Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Nine

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Ivor was pretty thankful for Tala's quiet thoughts, if her unshielded thoughts were anything like her speaking voice, he'd have had a headache already.
He nodded slowly.

Asher frowned. Yeah, that was a good question.

James fidgeted with his arm panel as he considered that. "I mean, it's not a common part to get damaged, but it isn't all that rare for a robot to get severely injured in day-to-day life either. I mean, like we know, there are some assholes who really don't like robots."

Asher winced. "Yes, they'd probably buy it if they were told I'd run afoul of another anti-robot gang, and that the gang had attacked me with acid of some sort. It's unusual for an android to survive two attacks like that, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility."

"It's a hell of a lot more plausible than a freed android getting spat on by an acid dragon in the thick of a battle," James said. "I think they'd buy the simple explanation first."

Asher looked distinctly uncomfortable, but nodded. "I don't know how likely it is that they'd ask, but I don't think they'd have much reason to question a story about surviving another attack. There's just nothing about it that's really unusual."

Kay still looked nervous. [Speak to Rigel, see how practical them picking the part up would be.]

Asher nodded. "Yes, I'd better talk to Rigel." He looked guiltily at Kay, he knew how terrifying the thought of losing a loved one was to Kay, and Asher going straight to the android slavery capital was definitely pretty risky. But still, it seemed like it might be the best option, if they wanted him fully repaired. "Vestia, is Rigel on board?"

~~
Vestia would see if she could find Rigel.

Kooshie wrote:Ellie hauled Shane down the hallway, to a teleporter, and to the level where Hydroponics was. Most of the hydroponics basins were still empty, since Vestia's crew was still pretty small, but she'd upped the scale of production some in the past few months.
The plants moved a little closer at her approach, apparently they liked her.

"Do you wanna help me check the nutrient readings?" she asked. "It's pretty easy, I totally have notes on what all the readings are supposed to say."

"Sure" Shane said as he walked in. He smiled at the way the plants responded to her presence. She really was a special person.

Rigel was with the Devil, cleaning her hull since they were docked again. It was relaxing to him to do that.

Ellie led Shane over to the plants. "The notes are here at the end of each row. The readings on the displays should all match up. Mostly we just look for any droopy plants, they like to complain if they aren't happy about something," Ellie said. "Have you seen the progress on the playground by the way? We were working on one for the kids, you could probably add some cool stuff to it."

~~
"Hey Rigel," Vestia said. "Asher's wondering about a possible job for you. Mind if he comes over to discuss it with you, or you go discuss it with him or something when you're free?"

Shane nodded and looked at the notes then the readings, checking them, "Yeah, I have been over there, it's a great idea."

~~~
Rigel looked up and smiled. "Either way is fine with me. I'm at a good spot to pause this." He said as he stretched and headed to get down.

"You could totally make some cool kid park technology, your magic is so good for that," Ellie said, checking a damaged leaf on a plant to see whether some blight had somehow gotten into the room. "Like, like you could make a little castle or something I bet." She nodded.

~~
"Rigel's on board, at the Silver Devil," Vestia told the medics.

Asher smiled. "Good, I'll go see him. Either of you want to come along to talk to him?" He asked James and Kay.

~~
"Asher's coming to see you," Vestia told Rigel. "He should be along shortly."

Shane chuckled lightly at that and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I could." He agreed, moving to check the next row while she looked at the leaf.

~~~
"Right." Rigel said and went inside to clean up a little as he waited for them to reach him.

"They're probably so grown up now," Ellie mused, patting the plant's leaf reassuringly with one fingertip. "Danika and Vela and Kerr will probably need playground stuff designed for big kids. Or they'll have to shapeshift to be dragon sized to fit. It's too bad star dragons grow so fast."

Kay nodded. [Let's go figure out something.] Mmm was it that a tiny little part of him didn't entirely trust asher not to needlessly endanger himself? That was probably paranoia right? Yep, definitely paranoia. And fear.

Shane nodded then shrugged a little. "Maybe we can make a bigger kid playground too." He said and looked over to her before looking over the plants.

Asher nodded, and led the way out, wheeling toward the shuttle bay where the Silver Devil was parked.

James trotted along behind. He shot Kay a reassuring look, yeah, he was sooo gonna make sure Asher had some sort of bodyguard detail for this. His brother acted cautious, but he was oddly reckless sometimes.

~~
"Maybe we should make an amusement park, like the other universe," Ellie mused. "Then the adults can play too."

Kay gave James a forced smile in return. He couldn't help but fret, all he knew of Megabrain was awful and the idea of sending anyone back into that place was just horrible.

The group reached the shuttle bay, Asher looking around to spot Rigel, trying not to feel too guilty about Kay's obvious concern.

James raised his voice to something just short of a shout. "Yo Rigel, we're here to talk to you!"

Shane laughed and nodded "We could, but I don't think we have quite that much space here right now. Something on a bit smaller scale would do though."

~~~
Rigel came out of the Devil and waved to the group "Well, help everyone, what can I help you with?"

"I guess so. We'll have to talk Vestia into growing more huge rooms," Ellie decided. She checked a few more plants for signs of health problems, then went over to Shane. "The best part of living on this ship is planning what to do with her. The second best part is the people on board." She snickered.

~~
Asher smiled slightly and wheeled over to Rigel. "Hello Rigel. Vestia's departure from Terra has been slightly rescheduled due to unexpected circumstances," he wasn't sure whether it would be breaking patient confidentiality to tell Rigel exactly what that circumstance was, "and as you might be aware, there's an important replacement part for me awaiting pickup on Mars. I was wondering if it might be possible to arrange for the Silver Devil to go to Mars to pick up the part."

Tala was doing her morning fitness routine, so she might end up finding Luka at some point. They both had an interest in fitness, after all.

Shane smiled and moved closer to hug her gently. "Yeah, I agree with you there. " He said cheerfully.

~~~
Rigel smiled at that and nodded. "Sure, it'll be good to get the old girl out in space again. It might be hard for you to move around, at least on the way out there. Did you get Mourn to make a fake laws code or something so they won't know you're free yet?"

Ellie hugged Shane back. "Man, I missed you so much. You guys were doing awesome work getting Starr back and saving those dragons, but it wasn't the same without you here." She'd spent a fair bit of time with Matt, but having only half of her drinking buddy group around was kind of sad.

~~
Asher smiled softly. "Yes, it could be a little inconvenient for me to be on the Silver Devil, but I'm sure I could manage, even if it meant staying on the lower deck." He looked thoughtful, "I don't think there would be any reason for them to plug me into any type of computer, or for us to let them plug me in, but I suppose re-installing the Laws or something like them might be wise, just in case."

"Alternately, the Silver Devil could fetch the part and bring it back to Vestia, or Asher could go with you but stay on the Silver Devil," James said. "That way he wouldn't be getting repaired by professionals so the repairs might not be as good, but he also wouldn't be in as much danger of being discovered."

Kay visibly tensed at the mention of reinstalling the laws, what a horrible thought. He bit down on his lip, nodding to James as he explained the alternative option. [If you do go, it is only for repairs. Right?] Would they try to get a look at his code? Not if they had nothing to suspect. But could Asher pretend to be totally docile and could the others keep up the facade long enough? It was all pretty concerning.

---

Luka had just finished her morning jog and was having a drink of water in the gym.

Tala had started later, so she wasn't done with her fitness regime yet, but she did decide to take a break to catch her breath. She was still dealing with a bit of that hangover, and a slight lack of sleep, after all.
She went to have a drink of water. "Good morning, Luka, how fare you today?"

Luka nodded, smiling a little awkardly. "Pretty good." She admitted.

Tala couldn't really use a drinking fountain without making a mess, so she used a big mug she'd left here instead. She drank briefly, then nodded to Luka. "It is pleasing to be here again. I had not thought I would ever miss a satare, but such was so."

Shane nodded. "Yeah, like meeting all of the new dragons was great and learning more of our past and abilities, but I am glad to be back."

~~~
Rigel shrugged a little and shook his head "He was hit by acid, right? That can mess up things so they work once then short out later, of course the only experience I have is with ships, not androids."

Ellie nodded. "I know there's that big, heroic mission you and the dragons have, but I kinda want you to stay here a while," she said. "Maybe they can do the heroics this time around."

~~
Asher nodded to Kay. "Yes, it's just for repairs. They won't have any reason to touch my firmware, and I'm sure we can keep someone on hand to make sure they don't plug me into a computer while they fix me." To Rigel he added, "Yes, acid damage is rather unpredictable, it's hard to know how well we'd be able to fix the acid damage on our own. A MegaBrain technician could probably repair me much more reliably."
Asher didn't like to think of his legs just randomly giving out at some point while he was trying to do something, that would be awful.

"Can we get Starr to send a bodyguard?" James asked. "I mean she did adopt Asher, so her people would totally want to protect him cause he's technically a prince, right?"

Shane sighed a little then shrugged, "I think Hytar and the transport ship have already left."

~~~
Rigel nodded, it made sense that Starr would want someone to go with them, if only for communication.