"The Scuzan have a queen in the middle of that battle site." Dustin leaned back after scrutinizing the data he had pulled from the Scuzan hard drives.
"That explains why they didn't like you stealing from them, but why the theatrics on wanting to eradicate us completely?" asked Olivia, as she nursed the baby.
Dustin and Granny had explained everything that had happened since Dustin left the crypt over a month ago. Olivia was still trying to piece things together, since she didn't have the memories of the original Olivia. Granny thought there was a chance some of them might come back, but she was very vague, and they had enough mind crap to keep them busy for a while.
"I thought they had been eradicated a long time ago. There was a race known as the Quroptin that enjoyed going around and wiping out small, budding civilizations. The Scuzan met that criteria very well. I think the Josagn wiped the Quroptin out when they tried to get rid of a nest of the nasty things." Granny popped another snack cake into her mouth and chewed it thoughtfully.
"Why would the Quroptin do that?" asked Dustin.
"They had ruined their own home world, and needed to constantly resupply to survive, so they looked for worlds that had the supplies they needed and took them, killing hundreds of worlds before they were taken care of. I never cared for them, though they had beautiful green skin. It shimmered in the light, like glitter."
"So, they had almost been wiped out, and were afraid if word of their survival got out, they would be wiped out again," guessed Olivia, putting the baby on her shoulder to burp him.
"Probably," agreed Dustin, leaning forward to pull up the info he had on the A'Dfukl.
He hadn't gotten to go through all of the data on them yet, because he had been too busy watching the nanobots work. After almost an hour, they had already computed the necessary dimensions of the jump gate and were in the process of assembling it. Every spare scrap of debris was gone, from around the planet and even from the abandoned sites on the planet that had metal. By the time the nanobots had finished mining the necessary fuel from the gas giant, and returned, the jump gate would be ready to activate.
It was currently in orbit around the sun, equal to the orbit of the planet, but as soon as it activated, it would stop orbiting, and the planet would fly right through it. Dustin was keeping a close eye on it, because he was between the planet and the gate. When it stopped, they would be going through before the planet.
"Olivia, why did you want to save this planet so bad?" asked Granny, taking a bite out of the plate she had the snacks on. Her teeth went through the metal plate as if it was made of bread.
"Jake and I found something on that planet," she said, looking out the main view window at the huge nano computer. "The crypt we were staying in had a tunnel going down. There was no way we could get out of there with the robots surrounding us, so we had no choice but to go down into it. It was flooded, but took us to an underground cave system."
She turned to Dustin and smiled. "It was beautiful. There was glowing moss that covered these crystal formations and lit the way for us as we traveled. There were mushroom people down there. The workers looked like huge mushrooms that had grown legs and arms, and the cap was a type of hat that covered their face.
"They ignored us as we made our way through their mushroom garden, or nursery, whatever. Beyond them was an underground lake, that we could see glowing fish swimming around. They were all different colors. Tasted pretty good too. Beyond the lake, we found where the military must have tried to build a bunker, but instead, collapsed the roof on a huge chamber. I'm not sure how far it actually went, as we took advantage of the stairs leading up to the military compound."
"So, you wanted to save the planet because of a few mushrooms?" asked Granny before Dustin could say anything.
"Yes," she said with a dreamy look on her face.
"Did you eat any of them?" asked Dustin, glancing at Granny. This was not the Olivia he knew.
"Oh no! We didn't touch any of them, only moved through their field that they were tending. There were other mushrooms, that I'm not sure what they were doing, that were absolutely beautiful. They were just standing in the center of their own plot, watching the workers work. We got close enough to one, that it turned and looked at us, but didn't do anything. I could have stayed there forever, watching them work the soil and tend the plants."
"Sounds like they have some kind of compulsion mind trick," said Granny, thoughtfully.
"Well, regardless of why the planet was saved, it gives us a perfect place to call home, assuming this works. Have you ever heard of anyone moving a planet before, Granny?" asked Dustin.
"Nope. But I know that the Quog did a lot of fantastic things." She popped the last of the plate in her mouth.
"How much longer before that jump gate is ready?" asked Olivia, motioning towards the view window.
"Probably six or seven hours. It's pretty big, and they have to wait on the fuel anyway."
"What should we name our son?" She looked up at him.
Dustin swallowed. This was a pretty important decision.
"Did you have any ideas?" He didn't want to blurt anything out, if she already had an idea.
"I'm not sure why, but the name Kit seems to fit him."
Dustin and Granny looked at each other.
"My father's name was Kitteral," said Dustin. "I like it."
"Told you some of her memories would start to come back."
"But how?" asked Dustin, annoyed at the ambiguity.
"Your race is very sensitive to the spirit. It's why you can see memories of others of your race, and she can slowly get the memories of her original self. It's a good thing all the other clones are dead, otherwise she would never be able to regrow her spirit to full health."
"Spirit, like ghost?" asked Olivia.
"No, maybe, yes? It depends on your view point. If the spirit is within you, then no, I don't mean the ghost. But, if it leaves your body, then yes. But most races don't believe in such things because they don't have a good connection to the spirit. It's hard to explain."
"How do you know so much?" asked Olivia shaking her head.
Granny just smiled, showing all of her sharp teeth.