Page 16 of Ava Greasemonkey

“It was different. But similar. I was not expecting anything similar on board when we made our initial plans,”Vox answered. He breathed deeply, remembering the feel of her mind. It was intriguing.

“Does it change anything?”Erox mused.“I did not probe deeply to see its intentions.”

“It is not malicious. It. No, it is a female. She. She is a servant more than anything else.”He shook his head, thinking hard.“It changes nothing. We do not alter course.”The trapped bird would just have to remain trapped in the vents. Intriguing had no place in their plans.

Vox reached out to his fourth companion to see if he had any input but met a thick wall. Rhutg was able to connect but didn’t want to say anything. Vox knew he was in agreement from the suppressed rage he conveyed across the meditative state. He tried to extend his calm to him but Rhutg refused it, feigning sleep. Rhutg’s mate, one he had shared home and body with for many years, was taken from him several suns ago. He was not up for speculation or idle chatter. Rhutg’s humor had died the moment Violie was kidnapped from their home planet by the Tuxa.

“We will find her, Rhutg,”Vox thought to him. Rhutg was not receptive, but Vox still projected his calm.

Vox sighed and disconnected his meditative state before he reached forward to grab the food. He would need his energy, after all.

Chapter 7

Ava got back into the vents above the engine hall, slid down the shaft, and climbed out of the grate opening slowly. She was sore from climbing and crouching so much in one day, and her muscles protested the entire way.

While she was gone, Ebel had found the bag of the small yavi fruit and put a small pouch of them on her desk in the control room.

“Welcome back,” he stated as she emerged, dusty and sweaty. His fanged, furry mouth was slightly red from the fruit. He ate them without bothering to remove the pit.

“Yep. I’ll fill you in after I get clean,” Ava remarked briskly, busy taking off the thermal suit and grumpy from being sore.

She put the suit in the laundry compartment where the UV light immediately began cleaning it. She then took off her jumpsuit, adding that as well.

Ebel turned away while she took off her undergarments. He found her unclothed body just as unattractive as she found his.

Rid of her clothing, she went to the bathroom and into the shower setup. She groaned when the water hit her, pounding on her back. Ava set about washing away all the sweat and dirt and pom droppings she’d picked up from crawling nearly all cycle. She took her black hair out of her bun to give that a good washing too. It felt satisfying to finally be clean again.

After getting out of the shower and wringing the excess water from her hair, she sat in a towel for a few minutes while the UV cleaner worked on her clothing. She put her head in her hands and rubbed her neck a minute before she stretched out. The warm water helped, but extending her body helped more. The cleaner was taking a long time to get through her clothes, a testament to how dirty they were.

“So, how’d it go?” Ebel turned back to her as she continued to squeeze water from her hair.

“Well, there’s prisoners on board. Not doing much, just sitting and eating. And I guess going to the bathroom. I didn’t get to that part in the Vorbax logs to see what that looked like. Everything else about them looks similar to me so maybe that’s the same too.” She started running her fingers through her hair, attempting to comb it.

Ebel grimaced at her nonchalant comments. “Well at least it’s peaceful for the moment. The Phor are going to do a sweep tonight and do the late night feeding, but you’re on the schedule for the next one after you rest. You’ll have to do it at least once every twenty hour rotation. The queen wanted you to do all the feedings but I explained how you need to rest and how vital you are to keeping the engine going.”

“Thanks, Ebel.” Ava smiled at him while she finished combing through her hair. She meant it too.Finally, he tried to help me.He didn’t like to question authority, but the fact that he pushed back on her behalf, especially to his queen, meant a lot.

A soft tone signaled her clothing was done. Ava pulled it out and began to dress again in her undergarments and jumpsuit, warm and toasty from the dryer. It felt cozy putting it all back on, a nice change from the chill of the vents. The thermal suit got hung back in the closet, a little more firmly than necessary.

She checked her com once she was dressed and was not surprised to see the chatter onboard was less than optimistic.

“Have you laid eyes on our new guests yet?”Nuor had finally pinged her.

“Yes. I’m going to have to see a lot more of them too. The queen wants me to take over guest duty,”Ava messaged back, fingers flying.

The response from Nuor didn’t take long.“This is so bizarre. I am going to have words with the collective about my contract once this gag order is lifted. The Vorbax I don’t know much about. My cousins mentioned them once, there’s a representative on the main Galactic Board, but he avoided them.”

Ava’s mind pictured the Vorbax from the Phor logs. She was beginning to respond when Nuor pinged her again before she could finish.

“Actually. I don’t like this at all, Ava. The Tuxa are disgusting.”

“Disgusting as in how?”

“As in they shouldn’t be around anything female that moves,”Nuor replied. Ava stared at the words a second, frowning and tapping her foot, before turning to Ebel while staring down at her com.

“Ebel, Nuor is messaging that the Tuxa . . . ah . . . aren’t the best around females.” Ava looked up from the com screen to judge Ebel’s reaction, her heart starting to pound.

Ebel thought for a minute and then looked a bit flustered, antennas flattened. “Yeah, she would know. The Vali had to putconditions on their services a long time ago. That’s also one of the reasons we’ve never had one as a contracted employee on our ships . . .” He trailed off as he regarded Ava, a frown on his furred mouth.

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