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 looked out into the darkness, feeling the weight of what might be happening right now sinking in even further. "We can't get any closer than this?" he asked quietly.

Nova shook her head and glanced to him, setting the autopilot. "Only in more normal ways. The magic kicked us out this far."

Asher breathed out a weary sigh. Well, this was awful. They'd jumped all the way out to the middle of nowhere, and they were still too far from Vestia to help, and had no idea what was going on there yet anyway.
"All right. I guess we'll have to hope for the best then, and see them in a few days," he said. "I'm glad we tried, anyway." Maybe glad was the wrong word. He had this sick, hopeless feeling that something terrible was happening on Vestia, and they would be powerless to prevent it.

"We will reach them when we do, Starr's shuttle is faster than a regular shuttle after all." Nova said. It would still take a few days, but it was all she could say to try to help him feel better.

Asher nodded. "We knew this was a possibility when we tried. It was a risk worth taking. I guess I can probably talk Kay into telling me what's going on now, at least?" If Kay wasn't busy patching up the wounded or something...
He wrote a message to Kay, [Please can you tell us what's happening if you aren't busy? Nova says we won't be able to teleport in, if you're worried about that.]

Nova nodded, it was worth trying at any rate. She focused on the readings the scanners were giving her, worried since she couldn't hear the others.

Asher's tablet chimed, first with Kay's stay safe message, then the [We're being boarded, trying to fight them off. Stay where you are, please. If you can get help, send help but stay safe, please stay safe. ]

Well, that was just as bad as he'd feared.

Asher resisted the temptation to write a thousand questions, and instead wrote a simple [Thank you for telling me. Stay safe too.]

He went over to Nova. "Vestia's been boarded and they're fighting," he said. "Kay's asking us to stay where we are, but find someone to help if we can." Too late for the first request, but maybe the seconds was possible still.

Nova frowned and nodded, thinking of who was close enough to help then sending out a mayday message for Vestia, using her new name.

There really wasn't anyone that nearby out here, probably. The closest habitable planet to Vestia's position probably was at least a day of travel away from Vestia, and there likely weren't many ships closer than that.

Still, someone would probably respond and say they would go investigate. Might take them too long to arrive, but it was nice that they wanted to help.

Asher would send a message to the Guild about the situation. Someone wrote back promptly and apologetically saying they were very sorry, but their Scouts in that region were all very busy at the moment and that they wished Vestia the very best.

Asher tried to stay calm, tried not to imagine the slavers capturing his friends, using them, selling them, killing them. He knew what this sort of people could do, and being in an isolated little bubble in space like this only gave his imagination more time to run wild.

"Well, one day out is better than several" Nova said with a frown before she sighed and tried to focus the scanners on Vestia and the battle. Maybe at least they could see what was going on over there, though she was doubtful.

"Yes, we should be grateful for the good news we have," Asher agreed. He looked at Nova, "I suppose we likely couldn't have done much even if we had made it in," he admitted quietly. Maybe the shuttle would have helped, but one more android and one more dragon couldn't have changed the odds much.

The scanners might pick up the very faintest speck in the distance, which was probably Vestia. There really wasn't any detail though, no information about what was happening. The only reason they could even see Vestia was because she was so big.

Nova sighed then shrugged "I don't know, our Starr had a very unusual life. I would not be surprised if this shuttle had a lot of surprises."

Asher nodded at that. "It's hard to know what Starr might have thought to add," he agreed. He didn't recall finding anything that time Starr had let him look at her shuttle, but then, there was the definite possibility that she had hidden something from him. After all, he'd have no way to sense whether something was real or an illusion. "I hope they're winning right now. There are some smart people on that ship."

"I hope so too." Nova agreed. It was disconcerting to not have that link, but they had to hope.

Asher was quiet for a while, then something occurred to him. "The kids in the Imperium must be terrified right now," he said softly. "How far can your telepathy reach? Could you possibly contact them?" He knew Nova's telepathy wasn't nearly as strong as Starr's, but they were relatively close to the Imperium now. It was worth asking her, at least.

Nova blinked at that and looked to him before focusing to try to reach the kids. She was glad when she got a response. "Yes, I can reach them, it's about the edge of my ability though."

Asher smiled slightly at that. "Well, that's fortunate at least." He didn't actually know what they could say to reassure the kids though, come to think of it. There wasn't anything much they could say that wouldn't be a lie.

"What can I say to them?" Nova asked, looking back to the scanners then out into space. "Do we want to have them fly to a station out here?"

Asher considered that, then nodded. "That might be a good idea. We decided on Unity Station as the rendezvous point if something were to happen, please tell them that they should head there." He doubted the Silver Devil was going to be in any condition to head into the Imperium after being in a major battle. "Also tell them that everyone's doing their best to keep Vestia and everyone on her safe, so they should try not to worry."

Nova nodded and would relay the message through the kids to Thalia and the others there. "Alright, done"

"Thank you," Asher said, smiling softly. "I hope Thalia will be able to get them to the station safely." He didn't have a ton of faith in Thalia, but hey, maybe that was just cause he'd never really talked to her.
All he really knew about her was that he didn't like how she modded her spacecraft, and it wasn't fair to judge someone's character on that alone.

Nova nodded then sighed. "They are your brother and sisters, it is ok to worry about them." She said and tried to smile at him.

"Very true," Asher said. Adopted siblings were still siblings, after all. He looked at the scanner where they could see the faintest speck, that indicated Vestia in the distance. "I hope they get the generator down soon." He still wanted to teleport in, even knowing that would probably be pretty much useless.

Nova nodded then sighed "I just hope they survive this." She said quietly.

"I hope so too," Asher agreed. "We have to keep telling ourselves that they may not have their magic, but they're still smart and strong. If anyone can fight off slavers, it's them." Even so, he had his doubts.

Nova nodded and tried to smile again. This was really hard without being able to hear the others. She knew all the kids on Vestia would be scared.

Asher and Nova would probably just sit in silence for a while, hoping. Their friends and families were in there, they had to be okay. Right?