UPON VESTIA: CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

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Kay looked amused at that remark. [You're probably right. And bottom bunk, because I wasn't willing to argue the point. There were about 12 of us in one room, it was fairly cramped.] Not that he'd spent many evenings IN his bunk considering. Nope, his evenings had been spent locked in an old bunker hoping like heck he wouldn't get out and nobody would find him.

---

Ivor shrugged. "I do.. don't know..." He came out into the hall and closed the door carefully behind himself. "You have animals on a ship?"

----

"If they have no choice, then they are still slaves." Armin bowed his head.

"th... the other... new people on the ship.... " Ivor looked back at Skye and James. "W.. who are they?" They'd been mentioned a couple of times, people didn't seem overly happy about them. Why were they welcoming to he and silence but not these other people?

Kooshie wrote:"She could have left a bunch of magical kids to the mercy of the imperium. Yeah, that'd be a great idea," Ethan said. He blinked as Esk abruptly got up. "All right. Guess I'll see you later."

~~
"Oh that's good. I'm glad you're getting better now," Moriah said with a smile.

He nodded, "Asher, Asher said I'll get a new leg too." He tapped the stump of what was left of his right legZ

James smiled softly at Skye, then looked to Ivor. "I don't know a lot about them, but the kid is a freed slave Asher is adopting. I don't object to bringing in former slaves so they can have a better life, in fact I'm all for helping them out, but I do kinda object to my brother finding new projects all the time." He looked to Skye, she probably knew more.

~~
Moriah looked at Amari's leg. "I bet he's going to get you a really good one, Vestia seems to like funding that sort of project," she said approvingly. "How old are you?" She asked, just out of curiosity.

"You... rescue... slaves yes? Like.. like the man?" Ivor asked. He frowned, the concept of slavery was still so utterly alien to him, he just couldn't wrap his head around the idea. "That... that's why you h.. hired him yes? to.. to help.. " He and Silence hadn't really been kept that in the loop on Hytar's plans, of course, nobody ever was with Hytar. They were expected to just do as they were told without questioning his end goal.

"Yeah, that's part of what we do. We rescue slaves, fight the bad people of the world, try to bring justice to the masses," James said. "Kinda like Hytar, only with less killing people. We hired him cause he's not so squeamish."

"Some of the people here are not happy with the older man, since he was the medic for a slave ship, he worked with slavers, but the younger one was a slave, the older one's son and he bought him so he could be free." Skye said, telling what she knew of the situation with a shrug. "It's not easy to know how to feel about the older one, and he told us the younger one was feral."

"Some deserve death..." Silence spoke, still looking at the stars.

Ivor looked wary. "W... was that a lie?" He asked Skye.

"Yeah," James nodded to Silence, "the sort of people who would take away someone's freedom to choose their own life deserve pain or death. It's cruel what they do, and someone needs to stop them." He looked at Ivor, "Well supposedly the kid can talk, right Skye? So he can't be as feral as his dad said."

"But he wouldn't talk to his dad, which is why he thought that, so that wouldn't be a lie from his point of view, would it?" Skye asked curiously

James frowned. "Oh, I guess it wouldn't be a lie then. Huh." He shook his head. He really didn't know much about this Amari situation.

Skye shrugged a little then sighed "I don't know what to think of him myself, but I think he really is just trying to do right by his son."

"I hope so. I haven't met the guy myself, so I really have no idea if he's an asshole with redeeming traits, or just an asshole," James said. The guy had worked for Matthew, James didn't believe he could be a truly good guy.

"Well, most people do have redeeming qualities, even if they have really horrible qualities too." Skye said with a shrug.

"I guess." James sighed. "There are some people who are just bad though." He added with a frown, "I really should go find my brother. I haven't had the chance to talk to him since I got back from the Silver Devil."

"That's why I said most" Skye said and chuckled softly "I guess we will see you later then."

"eight-teen." He said carefully, struggling a bit with the word, "b-by earth years." He added.

Ivor hugged himself, nodding slowly. "g.. goodbye..." He mumbled.

Silence snorted at the talk about redeeming traits but said nothing.

"True. I guess you're right, a lot of people do have something going for them," James agreed. "Not slavers though." He smiled at Ivor and Silence, "See you guys later. Til then, have fun."

~~
Moriah smiled at that. "We're the same age, that's neat." She looked at him curiously, it was hard to tell how old that made him by the standards of his species. For androids, being eighteen meant you were pretty well into adulthood, androids had such short lifespans and developed so much faster than most sapient organics, so who knew what eighteen meant to this guy.

Esk knocked tentatively on Dawn's door. "you awake?"

----

Silence nodded her head.

Ivor raised one hand in a sort of vague wave.

(*Throws in a megapost*)

James left Skye, Ivor, and Silence, and went to look for asher.

Asher had left the med bay after a while to research in the library. Ethan was out, doing who knew what somewhere else, so the library was empty and quiet, a nice place to go if you didn’t feel like staying in the med bay all day.

James ambled into the library, noticing Asher right away, and heading over to join him. “Hey man, what are you doing here?”

“Researching,” Asher said vaguely. He was looking at an article about being a foster parent to troubled teens. He made a subtle attempt to minimize the browser window before James could read it, he doubted James was going to be entirely on board with his new project. “What about you? Checking out our new brother’s recent additions to the book collection?”

“Yeah, wanted to see if he had gotten any new satare adventure novels in,” James said, even though that wasn't really what he was here to do. He was here to talk to his brother, and any good books he found were just a bonus. “I mean judging by the scornful looks he gives you if you check them out, probably not, but I neeeed my random evil aliens and blatant propaganda, man!”

“As far as I know, he’s only gotten new books in Common recently, but there are some wonderfully ridiculous adventure stories in the collection now,” Asher said, smiling.

“That’s almost as good,” James decided. He didn’t head over to the adventure section though, he stayed near Asher at the computer desks. “So, I hear you picked up a new project, huh?”

Asher smiled sheepishly. “Yeah. I should probably have told you yesterday, I’m sorry.”

James rolled his eyes. “You figured that since it was a newly freed slave kid who’d been traumatized and abused, I’d welcome him in with open arms and you didn’t need to ask me because I’m newly freed and slightly traumatized too so I totally empathize, right?”

Asher ducked his head. “Something like that. I really am sorry, James. I shouldn’t jump to conclusions.”

James grumbled. “No kidding.”

Asher looked guilty.

“I mean, you’re not wrong,” James said after a long silence. “I’m all for helping traumatized former slaves. But man, you already have a kid, and you’re thinking about doing your whole freeing our people thing when we reach Terra. How can you fit a troubled teen into your schedule too?”

“I’ve done some thinking,” Asher said softly. He looked uncomfortable. “The situation with our people is awful, yes, but it’s stable. New androids are being built, but there are older ones to protect them. Anti-robot gangs exist, but their violence isn’t that common, really. There’s no reason our people have to be freed right now, they can wait a while longer, the plans can be sorted out a little more clearly, in the interim the Guild’s scouts can work to cut off the supply chain as much as possible.”

“What?”

“We shouldn’t rush into this. Amari needs a home and as stable a family as we can give him. The children and Thalia need their loved ones. Tala wants to go to Haakon to get her mate and her tribe to safety. Running the campaign now could delay all that for months, depending on how it goes.”

James frowned. That was a fair point, he supposed, but he didn’t like it. “You could stay on Terra with a few others, run the campaign while Vestia goes on to the Imperium and Haakon,” he suggested. “We do have the Silver Devil and the Celestial Tiger after all. There are other people here, they can look after Amari.”

Asher shook his head. “I can’t do that. I can’t force Kay to choose between staying with me and going to see his daughter, and I can’t destroy the trust I’ve managed to earn from Amari. I have to stay with Vestia.”

“While our sister and millions of our people spend every day of their lives as slaves,” James said.

“I know it’s awful,” Asher replied grimly. “I know how bad and wrong it is, just like you do. But if we rescue Lark, then what? We have to rescue Finn and Grace too, or they’ll be all alone to take on their new lives as slaves, just like Emma was when she arrived. And then when we rescue them, the space station will just buy three or four new androids to replace them. I know you hate this, I hate it too, but leaving Lark there is the best thing we can do. She’s lasted this long there, she can last another few months.”

“She’s going to be pissed when she finds out you’ve been doing this,” James said. “I’m pissed too, you know. This is a real dick move.”

“The status quo is awful, but it’s manageable,” Asher said. “Lark understands the Three Laws, and she understands people. She’s about as safe on that space station as any android can ever be. And the millions of others will be in far more danger once the status quo is interrupted, so we’d better do it right. I know she’ll be angry, I know you’re angry. You have every right to be. But the best thing we can do is wait for the right time to act.”

James nodded reluctantly. “I see your point.” He sighed, “Almost makes you wish you could go back to having no choices again. This freedom thing sucks sometimes.”

“Yeah.” Asher looked tired. Some days he kind of hated being free, despite his fervent belief that everyone should be. It was such an endless string of problems to solve, and more often than not, the solutions were messy and resulted in someone suffering. “But rest assured, when the time comes, we’ll do everything in our power to protect all the androids, and give them the best chance they can get at freedom. I’ll contact the Guild maybe once we have a schedule, see if they can send someone to protect Lark, Finn, and Grace. Sound good?”

“Okay,” James said. He went and hugged Asher. “You can do this, man. You’re gonna be our, uh, robot Moses or something. I just have to try and look at the big picture.”

“Please never call me robot Moses,” Asher said, looking a little unnerved. He hugged James back though. “I’m glad you’re supporting me though.”

“No robot Moses, got it,” James said. He let Asher go after a bit. “So this traumatized slave kid, how is he? And what’s with his father?”

“Amari’s doing surprisingly well,” Asher said after a moment’s thought. “He wants to learn the rules here, and he seems to like me, and he’s starting to learn new things, like having fun. It’s a lot for him to take in, but I think he’ll adjust if we’re patient and kind. He’s a good kid, far better than I expected, given his horrible childhood.” He looked sad, “Marcus rescued him from the cruel man who owned him, by purchasing him. Because of that, Amari sees Marcus as his master, and is too scared to speak to him. I think Marcus means well though, he cares about Amari’s future, and wants him to be safe, which is why he’s leaving him with us.”

“You don’t think Marcus hurt Amari?” James asked with a frown. The muteness sounded suspicious to him.

“I don’t think Marcus would have told me Amari could speak if he’d hurt him,” Asher said.

James frowned. “Wait, how did he know Amari could speak at all?”

Asher looked grim. “Amari’s old master had trained him not to talk. Marcus said that he bragged about it during the sale.”

“That’s disgusting,” James said.

Asher nodded. “Thankfully Amari seems to feel safer now he’s away from Marcus, and speaks to people he meets without too much fear. His master hurt him very badly, but he didn’t break him. If I ever meet his old master though…” For a moment his expression went cold. Asher had no kindness in his heart for the sort of person who would torture a child.

James shivered a little at the look in his brother’s eyes. He might hate monsters like that too, but it was still unnerving to see Asher’s normally kind and gentle attitude vanish, even for a moment.

The moment passed, Asher looked like himself again. “I think you’ll like Amari. Maybe you’ll even be able help him learn to like freedom.”

“I’d like to meet him sometime,” James said. He managed to smile softly, “Sounds like he’s doing a lot better than my new slightly traumatized buddy Ivor.”

“Ivor’s the half-Hexenfolke shifter, right?” Asher asked, remembering what little he’d heard about the new guys. He’d been so busy yesterday, he hadn’t gotten around to learning much.

“Yeah. He grew up in a mental hospital because they thought he was hearing voices, poor guy. He’s confused by pretty much everything i say. Well, Silence, the other shifter, is confused too, but if she cares, she doesn’t show it.” Although she had obviously been through some rough stuff too, poor Silence.

“Poor guy,” Asher repeated. “I suppose it’ll take time, but we’ll try to get him acclimated too. And hopefully Kay or Starr can help him with the telepathy or something.” He looked amused suddenly.

“What is it?” James asked.

Asher chuckled, thinking of Kay’s promise to stand by him through all his many projects. Poor guy, as if he needed yet another project to get thrown into by someone. “There’s always something that needs to be done on this ship.”

“Keeps us from getting bored I guess,” James said.

“Very true. Want to help me read up on foster parenting?” Asher asked.

James snickered. “Maybe later. Right now I want to go read some cheesy adventure novels.”

“Fair enough,” Asher laughed, “Have fun.”

James headed off to find a good book.

Asher went back to reading about foster parenting.

Dawn looked to the door at the knock and nodded "Yeah, I'm awake."

~~~
Skye nodded and looked up at the stars overhead again.

Esk eased the door open and peered in, not coming any further than the doorway. Hey, he wasn't taking any chances with magical flu. "You up to eating yet?"

---

"We are going to.. terra?" Silence asked at last. "What is it like?" She had very little knowledge of the universe unfortunately.

"W... will we be s.. safe there?" Ivor asked anxiously.

"Yeah, something light like soup, please." Dawn said and gave him a weak smile.

~~~
Skye shrugged a little "I know we are going to Mars for the part for Asher, then meeting up with the dragons that were just freed. Or maybe that's the other way? Whichever, we were asked to keep you with us, so that's what we will do."

"Alright. I'll be back." Esk shut the door again and went to find soup.

---

Ivor frowned. "W... we will try to make it as easy for you as... as possible."

"Why dragons?" Silence asked.

Dawn nodded and laid down to wait for him to come back. "You may need to send a bot Vestia, if he doesn't want to come in." She said in warning.
~~~
Skye tilted her head at that and looked back to Ivor "What? You just have to be you, you won't make anything harder just by being here." She said then looked to Silence "Uh, that's a bit harder to explain. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to talk about it, but at the same time, you will be with us at the same time they are, so it's not like you won't find out...they are star dragons that were rescued, freed from slavery."

"I'll send one in if Esk wants,' Vestia said cheerfully to Dawn. She watched Esk in case he requested a bot.

Amari pulled out the tennis ball, the fuzz slightly removed from when he started to pick at it in boredom. His manner was more like that of a child then a adult, by best someone just entering teenhood. "S-so you are a youngin too?" He askex Moriah curiously. "O-or do, metal beings have different.." he paused, unable to find the word to say in common.