"The fuel's here!" shouted Granny, causing Dustin and Olivia to hurry over from the console they had been reading together.
Dustin had pulled up the information on the A'Dfukl and the Uz'En for Olivia to read while they waited. But with the impending activation of the jump gate, they decided they could read later.
The nanobots were slowly streaming the gas fuel into the jump gate, causing it to activate in parts. As soon as the whole ring was lit up, it stopped in space and a gate appeared in the center.
There was a sudden flash from the sun, and a huge wave of ejected material shot towards them.
"Is it going to hit the planet?" asked Olivia in panic.
Dustin was furiously typing. The think bots had started to drift towards the portal, preparing to enter the gate. Sitting back and shook his head.
"It looks like there will be a three second lapse. The planet should make it through the portal, and the nanobots get sucked through as the portal collapses, before the wave gets here."
"Three seconds is cutting it kind of short; don't you think?" asked Granny, staring at the approaching wave nervously.
"It's not like I can do much. The gate is already active."
Gritting her teeth in annoyance, Granny grabbed the controls and steered them to the gate. As their ship went through, she shot them far enough away, that they could watch as the planet came through the portal.
Just as he had predicted, the planet sailed smoothly through the portal, and as the gate collapsed in on itself, the nanobots were spewed into space on this side of the gate. A last flare of material from the crazy sun, sparked through the gate, giving them a hint that it had probably exploded.
Sitting back, they all watched as the planet seemed to wobble slightly, before settling down in its new orbit.
"There will probably be huge changes occurring throughout the whole solar system, with the addition of this planet, but we'll have to wait and see what they are."
Granny and Olivia looked at each other in doubt, but Dustin was already sending out nanobots to start collecting the ones that were spewed through the gate.
"I guess it's time to see if the life on the planet has survived, and to introduce the Uz'En on board to their new home," said Granny, guiding the ship down into the atmosphere.
Dustin was keeping a close eye on the reports of the atmosphere, and was happy to see that it was stable and breathable for both Uz'En and Human. As they got lower, they could all tell that the plant life had taken a heavy toll from the constant radiation bombardment from the old sun, but it didn't look like it would all die. Only time would tell if it had received too much radiation to continue and still reproduce.
"I'm going to check on Jake. Now that we're away from the radiation, his PED should be able to fix the damage."
Olivia stood up, and Dustin followed her to the medical bay. As the nanobots returned to him, he planned to start making a lot of PED's for everyone on the ship. Even Granny would get one. It wouldn't let her change, but it could monitor her body and tell her when things were wrong.
As the door opened, the saw Jake sitting up on the medical table looking around very scared. When he saw them, he jumped down off the table and rushed to them. Dustin picked him up and laughed.
"Did you think something bad had happened?" asked Olivia, patting his back.
"My PED told me I was better, and that you were near, but…" he hung his head, and they all just laughed.
"It's all right. You should trust your PED. Do you want to meet Kit? He was born while you were out." Olivia kneeled so he could see the sleeping baby.
"He's so little! When will he be able to learn to hunt and fish? Will we still be living on the same planet, or have you found a new one to live on?"
It made Dustin happy to hear the questions spilling from his mouth. It meant that he was whole again. Ruffling the boy's hair, he moved over to check on Walter, Trey and Sherry. Their stats were looking rough, so he gave them another injection of the inhibitor. It helped but he knew he had to find a better solution.
"Do you want to meet the other Uz'En?" asked Dustin, heading to the door.
"There's others?" he asked, hiding behind Olivia's leg.
"Yea, and one's a boy your age. His name's Howell."
"Howl? That's a funny name. Did he cry a lot when he was little?"
Dustin laughed. "You'll have to ask him that yourself."
When they entered the cafeteria, that looked more like a campsite, with areas marked out for the different groups that had formed, Howell ran up to meet them.
"Your majesty! Are we home yet?"
"We are!" Dustin kneeled down to talk to him, knowing that the others were drifting over quickly to hear what was said.
"You found us a home?!" squealed Howell excitedly.
"It's a wild planet that has some damage from radiation, and some ruins, but it's all ours."
"If its wild, how will we survive? We don't all know how to live in the wild," asked one of the men.
"I'll stay a while and teach you," said Dustin.
"You mean you won't stay?" asked one of the women in panic.
"Of course not. I have to get all of our people. You don't think I was going to stop at saving just the lot of you, did you? I wouldn't be a very good king if I did that."
They looked at each other as his words sunk in. He could see hope and excitement forming in their eyes for the first time since he saved them. There was still a lot of doubt, but he was sure over the coming days, that would fade as they relearned how to live without the constant worry of being hunted and tortured.
"What's the name of our new home?" asked someone else.
Turning to Olivia, he smiled.
"Our home will be called, Haven."