"This doesn't make any sense," said Dustin, looking over the reports of the planetary scans from the ship's computer.
"What's wrong?" asked Olivia.
"The scans aren't finding any Uz'En anywhere."
"Could the AI have gotten them?" asked Granny.
"No, the last few places the AI had been, it had wiped out the entire population of everything living on the planets. There's a thriving civilization down there, just no Uz'En showing up," said Dustin shaking his head.
"Then let's go down and investigate," said his father, thoughtfully.
"We can't send out the nanobots to look for them?" asked Olivia.
"No, they have a strange field that knocks them out. I had to come personally to check out the field, because I was wanting to investigate it. I'm wondering if the initial reports of there being Uz'En may have been wrong."
"Only one way to find out," said Granny cheerfully.
Dustin nodded, and guided the ship into the atmosphere of the planet. Below them, sparse land, thickly covered in plant life, dotted what appeared to be a mostly water covered world. The few cities they saw seemed to be built into cliff facings, probably to survive the wild storms that occurred.
"Those weird readings are popping up all over the place," he said, trying to figure out what they were.
"What weird readings?" asked Kitteral.
Everyone could see the same things on their monitors that Dustin could see, but none of them could make heads or tails of what he was looking at. It just looked like lines of letters and numbers, all jumbled together.
"I'm getting readings of Uz'En in the water, but unless…they must have gone aquatic!"
"Aquatic?" said Olivia, startled.
"It's odd, but I could see it," said Kitteral.
"Are you still going to grab them?" asked Granny.
"Of course! I have oceans on my planet."
Dustin avoided all of the cities and landed the ship on a deserted beach.
"I'm going to go check them out. Olivia can come with me, since she can change, and you two can keep an eye on the ship, in case the locals decide they don't like us, assuming they can find the ship while cloaked."
"Alright," said his father, leaning back in his chair, as if he was going to take a nap. Granny gave him a look of annoyed disgust, before waving at them to go ahead.
Stepping outside, they glanced at each other, then darted for the beckoning waves. Dustin changed himself the moment he hit the waves, giving up his legs for a strong muscled tail, with fins on either side. Olivia's legs flattened out, but remained two separate appendages, growing long flippers on either foot. A long spine protruded along her back, waving in the gentle pull of water.
Keeping to the floor, they made their way out, listening to anything that might give away the Uz'En Dustin was sure was out there. It didn't take them long, before they found themselves on the edge of a large underwater city. It spread out over a vast underwater plain. Plants swayed in the currents, and if he didn't know any better, he would have thought he was looking down on a city above the waves, rather than one below them.
Buildings climbed from the ground up three or four stories, with entrances instead of windows. There were roadways between the buildings, with patches of 'gardens' where they grew plants. There were also large groups who moved large schools of fish like creatures, much like a shepherd would move sheep along a mountain pass. It was all very surreal.
"Are we sure we want to try and relocate these people? It looks like they have a very good setup already," said Olivia in short bursts of noise.
Dustin hated the idea of leaving any Uz'En off his home planet, but he had to agree with her. These people looked to be the masters of this ocean, and were thriving.
"Maybe some would be interested in relocating?" he wondered, moving towards the nearest group of them, who had seen them and were approaching in interest.
"Hail, strangers. You are not known by us, but we welcome you," said the nearest, in a certain method of sonar and sound manipulation, that Dustin found particularly interesting, as he could understand it perfectly well.
"We come with an opportunity for your people, if you are interested," said Dustin, quickly modifying his vocals to be able to replicate the sounds they had made.
"We would listen, but it must be spoken before the king," he said, turning and leading them all to the center of the city.
Dustin was curious that they had a king. Could it be someone distantly related to him? Had another royal bloodline survived? There were definitely some of the people who took after the warrior class here, who were acting as guards as they approached the king.
His hopes were dashed the moment he saw the king, who was merely another of the warrior class who had risen to fill a role that was vacant.
"Welcome to our city, stranger. We have never seen you here before," said the king as he floated in a space decorated in bright coral and lively small crustaceans.
"I come from another world, with interesting news and an opportunity for your people," said Dustin, glancing around at the numbers that had gathered around them to listen in. Had some kind of signal gone out to have so many show up so quickly? If so, he had missed it.
"I am interested in hearing what you have to say."
"I am not sure what you call your people, but we all come from a race known among the stars as the Uz'En. I have been on a quest finding all of our people, who have been scattered among the many stars, to bring them all together to one planet, that is safe for them. You are one of our people, yet you call the waters your home, whereas the rest of our people do not. While I am not sure how that came to be, I would still offer all of you a home on our planet, if you are interested. We have great waters, that you would be allowed to claim, if you wish to remain in the waters, though I must admit, I have not explored them fully, to ascertain their safety."
"This is very interesting information you have brought us," said the king, thoughtfully. "Our story tellers tell of a time when we did not call the waters our home, so there may be truth to your words. As for belonging to your people, how are you so certain that we belong among those you claim as yours?"
"Do any of your people have the ability to change themselves?" asked Dustin, looking around. "Perhaps, changing their looks, or colors, or completely changing their entire bodies?"
There was a lot of murmuring among the people, and they all seemed to be disturbed by the question.
"That is a very serious accusation you have made," said the king, flaring his gills in agitation and thrashing his tail against the sand on the ocean floor.
Dustin could only wonder what he meant. How could being able to change be a bad thing? This didn't bode well at all.