Evolutionary Liberator

They sat in their ship, cloaked, watching alien sh.i.p.s assemble just outside a solar system.

"So, what's going on?" asked Kitteral, entering the bridge after a nap.

"There's Uz'En on the planet these guys are getting ready to decimate," said Granny, without taking her eyes off the screen.

"And why are they getting ready to decimate the planet?" he asked, sitting in his chair.

"Apparently, there's some kind of virus that got loose, and they can't seem to figure it out. Their communication channels are full of talk about zombies and other trash," said Dustin, tapping the console in front of him thoughtfully.

"Should we go ahead and check it out?" asked Olivia.

"We need to. If there are any Uz'En left, we need to get them out before they start bombing the surface."

"Can't you just get some nanobots going, to collect them, like what you've done before?" asked his father, leaning back in his chair and stretching.

"They've got some of those damn nanobot jammers on the planet, like I was telling you about?" said Dustin, guiding the ship past the sh.i.p.s towards the planet.

"Whatever for? That seems like such a waste of resources," said Kitteral.

"Those who lived on the planet before the virus used the jammers to protect themselves against rogue nanobot swarms, and no one's been able to get a drone close enough to shut them off," explained Olivia.

"I suppose that makes sense, but doesn't that mean…" started Kitteral.

"That Olivia and Granny can't help out this time. And I can't take the ship very close either," said Dustin, not looking at his dad. The man just wasn't everything he had thought he would be. He was actually really lazy, and often went out of his way to avoid work.

"Will you be okay?" asked Olivia, obviously not happy with the situation.

"I'll be fine. We only have a few planets left to get Uz'En off of, and then we'll be done."

No one asked him what he planned to do once that happened, because they weren't sure they wanted to hear his answer. Dustin hadn't been quiet about the fact he wasn't interested in returning to the increasingly more and more crowded planet.

"I'll head for the jammers first. It will take too long to try and find every Uz'En that's hiding on the planet. Once the jammers are disabled, we can send the nanobots to grab them all."

"We'll be scanning from orbit, to try and figure out what's going on, so we don't accidentally take some horrible virus home with us," said Granny, typing a few things on her console.

"I also have the nanobots scavenging from the trash floating around the planet, to start making the extra nanobots for the grab and go mission."

Dustin nodded his thanks to Olivia, as she sent the orders through her console. Not looking at his dad, who was particularly quiet, he headed for the airlock.

Getting to the surface wasn't a problem. He was in the form of a large bird, soaring over the city below him, towards to the site of the first jammer. Below him he could see what honestly looked like real zombies, but there was no way, right?

"Dustin?" came Granny's voice in his ear. The communication device he had, was working. It was made from nanobots, but wasn't a nanobot anymore, so they hadn't been sure if it would work in the jammer's range.

"It looks like the people who are zombies, are actually infected with a parasite, instead of a virus," she continued, since he had no way to respond.

"Unless you want to get us a sample, to double check the readings," said Olivia, "then, every Uz'En we grab will probably have this xeno-parasite. The computer scans say that they become unstable when they infect the aliens that lived on this planet, causing the host to become aggressive as the parasite starts to die. It puts off pheromones to deter other parasite-laden hosts from attacking each other, giving the parasite an opportunity to transfer to a new host, which doesn't seem to have worked out for them."

"It looks like the Uz'En might kill and absorb them, when they become infected, but the scans can't tell how long it takes, or if there are side effects when they do that. Be careful down there," said Granny.

Dustin spied the building that had the jammer, and dived for it. Avoiding the front lawn, that had several zombies stumbling around, he landed on the roof. Changing into his crystal lizard form, he ripped the roof door off its hinges and entered the building. The entire second story building was taken up by a massive coil, that was emitting a jamming signal. He stood on the railing overlooking the coil, studying its design for a few moments before heading for the stairs.

Two zombies were in the building, too far gone to be able to figure out how to open a door. He sidestepped the one that lay on the ground, weakly reaching for his ankle, and slammed a chair into the other one when it turned towards him. The chair slammed into its face, causing blood to splatter everywhere, and it fell to the ground dead.

With a grunt of annoyance, Dustin stepped up to the control panel and quickly shut off the jammer. Someone was intelligent, having designed an off button, so he didn't have to do ninja computer things to get it to turn off. Shedding the blood splattered crystals, so he didn't accidentally become infected, Dustin transformed into his bird form, and flew back up out of the building.

There were two more jammers he had to disable before the nanobots could be released to grab up the Uz'En on the planet. Changing into a faster bird form, he prepared to travel as fast as he could, when he spied a man fighting off a zombie on the roof of another building. A crowd was forming around the building, which meant the man was trapped. If he didn't save him, the guy was doomed.

Changing his form to that of a half bird, half human, Dustin flew over.

"I'm going to grab you, raise your arms out so I get a good grip!" he shouted, swooping for the guy.

Without pausing, the guy, held his arms out and Dustin grabbed his arms, close to his body, and pulled him away before the next zombie could land a blow.

"Who are you?" asked the guy breathlessly, as Dustin swooped back towards the jammer building's roof.

Setting him down, Dustin thought about how to answer that.

"Look, I don't have time to explain, because they're about to fire bomb the planet. I have to shut down the other two jammers so we can send in a nanobot swarm to grab the survivors," said Dustin, turning to leave.

"Wait! I can help you! I know how to shut them all down from here!"