The black spike thing went flying across the hall, hit the wall so hard, that it ended up on the floor by his feet. Dustin kicked it into the room and shut the door again, to check it out.

After laying Olivia down, he picked it up and turned it around in his hands. Grabbing two of the spines at their bases, he pulled the thing apart, and was shocked at what he found. This thing was both biological and mechanical. The only organ he recognized, were the venom glands at the base of each spike.

With a shrug, he shoved some of the goo on his fingers into his PED port.

(NEW GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTIONS: RADAR PERCEPTION, AND GRAVITATIONAL MANIPULATION, THIS IS HOW IT HOVERS)

“You have got to give me these! Can you get the radar vision to stack with the heat vision?”

(BECAUSE THE RADAR PERCEPTION DOES NOT IMPLEMENT USE OF THE EYES, ACQUISITION OF THIS ABILITY WILL NOT AFFECT YOUR INFRARED VISION.)

“Sweet!”

(INITIATING EVOLUTION)

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

With a huge grin, Dustin practiced moving about the room with his new hover ability, until he spied Olivia still laying on the floor. With a shake to his head he settled on the ground and picked her up. He had to stay focused to get her PED fixed. Once they were away from here, he could play around more.

Opening the door again, he spied several more of the floating pincushions and prepared to punch them as they got closer. It was harder when they anticipated his movements, but not impossible. The hard shell of their skin prevented him from just spitting teeth needles at them, so he had to knock them against the wall hard enough that they would stay down.

After a dozen or so, he was able to leave the hall, littered with their bodies, for a different section of the station. Stepping out onto an overview deck, he looked over a large open area filled with the Josagn, hurrying around with their various tasks. Ducking into a different hall, after the AI, he hoped none of them had seen him. It didn’t look like they had.

As he walked down the hall, he started opening doors at random. Most of them were storage of one thing or another. The AI waited for him, as he opened each one, before continuing to move forward.

“Hey, AI, can you direct me to the area where I could fix Olivia’s PED?”

“Do you wish to fix her PED or do you wish to find a safe place to hide with spare parts?”

“Wait, how are those different?”

“Just because you have access to spare parts, does not mean you have the ability to fix the PED, and just because you are in a place to fix the PED does not mean you have the spare parts. Logic would dictate you need the spare parts before you can fix it, which is where I was taking you.”

“Alright, then lead on.” Dustin stopped opening random doors and picked up his pace. Anytime one of those biobots showed up, he would hit it against the wall hard enough to disable, or kill. He wasn’t sure which.

“Through this door, you will find a section devoted to spare parts specific to the PED modules you speak of. I find the classification for these devices to be quite interesting,” said the AI after they had been walking for almost an hour. They had ducked into a room whenever he heard someone walking along the hall, and had managed to avoid all encounters with the Josagn so far.

Opening the door, he was met with the sight of an entire warehouse worth of shelves. Boxes and containers lined the shelves from the floor to the ceiling. This place was huge. He stepped inside, and shut the door as the AI entered as well.

With a grin, he stepped up to a computer terminal just inside the door and started typing away one handed, as he held Olivia with the other one. If a Josagn showed up, or some other kind of alien, he wanted to be able to leave quickly without having to stop to pick her up.

There was so much here, but no weapons that he could see. This place would have been a dream come true at any point in his life, but now he didn’t have the time to play. Typing in the specifics of what he was looking for, he narrowed down where he needed to go. With the shelves stretching so high, he was glad he had his flight ability here.

(I AM RECEIVING SIGNALS ATTEMPTING TO SHUT ME DOWN. SHOULD I IGNORE THEM?)

“Of course! Can you block the signals from being able to detect you?”

(I DO NOT BELIEVE WHO EVER IS SENDING THE SIGNAL KNOWS WHERE I AM, I BELIEVE THE SIGNAL IS BEING SPAMMED THROUGHOUT THE STATION)

“Then they know we’re here. I’ll need to be quick!”

The parts he needed ended up being on the top shelf, near the ceiling. He settled Olivia down on an open section, and began making repairs. The AI robot joined him by using the rope line to pull itself up shelf by shelf, then settled down to wait.

Noises drew his attention, and he saw that a team of Josagn had entered the storage room. He used his camouflage and hunkered down as much as possible, only moving his hands, which should have been out of sight of them on the floor.

“They might have come this way looking for PED parts. If we don’t find them, team A will remain here to guard the place. We can’t have them roaming free. Does everyone understand?”

“Yes, Sir!”

He could see them just below, as they spread out, checking each shelf as they went. His camouflage seemed to work, as they went right by them, without any problems.

“The area seems clear, Team A, you will be notified when you can leave, or you will be relieved in two hours. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir!”

Dustin finished making his repairs, as quietly as possible, keeping an eye on the two Josagn that were stationed at the door. They were wearing armor that he didn’t recognize, and had guns similar to the one Olivia had used, a genetic destabilizer? Or something like that. The armor was pretty, in blues and blacks, but it didn’t go below the waist. It was like they only cared about the upper torso.

Shaking his head, he looked down at Olivia. Her PED was fixed, at least the best he could do without a computer to hook it up to. The damage had messed up some of his programs and he needed a monitor and keypad in order to fix the coding errors.

Picking up Olivia in one arm, and the robot AI in the other, he floated near the ceiling until he was almost on top of them. His only options to successfully avoid them setting off an alarm, or hitting him with those nasty guns, was to get in the first hit on both of them at the same time. Setting Olivia and the AI down on the top shelf closest to them, he waited until their pacing back and forth had both of them facing away from each other before he landed directly behind them.

When they turned around to pace back towards each other, they reacted before they thought, shooting towards him. He jumped up and grinned as they fell for the classic, have the enemy shoot each other tactic. Their guns fell to the floor as wisps of dust? Or would that be steam? Rose up from where they had been standing. He retrieved Olivia and the AI from the top shelf, and prepared to head to his next destination.