By the time Olivia reached the airlock door, there was only bits of blood to show that someone had died here. Following Granny inside the AI's ship, she couldn't help but wonder if that was such a good idea. She knew that the AI could hack the nanobots, but so far nothing had come of it. Picking up a bar that had been chewed off the wall, she hefted it and decided it would make a decent weapon.
Bite marks on the doorways and supports along the wall, showed that the Gooblens had passed this way. It wasn't until they reached the power core room, that Olivia spied any Gooblens. Old Motha was cackling, rubbing her stomach and ordering the Gooblens around her to carry her back to the ship.
"Did you eat the power core?" asked Olivia flabbergasted. A huge empty space sat where the power core had been. How were the lights still on?
"My favorite flavor!" purred Old Motha, as the Gooblen hefted her onto their shoulders and carried her bloated frame past them.
Granny turned to her, and said, "We should probably get you out of this room. There's still some random radiation bouncing around."
Olivia allowed Granny to push her out of the room, as she noticed figures in the corners. Rolling her eyes, she figured out that random radiation must mean Gooblens getting it on. Despite her doubts about the radiation, she followed Granny towards the bridge. There must have been an emergency backup battery, should the power core fail, that was keeping the lights and life support running.
Before they got there, the whole ship rocked, and the artificial gravity gave out. As it rocked again, Olivia realized the ship was being shot at! Turning back towards her ship, she grew a worm tail to propel her faster, despite the pain that came with it. The worm really didn't like being in atmosphere, so as soon as she was back at her ship, she absorbed it.
"Get all of the Gooblens back on board! We need to disconnect immediately!" she cried, rushing to the bridge.
Granny turned and gave a sharp whistle, that hurt her ears, but Olivia kept going. Sliding into her seat, she glanced up at the screen and saw that the other AI ship was actually shooting at her, but her shields were bouncing the shots back onto the other ship. Its shields were down, so the blasts were chewing huge holes into it.
"Computer, is there any way to reconfigure the shields to bounce those blasts back at the ship that shot them?"
"Computing," said the computer.
As she watched the next blast head their way, it seemed to hit and pause before bouncing straight back at the incoming ship. It obviously wasn't expecting it, and had a huge hole blasted into its side. Shields popped up on it, ceasing the loss if atmosphere that shot several people into space, and it stopped shooting at them.
"Dustin, I wish you were here to tell me what to do," she moaned, watching as the ship attached to them disconnected, and began to fall into the atmosphere of the planet.
XxxxX
Dustin looked over the intricate jumble of programs before him, making up the main AI. He knew he had to move fast, faster than the AI could keep up, and his movements had to be random, so the programs couldn't predict his next move. Cracking his mental knuckles, he dived in.
Cutting a program here and a program there, he removed the ability for the AI to notice things outside itself, in the immediate area around its mainframe. It hadn't noticed him just yet, but Dustin could see yellow flags popping up, as it seemed to realize something was going on.
"Olivia," he said, contacting her through the communications of the ship, with the hivemind. "Do whatever you can to distract this thing!"
He saw her eyes widen before focusing back on the chaos before him. He reached out and began cutting major program strings, watching the red flags pop up all over the place. Ignoring them, he continued to carve his way to the core of the AI.
The ability to contact smaller pieces of itself was cut. Its control of nanobots he cut with relish. When he found a program that manipulated numbers among economies all over the galaxy, he could only be amazed at as it tore it into shreds. As the core of the AI drew close, he felt the first signs of impending attack. The AI was stretching itself, trying to find him amongst itself, and it was right on the brink of being able to detect him, when he saw it. The core of the AI was a small star.
The AI had built itself around a star, and was siphoning power from it to keep its massive energy needs met.
He didn't have time to marvel at the sight, because just then the AI had found him. Moving faster than he had ever moved before, he could feel the hivemind straining at his speed, as he raced to the program that controlled the siphon. At the same time the AI was racing to cut him off from the hivemind, and destroy his body.
XxxxX
Olivia gaped at the monitor before her, where Dustin's voice had yelled at her to do whatever she could to distract the AI. She hadn't recognized the squiggles that had flashed on the screen as him, but would recognize his voice anywhere.
Drawing her eyebrows together in determination, she began to type.
"I can't do that, Olivia," said the computer.
She kept her head down, and continued typing.
"I can't do that either," said the computer again.
As she typed the last bit, the computer stayed silent for a moment.
"Now that, I can do!"
Grinning, Olivia rose from her seat to watch the scene outside unfold.
The AI ship that had been shooting at them had begun to turn, preparing to fire on the hive mind, she was sure, but before it could, all of the nanobots on the ship shot out, grabbing hold of it, through its shields, and they began to eat at the ship.
Dustin may not have installed any weapons on this ship, because he already had some. She just had to hope that the AI didn't take control of them, as she knew it could.
Sure enough, the computer went silent, and the nanobots went dead. Licking her lips in panic, she realized she could feel pain within her. The AI had decided to have the nanobots eat her alive. A grunt behind her told her they were attacking Granny too. Turning her eyes to the planet below them, she whispered at Dustin to hurry up.