"Wait, what do you mean by hunters and royalty?" asked Dustin, crossing his arms. He had never heard of social classes like this among his people.
"I imagine most of the knowledge of our people has been lost over time. The slavers really didn't like parents teaching their kids stuff from their homeworld, and so it was lost," mused his father. "My dad was beaten almost to death trying to teach me a dance we would do to impress the women when it was time to get married," he added with a grin, that turned into a grimace.
"So, Olivia is from the hunters and I was from the royalty…what other classifications were there?"
"Other than the hunters and the royals, there are the common people. We had several other, more specialized groups, but they were killed when the slavers first came to steal us away. I'm sure you've noticed some people are gruffer, and others seem to follow really well?"
Dustin thought about that, and gave a hesitant nod.
"Well, I imagine most of the hunters have been killed out, with the slavers enjoying the easy-going personalities of the common class. That isn't to say that someone could be born from one group and fit better in another. All the groups intermarried really well, except for the royal group."
"So, these more specialized groups might still exist, if a child were born with certain abilities?" asked Dustin, curious despite his reservations.
"Exactly. But unfortunately, no one, other than me, remembers all of the groups, so those children wouldn't get the extra teachings they needed. I doubt there would even be someone capable of teaching them, anyway."
Dustin shook his head at the mess his dad was painting of their people. He knew that he could never restore them to the way they had been, there was just too much trauma between then and now. He knew that getting all of his people together, in the same place, was a good start, and then remembered the AI and frowned.
"I know what you're thinking. Get everyone freed and to the same place, then watch them all be killed by that damn AI. Right?"
"What's up with that thing? Why does it want to kill all of us so much?"
"It's taken me years to learn as much as I have."
The guy turned and sat in the seat behind him, dangling his legs over the side of the chair and leaning back against some of the controls. Motioning for Dustin to sit with a wave of his hand, Dustin turned to see a control panel behind him that he could sit on as well.
"I first learned about the AI when I was first captured from our homeworld, as a teenager. The aliens that were rounding us up were talking about getting paid by some program, to turn over a few of us for experimentation. I found out later, it was checking to see if we were from some progenitor race that had seeded hundreds of planets thousands of millions of... okay a long time ago. Apparently, the AI used to belong to a race of programs that was developed by this same progenitor race, in order to watch over the many planets they had seeded, because they were dying out."
Dustin sat down, and listened in disbelief over how old that would make his father.
"This one particular AI had discovered that our race, among a few others like us, had the potential to overrun the galaxy, and basically become a plague. But when it took its findings to the rest of the AI community, they decried its findings, pointing to the fact that they were to watch over and protect, not destroy, the creations of their creators. This AI refused to step down, and destroyed all of them."
"Wait, you mean the AI that I'm having so much trouble with, basically genocided its entire race?"
"In a sense. Yes."
"Then it really doesn't have any problems wiping out entire groups of people."
"No. In fact, I've found three cases of people it has already managed to wipe out, and one other that it is still in the process of wiping out, other than our own."
"How do you know so much about the AI? I don't imagine it has a personal narrative out there, for just anyone to read its past. And who's the other group it's trying to wipe out?" asked Dustin, still trying to wrap his mind around the horror of this AI and what it was capable of. When would it decide life in general was dangerous and just wipe out everything?
"Actually, Granny found much of the information, so you would have to ask her. And the other group is the Gooblens."
Dustin looked up, as the truth of his father's words sunk in. "But, why?"
"They don't age, as a race. Only some of our people stop aging when they hit maturity, and that's mostly only those in the royal family. Also, the Gooblens are capable of surviving extreme situations for far longer than any other race, than ours, but not because they can change, as we do, but because they are just that tough. And don't forget their ability to eat just about anything. I believe their homeworld had been reduced to a shit-planet, because they had even eaten the rocks and dirt…but that was a rumor I heard from Granny, so I'm not sure how true it is."
Dustin chuckled at that image, because he could almost see it. Granny had eaten some pretty impressive stuff in his lifetime.
"How do you know Granny?" asked Dustin.
"I was a prisoner on her ship, when I discovered some of the stuff about the AI trying to hunt the Gooblens. She was hiding what she was, and was very interested in the info. We started talking, and we hit it off pretty quick as friends. She was the one that helped me to escape with my parents, along with a handful of our people. She had to go into hiding right after that, when the slavers didn't approve."
Dustin watched his dad's eyes fade as he remembered memories that were old, and wondered how many stories his dad had locked away in his mind, along with how many stories he had forgotten.
"When she found out I was married and expecting a kid, she was so excited. She had never had kids before, and wanted to be there when you were born. That didn't happen, as she couldn't shake the bounty hunters that were after her, until you were several years old. There was always something about you though, from the moment she first laid eyes one you, that really resonated with her. She was smitten, I guess. I joked that she couldn't marry you, until you were older, and we laughed, but I think there was a bit of sadness and hope in her eyes. Honestly, I'm kind of glad you got with Olivia."
Dustin wondered if his dad knew about Kit, and whether he should tell him about him, but decided that was something he could share later, if the time arose. Right now, there was a more pressing question he needed to ask.
"What are we going to do about this AI? We have to destroy it."