Upon Vestia: Chapter Fifteen

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James narrowed his eyes, realizing he'd just given Esk some great ammunition to annoy him with. Oh well, too late now. "Yes it's annoying! How could it not be annoying?"

Luka chuckled. "It's amazing really how much area they bothered to record, and how well the holodeck compensates for various perspectives. It's so easy to forget we're all just in one large room." She continued to lead her horse forward toward the city. "This place reminds me a bit of the spider planet, lots of trees, less bridges though."

James sat straighter in his saddle and flew toward the city. "Not just Silver Devil people calling me Captain any more, huh? I must be important."

~~
"I can't imagine how much computing power this thing needs," Ethan agreed, "Somehow it's giving all of us a perfectly believable sensory experience, at the same time. In this regard at least, your universe is much more advanced than mine."
"Spider planet?" he asked.

"You don't have holodecks like this back there?" Luka asked, she shrugged "yes, the spiders, like the tailor? I forget what they actually call themselves. It started with Va i'm sure of it."

"Nope. Never heard of them before I came to this universe. Maybe they're classified military tech or some shit," Ethan said. "Vavare? You visited their homeworld?" He frowned.

Luka nodded. "It was fairly terrifying. They're very polite but... some of them are a good ten to twelve foot tall and they can move so quickly, it's horrific. " She shuddered. "just.. too alien. way.. way too alien."

"I've seen a few females over the years, they're really disturbingly large," Ethan agreed. "At least they aren't supposed to be slimy, money laundering creeps here, that's a start."

"money laundering?" Luka looked a bit bewildered. She wasn't familiar with the term. "No, they... all seemed very polite and ... strangely civilized. Bizarre for something so monstrous looking. And they make beautiful dresses." She thought of the tailor shop back on Defiant. yes, scary looking aliens, but very very polite and extremely good at sewing.

"Making large amounts of money hard to trace, so the authorities can't figure out what illegal things it was used for. That is, hiding operations so illegal and unethical that even the other Terran Empire would like to try and put a stop to them," Ethan explained, "or so everyone says. The few I've met seemed pretty slimy."

Luka nodded. "Your universe was quite.. oddly opposite in a lot of respects. Their homeworld has.. a lot of trees like this, well.. not quite like this. Maybe it's in the holodeck system? I admit i'm curious about quite how much of the universe they have programs like this for." How much of the empire?

"We can find out once we locate the others," Ethan snorted, "Or we could just change the program without telling them, see how long it takes them to notice."

Luka laughed. "That could be quite amusing."

"Holodeck, control panel," Ethan said, eyes glinting with mischief. The holodeck control panel appeared.

Luka laughed at the sudden mood change, so, this was Ethan's sense of humor huh? She wondered if Asher was as harmlessly silly.

Ethan started looking through the programs, trying to find the vavare home planet. He glanced up at Luka, smiling a bit. Yeah, he had a sense of humor. It just didn't get used much.

Kooshie wrote:James sat straighter in his saddle and flew toward the city. "Not just Silver Devil people calling me Captain any more, huh? I must be important."

~~
"I can't imagine how much computing power this thing needs," Ethan agreed, "Somehow it's giving all of us a perfectly believable sensory experience, at the same time. In this regard at least, your universe is much more advanced than mine."
"Spider planet?" he asked.

Skye giggled again, glad to make him feel better "Why do they call you that anyway?" She asked curiously

Luka peered over Ethan's shoulder and pointed "that one, I think."

"One time we were playing Star Trek on the holodeck at that space station, Defiant. I ended up being the captain of our ship." He grinned, "Captain Bond, James Bond. Sounds good, right?"

~~
Ethan selected the program.
The world changed.

~~
"Whoa, what just happened to the light?" James said. "Storm coming?" He looked around, "Wait what?"

Luka snorted, looking around at the planet. "think they noticed?" She asked, looking up at the now different giant trees and the spider web bridges that connected large platforms that made up the Vavare city. "It's weird to be able to breathe without a mask here."

Skye lost her flight in shock for a moment, quickly catching herself and moving closer to James "We are not on my world anymore"

"Probably they noticed. I like to imagine them not noticing for several minutes though, just flying around happily or whatever they're doing," said Ethan.

~~
"I guess not," James said, "Computer, send Luka and Ethan a message."

"What would you like to say?" The computer asked.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?"

"Sending."

James grinned.

~~
"James has sent you a message!" The computer declared to Luka and Ethan, "Would you like to listen?"

"Sure." Luka looked around to see if they could spot either James or Skye yet.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?" James' voice shouted.

Ethan snickered.

Luka laughed. "Where the heck ARE they?" She kept looking around. "Feign ignorance, tell them we know nothing and are still watching the mermaids, what are they talking about" She snorted.

Ethan nodded. "Send reply: we're watching the mermaids, what the hell are you blithering about?"

"Reply sent," the computer said.

Luka stifled a laugh, covering her mouth with her hand so she'd not giggle too hard out loud.

Skye frowned and shook her head "Two can play that" She said softly and called for the control panel. She would change where they were to being on a submarine, together on an observation deck to actually see the mermaids in their home under the ocean. With it being the holodeck, the 'observation room' could take the entire holodeck at least for now.

(Wait did they go back to Artuvia?)