Page 5 of Ava Greasemonkey

“Got snagged somewhere,” Ava said mulishly.

Before he could say more she continued, rolling her eyes, “Yes, I know, you took me on because I was advertised as beingdisease resistant. It didn’t mean not clumsy, okay?” She started smiling halfway through trying to look stern as she stiffly pulled her jumpsuit’s leg back down.

Ebel clicked, “It’s a shame you didn’t also come with a mute function.” He chittered at his own joke.

Ava pursed her lips and attempted to not react to his words.

He slid his fuzzy, yellow body over to the counter until he was right next to where Ava was standing. “Well, at least it shouldn’t balloon up and get infected. You’ve gotten so many of those at this point that if you weren’t so disease resistant I’d be needing a new helper.”

Reaching his fingers out he pushed her on the forehead until she stepped backward, glaring. He snagged the clipboard off the counter and began to look it over.

“And here I thought you enjoyed my sparkling personality and good looks.” Ava moved to the side to give him more space.

Ebel chittered without looking, not responding to her comment about her appearance or her personality.

Ava sat down at her desk area, across the small room from his, and absently clicked through the many alerts on her com feed.Look at all these alerts. Everyone is so on edge.

She looked up when Ebel spoke, his eyes still on her clipboard.

“There’s a new transport coming in today. I will fix your list if you go through the vents and tell me what they are bringing.”

“Yea, everyone’s talking about this transport.” Ava gave a mock frown, sorting through the alerts on her com, her posture stiff. “Also, holding the repairs the ship needs in return for me helping you is a new low, Ebel. Especially as you know I need to go spy on the new cargo anyways.”

She paused before adding, “And it’s not like I can refuse either.” She forced the words out heavily, nostrils flaring.

“Yes, but I have no other trinkets at the moment to give you incentive to go above and beyond.”

“Incentive,” she scoffed, closing her com with a snap.They’re not saying anything useful over the messages anyways.

Ebel chittered in return, his approximation of a laugh, before moving over to the first aid kit she used, still sitting on the counter. His long fingers forced it shut and stored it back beneath the sink before cleaning up the bits of bandage Ava had left strewn haphazardly.

He tapped the clipboard with his finger, right where Ava indicated the repair needed. “We just did these pistons three months ago. Cheap parts from the Tuxa never last.” He clicked again. “Of course, we only have more Tuxa parts on this trash heap to replace them with too.”

“Maybe the collective needs to up their contract bargaining,” Ava tossed out, feeling peevish over Ebel’s attempt to bribe her compliance. “Or at least find a contract that pays more to buy something other than the shitty supplies we’re getting.”

Ebel ignored this and turned to a second cupboard. This was full of half-opened gears. He began rummaging inside while muttering.

He eventually scooted back to his desk and opened a screen on his computer of their current log of inventory parts.

Ava felt unsettled, knowing she would be needing to spend a long stretch of time in the vents. It was one of her least favorite tasks.

As Ebel continued rummaging, Ava went to the food processor to try to program it for some breakfast. Her basic biology was loaded in it, but supplies were sparse and she hadn’t been able to get it to produce anything appetizing. After a few minutes of slow processing, it popped out a gray lump. Ava grimaced as the plate was presented to her, stomach churning, but grabbed a nearby fork and started to eat it.

“What kind of transport is it?” she asked to distract herself from the taste. It was gritty in addition to tasting bad.She eyed her food critically. Hopefully they would spring for better protein compounds at the outpost they’d arrived at this morning. This current contract had been cheap on everything though, so she doubted it.

“It’s a classified one . . .” Ebel turned around and waggled his antennas at her to be dramatic. Ava, forgetting her previous frustration, genuinely smiled at that around a forkful of the gray paste.

He turned back to the cabinet. “I have the rest of the parts to fix this junk heap in the storage alcove. After you eat whatever that is, you get up there and just wait. I don’t know what time exactly they will be docking. I’ll have this repaired by the time you get back.” He pulled out a piston and put it on the table before turning to her.

“That looks disgusting,” he said, eyeing her food with his antennas drooped.

Ava grimaced in agreement, eating another few forkfuls before she hurriedly washed down the food with more water. Water at least was never in short supply.

She put the plate, halfway eaten, on the counter. She couldn’t stomach any more. “Anything in particular to look for this time?”

“Hmm . . . you know, the usual. There’s been a big demand for chip implants lately but I doubt they will be on this transport. It’s only a small outpost, not a major hub. Write down anything they have a large supply of that we can potentially . . . ah . . . use.”

Ebel eyed her dirty plate before he moved back to his video feed and turned it back on. The screen began showing the security feed for the engine room again. “The mother queen collective was particularly pleased with the holograms we brought them two months ago.”

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