Evolutionary Liberator

The Gooblens were already streaming out of the airlock, making it possible for him to actually walk along the hall, to the kitchens. Opening the door, he heard his father laughing along with Old Motha, and couldn't help but feel as if they knew what was going on.

"Where are we?" asked Old Motha, standing from her chair. There were several old male Gooblens around her, almost as if they were her guards.

"I moved a planet into orbit around the sun my people call home. I hope it will be suitable for your people to live on," said Dustin, wondering what they were talking about before he entered the room.

"You moved a planet?" said his father incredulously.

"Of course! Kitteral, didn't you know how capable your son is?"

Old Motha laughed at his father's look, and turned to Dustin.

"I am honored and delighted that you deem us Gooblens worthy of a whole planet. May we reproduce to fill it? Will we be allowed to leave it if we wish?"

Dustin opened his mouth to say, of course, but then stopped himself. "What do you mean?"

She laughed in delight. "Wonderful! We Gooblens are capable of reproducing very quickly. If you gave us free reign, we could probably fill this planet in a decade. Don't worry! I will keep them under tight control. We haven't had a planet to call home, since your Granny, as you call her, was born. Though we will need a lot to keep my Gooblens busy."

"I was intending to bring a whole bunch of derelict sh.i.p.s from a space graveyard for you to disassemble and rebuild…" said Dustin, confused by her odd behavior.

"Ah! That should work wonderfully! Thank you!" she said, prancing over to him and patting him happily on the cheek before sweeping past him through the open doorway, where she paused suddenly.

Dustin turned to look at her, as she stood frozen in the hallway.

"Is everything…" he started to ask her, when she turned quickly back his way, and grabbed his arm with a terrified look in her eyes.

"Is it still alive?"

"What?" he asked confused and startled, taking a half step back away from her.

"The abomination nightmare spirit?! I can feel its presence on your skin. It has touched your spirit! I need to cleanse you immediately!"

Before Dustin could do or say anything else, Gooblen hands grabbed him and had him laid out on the table.

"What does cleansing him, mean?" asked his father, watching as she approached Dustin, and making no move to come to his rescue.

The thought to struggle and fight swept through Dustin's mind, then he remembered how scary that spirit monster had seemed, and lay still.

"I need to remove all traces of its presence from his spirit so that it doesn't try to eat him and grow in power. If allowed, even a trace can grow to eventually take over the body. Now don't move!"

The Gooblens holding him, backed away from her as she tapped Dustin on the forehead and he found himself paralyzed.

"Whatever you see, don't move away from your body!" she whispered in his ear as she smacked him on the c.h.e.s.t.

Dustin found himself floating in space, with his body above him. Why he couldn't see the table confused him, but he realized he also couldn't see the ship. There were faint smudges where the other Gooblens should have been, and where his father had stood. Craning his neck, he could barely see smudges where he thought Olivia and Granny might have been, and a mass of what must have been the Gooblens. Then he started to notice other things. Things he knew shouldn't be there.

Their eyes glowed and he knew they would gladly swallow him up, consume him like fine wine, and take his place in his body.

With a shudder, he opened his eyes and found himself returned.

"What the f.u.c.k!" he cried, jumping up off the table, patting himself down to make sure he was really himself.

"I was able to get the smudges off of you, you should be fine," said Old Motha breathlessly, wiping the sweat from her face.

"That took forever!" said his father, rubbing his face in exhaustion.

"How long did it take?" asked Dustin, his eyes darting around and noticing that Granny and Olivia were in the room.

"About four hours," said Olivia, stretching as she stood up.

"Tell me what happened," said Old Motha, sitting back into her chair with a deep groan of fatigue.

Dustin recalled what he could remember, certain by this time that he couldn't be stuck in a dream.

"It sounds like that spirit was trying to figure out a way to gain access to the AI's body," said Granny thoughtfully.

"It would have figured it out by now, if the AI had acquired a biological body. If you hadn't shown it how to eat the codes and programs, there's no telling how much longer it would have grown, trying to figure it out."

"How can a spirit eat code and programs?" asked Kitteral scratching his head.

"It's all a form of energy. No different from one consuming the fat of someone overweight," said Old Motha with a wave of her hand.

"Do we need to worry about this anymore?" asked Dustin. "Because I have a lot of Uz'En to find and bring home still."

Old Motha watched him for a while, deep in thought.

"I want Glyfzi to travel with you. If there is anything that tries to attack you, now that your presence is known in the spirit realm, she will recognize it and be able to save you."

Granny's head popped up in surprise. Dustin glanced at them, back and forth, not understanding what was going on.

"You banned me from spirit manipulation," Granny whispered, as if speaking it aloud would cause one of the Gooblens around them to attack her.

"You are older and wiser now. You have made it possible for the Gooblens to have a home. I have faith in my first daughter to do what is right."

"I made a mistake though," she said hesitantly, glancing in Olivia's direction.

"No one learns if they never make mistakes. You have a natural ability to work with spirits. I have no doubts you will be a future spirit warrior. It is not my place to refuse such raw talent. If I had been in your place, I would have lost Olivia to the spirits. Go with these children and keep them safe. They are important to the Gooblens now."