Page 23 of Ava Greasemonkey

Ava grinned, watching it jiggle, the alcohol making her find it even funnier than usual. It was cursing up a storm. Jiggle, jiggle. She stifled a laugh, forgetting about her worries for a moment.

The two Haroo were new, so Ava didn’t know them at all. It didn’t seem like she would need to get to know them, as they probably would be gone from this ship the first chance they got, based on how much they were currently complaining.

She looked down at her com on her wrist and clicked around. The message she sent to Ebel was still unread. Ava frowned. It was unlike him to be so disconnected.

Wert sat down in front of her while she was absentmindedly looking out the window and listening to the talk in the background. The ship was going through a relatively blank area of space, but the stars were particularly vibrant in this sector. Ava turned her head to him.

Wert’s antennas were flattened to his skull. “I’m sorry, Ava. The queen was not in the mood to listen to any accommodations. How was the first visit?”

Ava sipped her drink. She was enjoying the warm buzz the alcohol was giving her, soothing her insides and loosening her tongue. “It went fine, actually. Nuor came up with a solution so fast you would think she was planning for this. The Tuxa didn’t need seem to notice anything.” She thought better than to mention that the Vorbax did see through her disguise.

Changing the subject she asked, “Where’s Ebel? He wasn’t there when I got back and is not answering his coms.”

Wert’s antennas flopped on his head, “Ah, he was called to serve the queen. After all the mentions of your schedule she became a bit territorial with him and called him to serve her for the next few cycles to keep him close.”

Ava frowned, bunching her hands in her lap in dismay. “Well, shit. Is he going to be back in the engine hall soon?”

Wert nodded. “She will tire of him in a bit. He was never one of her favorites.”

Ava shifted on her seat, uncomfortable thinking of him being that close to the queen in a foul mood. Sometimes it was good to be forgotten by those in charge.

She cleared her throat. “Do you know anything more about what’s going on between the Vorbax and the Tuxa? And why are we involved?”

“I don’t know what’s between those two, but the credit amount we’re getting is enormous. They must be desperate to transfer these prisoners. With the amount they are paying, it’s no wonder the collective is taking the risk.”

“Why us though? Don’t they have their own fancy ships? They manufacture . . . everything. Even parts for us.”

Wert shook his head at her. “No, Ava, the Tuxa don’t have many ships they make themselves outside of small personal vessels. For all their talk of amazing technology, they can make the small parts but never were able to figure out how to put them all together. They really just copy our parts instead of inventing their own.”

Wert leaned forward and took a drink of something himself before continuing, “And since they only can copy, none of it would work without our biologics.”

Not all of this makes sense.“But can’t they just buy their own biologics or ships since they have the most credits?”

Wert shook his head, antennas flying. “Who is going to sell to them and be out of a job? Not the Phor. It’s too big of an advantage to start giving away. They do buy some larger ships from the species who don’t care as much. Then they hodgepodge fixes together to make them work. But they never have ships as great as ours.” Wert’s chest puffed out in pride. “That’s why no one really goes down into the engine hall to see how it all works. We don’t want anyone to steal anything.”

“Nuor comes down there though.”

Wert nodded thoughtfully. “That was Ebel’s call. Nuor has also proven herself. Besides, he’s right that the biologics won’t work if anyone tried to steal them; they’re so fickle.”

Ava smiled, remembering the times the biologics went on strike when she was younger, before she took over their feeding. Ebel would always forget their food. There were a few times Ebel had fretted they would stop entirely before they decided to start swirling again after he fed them on time for several cycles in a row. He had been petrified the queen would punish him.

Ava frowned, remembering his fear.

They sat in mutual silence, admiring the beauty of the deep space next to them, both lost in their own thoughts.

Then Ava remembered the logs from earlier, contradicting Wert’s statements. “The Vorbax and Tuxa have been at war though. They must have some ships to transport troops and actually, you know, wage a war.”

Wert shifted his yellow body to lean forward. “Like I said, the Tuxa do have some ships, though I don’t know what kind. But they’re nowhere near this quadrant. It’s really strange that the Tuxa caught the Vorbax here so far away from everything. They would have had to wait months for one of their own fleets to get there to take them away when we were already scheduled to arrive within a few days.”

Ava thought hard on it, twirling her drink around and watching the stars zoom by outside.None of this makes sense.“Yeah, pretty strange.” It was setting her gut on edge with just how strange it was.

Chapter 9

“Speak to me. Tell me who you are.”

Ava was again in front of the Vorbax’s cage who had questioned her during the last visit. The one that glowed and made her feel at peace. She was convinced it was him that was making her feel strangely calm whenever she was near him.

Standing in front of his cell, still slightly tipsy from the last drink she had with Wert in the mess hall, it took her a minute to process his words. She felt they had reached an uneasy truce after he didn’t say anything and she was able to get past the Tuxa undisturbed. But now he was at the front of his cell and spoke in a low tone to her.

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