Page 45 of Ava Greasemonkey

The Vorbax could shuttle her off somewhere, but what would happen next? She couldn’t risk falling into worse hands. When she went off ship with Nuor they always researched areas where the slave trade operated so they could give them a wide berth. The universe wasn’t safe for her. Humans had never been able to fight back and gain any rights.

And what would happen if she stayed here on the ship? Sudden death if there was a battle? Both options seemed awful.

They had short-range shuttles on this ship that were used for transport to docks that couldn’t accommodate larger ships. Technically those could be used as an escape pod. That should be the game plan for Nuor and Ebel before they got to Torga.

Nuor at least had contacts that she could find once she got to any city. If Ava went with her she could probably hide with her. Probably.

Ava sat, her mind spinning and beginning to ache from being overtired. She forced herself to focus a little longer on one more point—the aspect of all this that was weighing most on her mind.

Aside from what she was going to do physically, emotionally she was torn. Vox . . . how he held her.

Ava flushed, feeling heated by the memory of how his body felt next to hers. Her feelings about him added so much more confusion to all of this. The books she’d read seemed so much more straightforward than this . . . mess she was in now.

Ava shook her head and fished the sedative out of her pocket. She held it in her fingers, thinking about living with Nuor.But what kind of life would that be, having to hide all the time?Not the life she really wanted, that was for sure.

She took off the blanket and smoothed it on the bed for her to curl up under and went to the bathroom again. On the way back she picked up the crinkled magazine cutout of Joy that had fallen on the floor next to the bed. She smoothed it out with her hand and stared at it. Yes, she might be able to hide with Nuor. But what about the other Humans? What about Joy and her mother? All of her many sisters. They had no way out. And no allies. No strong ones at least.

Maybe . . .Ava had the beginning of a plan. She folded the paper and stuck it in her shirt, close to her breast, and put the sedative patch on.

As it took effect, before sleep claimed her, she thought. And planned. She was going to be an active player in her own life for the first time.

Chapter 16

Ava was halfway between being awake and asleep but something was off. Lirell was there?

He was in her dream where she was flying, like in one of Ebel’s video games. It was weird. Even in her dreamlike state she thought it was off.

He was just watching. The feeling came and went as the dream changed.

There he was again!

He was watching as she was pretending to serve tea to her Human sisters like she did when she was young. Then again as she was swimming in a waterfall pool. Ava had never seen a waterfall in person, nor was she able to swim. Her dream had no issues with her lack of knowledge but made it happen anyway. She smiled in her sleep, delighted.

It was bugging her that Lirell was there in all of them, interrupting her to the point she started to actually wake up.

Ava blinked groggily in the dark and let out a yelp when she saw a hulking form illuminated by the light she had left on in the bathroom. She pulled her blankets up close to her chest, as if that action could shield her.

The form moved closer and Ava’s heart started pounding.

“Ava! It’s me, Lirell.” Ava’s brain had figured that out a half second before he talked. Her mind caught up and began thinking about all her dreams that had him featured in them.

“Lirell . . .” She muttered while looking around to get her bearings.

Her entire body sagged in relief, placing where she was and that danger was not actually happening. Her limbs felt heavy. She must have slept for a long time. She had risen on her arms in her initial reaction but now flopped back on the bed with a huff. “Humans don’t like people watching us when we’re asleep. You terrified me.”

Lirell looked chastised for a moment. “Apologies. Vox told me you were sleeping and I came in here to see what it looked like. I didn’t mean to stay, but you had so many pictures in your head! Are they all memories?”

“They were . . . dreams,” Ava answered, heart still racing. She rubbed her chest absently. “Humans, when we sleep . . . our brain dreams things, like memories, and weird things too—things that never happened.”

“So they were not all real?”

“No, the last one, the waterfall? I have never seen that in person, only video feeds. Dreams are fun. Sometimes they can be scary though.” She sat up and started to stretch her arms. Maybe she should be grateful she only dreamed fun things instead of a nightmare for Lirell to see instead. After the last cycle she had, she was sure it would have been nightmares from the ship takeover and aftermath.

Lirell stepped forward and sat on the bed next to her. It reminded her of Vox sitting there before she slept. Ava pulled up her legs and scooted back a bit from Lirell.

He didn’t seem to notice. “So your mind can make up dreams and put you in them? We cannot do that. We can only communicate things that we have actual memories of or can see.”

“So, wait . . .” Ava started. “You can’t imagine or visualize? You can’t picture things that aren’t real?”

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