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."

Armin shook his head. "no." He stood still for the scan. The scan was to be expected, extra strain on his hearts, pressure building up between old exoskeleton and the new soft one beneath. He smiled weakly. "The weaver will protect me."

---

"Well lets go get some then?" Luka suggested, glancing to Rigel who was being awfully quiet.

Asher looked over the results for a bit, decided those readings looked pretty much as would be expected, and returned his attention to Armin.
"I don't know your Weaver very well, but from what you've said, she's a wonderful protector to have," he said with a soft smile. Atheist he might be, but he could appreciate faith. It seemed to give Armin a lot of strength, and that could only be good.
"Tomorrow the doctor we found will be coming to see you at about nine in the morning, you should rest up for the visit."

Armin nodded. "thank you my friend, I appreciate all you are doing to help me."

"Any time. I'm sure I speak for all the medics when I say we're happy to help our friend," Asher said. "I'll leave you to rest now. Please feel free to call us if you experience any worrying symptoms tonight though."

Armin nodded. "of course my friend." He touched Asher's shoulder gently. "thank you."

Asher smiled softly at Armin. "See you in the morning." He headed for the door, struggling a bit with it as usual.

Armin couldn't really help with the door unfortunately, but he'd try anyway.
"Goodnight my friend."

Asher looked a bit embarrassed, but smiled gratefully as Armin tried to help. It really did feel weird to have people try to help you when you knew they had big problems of their own, didn't it?

He wheeled back to the med bay to get the new information in the system, and check in with the other medics.

Armin went to bed.

---

Kay glanced up as Asher came back, looking at him questioning. [How is he?]

"His readings seemed pretty similar to what we saw earlier, and he didn't report any changes in his physical discomfort," Asher said. "I reminded him that he should report any changes he experiences during the night." He sighed. That doctor couldn't come soon enough, as far as he was concerned.

Kay nodded, he looked unconvinced. Armin was polite to a fault, would he even admit anything if he thought it would worry them? It had taken him this long to even tell them he wasn't well.
He shook his head, there wasn't much more they could do. Vestia would keep an eye on him anyway.

[I got the order in, resupply should arrive tomorrow morning.]

Asher saw Kay's look of concern, and sighed. "We'll hope he's not too polite to tell us if something is going very wrong," he said. It was a very real concern, Armin was probably one of the most overly considerate people on the ship, and wouldn't want to wake anyone up.

"I'll remind him that androids don't sleep, if he wakes up," Vestia said. "Maybe that'll make him feel better about calling someone at night."

Asher smiled slightly, "That's a good idea. Thanks, Vestia." He looked back to Kay, "Oh good, I'm glad you got the order placed."

Rigel was holding one of the other babies, petting and gently scratching him. He didn't really notice the conversation

"We have much meat up here for the babies." The mother said and headed out to get to another room they were using for food storage to get a bowl of meat.

James smiled. "Good to see you guys already have things set up here. Hopefully you'll settle in just fine."

"We will do our best to." Another parent said while the mother was gone. She soon came back, setting the bowl on the floor so they could feed the babies together.

"How are you settling in?" Luka asked. "it must be a bit weird right? But good weird?"

"It is good to be free, and good that the children hatched free. May they never know what it is to be a slave." One of the other adults said as they gathered around. Rigel came forward to sit and help with the one he held.
The one Luka was petting bounced around in a circle, wanting her to come too before running over to the bowl, trying to raise up to see inside, though he wasn't tall enough to see over yet.

"Amen," James said. "These kids are lucky to be born free, I hope they never figure out how lucky they really were." He went to pick up a piece of meat from the bowl and held it out to one of the babies.

One of the girls went over to James, standing on her back legs then spinning a little as she tried to reach the piece before she grabbed it and sat to eat it quickly. She chirped and looked back up to him when it was gone, wanting more.

Luka looked grim. "There's so much evil out here in the universe..." Would anyone remain free indefinitely in this place? Slavery and death and all sorts of ills seemed rife outside the Imperium, it was quite frightening really.
She sat down cross legged with the others

"There isn't evil on this ship, we took care of that. And if evil comes back to try to get us, we'll kick its a--" James looked around at his audience, "...rear end," He held out another piece of meat for the hatchling, trying to smile at her.

The little boy with Luka went still, wings tucked close as he read her emotions. He was too young to understand words, but he knew she wasn't happy.

The other babies quieted down too, looking over to her then to their parents as the adults soothed them, letting them know it was alright and safe.

"There is evil, but there is also good. It is a balance that is out of balance right now but we can help to right it." Rigel said gently.

Luka frowned, feeling guilty she'd upset the dragons. "I'm sorry..."

The mother who had talked to her before came over to sit beside her. "At their age, they respond to emotions though the older ones can understand words too. You were scared so they responded by becoming still, hiding. Think of something happy and they will perk back up again." She explained gently.

"it's okay, little guys. You're safe here," James tried to reassure the dragon babies, as they went to their parents. He wished they could read his emotions so they could understand they were safe here.
He patted Luka on the arm. She looked like she was feeling guilty.

Luka flinched, it was kinda hard to think of happy things on demand. She tried, but it was tinged with guilt and anxiety about whether it was happy enough which probably didn't help.

The babies accepted it, with their parents giving their assurances that it was alright.

Rigel reached a hand over and chuckled softly "Just think of flying the Devil. That's a happy thought."