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

Asher smiled shyly. "Things I never thought would happen, but here we are."

Dr. Martin noticeably relaxed, apparently deciding Nova was an ally here. "All right. Well, I suppose you'll want to know the details of what's been happening here."

Asher nodded. "Yes please. From what I've heard, you guys have been busy."

Dr. Martin nodded, and gestured for them to come with her, heading toward an old-fashioned, large farm house. "Well, our primary goal with this facility is to protect androids in danger. We've made it clear to the general public that if they choose to rescue and android in danger and bring them here to us, we'll ensure that they have the best legal protection we can offer. So far only a few androids have been brought here, we're hoping more will be over the next few days.
"Our other major priority here is providing information to as many people as we can. We'll be opening the doors to reporters later today, letting them interview anyone who's able and willing. And we've been reaching out to the Terran government, trying to get a meeting with the council as soon as possible."

"Are the rescued androids in danger of being confiscated?" Asher asked.

Dr. Martin frowned, then shook her head. "In some danger, yes. The police are reluctant to act though, they don't want to become the bad guys in a major sapient rights case. It also helps that so far, the androids' legal owners would rather not have an android in their house, due to safety concerns."

"well, that's better than nothing," Asher said. "Can we see the androids who've been rescued?"

Dr. Martin nodded, and led them into the house. "That might be a good idea. The androids are, understandably, pretty nervous. They'd probably appreciate someone who isn't Terran visiting them."

Asher looked to Nova. Yeah, she looked pretty Terran, but she was his bodyguard. He was sure Kay and Starr would both be pissed if he immediately went off without his bodyguard and got killed. "Want to come along and meet some androids?" he asked.

Nova smiled softly and nodded "Yeah, I go where you go, plus it's good to meet new people." She said happily

Asher smiled slightly. "Well then, let's go say hi."

Dr. Martin led them down the hall, her bodyguards followed along unobtrusively. She reached a room and knocked on the door. "This is Dr. Martin, I have an android and his bodyguard who'd like to see you if you're okay with visitors," she said.

There were a few long moments, Nova and Asher probably heard some murmuring in the room, but no clear details of what was being said. "That sounds all right, ma'am," a nervous voice said after a moment.

Dr. Martin opened the door and stood aside. "This is Asher, the android who brought MegaBrainTech's recent sapient rights violations to our attention," she said. "This is Nova, his bodyguard." She knew Nova needed to be introduced, but it was kinda hard to introduce somebody who you literally only knew was a bodyguard. Hmm.

The half dozen androids in the room were standing near each other, they seemed to have made sure the room's comfortable armchairs and pretty glass coffee table were between them and anyone who came in, it was apparent that they weren't entirely comfortable with having been snatched off the streets and brought to some new location.

Some of the androids were standing protectively in front of the others, for all the good that would do if anyone actually wanted to hurt them. The ones they were protecting looked to have been attacked, one was missing an arm, another looked to have a crack in his eye, and one looked as if someone had been hoping to remove the synthetic skin from her face, although they hadn't gotten very far in their efforts and she still looked mostly human.

Asher tried to stifle a flinch at the sight. Seeing damaged androids was awful for him, in a very different way than seeing damaged organics was. It was more disgusting and terrifying somehow, and he wasn't really sure why.
He successfully hid the worst of his reaction, and forced himself to be reassuring. "Hello guys," he said, doing his best to seem unfazed. "I'm sorry we have to meet during one of the most uncertain times in our history, but it's still good to meet all of you."

"Thank you," one of the androids said awkwardly. Several of them were looking at Nova. This android had a bodyguard? Whoa.

Nova frowned at the damage done to the robots then glanced back to Dr. Martin to ask quietly. "Do you have the supplies to repair the damage done to some of them?" She knew Asher was a medic, though James had taken to being an android medic more. When attention focused on her she dipped her head to the group. "Hello, I am glad so many of you could be rescued in these turbulent times."

"Thank you," one of the androids said to Nova, still speaking for the others. "We're, uh, glad to have been rescued. It's a lot better than the alternative." He was probably trying to make a joke.

Dr. Martin shook her head at Nova's question. "We have the basics: skin adhesive, and skin in a few colors. But eyes and arms are trickier to obtain on short notice. A lot of businesses have temporarily closed because of the protests."

"I'm fine," the one who's face skin was damaged said. "Don't mind me." She wasn't comfortable being patched up in a place like this, it was just too foreign and sudden.

Another android nodded. "We're all okay. No danger of death or anything, you know."

Asher looked worried, he'd really rather all the robots get fixed up. But maybe he was biased. "Mind if we come in and visit with you guys for a while?"

"Go ahead," the android who seemed to be speaking for the others said. "You guys can sit down if you want, the armchairs look comfortable."

Nova nodded, she understood not having the supplies. "I'm glad none of you are in danger of death." She said gently and dipped her head to them again. Perhaps it was simply the aesthetic desire to look nice? Hm, she would have to work on that. "They do look comfortable. You can sit if you want too, we will not harm you." She said kindly.

Asher smiled at Nova. She seemed to be pretty good at this so far, he was glad for that, if not all that surprised. Nova was probably a few hundred years old, he assumed, so she'd had lots of time to gather experience. And of course Starr would only assign someone she knew could handle the job. Still, it was nice.

The androids seemed hesitant. They muttered together for a bit, always at least one of them keeping an eye on the visitors.

"We'll give you guys some space," Dr. Martin decided. She and her bodyguards would head back down the hall. They probably weren't going to go far, but at least they were out of sight.

Asher watched the trio go, then led the way over to the chairs, sitting down in one of them. "I'm going to hazard a guess these chairs are more comfortable than shuttle seats, but I guess Nova's the only one who can actually confirm that," he said. Weak jokes about how robots had no sense of touch, whoo.

Nova watched the trio leave then followed Asher to the chairs, taking a seat near him. "Well, since I am the only one that can confirm it, yes, these chairs are very comfortable." She said with a smile.

A few of the androids looked amused, one even laughed.

"Our suspicions are confirmed," Asher said, smiling at Nova.

Deciding that these people seemed okay, a few of the androids went to sit in the chairs across from Nova and Asher. There weren't enough chairs for everyone unless the androids sat near the two, so the rest just stood behind the ones who were sitting down.
It was progress, at least.

Asher gave them a reassuring smile. "You guys were at the protest, I'm guessing?"

"Yes, most of us were," one android woman said. "It was a big protest here, one of the biggest in the Terran Empire, we read." She looked proud.

"Well I didn't get to attend the protest, I was working in my owner's grocery store," the one missing an arm said. "I still protested though. I walked right up to my owner and told him I wanted my rights, and my paycheck. The customers panicked like I was going to murder them on the spot, and practically stampeded for the exit." He shook his head.

"That must have taken so much courage. I'm not sure I could have done it," Asher said. He doubted he could have forced himself to say anything if he hadn't been surrounded by friends and dragons who could create stars, nope.

The android with the missing arm looked pleased with himself.

"I couldn't attend either, so instead I convinced every Eight Series in the mall where I work to hide," another one said.

Pretty soon all the androids were going to regale the two with their stories of heroism, which might be slightly exaggerated in some cases, but were definitely based on truth. Everything had been so terrifying after the protest, but the fact remained that they had done something brave. And now they were remembering that, they didn't seem to want to stop.

Nova smiled as she listened to them talk about what they did. It was nice to hear what they had done, even with the few exaggerations. She was just glad they weren't hurt worse than they had been and that some had helped others when they could.

The androids would probably talk for quite a while, maybe giving Asher and Nova a chance to share their stories too. It was definitely improving the androids' moods to think about what they had done lately.

Later on, some guy knocked on the door and asked everyone if they wanted to be interviewed, because there were reporters who would love to hear them. He assured them that the reporters were all neutral or sympathetic to the android situation.

Some androids decided to go talk to them reporters, Asher would probably go along, which probably meant Nova had to go too. Some of the reporters would want to talk to Nova, and would probably ask her about her employer. Asher wasn't the one who had hired her, after all. So who was the person who had asked Nova to be here?

Hopefully Nova could handle the questions or just refuse to answer, because Asher was kinda distracted talking to some other reporter. Oops.

Nova had to stay with Asher, especially with him going outside. She looked to the reporters, not telling them much, just that her employer had asked her to take care of Asher and keep him safe, which made him her boss for the duration. One other thing she said was that androids were people as much as any other living creature.

The reporters realized before long that they weren't going to get very much exciting information from Nova, but they listened to everything she had to say and thanked her for her time. They were still curious of course, but they were polite enough not to pressure her for information she wasn't willing to give.

Asher alternated between offering encouragement to the other androids, and talking to reporters. It wasn't exactly his idea of fun, but so far it wasn't completely awful at least. So yay for things going slightly better than expected.

At some point the sapient rights people would call off the reporters, saying that was going to be all for now, because the androids had been under a lot of stress lately and needed time to rest.

That reminded Asher of how many hours it had been since he and Nova had left Vestia, so he quietly asked her if she needed to rest. He wasn't sure how much sleep star dragons needed, but he knew that any Terran would be starting to feel jet lagged by now, so he figured he'd better ask.

Nova smiled at Asher and nodded "I could use some sleep, if you are ready to rest as well?" She wanted to remain at her strongest after all. "It is best to do so now while things are calm."

"I wouldn't mind a break," Asher said. Physically he didn't need sleep, but androids still experienced mental exhaustion. And being very much an introvert at heart, he found talking to all these new people pretty darn tiring. "And it's much better to rest now, than to work ourselves to exhaustion during whatever comes next."

He'd make his excuses to some of the robot rights people, and tell them to send him a message if anything happened.

Then they could head back to the shuttle.

Nova smiled and nodded, speaking to some of them as well before they went back to the shuttle. Once there she looked to him again and smiled gently. "Remember, any time you need a break or anything, you can use me as an excuse to retreat to the shuttle." She said as she closed the ramp behind them.

Asher looked kinda relieved as the ramp closed behind them, at Nova's words he smiled back gratefully. "Thank you. That means a lot to me. I'll try not to use that excuse too much, but it's good to have that option."

Nova smiled softly again. "Yeah, sometimes it's good to have an organic companion." She said, heading for the bed to get some rest. "Wake me if you need me."

"All right. Hopefully I won't need to," Asher said. Nova deserved some rest, she was being so good at this job. He'd head off to some other end of the shuttle, to give her as much space as the shuttle would allow.

Nova went to sleep for a while, waking after a few hours to go to the galley to make some food.

Asher would use the blessedly mandatory free time to listen to some music and relax. He did end up messaging people for a while, but he didn't want to drive himself crazy doing everything at once, so he tried to resist the temptation.

He also wrote some brief messages to Kay and Starr and James, but since it was probably some ungodly hour in the morning on Vestia, he scheduled them to be sent in a few hours. No need to wake anyone up.

He'd wander over to see what Nova was up to when he heard her moving around.

(I'm pretty sure Vestia and this thread are completely desynced in time at this point, haha)

(lol, probably)
Nova looked to him and smiled softly. "Hello again Asher. Did you rest too?" She asked kindly.

"A little, yes. I feel a bit more, uh, human now?" Asher joked. "Do you want help with anything? Or I can leave you alone if you prefer." Hey, she might want some time alone. Sleeping didn't really count towards that.

Nova chuckled softly and shrugged "I haven't seen you in the cafeteria on Vestia much." She said, glancing to him then taking her bowl to the table. "I've finished already anyway, well, except for eating it."

"I don't often have reasons to go there, " Asher said, smiling sheepishly. Yeah, he really did only visit dining areas once in a blue moon, didn't he? "I could do dishes or something, if you wanted."
She'd been helping him all day, he figured he should offer to be helpful.

Nova smiled again and shrugged "If you want to, but you don't have to." She said gently.

Asher went over to do whatever dishes were currently on the counter. He was in the room, so he figured he should do something other than watch her eat. "We may need to head out again in a bit over an hour. MegaBrainTech says going to be rolling out that update for everyone to download soon, and it should be the version that Mourn modified. So that should be interesting.
"Until then, do whatever you want with your time. I'm not sure how much free time we're going to have once people notice that there are free androids on the loose."