Page 2 of Ava Stargazer

“Yes.” He shone and connected, feeling her thoughts. After a moment, he chuckled, tapping her nose. “I haven't given you anything bad yet. It will taste better than I see you imagining. Trust me.”

“Okay,” Ava said hesitantly. It looked gross, but maybe she was just too used to the ship's packaged food. Eating the different foods of Xai was yet again something new to get familiar with.So much new, all the time.

But some of the new. . .She sat there, relishing the warmth on her body from the sun as he continued to check and reset his traps. There was a basket of bavla stalks by her side, and Ava picked the grains out of the tall reeds that had seed pods on the top. She jumped between tasks, loving the fact that she could choose what to work on and do.

Her hands brushed over the biologics as she worked, the container lying mutely on her chest. She glanced down at it. “Are you enjoying the sun too?” They looked like they were almost languishing in the sunlight instead of spinning rapidly. The yellowish mass of bubbles gave a half-hearted spin at her question. “Feeling lazy?”The biologics pulsed back at that, pushing against her hands.

“Are you hungry?”she felt Vox ask mentally from where he was, back on the other side of the lake.“I could cook one of these up now. Before we go.”

Ava shook her head, not even startling when his thoughts entered her mind. Communicating telepathically had become more natural to both of them, to the point where they both almost preferred it now. It was not something she ever thoughtshe would like. Not after rescuing the women and having their minds invade hers on Torga.

She opened her mouth to yell in response, but stopped upon hearing footsteps behind her. Instinctively, her body tensed as she glanced back.Oh, it’s only Rhutg.Her posture sagged, seeing a familiar face. She quickly pulled her feet out of the lake and moved the basket of grains she was threshing to the side.

Rhutg was holding the lead of a shaggy coar, a pack animal native to Xai. Its fuzzy brown head rose and fell as it walked on its four powerful legs that ended in hooves. Ava went forward and patted the animal, loving the feel of the shaggy fur under her fingertips.

“Are we taking the cart?” Her voice was muffled from her face pressing into the coar’s side.

“What's Vox doing still in the water? I told him they were waiting.” Rhutg's tone was exasperated. “He told me to get the coar from Erox instead of using the hover. Said you would like it more.”

Ava just pressed her face further into the shaggy animal. She turned to grin at Rhutg. “I do. How is it so fuzzy?”

“Because it has hair like you do.”

“My hair is not the same.”

Vox came up to them a second later, the bag on his side heavy with his catch. He lifted it high as he walked back to the house. “I’ll drop this off and then let’s go.”

Rhutg’s jaw ticked. “Hurry up.”

He’son edge.Ava stood there next to Rhutg, alone with him and the coar, rubbing her aching arms in the sun. “Vox is worried about this meeting. How about you?”

“Worried? No.”

“Are you sure?” She shaded her eyes as she peered up at him, where he stood with a fixed grumpy expression. “Rhutg . . . ?”

Vox rejoined them, wearing an outfit that he tugged at the collar of. It matched Ava’s gray jumpsuit colors almost perfectly. “I hate wearing this, but I should be respectable as well.”

Ava asked again, “Rhutg . . . ?”

Rhutg tilted his head down, sighing. “There will be some tension there. It has been nice seeing you settle here, without that. Learning to be free.”

She pressed the side of her head into the coar again. “Oh. They won’t take anything away, right?” Her voice hitched. “Or make me leave?”

Rhutg shook his head. “Of course not. They will grumble and I just would rather not hear it.”

Vox stopped adjusting the suit and pet the coar next to Ava. “It’s just a formality. It changes nothing. The quorum wants to return to how life was before the Tuxa invaded. They don’t get that times are different now. We will meet with them, but then we will come back here.”

Ava didn’t really know how to respond, but her eyes flitted up to where the Phor ship stood tall on the lake grounds, out of place amongst the rugged nature.

Her ship,R526, had been renamedCelestial. It was a term Ava remembered from her mother’s continual mumbled prayers in an old Earth language she had used to speak to the stars and heavens. Celestial beings. Magic. The name seemed fitting, even if it probably wasn’t spelled right from Ava trying to approximate the word in Common. It sounded right, and that was what mattered. She remembered the hope in her mother’s face when saying the old prayers Ava didn’t understand. Those were the only times she ever saw that expression.

Vox followed her gaze and pointed up, toward the ship, and said gently, “Celestial. Yes. Ultimately with that we can take our own path.”

Ava’s black hair was pulled back and she sweated in the humid air, her jumpsuit sticking. Summer was in full effect on Xai, but this sweat was more from nerves, not the heat.Wish it was cooler in here.

The inside of the hall they walked into was eerily silent. The only sounds were the gentle chirps and songs from the birds outside playing in Xai’s many wooded areas. A soft glow filtered through windows, lighting up the interior enough to make it easy to see. The wood and stone structure was built around shaped tree limbs, the end result giving the appearance of a forest within the large, enclosed building.

“Is there any reason they aren’t just speaking with me?” Ava asked softly, leaning over to Vox and shifting her feet on the wooden floor in the quorum’s meeting hall.

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