Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Three

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"You have a tablet at least, right?" Asher asked Dawn.

"We got a couple messages from the Tiger, they gave us a place to meet with them," Vestia told Matt.

Once everyone--minus Esk--was together in the meeting room, Vestia explained the contents of the two messages. "They said nothing about Starr, only that we should meet them where we left Matthew, and that Esk should get his father for something," Vestia said.

Asher frowned. "They're being very cryptic. I hope Starr is all right."

Ellie nodded unhappily. "We should go right away, we need to see what's going on."

Kay frowned. [Why would they want to involve Esk's father?] Wasn't he all kinds of evil?

Matt shook his head "That doesn't sound good to me."

"Perhaps they simply require his assistance with something. " Armin suggested.

"Yeah but why HIM?" Matt asked. "And where the hell IS Esk?"

Kay looked troubled. [I agree with Ellie.] He never thought he'd see the day, huh. [The sooner we get to them, the sooner we know what's going on.]

"Who is this man they want to get into contact with?" Hewitt asked.

"Bad news." Matt told him.

Kay nodded grimly.

Armin clasped his hands, bowing his head and desperately praying for the safety of Miss Starr.

"Esk didn't feel like going to the meeting. I'd guess he's contacting Hytar," Vestia said.

"Esk's father has a thing about slavery," James said. "I didn't see it but, like, he blew some slaves, and slavers, up when he was helping to rescue Rigel. Maybe they want revenge on the people who took Starr." He looked uncertain.

"Eew," Ellie said. "I mean yay for blowing up slavers, but eew for blowing up slaves. Man, why would you want a guy who blows up slaves?"

"Some people say better to be dead than a slave," James said. He winced a bit as he said it, that philosophy always unsettled him, somehow. Made him feel like it wasn't just the anti-robot gangs who wanted androids dead.

"We'll know more when we can talk to the Tiger crew face to face," Asher said. "For now, we need to make sure we have everything we need for departure."

Armin shuddered.

"Common Satare attitude that." Matt pointed out. "But revenge? What have they DONE to Starr?" He was concerned. Was Starr okay? Was she alive? Had they rescued her?

Kay flinched. Nodding. [Everyone should tie up any loose ends, say your goodbyes. We need to leave.]

Asher tried to force his worries away, but Matt was right. If their friends were calling in Hytar, then something very, very bad must have happened. He tried his best to focus on the present, and not on his worries. "Do we need to restock the med bay with anything before we go?" He thought and added, "We'd also better stock up on dragon care supplies. Who knows if we'll be able to find the right scale oils easily out there."

"I gotta order up one more load of soil, we might need it for something," Ellie said. "I'll pay for rush delivery, it shouldn't take too long."

"Mourn, have you given the Guild many copies of the android freeing code yet?" James asked.

Mourn tilted his head. "You want me give them lots? Can make more with source code themselves." He shrugged.

[Is it a good idea to be distributing too many copies of that code?] Kay was worried about the idea of it falling into the wrong hands.

Mourn shrugged again.

"Vestia, you think we can get everything ready to leave in the morning?" Matt asked.

Armin started to count things off on his hands, working out what they needed and anything they had to do.

"I suppose this means any diversion into Aketi space is off the table." Hewitt spoke sedately.

"You could stay here, catch a ride with someone else." Matt suggested.

Hewitt snorted. "I'm not going back out there among those savages."

"awww he doesn't think we're savages!" Matt laughed.

"I never said that." Hewitt smirked back. "I think I can extend my vacation a little longer."

Kay considered anything more they needed medical-wise. They had a list, but with the war and all medical supplies weren't exactly in high supply here.

"Better to let anyone be able to free the robots, right?" James said.

Asher considered that, then shook his head. "We can't have free androids on the loose, disobeying orders and trying to exact revenge. They need to be harmless for a while longer, and I'm not convinced they'd be able to talk themselves into doing that if they found themselves free."

James frowned. "They should be able to protect themselves."

"They wouldn't be able to protect themselves, even if they were free. There are thousands of Terrans for every android, so the only way the androids can survive is if the Terran Empire doesn't want them dead," Asher said firmly. "We need to keep the code restricted to a few people, for now."

James glared, but didn't argue. This felt so wrong though.

"Yes, we can leave in the morning. Should be no problem," Vestia told Matt. To Hewitt she said, "I'm not sure when we can fit visiting Aketi space into our schedule. It's not really in our path, so it might take a while to get there."

Dawn was listening to them talking, but had nothing to add.

Matt glanced to James. Yeah, the whole thing sucked.

Kay frowned. [I have some loose ends to tie up in the city, i'll arrange for our departure while i'm there.]

Armin looked fretful. "I shall assist any who need help with supplies."

Mourn shrugged to Asher. "Okay." hey, a couple of the guild people had the code anyway, they could no doubt duplicate it if they wanted to.
"We going terra yes? Can put in order for parts for robots." He nodded. "Maybe ready by time we get there."

Hewitt shook his head. "I'm in no rush to go home." No, those jackasses hadn't even tried to come find him. He'd take their drone and he'd write a sternly worded letter of complaint, yes, that was exactly what he'd do. That'd show em.

Matt wheeled toward the exit. "Then let's get a move on, we have a day to prepare." He planned to go talk to Esk, who had to know something right?

"I'll go get some dragon supplies," Asher said. "Yes, we can order parts on the way to Terra, I'm sure they could have them ready for us by the time we got there."

"I'm gonna buy some clothes," James said, "I want to look good for my first visit to Terra."

Ellie nodded. "It's a good thing I already bought this hat. It'll be perfect." She got up. "I'm gonna buy that dirt now."

"Skye, want to tell Orel, or should i?" Vestia asked.

Matt went to find Esk.

Kay nodded to Asher and hurried off to do what he needed to do. Thank the surgical team, make sure they didn't need anything more, and fill out any paperwork the guild needed done for them to get outta here. See if they needed to do that oath thing, eugh.

Hewitt went back to what he'd been doing before they all got called here.

Armin would leave the ship with everyone else.

Mourn nodded and bounded off to go figure out what parts they needed, what other parts might be useful and blow a large chunk of vestia's budget on android repairs.

"I'll tell him" Skye said, getting up to leave and find him.

Matt wheeled off to where Esk was.

Esk was fiddling with a tablet.

"What are you doing?" Matt asked.

"Writing a message." Esk replied flatly.

"To your dad?"

"mm hmm"

"You can't seriously be intending to contact him!?" Matt looked horrified.

"I don't like it, but they asked me to contact him so i'm contacting him." Esk replied boredly.

"But why the hell do they want him? Did they say?"

"no." Esk continued typing.

"Any ideas?"

"He's good at only three things. Killing slavers, taking advantage of people and being a smug piece of shit. I'm gonna assume they want him to deal with slavers."

"James said he killed the slaves last time you guys got his... help. If they want to free Starr why the hell would they get him?" Matt reasoned.

"Maybe they don't want to rescue Starr and just want revenge?" Esk shrugged. "I dunno, we could sit here and play guess the angle all day but i've got better things to do."

Matt frowned.

"Look, i'm not saying this is a good idea, but my captain told me to do something and he's not here to explain why. Rigel's usually pretty damn sensible, he wouldn't ask me to call my father unless they needed him for something."

"So you're gonna call in a favor?"

Esk snorted. "Dear ol' Dad doesn't DO favors, there will be a price. But all I was told was to make contact, not broker a deal. That's their problem. "

Matt looked troubled. "I don't like this."

"You don't have to like it Matt, it doesn't involve you." Esk responded flippantly.

"Sorry for actually giving a shit about people. Aren't you worried about the safety of your crew?"

"They can take care of themselves. I tell you about the time vicky shot him?" Esk smirked

"but Vicky's not with them." Matt reminded him.

"no, but i'm pretty sure Tala could tie him up like a pretzel if he really pisses her off."

Matt tried not to laugh. Good old Tala. He shook his head. "Still, are you really okay having anything to do with this guy?"

Esk shrugged. "He's a contact, he has his uses, occasionally. Besides, there's always the hope that one day i'll get to put a bullet between his eyes. "

Matt nodded. He was really concerned about Starr, and the rest of that crew. It sounded like something terrible had happened. Was Starr even still alive?

"Relax. Starr's fucking tough, you think some asshole keepers could really keep her down for long?" Esk glanced over at Matt.

Matt frowned. "Dude, you sure you aren't psychic?"

"Yes, very sure." Esk went back to typing. He wrote painfully slowly.

"Still, i'm worried."

"Then go freak out elsewhere, i'm busy."

Matt sighed and wheeled toward the exit. "Tell them... tell them to be careful okay?"

"No, i'll tell them to throw caution to the wind and flush their senses out the airlock." Esk snipped.

Matt smirked slightly. "Well.. okay then." He left his brother to it.

Asher left for the city to go do some shopping. He was also going to have a brief discussion with the robot rights group and the Guild to make sure they knew what they were supposed to do for the androids. That is, they were supposed to not do ANYTHING without his approval.

~~
James went on a shopping spree. Because apparently he had nothing better to do.

~~
Ellie went to get dirt and seeds. This was important, they might get stranded in space for months, after all. Plants raised the spirits!

Esk sent a message to Hytar. [Old man, your services are required. Here are the contact details, call them if you want, make a deal, keep me out of it. - Esk]

Vestia sent a message to the Tiger. [Leaving dock April 22. See you soonish.]

She requested a final cleaning for her hull.

~~
James returned after a while with a bag of clothing. Most of what was in the bag was for himself, but he'd picked up a couple necklaces and some sparkly plastic butterfly hairclips for Luka. Just in case she needed those.

He also got new stickers to give to patients.

~~
Asher spoke with Spring about what the Guild had to do for the robot rights campaign. During the conversation, Spring told him some news, that the android anamcara Daniella's consciousness had been fading, and that her consciousness had been determined to have been caused by residual electrical impulses in her body, and not by a soul. It seemed that the actual soul Penelope had bonded to was that of the silicon itself, which had by now been changed by constant exposure to magic, accelerating the aging process of Daniella's mind. In short, Daniella wasn't proof that androids were sentient, she was just a strange fluke of magic.

Asher went to visit Daniella. She seemed vague and uncertain, and kept forgetting what she was trying to say. Asher tried to reassure her that she'd been a good android, and that she'd done a good job serving her mistress. It wasn't what he wanted to say, but it was what a young, confused android would want to hear.

After a while, he left her to rest.

He would return with the things he'd purchased. He dropped those off, and asked Vestia to tell him when Mourn returned.

~~
Ellie brought in the promised dirt and seeds, and also got an extra new hat which was round and intricately painted to look like Terra. She was wearing it. It looked ridiculous.

Skye returned, quietly going to her room.

Dawn had gone out and stocked up on animals for their 'farm' and more supplies for fences and such. She wanted to be well prepared for whatever came up while they were out in the universe.

James knew Dawn had been planning to get more animals, so he went to find her and see if that was what she was doing. He left his newly purchased stuff in his room and went to find her.

Mourn returned to the ship not too long after Asher, he'd managed to get an order made with Megabrain tech for a bunch of stuff he figured they'd need at some point, bid farewell to the poor metalworker he'd scared into working for him and went to go find some food in Vestia's kitchen.

--

Matt considered for a bit, then decided he should go say goodbye to Kasi and Mandeep. He headed, a little uncertainly, out onto the Asteroid.

He found Mandeep with the fox people and told him they were heading off. He wished the outcast luck and good fortune, and told him he had faith that things would look up for him now.
Mandeep didn't look convinced.

Then Matt headed through the portal to the city, struggling a little with the wheelchair as he searched for Kasi. He was usually near the archives, so that's where he went. It wasn't like someone like Kasi blended in so after asking around a bit he eventually found the guy, sitting on a bench and tinkering with something.

They chatted for a while, Kasi had no desire to leave the Guild it seemed, he'd decided this place was home now and he and his ship's old Swarm were going to remain, at least for the time being. Maybe one day he'd venture out into the big vast universe, but for now, he was content to have steady ground under his feet, warm sun on his face and plentiful food and water. The Guild, he claimed, was paradise.
He wished Matt luck, bowing his head respectfully and accepting Matt's contact details.

"just in case." Matt told him.

Then Matt went for a well.. roll, to find the werewolves and say goodbye to the pups as well. It would be rude not to say goodbye.

---

Kay was fairly single minded in his trip. He headed to the courts to leave a message for the guild's Inquisitors, thanking them for their hospitality and wishing them luck in the future. He had nothing more to say to them, nothing that wouldn't be seen as rude anyway. While he was genuinely grateful for all they'd done, it wasn't like it hadn't been a difficult process getting them to help their own damn people. Still, now they had a city to rebuild and lives to recover, he didn't envy them that task.
They had succeeded in what they came here for, and looking around the city Kay honestly couldn't say he felt that sad to be leaving. It felt like a natural conclusion, they'd fulfilled their purpose here, it was time to move on.

He requested permission for the entire crew to leave, gathering the information necessary for this oath thing they needed to recite.
He didn't like the idea of magically gagging people, but he bit his tongue.

---

Vestia told Asher Mourn was back, and Asher went to find Mourn in the kitchen. He figured Mourn should hear the news if he hadn't already.

~~
The Guild would grant Kay his request, and they promised to send someone this evening to coach the crew in taking the oath. It was important to not get the phrasing wrong, or the oath could be very dangerous.

Kay nodded grimly and returned to the ship to tell vestia.

---

Mourn looked up, grinning. "ROBOT!" He tilted his head. "Robot have frowny face."

Vestia wasn't super happy about everyone taking a super dangerous oath that could potentially cause them all to become nonfunctional if they said it wrong, but she was grateful that Kay had arranged for their departure. It was time to go, and she was so ready to exercise her engines again.

~~
Asher couldn't help smiling a bit at Mourn's enthusiasm. It was hard to be completely sad when talking to the felid. The smile didn't last long though. "You remember Daniella, the android anamcara we met our first day here?"

"the not robot?" Mourn nodded. Of course he remembered, especially what had happened when he'd plugged himself into her. he shuddered slightly.

---

Kay nodded, he wasn't happy about the Oath either but they could do it. The others had right? And if it was the only way to leave, they'd have to suck up their pride and autonomy and just do it.

He went to go sit down and rest, all that walking was tiring.

"Yes, her. I went to visit her today. She's aging very rapidly, and will probably die soon. They experts think her personality just lasted for a while as leftover electrical signals, and that the soul that bonded to the Terran girl was actually just the soul of Daniella's silicon components." Asher hoped that made sense, it was hard to explain something you barely understood yourself.

Mourn blinked. "Parts have soul?" that didn't make a lot of sense to him, parts were parts, PEOPLE had souls... you know, if you believed in that sort of thing. "What happen to terran she fuse with? They die too? or absorb robot?" Wasn't that what Anamcara did? Absorb one of the two consciousnesses? ew. He frowned though, disappointed he'd not get a chance to help safe the not robot. He was sure if he just had more time he could have done it, and given her freedom. But death was a sort of freedom right? IF she actually died and wasn't just partially absorbed. Yuck.

"Apparently even things like rocks, and pieces of silicon, have souls," Asher said, "I don't understand it, but apparently anamcara have come from all sorts of strange unions." He nodded, "The Terran girl will be fine. She'll absorb the other soul once Daniella's mind is permanently gone. The soul the Terran is linked to isn't Daniella, not really, so there won't be any complications that way." Poor Daniella, trapped in an anamcara body through sheer bad luck, and fading out of existence. Maybe it was better than immortality, at least.

Mourn shook his head. "Maybe not soul then. If rock have soul according to guild, everything have soul, including robot." He tilted his head. "or they wrong and what merge not soul at all, something else. Orb people maybe no really understand either, just pretend do." He shrugged. "Guild no use this to stop help robots no?" That was a concern, those few naysayers would love to be able to 'prove' androids weren't special. Mourn made a face.