Page 14 of Ava Greasemonkey

She kept a closed expression for a moment longer before uncrossing her arms and sighing. It wasn’t his fault for the way things were. The food also looked better than she had seen for a long time, and despite recent events, she was starving.

“Gods, Ebel. I could kiss you.” Ava forced a smile and almost skipped to go grab a fork.

“Ew, that gross thing you talked about where you put your mouth on mine? I’ve seen the Human information videos. Please don’t.” He put his antennas down in mock horror and opened up his fanged mouth so wide she could look down his entire tooth-filled throat. He looked relieved she was eating and not protesting anymore.

Ava made a kissy noise and began eating the food, ignoring the anxiety in her stomach. She might have several big problems looming, but right now she was going to enjoy this meal.

Chapter 6

The meal Ava ate energized her.

She figured she would get her first visit out of the way before sleep, so she put the heat suit back on. With any luck it would silence her mind to not have the first visit looming.Hopefully then I can relax. When she took the stupid suit off after going up into the vents for the second time in one cycle, she wanted a good period of time before she had to put it back on again.

With that in mind, she made it a two-part journey in the vents and checked out the cargo hold before heading to the animal cells. That way there would be no pressure for her to get back in the vents if she just did it all now.

Besides, after she got around to showing Ebel the fruit picture, they spent some time while she was eating looking it up and finding out it was edible. And supposed to be delicious. Well worth the detour.

Now in the cargo hold, in the still-pressurized side panels containing the trees, Ava held the small red fruit in her handsand sniffed it. Ebel said it was something called a yavi fruit. The database came up with similar fruits, and one was called a cherry on the planet her mother originally came from. Her mother never liked to talk about Earth, the planet she was from, so Ava never heard of a cherry before.

The Phor had more information on the plants from Earth than they did on the Humans that started there. It was kind of strange. It wasn’t the first time that she wondered if it was by design, like the Humans were purposely being hidden on the records.

Ebel also asked her to bring some of the yavi fruit back for their queen to placate her. She was apparently still angry and was taking it out on her drones. There was a chance that with something brought back by Ava that was different, she might reconsider how much observing Ava had to do. Maybe she could just be continually sent back to pick the fruit the entire trip instead.

That would be nice.

She stepped into the canopy and breathed deep, pretending she was in a forest full of the trees. They smelled delicious.

Ava tried to spread out her picking so her pilfering wouldn’t be noticed, and even then was still able to fill her bag almost to the top with tons to spare, as there were berries on almost every branch. After the bag was full, she cinched it down so none would spill out on the way back.

The fruit was delicious like the logs said, and she felt a pang in her heart as she ate it, thinking of what her mother would have thought of the berries.Would they have reminded her of Earth?

She shook her head to clear the thoughts and munched on one, wiping away the juice as it dribbled down her chin as she climbed back into the vents. She ate four more while she moved around the side walls to see the payloads in the containers and what was possible to grab.

Ava took a break after she climbed back into the main part of the ship and out of the cargo hold. She sat back in the vents in an area that opened up wider due to the filtration unit housed there and snacked on a fifth fruit. It was amazing having something actually grown and not from the food processor.

Maybe if I keep one of these pits I could try growing one of the trees myself in the solarium.She held the pit under her flashlight and tried to see how the seed was constructed, turning it around in the narrow beam of light.

A soft squeaking drew her eyes to one of the ninety-degree bends in the vent in front of her. Ava sat quietly as she saw a pom stick its head out, not daring to move an inch and startle it. A smile curled on her mouth. She rarely got to see one in person; they were so skittish. Their sense of smell was apparently fantastic though, as it clearly wanted a better sniff of the yavi fruit.

Ava let out a soft, “Hey you,” once its entire small fuzzy body came forward, its beady eyes reflecting in the little light her flashlight gave off. It looked like a fuzzy ball on legs. It squeaked and ran away once it heard her, its long tail the last to disappear around the corner.

Ava sighed in disappointment, the hand holding the fruit out dropping to the floor of the vent. They were a nuisance on every ship, but Ava couldn’t bring herself to hate the little creatures just trying to survive.

She put the pit back in the bag with the rest of the fruit. Then she took another out and put it in the middle of the vent for the poms. Ava was determined to be friends with at least one of them. She cinched her bag shut again, wiped her hands on the suit, and made her way back to the engine room vents.

There she lowered the bag down into the engine room shaft with some rope and banged on the sides to alert Ebel that she'd dropped something if he was still in the control room.

Ava sat a second, twiddling her thumbs. She knew she was stalling; she didn’t need to come back to drop the goods off.

She shook her head and forced herself to move without waiting to see if Ebel got the fruits. The trip over to the animal corridor was not as long as it was to the transport area. Not near as much climbing either, thankfully.

The breeze had cooled her off while she sat to eat the fruits earlier, but she still felt ripe underneath the suit from all the sweating. She’d need to take a shower first thing when she got back down. She tugged at the suit, feeling it constrict around her, and felt disgusting.

The six animal cells were all large in diameter, each a ten-by-ten square, with a row of smaller crates on the north end of the space. There were also a few tanks that could hold aquatic animals, but Ava had never seen them used before. All the lights were on, briefly blinding her as she looked out of the first grate in the area to see the layout.

Ava lay flat—it was too narrow in the vent to sit up—and rubbed her eyes until they adjusted.

Then, looking down, she saw that the four Vorbax were each in a separate cell. There were no beds to speak of, but someone had thrown a pallet and mattress to sleep on in each one. There was a hole in the back with a grate that served as a toilet and for cleaning whatever creature was on board. The remaining two cells were filled with Tuxa napping. Only those cell doors were wide open.

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