"That's the third planet we've been to, that's been decimated. There's nothing left alive on any of them. This feels a lot like someone's a step ahead of us, killing the Uz'En," said Olivia with an exasperated shake of her head as the ship jumped away from the solar system.
Every planet that had shown life on all of the reports, for each of the solar systems they had been to in the past hour and a half, had been devoid of not just Uz'En, but also plant and animal life. The scans had shown nothing living on any of them.
"Shall I jump us to the next system?" asked the computer, as they floated in dead space.
"The next planet on the list is a desert world used for mining."
"Yes, the reports state that the Uz'En were being used as mining slave labor, and the guards around the planet were sufficient to keep the nanobots from rescuing them. I believe they had a net around the planet itself, because the minerals they were mining were worth so much."
"Is it legal?" asked Olivia, wondering if she could just bust in, grab the Uz'En, and bust out without breaking laws.
"In that sector, it is."
She sighed, giving up on the guns blazing option.
"There has to be a way to get them without sneaking in. The last time almost got me killed."
She thought for a while, running through different scenarios in her head. She could try to pretend to be an inspector or something, but she wasn't very good with that sort of stuff. They would probably be able to see right through that.
What if she took out their system? If it dropped the net over the planet, she could fly in and try to get the Uz'En before they got it back up.
"Any idea how many Uz'En are on the mining planet?" she asked, sitting up and looking at her console.
"No. The nanobots were able to determine that there were Uz'En on the planet, but not how many there were. We would have to scan from orbit to get specifics."
"Then that's where we'll have to start," she said with another shake of her head. Why did this have to be so complicated? She was sure that if Dustin were here, he would have a wonderful idea on how to get these people out.
Several minutes later, they were floating cloaked, above the planet. The spike of energy from their jump gate had alerted several patrol ships, but they couldn't scan the ship with the cloak that Dustin had built onto this thing. Olivia was both relieved and impressed.
"Scans reveal that there are only a handful of Uz'En on the surface of the planet, and around thirty Gooblens. One of them may even be Granny Gooblen, but I am not completely certain of that."
"How can you be so sure it's her?" asked Olivia, shocked that the system could be so accurate when scanning from orbit.
"The signature that I scan for is unique to the individuals. I am capable of scanning for specific broad signatures, as well as very specific ones. Every since Granny left, Dustin has been waiting for her return. He informed me that should I scan for anything, I am also to scan for her, and her people, in the off chance we run across them."
"So, are they all together?" asked Olivia, excited to be able to rescue them, if it really was her.
"It appears that there is only one mine currently active on the planet, probably due to the unstable conditions of the mineral they are mining."
"How unstable is it?" asked Olivia, suddenly rethinking her strategy of swooping in and back out.
"The mineral itself isn't unstable, the minerals that are commonly found around it are. Too much force in removing the desired minerals can result in explosions that can kill a person, and destroy the desired minerals."
"Sounds annoying. Why do they have to use slave labor? Surely it would be easier to have robots or some mechanical device mine the minerals?"
"Any electronic field can set off the surrounding minerals. Only a living individual can safely harvest the minerals that are mined here."
"Well, fuck. How am I supposed to get these people off the planet if I can't use nanobots or anything?"
"It appears that there is a camp set up not far from the mining location in order to bring food and pick up the collected minerals. If you time it right, you might be able to collect the people during their drop off times?" suggested the computer, showing her a picture of the camp site.
It looked like they only took a small ship down, just big enough to drop off the necessary supplies for the slaves, and to bring the harvested minerals back up, and nowhere big enough to handle the slaves themselves. They must have brought in a larger ship, and made the slaves march in to the mines from a distance.
"What are the chances that Granny still has functioning nanobots?" asked Olivia, an idea starting to form in her mind.
"If she still has any nanobots inside of her, they would be out of fuel. Granny would not have been able to recharge her nanobots as a Gooblen, because only the Uz'En are capable of doing that."
Olivia nodded in thought. She had an idea, but it required her being able to get the ship through the nets surrounding the planet. Judging from the instability of the landscape around the mining operation, the nets were probably to ensure that debris entering the atmosphere didn't set off a chain reaction. There were enough potholes and old rubble on the surface to attest to previous mishaps.
"How hard would it be for you to hack the computers controlling the net?" she asked.
"It would take me a couple hours to successfully hack them, without being detected."
"Good, I want you to bring them down long enough for us to go through them, have them come back up, like it was a blip in the system, then have it come back down at a prearranged time, again, long enough for us to escape."
"That is a complicated job you are asking me to complete."
"Can you not do it? I thought Dustin upgraded you to do things far more difficult than that?"
"Oh, I can do it, don't get me wrong, I just wanted you to know that you have some pretty high expectations of me."
"Of course I do! Dustin reprogrammed you."