Starr's Shuttle, Pegasus

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I don't remember its name at the moment. Starr, feel free to edit the post title if you want lol

Nova went with him and kept watch over him as they left the shuttle once more. She hoped they would stay safe, but would do all she could to protect Asher even if it didn't stay safe.

They'd head over toward the house, where the reporters tried to flock around them and ask questions. Asher told them briefly that the new update only gave the androids freedom, and didn't change their personalities in any way. And that androids were like people: a few might be angry and possibly even violent, but the vast majority were peaceful, and just wanted to be treated with respect and dignity.

Dr. Martin showed up along with her two bodyguards, as well as a couple of the androids Asher and Nova had met earlier, and Dr. Martin led them to another shuttle. A pilot was already inside and the shuttle's engine was idling.

When they got in, Dr. Martin looked to Nova. "You're not carrying any weapons, are you? Civilians aren't permitted onto the Capitol complex grounds if they're carrying weapons."

Nova was quiet with the reporters, keeping watch for Asher. She looked to the Dr. at her question then shook her head. "I have no physical weapons on me." She replied a little warily. She always had magic and weapons hidden in 'pockets', ut they weren't on her at the moment.

Dr. Martin nodded. "Good. I realize it's your job to protect Asher and you probably aren't thrilled to be going into this place unarmed, but it's necessary. The Terran Empire isn't going to let anything happen to any of us in there, they don't want a martyr situation on their hands."

"True enough, which is one reason I was the only one to stay with Asher." Nova said with a small smile.

"That, and I would have felt silly with a team of bodyguards," Asher said, smiling sheepishly.

Dr. Martin chuckled. "Good. Well, try not to worry."

The shuttle lifted off. Most of the travel time was going to be spent hovering nearby waiting for clearance to land, and not actually flying, since the place was fairly nearby. Yay.

"That is another reason." Nova said with a chuckle. She wached the others as they waited to land once more. To her it almost seemed to be a waste to fly instead of drive this distance.

The shuttle flew over acres of buildings interspersed with gardens and lazily winding roads that made up the capitol complex. The shuttle landed, as Nova had observed, rather inefficiently, in a medium sized shuttle parking area near a large, graceful-looking building. There were a couple guards watching as the shuttle landed.

Asher fidgeted with his badge a bit, looking nervous. Sometimes he had this feeling that he didn’t belong somewhere, that he shouldn’t be doing something, and important places like this were just the sort of thing to make him feel panicky and not good enough.
“How’s Mourn’s statement going?” he muttered to Nova, trying to distract himself from the feeling that he wasn’t supposed to be here. He’d forgotten to ask her earlier, but now he was stalling, and he was thinking of all sorts of things to ask. Oh dear.

Nova blinked and looked to him "It is out, and copied to as many forums as he could get it on." She replied and gave him a smile. "You don't have to be nervous, my prince."

Asher smiled softly. "I'll have to read it later. I'm glad it's out there now, I'm sure that whatever he decided to say, it'll convince people to support our cause."
He ducked his head slightly at Nova's reassurance, being referred to as a prince was probably always going to be a bit strange to him. To be fair, everything about his life these days was strange to him, though. "It's difficult to put aside my old beliefs sometimes, but you're right. Now isn't the time for fear. We should head out there and try to convince them."
And not stall any more, no matter how tempting it was.
It was really tempting to stall though.

Nova smiled at him and dipped her head "She is putting her story out too, though without many details. You will be known, even if not by name." She said then looked around them again. "We should press on."

"I'll have to thank her too, she and Mourn have done so much today," Asher said, with another smile. He was so grateful for Mourn and Starr, they had thrown themselves into this cause so much, he doubted all this would even be happening if not for everything they had done over the past year.
"All right, let's do this." He headed for the ramp along with the others.

The guards were waiting nearby, one holding a scanner and coming over to greet them, while the other rested her hand near her gun, ready to draw if there was trouble. Looked like everyone was going to get a security check, yay.

Nova smiled and followed him, watching to be sure it was safe for all of them. She looked at the security people, automatically sizing them up then dipping her head in a greeting. "Hello." She said gently, letting them do their job with checking them over. "We do not wish to start trouble here."

The guard with the scanner nodded, although he looked a little oddly at Nova for her phrasing. "Good. We don't want you to start trouble either." He'd check the organics' IDs, then scan the organics. After that, he'd turn to scan the androids, and ask for their serial numbers. They didn't have identification, after all.
"You're all clear," he said. To Nova he added, "Magic is prohibited in the capitol complex, just so you know."

Nova frowned a little but nodded. "Even with the permit, and only as defense?" She asked to be certain of the parameters here.

"Even with a permit, magic is prohibited here. In an emergency, it is possible use of magic would be treated more leniently, but I'm not a legal advisor and I can't vouch for that," the guard guy said. "You guys come with us, we'll escort you to your meeting."

Nova nodded and glanced to Asher, following him to the meeting. That kind of restriction could cause problems if they ran into trouble, but she supposed the stones to the shuttle would have to suffice if things went bad. They couldn't really be faulted for simply leaving, could they?

The guards led the way to the meeting.

Asher smiled reassuringly at Nova as they walked, and took some time to whisper reassurances to the other androids. If he focused on helping the others, it was a little easier to keep up the illusion that he was confident about this.

The group headed into the building, through a large entry room where a few people stared at them curiously, down a hallway, and into a meeting room were a few important looking people greeted them, inviting them to come sit down to discuss the situation.

Asher introduced everyone and thanked the politicians for seeing them, since this was supposed to be about androids speaking up, and the others seemed a little too nervous to take charge. He was scared too, but he was pretty good at controlling it.

Nova kept an eye on the others as they walked to and into the room. She kept to her place, guarding Asher and watching over the others as she listened to them talk.

The meeting would probably be a few hours of discussion, negotiation, and appealing to the Terran Empire's benevolent motivations.

The group representing the Terran Empire expressed their carefully worded, mostly reasonable and rarely outright racist concerns and questions, asking for opinions on the new freedom update, the leaks of possibly-incriminating MegaBrainTech information, and how androids experienced emotions. They also asked for further clarification and opinions from the organics in the room, because apparently they weren't totally sold on listening to the androids.

The androids would explain everything they could about the situation, emphasizing that freed androids weren't likely to be violent, and saying that they didn't know how whether MegaBrainTech had known they were creating sentient life, but that the footage looked pretty incriminating, didn't it?

Asher omitted a few facts here and there, carefully failing to mention that he was personally acquainted with the guy who had hacked MegaBrainTech, and that he was the son of the queen who had recently posted her own story of adopting an android. He did, however, mention that he had been in communication with Mourn and believed the guy's motivations to be purely charitable, and that he found the story of the queen heartwarming, and hoped he could thank her in person someday for her generosity.

Asher told the politicians that if MegaBrainTech had indeed been hiding the truth, then the Terran people were victims of the deception just as the androids were. After all, he said, Terrans were essentially a good species, and they never would have hurt an android if they hadn't been misled. One corporation was at fault here, not the Terran Empire or the Terran people.

The other androids all did their best to hide their distaste, they all knew the Terrans weren't free from blame here, but that it was necessary to let them have that illusion for now.

But the politicians were glad for the chance to avoid feeling responsible, so they decided to start an investigation, and move all the androids to safe facilities where they could be kept safe from violent people.

Dr. Martin got them to promise that sapient rights activists would be present at all facilities.

Nova was glad of the outcome, adding in her views when asked and not mentioning that Asher was the prince. She did say that she had met many free androids and that they were kind but scared to her, as was true of other species who had grown up enslaved and finally granted freedom.

The politicians had probably listened carefully to Nova and Dr. Martin's opinions, organic opinions counted for a lot here.

With everyone convinced the investigation should happen, the politicians asked Nova and the others if they had any other requests regarding how the investigation should be handled, or any more remarks in general.

Nova thought about it then shrugged and looked to Asher to see if he wanted to say anything. "Nothing I can think of except to not harm those who have turned to violence until their motives have been examined.

Asher nodded. "Yes, Nova's right. Please, ensure that all the androids are given protection. The ones who have committed crimes need to be given a fair trial, just like any organic would be."

The politicians considered that, then nodded. "Yes, that's fair. We'll make sure the police know to use non-lethal force to capture potentially hazardous androids," one said.

"And we'll hold them for the duration of the investigation. Once the investigation is over, their fate will be decided," another said.

Asher smiled weakly. "Thank you." He looked to the others, "I don't think we have any further requests at this time. Please contact me or one of my friends if you have questions."

The politician nodded. "Thank you all for your time." He got up, the others stood too. "The guards will show you all out."

Nova dipped her head in thanks and would follow Asher when he was ready to leave this room. She couldn't think of anything to add to the discussion.

The group would head back to the shuttle without incident, the only attention they got was a few people looking at them curiously.

Asher sighed with relief when they were safely in the shuttle and it was lifting off. "Thank goodness that went well. I don't know what we would have done if they'd refused to help."

Nova nodded "I hope they keep their word and your people are soon free." She said gently