Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Four

First topic message reminder :

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?"

"Yeah." Ethan sighed. "I give her books because I have no clue what else to do. Who the hell knows what she really would want, she probably doesn't even know right now." She spent so much time staying in her bed, even though she could carry her egg with her. Ethan didn't think that was a good sign.

Luka started walking, indicating that Ethan should follow. She didn't want to be here when the others came out of that meeting, reeling with the news.
"I didn't think the family could get any more twisted, I just.. can't even process the violation and... " She squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm so angry and I can't DO anything. She must feel even worse. And I feel like I shouldn't be angry because it's not my body or my life but I am and I.. I don't know if that's okay." She growled in frustration. "I should have flown faster, pushed the ship harder. If we'd have caught them earlier maybe... we could have stopped them."

Rigel nodded and sighed softly "Alright, we found Starr, she's safe and alive." He said first then played with his hem a little. "We killed one of the keepers that took her but had to leave before we could get the other. They, um...they artificially made her pregnant and now she has an egg, an heir. We think that's why they wanted to take her, to control the royal line through a young heir."

Armin spoke up first. "She is safe yes? as is her offspring?"

Kay looked horrified.

Esk fiddled with his knife, well that explained why they wanted his father's help. Revenge.

Mourn made a face, gross. More babies.

Hewitt didn't really get all this, neither did Amity. "But you have retrieved both yes? thus their plan has failed." Hewitt reasoned. "She is otherwise uninjured?"

Matt bowed his head. Poor Starr. "Is she okay?" He asked carefully. "Not just physically, mentally, is she okay?"

Ethan matched his pace to Luka's, letting her decide where they were heading. "I know. I keep telling myself this isn't unusual where I come from, it shouldn't bother me so much. But it does. It's disgusting, and horrible. We rescued her, but we couldn't prevent it from happening. And now she's stuck with a reminder of what happened for the rest of her life." He shuddered.

~~
Asher stared at Rigel for a few long moments, trying to process that. The idea hadn't even crossed his mind somehow, and the realization was awful.

James took a while too. Then the horror hit him, and he stood up, knocking over his chair in his haste, and hurried out of the room. This was his fault. He should have protected Starr. Oh no.

Ellie looked miserable. "Poor Starr," she said weakly.

"Physically she's fine," Tala told Matt. "Mentally, we aren't certain."

"Right, she's otherwise uninjured. We foiled that plan, but now they will know there is a young and may come after it." Rigel said with a shrug. "What's left of them, that's the reason for the preemtive strike on that slaver outpost, why we need Hytar's help"

Kay flinched as James stormed out. What could he say? or do?

Armin bowed his head. "They must be kept safe."

Mourn still looked grossed out. "Need dagger kill keepers." He pointed out. "or big sun."

Matt reached up to pat Ellie's arm.

---

Luka nodded weakly. "yeah... "

Asher frowned in thought. "There's only one keeper left then, so a dagger might not be necessary for a strike against the slaver outpost." Although he certainly wouldn't protest if the remaining keeper was killed for this, either. "We're much better prepared to fight a single keeper than we were before the battle, if he should come after us." He'd rather think about revenge and defenses than what had happened to Starr. An attack on the slavers, and defenses against keepers, were something that could be planned for, which was somewhat reassuring at least.

Ellie wiped her eyes hastily, then put her free arm around Matt.

Tala pawed her hoof on the carpet. "We have scheduled to meet in person with Hytar to discuss the attack on the slavers. The details of that shall be decided then. For now, our concern is the safety of Starr and her egg."

~~
James fled from the main levels to who knew where. He needed to be away from the others for a while. Well, what he really needed was to beat the crap out of both the keepers who kidnapped Starr before stabbing them to death, but obviously he couldn't do that right now. So hiding and raging at his uselessness had to suffice.

~~
Ethan sighed. "Hopefully these guys can help her more than we can. They know her better than we do, anyway."

Luka nodded solemnly. "I think i'm gonna go to my room, grab a nice long hot shower and go punch things for a bit."

---

"The keep has many dragons." Swarm pointed out, rattling off a precise count of the inhabitants of those cells as they'd seen from their scouting mission.

Kay frowned deeply. He didn't like the idea of letting Hytar go off to attack this place if it was full of innocents. He looked to Esk.

Esk shrugged. "As long as you're extremely clear about what you expect from him, he won't just blow the keep out the sky." He seemed to just be taking all this in his stride.

[Can we trust him to follow instructions and not just claim he had no other choice? ] Kay asked worriedly. [Or to share the information of Starr's whereabouts to the highest bidder?]

Esk shook his head. "My father is a lot of things, a complete asshole, evil as all fucking hell, but he really really hates slavery. I dunno why, he's got some personal beef with them, but from all I know of him, no amount of money could get him to sell someone out like that. He's also bound by some magical oath shit, you just gotta be seriously careful about your wording so he can't twist it to his advantage. He'll manipulate everything to serve him. Make sure it's not in his interests to do so and be careful about anything you sign." He looked back to Asher. "One Keeper isn't much of a threat now, but they know we have the daggers and they know we have scanners to fuck over their anamcara. If that guy has any sense, he'll retreat and lay low. They gotta know people are coming for them. Keepers can shapeshift, that means they can disappear. Finding this guy isn't gonna be easy, and unless they're actively suicidal, I doubt they'll try to take us on alone. "

"How much of the Family's forces do you think are left?" Matt asked.

"not enough to be of any use. their morale's shattered and most of their powerful leaders are dead or captured. Even if they go to ground and slowly try to rebuild, it's gonna take years to present any real threat. At most we have a couple of Keepers left, worst case scenario, they go on a suicide run across the system blowing up planets out of spite before they're captured, killed or sucked into the implosion themselves."

"That doesn't sound like a risk we should be taking." Matt reasoned.

"You wanna go chase them across the universe? " Esk replied cooly.

"As soon as we have any idea where they might be, yeah. We can't let them just keep hurting people. This asshole has to pay for what he did to Starr! " Matt protested.

Esk shrugged. "you guys want revenge, go get it, but don't pretend like this is the first or last time this sort of thing will happen to someone. There's a lot of shitty people out there doing shitty things to others, you can't kill em all."

"What so we just don't do anything?" Matt glared.

[This isn't helpful.] Kay interjected.

Mourn stood up. "Bored!" He declared. "We meet death man's father, we destroy slaver keep, free dragons. Simple."

Armin bowed his head. "seldom are things quite so simple my friend."

Mourn ignored Armin, wasn't like he could understand him anyway. "Argue no help, have plan, should do it."

Kay shook his head. [Where is Starr? We should settle her in, make sure she's actually alright. If she wants to talk she'll talk, but right now the best we can do is give her a familiar safe environment and ensure she's physically well.] He wasn't a therapist, none of them were, so the best they could offer was medical care and friendship. He wasn't sure it was enough.

Matt sighed and rested his head against Ellie's arm. This sucked. "Does she even want to see anyone right now?"

"Why not simply ask?" Amity suggested brightly.

"Bring her aboard, nobody on this ship will harm her surely?" Hewitt reasoned calmly. "Leave the dirty work to this... mercenary of yours. "

Asher nodded to Esk. "We can't go hunting one keeper right now, no matter how much we want to. We need to focus on getting the children back, and keeping Starr and her egg safe. Besides, I doubt that the keepers who survived are anywhere near as powerful as Heny or Merith are, so I doubt he'll be going out of their way to blow up planets right now. They're more likely to be regrouping for a long time to come."

"They need to die for this though," Ellie protested.

"We cannot waste our time chasing woukrawo," Tala said sternly. "We must wait for them to come to us, and then trample them as they try to bite our ankles."

"What's a..." Ellie tried to remember the word.

"They are small pests that at times plague my people," Tala said. "They are useless to hunt, but easy to crush." She looked pleased.

Asher shook his head. Okay then. He nodded at Kay's advice, "Yes, we'd better get the Tiger over here in case we need to depart suddenly, and to make sure Starr is safe."

"Yes. Vestia, tell Luka that I wish her to come with me to park the Tiger!" Tala said.

"On it," said Vestia.

~~
"I'm going to go check on my library. I'm sure they've all been messing it up for me," Ethan said. Yeah, going back to normal sounded good to him too.

"Luka, Tala says she'd like you to park the Tiger in my shuttle bay," Vestia said from overhead. "Sorry!"

Luka sighed. "Looks like that shower has to wait." She waved half heartedly to Ethan and headed to the ramp to meet Tala.

---

Matt frowned, he didn't like this, the idea of this asshole keeper being free and unpunished but frustratingly Esk was right. How the hell did you find a shapeshifter if they didn't want to be found?

Esk stood up, noticing Matt's look of anger and Ellie's frustration. "The Keepers who still live are unwelcome everywhere they go, they'll spend their pitiful lives hiding, cowering, knowing they were beaten and outsmarted by mortals. Alone, hated.." He smirked, " immortal." He shrugged. " That's a pretty damn good punishment."

Matt looked away, what did that mean for those Keepers who weren't part of the family? The Family had made their race into genocidal maniacs, he doubted most of the universe would see the difference.

Kay lowered his head, and moved to the exit. Heading for the medical room.

"Have fun," Ethan said. He headed off to the library.

Once he arrived, he had a good look around the place, checking to see what damage had been done. Lots of returns waiting to be shelved, lots of books out on the tables, some dust on the bookshelves in the less popular sections. Ethan tried to look disgusted at the mess, but the sight of the familiar aisles and books was reassuring, and the complete lack of other people was like a breath of fresh air.
It was good to be home.

"Misery is better than nothing, but I'd rather have them be dead, that way they can't hurt anyone else," Ellie said. "If they're alive, they can hurt people again."

Asher followed Kay out. He stayed quiet as he wheeled toward the med bay. He really didn't have much to say right now, he was still trying to process the fact that the Family had managed to dig themselves even deeper into moral bankruptcy, and doing his best to not worry too much about the future, because he hadn't actually talked to Starr yet.

Tala left the meeting to meet up with Luka and collect the Celestial Tiger.

"If we have luck, that one will still be hiding there with their slaver friends." Rigel said with a frown. He hoped so, that would make things simpler.

Esk shrugged. "If they do decide to hurt someone else, it's not like they're subtle."

--

Kay chewed his lip and bustled about the medical room collecting things together. He didn't want to think, it just made him angry and upset.

---

Luka would bring the Tiger in to the cargo bay.

After the Tiger was settled, Starr would come out with Helen and Sawna to go to her own room. She could feel the turmoil of emotions from everyone on the ship and put up her block, not wanting to feel how everyone else was feeling about this. She cast her eyes down as they headed for her room.

Ellie nodded, but she still wanted the Family dead. All of them. For ever.

~~
"Starr's in her room," Vestia told Asher and Kay helpfully. "Should I ask Sawna to transfer over her medical notes to our system?"

Kay nodded. [Thank you Vestia. Can you make sure Starr is alright with visitors? If she needs a few hours to settle in we can wait.] He wasn't really sure how to handle this, this sort of situation was not covered in nursing 101 and he'd always been crap at the empathy side of things anyway. Still, he was trying.

---

Esk nodded to Ellie. Yeah she looked about ready to rip someone's throat out. He wandered off toward the exit. He had better things to do than sit around and council this lot on their rage.

Armin went to his room to pray to his goddess and wrap his head around what had happened. He wanted to rush to Starr's side but he wasn't sure that's what she wanted right now. It was difficult, not knowing if you should be there or stay away, what was the right call? He asked the Weaver for guidance and the lend strength and peace to Starr.

Mourn waved a hand dismissively and decided to go for a wander and pick up some spare parts. Everyone was in an annoying mood, moping and being boring. So he headed off to find the electronics stores. Horah.

Hewitt went back to his room.

Amity waited for Sawna.

Luka secured the ship and finally went to get her shower.

Matt squeezed Ellie's hand. "Wanna go shoot stuff on the holodeck?" He suggested. He glanced to Shane. "Come on, it might not help but at least it's better than this."

"Okay, I'll talk to them," Vestia said.

Asher smiled up at her camera gratefully. This was hard. He looked over at Kay, then tried to find something, anything, to do in here.

~~
Vestia made a soft ahem noise in Starr's room to announce herself. "Hey Sawna? Starr?" She asked.

~~
"Yeah, let's shoot stuff," Ellie said. "I wanna do that."

Shane nodded to Matt's idea then sighed "It might help settle some of the aggression" He said and stood, ready to go with them.

~~~
Starr looked up tot he camera and gave a half hearted smile. "Yes?" She was happy to be back in her own room again, but her emotions were in turmoil too.

Sawna looked up from where she was. She had been about to leave the room and let Starr rest alone for the first time since being found.

Matt led the way, he wasn't a huge fan of guns but right now playing a game of destroy the bad monsters sounded good to him too.

---

Kay took a deep breath. Nope, he had no idea how to deal with this and in a way, felt like he had no right to be upset because it wasn't HIM that had been violated.
He swallowed hard. [I have no idea what to do.] He admitted to Asher.

"Sawna, if you have any medical notes to add to our system, then I just wanted to remind you to do that," Vestia said. "And Starr, I know Asher and Kay want to come see you at some point. If you'd rather wait a while, then that's fine."

~~
Ellie followed along, looking grim. She wanted to hurt SOMETHING, even if it was a hologram.

~~
Asher nodded unhappily. "I never imagined they'd do something like this, although in retrospect, it seems obvious. This has to be so difficult for Starr, and we want to try and help her if we can, but I think all of us are going to have a hard time with that when we're still reeling from the news." Poor Starr. Finally home again, on a ship full of people who wanted to help but had no clue how. What a miserable situation.

Kay nodded slowly. He looked miserable and confused and frustrated. [And once we find the others, we have to explain all over again.] He shook his head. Shit... what did they tell the kids?

Sawna nodded "I will get my notes then and take them to the med lab to add to her file." She said then left the room to do that.

Starr nodded and looked to the egg "They can come" She said then looked to Helen "This is Helen, she helped Shane and me and she needs a room if she wants to stay?" She hadn't bothered to ask the other female.

Helen dipped her head a little to her then shook it. "I don't want to impose. I could find another ride from this planet if needed."
~~~
Shane walked with Ellie and Matt to the holodeck and found a program where they could shoot bad guys. He smiled a little as he gave Matt a tank, to compensate for him not being able to walk.

Asher tried a smile, which looked more sad than anything else. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, there's no use thinking about it now." The same thing had crossed his mind too though, what were the kids going to think? How would they feel about having a younger sibling who was heir to the throne? How would they feel about what they'd read in the minds of the adults? What would the adults' thoughts do to this poor kid, anyway? "We have to talk to Starr in person before we start worrying too much, right now we're only working off what we've been told by other people, which is helpful but not complete. We have to wait to put too much thought into this."

~~
"Thanks, Sawna," Vestia said. To Starr and Helen, Vestia said, "She's a friend of yours, Starr? Of course she can stay. Welcome aboard, Helen, we'll get you a room whenever you want."

Okay, tanks were kinda awesome Matt decided. All these buttons to push! He'd get a little TOO into this game.

---

Kay nodded. [Sensible as always.] he smiled weakly at Asher and put a hand on his shoulder, a subtle, small gesture of affection.

Ellie managed to smile at Matt's tank. You could destroy a lot of stuff with a tank. She got a big gun for herself, and shot things indescriminately.

~~
Asher looked up at Kay with a weary half smile. Yeah, the common sense was all an act. His mind was in a turmoil right now, no matter how logical he tried to be.

"Sawna's on her way with the notes," Vestia said helpfully.