Page 46 of Ava Stargazer

Fijjak raised his antenna as he regarded her. “Sleep? Oh, we do not sleep at all. Not like you do.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. It looks nice though.”

Ava initially hesitated, but Fijjak just stood there with his antennas extended and his hands crossed as if in prayer. Like he wanted to connect but was unsure how.A little unsure, like me. She looked at his antennas again. Instead of walking away, Ava stepped forward, closer to him, to stand next to the bench with the waterfall close by. “I never met your species before, when I was with the Phor.”

Fijjak pressed his antennas down, a gleam flashing over his eyes. “We don’t have much to do with them. It is hard to have any alliance with a race that can be bought so easily.”

Ava winced but couldn’t argue with that assessment. “I guess that’s why you and the Vorbax get on so well.”

“Yes. It has been a mutual appreciation. You are soft as well. It is nice to get to know you. I am sorry for what has happened to your Humans.”

Ava swallowed and looked away. “So am I.” She looked at Fijjak.He remindsme so much of Ebel.“Not all the Phor are bad. I had a friend there before.” She pointed hesitantly at his head. “Your antennas remind me of him.”

Fijjak twisted his head until Ava could see her reflection in it. “Is that why you feel sad looking at me? That is good to know, that I am not the one causing your sorrow.”

A sour feeling filled her stomach. “Yeah. I’ve been trying to contact him. But I understand the Phor were bad as a whole. Vox says so too. And I can see it. But he wasn’t, and I lived with them so long. It’s hard to be objective.”

Fijjak came closer then and settled on the grass in front of Ava. His black carapace rested surprisingly gently on the ground for such a large creature, his many legs splayed to the side.

“Do you live on a planet like Xai?” Ava asked, noticing the ends of his legs clamping down on the soil. He didn’t have toes or a foot like she and Vox did. Instead, his legs just seemed to bend at the end to provide that same stability.

Fijjak looked up, the light reflecting off his eyes, the red streak on top of his carapace prominent. “No. It is too hot where we live, in caves and domes. We build and build. Inside, though, we have areas that look like this. Where we live is not our original planet. We have been part of the stars for a long time.”

Ava leaned forward, despite herself. “What happened? I think Earth was taken over and ruined, did that happen to you? Why are you not on your original home?”

He twisted his head around in a way that made Ava cringe; it looked like it might break. “No. We are an old race. We have been around a long time. Our planet just reached the end of its life cycle and we needed to move on. No war.”

“Oh.”

“It was easier for us to get established, since we were amongst the first, even though we are not the strongest or most technologically advanced. We have watched others grow from new to old and weak to strong, and we keep mostly to ourselves. The politics of the ones in charge now are different from whatthey were back then, back when our sector of the galaxy was still just becoming self-aware.”

Ava sat back down on the bench, facing Fijjak now instead of the waterfall as he continued to sprawl out. “So some of it was just luck? We, Humans, just evolved at the wrong time?”

Fijjak leaned his antennas closer. “I do not know, Huma ... Ava. But it doesn’t make it right. And it doesn’t mean it can’t change. The Vorbax changed their fate.”

“That’s right, they did. They have abilities more than ... us, though.”

Fijjak nodded his head in agreement. “That is true. And they have been able to adapt very fast. The changes on Xai in even just a few sun cycles has been impressive. The ability to adapt.”

She looked back down and away.Unlike Humans.We don’t have a chance to adapt anymore, not with having no home planet to grow on like Earth.“I think ... it might be a little late for Humans as a whole. I don't know what really happened to Earth, but it’s not good.”

“It’s not too late, Ava. You can still adapt. Aren’t you doing that on Xai? You are here and have a voice still. It’s only too late if there’s no one left to speak. No one left to care. The worst thing to do is be silent and let history be made by others if you still have a voice.”

Ava looked back up at him and saw his gaze on her. She saw multiples of herself, looking dejected and a bit lost, reflected back at her in his eyes. “But what can I do?”

His voice clicked fast in her translator, the words rapidly coming through to her ear. “You are investigating what is happening on Cipra, yes? You are already doing something. We’re too old a species to meddle much and make waves without cause. But injustice still hurts us just the same.”

“If you don’t want to make waves, then why are you here? Aren’t you afraid of getting caught up in this? The Vorbax are at war, why ally with them?”

“The Tuxa are not intimidating to us. Besides, we still care. Don’t mistake us for unfeeling. We lend support as we can. Our webs are ... intricate.” Fijjak’s antennas wagged as he said it. “We like to know where the strings are. And if we can pull one without upsetting the whole for the better, we will.”

Ava nodded while looking at the grass, which needed cutting. Such tasks had gone undone, since it was no longer on the Phor’s schedule of maintenance.I’ll need to figure out how to cut the grass in here at some point.

Fijjak continued talking, leaning forward to emphasize his point. Ava refocused on her reflection in his eyes. “If you zoom out enough, everything looks peaceful. It’s the closer you get that you can see the things hidden.”

Ava looked down at her hands.Hidden like me.

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