As the ship started moving away from the debris that was the station, the planet he had spent so much time on came to view.

-“It’s so pretty, do we really get to live there?” she asked. (Was that Olivia??)

Blinking a few times, Dustin looked around. Why had he had that flashback? He wasn’t a worm, and the crystal prince wasn’t around…was he?

Dustin swiveled his head around but didn’t see any crystal forms around the outside of the ship. Glancing out over the debris, he decided, even if the prince was over that way, he’d never see him with all the trash floating around. A toilet and sink floated by just at that moment, as if to prove his point.

Olivia, who had been clinging to the ship beside him, suddenly lost her grip, and started floating free, tethered only by the line from the robot AI. Grabbing her with one hand, he turned her around to see that she had lost consciousness.

“PED, I want her on my back, covered in several layers of scales!” he said, envisioning what he wanted in his head.

(THAT WILL SEVERELY STRAIN YOU. I CANNOT GUARENTEE THAT THE SCALES THAT COVER HER WILL BE ABLE STRUCTURALLY SOUND. IF THERE IS EVEN THE SMALLEST BUMP, SHE MAY BREAK FREE.)

“I’m okay with that, if she didn’t get her evolution complete, or something went wrong, she only has seconds!”

He was able to slowly maneuver her onto his back, having to twist to keep her from hitting the shield.

(EVOLUTION INITIATED)

The scales he wanted, started to grow over her arms first, so that he could reach down and get her legs positioned. As soon as they were positioned, scales began to grow over them as well, holding her to him. He couldn’t see the rest of the scales that covered the rest of her form.

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE. SHE WILL NOW BE PROTECTED FROM FURTHER HARM FROM EXPOSURE TO SPACE. THIS WILL NOT PROTECT HER FROM ANY DAMAGE SHE MAY HAVE ALREADY OBTAINED)

“I’m not worried about that, she has really good healing.”

Suddenly, there was a flash out of the corner of his eye, and before he could turn his head, he was hit by another flashback.

-“How are we going to escape? The shuttles will blow up if we fly too high!” Her voice sounded desperate and panicked. There was also a hint of pain in it.

-“I’ll just reprogram it not to blow up!” His voice was self-confident. (Of course, I could…)

-The beeping was getting louder. How the hell did he turn it off? There was the crystal prince in the shuttle with them, telling them they needed to abort the attempt.

Dustin blinked again. The crystal guy must be a stooge that they used to manipulate him. But why was he having these flashbacks?

He looked around again, mostly towards the upcoming station, where the flash had been right before the flashback.

“PED, can you tell me why I’m having these flashbacks?”

(SOMETHING IS AFFECTING YOUR BRAIN, CAUSING YOU TO HALLUCINATE. I AM UNABLE TO DETERMINE IF THE HALLUCINATIONS ARE INDEED FLASHBACKS OR MANUFACTURED MEMORIES.)

Dustin paused at that. He had assumed that the memories he was having now, were real, but now that he thought about it, what if he doesn’t have any real memories? What if everything has been made up. If he could have groaned, he would have.

Thinking quickly, because he wasn’t in a safe place to make a poor decision, he finally came to the conclusion, that it didn’t matter what memories were true or not. He knew that the Josagn were trying to kill him, thus he wanted to get away from them. He knew that Olivia was in the same position he was, trying to escape, so he was willing to take her along. Everything else was unimportant.

He needed to get into that station, find a ship, and get the two of them away from this place. Then they could try and figure things out.

There was that flash again, and he was able to spot it this time. Some kind of creatures were flying around the station, rather thickly, in space. Every time one turned belly away from the station, there was a flash. The reason they were so hard to spot, was because the shield that encircled the station was covered in them.

Dustin couldn’t tell if they were protecting the station or feeding off of the energy field. Their skin was bioluminescent, flickering shades of blue and green, and everything in between. As the ship he was on drew even closer to them, he could see that they had flat bodies, much like flat worms, with long tentacles trailing behind them. Their head looked very squid-like, with two eyes and ten tentacles of varying length protruding from their mouths. Four were longer, while six were smaller. Two of the long tentacles had a flat, spoon-like end, while the other two ended in bright glowing tips.

-“IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURRRTTTSSS!”

Dustin almost lost his grip at that flashback. The pain still coursed through his body from the memory. He couldn’t remember anything but the screams and the pain.

“PED, is there anything you can do, to keep what ever it is from messing with my head?”

(PERHAPS I CAN MODIFY YOUR BRAIN TO PREVENT REM SLEEP AT THE MOMENT?)

“Will it mess me up?”

(ONLY IF YOU TRY TO SLEEP)

“Okay, do it! If anything happens and I need it, then undo it then.”

(EVOLUTION INITIATED)

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

It couldn’t have finished any sooner. As the ship got closer to the station, the creatures noticed it and flew over. Dustin watched curiously, and a little apprehensively. He really wanted a sample from one. If he could fly around space like that, he wouldn’t be in this position.

Suddenly the shield around the ship went down, and the creatures that were flying to the ship, lost interest and headed back to the station, until a few spotted him.

“PED, I need some way to hurt these things!”

(PERHAPS POISON/VENOM DARTS? YOU COULD SPIT THEM FROM YOUR MOUTH?)

“Sounds good!” he clung to the ship harder, bracing for impact, as some of them got closer.

(EVOLUTION INITIATED)

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

Dustin felt a tooth wiggle loose and without hesitating, spit it at the nearest creature. It was a very strange sensation, as his throat was closed off. The spitting force came from his tongue and lips. No sooner had the tooth left his mouth, then another, much smaller and thinner tooth fell into place. As he spit it, again, another fell into place. He wasn’t sure how it worked, but he wasn’t going to complain.

As each tooth touched a creature, it spasmed almost immediately, and it didn’t take very long at all for them to decide he wasn’t interesting.

Reaching out to grab one, as the ship flew by, he jammed the tentacle into his port.

(NEW GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTIONS: SPACE FLIGHT, ENERGY CONSUMPTION, VACCUUM SUPPORT, REDIATION PROTECTION, ENERGY EMISSION-WHICH IS HOW THE CREATURE GOT RID OF WASTE.)