The sides were thickly wooded with short bushes, whose roots had penetrated the actual rock, allowing them firm handholds as they climbed. As he crouched in the bushes, he looked out to see several flyers parked, and a group of people standing in a circle talking.
"We have had visual confirmation that the subject we are hunting, is the same as the one who escaped the ship."
They spoke out loud, as if to someone standing in the center of the circle, yet nothing was there.
"Affirmative. We shall apprehend the subject and bring it back for tests to determine if it is indeed an Uz'En."
"Shall we destroy it, once we have confirmation?"
"Understood."
Dustin had the feeling they were getting answers and responses, despite him not hearing anything.
(THEY ARE CONNECTED WITH SOME KIND OF NEURAL NET. I AM ABLE TO KEEP MYSELF FROM BEING DETECTED, BUT ANY ATTEMPTS I MAKE TO HACK INTO IT, WILL NOTIFY THEM OF MY PRESENCE. I AM ALSO DETECTING THE PRESENCE OF ANOTHER AI. IT IS DIFFERENT FROM THOSE WE HAVE ALREADY ENCOUNTERED.)
'Wonderful.'