Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Two

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James went into Armin's room. "Hey man, watcha working on?" he asked, seeing that Armin was sewing.

Armin laughed "The Weaver works in mystereous ways"

"I guess she does," James agreed. He got out his tablet so he could find one of those movies Vestia had mentioned.

Armin heaved himself up into his web hammock and extended a hand to help James up alongside him.

James let Armin help him into to hammock, being careful not to put too much of his weight on the guy as he did so. Last thing he wanted to do was hurt the guy, that would suck.
He settled next to Armin, and would start the movie once they were ready.

Kooshie wrote:"True," Ethan said. "You have quite the schedule." He looked amused.

"At times I do, that is why I have made it a point to make the soil as close to my home soil as I can. It's more restorative to me that way." Sawna said with a smile.

"You mean it has to be a specific type of dirt?" Ethan asked. Yeah, he thought Carpathians were straaange.

Armin put an arm around James and would settle in to watch whatever James wanted to watch. He didn't really mind, it was just nice to have someone here.

Kooshie wrote:"You mean it has to be a specific type of dirt?" Ethan asked. Yeah, he thought Carpathians were straaange.

Sawna chuckled and nodded "Some dirt has more minerals and a better ph than other dirt, for my people our home world's dirt has more healing properties than other dirt." She thought he was kind of funny how he couldn't understand that, or rather didn't want to. "Just as some plants do better in certain dirt over others, though thankfully without the fertilizer." She joked

"Wow. I've never heard of a humanoid species absorbing minerals from the dirt before." Ethan really did seem to be baffled by Sawna's needs. "You and Hewitt must get along well, talking about Ph and minerals."

Sawna chuckled then shook her head "He has not come here often and needs his sleep at night."

"One of these days you two will have to bond over dirt," Ethan said. Although come to think of it, he wasn't sure Hewitt needed dirt. Maybe he just got his nutrients from the air... Ethan wasn't very interested in biology.
"I should get going," he added, "I have a few errands to run, things to drop off." And also because thinking about Hewitt too long made him think stupid thoughts, not that he was going to say that to Sawna.

Sawna chuckled and shook her head "Does he even use dirt?" She asked then nodded "Alright, I will see you later then."

"I don't actually know," Ethan said, "Maybe you should ask him about it, although he might act scornful about it or something." Hewitt really was a judgemental guy, after all. "See you later," he said, then headed out the door.

Sawna waved but moved back to her counter again, thinking about what he had said.

JULY 12, 2790

Vestia continued her voyage, making her slow but steady progress toward the Imperium. It was going to be many more weeks until she reached her destination, but at least there hadn't been any delays so far.

There was only one important event predicted to occur on Vestia today: the hatching of Starr's heir. The soon-to-be hatched princess was probably on a lot of peoples' minds these days, whether for better or worse. Hopefully mostly for better.

Armin was feeling much more himself and had, a few days prior, moved his work back to his workshop/shop. He preferred having the much larger space, he could be a lot messier.

He'd finished a few beautiful plush dragons made of remnants of silk and selected one specifically to gift to Starr and her infant when the princess hatched.

----

Matt was slowly working toward walking unaided. Kay, still spooked but reassured by Asher's updates had resumed physio with his brother and for the time being, Matt was given the go ahead to spend a few hours a day on crutches instead of chair bound, to build up his stamina and improve muscle tone after all these months.

He couldn't move very fast, but he was pretty delighted to be able to get UP, even if it was actually way more awkward to get around on crutches than in a wheelchair.
Every so often he'd overdo it, his back would spasm and he'd have to rest for a few days to recover. It was difficult for Matt to slow down in anything.

---

Luka kept chickening out on explaining things to James, oops.

----

Mourn kept working on the Terran United code and trawling the news and forums for updates on the android situation. He'd rehost the freedom code whenever it needed to be rehosted and he continued to ignore Megabrain.

-----

Esk kept on studying, which was hard going for him. He wasn't great at reading, so he'd resorted to holodeck lectures and any audio books he could find, but there weren't many of those.
He found it all rather frustratingly slow going.

Starr stayed in the nursery with the other dragons, it had everything she needed already and would allow the others to come if they wanted to be there for the hatching. When the shell showed cracks, she would let Vestia alert the ones that had shown interest in being there.

The new dragon princess was different than any other dragon. She was all white, star dragons were usually pretty colorful with star patterns, but she was like a star or moon herself instead. Starr named her Luna because of her coloring, feeding her when she hatched and was ready to eat.

At Starr’s request, Vestia would tell everyone who might be interested in attending that the egg was cracking, and that they were allowed to attend the hatching if they wanted.

~~
Ellie was conflicted about the new hatchling that was about to be born. One on hand, BABY DRAGON. On the other hand EVIL SLAVERS. She knew her thoughts could be loud, and she was scared she might project something negative at the poor kid by accident if she attended the hatching. But she wanted to see the baby! So when Vestia alerted her, she forgot all her worries about this and practically sprinted for the nursery.

~~
Tala was enjoying the continuing trip toward the Imperium and her mate. She worked out at the gym as usual, and sent a few messages that she hoped would eventually reach Nadira by way of one of the outposts with internet access near her tribe’s territory.

She decided not to attend the hatching, she’d wait a while and visit Starr later. Tala was fully aware that her voice was too loud for newborns, the poor kid didn't need that sort of shock.

~~
James had been worrying… a lot. He tried to distract himself by being supportive of Armin, and trying to invite Kay to join him in the holodeck, but he spent a lot of time worrying about what was happening on Terra. He also felt more awful as the hatching drew closer, because he knew he’d been the last person to see Starr before she’d been captured. If he’d just stayed with her instead of helping that dumb hawk kid, maybe she wouldn’t be in this situation right now.

Maybe Starr was glad to have this kid, but she should have gotten to choose when and how to have an heir for herself. Not had one because the slavers wanted someone they could mind control. So he felt really guilty about this.

He hadn’t pressured Luka to tell him about Rigel since that night at the party, he figured she’d tell him when she was ready. Or never. It was really up to her, and he'd decided to be a good friend and respect that.

~~
Ethan had made a point of avoiding Kay, going so far as to tell Vestia to warn him if Kay was ever anywhere nearby so he could avoid the guy better. Maybe that was overkill, but he was paranoid about guys with Kaylr’s face, especially when they were also dating a guy with Ethan’s face. Best to just stay away from each other.

He had gotten Esk a couple psychology audiobooks on Terra, so he’d be pleased if he noticed Esk had checked any out. He liked doing his job, okay?

Starr smiled at Ellie when she came in, glad she had decided to come. If Ellie got too loud with bad thoughts, she would shield Luna from hearing it.

Luna chirped at the people around her, she was pretty popular here. Shane had come along with some dragons and Skye and even Sawna showed up to see her.

Armin went to witness the hatching, it was a historic occassion after all. He brought the toy dragon with him as a gift, as well as some treats for Starr as well.

He stayed out of the way as best he could.

===

Ellie saw the little white dragon and made a little 'eeeeeee' noise. "Oh my gosh, I didn't know star dragons came in that color," she whispered, not to anyone in particular. She couldn't be sad about the kid's origins at the moment, the kid was too cute. A princess!

"We usually aren't" Starr said with a smile at Ellie before looking back to the baby and feeding her some cut up meat. The dragons made room for Armin, they knew he was Starr's friend and gave him the chance to go to her if he wanted.

"Was her dad, like, a star dragon at all do you think? Or something else?" Ellie asked, then winced a little. She might be curious, but she hated thinking about the dad, whoever he was. She tried to think HAPPY THOUGHTS before Luna could hear.

Armin bowed his head, thanking the other dragons quietly. He didn't want to interrupt Starr, she had so many people fussing over her right now.
Her child was, he thought, absolutely perfect. Of course he knew she would be. She was Starr's daughter after all.

He tried to ignore Ellie's awkward questions.

"She is a pure breed star dragon." Starr replied as she looked to Ellie "Just different. I am not sure why she is pure white like this." She said then looked to Armin and smiled softly "I see you brought one of your creations. It's lovely" She said of the toy dragon.

"Maybe she's destined to do something amazing," Ellie said. "Oh wait, she totally is. We already knew that." She looked at what Armin had brought when Starr noticed it, "Aww, it's cute too!"

James was wandering around the ship, trying to avoid thinking about, well, pretty much everything. He might find Esk somewhere by accident, if Esk wasn't hiding.