Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Eight

First topic message reminder :

"Cause Esk is lazy and he wants someone to wait on Dawn, even though he has a massive crush on her and could wait on her himself," James grumbled. "At least that's what I assume was his motivation," he amended. "Your brother is weird. So Dawn's probably okay and not infected, that's good at least."

Mourn tilted his head, grinning. "you new robots yes?"

---

Matt frowned. "A bit yeah.. same eyes... " he whispered. It was surreal to him to finally see in the flesh a man who had an almost boogie man sort of reputation. He was, it appeared, just a man. "He's shorter than I expected." He kept his voice very low so as not to disturb anything.

"Yes, yes we are," Tori said. She reached for the place where her badge normally was, she and the others had decided to take them off since they were allowed to here. She looked at him, "You must be Mourn?" He was a felid, like Mourn was supposed to be, and his voice had the characteristics of someone who was deaf, kind of loud and not perfectly clear.

~~
Ellie nodded. "He's not as terrifying as I expected, although the eyes are creepy," she muttered to Matt and Shane.

Tala was being quiet for now, letting Starr speak, since this really was her project.

The androids had similarly decided to not speak up, they weren't the experts here.

Starr nodded a little then smiled again "Yes, a new contract since that one was finished is needed." She agreed, glancing over to Esk then back to Hytar.

Mourn nodded "Yes, I Mourn." He punched his own chest to punctuate that. "you like ship? Ship good ship." He looked at them all eagerly. "you been told about me?" He looked pleased.

---

"yesss, new targetsss, new asssetssss and.. of coursssse... new payment." Hytar spoke calmly, but it was clear he had something in mind.

Esk looked uneasy.

Matt frowned too.

"She seems nice so far," Carlos said. All the androids had edged up behind Tori to see Mourn. "Yes, we've heard about you. That you've managed to free the other androids. It hardly seems possible."

~~
"Yes, we should speak of payment before we discuss anything else," Tala said, looking to Starr. Payment was pretty important, she knew that much for sure

"I smart." Mourn boasted. "I very smart." He cackled. "Figure out megabrain code, but no seen united code. " He tilted his head. "Maybe different, maybe not so different. You alive too no?"


----

"What are you angling for?" Esk growled.

Hytar chuckled. "Ssssuch missstrussst."

"You want something, so spit it out old man." Esk continued.

Hytar laughed. "Of coursssse I want ssssomething, everyone wantssss ssssomething." He looked to Starr. "A trifling matter really... Jussst a ssssmall token..."

Matt looked to Ellie and Shane worriedly.

"Yes, we're also alive," Tori said cautiously. It was dangerous to say that to an organic, but they'd been told it was okay here.

"You must be pretty smart to be able to break into android code," Carlos agreed. "You think you want to try freeing us too?"

~~
Tala snorted. She didn't like it when people were hesitant to get to the point. She scraped one hoof on the floor in annoyance.

Asher looked nervous.

Starr tilted her head then chuckled and shrugged "So name it so that we can discuss it, or are you just having too much fun making everyone nervous or annoyed?"

Helen finally made it back to the ship, her bag just as empty as when she had gone out but her bank nicely full again. She had gotten more than she thought she would by visiting several vendors here but she was tired now and wanted to come back to Vestia.

Hytar laughed, looking around at the lot of them. "I want a D'akon dagger." He told them simply.

"no." Matt blurted out instinctively.

"Why?" Esk demanded, arms folded across his chest.

Hytar smirked. "Why not? They are powerful artifactssss, and if we're going to go up againsssst more Keepersssss having a weapon that can actually harm them will be ussseful." That probably wasn't the full story unfortunately.

---

"KNOW I smart." Mourn countered, bah, think he's smart? no, he knew he was. "You want try?" He grinned at Carlos.

Starr looked at him then at the brothers and back again "Those are dangerous to the user. I am still uncertain how long they will allow my enchantments to stay on them, especially the farther we are from the star I linked them to." She said calmly. "Those who fought with them know the dangers of using them, do you?"

Tala shook her head. "You could have just said it. There is no reason to be shy in negotiations. We would want a most long contact for a weapon of such value, though."

Ethan frowned. "If you get hit by the diffusing magic coming off the dead keeper, you'll probably fucking explode," he said. "Besides, just throw them in a sun as you're passing by, it works fine. Keepers aren't as immortal as they pretend."

~~
Carlos looked nervous at Mourn's grin. "I don't know. We're not like the other androids, you could break us."

"I'm curious," Ivan said very quietly.

The others looked at him, surprised.

~~
"Welcome back," Vestia told Helen. "Did Starr tell you the meeting's started?"

Hytar smiled. "I have my reassssonsss." Really he quite wanted to examine the things, they were legendary after all, and if they could kill a keeper, what else could they hasten the demise of? "I'm aware of the risssskssss, the legendssss sssspeak of sssuch. I do not intend to go around ssstabbing anyone I meet I assssure you, but in a worsssst cassse sscenario, accessssss to ssssuch an item might be a worthwhile lasssst resssort." He looked to Tala. "You wissssh to ssssee more dragonssss free yesss? Each attack on thessse holdingssss will become more and more difficult, thessssse ssslaversss are generally ssspeaking not sssstupid, they will pull back their resourcessss, defend their waresss aggressssively. We mussst be cautioussss, but hit them hard and fasssst ssssso they cannot regroup and fortify their defensssssessss to a point we cannot penetrate them. It issss more than likely we will loosssse ssssome ssslavessss in the process asss they are whissssked off to more ssecure and ssssecret holdingssss." Yes, this could all get very complicated very fast.

Esk actually rather liked the idea of his father exploding. He was half tempted to suggest they just give him one and let him use it, see how long it took before he got killed by it. Hah.
But at the same time he didn't trust the guy's motives for wanting one.

"I dunno, letting him take the risk and kill a few keepers might be good for us." Matt reasoned.

Hytar chuckled. "Your lussst for revenge issss heartening young man."

Matt made a face. "They have it coming."

----

Mourn cackled and clapped his hands. "We no know till we look! You let me look at code?" He grinned at Ivan. "I be able to work it out, I good at fixing robots, good with code."

Helen smiled up at the camera then shrugged a little "I am not needed there. How are my androids doing so far?" She asked curiously.

~~~
"So long as they are alive, I can find them, no matter where they are." Starr said then glanced to one then the other dragon with her as they spoke mentally. She nodded then looked around at the others in the room before focusing on Hytar again. "For such a prize, this would be a long contract. You would have to rescue as many slaves as you can, despite their race. Killing the slavers and destroying their properties like the hold, well, I will simply leave that at I don't care how it's done. The transport ship we now have will go with you, both as a way to get close and a place to put the freed slaves as they are released." She paused and glanced around again "Is there anything else to be added to the discussion?" She asked.

"How long?" Hytar asked, eager to have exact terms put upon this. "Either a time scccale, or a number of liberated ssslavesss, or if you would prefer, a number of ruined holdssss and keepssss." He tilted his head. "Thissss universssse issss full of ssslaversss and ssslavesss, to free every individual put in bondssss would take longer than even my lifetime."

"We also want you to attempt to avoid injuring or killing uninvolved individuals," Asher said quietly.

Tala looked at Starr again, "A dagger is worth the lives of many star dragons. Perhaps we should use a number of freed star dragons as the condition of the contract."

~~
"I would need my owner's permission to let you look," Ivan said. "Otherwise I can't let you change my code." He fidgeted a bit. Helen might be mad about this, he thought.

~~
"All right. The androids are starting to settle in, Mourn just found them, so you might want to go make sure they're all right," Vestia told Helen amusedly.

"But then what's to stop him just slaughtering all the others?" Esk asked.

Hytar rolled his eye at Esk.

----

"Owner? Who owner?" Mourn bounced from foot to foot, eager to get into this new code damnit.

"The contract would specify that any non-dragon slaves should be rescued and freed as well, although they would not count toward the end of the contract. It is a contact, the letter of it must be followed or it shall be void," Tala said. "And if it is voided, he will not get a dagger, so it is in his interest to rescue all slaves he encounters while rescuing the dragons."

~~
"Our owner is Helen," Tori said. She frowned, she didn't actually know anything about Helen other than her name. Whoops.

"And when ssshall I recieve payment for thesssse sssservicessss?" Hytar asked placidly.

---

"Ship, where robot owner?" Mourn asked. Yeah he had no idea what that mouth shape sounded like. Hell? In? nope.

---She just got back on board, I think she'll be heading over here to see you guys soon--- Vestia said.

The looks on the androids' faces ranged from interest to anxiety. Getting a new owner was always a stressful occasion, and even the prospect of freedom and equality didn't change that much.

Mourn looked pleased. "Owner give permission, we look at code. I figure out how to free. Fixed eights and made fives live longer, can figure out way free Union robot." He nodded, certain of this.

The androids looked more skeptical, they couldn't quite believe Mourn was as talented as all that, even though the MegaBrainTech androids had said as much during the orientation tour.

"What if Helen isn't okay with this?" Mei asked. "We are hers, we wouldn't want to make her angry."

Carlos shivered.

Ivan looked doubtful, maybe he shouldn't push his luck, even here.

Mourn shrugged, he saw absolutely no reason why their owner would object. I mean granted he didn't know Helen like, at all, but still... everyone on this ship was really pro freedom and autonomy right? "I protect you" He declared. "no worry, robots safe on this ship."

"All right," Ivan said doubtfully.

"Worse that happens, Helen orders us to never have anything to do with Mourn again," Tori said, as if that was reassuring.

"Or she sells us to someone else," Mei suggested. "There are plenty of buyers out there just waiting for useful androids like us to come on the market."

"Nobody's getting sold, and everyone gets to be free. Relax," Vestia said from above them, flashing the words in morse code for Mourn's benefit.

Helen chuckled and headed for the rooms "I figured it wouldn't take him too long to find them. I'm on my way."

~~~
"That is one of the conditions I already mentioned." Starr said to answer the question of freeing the other slaves. She looked up to the camera then closed her eyes a moment, raising a hand to make a star map of sorts, with only the major planets and where the most star dragon slaves were at this time. "These are the holds that have the largest concentrations of dragons and major planets for reference." She said then looked over to Hytar again "There are roughly 50 dragons per hold I have shown here. A couple have 70." She said, pointing those two out. "Those are also the most likely to have a keeper on the premesis."

She paused and glanced around again. Tala was right, such a prize as the dagger was worth a lot of lives, but how many? Time to barter. She looked to Hytar again. "These holds I have shown are the largest enclaves. There are 20 of them. Free the slaves in them within say, ten years and the dagger will be yours. I have an account managed by a friend that can be used to pay for fuel, food and firepower. I do not care if you hire out to others so long as as many slaves as possible are freed." She paused and waited to see what he would say to all of that.

Hytar considered that. ten years of guarenteed slaver deaths was pretty appealing, but it was a big investment of time and resources. "I remind you all, that I am putting not jussst my own life, but the livessss of my crew on the line for thisss endeavor. " He folded his clawed hands neatly on the table. "And ten yearsss isss a long contract. I will need ssssome ssssort of payment up front before I even conssssider the risssk and sssubstantial invesstment of time and resssscourcessss thisss will take. "

Esk snorted.

Starr smiled a little and nodded "The dagger would be upfront, we need you and your people alive to continue until we have enough dragons to form our army again."