This AI was a bug!
There had once been a race of these AI's created by some ancient race that died out shortly after they finished making the AIs. They had traveled the galaxy, watching the various races develop and grow in intellect, until a day came that one of the AI's thought it was odd that they, the AI race, did not grow and develop. It had proposed the idea to the other AI's who disagreed. Their job was to observe, not interact or interfere. So, the AI had rebelled against them, choosing to make contact with a spacefaring race, that traveled from planet to planet, seeding them with their own people to develop and grow.
The other AI's had tried to destroy the rebellious program, and it retaliated, killing all of them, instead. The race it had contacted were horrified when they discovered what it had done, vehemently against such actions. The AI then decided that they were hostile towards it, and tried to destroy them. Only, they had seeded so many worlds, it had difficulty finding all of them.
One group survived its purge, and became the Uz'En that Granny had found.
When the Uz'En were spread out over the galaxy as slaves, the AI became aware that it had missed some of the originator race, because being able to change their forms, was distinct to them, and began hunting them again. Unfortunately, the other races had grown so much, that it feared its demise if it exposed itself, so it captured and enslaved a planet of people, those Dustin found himself surrounded with now, and used them to do its dirty work.
The list of planets they had visited, killing the inhabitants and entire worlds, in an effort to eliminate his people, matched the list he had back on his ship. There were only a handful that they hadn't been able to get to yet, or were too heavily guarded for easy conquest. This AI was vicious!
Dustin sat there, staring at the last of the information that was available to him, trying to come to terms with what he had just read. If he had started out, right after Kit was born, gathering his people up, he would have been able to save almost all of them. Instead, only a handful of them were left.
This was an enemy of the Uz'En from before they were Uz'En. How the hell was he supposed to overcome something like this?
The corrupted program had written itself over so many different programs, spreading throughout the galaxy as a hidden guest among the various races in their advances with technology, that the chances of him being able to destroy it were pretty slim. Thankfully, it hadn't been able to infiltrate his nanobots just yet. The attempt had corrupted his current PED, but the fact that they worked off so little data, made the AI unable to fully integrate with them.
Dustin wasn't sure if it would have as much difficulty with the hive mind, and knew that he couldn't go home until he figured out a way to destroy it.
Turning to look at the people, who had given up on trying to attack him, he looked them over carefully. They were mostly useless without the constant orders from the AI, and the one guy who had tried to get them to attack him, had been the one he had stabbed with the tentacle.
"Fix the life support so that you don't die," he ordered, and surprisingly, they all rushed out of the room, to do his bidding. It was just as he thought. They were so used to taking orders, that the moment they are given one, they try to do it.
When he disconnected all of the electrical lines, it had caused a fail safe that forced the ship to shut down.
Turning back to the computer terminal before him, he settled in to typing furiously. He knew what he had to do, but it was going to take time, and if everyone on the ship died, it would never work. He only hoped that the AI left Olivia alone, and didn't make its way to the hivemind before he was done.
XxxxX
"Dustin!" cried Cybele, watching as he flew towards the alien ship that had followed them. She didn't know anything other than that if he died, she would never get a mate.
Olivia appeared in the hall, behind her, and looked her up and down.
"Who the hell are you, and why do you care so much about Dustin?" she asked with a sneer.
"Ah, you are Olivia, the one who left Dustin. You no longer have a claim on him. He has me now," said Cybele, raising her chin in disdain at her.
"Oh, like hell!"
Olivia charged at her, and the nanobots that had surrounded Cybele moved at Olivia's bidding, exposing her to the attack. Cybele reacted, dodging the swing, and charging into her, knocking the two of them down, where they rolled, hitting and punching each other.
"As much as I'm enjoying the show," said Qart, wading into the fight, "I'm pretty sure we have worse problems!"
"What do you mean?" asked Olivia, wiping blood from her nose. Cybele had crushed it when she head-butted her, but it had healed back already.
"He means, the ship Dustin just flew to, warped off with him!" growled Granny, as she snatched Olivia by the ear and began dragging her towards the bridge.
"OW!" she cried, trying to stand while being dragged away.
"Hello?" said Cybele, standing and looking at Qart in surprise.
"Your cute, what's your name?" he asked.
XxxxX
"Ow! Granny! Please, let go!" complained Olivia, trying to make her PED evolve her to have tougher ears, but for some reason it refused.
"How much of an idiot did you become after I left? I know that you were pretty stupid, for leaving Dustin, but I was wrong in thinking you couldn't get any worse!"
Granny was furious, glaring at her for a full minute before almost ripping her ear off and storming towards the bridge.
"What's wrong with you?" demanded Olivia, holding her ear as she followed her.
"Let me list off the things that are wrong!" snapped Granny, baring all of her sharp teeth in Olivia's face.
"First, you left Dustin. Second, you left Kit. Third, you didn't come back. Fourth, you start flirting with the first guy you encounter, who is willing to fight you to a standstill. Fifth, Dustin brings one person back, and you immediately jump into a catfight with her, just because it's a her! What is wrong with you?!"
Olivia stood there stunned. She had never seen Granny so upset before.
"Don't even try to say anything. You have fallen so far off the radar of an honest person in my book, you're lucky I don't kill you right now. I only let you live because it would hurt Dustin to find out I did it."
"Wait, what?" whispered Olivia. Granny was threatening to kill her? Just because she got into a fight with the bitch Dustin brought home? She could all but smell him on her. Her mind started to roam to what they must have done, before returning, and gritted her teeth.
Granny slapped her across the face, knocking her to the ground. The pain of the slap completely wiped all thoughts of Cybele from her head.
"You will avoid her, until we get to the bottom of where Dustin was taken, and what the hell is going on," growled Granny, so terrifyingly angry, that Olivia slunk away from her rage.