Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Eight

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"Cause Esk is lazy and he wants someone to wait on Dawn, even though he has a massive crush on her and could wait on her himself," James grumbled. "At least that's what I assume was his motivation," he amended. "Your brother is weird. So Dawn's probably okay and not infected, that's good at least."

"Okay, maybe I'm wrong about Starr, but not the others," Ellie said. "Mourn is an engineer, he calls Vestia 'Beautiful Ship', and she uses different colored lights to communicate with him since he's deaf. And Armin is a vavare tailor, he's very nice."

Shane shook his head again then sighed. "It's not like the others would let her choose a mate that isn't a dragon anyway." He said with a frown

"the othersss? oh the other dragonssss yesss? Why would they get a sssay?" Hytar asked. He was aware she was important to them, that much he'd gleaned, but he hadn't been told exactly why.

"Beats me, seems like she of all people should get to do whatever she wants," Ellie said, shaking her head.

Shane looked at Hytar then shook his head. "You don't know who she is, do you?"

Hytar looked to Shane. "I know sssshe isss important, but beyond that, no. It would ssseem her identity issss... ssssomething I wassss not ssssupposssed to know yesss?" Oh he could guess by how cagey everyone was. "ssstill, sssshe clearly hassss sssstatusss and import beyond sssimply being free." He shook his head. "regardlesssss, I am of the opinion that one ssshould be free to pick their own partner. It isss a ssshame that dessspite yearssss of having their autonomy denied them, the dragonssss do not believe the sssame" He smiled. That was what Shane had implied right? A societal expectation was still, in his mind, a denial of freedom.

Shane frowned then shrugged a little. "With so many lost, we need as many pure dragons as we can get. Otherwise we won't be our own species anymore."

Ellie frowned, Hytar raised a good point, she thought. "Purity isn't supposed to matter more than freedom, that's kinda messed up."

"ahh sssso sssshe issss expected to be a good female and produce many many good pure offssspring?" Hytar countered.

Shane looked uncomfortable at the way the conversation had turned. He shrugged then shook his head "I don't make the rules, if it even is a rule and not just an expectation. I am not a pure-breed myself."

(From Ottawantreal)
The delivery can stopped outside Vestia's main ramp, and the driver helped Asher and Dawn out before getting the crate with Amari's leg in it unloaded.

Some bots came to tow the crate to the med bay.

~~~
(From Hytar's ship)
The star dragons and their children would come over to Vestia in small groups, hatchlings in crates to hide them, using the shuttle bay to go into the ship because it was less conspicuous when you had lots of crates. Tala supervised the move, watching everyone to be sure they made it in safely.

Hytar smiled at Shane, the other man's discomfort he seemed to view as a victory. He looked back to Ellie.
"Where to now then?"

"The ballroom!" Ellie decided, heading for a teleporter. Whew, they could stop thinking about Starr having to make babies now. That was fine by her.

Dawn was glad of the help getting out. She gave Asher a smile and a wave then headed for her room to rest a bit.
~~~
Starr helped get them moved, showing them to their rooms with Vestia's guidance. They would get some of the guest rooms, not on the level Amari was on, but just below it.
~~~
Shane wasn't sure what to say, so he waited to see where Ellie wanted to go.

Hytar followed Ellie. Oh this was most entertaining for him.


---

Kay and Matt would eventually return to the ship when Matt got tired and Kay got sick of pushing him.

Asher waved to Dawn, them looked to Vestia's camera. "Hey Vestia. Is Amari free at the moment?"

"Umm," Vestia said awkwardly.

Asher looked suspicious. "What happened?"

"Mourn and Ethan were messing with catnip. Amari got some. He's not in danger, I checked online, but he's out cold in the hall."

"WHAT?"

"He's okay! Really! He only ate maybe two leaves!"

Asher shot the camera a glare, then followed Vestia's directions to where Amari was.

~~
Tala helped get the dragons settled in.

Vestia sent up some bots with raw meat for the babies, and various sugar-free snacks for the adults.

~~
Ellie happily led the tour on up to the ballroom on the top floor. "Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?"

Amari was purring loudly as he slept in the hallway,poor guy gonna have a hangover from hell once he fully woke up.

Asher frowned, looking at Amari. The kid looked pretty out of it, more than you'd expect from a couple leaves of catnip. "How much is a catnip overdose for arran?" He asked.

"The site said over a pound," Vestia said.

"And yet two leaves knocked him out cold. What if he has an allergy, Vestia?" Asher got out his scanner and wheeled closer to check Amari's vitals.

Vestia stayed quiet. Whoops, maybe she should be more worried.

His vitals were slowed but not in the dangerously slowed zone. It was like he had binged drinked a lot of alcohol and chain smoked cannabis at the same time. The blood level for toxicity was on the higher end but not at the danger zone.

Asher sighed with relief. Well, at least it didn't look like Amari was in danger. He'd better let the kid sleep the drug off.

He decided to head to the med bay to research which painkillers were safe for Amari, since if Asher knew anything about intoxication, it was that you got a headache afterwards.

Hytar looked up at the glass ceiling and whistled appreciatively. "how DID you end up with a grand cruisssse sssship?" He asked.

----

Kay got Matt to one of the rec rooms to rest and hang out and headed back to the medical room to see if there was anything they needed to do while they were here.

----

Silence was curious about all the new 'voices' on the ship and ventured out to investigate, adopting her humanoid form out of prudence. While the people here didn't seem to care, this was a LOT of new people, more than she could handle if they turned hostile.

Ivor elected to remain in his room, far away from crowds of people thanks.

---

Mourn stirred, yawning, rolling over and going back to sleep.

----

Amity headed to go greet the new guests.

"We're just that awesome that we can afford her," Ellie said brightly. "We're very wealthy." She stared up at the ceiling. "Well one of Vestia's passengers is very wealthy and left Vestia a ton of money, which is almost the same."

~~
Asher looked up from the computer when Kay came in, smiling, although he looked a bit stressed. "Hello Kay, did you have fun in the city?" he asked.

Kay tilted his head. Asher looked frazzled. He nodded slowly. [It was rather pleasant to be able to see Terra without the threat of starvation or jail time.] He came over. [What's wrong?]

---

Hytar laughed, oh now she was being evasive huh? "but how doesss a cruisssse sssship become a sssafe haven like thisss? I'm no fool my dear, I can tell thisss sssship issssn't running asss a cruisssse liner."

Starr looked to Silence when she came up. "Hello Silence, these are some of my people. Did you want to meet them?" She asked curiously.

Silence stared at Starr, then at the people, tilting her head. "Dragons?" Her pendant spoke for her, her mouth never moving.

Amity's drone rounded the corner and his hologram flickered into existence. It was still glitching. "Welcome guests, welcome!" He smiled, spreading his arms wide.

Asher smiled softly. "I can imagine that would be a nice change too see Terra while not worrying about money." He sighed, "Mourn and Ethan were experimenting with catnip. Amari got his hands on it, and now he's passed out in the hallway. I checked his vitals and it looks like he'll be all right, at least."

~~
"Too many charitable people on board," Ellie said sagely. "It's a problem."

~~
"Greetings Amity!" Tala said. She looked at Silence, "Greetings Silence, you have settled in I see?"

The dragons were startled by Amity's. apperance and looked to him. They calmed though, seeing that Starr was calm too.

"Yes, they are. They are the ones we asked Hytar to help free." Starr replied.