Upon Vestia: Chapter Seventeen

First topic message reminder :

Kay always tried so hard to be sensible and pragmatic. Asher had always loved that about him, and he loved it just as much now. He smiled softly. "No, you're definitely not alone in this."
He wasn't going to leave Kay to look after this little dragon alone. He'd gotten the guy into this situation, so now it was his job to do everything he could to help. Did that make him the other father here? Maybe. This was thoroughly confusing and he was going to need to think it over at some point. "If it wasn't already obvious, I'm here for you. Both of you," he said.

~~
Tala snorted weakly. "I do not like that butterfly well." She let Shane help her.

Orel went over to join Mourn. He eyed the drone with almost as little certainty as the professor showed Mourn, really not sure about it. He recognized the camera as... Probably a camera. And the fans as the things that made it float. Other than that? Not much. There'd better not be a test on this later.
He waited for Mourn to find that cable.

Skye had confidence in Mourn and smiled lightly as she watched him and Orel looking at the robot.

Mourn didn't really know what the heck the thing was either, beyond it being a drone. He'd never seen anything quite like it.

Finding a cable he set that to one side. "Should check battery, what you say power thing?" He looked to the professor.

"A l.. l.. lithium... " The drone tried to speak, it didn't much like being held upside down it decided.

Professor Hewitt nodded. "A Lithium Polymer Battery. But so far we've been unable to find anything he believes is safe to plug him into."

Mourn considered that. "Open up, have look. See if damaged." He nodded.

"You'd have to turn him off for that yes?" Hewitt looked uncertain.

Mourn nodded.

"What if he won't turn back on again?" Hewitt continued, he really did sound nervous.

Mourn shrugged. "I good fixing robots, we get working again." He grinned at Orel. "You fix drone before?"

"Just... be careful." The Professor wrung his hands.

"How turn off?" mourn started looking for an off switch. There was a small button on the middle section of the drone but it didn't seem to be able to be pushed right now, it was completely flush with the rest of the chassis.

"You ask nicely I suppose." Professor Hewitt suggested. "Amity, can you switch off?"

The drone made a wierd sort of buzzing sound, there was a click and the button popped out as the entire machine went still.

Mourn frowned. "That weird. Can only turn self off?"

"One would theorize it was an intentional design choice to prevent guests turning off the hosts themselves. " The professor mused. He'd not given that much thought the last time he'd examined the little drone.

"That is a neat safety feature, they can't be accidentally turned off." Skye said and chuckled softly "Or intentionally except by themselves."

Hewitt nodded. "Quite cunning really. " He still looked nervous as Mourn started unclipping all the teeny little catches that held the casing of the drone in place.

Orel watched curiously. "Nope, I've never fixed a drone before," he said.

"You hold." Mourn thrust the casing into Orel's hand as he got it off and held the rest of the drone up to get a good look at the damage it had sustained.

He took a while, really examining it closely before declaring. "Battery bulging. Need new one. If try charge, this one go boom. Big explosion, catch fire, drone no work anymore for sure."

Hewitt winced. "Is it even possible to find a new battery?"

Mourn shrugged. "Have to look, see if have spares." He went back to staring at the inner workings of the drone. "This beautifully made. Taken lots of big knocks do this much damage. I fix. "

Professor Hewitt nodded slowly. "And what do you want in return?" He asked.

Mourn shrugged again. "I like fix robots, if work again, be happy. " He looked at the Professor and smiled broadly, sharp teeth bared. "What you got?"

"I'm certain I can see to it you're all compensated with sufficient credits."

Mourn nodded. Money was always good.

Orel took the casing and watched Mourn curiously as he worked.

"We might have some batteries in storage that might work," Vestia said, "they're a similar size at least, you'd have to check the voltage though."

"Isn't that the same type of battery in the laptops? Or was it the tablets?" Skye asked with a small frown.

"I doubt those would have the power capacity for an advanced AI," Orel said thoughtfully.

Skye flushed and dipped her head at that reminder.

"You go check." Mourn told Orel. "Hawk girl help." He nodded. Yes, go be useful.
He went back to examining the inner workings of the drone. "Have two batteries." He remarked, pulling out a much smaller one and turning it over in his hand. "Backup?"

Hewitt shrugged, he hadn't a clue. He wasn't an engineer. Batteries, AIs, robots, they just weren't something he'd ever been overly interested in knowing all the nitty gritty details of.

"I test, maybe can charge this one" Mourn rummaged around for some equipment.

Orel smiled at Skye reassuringly, "It's a good suggestion," he told her. "Come on, let's look for batteries. Vestia, a little help?"

"Sure thing," Vestia said. She'd guide them to the store rooms.

Skye got up to go with him to find possible batteries, smiling at his reassurance.

Mourn started tinkering with the other battery and thinking about potential alternate power sources, completely ignoring the Professor who remained awkwardly behind, protectively staying close to the little drone.

They headed down to the store rooms where Vestia directed them to the batteries. Thankfully, or not so thankfully, there were lots of options. Orel frowned in thought​ and looked for something high capacity but portable to use.

Professor Hewitt sat in silence for a while, then asked.

"So the cybernetic thing, did you elect to have that done or was it something else?"

Mourn ignored him completely, too focused on what he was doing to look at him.

"This is a large ship, how many people are aboard?"

Again, silence.

"He can't hear me can he?" The Professor looked up at Vestia's camera.

"He's deaf," Vestia said, "He's not ignoring you. Although sometimes he does ignore people too," she added, amused. "What me to get his attention? He can be kinda jumpy if you prod him."

The Professor shook his head. "No no, it explains rather a lot. " The weird way the felid spoke for one. "He IS sane right? He won't damage Amity?"

"Sane? I'm not sure about that," Vestia said. "He really does love robots though, and has never harmed them. We have three androids on this crew, and he's repaired all of them, plus my service bots, at various times. Amity is safe enough in his hands."

Hewitt still looked wary. "I do hope so. " He really really didn't like the idea of being all alone here. He was just too old for this sort of adventure in his opinion, and thought it wasn't a real person, Amity was at least a piece of his home, company and support.

"You're a bio ship yes?" He asked her, curious.

"Yes, I'm a bioship," Vestia said. "Originally I planned to be a cruise ship, but the current market climate hasn't been friendly to cruises. So I've downsized my plans a bit."

"So you aren't currently operating as a cruise liner?" Well that explained how quiet it was around here. He shook his head. "You're right, i've been on many a cruise in recent years but this time it was distinctly quieter. Too much unease about bubbling political tensions between worlds and then there were those two planets destroyed in the blink of an eye." He frowned. "Quite catastrophic, Not just for the lives lost but the knock on economic disaster. I try to avoid the news, it's just getting more and more depressing as time goes on." He looked thoughtful. "So what do you and your crew do now then?"

"Everyone seems to want to stay closer and closer to home," Vestia agreed, "and who can blame them? They want to stay near their homes and loved ones if things are this bad, not explore." She laughed quietly, "What do we do? We try to stay alive and keep ourselves safe. Most of the people here are outcasts, one way or another. We stick together because where else would we go?" Nope, she wasn't marketing herself as a great place to live any more. It just wasn't true.

"So, you're some sort of refugee camp currently?" Hewitt asked. "Well that explains why you're all here. This place is apparently crawling with refugees in one way or another. I still haven't managed to figure out how they get it to work. " yeah this place was overwhelming and there weren't nearly enough trees. He was starting to miss proper trees, and humid air. It was dry and dull and to him, rather primitive in this place.

"Yes, I guess we are a refugee camp of sorts," Vestia said. "I think the Guild is just sustained by magic reserves of its people. No idea how long that will last."

Skye looked at the batteries, picking up the ones that looked similar to what the battery in the droid should look like.