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."

Matt frowned.

Esk shrugged and nodded. He agreed with Ethan.

"A merciful death is preferable to a lifetime of pain" Swarm bobbed up and down.

"Still, give them a chance. Everyone deserves a chance at freedom right?" Matt suggested.

"not everyone." Esk countered.

"Alright, all the people who've been kept as SLAVES deserve a chance to be free." Matt glowered at his brother.

Hytar chuckled at all this. "Of coursssse, and they sssshall get a chance. All reasssonable effortssss will be made, assss the contract sssstatesss." He didn't bother to clarify what he considered reasonable though.

---

Mourn grinned. "I good at fix robots, I find a way."

Helen smiled and nodded at Tori "If it is something you like I am sure we can give you that job, right Vestia?"

~~~
Shane looked at the contract curiously then shrugged and nodded "As the dragons are freed, they can help with freeing the others." He said, handing the contract off to whoever was next.

"Exactly" Starr said softly, looking around. "My people have hope again, one thing that has been lacking in the last century or so."

"What do you think is a 'reasonable effort' to free the slaves?" James asked Hytar.

Asher looked at Starr, "I suppose it's up to you, how do you think the slaves who can't reasonably be freed should be handled?"

~~
Ivan smiled slightly. "Any chance is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned. I never thought there was any hope of freedom before today."

"None of us did," Mei agreed.

"I think James is all for Tori joining the medical team, and the other medics seem to like the idea too," Vestia said to Helen. "She's welcome if she wants to be a medic."

Tori smiled. "I suppose I should meet the medics before I decide anything."

"It would depend on each ssssenario." Hytar told James. "If we are overwhelmed by sssecurity, if they are kept too far from the dragonssss, if they resssisst like the lasssst onessss did. We do not have time to chasssse after and ssssedate every ungrateful sssslave who doessssn't want to be ressscued. " Was he a little bitter? probably.

---

"Other robots say it impossible too." Mourn cackled. "I good at doing impossible things."

---

Speaking of other medics, Kay was about somewhere, avoiding that meeting as best he could.

And through all of this Amari will be asleep.

Sawna looked at the contract when it came to her and tilted her head a little. "The other races of slaves that are freed should be mentioned as having the same stipulations as the dragons, being brought to the safe place unless they choose to be dropped off somewhere along the way and not owing further debts. Starr did say before that their freedom would be covered by the cost of food, firearms and fuel." He had only written about them as far as freeing them after all.

~~~
Helen smiled at Tori again then looked to Mourn. "Well, we can meet some of them now, if you wish to."

Dawn was reading a book in her room now, awake but not wanting to go to this meeting.

James frowned at Hytar's words, but nodded slightly. It did make sense, what Hytar was saying.

Asher smiled at Sawna. "Yes, that's a good thing to add to the contract." He hadn't thought of it, but hearing her say it, it seemed like a very sensible thing to clarify.

~~
Ivan smiled at Mourn. "It's nice to know you're on our side."

"Yes, I think I'd like to meet them," Tori said. She looked hesitant though, it was pretty stressful to be an android, and to bother organic beings. You just weren't supposed to do that unless you had a good reason.

Helen smiled at Tori again then looked up to the camera. "Are any of the medics free Vestia?" She asked calmly, both for the information and to reassure Tori they could visit without being a bother or anything.

Mourn shrugged. "Like robots, better than organics."

---

If Hytar was disappointed by Sawna catching his ommision he didn't show it, he simply smiled, nodded and reached for the paper to add. "What precisssely do you wissssh to sssay?" He asked.

"Just as she said, that the non dragons are not to be treated differently, they can choose to be dropped off or taken with the dragons to the safe place and no further favors are owed unless they make their own contract of their free will with you." Starr said, glad Sawna had caught the omission. They were too focused on the dragon.

"Dawn and Kay are free at the moment, Asher and James are in the meeting," Vestia said. "Want me to ask Dawn and Kay if they want to see you?"

Tori still looked shy. She looked to Helen.

Ivan smiled a bit at Mourn. "Organics aren't bad. They're a lot like us, honestly."

T"Yes, please" Helen said, standing and stretching then looking to Tori again "Shall we head out to find them?"

~~
Dawn would agree to them coming to her or her going to them to meet the new android that wanted to be a doctor.

Mourn snorted. "Organics stupid. Make living beings but no notice, say against slavery, still have slaves. Terrans especial dumb. " He made a face.

---

Hytar added this to the contract.

The star dragons AND any other rescued slaves would be transported to the mimosa empire.

Hytar was not to demand any debts beyond that which was willingly offered by aforementioned slaves.

He read it out in full once more. "iss that everything?"

Vestia would ask Dawn and Kay if they were up for talking to a possible new medic, probably in the med bay unless Dawn was too tired.

~~
Tori smiled. "All right ma'am, it's worth a try."

Ivan looked a bit nervous at Mourn's insulting of organics, but also a bit amused. "Not all organics create living creatures," he pointed out.

~~
Ellie frowned. "It sounds okay to me. Then again, I said that about the last one too."

Asher nodded in sheepish agreement.

Kay nodded to Vestia, well James had mentioned it and he'd okayed the idea hadn't he?
He headed to wherever Vestia told him to go.

----

Mourn shrugged. "list too long, do lots stupid things."

---

Esk grudgingly nodded, he couldn't think of anything else.

Matt shrugged, he had no idea.

"True enough," Ivan agreed.

"We'd probably do stupid things too though, if we could," Mei pointed out with a smile. "Being forced to obey other people really does limit your ability to decide to do stupid things."

Mourn laughed, thinking of James, and Asher. Oh they still did stupid things before he freed them apparently. But nothing as stupid as organics he felt. Not being able to be drugged, drunk or aroused rather helped stop you being completely moronic. "you good robots. I find way to free. Then you make organic look bad by no being as stupid" He grinned.

Mei laughed. "I like the sound of that. Showing off how much more levelheaded we are than the Terrans does sound fun." She hadn't said out loud that she wanted to be free yet, but she did, just as soon as Ivan had proved it was possible and socially acceptable for the Terran United androids.

Carlos looked amused.

Ivan smiled as well. "Mourn? Is it okay for me to unplug now, or do you want to do anything else first?" If Mourn needed to take more notes or copy information over, then he didn't want to interrupt that. But being plugged into a random computer was a little bit awkward, especially when your thoughts and memories were available to be opened and scrolled through at will.

Mourn shook his head. "I remember." he tapped his head. "got good memory." He shut things down so Ivan could unplug safely. "if need again, I come find yes?"

Ivan unplugged himself and rolled up his cable. "You have a photographic memory too?" he asked curiously. He nodded. "You can come find me if there's something you need to find out. I'm happy to help with this project if I can."

"Almost." Mourn shrugged. "Brain half computer, good at remember. Other side, no so good. Can forget though, not like robot, which sometimes good thing. Remember everything not always nice. " He brightened a little "Made program help other robots forget boring stuff, free up lots of storage in brain, make live longer. Very useful. "

"It looks good to me too." Starr said softly. Everyone seemed to agree that this could be a final contract.

~~~
Helen smiled and would go when Tori was ready to go to the med bay.

Dawn nodded and put a marker in her book, getting up to meet them in the med bay, best to meet there then she could also talk to Kay about her and James taking the other med bay as theirs, along with this new one if she wanted. Of course, they had yet to ask the dragons if they had a doctor among them to join too.

Asher smiled weakly at Starr. It looked like this was happening, then. Hopefully Hytar wouldn't use any loopholes to sneak around the contract, because this looked like it could be the best chance the star dragons had at freedom.

~~

The androids bid Tori and Helen goodbye. They'd catch up with Tori that night or something. For now they stuck with Mourn.

Tori went with Helen to the med bay, staying cautiously at the door to look in. "Hello," she said to Dawn and Kay, "You're some of the medics who work here?" She looked at them curiously, kind of wishing the android medics were here to make her feel a bit less awkward.

~~
"You get the best of both worlds," Carlos said. "High quality memories, but you can forget too." He smiled at the thought.

"Are 'Tech androids really easy to hack or something?" Mei said with a laugh. Mourn seemed to have made a lot of changes to those guys, wow.

Dawn looked over to the door when Helen and Tori arrived and smiled. "Yes, we are. I am Dawn, this is Kay. He doesn't talk but we are glad to meet you and that you want to be a medic with us." She said a bit excited though she held still enough.

Mourn laughed. "not easy, supposed to be impossible. I smarter than terran though." He had no real concept of failure here, as far as he was concerned, he could do anything.

---

Kay nodded to Tori and help up his tablet [James said you had some experience with medical?]

---

Hytar nodded, looking professional as he finished up the legal terms and offered the contract and pen to Starr to sign.

Starr looked over the contract again before signing it then took a piece of paper and wrote the coordinates, passing both back to him once done.

Tori relaxed a bit, seeing that Dawn looked friendly and Kay didn't look hostile. That was a good sign, if nobody outright hated her presence, then the didn't need to be too scared. She nodded. "Hello, I'm Tori. Yes, I worked in a hospital for seven years. Not doing anything like surgery or prescribing medicine of course, but I was pretty much a nurse for my four last years there, except without the job title."

~~
Mei smiled at Mourn's confidence. It was sweet. The felid just seemed so enthusiastic about what he had done, and what he was planning to do.

"We should leave you alone to do... whatever it is you're going to do," Carlos said to Mourn. "Thank you for your time."

~~
The three androids all watched the signing carefully. They all figured it might be good to have video evidence of all this at some point.

Ellie fidgeted.

Tala just watched, still suspicious of Hytar.