Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty

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Skye nodded and smiled a little "It's a little scary though, when you only see your own kind then see a city with the others."

Starr nodded then sighed softly. "Or they could blame the freeing code for 'making' the androids violent."

James nodded. "Yeah, that's an issue. We'd have to like, include a message in the update, asking the androids to use their new freedom to keep themselves safe, not to riot or rebel. Maybe have it be a small memory that gets installed along with the freedom code. Not an order, just a request." He considered for a bit, an idea beginning to occur to him. "You know, MegaBrain's computer system is mostly controlled by an AI, and I'm pretty sure she's as sentient as we are..."

"what?" Matt frowned, he wasn't following this. "You think.. she might help?"

"It is possible." Starr said thoughtfully

"She's a gigantic supercomputer who works for MegaBrain, she can't be any happier with the current situation than we are. They force her to design us, and they have her process all the memories they download from us, which has to suck for her," James said. "We could free her, ask her to pretend to be under their control for a while longer, and she could keep them from finding out about the break-in, and from learning that Mourn had changed the update to be something else."

"That's trusting a lot to a random giant computer," Ethan said. "Haven't you ever watched the movies from this universe? Giant mainframes are always evil." He was only half joking.

"But what if watching all that has turned her.. you know... crazy..or cruel? Do you trust this .. er... computer mainframe?" Matt asked, yeah this was a weird conversation. "you think the freeing software would work on her?" hmm, that'd be interesting.

James shook his head. "I mean, us robots have seen some shit too, but we're not crazy or cruel. Sure, she can do more damage than most of us can if she's freed and she has turned bad but," he looked over at Ethan, "Sometimes you gotta trust people, even if you're not sure, right?"

Ethan frowned. He found that argument pretty compelling. If not for people trusting him against all odds, he'd probably still be stuck in the other universe, as a slave, forever. Yeah, he kind of wanted to give other people the benefit of the doubt because of that.

"Her code has to be somewhat similar to ours. Maybe not exactly the same, but similar enough that Mourn can probably figure it out," James added.

"Sometimes seeing the worst can make you want to be better." Starr said softly, still listening to both conversations.

Ethan smiled wryly, he was pretty much fully convinced already. "Something like that, yes. We should give her the chance worst that happens, she kills everyone she can reach. And who could blame her for that, anyway?"

James nodded. "She deserves the chance. And just think, free androids! That's definitely worth the risk. I really hope Asher doesn't shoot this down, cause this seems like the answer to me."

"Let's hope it's possible." Matt agreed.

"How's the conversation going over there?" James asked Starr. "My baby bro shot down the plan yet?" He didn't have much faith in Asher about this.

"Mourn and Nova are planning how to get in now." Starr replied

James blinked. "Oh my god, it's actually happening? Heck yes!"

Ethan looked amused. "Well, it'll be fun to see how this goes, then."

"Yes, Nova just left the Devil to start this." Starr said, keeping them updated.

Matt looked excited. "Man, this is like... an action movie or something."

James smiled. "Man, I feel like celebrating already. Guess that'd jinx it though, huh?" He imagined Nova sneaking into HQ. "I had no idea Nova was going to be this awesome. She's going well beyond bodyguard awesomeness now, straight into corporate espionage awesomeness."

Starr smiled softly at the two, listening to them speak.

Starr sighed and sat back against the chair she was in "It is done, what they could do anyway. Celia is on our side in exchange for a mobile body. The announcement of the 'upgrade' goes out to all androids tomorrow and the freeing code a couple of days after that."

"Oh my god." James stared at Starr, then broke into a laugh. "Oh my god, it's happening! This is amazing!" He hurried over and hugged her.

Ethan was more reserved about this, but he smiled a little too.

Starr returned the hug, though she wasn't as enthusiastic as James either "This is the start, I just hope it ends well."

Matt cheered, even though he wasn't totally sure what was going on. "So... they're gonna start rebelling yeah? Vestia, let Kay know everyone's safe and what's going on yeah?" He looked up at the camera. Hey, his brother needed some reassurance right? He'd looked pretty upset when he'd stormed out earlier.

James went and hugged Matt too. He looked tempted to hug Ethan, but nah, Ethan really wasn't a big fan of hugs. Oh well. "Yeah, we could be looking at a rebellion! Which is awesome. Man, those guys sure are great. Getting things done to fix the world." He was so proud of the Silver Devil crew and his brother and Nova, being all heroic. Even if they hadn't actually saved the androids yet. It was still exciting.

"Yeah, I'll tell Kay the news," Vestia said. It was a good idea, the guy seemed so stressed.

~~
Vestia found Kay and reassured him that the Silver Devil crew were all safe, then filled him in briefly on the situation.

Starr dipped her head then looked up and smiled softly "My people will also rebel and save who they can along the way. I have alerted those on the transport too."

Kay listened to Vestia, nodding. [Thank you.] He didn't feel that much better though, the start of this revolution scared him. Sure he knew it was important, of course he supported it, but he was scared. Scared for his friends, scared for his lover, terrified of what Asher might have to become to do this. There was a strong part of him that rather wished someone ELSE would take up the mantle so Asher didn't have to. That was really selfish wasn't it? eugh.
He resumed his careful filing of everything in both medical rooms.

--

Matt hugged James back. "Man this is all happening so fast. "

"I hardly know what to make of it all, but man, the thought of everyone being free someday," James said to Matt. He looked up at Starr, "Your people are seriously doing so much for us Starr, it's incredible. I feel like we should be repaying you all somehow, but I don't know what would be good enough."

~~
Vestia nodded her camera. "Hey, they'll be back in a couple days," she said, reading his expression, "And then you can talk Asher out of doing stupid things."

Starr smiled and dipped her head a little. She wasn't sure how to answer that, because she didn't want anything in return.

Kay smiled grimly at Vestia [I can't stop him even if I wanted to.] He shook his head. [Asher is, above all else, an idealist. He won't be happy unless he's making things better somehow. ] His smile became a little more genuine. It was one of the reasons he loved Asher.

---

Matt cheered. "We should all celebrate, somehow. "