Page 75 of Ava Greasemonkey

A steady stream of Tuxa poured in, metal gleaming in their hands from phasers of their own. Rhutg was right; they would try to kill the prized women the Vorbax had come to reclaim rather than let them be rescued.

Ava couldn’t register more than that initial movement. Her mind screamed as the Vorbax women unleashed their mental powers, terror overwhelming her. She writhed in pain until she dropped to the bottom of the vent, no longer by the grate, with her cutter over her head. The phaser lay forgotten at the top of the vent. She covered her head with her hands in a desperate attempt to protect herself. Her body curled in a ball, hidden in the wall while the fight happened in the room next to her.

Lost in her own mind, Ava lived in nightmares. She sobbed openly, pulling at her hair. The nightmares were real and imagined, along with fears that were unknown to her. The neat little box she kept her unpleasant memories in opened, flooding her. Her family, all her fears.I’m worthless, I can’t stop anything.Her body thrummed with the thoughts, hearing the battle going while she sat there cradling her head.Unable to help. Unable to do anything. Anything at all.

The biologics on her chest swirled, trying to comfort her, but she was lost to them. She was lost to herself. Her brain fractured and seized as the fighting continued, causing her limbs to lose control. Her hands clawed bloody marks on herself and her legs banged chaotically on the metal walls. The shadows of her family danced in front of her. Taunting her.

She reached out her hand to touch them and they scolded her for existing. They made fun of her attempts to reach them and laughed at how she cried. Their eyes were not kind. They blamed her for living and forgetting them all these years.Worthless.Useless. Unloved.She screamed until she passed out, unable to take any more.

Alone in the vent, she lay there forgotten as the battle dragged on.

They know.Halfway through the run, an alarm sounded. Vox willed his muscles to move even faster. It was a loud alert redirecting units to their area. The sound clanged off the walls, reverberating all around him.

Vox flushed with fear when he heard the alarm, his Tuxa guard still ready to engage any coming to fight as they rushed forward. There was confusion amongst the Tuxa as they began to fight themselves, not knowing who was enemy or foe. They needed every bit of confusion they could get and scattered the Tuxa husks amongst their brethren.

Taking the phasers, Vox fired where he could. He did not wait until they fell, but continued running, letting the confusion reign amongst the enemies behind him. Erox and Rhutg were in line with his strides.

Rhutg, not depleted mentally, added to their guard when he could. He took less time to break them, but every second lingered meant they became more vulnerable as the alert was raised. The Tuxa husks locked down the quadrants as they ran through, stopping others from streaming in as long as the locks held. It would hopefully make for a faster exit when they came back, as long as they hurried before the section could be reopened.

Vox focused single-mindedly on his tracker, the green dot showing the location they needed to head to.Move. Move.

Finally, they arrived at the area where the females were held, where the tracker showed Ava. The location indicator hadn’t moved recently, but the vitals were still strong. There was no time to check for messages as he scanned the area, looking. The guards were thick here, coming at them with an animalistic focus.

Rhutg, so close to his mate, rushed in to rip apart the Tuxa as fast as they could fire, blood coating the floor. His energy was frantic, the leash that had kept him composed back on the ship untethered. The electrical pulses from the phasers that hit him were redirected by his skin as he went. The only weapon that could hurt the Vorbax easily, fire, was not available unless the Tuxa wanted to burn their own city as well. Their phasers couldn’t harm them if it was a singular pulse.

“They are here,”Erox alerted, eyes focused on a doorway in front of them. He was shining a deep purple, displaying the intensity he was using to seek the women out mentally.

Vox looked up, focused in his gaze, and headed in the direction Erox had indicated. Rhutg followed a minute later, taming his bloodlust enough to leave the battle. His body was coated in the dark purple blood of the Tuxa. He looked barely like the Vorbax Vox knew, the one that would compose poems in his spare time and play with his younger sister amongst the trees.

The reflection didn’t last. Vox was too busy running to dwell on simple thoughts. He surged through the doorway, fear coating his tongue, tiredness forgotten. Skidding across the floor in his haste he came to a pile of Tuxa corpses outside a barricaded door.

Erox, already having reached the area, tore out the mattresses that were piled at the doorway as a barrier, blocking the interior from view.

A phaser fired from within. Vox stood and tapped into his meditative state, feeling the females immediately. The fear they gave off lit up his neural connections, grating on his soul.

“It is us. Stand down.”

He saw Orla holding the phaser aloft in trembling hands once Erox was able to break down the barrier.

They were slow to let go of their mental fear, only stopping once Erox countered it, soothing their minds.

The other Vorbax women crowded around Orla, all in disarray, all with injuries across their bodies. One held her arm tightly. It looked shredded by claws down to the inner core inside. She let out a mournful hum as Erox reached her. Her eyes met his, vulnerability shining in their depths.

The women filed out, Erox picking up the injured one, Bria. Vox scanned the room, impatient.Where is she? Where is Ava?The tracker showed her still in this room. He shook it, frantic. Vox began to pace the walls, kicking over the meal trays piled up. Anywhere that Ava could hide.

“She is in the vent, Vox,” Orla said, hand on his arm. He shook it off.

“I cannot sense her.”Why can I not sense her?

“We used . . . I think she’s unconscious.” Orla’s pinched face was pale in the fluorescent light, her expression tired and drained.

Vox moved away from her and moved to the exact spot the tracker indicated. He punched the wall near it, cracking through enough to get his hands around the metal.Where is she?He would rip it all apart to get to her.

Chapter 28

Consciousness returned when metal dented in around her, disturbing her resting spot. Still terrified, Ava screamed again, even though the haunting of her mind was no longer present. Soothing waves came instead, but she was not capable of being soothed. Instead, she rejected them soundly. Like a pom herself, Ava flew into flight mode and leaped up the vent, climbing upward as fast as she could, not thinking. Her only thought was to get away. To hide. She curled up as small as she could in the vent.

She felt another touch on her mind, more insistent, which she shied away from further. Words were projected, again not absorbed. It took her being completely broken, it seemed, for her to learn how to block mental intrusions out.

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