Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirteen

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"Probably," Asher said. "That's the consolation prize."

Luka looked away to hide her blush, gently pulling away. "Good." She said. "I'm glad." Ahem, awkward. She looked to Asher, desperate to change the subject. "Anything else you want to look at?"

Rigel stepped back and glanced over to Asher as well. He didn't want to make Luka uncomfortable, seeing as how she was so much younger than he was.

Asher forced himself to not smile at Luka's blushing, keeping his face nice and serious. "We could go look at Vestia's engine room if you wanted," he offered helpfully. "It's not as nice as this one, but it's certainly impressive."

Luka's eyes widened. "Her engines? they must be HUGE!" She looked suddenly extremely excited. "Oh yes, let's do that! We can do that right Rigel? She won't mind right?"

Rigel looked very interested as well "I would like to see her engines if she wouldn't mind" He said. He had to remind himself that Vestia was alive and had a say in this too.

Asher nodded happily. "We'll ask, but I doubt she'll object. She doesn't get many visitors who want to admire her engines."

Rigel chuckled and nodded and headed for the door "Then let's go ask"

"Her usual visitors don't know what they're missing. " Luka nodded. "She'll still let me see her control room at some point too right? I wonder how complicated it is, and how you fly a sentient ship and... " She was babbling, she shut herself up. "sorry.. I talk a lot when I get excited."

"Many of her visitors have no admiration for quality engineering," Asher said mournfully as they headed back the way they had come. "It means more work for me though, so I guess I can't complain." He smiled at Luka, "It's okay, you're allowed to talk, and you're allowed to be excited."

"Thank you." Luka smiled gratefully at Asher. "not everyone shares the whole... passion for ships. Even in the fleet. They just wanted to fly or shoot things, a lot of them didn't much care about how their ships actually worked. Their eyes glazed when I started. "

"Do what I want, I don't care how it's done" Rigel said and shook his head. He had come across plenty of that kind in his work

Luka nodded. "Right? " She smiled. "I'm glad you guys get it."

When they left SD, Rigel looked for a camera "Vestis, we have a question"

"Everyone should have something they're excited about," Asher said sensibly.

"Ask away," Vestia told Rigel.

"Can we see your engines!?" Luka blurted out.

Rigel chuckled and looked to Luka "Exactly. We would like to see your engine room, if we may?"

"Um, sure," Vestia sounded slightly puzzled. People didn't ask that very often.

"Thanks!" Asher would lead the way toward a nearby teleporter.

Rigel smiled and followed Asher as they went. He was excited but could not show it as much as Luka did.

"Thank you Vestia, we won't touch anything, promise!" Luka grinned and followed Asher excitedly.

They took the teleporter to somewhere deep within the ship, where there was a constant rumbling noise and the lights were all boring LED lights, with no fancy decorations to be seen. The hall was long, and they'd come to a seriously thick door which was obviously built to keep almost anything out.
Asher looked at the others, letting the suspense build for a bit.

"Nice" Rigel said, looking at the walls and doors in this level. He had to touch the wall here, wondering about what it was made of and the possible thickness of it as compared to the other floors.

"Wow... " Luka looked at the door. "That is one serious door."

The wall was something solid and gray, maybe painted metal, or maybe Vestia's own natural shell. It was hard to tell.

Asher knocked on the door, which swung inward, revealing the hugest and most complex engine room any of the three had probably ever seen, or imagined. Pipes that Tala could easily have crawled through arched to the ceiling, fans whirred to cool the computers that managed Vestia's power output and fuel, and at the center of it all where the vast engines that propelled her at sub-light speed, and the smaller (but still larger than most suburban homes) FTL drive that hung in the center of it all.

Asher had seen this room many times, but it still awed him.

Luka gasped. For a while she was utterly lost for words. She eventually managed to sputter a weak "w. wow... "

Rigel looked in the room and grinned, moving in to look all around to see as much as he could at once.

Luka closed her eyes and listened to the rumbling of the engines. "You're such a beautiful ship." She murmured, opening her eyes again and walking into the room with Rigel, looking up and around in awe.

Vestia didn't have RGB lighting in here, so she couldn't blush. "I'm glad you like it in here," she said, sounding a bit embarrassed but pleased.

Asher smiled up at one of her cameras and idly went to check her engine readouts.