Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty

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Skye nodded and smiled a little "It's a little scary though, when you only see your own kind then see a city with the others."

Matt looked a bit confused. Every colour?

---

Esk readjusted the weight of the rather heavy text book in his arms. "His problem is he wants to save everyone. He has a massive and crippling sense of duty but a whole lot of self doubt too. He wants to start a revolution but hates the thought of people getting hurt. It makes him hesitate, and when you freeze up like that, bad shit happens. " He shook his head. "He can detach, He can do what needs to be done, but I think that scares him. That he'll lose himself if he sinks too deep, and he might be right. " He studied Ethan for a moment. "Asher... fears the dark part of himself. That, cold, calculated logical side, without emotion who does things because someone has to. The thing is, as I said earlier, there's a lot of jobs out there people don't want to do, but someone has to anyway. Sometimes being able to detach isn't just helpful, it's necessary. Maybe if he can accept that, he'll stop moping so much. Guilt doesn't really achieve much."

The computer provided a very helpful tutorial, which explained the rules way better than Ellie had. Shane might actually have a chance at playing well now!

"Yesss, dogs come in every color," Ellie said smugly. "Yay for GMOs!"

~~
James led Dawn down the hall to the robot med bay. It wasn't very far away, so they didn't have to walk long.

Once they reached the room, James opened the door with a flourish. It was smaller than either organic med bay, but still had a couple beds for patients, shelves covered in a multitude of screwdrivers, glue bottles, packages of artificial skin, grease bottles, and a whole lot of little metal replacement parts.

The walls were lined with posters of fictional robots who were actually popular with androids, including characters like Bender from
Futurama, Data from Star Trek, and WALL-E. There were a couple potted plants sitting around, too.

Nobody else was there right now, they were still at the party.

"Nice, huh?" James said proudly.

~~
Ethan eyed Esk, not entirely sure what to think of that analysis. He didn't know Asher all that well, they reallly didn't talk all that much, but he had the oddest feeling Esk had just made a scarily accurate assessment of the guy.
"Fuck, I hope I'm not as open a book as Asher is," he said after a couple moments. He didn't want anyone explaining his thoughts in quite that much detail, yeesh."Hopefully that damn protest will shake him into order. Not that I care that much about him, but he has my face, and I don't like seeing those expressions on my face, it's annoying." After another moment he added, "I think a career in psychology will definitely work for you."

Shane paid attention to the tutorial then moved to play the game as well as he could. His bodyguard skills would help with that, though having to kick the ball was not simple.soccer was not his game.

~~~
"Very nice, it's perfect for your people." Dawn said with a smile as she looked around the room. "Ooh, that's Data, right?"

Ellie cheered for Shane, she thought he was pretty good at this. "Maybe this isn't quite your thing though," she admitted. "Matt, you got any ideas?"

~~
"Probably the best robot med bay outside of Mars," James said proudly. He nodded, "Yep, the father of modern androids. Well, sort of. We like him, even if he doesn't have emotions."

Esk looked faintly pleased with himself as Ethan looked slightly uncomfortable. So he got a bit of a kick out of unnerving people, okay? He was pretty sure he had a good handle on Ethan's issues too, but he didn't mention that. "You don't have an interest in this rebellion? Mourn doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who keeps a will, and I dunno what happens to androids or other supposed property once an owner dies. " They'd had that concern with James when the old captain had left, he still wasn't sure about how it all worked. "being genuinely free would give you more options. You could leave here, go out into the universe and do whatever you wanna do. " He shook his head. "then again, all any of you have to really do is go somewhere there's no androids and just blend in. People might start asking why you don't age though. Still, being able to travel through terran space without being treated like shit makes life a bit easier doesn't it?" He shrugged. "As for Asher, we'll just have to wait and see. He's not particularly stupid, he should be able to handle this."

----

Matt looked thoughtful. "How about handball?" He didn't really know many terran sports, but the imperium had a few of their own.

Ethan was glad Esk didn't start trying to summarize his personality, he didn't much want that experience. And he kind of suspected that if Asher was easy to read, he was even moreso. Humph.
He shrugged. "The fact is, if I get involved, people are going to ask questions about the mean-looking android who shares a serial number with Asher. And I'd rather leave the work to someone else anyway, not go out on the streets and wave signs and yell. I'm interested in the rebellion, I'm just staying out of it."

~~
"I don't know that one, but the name makes sense so it has to be good," Ellie said.

Shane nodded and looked over to them, stopping the game. "What is handball?" He asked curiously.
~~~
Dawn nodded and looked to James again with a smile. "He does try to show emotions after a while, even if only mimicking them."

Esk nodded. "Sensible. " He looked thoughtful. "The serial number thing shouldn't be an issue if you get freedom right? But is it possible to change it?" Like they had changed the ship's, ahem.

---

"Uh.. computer" Matt called "Imperium Handball?" The computer actually understood that and the pitch changed into a long narrow court. It was a bit like a squash court with high concrete walls and a firm floor, only about 4 times the length with a sturdy door in one wall. There were lined markings on the floor and the far walls at either end with a thick white line denoting the middle of the court. Above them were strong perspex panels to allow spectators sat over the court to watch the match.

The computer also generated a small hard ball about the size of a tennis ball, some reinforced gloves and a pair of goggles for Shane and an opponent for him to face off against.

Matt looked around. "Okay this might be a bit complicated." He conceded. "you wanna hit the ball with your hands, you can use either hand and you want to try to stop the opponent hitting the wall behind you. If you hit their wall you get a point, if you get it between those markings there" He pointed to the markings on the wall "you get an extra point. You can use the walls and the floor to bounce the ball but it can only bounce on the floor once before the opponent returns it. If it bounces twice in your side the opponent gets a point. " He looked thoughtful. "I used to be really good at t his." He admitted. "But it's pretty fast and you really don't wanna get hit in the face. Trust me."

Shane looked around the new court and listened to Matt explain the rules. "Is that all?" He asked with a wry smile before picking up the ball to try this game. He was more used to using his hands, just with a weapon instead of a ball.

Matt snickered. "Right, we should get outta here." He moved toward the door. "Come on Ellie, you don't wanna get smacked in the face even with a hologram ball."

Ellie cheered for Shane. "You're gonna be the BEST, cutie!" She followed Matt, she didn't want to get hurt accidentally.

~~
James smiled. "Yeah, he's a cool robot, even if he's a little limited. That's why we love him." He shook his head, "Anyway, is there anything else you wanna see or do around here?"

~~
"If I get arrested or some shit, one assumes I'd have to give them my serial number so they could identify me, even once we're all free," Ethan mused. "I don't know if it's possible to change. Maybe Mourn could, but I'd hesitate to find more work for him when he's already working to resolve every single other android issue by himself."

Shane watched them get in the stands of the arena before starting the game against an 'easy' opponent so he could learn the game. He was better at this game, so moved up to a better opponent after a little bit.

~~~
Dawn shook her head, looking around again. "No, they both look good and ready to go." She said with a smile.

James nodded. "Oh good, glad you like 'em. I meant more in a sense of, 'do you wanna do anything else for fun?' though." He looked thoughtful, "At some point I gotta go talk to Asher, but I don't need to do that right away." He didn't want to accidentally find out what the medics did when they sneaked out of parties early, nope.

Esk nodded. "Hold off getting arrested till he's less busy then." He smirked, that might have been a joke. His tendency to deliver everything he said in a somewhat dull manner made it really hard to tell.

--

Matt would lead Ellie up to the spectator area which thankfully were wheelchair accessable. Thank you holodeck. They could watch Shane play below.

"He's good at this." Matt said, hoping he hadn't just jinxed it.

Ethan nodded. "We'll see if that ever happens, Mourn seems to love finding new projects. It's not really in my plans to get arrested anyway, I'll stay out of trouble and not attract attention for now."

~~
"YEAH SHANE," Ellie yelled. "He is good. I think we may have found his secret talent," she told Matt.

Dawn chuckled and shrugged. "I don't know, we could do anything."
~~
Shane liked this game, it used skills he knew in a safe and fun way.

"Hmm," James said. "I'd say we could go to the city, but I don't think that would be wise so soon before the protest."

Esk grunted in agreement. "Yeah."

---

Matt cheered "Man, when i'm better I am SO challenging him to a game." Was that wise? probably not but he didn't care. He liked to believe he'd recover fully and go back to being able to scale walls and crap.

Dawn nodded and sighed. "True, also I think the others were talking about leaving for the kids soon."

~~~
Shane ended the game and looked over to them, catching his breath. "That was fun, but I need some water."

Matt checked his pockets, did he have any bottles? "uh.. I think I only have beer... I mean I can make water but i'm not sure you're that desperate." He laughed, people got funny about drinking water you drew from the air or yourself, apparently it was 'gross' or something.

Ethan nodded. He asked after a pause, "So are you going to go to this protest thing, or are you going to avoid it too?"

~~
James frowned. "How soon? I actually haven't been keeping track of the plans that way, I've been kinda distracted."

~~
"Oh man, you were awesome!" Ellie clapped for Shane. "You NEED to have Matt water, it's like, an experience!"

Esk thought about that. "Nobody's asked me to go." He had no real vested interest in it all, so he wasn't gonna go unless he thought he'd be needed. "It's not really my cause. I mean, whether you guys are free or not has zero impact on my life." He shrugged.

---

Matt laughed "That sounds kinda weird." He shook his head. "but Shane, we found a sport you can do! "

Shane laughed and shrugged. "It's probably cleaner than some water. You got an empty to put it in? Course we could always ask Vestia to send some by bot."

~~~
Dawn shrugged "I'm not sure. Vestia, do you know?"

"Of course it's clean! It's just water" Matt protested, he found an empty beer bottle in his pocket and pulled it out. "People get weird about it but it's just the same stuff that's in the air, just.. distilled or something." He touched the mouth of the bottle and concentrated.

Ethan nodded. "Makes sense to me. Only reason to go if you're not a robot is probably morbid curiosity."

~~
Ellie watched Matt, fascinated. "I'm sure Matt water is the most gourmet and sanitary of waters," she said, straight faced.

~~
"Plans aren't really set right now, Armin's probably healthy enough for us to leave any time, but you know, robot rights stuff is going on and nobody's really talked about the details of when we're leaving because they're all distracted," Vestia said.

"Ah." James frowned. "We're gonna need another meeting soon, aren't we?"

"That or a sentimental attachment to an android." Esk reasoned. "Let's just hope it doesn't turn into a riot, I think i'd rather leave terra without having to run."

---

Matt tried not to laugh at that, focusing on filling the bottle with water vapor sucked from the air around them.

"Or that," Ethan agreed. "Well, if everything goes wrong, at least we'll be on Vestia where we can hide indefinitely."