If this form could have grinned, Dustin would have. As the nanobots got close enough, he sucked the energy out of them, and swam through them. They were powerless to stop him as he headed straight for the hive mind. The hive tried to mobilize itself, but he was too quick, latching onto the side of it, and shoving his finger into a port.
Technically, the hivemind should have been able to disassemble itself in order to either attack him, or escape, but in order to do that, it would have had to dissolve its mind. Dustin knew it wouldn't want to do that, and banked on the fact that it had evolved to a point that it saw itself as a person. Dissolving itself would have presented the possibility of death, and everyone is afraid of death.
Diving into the computer, Dustin searched the massive landscape that presented itself, for the insidious programs of the AI. Spying several, that were contingent on each other, he watched them, amused for a moment, as they freaked out and tried to search for him inside the system. The AI would know after this that he was invisible to it, and that would cause it even more distress. He had to work quick before it learned how to spot him.
He studied their interconnections, and planned his attack. Sending tendrils of his awareness to each of the programs, he inserted the same line of code into each of them at the same time, in just the right spot, to minimize their recognition of what he was doing, then backed off and watched.
The AI had inserted codes to take control of the hivemind, without the hivemind being aware of the takeover. Dustin just inserted code into the programs to notify the hivemind of the attack, and left the hivemind to deal with the intruders itself. It was fascinating to watch. The hivemind realized what had happened, and immediately attacked the foreign code, trying to destroy them and cut off their control. He was surprised to see a part of the code, that had been inactive in the AI programs, activate. Instead of trying to control the hivemind, it was going to destroy it.
Moving quickly, Dustin tried to stop the ensuing mess, but wasn't fast enough. There was a flash, and the next thing he knew, he was back in his body, floating several feet from the hivemind. No power was emanating from it, and he knew without a doubt, it was dead.
Reaching for the port he had used, he saw streaks of black along the metal, signaling that it had evicted him forcefully. With determination, Dustin shoved his finger into the port and focused. Organs inside of him shifted as they changed. An electrical field began to develop around him. Taking a moment to steal himself, he shoved the buildup of power into the hivemind.
Rather than letting it just be a large jolt, he rode the wave of energy, and sent it to specific places. Those areas that were too damaged, he bypassed. Forcing new nanobots to move in and take over those damaged areas, recycling bots arrived to eat those who were too damaged to function, and then new bots were produced to replace them.
As the hivemind slowly came back online, he took measures to make sure that the AI couldn't reinsert new programs. If he was still in his body, he would never have been able to work as fast as he was now, he physically couldn't move his fingers fast enough, however, he knew that his own brain could function far faster than a computer could, if freed from the restrictions of the physical body.
Dustin took over the functions of the hivemind, and with his mind controlling everything, he prepared to launch an attack on the AI when the enemy ships arrived. He watched, from the multiple eyes of the nanobots as the enemy ships moved up next to his ship, with the assumption that the hivemind was nonfunctioning. He came up with a plan very quickly, and enacted it, hoping everyone fell for it.
XxxxX
Olivia watched in horror as the nanobots attacked Dustin in waves, but every time they came in contact with him, they would float dead, away from him. He rushed at the hivemind, but was only up against it for a moment, before there was a large flash, and everything seemed to float dead. His body floated free of the hivemind, before jerking and floating slowly back over to the dark hivemind and settling against it again.
She covered her face, wondering if he was dead.
"There are incoming vessels," said the ship's computer, and she looked up to see five large ships, of the same design as the one he had been taken in before.
Old Motha sighed and got up and left the room. Kitteral sat down heavily in the seat she had left.
"That's it. We tried, didn't we?" he asked them with a slow shake of his head.
"Maybe Dustin can pull off something?" said Olivia, not wanting to give up. "Does the ship have guns?"
"No, Dustin never intended to get into a fight with anyone," said the computer.
"That's stupid! He should have asked me!" she cried in anger, slamming her fists down on the console in front of her.
"Olivia, he didn't trust you," said Granny, watching as they got close enough to attempt boarding.
"I know. I was stupid," she said, hanging her head in defeat.
There was a jerk, and they both looked at each other. They knew that was the ship boarding. Granny grinned as she remembered that there were Gooblens waiting at the airlock, and it took Olivia a moment to realize why she was grinning.
"Dustin wouldn't want us to go down easy," said Granny.
"Let's go cause that distraction he was wanting," she said, changing her hands into crystalline claws and heading for the door.
XxxxX
Dustin watched the ship dock, and glee danced along his nerves as he imagined the Gooblens pouring into the ship unchecked. He almost felt pity for the people on that ship, then turned his attention to work. Using the connection, the AI programs had before they self-destructed, he was able to connect to the AI ship. Barely registering the chaos that was going on there, he followed the path all the way back to the AI that was busy trying to figure out how to deal with rampaging Gooblens.
It was time to cause a little chaos of his own.