Unity Station

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Just outside of Imperium space, a small but well equiped research station.

Unity is a joint venture between multiple worlds, hence the name. Xenobiology, anthropology and astronomy are some of the things researched here.
There's a small school, a few shops, one or two tiny restaurants and a coffee shop but generally speaking, the majority of the inhabitants are either researchers or family of researchers.

The chief of medicine is an insectoid woman named Yessalia.
Chief of security is a man named Tias.

Moone asked for him then nodded "Some dragons died and Sawna disappeared but the rest only have injuries or got through without any. They used that decompression to stop the slavers."

Asher sighed. "I'm sorry they didn't all make it." He wondered what might have happened to make Sawna disappear, but he didn't want to have to ask a ton of questions on his behalf. He could always ask someone else later. "I'm glad they figured out ways to get rid of the slavers."
They must have been so desperate to resort to decompressing a whole level, he thought to himself grimly.

Moone nodded, but she wasn't sure that was the best way to fight. There had to be a lot she wasn't being told here.

Asher shook his head. "We don't need to think about their battle now, they're not in danger at the moment." He smiled softly, "You and Skye should catch up, talk about happy things. I'm sure you have lots of books or movies you can recommend to her or something?" He didn't know what Skye and Moone had used to talk about, but he was trying to be helpful.

Moone smiled at the suggestion and nodded "Right, happier topics." She said and looked to the screen to talk to Skye about other things that weren't so sad

Asher smiled softly. "You guys can catch up, I'll leave you to it." He got up. "I think Skye's going to be happy to get to know the person you've become." He was proud of Moone and how well she'd grown up in spite of all the hardship she'd faced, and he was certain Skye would feel similarly.

"See you later Asher." Moone said and waved to him. She didn't mind him staying but this could get boring for him.

Asher headed out. In his opinion it was good to have privacy when talking to long lost siblings, although maybe that was just his preference, who knew.

Soon enough the sisters were busy talking to one another and not really paying attention to anything else.

Asher would decide to go look for Lana. He knew she was probably a little freaked out by her dad's return to the universe. And now that he'd talked to Matt, maybe he'd be able to better explain the situation to her.
Or something. He didn't actually really know what was on Lana's mind currently, he was just worried about her.

Lana was... about. Eating candy she'd managed to con out of someone. HAH.

Asher would find Lana before too long. "Lana, are you free at the moment?" he asked. Of course she was free at the moment, she was eating candy, it looked like. But he wanted to be nice, since he was here on behalf of her dad.

She looked up, chewing and shrugging. "You look serious." She observed.

Asher tried to smile reassuringly. "It's been a busy week," he said by way of explanation, "But that's not why I'm here. Your dad sent me a message today, he's wondering if you'd be okay with him contacting you."

Lana blinked, swallowing the candy. "He... wants to talk?" She felt a rising sense of panic at that. He was a stranger, someone she only knew of as a character in stories told to her by others. She tried to hide the alarm in her eyes. "I... what would I say to him?" This was difficult. Of course she was curious, she'd spent years wondering what the man was really like, imagining him being in her life. How he might have talked and acted and looked. People said he smiled and joked a lot and she'd never seen Uncle Web smile nor crack a joke.

But she was also scared he wouldn't meet the expectations she had, the fantasy she'd conjured up in her dreams.

"He... knows about mother right?"

Asher's expression softened, he could see that Lana was a little unnerved by the prospect. "Yes, he'd like to talk with you, but only if you feel ready to talk to him." He hesitated, "I don't know what you would say to him, maybe you could tell him a little about yourself. Or you could just let him do most of the talking, if you preferred."
He nodded, "Yes, he knows what happened with your mother. I explained what happened, he needed to know." Although Asher still wished he'd found a better way to break the news to Matt, ugh.

Lane nodded grimly. "Alright..." She agreed after a little thought. She stood up.

this was especially weird for her. While the others all had memory of Vestia, all had some emotional attachment to the crew, Lana really didn't. They were all strangers and honestly she felt a little out of place in everyone else's excitement about seeing their family again.
THIS was her family, it was all she'd ever known after all.

But she nodded.

Asher watched Lana's expression, and tried to imagine what all this must be like for her. It had to be scary, he thought, suddenly having a ton of people she'd only heard about reappear, and insert themselves into her life. People the rest of her family knew and loved. But she probably had no idea what to expect.
"Want to tell me what's on your mind?" he asked, trying to choose his words carefully. "I realize this must be really strange for you, having all these people suddenly reappear."

Lana shrugged. "I don't know, it's just... a lot to take in. " She admitted. She shook her head. "But i'm curious to know what he's really like. "

Asher nodded. "I can imagine. Getting to know these people you've only heard about, well, it's a big change. But I think you'll like them. And if you don't like them, then I'll scare them off for you." He smiled slightly to show he was joking about the last part, although they probably both knew he wasn't terribly scary anyway.
"Want me to ask Matt to write you a letter, so you can read it and think about what you want to say?" he asked.

Lana nodded. "that.. that sounds good." Yes, meant no pressure of live chat, she liked this idea.

Asher smiled softly. "Okay, I'll ask him to do that."

"Thank you Uncle Asher." Lana smiled weakly and headed back to their living space.

Asher smiled again. "Of course. See you later, Lana."

He'd get out his tablet to text Matt again. [Lana's a little nervous about it, but she's interested in learning more about you. We think it'd work best if you wrote her a letter to start with, if that sounds good to you, so she can think about what she wants to say.]
He thought Matt would understand that, Matt was good at being understanding in general. He had a feeling that was going to be a tough letter for Matt to write though, seeing as he'd, you know, never actually met Lana and knew nothing about her. Hmm.

Lana waved and wandered off to go find something to do while she waited, anxiously, for a letter from her estranged father. Eep.

Several hours later, Matt wrote a letter, in typical Matt style.

He told Lana about Vestia, a wonderful talking living ship that they called both home and friend.
He told her about Ellie and her hats and how much fun they had making ridiculous headwear and about how hats were apparently 'super important' in her culture.
He wrote about Shane who seemed to always have a new skill to show them and was always impressive and surprising.
He told her they were his best friends and that he hoped she'd like them too.

He told her about 'uncle Kay' looking forward to seeing 'uncle Asher' and Danika, and about how relieved he was to know 'uncle Web' at least had kept his promise of taking care of them all.

He asked her if she'd ever met Jarral. She hadn't. Web didn't talk about him.

He mentioned how strange it was to have a grown up nephew he never knew existed but realised who he was writing to before he wrote anything more on the subject.

He told her about the arcade here, and the pools, and all the other activities and how there was BONUS, no school! Unless she wanted to go to school, then they could probably find someone willing to teach but it'd be whatever SHE wanted to learn and therefore way better.

He remembered he was supposed to be getting to know this girl, so he then asked some questions.
What did she like doing for fun? Did she have many friends on the station? What was Unity like?

How was Moone? He wondered about her, she'd given up so much of her childhood to look after others and honestly, he empathized, though he didn't tell Lana this.

He then told her about Eva, at least, that she existed and was Esk's half sister and some big important military person fighting demons or something. Also she was kinda hot.
And Esk was mad at him for saying that. Okay he was mad for other things too but she was too young to hear about that!

And shit, now he'd brought up Esk. He didn't want to talk about that, not when it was all so uncertain.
He just told her 'uncle Esk' was working real hard on getting well again.

Also don't worry about the demons, they're far away and totally not something you have to worry about!

Then he sort of ran out of things to tell her, having told her well, effectively NOTHING about himself at all.
So he just signed off

“hopefully talk soon.”

He didn't even sign off as Dad, that was still too weird to him and he was unsure it was okay.
He just left it blank.

Lana read through this stream of conciousness a few times, bewildered by it. What a weird letter.
She wondered if it was nerves or if her father was just like this.

She sat and pondered before writing back.

[I admit it's weird having you back. I'm nervous. Are you? You must be right? Everyone here talks about you a lot, even Uncle Web and he doesn't talk a lot at all. But then he looks sad. He looks sad a lot.

Uncle Asher has told me you have fought a lot of bad people and won and that you're super brave, is all that true? Did you really hold off a boarding party of slavers using only things you found around the ship as makeshift weapons?

I hope Uncle Esk is alright. Nobody is really telling me exactly what happened, just that people were "sick." Danika said her Dad was in a coma? That doesn't sound good. Is he alright now?

They were all so excited when they heard their Mother's voice in their heads again. Jumping around like crazy.

I think Uncle Asher is nervous too. He's not very good at lying, he gets this face when he's trying to be cheerful for your sake.

I don't know who Jarral is.Is he Uncle Web's son? Uncle Web never talks about home, I think he finds it all a bit sad. It doesn't sound like a very fun place.
I don't think i'd like to live underground, i'd miss the stars.

Unity is nice, the people here are nice for the most part. Dr Webster gets angry if you mess around near the medical room and scolds me when I get hurt.

Uncle Web said he's named after her and that she's not as scary as she looks. I don't know. He says she means well and I should listen to her because she's just trying to keep me safe.

Professor Cobin is nice, he gives me candy and tells me about his latest book. He likes learning about other species and he loves magic even though he can't do it himself. He says it's a great gift that should be encouraged as much as it's controlled.
He's a funny man. His books are big and boring to read though.

Vestia sounds interesting. But very big. Bigger than Unity even! I can't imagine a ship so large. Is she really that huge?

Moone is okay I think, I don't see her that much. ]

truthfully Lana was usually off exploring or talking to people or getting into some sort of mischief. She loved to explore places she shouldn't be exploring.

[I'll ask for you.] She decided.

Then she didn't know what else to write.

[I ran out of things, i'm sorry. I'm going to go. Talk again.

- Lana ]

AUGUST 23, 2800

Asher was freaking out.

This most likely came as a surprise to absolutely no one, since he'd been pretty much freaking out to varying degrees ever since Vestia had reappeared a couple weeks ago. Oh, he was trying to look calm and collected for the kids, since he knew that was what he was supposed to be doing, but he'd always been terrible at keeping his thoughts from showing on his face.

They'd been in contact with Vestia, so reasonably he knew everything was fine, but he kept wondering things anyway.

What if Starr thinks we raised the kids wrong?

What if Kay doesn't like who I've become?

What if it's a mistake to let the kids go anywhere near Vestia and her bad luck?

He probably headed to the dock, with whoever else wanted to go, excited to see everyone as soon as possible. It had been such a long time, and he didn't know what to expect, but he had missed these people so desperately, and he wanted to see them in person again and hopefully find out things were going to be okay.