Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Four

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Dawn chuckled and shook her head a little "I don't need a party." She said softly, chuckling.

~~~
Skye looked to the door then came over to open it "Mourn? What's up?"

Dawn flushed and dipped her head. Yeah, that was her name now but it was still new and he was the first to call her that. "Yeah, I guess so."

"It'll be fun," Orel said, trying to sound positive. "We'll be pen pals."

~~
Asher decided to change the subject. "Terran space is going to feel so strange after being out here."

Esk shook his head, Dawn was weird. "You'll need a new name badge."

---

"Maybe a little normal might be good for us?" Matt mused. "I mean, so long as we avoid the crazy humanists we should be okay right? "

Skye chuckled and shrugged "Yeah, I guess we will be pen pals."

~
"I guess I will, but I like just being 'Dawn' instead of titles. Maybe I just need to get used to hearing it." Dawn said softly

Esk shrugged. "whatever you wanna be called."

"Still waiting on the 'friend' from you" Dawn teased lightly.

"Yeah. It might be nice to see non-magical people and things for a while. I'd love to walk down a regular hallway in a regular space station again." Asher smiled at the thought. "What are you looking forward to seeing out there?"

~~
Orel smiled again. "Yeah. Okay. This will be fun." He looked up at the towering bulk of Vestia. "I guess you must be lifting off soon, huh?"

Esk tensed. "Why do the words matter so much to you?" He asked guardedly.

---

Matt shrugged. "I dunno, but I mean, I left the Empire to travel... no real plans beyond just keeping on moving. "

"Sounds good to me," Asher said. "There are some beautiful places in Terran space, while I was in the mail service, I got to see some wonderful scenery." He smiled, "And we spent barely any time on Terra, but I hear it's really spectacular. Did you spend much time there before you met us?"

Matt shook his head. "Nah, we spent most of those two weeks trying to get OFF the planet. Might be nice to not have that kinda urgency any more... " He shrugged. "So you just like, couriered parcels around the place? How the heck do you go from space station to postman to medic?" He'd never really been filled in on Asher's whole weird career trajectory.

Skye nodded and looked to Vestia too. "Yeah, we are leaving soon." She said softly.

~~
Dawn shrugged and looked down. "I was teasing, I know we are friends even if you won't say the words."

A tiny form raced to Vestia, stopping in the entrance. Jewel looked to the cameras and smiled "Hey, I heard you were leaving today" She said quickly

Esk tried to hide the awkward feeling, his face a mask. Was she his friend? He'd never really HAD a friend before. Still, she stood up for him, she stood by him, she'd saved him several times.

He frowned a little, then nodded. "Whatever you say Doc." Well that was noncommittal.
He still couldn't quite shake the feeling she was just screwing with him or something, or would inevitably, like all the people he'd ever dared to give a shit about, leave.

Asher nodded. Oh yes, he'd heard about how hungry Matt and Kay had been, and Matt's means of finding food. "Next time you'll get the chance to enjoy the sights more, I'm sure," he said. He smiled a bit, "Every smartship in the mail service is required to have at least one assistant, and my smartship couldn't afford to hire an organic one, so the mail service offered him an android partner. My space station had just let me go, so I ended up assigned to him. The job wasn't that different, really. I repaired him when needed, and ran errands for him. Mostly the dock crews handled the actual mail carrying."

~~
Orel nodded. "I guess I should let you get going, then?" He looked unsure.

~~
"Oh hello, yes, we're leaving today," Vestia told Jewel. "Why do you ask?"

"Wow, so just you and the ship? Man, I hope you two got along." Matt remarked. "And yeah, actually being able to see stuff could be good... you know, without the getting arrested and having no money and stuff. "

Asher chuckled. "We got along pretty well. He had a more boisterous personality than I do, but he was nice. And very understanding when I was scared to go outdoors on a planet for the first time." He nodded, "That does sound much nicer than last time you were there. You have lots of people who can pay your bails this time, too."

Dawn smiled at Esk, glad that he was going to let that go now. She wasn't going to leave him alone if she could help it anyway.

~~
Skye dipped her head and frowned then nodded "Yeah, I guess so. I can't stay here after all."

~~~
"I want to come with you" Jewel said quickly "Please, I am ready, I just want to see the universe a bit and now it'll be safer, right?"

"No, I know you can't stay when you have to go get Moone," Orel said. "You should get going I guess, make sure Vestia doesn't leave without you." Not that she would, but long goodbyes were depressing.

~~
"We'll still be flying into danger I'm sure," Vestia said, "There are a lot of hazards in the universe. But if you're okay with that, you're welcome to come along."

Esk looked at Dawn suspiciously. She didn't really smile much, so when she did it was always a bit weird. He looked over her shoulder at the ranch. It was, he had to admit, pretty damn impressive. "You're really planning for everything aren't you?"

---

Matt laughed, the idea of a boisterous smart ship amused him for some reason. "man, are all mail ships in the terran empire sentient then?"

Skye nodded then pulled him in for a kiss before turning and flying into Vestia.

~~
Jewel grinned and turned to fly fast to get her things "I'll be right back" She called out.

~~
Dawn turned to look too and nodded "Yeah, I am trying to think of all the possibilities. So much can go wrong out there and I want to be as ready as we can be."

Esk nodded. "You don't intend to leave this ship do you?" He figured to be fair, that very few of the Devil's crew would now be that happy about cramming back into that small confined ship after being on Vestia. Still... should Rigel say they were going, he'd go. But if Dawn wouldn't leave, Rigel wouldn't leave.

"Not all of them, no. But a lot of smartships choose to join the mail service because it's a stable job, and usually pays well, so it's a higher percentage of the workforce than most interstellar industries," Asher said. "Most of them aren't like Vestia, they're mostly cyborg Terrans."

~~
Orel watched Skye go, looking sad. This was going to be painful.

~~
Vestia watched for Jewel's return.

Dawn bit her lip and looked away, uncertain now. That wasn't something she was letting herself think about. "I, I don't know." She had invested so much into Vestia, but technically she was still on the SD's crew.

~~~
Jewel returned soon enough, holding a bag she had gotten from the magic people here. It was light enough to carry, but held everything she wanted inside. It was a bit of pocket space, set to the bag, so went wherever the bag did.

"Come on in," Vestia said cheerfully to Jewel. "We'll get you set up with a room. What sort of food do you eat, by the way?"

"Pretty much anything with a high sugar content." Jewel said cheerfully "Did you want me to just be a guest, or would I have a job? The hummingbird girl asked curiously

"Should I ask for any special flowers to be grown in Hydroponics?" Vestia suggested. "You don't have to have a job to be here, but if you have any useful skills, I'd be happy to hire you."

Esk frowned, well that wasn't the reaction he'd expected. "I don't think any of the rest of them want to leave either." He told her. "I mean, getting crammed back into that tin can that's barely holding together as it is? Why do that if you've got a far more comfortable cruise ship? Now the family aren't chasing them, well, until they make more enemies it should be relatively okay. Then again these guys are really fucking good at making enemies." He shrugged. "When they do, we get on the Devil and leave them to it."

--

Matt frowned. "Cyborg... you mean they're people who decided to become ships? How.. what?" Nope, he was confused.