Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Nine

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Ivor was pretty thankful for Tala's quiet thoughts, if her unshielded thoughts were anything like her speaking voice, he'd have had a headache already.
He nodded slowly.

"can do that without owner permission?" Mourn asked curiously. "Code no allow that no? " He remembered how he'd had to get permission every time to look at the android's code. "Still think you have code, we pretend good yes?"

"Terran law doesn't permit searches without owner permission or a search warrant, but it's wise to be careful," Asher said. "MegaBrainTech has ways to bypass our system security, they did create us after all." He nodded, "If we can pretend I'm just a normal robot getting repairs, we shouldn't have any trouble."

Mourn nodded. "we make sure they no get to look, even if mean lots of quoting law at them." He cackled. "Then you be able walk again! It be good yes?"

Asher smiled. "Yes, we'll keep them away with the power of legalese. And it'll all be worth it to be able to walk again. Being in a wheelchair hasn't been too bad for me, but I'd much rather have my legs back." Having excellent upper body strength and not having to cope with pain really made being in a wheelchair much easier, but it wasn't how he wanted to spend the rest of his life if he could help it.

"You should memorize some law book passages together so you can both quote them as needed," James told Mourn, laughing.

Mourn made a face. "Law book, boring!" He waved a hand. "I keep working, when need me, I come."

"All right, we'll leave you to it, see you around," Asher said. He smiled at Mourn, then headed out with James to go meet Nova at the Silver Devil.

Nova had gotten a room and put her things away. Now she was waiting to meet the rest of the crew.

Asher couldn't go up to the crew rooms very easily if at all, so he was going to stay on the cargo level. Hurrah.

Hopefully Nova knew that was the best place to meet him.

James led Asher into the ship. "So this is your new room. It's super nice, lots of things to anchor your chair to, and lots of power outlets," he told Asher brightly.

Asher smiled softly. "It looks just fine." He liked everyone on the crew that he'd met, and that was what really mattered anyway.

Nova heard voices, so she went down to greet them. "Hello, you must be Asher." She said then looked to James. "And you are James, correct?" She asked curiously

"Yes, I'm Asher, and this is my brother James. He was just showing me around the ship, or at least the part of it I can currently reach." Asher looked amused.
"You're Nova, I assume?" He asked.

"Yes, I am. It's good to meet you both." Nova said with a smile

"It's good to meet you too," Asher said. "Thank you for being willing to help on such short notice. I think we'll all feel much safer knowing there's a star dragon nearby if something goes wrong."

"Amen. Those guys have all sorts of great tech, but hopefully magic will give you an edge if anything goes wrong," James said.

Nova chuckled and nodded "Magic does give us an edge, and our magic is strong." She said confidently.

"Thank goodness for that," James said.

Asher nodded in agreement with James, then looked at Nova. "If, heaven forbid, we need to make a hasty escape, do you think you'll be able to get me out without causing much or any collateral damage? Our hope is not to cause any trouble, just to keep anyone from reading my mind, since the knowledge I have has the potential to be very dangerous."

Nova frowned a little but nodded. "I will try to cause as little damage as possible if it comes to an escape. The simplest way would be teleportation." She added thoughtfully

"Yes, that would be a good option. Alternately you could hide him in pocket space," James said. He was trying to lighten his mood about Asher going into danger a bit, he was worried about his brother.

Asher smiled at Nova, "I think teleportation would be a good option for sure. How strong is your teleportation ability?" He knew Matt couldn't teleport very many people safely at once, and from what he knew, teleporting was pretty risky stuff. Hmm

Nova chuckled and nodded. "True, but I am better at teleportation than pocket space. I could work on some stones on the way that will pull everyone to the ship with a word, no matter who says it." She offered.

"That sounds like a good idea," Asher said. "Having access to something like that would mean I wouldn't have to have you watching my every move when I'm off the ship, which would likely be nicer for both of us." There was a good chance he was going to need to take his clothes off to be repaired, and he didn't especially want any more people than was strictly necessary watching. Call him old fashioned that way.

"You can enchant rocks to teleport people? That's pretty neat," James said.

"It's one of my specialties" Nova said with a grin. "Probably why Qu...Starr wanted me to tag along for this ride." She had to not call Starr a queen away from the ship, so she had to practice now. "It's basically tuning the stones to one another, so one with you will go to it's mate, wherever that one is. For our purposes, that other would be on the ship. Had I more time, and the use of the power of the others, I could make them strong enough to return to Vestia, but alone, I can still make them come to the Silver Devil from a shorter distance. Oh, and Starr sent me this for you." She added, pulling out the letter and handing it to Asher. If he looked at it, it would look like it had been notarized and signed in the correct name according to his files, saying she liked his code as it was and only wanted the repairs so that he could walk once more. She authorized Rigel to speak on her behalf if there were other repairs needed, but not for any code changes.

James looked impressed. "That's an awesome skill. Everyone's going to feel better knowing you can quickly get the crew out of danger." He felt waaay better knowing Asher could teleport to safety, for one.

Asher took the letter and looked at it carefully, then tucked it in his shirt pocket and smiled at Nova. "Thank you. I'm very glad to have this letter, and Starr's support." It felt a little uncomfortable to have a letter that discussed you as if you were property when you weren't any more, but Asher knew that was necessary, and he was glad Starr had taken the time and effort to make sure he was safe.

Nova smiled and nodded. "Yes, even among our kind, it is an unusual skill." She said then looked to Asher again and dipped her head "She said it would be needed to keep you safe."

Asher nodded. "Sadly, my people still have no legal autonomy, so this sort of precaution is necessary. Someday it won't be needed any more, but at least for now it's good to have Starr's help." He smiled a bit, "I should go pack, I don't want to delay our departure tomorrow if I can help it."

James patted Asher's shoulder. "Yeah, being a robot kinda stinks that way. Oh well, someday it'll change." He looked at Nova, "Have you had a tour of the Silver Devil yet? I can show you around."

Nova smiled and nodded. "I will see you later then, Asher." she said then looked to James. "No, there was noone here."

"See you soon. And thank you again for your help." Asher said, then headed off to pack.

James smiled at Nova. "All right, tour it is then. I'm not sure how many crew members Rigel is bringing along, but since I won't be coming along, you can borrow my room." He led her up out of the cargo hold.

Asher borrowed a backpack from Vestia, and packed up his stuff. Clothes, his amulet from Starr, and after some thought he added in some skin adhesive and a small set of useful android repair tools, just in case. You never knew when you might need to make some minor repair to yourself, right?

Things packed, he left the backpack in his room, and went off to find Kay.

Kay was in the other medical room, carefully stocking shelves with some of the new supplies that had arrived and checking them off on a checklist.

Tori was settling things up in the new med bay too, she liked her new job and she wanted to do it well. She was pretty much staying out of Kay's way though, he seemed nice, but she still wasn't quite comfortable enough to strike up conversations with him.

Asher wheeled into the room, looking around at the work that had already been done. "Hey guys. Looks like you've been busy." He smiled a bit.