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."

"more androids!?" Luka looked surprised. Where the heck did Vestia get all this money? "has Mourn gotten to them yet?"

---

Kay nodded and did some rough calculations. Vestia seemed to have an extraordinary amount of money available to her, but even so, he'd run the approximate costs by her before ordering anything.

---

Hewitt sneered. "Science will always triumph over magic."

"Yeah! More androids. Apparently nobody here can resist a sad android when they see one for sale." James looked pleased. He was all for buying every android they laid eyes on. "I don't know if Mourn's found them yet, but he will soon I'm sure."
He kept pace with Rigel and Luka as they headed toward the dragon level.

~~
"Maybe aketi science isn't all it's cracked up to be any more. I've heard that terran science is pretty cutting edge these days," Ethan said. He looked amused. "Anyway. Did you explore the city at all today, or did you just stay on the ship?"

Rigel stayed quiet, listening to them talk. Hm, more new androids to free. He looked around as they reached the level the dragons were on. "Should we just take them to the rec room, or knock and give them each one?"

Tori looked at Kay's calculations curiously. She was quickly relaxing around these apparently not hostile people, they really didn't seem to mean her any harm. "Vestia can afford it, right?"

"Don't worry about me, I'm rich," Vestia said. "I know all the right people."

Asher looked amused.

~~
"The dragons didn't want us medics bothering them in their rooms, so they might not be into random people knocking either," James said. "Let's take the toys to a rec room."

Dawn chuckled softly and nodded "Yeah" She agreed, going over to Kay to report her numbers

~~~
Rigel nodded and headed for a rec room, hopefully the one they were using for the babies to play in.

"These savages? You have got to be kidding. Have that felid check your datacore, make sure nothing's corrupted. You're speaking nonsense." Hewitt uncurled from his cross legged position and rose to his feet. "I did not go out, I have no desire to walk the polluted streets of this backward planet." He puffed out his chest arrogantly.

----

"how many are there? do we have enough?" Luka asked, worrying a little that maybe they didn't have enough to go around. What would they do then?

---

Kay smiled at Vestia's camera. [Then we can make an order to be delivered in the morning.]

Ethan snickered. "They created me, they can't be that useless." Well technically, the mirror copies of humans here had created him. Same difference.
"You got off the ship on the beach planet, that one wasn't so bad."

~~
"Yep, get that order together, and I'll send money wherever it's needed," Vestia said. Only the best care for her pets passengers, right?

~~
"We can always teach the babies about sharing if there aren't enough stuffed animals," James said. "Oh! Also Helen and I bought some toys and coloring books and stuff, so that should make up for anything there isn't enough of."

"There were 20 eggs brought, how many plushies do we have?" Rigel asked, pulling them out to count. He smiled at the mention of James and Helen buying kids toys. "I bet that was fun. Did you bring them up here already?"

"We didn't bring the toys up yet, we had them delivered to Vestia, but then we got distracted," James said. "It was lots of fun." He grinned.

"Distracted?" Luka smirked at James.

----

Hewitt shrugged. Big cities were more difficult. "Why don't you show me around in the morning then?" He suggested, with a hint of mockery in his tone.

---

Rigel looked to James and tilted his head a little "So, you did the same as us, went out and had some fun. That's good."

James nodded. "We went and bought a ton of androids, and we went bowling. We had fun out there. Helen's pretty great." He resolved to spend more time with her if he could. "Although it wasn't the same as what you guys did, cause we came back in time for the meeting," he added sternly.

~~
Ethan bristled a little at Hewitt's tone, although part of him liked the idea of spending time with the guy. Go figure. "Maybe if I have time I will," he said. "If you're not too tired, too."

Hewitt chuckled. "I can function perfectly well in the daylight should I desire." He took his cane so he could lean against it, tendrils and leaves drooping a bit. It was night time, he was tired.

---

Luka ducked her head, yeah, she felt a bit bad about that. "We lost track of time."

Rigel shrugged and smiled "We weren't needed for the meeting anyway, so it was alright."

"All right, I guess we'll do that then. If I'm not busy." Ethan didn't want to sound too excited about hanging out with Hewitt. "Maybe we can pick up some more audiobooks while we're out there, the number of people on this ship who can't read Common well is growing rapidly."

~~
"Well it might have been nice to have you guys to help check for loopholes, but I guess it turned out fine," James said. They reached the rec room.
James peered in cautiously. "Anyone here?"

~~
Asher looked to the two women when they were done inventorying. "Hey, Dawn, Tori, would you guys be up for doing any dragon checkups later?"

There were the parents and the already hatched kids in there. There were five hatched now, and they all ran to the new people, chirping excitedly.

Hewitt scoffed. "perhaps they should learn."

---

"I don't think i'm good at legal stuff..." Luka mused. Loopholes sounded like it'd be tricky to catch. "You think you caught any right? Did he try to sneak many in?"
She looked to the baby dragons, not able to hide her smile. They were so dang cute. Argh.

---

Kay sat down at a computer to make an order for all this stuff.

Ethan snorted. "Pretty sure the minotaur is severely dyslexic, so she can't learn. Maybe the others can though." He looked at Hewitt, "You look like you're tired." He had woken the guy up, too. Oops.

~~
"Well I mean, it's hard to tell if we caught them all or not. Hytar's a smart guy, he could have sneaked something in," James said. He knelt down to look at the baby dragons. "Hey little guys! How are you liking your new home?"

"it's night time." Hewitt told Ethan bluntly, as if he was a moron for being surprised by that.

---

"You think he would?" Luka asked, slightly concerned. Sure she knew Hytar was an evil bastard but she wasn't sure he was set to screw them all over with loopholes. Despite what Esk might say.

Starr knows her people and what they will accept and won't." Rigel said, kneeling and handing out the stuffed animals. The babies were smaller than most of the plushies, making an amusing site. The oldest couple started saying 'home' happily.

"I'm up for doing checkups for the dragons," Tori told Asher with a smile. "Are there many who need to be checked on?"

"I'm not sure of the precise numbers, but I'm sure some would rather see you Dawn," Asher said. "We can have Vestia ask around, I suppose."

Tori nodded. "What do you think Dawn, want to visit some dragons this evening?"

~~
"I should probably let you go back to sleep," Ethan decided, a little reluctantly.

~~
"I dunno Luka, Hytar's hard to figure out," James said. "He seems really smart, and he smirks a lot, which could mean he is devious, or it could mean he just wants to look devious." He watched the dragons take the toys, smiling again at the sight of them playing with plushies bigger than themselves. "These guys are so adorable. Keep Kay and Asher away from them, or they'll be jealous."

Hewitt eased himself back down onto the bed. "Sadly, there's a limit to my energy." He sighed, looking for a moment actually a little vulnerable. He shook his head. "Come bother me when the sun comes up. "

---

Luka frowned a little, nodding. "Still, he's good at dealing with slavers... and finding people." She watched the dragons.
"They must miss Danika a great deal." She mused.

Ethan got up, looking uncomfortable. He was used to being sure he was going to die decades before anyone else he spent time around, because of his thirty-five year lifespan, so the momentary look of vulnerability from Hewitt was a little unsettling. He wondered whether he might actually outlive this guy. "See you tomorrow, Professor."

Dawn smiled and nodded "Yeah, we can see some of them tonight." She said agreeably "I will be careful, don't worry."

~~
"I may be good for them to see the babies, even though they can't see Danika." Rigel said.

"Sounds good. I should probably read up a bit to make sure I have some understanding of their biology," Tori said. "Is it all right if I have a look at whatever documents you have about their species?"

~~
"Yeah, Hytar's gonna be useful," James agreed. He smiled sadly, "Yeah, my bro sure misses Danika. I generally avoid pertering Kay with too many questions, but I'm sure he misses her as well." He started gently playing tug-of-war with one of the dragons and her plushie, being careful not to pull hard enough to take it away from her. "You're such a strong dragon!" he told her.

"You will need to know that since you are a nurse here and we have so many." Dawn said with a nod.

~~~
The baby chirped at him, playing at trying to hold the plushie from him taking it. She ended up on her back, using her arms and tail to hold on.

Kay nodded [If you're going to be working here, you'll need to read up about an awful lot i'm afraid. But for now just focusing on the Star Dragons should suffice.] He looked to Asher, he'd need to log her into the other computer. Drat, they'd have to set up a login for Tori too now then. So she could access the medical records and all of that.

---

Luka looked thoughtful. "It might just make them miss her more." She shook her head, she didn't really know. "Kay doesn't... seem like the sort to talk about his feelings anyway." She mused. "well, not talk but.. you know what I mean."

----

Hewitt settled back into cross legged position, setting his cane to one side and folding his clawed hands across his lap. "yes yes, goodnight Ethan." He closed his eyes.