Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Eight

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"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."

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."

Hytar contemplated the map. "Ten holdssss, by which point I sssussspect we'll have to regroup and conssssider new tacticssss. Asss each location fallsssss, the otherssss will increasssse their ssssecurity and asss it becomessss increassssingly dangeroussss to transsssport dragonsss, drassstic meassssures may be taken by thesssse people."

Starr nodded, agreeing with the assessment that the work would get harder as they went on. "Which is why I said the relatively long timeline of ten years for 20 of them, so that you can do things like hitting three or four then 'vanishing' for a year or so until they relax a little again then hitting them again. Guerrilla tactics have worked for centuries. Also, as more of my people are freed, we will have a larger force to attack with ourselves. At least those who wish to fight."

"What of the othersss? would you have them brought here, or taken ssssomewhere elsssse? Your people were ensssslaved before, how do you intend to prevent that from happening again?" Hytar tilted his head, studying Starr critically.

"Helen's here," one of the androids muttered to the others when she arrived.

They all stood up straight and looked anxious.

"Hello, Ma'am," Ivan said shiftily.

~~
Asher listened quietly. Starr really had thought this out, he was kind of proud of her. Although that was silly, because of course she had thought it out, she was Starr, and she was a very sensible person.

Tala listened intently, ears perked forward.

Ethan, James, and Ellie just watched quietly. They were all curious to know how this agreement would work out.

Mourn grinned at Helen. "You owner yes? Need permission see code." Straight to the point.

Helen nodded and chuckled softly "Yes, I am and you can. Already wanting to free them like some of the others chose, huh?" She asked then looked to the androids. "Just to make it official, if you want to try to be free, then you have to let Mourn work on your code without hurting him. If you choose not to do so just yet, that is an option too."

~~~
"The non-dragon slaves can be brought to us, or dropped off at any safe location." Starr said with a shrug. "It's more feasible to just bring them all together unless you pass by a location in your travels." She sighed at the second question though, that one was harder. "That is one of many reasons we are against slavery for any species, even if all we do is set events in motion for our children to finish, this is still a start to the ending of slavery. We will have a safe planet, hidden from normal view, as the guild is as one of our layers of protection. We will fight to stay free."

The androids nodded at Helen's words. It was strange to hear her give an order like that, but they were robots, they followed strange orders sometimes.

"Thank you, ma'am," Ivan said to Helen. He looked nervously to Mourn. "I guess we can try this, then."

Mourn clapped his hands. "Come robots, come, we need computer."

---

Hytar looked skeptical, surely they'd fought to stay free last time but had still been subdued. But he said nothing on that, he simply nodded. "ssselect a sssafe haven, ssssomewhere you trusssst. Transssporting ssseveral hundred dragonssss at once issss extraordinarily risssky. If we are dissscovered, all that hard work may be lossst." He steepled his fingers. " I cannot commit to ten yearssss of sssservicssse, but I can bring you asss many dragonsss asss is feasssable in half that time." He considered the wording of this contract, already writing up clauses and specifications in his head.

Most of the androids moved to follow Mourn. Tori hung back, looking at Helen, "Are you going to come along, ma'am?"

~~
Asher nodded. "It should be possible to free a lot of dragons in five years. And hopefully by the end of that time, other options will be available to help to free the rest." Maybe by then the guild would have fixed up the mess that was their political system and started providing significant aid again. One could hope.

"not to mention a standing army of pissed off ex slaves." Esk mused.

"Would you accsssept a deal of five yearssss and asss many ssslavesss asss I may reasssonably obtain?" Hytar asked starr cooly.

Esk started counting on his fingers. 20 locations, at least 50 dragons in each location...

---

Mourn raced off ahead, eager to get a look at this code.

"I will if you want me to" Helen replied kindly, smiling at Tori.

~~~
"There are 1,050 dragons in these 20 locations, halving the time, I would hope for at least half the dragons." Starr said, dipping her head a little. "Do you know the Mimosa Empire well?" She asked curiously.

"Not well, but I know where it isss." Hytar told her.

Tori smiled hesitantly. "You can come if you want, ma'am," she said. She didn't know Helen well enough to dare tell her whether to come or not, but she supposed it would be wise to have the owner around for reprogramming.

The other androids had hurried after Mourn already.

Mourn had gone to his room to retrieve one of his small collection of laptops, kicking aside scraps and boxes to make space.

Helen smiled and followed along.

~~~
"I will give you an address to drop the slaves off at, people I trust to take care of them until I can reach there." Starr said

James was looking worried about something. He glanced to the door, where two people he would have expected to be here by now weren't.

Rigel and Luka wouldn't have both missed this meeting by coincidence, right? And if they had, one of them should have arrived by now.

He had a bad feeling about this.

~~
The androids caught up when Mourn reached his room, and watched him mess with his pile of stuff. Whoa.

"Is it really safe to ask for his help?" Carlos murmured.

"Maybe he's an eccentric genius," Tori muttered back, half joking.

"He is eccentric for certain, and deaf." Helen said as she reached the androids at the door. "But, he would never hurt an android on purpose...just remember to always have room to move back quickly if you have to wake him. He has nightmares."

Mourn glanced up "sit, sit!!" he gestured around. there wern't many places to really sit though, aside from the bed.

"Very well... " Hytar looked pleased, having most of the star dragon race owing their freedom to you could come in exceedingly useful.

Starr nodded, it was better to send them to a place that didn't move for her to go to rather than try to find Vestia after each trip. She looked to her left to the dragon there. "This is Travis, he will speak for me on the transport ship while you are out there. So long as magic isn't blocked, he will be able to reach me."

Tori nodded to Helen. "Thank you ma'am, that's good to know." She did know some people woke up violently, and she'd rather know that ahead of time if she ever needed to wake someone.

Ivan sat on the bed, the others stayed standing. They weren't sure they wanted to sit on the floor, it looked like it might be unsanitary.

Ivan unfastened his maintenance panel to unroll the data cable, looking awkward.

Helen smiled and moved to a relatively clear place then shifted to her dragon form, curling up much as Mourn would to watch the goings on. She was also curious how the androids would react to seeing she was a star dragon, not the human they thought her.

None of the androids had had the faintest clue their owner was anything other than Terran, and they reacted with understandable shock.

"Ma'am!" Carlos yelped, backing away hastily and bumping into the bed, where he sat down heavily.

"What happened, ma'am?" Tori asked, staring at the dragon who was now where her owner had been moments before.

Mei looked around for something to hide behind.

Ivan had been looking at Mourn and his data cable, so he'd missed the shapeshift. He looked around at the others' exclamations. "Where'd she go?" HOLY CRAP, there was a dragon in here?

Hytar nodded. "Very well." He took note of this particular Dragon's appearance, this would be his liaison after all.
"Five hundred dragonssss, to be essscorted to the mimossssa empire unlessss they dessssire otherwisssse, isss thissss correct?"

---

Mourn glanced around at the commotion, the movement distracting him from his computer. "What?" He looked at Helen, tilting his head. "Oh, she dragon too. They funny, like to look different sometimes. " he shrugged as if this was absolutely no big deal. He was way too used to magic now.

Helen looked from one android to the other and shifted back, now sitting where she had curled up. "It's alright, that is my true form. I simply shifted to it." She said calmly then sighed softly "My people are mostly slaves right now, the only way to be safe is to use another form like the Terran one I am in now. There are many of my kind on this ship now, so you will see them around as you explore, even little babies that are too young to shift. Be careful with them, they like to climb and may scratch you when playing since you are 'blank' telepathically to us. Just tell them to stop if they do and why, alright?"

~~~
"Five hundred dragons minimum and whatever other slaves are freed, unless they want to go elsewhere on their own." Starr said, reminding him of the other part. "Some will certainly wish to go and find their families instead of going to the safe place."

Travis was rather average looking as a Terran. Brown, shaggy hair over brown eyes and a face one could easily overlook, especially in a crowd. Nothing about him was something to draw attention, at least not now. He had mastered many disguises, both magical and mundane. He dipped his head to Hytar when the other stared at him.