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."

Asher considered the question a while before responding. "We could probably install the part ourselves, it's not easy to install, but it's perfectly doable if you know what to do. That said, one benefit to installing it there would be making sure everything works. It'll be easier to return and try to get a replacement part if they supervise the installation, and see that it's defective for themselves. And if there are any other problems with installation, damaged connections I haven't been able to find for myself, they're likely to have the supplies to fix the issue."
And maybe there was a tiny part of him that was morbidly curious to see Mars again, now he wasn't living in denial any more. But that was a terrible reason to go, and he knew it.

Kay frowned. [Is it safe for you to go back there? ]

"I don't think it's any more dangerous than anywhere else in Terran space," Asher said carefully. "You know I'm good at putting on the harmless, obedient robot act. And MegaBrainTech won't dare plug me in to look at my files if my 'owner' doesn't okay it. Terran law is very clear on matters of privacy." He smiled softly. Yeah, that was one of the things he'd been researching lately.

Kay still looked worried, he chewed his lip. [Be cautious please. If something goes wrong... ] He tried to hide the look of pain, but he was already fearing the worst. If someone got even the faintest suspicion, they could lose Asher to Megabrain and jepordise everyone else in the process.
[I know you're sensible and I know you can pretend. I just worry alright?] He was probably rather paranoid right?

Asher recognized Kay's expression, it was one he remembered from the other universe, when he'd been about to leave to find Inari. It reminded him of how much Kay had already lost, and how much was still at stake here.
It was a pretty compelling argument not to go to Mars, actually.
"We'll talk it over with Rigel and a few others, see what they think. Maybe it's safest for me to not go," he said reassuringly. "We're not going to take any unnecessary risks if we can help it."

Kay nodded slowly. [I know.] He felt a stab of guilt. Asher made good points, he was good at pretending to be non threatening, a little too good at it in fact. But still, he fretted. [I'm sorry.]

"You don't need to be sorry, you have every right to be concerned," Asher said. "We'll discuss it very carefully before any decisions are made." Maybe after that meeting later with Hytar, he thought. "The most important thing is Armin's safety. If we decide it works best for us all to stay here for now, we could even wait on the Mars trip until after his molt."

Kay nodded. [Alright.] He smiled weakly. [I trust you.]

Asher tried to smile back. It looked a bit uncertain. Sometimes he wished Kay wouldn't trust him so much, he was hardly good at making the right choices.
He looked to his research again, wanting something else to worry about.

Kay's computer pinged, an email back from those people he messaged.
He read over the reply.
[The Vavare medic says he can come by tomorrow morning to meet Armin.]

Asher smiled genuinely at that. "Oh good. Did he tell you what time would work for him? I'm sure Armin will want to know when he should be ready."

Kay messaged back to arrange an exact time.

[We can get him to come by at 9, he says his appointments don't start till later in the day.] He shook his head. [I hope he can help]

"Great. Vestia, can you tell Armin?" Asher asked.

"On it," Vestia said.

"Thank you." Asher looked at Kay again, "I'm sure he can provide some guidance at least. If we need more help afterward, I'm sure we can find someone else here on Terra."

~~
"Armin? The medics are arranging for you to see a vavare doctor tomorrow morning, he'll be coming to visit you. Does that sound good?" Vestia asked.

Armin bowed his head to Starr. "Forgive me, i do not mean to make you sad." He reached out a hand to touch her shoulder. "I simply know that you are wise and you are just. You will do what is right."

He glanced up at Vestia's camera. "I see no reason to decline. Tell them... thank you."

Starr reached up and touched his hand, giving him a smile "You should rest, no need to make yourself weak when you need your strength."

"All right, I'll tell them," Vestia said. "The doctor should be coming at around nine in the morning."

~~
"Armin says the appointment sounds good, and he thanks you," Vestia told Asher and Kay.

~~
"Your arm is fixed? Yay!" Vestia told James. "You should go visit the med bay at some point, Asher and Kay will want to talk to you about something."

James frowned, "What happened?"

"Nothing yet, just something they'll want to talk to you about," Vestia said vaguely. "It's not super pressing, so don't stress too much." She added, "Welcome aboard, guys, I'm Vestia, the ship."

"Thank you," Tori told Vestia. To Helen she said, "We'll keep our names. I think we all like them."

The group followed Helen toward where the other androids stayed.

Helen nodded and went tot he floor, asking Vestia which rooms were still unused by anyone. She knew most of them were, but wasn't certain which were which.

Starrnico wrote:Sawna got up, grabbing a bag of blood as a peace offering of a sort and headed for the hallway Amari was in. "Amari? It's Sawna." She called gently when she came near. No need to startle the boy after all.

~~~
Starr looked to Armin and smiled softly. She would help him, if he had a way for her to help with this.

Amari would coil into the wall, his back arched like a cat hissing in pain, “H-head hurts.” He would say with a raspy tone. The poor kid looked miserable.

Vestia gave them the numbers for some rooms near where the other androids were staying, and also asked the other androids to come meet the newcomers. Pretty soon the other androids came along, having paused whatever work they had been doing around the ship.

They seemed pretty pleased to see the new Terran United androids, although the Terran United androids looked a bit wary and unsure.

"Okay, guys, I want you to help each other out, show each other around and stuff. Also explain them the situation here, would you guys?" James said bossily.

Levi did his amusement-like expression. "We'll do our best, James."

James looked pleased. "Good. I gotta go visit some medics, and Helen's gotta make some money. You guys be nice to each other."

Armin bowed his head. "thank you miss starr. " He let go of her and moved toward his door. He nodded to Vestia "That will be fine."

---

Kay nodded to Vestia and continued his research.

Lord Heny wrote:
Amari would coil into the wall, his back arched like a cat hissing in pain, “H-head hurts.” He would say with a raspy tone. The poor kid looked miserable.

Sawna nodded a little and offered the blood bag without moving closer yet. "I know, I was sent to take the pain away if you woke with pain." She explained gently.

"I should be back soon, for now, get settled in and explore the ship. We can figure out everything else later." Helen said and waved, heading for her room to grab a bag so her magic could be hidden.

"All right, thank you ma'am," Ivan said to Helen.

She and the other newcomers looked to the other androids.

"You guys get to explain. I gotta go visit the medics," James said. "By the way, are any of you trained as medics?
Cause we could use another medic or two, seriously."

"I worked at a hospital for a few years," Tori said cautiously.

"Good! Once you've had your orientation tour, I'll take you on a med bay tour and show you all the medical info for people here," James said. "If you want to be a medic, of course." He headed off toward the med bay. Time to see what was going on.

The new androids looked confused.

Kay looked up when James came in.

--

Armin bid Starr a fond farewell and went to rest.

---

Hytar might have finished his tour by now?

"Hey guys! The ship says you need some help with something," James said, coming over to try and ruffle Asher's hair.

Asher batted James's hand away. No, he was not going to let anyone ruffle his hair, thank you very much. "Yes, we do have a bit of a problem to discuss with you," he said, "Armin's going to start his molt soon, and we're figuring out how to handle the situation."

"His molt is gonna start? Crap. Those things are really dangerous, I remember reading that," James said, frowning. "Do any of us know enough about vavare molts to help with that?"

~~
Hytar's tour was probably over. Ellie seemed to kind of like the guy, even though she knew he was a bad person. At least he was polite, and didn't mind listening to her!

She was curious, so she went to try and find Esk if she could.

Kay shook his head, looking grim [I've asked a vavare doctor to come visit tomorrow morning, but whether it's at all practical for them to stay or if they'll simply have some information for us I don't know.]

---

Esk was on another floor, oblivious to all this nonsense and rather content to remain so. He was sketching, feet up on a table in an abandoned coffee shop or something.

Starr waved and headed out to go to a rec room. She wanted to be findable if anyone needed her for anything.7