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.

"That's so awesome." Shane said with a grin. He liked learning about other species like this.

[We like to think so, too,] the capricorn said, its mouth opening in a goofy, doglike imitation of a smile. [If you guys are interested in seeing the spacecraft, or our political building, or nearly anything else, I can teleport you there. Haakon has been extensively recorded for the education of all.]

"education or recon?" Matt frowned a little, but he shrugged. "what do you guys wanna see first?"

"I vote the spacecraft." Shane said with a grin. Spaceships were tons more interesting than political stuff, then again, they would have to have these aquariums in there, so it might be more interesting. Hm.

[The planet's future is uncertain, so many groups have allied with the Haakon government to record our culture. It is a purely educational endeavor,] the capricorn said. It bobbed its body in an odd nod at Shane's request, and the street faded to a large airfield, where a couple of fighter ships were parked.

They looked fairly standard on the outside, some of them were open for the people to inspect. It looked as if any specific information about their specs was blanked out on the control panels though, clearly the Haakon military wasn't giving away all their secrets, just trying to wow sightseers a bit.

The capricorn had come along, and was now in a motorized cart with a tank on top, which it seemed to be able to control using its tentacles on a control panel in the tank.

Ellie and James looked around curiously, wanting to take in all the sights.

Matt was more interested in the cart than the ships. He'd never much cared for military anything. It was kinda sad that all this would be gone soon enough, swallowed up by the Imperium.

Shane just wanted to see how the aquarium in a ship worked himself, though he too was curious about the cart. Way more interesting than snails for certain.

The cart was square and pretty big, to account for the large creature in it. There were cushioned armrests that the capricorn had raced its flippers in front of, so it wouldn't be jostled as the cart moved. There was a breathing apparatus that the capricorn could move to breathe from, so that it could get air without the top of the cart being open to the elements and sloshing about.

The ship Shane looked at was a medium-sized one, in which the lower half was largely a tank of water and the upper half was designed for minotaur pilots and crew. There was a pilot's area for the capricorn where it could strap into a water-resistant HUD and a harness to hold it steady, and there was also an area where the creature could turn on fast flowing water to get some exercise.

James pestered sone minotaur lady in a military uniform with questions, while Ellie took selfies with the capricorn.

(We can probably timeskip whenever you guys are ready, we can do that meeting the quick way, I don't think we'll need to play out the discussion in full)

(sure thing)

(alright )

JULY 1, 2790

The meeting would happen sometime around mid morning, when anyone who wasn't completely sick of meetings gathered in a conference room to discuss Vestia's plan of action.

Asher probably spent a lot of time before the meeting with Kay, trying to lessen the sting of the upcoming meeting and abandonment as best he could. He knew it probably wouldn't help that much, but he had to try, and he wanted to spend as much time as possible with Kay while he still could, because it might be months before the campaign was over. Ugh.
When the meeting time arrived, he called the meeting to order, explaining the situation (For a guy who didn't like public speaking, he sure had been doing it a lot lately, he thought wryly to himself).
He told the group that he was planning to stay on Terra when Vestia departed, along with Nova. If anyone else strongly desired to stay then they could, but he encouraged them all to stay with Vestia, since Nova had said her teleporting spells were safest for species like star dragons and androids.
He also added that it hadn't been decided exactly how soon Vestia should depart for the Imperium. The sooner she did, the sooner the parents and kids could be reunited, but the matter was open to discussion if anyone had a strong preference. He encouraged everyone to say if they needed a few more days to get things ready, or if they wanted to leave sooner than that.

Tala was all for leaving at once, she liked Terra, but she liked the idea of continuing on their mission even more. Besides, she wanted to try to find her mate, and she couldn't do that very well from here, could she?

James abstained from voting. What he really wanted to do was stay on Terra with Asher, but he was fully aware why that would be an incredibly stupid idea. He wanted Vestia to delay leaving for as long as possible, but he also realized that that would be unfair to the parents and kids. So he kept his mouth shut, looking rather more gloomy than usual.

Ellie couldn't decide whether they should stay longer on Terra! Or go see the baby dragons as soon as possible! Either way was a win in her book.

Ethan just listened, he didn't have a strong opinion about how soon they were leaving, he wasn't going to be setting foot outside of Vestia for the foreseeable future regardless, not with his face and his biology.

The handful of other androids who had shown up for the meeting kinda wanted to stay on Terra, but they knew it was dangerous out there, so they all decided to stay with Vestia. Even Moriah, despite some misgivings. Like James, they abstained from voting on how soon to leave. That should really be up to the people with family out there in or near Imperium space.

Matt loudly declared they should leave IMMEDIATELY, quickly. He was getting anxious about Thalia's approaching due date and was rather desperate to be back with his mate.

Kay watched Asher, trying to hide the sadness in his eyes. He didn't want to go but he knew it was the better option to split up temporarily like this. He couldn't keep Asher safe and if anything, would likely only make things worse here on Terra. But it sucked.
He abstained from voting, he had no ability right now to make impartial decisions.

Hewitt mulled it over and reasoned that the sooner they got the kids, the sooner they could begin their return journey to Terra if necessary. Besides, he was getting rather bored of Terran politics.

Armin watched via his tablet hookup and relayed via Vestia that he was happy with whatever everyone else decided and that he wished Asher the best of luck. He promised to pray for the success of this revolution.

Mourn looked torn. He didn't like to run from a fight but he also was absolutely convinced the terrans weren't stupid enough to not see the truth and adjust accordingly. He was certain this would succeed and that there wouldn't be any real danger beyond the usual danger of existing in this universe to the androids. He also didn't much care about getting the kids, though a part of his kinda.. just a little bit missed Moone. Skye was kinda mopey without her sister, it annoyed him. They were happier when they were together and then they groomed him and talked to him and he liked that.

Swarm abstained from voting, some of them wanted to stay on Terra to witness the revolution personally but splitting up for months wasn't a great idea. They were already so small and weak, they needed to stick together as much as possible long term now.
They would go where the majority of the crew went, because interesting things seemed to often happen to Vestia.

Luka was rather desperate to get home, but she didn't want to upset people. When it came to a vote though, she'd vote to leave sooner rather than later.

Ivor looked alarmed at the idea of returning to Imperium space but the idea of remaining on terra was even scarier. He abstained.

Silence thought about it for a while. She'd kinda done everything she wanted to do here hadn't she? They could always come back.
"We go. Catch up later."

Starr voted to leave as soon as they were sure they had enough supplies to last the journey there and back. She wanted to see her babies again.

Skye of course voted to go asap, she wanted to see her sister again and they couldn't do much of anything else here.

Even Shane voted to go as soon as possible, just because that meant getting back to Asher and Nova as soon as was possible. He rather wanted at least one more guard with Asher, but that was up to Asher, not him.

It seemed more wanted to leave as soon as they could than wanted to stay.

Vestia told the group that they could depart in a couple hours, once the last couple shipments of supplies had been delivered. She wanted to get going too, her engines were itching for the chance to fire up again.

James and Asher didn't look super happy about that, but they weren't going to protest it. They both knew how important it was for the parents and kids to be together again. Things like feelings were much less important than protecting little kids and saving slave races, after all.

Asher considered Shane's point, but decided against a second guard, on the grounds that he didn't want to seem overly intimidating. Nova already had more magic than most Terrans, and a license to use it in defense, so she would likely be able to keep him safe on her own.

Kay looked momentarily panicked by the news.

Matt didn't notice, he was too excited about the prospect of seeing Thalia soon. He wheeled off to do whatever it was he did, already planning their reunion.

Mourn left to go back to the puzzle of the United code, and to check up on the news.

"It will be alright Kay, we will return as soon as we can and they will have the ability to go to safety. We can stop by a space station to drop off a stone just in case." Starr said reasonably.

Tala got up and headed out, satisfied with the way the meeting had concluded.

~~
Ethan headed out too, although he hung kinda near the room for a bit. He wasn't hoping Hewitt would come and talk to him. Really.

~~
Ellie cheerily headed over to Shane to hover near him, she was suuuper excited omg.

~~
The other androids headed off in ones and twos, back to work, or whatever it was they did.

~~
Asher saw Kay's expression and heard Starr, but pretended he didn't notice and went over to talk briefly to James instead while he watched other people start filing out.

~~
Mourn wouldn't find much different on the news. The information he'd spread was everywhere, a trending topic on almost every news site, but the Terran Empire hadn't given any new statements yet. And if the androids in MegaBrainTech HQ had been freed, there was no sign of it on the news yet.
At least people were talking, and thinking. That was a good sign.

Mourn posted a few remarks on a couple of forums about megabrain needing to be held accountable, he rather enjoyed shit stirring ahem. Then he went back to his code puzzle, this united code was a pain in the butt gah.

---

Kay hovered where he was, nodding hesitantly to starr and looking tense.

---

Hewitt shook his head and headed for the door, nodding to Ethan as he passed.

---

Luka glanced over at Kay, hmm, he didn't look happy. She didn't really want to try to make him feel better though, he kinda scared her. She followed Tala out, maybe she'd go see Rigel later, or go for a swim or something, that'd be nice yeah?
It was kind of exciting to think that in a few months she'd be approaching home. Getting messages to Imperium space from out here wasn't easy unless you had access to an encoded system, so she couldn't really send a letter home warning her family she was alive and coming back. not till they were nearer.

---

Silence and Ivor went to go do whatever it was they did.

----

Esk turned up, hey, he couldn't be bothered with meetings but he wanted to know the result. Judging by Kay's expression, they were leaving sooner rather than later.

---

Armin smiled to himself and turned off the tablet, settling down for a nice nap. It would be nice to be travelling again he thought.

James looked up when Esk came in. "Oh hey man, you missed the meeting," he said, trying not to show his own worry about how soon they were leaving, and kinda failing.

Asher smiled slightly at Esk.

~~
Ethan hesitated, then followed Hewitt. Not cause he wanted to talk to the guy, just cause he was going in that direction too. By coincidence. "Glad to be leaving Terra?" he asked.

Starr glanced to Asher and smiled, dipping her head a little. "I will pray you do not need the stones and stay safe until our return." She said as she stood then looked back to Kay again. "It is always hard to leave ones you love, especially in uncertain times, but he is as safe as we can make him for now." She went over to the door, nodding to Esk on the way. "We will be leaving soon, in case you need to prepare anything."

Esk shrugged. "Yeah, I had more important shit to do." Like literally anything else. He nodded to Starr "yeah i'm good." What'd he have to do out there? literally nothing.
He looked back to Asher. "How long do you think it'll take? With the leaked info, should be a pretty open and shut case right?"

Kay looked at the floor, he had nothing to add to this.

---

Hewitt smirked to himself as Ethan followed. "It will be pleasant to be away from this neurotic lot certainly, their fear of their own creations is ridiculous." He scoffed. "Though I hear the Imperium is no better. Not that we'll have much chance for sightseeing. "

Asher smiled softly at Starr. "Thank you, Starr. Hopefully we'll have that sort of luck. I'd certainly like this detour to be quiet and brief." He looked at Esk, "I'm still not sure. Maybe it won't take as long as we assumed, but I don't know the Terran Empire's protocols in this situation well enough to make any estimates."

"They're the asshats who let this happen for fifty years in the first place, don't be too optimistic about them," James said sourly.

~~
Ethan nodded. "Maybe we'll stop at some planets along the way that are more to your taste," he said, looking a little more grumpy at Hewitt's smirk. "The Imperium sounds like crap, I don't think they'd want to set eyes on either of us, either. they're not big on the idea of aliens in this universe."

Eks shrugged "People prefer ignorance, now there's no hiding."

Kay frowned.

"try not to get killed" Esk told Asher flatly.


----

Hewitt snorted "Idiots." He waved a hand dismissively. "we shouldn't be there long at least. " He looked back to Ethan. "How do you think this revolution is going to go?" He asked conversationally. He personally thought it was all pretty ridiculous.

Starr nodded and headed to find Ivor and Silence, might as well try to teach them about magic and blocking a little, especially with so many speaking mind to mind now.

Ivor and Silence hadn't gotten far. Silence tilted her head at Starr curiously.
Ivor nodded in greeting. "h... hello... "

"Hello" Starr said with a smile at the two. "I was wondering if you wanted to learn some magic today?"

Asher smiled softly at Starr as she left, then nodded at Esk. "We hope they can't return to ignorance, at least. We'll have to see. And thank you for your well wishes." He smiled wryly. Esk always said the nicest things.

James snickered at that.

~~
"I'm going to avoid the Imperium if I can, they sound unpleasant," Ethan sain. He frowned at the question, "I really don't know. The androids seem to have faith in the Terran Empire, but that could be Stockholm syndrome. Historically, protesting works here, but normally the protesters aren't computers."

(Sorry for slow replies! Its been a busy day and i'm typing on my phone)