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?"

Esk watched Moriah carefully, android? The others certainly looked like androids.

"I buy robot!" Mourn declared proudly. "I fix, help!"

Esk shook his head. "Of course." He replied dryly.

Hewitt snickered.

---

Matt followed along as fast as he could.

"You missed a slowness race. I won," James said brightly.

"It's good to meet you," Moriah said politely. She was by far the most human-like of the five, the only sign she was an android was the badge she wore. She smiled a bit at Dawn and Esk.

"I'll take the first room," Naomi decided.

~~
Ellie tried to not leave Matt behind as they headed off the ship.

(To the beach planet!)

Matt freewheeled down the ramp. "WHOOOO!"

---

Mourn just laughed.

Esk eyed that badge with distaste.

Dawn smiled back to her then James "A slowness race? So you are taking the win from Skye?" She teased then looked back to the androids again "Well, welcome to Vestia, I hope you like it here."

Shane stayed close to Matt and Ellie, making sure none of them got left behind or separated.

Moriah looked uncertain at Esk's look of distaste. Uh oh. Did he not like androids? That would be worth knowing sooner rather than later. "Thank you," she said to Dawn, trying to hide her sudden nervousness.

"oh relax, i'm not gonna hurt you." Esk told Moriah, catching that look of uncertainty. "You've been hanging out with asshole terrans too long haven't you?"

"Okay, sorry, I didn't mean to jump to conclusions," Moriah said, trying to not worry. When you'd spent years around people who usually had some amount of distaste for you, you learned to be cautious about any sign of hostility.

Levi and Bess stayed near her, as if they could protect her.

Naomi was busy checking out her room. Maybe she just didn't care too much.

Dawn looked from one to the other of them then tilted her head "Oh, one other thing, on this ship, you don't have to wear the badges, only when you leave the ship. We are very lax about that kind of stuff."

"Or keep em on, whatever makes you more comfortable." Esk pointed out. Hey, it was their clothes and their stupid badge.

"Next room, next room!" Mourn insisted. Moving to the next door.

"What exactly are you lot supposed to do here anyway?" Esk asked, Mourn must have justified this beyond just wanting to mess with their coding right?

"Oh right! Yeah, badges are unnecessary here," James said, unpinning his and pocketing it. "Nobody cares if you wear them or not, I wore mine for a while to make my old owner angry, but I stopped wearing it."

Ethan took off his badge. He'd kinda forgotten he was wearing it. Dumb badge.

"We're here to help with engineering, or maybe to retire," Tobias said. "I think. We haven't been given our assignments yet." He was pretty sure the retirement thing was a joke.

The androids looked into the next room, and Bess claimed it for Moriah.

Moriah looked amused, but didn't argue.

Esk snickered. "Retiring huh? Sounds pretty dull. Maybe you and the professor can play chess and moan about young un's" He smirked at Hewitt.

Hewitt just smiled back.

Tobías put on an expression that approximated amusement. "That could be very interesting, I'm sure. The young ones are destroying society as we know it, after all."

"Mourn!" James said, "When can we try you-know-what?"

Skye went ahead to show the androids the next room, smiling at them happily

Mourn looked back at James and shrugged. "No sure, five not same as seven and eight, need look at code, see how work."

Hewitt snickered to Tobias. "Not to mention the environment hmm?"
Oh this could be fun.

Esk shook his head.

Naomi seemed to be reluctant to leave her room now she had one, but the others were happy to follow Skye. She seemed nice.

"So how do you like being here?" Bess asked Skye.

"Maybe we'd better start asking them to show us their code," James said. He was impatient about this! Five new androids to free, omg.

"Of course, sir. Those irresponsible whippersnappers are destroying nature on all the planets," Tobias said. His face still had that expression of amusement.

"Oh great, now Hewitt has someone to be old with," Ethan muttered to Esk and Dawn with an eye roll. This was all getting very weird.

Skye smiled at Bess and shrugged "This ship is home, she's wonderful and does what she can to make us happy here." She said "We will be picking up the kids again soon, so when we do you can meet my little sister."

Dawn looked over to James and Mourn and shook her head "Guys, calm down, let them get settled and have things explained to them before going and messing with things. At least let them meet Asher and talk to him first."

Bess smiled at Skye. It really didn't look right, but it was the best she could do. "I'm glad she's a good ship. You're fond of your sister, why did she not come on this cruise with you?"

"What do you want to explain to us?" Levi asked. This conversation Vestia's crew were having was strange. "And Asher is James's brother, isn't he? Why do we need to talk to him?"

"Because we had to fight in a war, so we sent the kids away where they would be safe." Skye replied then shook her head

Dawn sighed and shook her head "I want Asher to explain, that's his place and I don't want to say something wrong." She said as she looked to Levi then to the guys again.

Mourn bounded ahead. "time for that soon, time for that soon!" He looked so delighted.

Hewitt matched pace with Tobias, leaning heavily on his cane. "So, how are you at chess? these lot are terrible!"

Esk nodded. "I'm surprised nobody's requested another damn meeting yet." He told her dryly.

"A war?" Bess's voice rose, indicating consternation. "You were in combat?" The First Law did not like that.

The other Fives and Moriah looked worried. Even Naomi came out of her room to see what they were talking about.

Tobias looked at Hewitt. "I'm not bad at chess, I suppose. I'm not a chess computer though, I'm an android." He looked at Skye again. War. Yikes.

"you don't have to worry about it, it's over now, they're dead we aren't." Esk reasoned. "this isn't a war ship."

"We only fought because it was that or die. There were no other choices." Skye said with a shrug. "We just didn't want the kids involved when they came for us, so we sent the kids away."

None of the new androids looked especially sure about this.

"It's okay," James said. "You know those dicks who blew up Avia? We got rid of--"

Ethan grabbed James and covered his mouth with his hand.

The other androids looked baffled.

Mourn looked amused at the outburst. "No worry robots, we get rid of bad guy. We good and safe now." He nodded.

Esk snorted. "Yeah, till the next time you lot piss off the wrong person."

Skye tilted her head, looking at them "Ok, what exactly is this look for?" She asked them directly.