Page 6 of Ava Stargazer

Shaking off her mood, she smiled at Vox as they walked out of the engine room and through the cargo bay, then out into the sun, where the bavla stalks in the distant field swayed in the breeze. Having a place she could directly walk off the ship onto, without being scared of being found or having to stay hidden, gave her a rush of excitement as she stepped onto the soil, still barefoot.

It’s later than I thought.Ava looked around the fields as she exited. With the sun lower, she didn’t need to wear the hat she wore to the quorum. She turned and left it on a shelf in the cargo bay instead. Her eyes didn’t seem like they could handle the sun as well as Vox’s did. She’d tried to go into the bright sunlight without a hat a few times and her whole face had ached from her squinting. That plus her arms . . . she rubbed her hands down her reddened skin, aching even more from earlier.I need to put on some more healing cream later.

Ava patted the side of the hull one last time as they walked away and shook her hair out of her bun, letting it fly loose in the strong winds that coursed through the fields every afternoon. Her eyes stayed trained ahead on the ground and land. It still unsettled her to look up and see only an open sky.

She leaned into the wind, her shoulders dropping some of the tension they carried as she breathed in deeply. This is nice.The air smelled good after the filtered air in the ship, in a way she couldn’t really describe. It was her favorite part of the day, when these winds started every afternoon. The golden seed pods of the bavla danced in the breeze, agreeing with her, the rattle from the seeds within indicating that the grain was almost ripe.

She glanced around.I think it’s just us.The area outside the ship looked and mentally felt empty, but ... “Is anyone else nearby?”

Vox was closing the cargo bay doors behind them and turned to answer. “My mother is in the communal housing. Erox is with Orla preparing for their marking ceremony. They are in one of the halls by the main lake. They will be back tomorrow.”

Orla also had become a good friend, the awkwardness of being Vox’s intended long gone. She now lived across the lake with Erox, with plans on joining with Erox in a marking ceremony that Ava didn’t fully understand.

Ava glanced around the fields. The area around Vox’s smaller lake was empty for the moment, but also, a bit of guilt bloomed in her gut at the relief from that thought. Miral, Vox’s mother, had a house here on the lake as well, a smaller one in between her two sons that was hardly used. “I don’t want your mother to feel like she needs to stay away.”

Vox shook his head, speaking louder over a gust of wind. “She does not. She’s fine staying in the communal housing and helping with Orla’s preparations. Actually, both Orla and my mother want you to come see where the women stay. The women like their space away from the males sometimes; I bet you will too.”

Ava looked away, back over the bavla fields’ golden waves. She shrugged her shoulders noncommittally.And have it go like this morning?A shudder ran through her. “I like being with you.”

Vox looked sidelong at her before adding, “It would be like meeting with Sai and Orla. Nothing like the quorum.”

“I know it would be different.” Ava stopped in place next to Vox in the middle of the path. She pulled on his arm to get him to turn toward her, searching his eyes for understanding. “I’ll go, eventually. It’s hard when there’s so many. I’m not used to so many people at once.” She clasped her hands in front of her as she said it, pulling on her fingers and wringing her hands.I don’t want things to get too big so fast.

Putting his hands over hers, he nodded. His brow furrowed. “Sometimes it is easier to just get something you’re worried about over with instead of letting it build.”

Ava frowned and turned away, hating that she knew deep down he was right. She clasped her hands harder as she looked down and scuffed her feet along the dirt path. “Soon.”

“There is no rush.” Vox put his hand on her back and said low, forcefully, “No one here will make you do something you don’t want to, Ava. You are your own master here.”

Unlike before.After a curt nod she continued walking forward.Soon. Soon.

The winds were almost at their peak for the afternoon before they died down. Ava put her hand over her head as she walked into the breeze, enjoying the feel on her face. She smiled up at Vox once they got to the overhang by his house, the small porch cutting the wind down drastically.

Ava picked at her hair, wild from the wind, and pulled out a few pieces of the bavla grain seed heads lodged within. “I finished sorting some more extra parts for the ship from the ones we can sell. I gave ourselves two backups of everything critical, but the biologics can overcome some of the issues in a pinch if we need them to. I made a list for Iryl.”

“Right, yes. I’ll cook what I caught in the traps for dinner too.” Vox picked a few grain pieces out of her hair himself, reaching over with deft hands and trying to comb it a bit with his fingers. “Almost enough grain in your hair to match what you sorted earlier. Your mane twisted fast in that short walk.”

“Downside to having hair.”

Vox’s voice was like velvet. “We will send the list tomorrow.”

Ava nodded, a knot growing in her stomach to match the ones in her hair. “It feels wrong enjoying myself here,” she said in a small voice. “I feel like I should be doing something.”

Vox tilted his head toward her, resting it on top of her windswept hair. “You are healing. You are learning our ways. That is something. And we need a good plan before action will be effective. And that takes information and ...”

“Time,” Ava finished for him glumly, her hands still occupied with the knots.

She looked up while Vox chuckled, his eyes lighting up as he leaned back to look down at her. “Very good. You can read my mind yet.”

Ava brushed her hair out in earnest once inside, having put on a thin shirt she usually wore to sleep instead of her usual jumpsuit. Moonlight streamed in through the window.It got dark fast.She then lay in Vox’s arms, worn out from the events earlier in the day, snuggling in tight under the blankets on his bed.

The house was a mixture of old and new. It was rustic in areas, wood and stone from the surrounding forest creating the structure, yet upgrades were added everywhere as the Vorbax assimilated technology from their new contacts now beyond their planet.

Ava craved connection with Vox, so she pressed into his side, snuggling up as he breathed heavy and deep. It was one of the things she knew Humans needed, this contact, but she hadn’t had it for so long. She sought his touch almost compulsively at times, grateful to have that connection again as she breathedhim in.Smells good too.His scent reminded her of the bavla grains they had begun to thresh together as the seed pods ripened.

She wiggled into his body, prompting him to rub down her side, until he was in too deep of a sleep to respond and his hand lay quiet around her waist.He’s already asleep.Ava, still fretting about earlier, took a bit longer as she looked at the shadows the moonlight made inside.

Eventually, sleep did come for her. But it didn’t last long. A tapping on the roof startled her awake, followed quickly by a rumble in the background.

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