Page 32 of Ava Greasemonkey

Ava gasped and found her muscles not willing to respond. Terror raced down her spine. Already her knees were starting to hurt from holding the awkward position, the metal cutting into her skin.

“Come closer.Relax,”his voice commanded. Ava was helpless to not obey, her body racing to comply. Immediately she lay flat on the ductwork with her face placed on the grate above him, her eyes glued to his imposing frame. Her heartbeat slowed. Her mind remained terrified, but her body basked as if she were lounging in the artificial rays of the solarium.

They waited each other out in silence as Ava felt her emotions and reactions being tasted and then carried away, along with every errant thought she had. Unbidden images of feeling helpless before she came to the Phor ship ran through her mind. Humiliation rose at being back in this position again as she futilely tried to move her arms and legs. She couldn’t budge an inch.

“. . .such fear. Not of this ship, but before. What are you? I remember you talking to Vox and saying Human. I have not encountered your form before.”

Ava felt a pressure in her mind to respond. She clenched her teeth to keep her words from slipping out even though it did no good.

Eventually the pressure built until she thought back,“There’s not a lot of us. I was bought by the Phor as a servant from a breeding facility on Cipra. The Phor needed additional hands to help do tasks in the engine and around the ship. That’s it. I . . . am nothing else.”

“. . . Human . . . hmm. Why are you above my head then?”

Again, Ava felt the pressure to respond and gave in quicker. “I can fit in the vents. I see what is happening when the Phor can’t watch.”

“Ah, a spy. How convenient. You were also that one posing as a Vali earlier, were you not? Ava?”

“Yes, Ava.”She still felt pressure to say more so her brain babbled, “My mama named me after her friend on a planet called old Earth. That was the planet she was born on. But it was destroyed when she was around fifteen in her years. She said Humans finally made contact with other aliens but they were . . . not a good kind. The fallout from their fighting made Old Earth poisoned. My mother was picked up and made into a breeder for servants.”

“So you were made planetless and then enslaved. How barbaric.”She saw his lip flip up in a grimace.“The more we come to learn about the society beyond our stars, the more nothing surprises us.”

“Rhutg, stop.” Vox strode up behind him, putting his hand on Rhutg’s shoulder. His brown jumpsuit was covered in blood and torn across his shoulders, showing firm muscles and swirling lines underneath. He began glowing as well, turning his face to look at Ava trapped above his head.

Immediately, some of the pressure eased on Ava and she was able to shift to her side to take pressure off her knees. She gasped in relief as she cupped her left knee, which was pressed into the grate the hardest, with her hand, rubbing away the sting. It was already sore from the fall she took earlier from the Tuxa.

Rhutg grunted slightly in the direction of Vox, but she felt the pressure ease even further, and was now able to move more.

Rhutg stared at her, eyes narrowed.“You’re lucky this one finds you interesting. I find you to be a distraction, but don’t take it personally.”Rhutg shouldered some wires that he wascarrying, likely ripped out of the walls, and moved forward, no longer glowing.

Ava looked into Vox’s amber eyes through the grate after Rhutg walked away and his footsteps faded. She was no longer frozen but felt that way, still in the aftershocks of her fear.

Vox hummed slightly as the glow intensified and Ava felt a touch on her mind, stronger than the calming feeling she had begun to associate with Vox, which she had dismissed before a few times as being nothing. Unlike the harsh hold Rhutg had her in, Vox’s scan was more of a caress and less jarring.

“I have told them you mean us no harm.”

“No. I mean nothing. I am nothing. I don’t know what’s going on. You can talk in my head? How long?”

Ava began to shake.

A fury started to overtake her, breaking through her fear.

“The others will not harm you. We do not harm innocent females.”

“Then will Nuor be alright?”

“The Vali? It depends on her soul once we take a look. Even if she is female, we do not tolerate those who have had a role in harming us.”He cocked his head.“Come down. Let us speak face-to-face.”

Ava looked side to side. There wasn’t a convenient output grate here at ground level for her to exit. They were all ceiling vents overhead.

“I can’t.”

Vox let out an audible sigh from below her. “Then let us walk until you can.”

Ava crawled until she reached a room that had an inlet vent on the side. Vox mirrored her movements underneath until she found a branch off the ductwork that reached the ground level and ended in that opening. She’d never gotten out anywhere before from the vents other than the engine hall and cargo bayside panels. She slid down the vent and braced her back against the cold metal ductwork to begin pushing on the filter grate in front of her.

Immediately it was ripped away in a fluid motion, and Ava tumbled out. She was grabbed around the upper arm before she reached the floor by a strong hand, lifted completely, and set on her feet in front of Vox.

Ava straightened herself to stand in front of him. He looked at her hungrily for a moment and fingered her black hair that had fallen out of her bun, framing her face, dirt across her nose. Slowly, his eyes looked down and scanned her whole body, then came back to look in her eyes.

---