Page 1 of Ava Stargazer (Planet Xai #2)

“Hold it like this, Ava.” Vox held out a flat stone to her, showing her how to wrap her fingers around it tightly.

“Okay.” Ava launched the stone into the lake, where it sank immediately. Harder than it looks. She frowned at the spot where it’d slipped under the water.

Vox threw another, and it skipped along the lake. One ... two ... three ... All the way until six before sinking.

Ava looked across the lake doubtfully. “How do you do that?”

“Years of boredom.” Vox threw another with ease. “Erox and I used to compete with literally everything. My brother never could do this well either though.”

Her eyes followed the rock while it skipped across the lake. She launched hers a second later, and it bounced once.

He tilted his head toward her. “Better.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She rubbed her wet hands on her jumpsuit.

It had been two weeks since she first stepped onto Xai’s soil. Two weeks of learning to live in sunshine alongside Vox and the other Vorbax. Two weeks of living life as someone who was free.

She watched Vox throw another rock. He makes it look so easy. His body was different from her Human one, tall and muscular with frills on top of his head instead of long hair like her. And he was blue. Very blue, compared to her pale skin. With golden lines intersecting across his body, reflecting from the sun above.

Ava looked down at her arm. Not quite so pale. In fact, parts of her skin were positively rosy, a side effect she attributed to being outside so much. There was a single sun here, so large on the horizon that it took up almost a quarter of the sky. Xai was relatively far from it, but the sun was so massive that it still gave off enough heat to warm the world.

After a few more throws, Ava put down the rocks and began exploring around the lake’s edge. The water is more interesting. The lake reflected her face back to her as she leaned forward. She bent down to put her hand in, water rushing over her fingers. Her bare toes squished into the mud where the water splashed. “Vox?”

“Hold on a moment, Rhutg is trying to connect.” Vox was shining when she turned around, her hand dripping. His head was tilted, a muted glow on his body as he communicated far away.

Ava went back to the water, reaching for the rocks right underneath the surface and felt the slippery growth on them from the lake. She dripped some of the cool water on her arm, waiting for Vox to be done. Her reddened skin felt like it was on fire. Why is it like this from the sun?

The water wasn’t as soothing as the healing cream in the engine room, but it did help take away some of the sting. It probably wasn’t good to be out in the heat so much, but Ava just couldn’t help herself. I love Xai’s sun.

Vox came up to her a second later, bending over to where she sat. He picked up a rock and threw it, a little harder than before. The rock sank before he spoke. “The quorum here wants to meet with us. Rhutg just arranged it.”

“The quorum?” Ava echoed as her heart rate picked up.

“Yes. I tried to put this meeting off as long as I could.”

“Why?”

Vox shifted his stance, scuffling his feet, which looked like Ava’s, in the dirt next to her. “Why? They don’t really understand about Humans. Or about us.”

Don’t understand. Ava bit her lip as she held her legs to her chest. She figured as much. “Oh.”

“Rhutg will join us. He used to be a part of the Vorbax Quorum, after all.” He connected his forehead to hers. “It will be fine, Ava. Just an annoyance.”

Anxiety prickled through her as she thought about meeting Xai’s ruling body. “Well, better to get it over with.”

“Yes. It won't last long.”

“I hope so.”

Vox sat next to her on the water’s edge. She wiggled her toes next to his, slightly splashing. “How is the water cold even though it is so hot outside?”

“The lake is always like that. Look, Ava.” He pointed in the distance, across the muddy lake next to his home and fields. “See my trap? I think it caught something.”

Ava pulled her visor down low to shade her eyes, squinting in the direction he pointed. All the way over there? She watched Vox as he walked through the shallow water of the lake, opening his trap to reveal a small creature.

“Ah yes. Look! Here, I'll show you.” He lifted the animal and put it in a bag, a boyish grin on his face. There was an easy balance in his step as he walked back over the slippery rocks to show her.

Her face scrunched as he opened the bag and showed the flopping creature to her. “And we will eat that?”

“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 thought she 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’s on 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 renamed Celestial . 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.

Vox shook his blue, frilled head, confusion on his face as well. “No, but it's rude.”

Ava moved closer to him unconsciously.

She looked forward, trying to school her face in a smile at the ten Vorbax that stood ahead of her, talking amongst themselves. My first official meeting anywhere. Ever.

One broke from the crowd and walked toward her in a stooped, halting gait. A shelled necklace swayed beneath a face with wrinkles around his eyes. His expression was set in an open demeanor and spoke in a wizened voice that echoed across the hall, hands outstretched. "Apologies, Ava. We were discussing amongst ourselves now after seeing you in person. My name is Pyra."

Ava nodded warily, clearing her throat as if to speak but then thought better. Her lips sealed and she remained silent.

Pyra stepped closer. "Oh. I can feel your distress. You are welcome here, Ava. I think we are all in agreement at the very least that this can be your home.”

"My home?" At least this sun wouldn’t be taken from her.

Another Vorbax stepped forward, an imposing air surrounding him. Rings were pushed through his top frill, piercing it. Ava focused, trying to remember his name.

“Keervel,” Vox supplied, glancing at her.

Keervel stepped in front of Pyra, his arm angled outward, and his hand covered in many rings. “Pyra, you do not speak for all of us. I will be frank, since we are officially discussing this now. There are concerns.”

Rhutg stepped forward, his tone exasperated. “What are you worried about, Keervel? Look at her; she poses no harm even if she wanted to.”

Thanks, Rhutg. Ava longed to shoot him a glare but kept her composure and looked straight ahead.

He chuckled in her direction. “Sorry, Ava. It’s true.”

Keervel’s expression was combative. “It’s more than just accepting her here now. It’s the bigger implications. We just got our own females back, and now we are to be accepting another species? Foreign? I, and several others, have had enough of what is out there. There are more factors to consider.” He turned while speaking, ending his statement with a gesture up toward the window.

Ava’s eyes followed the motion, up to where the sun shone. And the stars, familiar to her, beyond it. A sour feeling filled her stomach. She wanted acceptance, but she also saw their point . But more importantly, she didn’t have an answer for their concerns. Why, really, would they want to help Humans?

Keervel pushed ahead, still talking. “If there is compatibility between our species, what will our young look like? Can she carry our mind mark? What if we find Human males?”

Another Vorbax came forward and whispered, “Does she carry any vulnerabilities? Sicknesses? We know nothing about her origins.”

Another whispered from the back, almost too soft to hear, “And neither does she.”

Ava’s spirit fell with each question. She had no answers. No answers at all. And worst of all, she had to agree with most of their questions. She tugged on her ponytail. I don’t know.

Rhutg sighed audibly and put his hand over his face.

Vox spoke. “Or this could be a gift to us.”

Pyra stepped forward again, and Ava looked at him hopefully, seeing a gentler expression. “These are all worthy considerations, but Vox is right- there could be benefits.”

Keervel waved his hands, the rings he wore catching the light. “That remains to be seen. We are being pushed into a corner based on one mission.” He nodded his head, looking at Ava. “I think we are all in agreement that Ava is welcome, but beyond that, much discussion needs to occur.”

Ava swallowed and looked away from him, toward the living ceiling above, still a bit in awe of it. This building that was so perfectly combined with nature.

A stabbing sensation pierced her head, making her drag her hand up and her eyes back down, watering. Ow. It happened again, harder. That hurts. She felt a brief touch on her mind. It was pointed, different from the soft touches of Vox and the others . She wrinkled her nose, looking back to Keervel. “Stop.” Her thin voice was swallowed in the hall. She said it again, louder. “Stop!”

Vox stepped in front of her, his eyes cold and his voice a snarl. “That’s enough. You have said your piece; you do not need to also probe her deeper. You go too far. Especially after Torga. You have no right.”

Pyra stepped forward, waving Keervel down. “Keervel, enough. Vox is correct. She is not one of us and cannot connect the same way.” A concerned look toward Ava followed. “Apologies Ava.”

With her hand still on the side of her head she eyed the entire Vorbax Quorum warily. Apologies? It now hurt to focus. The translator in her ear rang like it always did when she got a slight headache. Not one of us. Her ringing head, plus those words, pounded equally in time with her heartbeat.

Vox stepped in front of her. “Is there anything else?”

“And are those the biologics?” A different, tall quorum member pointed to the swirling biologics on her chest, under the hand she’d unconsciously covered them with at his question.

“It's fine, Vox.” Ava gripped the container, feeling them spin. Her voice came out in a rush, desperate to give some answers. “The biologics. Yes, I have them from the Phor ship. These are with me. They provide energy; the faster they swirl, the more power they generate.”

Vox crossed his arms over his suit that matched Ava’s. “They are a benefit to us that also comes with Ava. One other benefit, already clear.”

Ava felt the quorum members register Vox’s words as she held her container closer to her chest.

Keervel’s eyes narrowed again on Ava. “Do we know anything about their limitations?”

I don’t even know how they work at all. The container pulsed under her fingertips reassuringly.

Vox answered for her, “They can power a ship and have sentient thoughts.” He placed his hand on the container on Ava’s chest, starting to lift it up. “They wish to connect with you.”

“The biologics wish to take focus off of you,” Vox added to Ava alone.

Ava nodded, taking the container off and handing it to Vox. She hung back as he walked forward. She finally felt comfortable enough to study the quorum members now that their attention was not on her, and watched as they put their hands on the biologics, noticing the wonder in their faces as they did. At least they seem to like them. There was wonder in some of them when they looked at her too, she had to admit now. They weren’t all hostile. It actually seems pretty evenly split.

Ava backed up farther to stand by Rhutg next to the root-lined wall. Rhutg patted her on the shoulder as they watched the quorum connect with the biologics. “Not much longer now.” His hand remained on her shoulder, grounding her.

Vox came back a second later with the biologics in his hand and returned them to Ava, who quickly put them over her chest. They sat there, swirling, giving off their muted light.

The meeting began to wind down, the talk becoming more circular. Ava shifted her feet, feeling relieved as the conversation moved to the biologics, and then to discussions about the overall feelings of the Vorbax beyond this hall that they could connect with mentally.

Vox subtly nodded to Ava, his strong frame moving to shield her before addressing the others in a tight voice, “We will take our leave now. I know there is curiosity about the Phor ship. We will accommodate if you wish to visit to see the ship in person, but the comfort of the biologics within comes first. There will not be a mass introduction to those in the engine hall without warning.”

Yes. Ava’s body sagged in relief that they would now get to leave.

Keervel came forward. “We will continue discussing and gathering a consensus from the people.” He glanced at Ava. “There may be benefits, but there are also risks. At this time we are unwilling to get more involved in her species' affairs.”

Unwilling. Ava's hands balled at her sides.

Vox took Ava’s hand. “Continue talking.” He nodded and then added just to her, his eyes gentling as they met, “And with the biologics needing privacy, that will hopefully give us some as well.”

She sighed. “I hope so.”