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.

Kay nodded [Keep reading?] He snuggled into Asher again, just wanting to be close to him.

Asher nodded. "Sounds good to me." Better than worrying about the future, definitely. He put his arm around Kay, and switched on the tablet again with his free hand.

Kay settled down again to listen, trying to keep his fearful thoughts from intruding. It wasn't easy.

Asher would start reading again. It wasn't much of a weapon against everything they feared, but the light, ridiculous story was better than nothing, at least.

Shane chuckled and raised his hand a little "I would like to do something fun."

~~~
Dawn was just getting up to leave the gathering since they were starting to break away now. She headed for her room to relax a bit.

"Hoooolooooodeccccck," Ellie said, trying to get everyone else excited. "Let's goooo."

Tala snorted softly. She wasn't terribly interested in joining in.

Celia looked hesitant, not sure if she was supposed to go, or even allowed to.

Esk knocked on Dawn's door.

---

Matt cheered. "Awesome, anyone who wants to come, come along yeah?" Hey,he wasn't one to exclude anyone.

Mourn sipped his milk. He had no real interest in the holodeck, he was more interested in what Celia knew and all that encrypted data she still had to decode.

"Have fun." Amity called merrily.

Celia hesitated, then stayed with Mourn. Hey, they hadn't finished the tour yet, and she wasn't really in the mood for fun right now anyway.

"Thanks holo boy!" Ellie said, "See ya around!" She headed after Matt.

~~
James was totally still in the holodeck, riding his horse around.

Shane chuckled and followed along with a couple of dragons.

Most of the dragons were heading for bed or family time if they didn't stay in the cafe to socialize.

Dawn looked to her door then came to open it. "Esk? Um, hi, how are you?" She asked awkwardly, surprised by his visit.

Matt wheeled ahead, leading the way. He couldn't move as fast in a wheelchair of course, but he still tried. He LIKED leading the way, he was naturally quick on his feet ordinarily.

---

Mourn finished his drink. "What you want see next? We got rec rooms, arcade, cinema, pools... " he made a face at that one, he didn't like being wet. "dining hall, kitchen..."

----

Esk nodded to Dawn. "just a headsup." He told her flatly, a little bewildered by why she was surprised. He was oblivious to how many mixed signals he'd been giving the poor girl. "Asher's staying on Terra so you're gonna be one somewhat decent medic short, and Kay's gonna be in a shit mood about it."

Ellie headed after Matt. The star dragon, Rhea, went along too. They'd let Matt go into the holodeck first, it was currently set to a forest scene.

~~
"Hmm," Celia looked thoughtful. "What else is on this floor?"
(This floor has the gyms and library, I think? Might be forgetting something, lol)

Mourn thought about that "excercise place... clothes shop.. spider man no well though, so no working. " he tapped his claws on the table. "Book place... "

---

Matt looked around. Huh, someone else was already here. "Hello?" He called out. "Heeeelooooo?"

"Spider man? Book place?" Yeah, Celia wasn't quite used to Mourn's odd names yet. "Sounds like this floor has a lot going on."

~~
James reined his horse in at the sound of Matt's voice, then turned and headed for the sound. "Helloooo man, what's up?"

Matt waved. "Hey man. We aren't intruding right?"

---

Mourn nodded "yes." He replied simply. It was obvious to him so should be obvious to her.

"Nah, come on in," James said, smiling weakly at Matt, and the other people behind him. "You can change the program if you want, I dunno how into horses you guys are."

~~
Celia blinked. She didn't get it. "Who's spider man?" she asked. She assumed Peter Parker wasn't on this ship, although to be fair, this was a pretty peculiar crew.

Matt shrugged. "We used to have a horse..." He mused. "Just not sure how much I can do like.. well.. this." He gestured to his chair.

---

"He a man who also spider." Mourn explained, as if that should be obvious. "Tailor, make clothes."

Celia searched through her data files, nothing came up. "Looks like I lost my knowledge of that species while purging my database for the move," she said after a moment. "Damn."

Mourn shrugged. He didn't deem that overly important.

"So you have a library here, or a bookstore?" Celia asked, giving up on the spider man topic for now. She'd ask the internet about it later, maybe on a public computer if they had those here.

"Lib.. rarey." Mourn nodded. "Other robot there grumpy, no like people. Like books." He grinned, clearly amused. "You want see? Probably there, never leave."

"Sure, I'd like to see a library," Celia said. "Who's Other Robot?" Mourn was really confusing when you first met him. All those odd nicknames and descriptions.

"He robot who not robot." Mourn told her. "look like robot medic but not robot medic yes?"

Nope, Celia had no clue what 'robot who not robot' meant. Maybe she could have figured it out if she'd known Mourn's nickname for Asher, but she didn't, so it was just confusing. "All right, let's go see him then," she said. Maybe then she'd see what Mourn meant. "Lead the way."

Mourn nodded, got up and waved a vuage goodbye to Amity and Sawna and anyone else still here. He led the way to the library.

Sure enough, Ethan was still in the library. He was sitting at his desk, reading some textbook. He looked like the book had pissed him off, although Mourn probably knew him well enough to realize that was just his face.

Celia followed Mourn in, and looked at Ethan with a frown. He looked like Asher, but with that glare, he probably wasn't. Robot medic=Asher, then. Okay.

Ethan looked up from his book at the two. "Can I help you?" He eyed Celia, trying to figure out who she was.

"computer lady." Mourn told Ethan helpfully, pointing at Celia. "Got body now. Giving tour."