"They probably already did," whispered Sherry, in horror, as if the thought hadn't occurred to her.
"If they did, then they could have already started using it, for the next generation of babies…" spluttered Trey.
"Well, that's going to piss Olivia off," mused Dustin, only partly hiding his excitement. He had wanted a lot of babies. This would give them to him, and Olivia wouldn't have to carry them. How was he going to explain this to Olivia in a way she wouldn't kill him?
"I would guess they haven't, because they wanted you back. If they had already gotten a sample, then they wouldn't have a need for you to come back," explained Walter.
"So, what are we looking at?" asked Dustin, to hide his disappointment.
"What?" asked Walter, slowly sitting up and turning to look at him in confusion.
"What are they using them for? Are they selling them in the slave trade, or what?" asked Dustin, partly annoyed. Their intelligence seemed to have dipped. Could that have been a side effect from the poison?
"Some of them, that show promise in childhood, are sold to a military group. Those who don't, are held on to until someone comes along willing to pay the required price." Walter looked down in shame, as if he was responsible for the whole scheme.
"I'm assuming most of them don't realize that?" questioned Dustin as he thought over the way the people had acted while he was there.
"The area that I took you through, no. I was under strict orders to hide the truth from you. We do occasionally have visitors to the station from other races who are curious about what we were doing there, which is why we have a population of those who don't know what's really going on."
"That makes this more complicated. If a lot of the people think that they are on a station that has no evil intentions, me showing up to 'free' them will seem the evil act."
Dustin crossed his arms as he thought about this. It could be pretty easy to just swarm through the station with the nanobots, restraining the people and overriding the computers, but he didn't want anyone harmed, that was Uz'En, and those in command might use that to stop him. The only route he could possibly take, was to use surprise as much as possible.
"What were your orders?" he asked Walter.
"We were to take you away for as long as we could, before bringing you back. That way they could prepare for your return. I was to pretend to try and take you back to the planet, only to have a mistake while jumping, then to take my time returning."
Dustin nodded at Walter's explanation. That sounded believable, but it didn't really answer his question.
A noise behind him, drew his attention. Turning, he spied the small robot AI from the station above the cursed planet this whole story started at. It had entered the room, (maybe to find him?) then spied them and stopped. As he watched, its facial expression went from neutral to murderous in the blink of an eye, and it shot towards Walter.
Using his nanobots, Dustin was able to catch the robot, as Walter scrambled away with a scream.
"Warning! Traitor discovered! Recommend immediate death!" screamed the AI as it fought against the nanobots that were turning it in midair to keep it from getting a clear view of Walter again.
"What do you mean by traitor?" asked Dustin, eyeing Walter curiously.
Walter had scrambled clear across the room, as far from the robot as possible, panic written all over his face, almost as if this wasn't the first time, he had been chased by it. The implications were…interesting to say the least.
"Facial recognition has identified the individual as Walter Laffey, tried and found guilty of traitorous acts to the faction and sentenced to death."
"When was this trial?" asked Dustin in amusement. There was no way this could be recent.
The date the robot gave was exactly as he suspected, over two hundred years ago. "There's no way this could be the same person. That was over two hundred years ago."
"With current technology, the individual could have been cryofrozen until present time."
Dustin watched out of the corner of his eye as Walter was trying to inch his way out of the room. This amused him, because it pointed to Walter feeling guilty, and to a possibility of the accusations being true.
"What actions did this person do, and what happened to him?"
"He stole away embryo specimens from science facilities for illegal breeders and was sent to a secret facility for cryostasis until the sentence could be met out. War broke out at that time, making all criminal activities punishable by death. It is believed he was taken and disappeared during the chaos of war."
"That's so interesting," Dustin said, sending nanobots to restrain him.
A quick glance at Sherry and Trey proved they had no idea. Walter didn't fight against the nanobots, he already seemed to know that it was useless. The look on his face, though, showed his disgust at the AI.
"Fucking computer! I should have fried you the last time I saw you!"
"What do you mean?" asked Dustin. How the hell did Walter see the computer before?
"Who do you think the science facility got their material from? They found out I sold to others, not just to them, and got pissed. If they paid better, I might not have found other buyers."
"Well, how the hell are you here now, being used by Death Station?"
"Oh, I was placed in cryostasis, just like the robot there said, but when I was sent to death station to be put to death, the incoming ship that was carrying me, was attacked. It arrived under autopilot, with no clear reason for my arrival. They placed me off to the side, until they decided to wake me up, a couple years ago, to use me as breeding stock. The change they tried to initiate, didn't work. The Uz'En part, was trying to kill me, instead of just converting me. I convinced them to let me search for other Uz'En for them. Since I knew how to fly ships so well, they let me. It was great until you showed up. I should have just left you to die with those damn aliens."
"You're right, you should have," said Dustin, snapping his neck. The surprise on Walter's face was frozen as death overcame his features.
Sherry screamed, covering her face in shock.
"You killed him!" gasped Trey.
"I don't have time for shit like that."
Dustin set down the robot and sent the body to be destroyed. It was a shame, he had spent so much effort on him, too. Oh, well.