UPON VESTIA: CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

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Asher considered his words for a few seconds, glancing around the room as he thought, then looked to Kay again. "I've been thinking over everything that's happened today, and I feel like it would be wrong for me to leave Terra before the androids have been granted their freedom," he said. "I think it might be in the best interests of the children and the androids if I stay on Terra while Vestia goes on to the Imperium." He wished he could have phrased it better, but he just didn't know how. Ugh.

"Magic, hmm. Teleportation, I suppose? My research said that magic users usually need to visit a place before they can accurately teleport in though." Celia frowned. Hey, when someone sneaked past your thousands of watchful camera eyes, you got curious.

Mourn cackled and wriggled his fingers "we good lots of stuff." He stopped walking "this engineering." He pointed down a corridor. "that way storage." he pointed down another corridor. "this way teleporter"

Celia sighed. She wanted to know anything, but it looked like the felid wasn't about to enlighten her. Oh well. "Teleporters, hmm? Nice tech around here."

"Ship big, ship have lots technology. Good ship." Mourn patted a wall affectionately. "We find you room yes? Ship, we find computer room?"

Celia hesitated. She wasn't entirely sure whether it was better to take her chances with the Terran Empire, or take her chances with these people. "Yes, let's find a room," she said.

Vestia would suggest some rooms, all of which Mourn might notice were safely on a different floor from any other passengers. Asher's distrust of the supercomputer-turned-android had clearly rubbed off on her.

Mourn led Celia to one of these rooms. "Ship have lots of rooms. Even if no stay, have somewhere recharge till leave yes?"

Kooshie wrote:The installation did indeed take a while. It was a lot of data to download and push across. Thankfully it wasn't as agonizingly long a process as defragging Daniel's system had been, it'd take a little over an hour instead of two whole days.

--I have no idea. I've never had a body with limbs and only two eyes, so the idea of moving into that body seems pretty weird to me-- Vestia said. --It might be very weird for her too--

~~
Asher looked uncertain when Esk mentioned them possibly wanting to cut him open. He had no clue how seriously to take that. "It does sound like a good option," he said after a long moment. "Starr, what do you think? Have you heard anything about this place?" She had traveled a lot, maybe she'd heard a rumor at least.

"I haven't heard much about that place beyond what's already been said here." Starr said with a small shrug "It should be safe enough."

"That makes sense," Celia agreed. She followed Mourn, looking around curiously when they arrived.
The hallway was fairly similar to the ones on the floor where most of the crew stayed, it wasn't super fancy. The room was also familiar in layout.
Vestia's camera watched them from the wall, equally curious.

~~
"Well in that case, it sounds like Unity Station should work," Asher said. "Maybe you should tell the kids, so they can tell Thalia? If the Silver Devil has trouble getting into the Imperium, they might need to leave there themselves." With that shuttle. Hmm. Not ideal.

Matt still looked thoughtful, damnit why did that name sound familiar? it was gonna bug the crap outta him now.

Esk nodded. "As safe as anywhere."

Kay chewed his lip. [well it seems like the best option.] He conceded. Eugh, could Thalia even fly a shuttle? That idea was terrifying. Nope, Kay did NOT trust that Keeper, at all.

---

Mourn opened a door at random. "You pick room, we continue tour yes?"

Starr nodded and closed her eyes to focus on the kids, telling them the meeting point they had chosen.

"Are you okay, Matt?" Asher asked, noticing the guy looked like he was thinking hard about something.

~~
"I'll take that room," Celia said, pointing to the one Mourn had just opened the door to. "I'm not terribly picky about rooms, honestly." She couldn't access all the androids' memories she'd downloaded over the years any more, but she had a feeling most of them hadn't had rooms anywhere near as spacious and nice as this.
It was weird to not have access to all that data any more. Sigh.

Matt sighed "nah, it's nothing." He couldn't remember.
Oh well, it was probably nothing major.

---

Mourn nodded and stood aside so she could go in. "Good. Boring part done."

Asher nodded. "All right." He looked to Starr, "Oh yes, and maybe you should emphasize that they shouldn't try to leave the Imperium on their own right now? Preferably they should wait for the Silver Devil."
He kind of wondered if Thalia wasn't going to drag the kids away the moment she knew the plan though, she was probably pretty sick of staying in that inn.

~~
Celia stepped into the room, looked around briefly, tossed her one possession, that badge, onto the bed, and then stepped out of the room again. "Okay, sounds good to me. What else do you want to show me?"

Matt looked excited. "Tell them we're on our way! Or.. we will be, like.. in a day or two.. right?" He looked around. "r.. right?"

---

Mourn looked thoughtful. "Can show you where people like congregate. Cafe not far, come come..." What'd he care she couldn't eat? People who didn't eat hung out in eating places all the time around here. Weirdos.

"You have a cafe here? This really is quite the cruise ship," Celia said. "Yes, let's go see this cafe. Might be a good way to meet some people."

Starr chuckled and looked to the others, nodding. "They have been told." She said with a smile.

"Thank you, Starr," Asher told her gratefully. "Matt does raise a good question," he added more quietly, "How soon should you guys leave for the Imperium?"
He was reluctant to see Vestia go, this was his home and these people were his family. But he knew the children needed their family more than he did, and the sooner Vestia left, the sooner they could be reunited. Another part of him was scared for Kay, with all those past traumas that this was no doubt stirring up for him.
There were a lot of conflicting things to worry about in this plan.

Kay looked anxious.

Esk shrugged. "It'll take about 8 weeks to get to the edge of Imperium space"

"Then we should go asap" Matt insisted. He glanced at Kay's expression. "I .. I mean.. there's not much more we can do here right?" He looked to Asher for confirmation. "and you'll have a bodyguard who can get you outta here fast if you need to yeah? So what are we waiting for?" He looked around at them all.

Kay winced, looking pained. He wanted to see the kids as much as Matt did, but he wasn't quite willing to say goodbye to Asher so soon. Eugh.

Esk noticed and rolled his eyes. "How about this, we don't make any plans tonight. It's been a long day, some of you are drunk." he glanced at Matt. "and some of you are exhausted and stressed out. Go relax. Come morning you can make decisions about what and how and when. "

Matt blinked. "that.. was weirdly civil of you..."

Esk sighed "I just have better things to do tonight than you two's angst and crap. You wanna see your fiance, he doesn't wanna say goodbye to his... whatever.. " He waved a hand dismissively. "it'll just be a whole evening of stalling and indecision and i'm not in the mood."

Kay frowned but nodded. [We should discuss this with everyone else.] He pointed out.

"Yeah, have another fucking meeting, you guys love those right? " Esk moved to stand up. "in the meantime, i've got shit to do."

"What could you possibly have to do?" Matt questioned.

"literally anything but sit here?" Esk countered.

Starr listened to the others talk, moving away a little to chat with Nova while the others did their talking.

"Esk does raise a good point," Asher agreed. "Some rest might help us all to think this over more clearly, and the others deserve a say as well." He smiled wryly, "Another meeting tomorrow, then. You're doing this to yourself now, Esk."

Esk snorted "Yeah, I must be losing my mind." He stretched and headed for the door.

Matt looked amused. "What time? Can it not be early?"

Kay rolled his eyes [because you'll be hungover?]

"Aww come on man." Matt complained.

Kay glanced to Starr and Nova. [Tomorrow lunch time?] He suggested.

Starr looked back over to them and nodded a little "It can. We want everyone to have a clear head after all." She said, she couldn't see Kay's tablet so she was answering Matt.

"Lunch time sounds fine," Asher agreed. He smiled at Starr for a moment, then looked to Matt. "Tell Vestia to call me, I'll drop off something for the hangover," he muttered to Matt.
He was having a stressful week, doing something normal like helping someone with a hangover might be reassuringly normal.

Kay looked unimpressed by Asher's kindness but he nodded.

"yeah, you guys like.. go.. do... whatever it is you do." Matt shooed them. "We'll talk serious tomorrow" Yes, when he had lots of painkillers and coffee. He grinned at Asher. "you're my hero." He whispered.

Kay rolled his eyes.

---

Meanwhile Mourn happily led the way to the cafe, declaring their arrival loudly, should anyone still be there. "Computer lady is here!"

Asher smiled. "Just doing my job," he told Matt brightly. Kay could be as mean as he liked, but Asher was going to be nice to Matt and Kay couldn't stop him. Ha.

~~
Ellie was still at the cafe, she'd probably tried to force Shane to stay too. "Computer lady?" she asked. Ah, Mourn and his weird names.

Tala was there as well, enjoying some coffee.

Celia followed Mourn in, looking wary still. Yeah, this was way different from living in a data center.

Mourn grinned expectantly at everyone.

Amity had joined Sawna in the cafe, serving coffee and cake. He smiled broadly. "Greetings guest." He tilted his head, she wasn't in his database.

"Hello" Sawna said as the two came in. She smiled and came over to them "I am Sawna, welcome." She said to Celia, uncertain of who she was.

Shane stayed happily enough, eating and drinking with Ellie. He looked to Mourn and Celia and waved. "Hi"