UPON VESTIA: CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

First topic message reminder :

Asher considered his words for a few seconds, glancing around the room as he thought, then looked to Kay again. "I've been thinking over everything that's happened today, and I feel like it would be wrong for me to leave Terra before the androids have been granted their freedom," he said. "I think it might be in the best interests of the children and the androids if I stay on Terra while Vestia goes on to the Imperium." He wished he could have phrased it better, but he just didn't know how. Ugh.

Sure enough, Ethan was still in the library. He was sitting at his desk, reading some textbook. He looked like the book had pissed him off, although Mourn probably knew him well enough to realize that was just his face.

Celia followed Mourn in, and looked at Ethan with a frown. He looked like Asher, but with that glare, he probably wasn't. Robot medic=Asher, then. Okay.

Ethan looked up from his book at the two. "Can I help you?" He eyed Celia, trying to figure out who she was.

"computer lady." Mourn told Ethan helpfully, pointing at Celia. "Got body now. Giving tour."

"My name's Celia," she added.

Ethan frowned. "The computer that made us. Great." He supposed she was probably a less awful person in this universe, but he wasn't super delighted about any computer who had helped create androids wandering this ship.

"I'm just escaping persecution, like the rest of you," Celia said with a shrug. "What's your name?"

"Ethan," he said shortly.

"Good to meet you, Ethan," Celia said. "If we've talked before, don't be offended that I've forgotten. I had to purge a lot of memories to fit in this body, possibly including you."

Ethan glared at her. "Are we really keeping her here?" he asked Mourn. "I thought we didn't like people who created people."

Mourn tilted his head. "We have lots babies on ship though." Great, he was being literal. "She go if she like. But first need data yes?" He looked to Celia. "Lots decrypt, we do that after tour maybe?"

Ethan sighed. "I meant creators, not parents," he grumbled. "Although you do raise a good point about all those parents, having kids at a time like this is a shit idea." Yeah, he was kind of sour about people bringing life into the world in less than ideal situations. He figured it just led to suffering.

Celia eyed Ethan oddly. He seemed way more bitchy than the average android she remembered, weird. "Yes, I think I can hand over the data after the tour," she told Mourn. She was still alive and seemingly safe, so she might as well keep her promise.

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:Matt wheeled ahead, leading the way. He couldn't move as fast in a wheelchair of course, but he still tried. He LIKED leading the way, he was naturally quick on his feet ordinarily.

---

Mourn finished his drink. "What you want see next? We got rec rooms, arcade, cinema, pools... " he made a face at that one, he didn't like being wet. "dining hall, kitchen..."

----

Esk nodded to Dawn. "just a headsup." He told her flatly, a little bewildered by why she was surprised. He was oblivious to how many mixed signals he'd been giving the poor girl. "Asher's staying on Terra so you're gonna be one somewhat decent medic short, and Kay's gonna be in a shit mood about it."

Shane followed with Ellie as they went down the hall.
~~~
Dawn nodded then shrugged and went to her desk "Alright, I take it we are going after the kids, since the other stuff has been taken care of and Armin can travel again?" She asked curiously, trying not to look at him too much. He was so confusing sometimes. "Are you staying too?"

"Good point," James said, smiling at Matt. "I mean they probably have some sort of chariot thingy you could use, but I dunno if that'd be any good or not." He scrambled off his horse, making his and Matt's height difference a little less extreme.

"Those horses are weirdly realistic," Ellie mused. "We can go to a less freaky program, something more natural."

"horses aren't natural?" Matt asked Ellie. Wait, did she have issues with horses like Esk did?

---

Esk noticed she wasn't looking at him, weird. "Yeah, off to the Imperium. I may as well stay, got nothing to do on Terra and once we get to Imperium space we'll need people who can speak the damn language to get over the border". He hesitated, then added "Are you mad at me?" Damn Pandorans and their muted body language, they were hard to read, Dawn was hard to read. He really struggled to make sense of her.

Horses are natural" Shane said, looking to ellie then to the horse. "I think it would be cool to have a cart. We could race one another with them."

~~~
Dawn sighed and looked over to him "I was wondering if you were mad at me actually. You have been avoiding me since I got hurt."

"I mean these horses aren't natural," Ellie clarified. "Cause they're holograms."

James rolled his eyes. "I think that's kind of the point, Ellie."

Ellie shrugged. "ANYWAY, we can switch programs if we want.

"Are you freaked out by horses too?" Matt asked, unable to contain his curiosity. "What do you have in mind?"

---

Esk frowned, then shook his head. "I'm not mad at you for getting hurt." He glanced down the corridor, not sure he really wanted to have this conversation in a hallway. He sighed, honestly he wasn't even sure WHY he'd been avoiding her, it just.. sucked seeing her weak and injured and he didn't like it. "can I come in?"

"No, it's the hologram horse thing, not the horse thing," Ellie said.

"Because air isn't supposed to be warm and fuzzy?" James guessed, petting his holo-horse's nose fondly.

Ellie shrugged. "We can do whatever in here, I don't have any specific ideas," she said.

Matt shrugged, he supposed it kinda made sense. Fake things that were pretending to be something else were kinda wierd. He'd gotten pretty used to androids now though, and he often forgot they weren't organic. Just like it was easy to forget holograms were just clever light and forcefields. "What does everyone think? Chariot racing or something else?"

"Yes, you can come in." Dawn said as she looked back to the book on her table, playing with it idly.

~~~
Shane shrugged and smiled. "I don't mind what we do"

Esk came in, closing the door behind him and leaning against the wall, arms folded. "I don't like seeing you hurt." He mumbled, looking at the floor.

"I don't like being hurt, or seeing you hurt either, but that didn't make me go away." Dawn said, looking to him again as she thought about when he had been in the hospital.

"We could visit other planets," James suggested. "I dunno about you guys, but I've been basically nowhere."

Esk didn't look up, this was clearly very difficult for him. He was so used to clamming up and just ignoring difficult questions and feelings. His hands clenched into fists. "Yeah, I know, you're better than me. " He told her flatly.

---

"Hey that sounds like fun. This place has like a huge database of planets right? " Matt remembered doing that one time before right? It'd been interesting.

"Yeah, I've tried a few, and I'm sure there are lots more," James said. "You planet hopping pros know any good planets to see?"

Dawn sighed and shook her head "No, I'm not. I'm just trying to get by and learn along the way. I'm no better or worse than most people. I know you don't like talking about things, but I do want to understand."

~~~
Shane shrugged a little, looking around "All the planets I have seen have been pretty much with you guys."

"Are there any you've heard of that you want to see?" James asked. "Doesn't have to be one any of us have seen before."

Esk glared at the floor, he looked tense. He was silent for a while before at last he spoke. "I don't know okay?" He snapped. His hands unclenched and his tone softened slightly. "I.. Couldn't do anything to help." He was feeling suddenly extremely vulnerable and he didn't like it at all. He wanted to end this conversation, do what he usually did, snap at the person making him feel uncomfortable and hurt them, giving him a chance to flee. But he couldn't do that, not to Dawn.

---

Matt looked thoughtful. "is there a random mode?"

"Yeah, I think so." James made the control panel appear, and looked through the settings. "Filter by planets with life on them? Un-habitable planets? Or should we go totally random?"

"Maybe avoid all places that might be immediately hostile? I mean, as hostile as holodeck programs ever are." Matt suggested. He wheeled over to look at the controls.

"Fair enough," James said with a snort. "Filtering by 'planets inhabited by things that won't pretend to want to kill us on sight'."

The list of worlds was, unsurprisingly, huge. A few vanished from the list as the filter was applied, others sliding in to take their place.

"Also exclude locations with mud," Ellie said.

"No mud. Got it." James adjusted the filter. "Any filters you guys want to add?" he asked, looking to the star dragons.

"No really bright light." Matt added. Yeah, bright light hurt his eyes, especially if it was sudden.

Elsewhere on Vestia, Tala left Sawna's cafe. She'd probably head for the Silver Devil, plodding along and feeling contented with the large amount of food she'd just consumed.

~~
There were probably various androids around too, doing odd jobs around the ship.