Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Six

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Ellie frowned a little at the question. "Yeah, I've talked to them. They're glad to know I'm okay. It's so strange how much older they are now, though." In the photos she'd seen, they both had a lot of gray hairs she didn't remember from before.

~~
Ethan looked amused. "The library's always open. You can stop by any time you want, as long as you don't get sugar on the books."

"Alright, that's enough for now, we don't want to hurt him by healing too quickly" Starr said once Hewitt started to wake. "He seems closer to waking up at least." She said then looked to Elllie and gave her a little more energy to help her not crash now.

~~~
Dawn looked back to her meal, finishing it quietly now.

Ellie nodded. "Okay. Let's hope it helped." She smiled at Starr as Starr gave her a little more energy. "Thanks for the boost. Your magic is better than coffee, I think."
She looked back at Hewitt again, watching him lie there. She really hoped he would wake up soon, he'd been asleep for almost two weeks now.

Esk fell silent, not sure what to say or do now. He glanced to Tori.

---

Kay glanced up as people came in. He looked questioningly at both of them.

Matt awkwardly managed a half wave while still leaning on his crutches. "So uh... have you contacted Jess?" He asked, cutting right to the chase.

Kay frowned, then put a hand to his mouth. Shit..

Matt was reassured to know he wasn't the only one who'd not thought about it.

Kay stood up. [Things have been so hectic around here, so much else to think about. Have you?]

"I dunno how!" Matt explained. "You have her details man!"

Kay glanced to James, this didn't explain why HE was here.

Tori had been staying out of the way, probably looking at her tablet or something. She glanced up questioningly when Esk looked her way.
Like pretty much everyone on this ship, she'd heard the rumors about Dawn and Esk's feelings for each other, so it was a little odd to be here with them.

~~
James hesitated at Kay's look. "I'm just here because Matt invited me," he said. "We were talking, and the topic of siblings came up... you know how it is."

Kay looked suspicious.

"Can you contact her?" Matt asked. "Does she even know we were gone?"

Kay frowned. [Let me see if I can log in.] It had been 10 years, there was every chance his login details had been purged.
Getting things through Imperium space was always a bit of a chore, he'd managed before, he and Jess used to send emails to one another, maybe they'd get lucky and his codes would still work.
Unlike Luka he hadn't been declared dead after all, he'd just left.

[This may take a while.] He explained, setting the tablet down as he went back to his desk.

James stayed back as Kay started trying to log in, watching. He was curious to see if it would work after all this time, and he wondered if it would be possible for Luka to contact her family with Kay's help.
He didn't want to get too close though.

Starr chuckled softly at that comment. She hadn't been referred to like that before. "Thanks, I think"

~~~
Dawn glanced to Tori as well though quickly looked back to her plate. She had forgotten Tori was there for a moment.

"It's a compliment," Ellie told Starr with a smile. She watched Hewitt a while longer, "Man, I hope he recovers. That'd be nice."

Starr chuckled softly and dipped her head "Thank you." She said honestly.

Esk shook his head. It was pretty wierd having an audience and it felt kinda rude to not talk to Tori.
Not that he was really talking to Dawn either to be fair. Bah.

---

It took a bit of time, lots of logins, a lot of frowning and retrying of passwords and various codes. The Imperium sure made you jump through a lot of hoops to access any sort of contact didn't they?

[I can log in, but whether this will get through to her I don't know. I can't access straight peer to peer, I have to go via their vetted system. ] Damn too much time passing between logins. 10 years was, to be fair, pretty suspect.
This would have to go through to a central hub who would forward it to the relivant people. Which meant no privacy. Which meant he had to be cautious of what he wrote.

Matt fidgeted on his crutches. "Tell her we're okay.." Even if that wasn't entirely true. "and.. and that we'll uh.. I dunno... " Explaining things was gonna be awkward. Where had they been all this time, the fact they had kids now, so much news.
He had no idea where to even start.

"Ask her how what's his name is too!" He added.

Kay quirked an eyebrow [Heinrich?]

"Uh.. yeah?" Matt was a terrible brother huh? not even remembering his sister's husband's name.

Ellie smiled at Starr. "Okay, so I promised I was going to see Luna later. You guys wanna come along, or are you good?"

~~
"I really can leave if you guys want," Tori said. She'd said as much earlier, but it was worth repeating.

~~
James watched as Kay tried to log in, a little baffled by how closed the system was. He was accustomed to the Terran web, which was pretty much unregulated for the most part.
He laughed at Matt forgetting his brother-in-law's name, it was funny okay?
He made himself be quiet, so Matt and Kay could write their letter in peace.

"I will stay a moment." Starr said, she wanted to try talking to Hewitt again

"I'll come with you" Shane replied

~~~
Dawn smiled at Tori "It's alright." They were pretty much done talking like this anyway, though she wasn't ready to leave yet.

Ellie nodded. "See ya later Starr." She headed off with Shane, getting directions to find Armin and Luna.

Armin was still at the park, letting Luna play as long as she wanted, talking to her, encouraging her.

Cute.

----

Esk shrugged. "Should... should find those scans... " He mumbled.

---

Kay chewed his lip and wrote a short message, a simple <[I'm sorry it's been so long, we're alive, we're okay, we miss you.] >
The last part might not be entirely true, they were all so accustomed to Jess not being around after all, but it was worth the half lie he felt.

Matt moved to get a look at the screen and Kay added <[How are you and Heinrich? I hope you're well. Talk again soon.]>

Matt nodded. Yep, that'd do.

Kay rubbed the bridge of his nose. [at least we can say we've tried now.]

Matt nodded again. "Yeah..>"

Kay pressed send.

Starr looked back to Hewitt after Ellie and Shane had left Hewitt?

~~~
Dawn nodded at the reminder "I will." She said simply. She would take the time to go find Kay after she was done eating

~~~
Luna was enjoying playing in the park as a dragon with some other dragon babies. She kept checking to make sure Armin was still there as she did.

Ellie wandered into the park with Shane, and headed over to Armin to watch. Luna was having fun with other kids! She wasn't going to interrupt that!

~~
Tori looked to Dawn. "You haven't looked at the scan results yet? I can get you a copy if you want to take a look before talking to Kay about it."

~~
James couldn't read the message well, he knew only a few words in Satare. He hung back still, not wanting to get in the way. "Would it be possible to contact Luka's family at some point? I know she's hoping to find a way to do that," he suggested.

Shane looked tot he kids and smiled softly "They are cute." He said before shifting to his dragon form and heading over to play with them a little.

~~~
"Not yet, that would be nice. Thank you" Dawn said with a smile to Tori.

Armin bowed his head in greeting to Ellie and Shane, he looked pretty content here and in this role. Fatherhood came naturally, far more naturally than politics for sure.

---

Hewitt stirred in response to Starr.

---

Kay looked thoughtful and nodded. [She could send a message through my login, it will go to the central server and potentially be read by staff before being forwarded so she'll have to be careful about how much she says, but yes.]

"Why can't she log in herself?" Matt asked. He didn't really get it.

Kay frowned, he didn't really know Luka's backstory at all. He'd barely interacted with her. He looked to James for an explanation.

---

Ellie smiled at Armin and sat down on a nearby park bench. Even with Starr's energy boost, she still felt drained after doing so much healing. The human body wasn't exactly designed to channel that much power.
"Being a dad suits you," she told him.

~~
Tori sent some information to Dawn's tablet. She still had it all on hand from helping Kay yesterday. "All right, there you go."

~~
"The Imperium never heard from Luka after her ship crashed, so they most likely think she's dead," James said. "I'm sure she's tried to log in, but it hasn't worked, as far as I know. Probably they deleted her login credentials."

I know you are hurting, but I want to make sure you are alright otherwise. Starr said, not sure how much he was hearing but speaking to see if he would wake up more.

~~~
"Thanks" Dawn said and looked at her tablet to see the information there.

~~~
Luna and Shane played with the other kids sliding and climbing on the equipment happily.

Armin bowed his head. "thank you." He told her sincerely. "Paternal instincts are strong in Vavare males, it is part of our nature to nurture. " He lowered his voice "It helps that Luna is an astoundingly sweet natured and incredibly affectionate child as well of course." He chuckled softly.
He then noticed how tired she looked. "Are you alright my friend? You seem exhausted."

---

Esk glanced over at Dawn's tablet, he was curious and hey, it was HIS brain. Even if he couldn't make much sense of it.

---

Kay frowned.

"ouch.. that's gotta suck." Matt winced.

[Can you let her know? I'm more than happy to let her use my account to send something, to let people know she's alive.] Kay wrote. Family mattered right? And having them knowing you were alive seemed like a pretty important thing to tell people you cared about.

---

Hewitt's fingers curled. His mind was hard to read, it wasn't one cohesive whole. She might get the dimmest of feelings though, no pain, more annoyance and frustration.

Tori smiled. "No problem." She watched Dawn and Esk as they checked over the readings.

~~
"That's pretty cute," Ellie said, watching the dragons play. "You know, I never thought of spiders as being good dads. I used to think they must all be mean because the lady spiders ate the man spiders back on Earth." She had no idea about some of the things the vavare used to do.
"I'm okay, Starr and I were just trying to heal Hewitt, the plant dude, with no success. Kinda tiring."

~~
"Sounds good. I'll go find her, you guys stay here... or do whatever you want." James smiled hesitantly. "Thanks, Kay."

Dawn turned the tablet so he could see it, even if he wouldn't understand much of it. Who knew, maybe seeing it could help him heal easier. Not like any of them understood his healing ability well.

~~~
Starr was glad to get that much from Hewitt after this long. I know it's annoying when your body doesn't do what you want it too. We are doing what we can to help you heal from that electrical attack.

Armin nodded, yeah he wasn't going to bring up vavare history. "It is our role. The males care for the offspring. It is only fair given the female bore them do you not think?" He reasoned.

---

Matt nodded to James. "okay, uh.. see you soon?"

Kay nodded vuagely but didn't look up from his tablet screen.

---

Esk didn't really know what he was looking at beyond brain scans. Sure he'd helped Dawn with a lot of her medical training, but not all of it and this was pretty specialised stuff anyway.

He had no idea what a healthy brain was supposed to look like.

From Dawn's perspective, had she done any neurology study in depth, the good news was that any brain injury wasn't major and could likely, given time, rewire around the bits that were oxygen starved for too long.
But they probably needed a specialist to confirm that.

---

Hewitt clenched a fist but that was the best she was going to get right now.

Ellie nodded sagely. "Makes sense to me," she agreed. "I'd make my husband be a stay at home dad, probably. I mean, if I had kids." Not really high on her to-do list, nope.

~~
James waved and headed off to look for Luka.

"And I am certain he would be most honoured to be trusted with such responsibility." Armin told Ellie happily.

---

Luka had just finished her morning excercises.

Ellie looked amused. "Honored to be trusted? I mean, I don't think it's that big a deal for a guy to take care of kids."

~~
James located Luka with some help from Vestia. "Hey Luka?"