Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Four

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Dawn chuckled and shook her head a little "I don't need a party." She said softly, chuckling.

~~~
Skye looked to the door then came over to open it "Mourn? What's up?"

Luka finished beating the crap out of a punching bag and retired to her room to read a book, one with lots of explosions and action and killing of bad guys.

---

Esk figured Dawn was either hiding out in her room or dealing with animals on her ranch, eugh, animals. He half wished she'd found some hobby/second job he didn't have to avoid going anywhere near, but maybe that was why she'd done it? Was he really getting that paranoid?
The fact she actually genuinely seemed to like and care about him was just such an alien thing to him, he couldn't quite handle it without thinking the worst.

---

Matt shot lots of holographic bad guys with his tank, heck yeah. He decided holographic tanks were kinda awesome.

Dawn had gone to her room, finding a book to read and losing track of time.

~~~
Shane was glad Matt seemed to be having fun, he was glad he had thought to give it to him as they shot at holographic bad guys.

Ellie shot things on the holodeck until she couldn't see straight any more, and then she sat down in a grimy, wrecked street and tried to catch her breath. That felt better. She still wanted to hurt the Family more, but she wasn't as miserable as before.

~~
Tala had gone out to the city to eat at a salad buffet. She fully intended to abuse their all-you-can eat deal.

"This was a good idea." Matt told Shane. He managed a weak smile. "Thanks guys."

---

Esk knocked on Dawn's door. "You okay?" He called dully.

---

(and because I missed this reply)

You must be. How do you guys link to the ships, is your telepathy strong enough to get information from them?" Vestia asked Swarm. wrote:

Swarm sort of shrugged. "We can be everywhere at once, link into the biotechnology. The ships aren't intelligent at all, but they have sensors and interfaces that allow a telepathic link. The pilots have a stronger link, some retrofit technology instead to make interfacing easier." "We have not travelled in such a ship in quite some time." "So long"

"Yeah, I feel moderately less crappy now," Ellie said. "Thanks Shane!" She got to her feet tiredly.

~~
"Wow." Vestia tried to imagine that, and sort of couldn't. "Did you guys have a ship like that? You must have loved it if you did."

"For a short while we traveled in such a manner, before we got lost. " "recollection is dim" "our memories aren't what they were." "We are too far from the hive." "We travelled with another crew, on another ship, long long ago. " They chittered uneasily, they couldn't quite recall why they left.

Vestia couldn't read Swarm's emotions very well, it was hard to see individual insects or hear them, when your recording systems were placed some distance away and far up a wall. Still, she thought their movements looked agitated. "Well maybe you'll find another ship like that someday, I'm sure they do come out here sometimes."

"Oh no, we like it here." "this crew are fascinating." "so much to do and see" "a great opportunity." Besides which, they knew full well they couldn't return. Not now. they were damaged, insane by the standards of their own species. A rogue Swarm who would eventually dwindle to a size too small to sustain itself and that would be that.

"Well I'm glad you like it here. It's more fun when there's someone else who watches everything here." Vestia paused, "Sorry Helen, I realize you probably think me and Swarm are super creepy now."

"Umm, guys?" Vestia said from a speaker near Kay and Asher, "I hate to interrupt, but Mourn just asked for money to buy seventy thousand credits worth of androids. Do you guys have any reasons why i should decline this?"

Asher made a noise of disbelief. "They're visiting Scott, I take it." He frowned. "I guess it's okay? Scott will buy more, but I don't think he sells new androids, so we wouldn't be encouraging production of androids at least."

Kay frowned. Of course Mourn had found the android dealer, why had they not considered that he'd go do that? Eugh. He nodded slowly. [So... more androids to rescue then?] Well at least here they could be people and not slaves, couldn't argue with that. He just hoped Mourn had the sense not to boast about his ability to 'fix' them.

"Apparently we're going to have five new free androids now," Vestia said. "I'm authorizing the payment unless you speak now, Asher."

"Sounds fine to me, go ahead," Asher said. He didn't think this could do any harm, and giving a few more androids a chance at freedom and safety was always good, right?

"Aye aye, captain," Vestia said.

Asher looked at Kay. "Well, this day just keeps getting more eventful." He shook his head. Ah, Mourn. The greatest gift to his species, it seemed.

Kay smiled. [It really does. I wonder how they'll take it all. It's quite a thing to explain.]

Asher smiled softly. "I'm sure they're going to be very confused. From what James has said, they're mostly older androids there, so I'm sure they never imagined this would happen in their lifetimes." He sighed. "It's nice to know that change is happening, even if it isn't a large one."

[Hopefully they can adjust, at least there's plenty of places to hide if they need to.] Kay nodded, this was good news wasn't it? They were saving some people from a life of probably slavery and misery. Even if it was a bit late. Still it wasn't an overly viable long term option for helping the androids. You couldn't just go around buying them all.

"I'm sure James will be happy to teach them all about freedom," Asher said, amused. "We'll do our best to make sure they have space to get used to this on their own though."

Kay nodded. [I'm sure you'll all help one another marvelously. ]

"Hopefully," Asher looked uncertain. "I've spent so little time around androids other than my family, I don't know what this will be like." James had met all those other androids while he was here, but Asher had only talked to other androids briefly in person, or on the internet, which wasn't really the same.

Kay tilted his head. [How different can they be from all the rest of us really?] he asked. Hey, he'd never interacted with anyone outside his small family till he went to military school, and it wasn't that horrendous... right?

Asher shrugged. "I don't know. Probably you're right, but I just don't know. And once they learn about my plans, well, who knows? They might like the idea of being free, but the collateral damage..." He shook his head. Yay, things to worry about.

[Perhaps don't lead with the whole... trying to free you all thing.] Kay suggested, patting Asher's arm encouragingly.

(*prods starr*)

(What did I miss?)

(scroll up, top of page heh)

"Yeah, that can come out later," Asher agreed. "Still, I don't imagine it'll go over especially well when we get around to mentioning it." He shook his head, "I guess i need to stop worrying so much though, that's not right now."

Kay shrugged. [You never know, perhaps they'll support you as your brother does. If nothing else, it will give you a gauge on how the rest of your people might take the idea right?] He tried not to frown, he knew this revolution meant a great deal to Asher, but he also fully understood how concerned he may be about others not being so keen on the idea, or the cost.

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:"This was a good idea." Matt told Shane. He managed a weak smile. "Thanks guys."
---
Esk knocked on Dawn's door. "You okay?" He called dully.

Kooshie wrote:"Well I'm glad you like it here. It's more fun when there's someone else who watches everything here." Vestia paused, "Sorry Helen, I realize you probably think me and Swarm are super creepy now."

Kooshie wrote:"Yeah, I feel moderately less crappy now," Ellie said. "Thanks Shane!" She got to her feet tiredly.

Shane smiled at tham both and nodded "Yeah, this was a good idea." He agreed
~~~
"Come in" Dawn said to the knock, sitting up and searching for a bookmark to put in the book as she set it aside. "Yeah, I'm alright."
~~~
"I don't think that, you are just different, not creepy" Helen said softly