Page 13 of Ava Stargazer (Planet Xai #2)
Ava spent the night there in the women’s housing surrounded by light breathing, in the main room on one of the pillows surrounded by the other women. She watched the sun rise over the flowers painted on the walls and felt . . . bored.
The room felt even more like a sanctuary in the early morning, all the women sleeping, their mental waves subdued to nothing. Ava found solace just watching them, feeling more like a part of the crowd when they slept. That feeling was fleeting though, as everyone began to stir and she felt a touch on her mind from Sai, waking up from next to her. “Ready to go back?”
Ava thought back, not wanting to break the silence, “Yes, but not in a rush.”
They left in the mid-afternoon, before the winds picked up. By the time they got to Vox’s house though, the winds were strong, and Sai put her coar in a shelter on Vox’s land and joined Ava in the ship until they died down.
“I want to come with you, Ava,” Sai said, patting the biologics tank while Ava combed out her hair, knotted again. “When you go find your Humans. That’s what you’re doing, right? After the men get back?”
Ava looked up, grimacing as she pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail. “Sort of. I don’t think any will be there at Cipra, but we’re going there to look for any records or information.” I don’t know how many are left. She shook her head before her mind could dwell on her sisters and mother.
“Didn't you find one? Another Human?”
“Yes. Iyrl did. Joy. He is going to. . . Buy her.”
Sai made a grimace and turned away. “At least another will be safe then. And, yes. I want to come to Cipra. This ship saved me. I feel okay here.”
Ava eyed her curiously but did not detect any hesitation or second thoughts in her face. “I thought you had enough of being away from Xai. You really want to put yourself back out there again?” She sat down on the ladder rungs to look at Sai speculatively. “Especially after what happened to you on Torga?”
“I did. But, I also feel...” there was a pause and then Sai flashed a muted bright blue. “Vengeful.” Her eyes narrowed on the word. “I want to do something out there. I can’t really relax here. I feel so restless.”
“I know that feeling.” Ava breathed deep and felt the restlessness within herself as well. Her hands gripped the railing in front of her, wishing time would move forward faster until Vox was back and they could get going. And a large, ever-growing part of her also wished time could stand still so all she had to worry about were the plants growing in Vox’s yard and living with him. “Are you sure leaving again is what you need though?” Ava posed the question to Sai, but considered it as though she’d posed it to herself as well.
Sai chuckled and ran her hand along the biologics tank before responding. Ava watched them follow Sai’s fingers like they usually did for her. “No, I am not sure. But I do know that I want to try to do something more than just sit aside and let life happen. Sitting here is not the answer for me.” Her voice lowered and her eyes lost a bit of the joking look they usually had. “I have trouble sleeping at night sometimes, even in the women’s communal hall. It reminds me too much of Torga with us piled together and needing to be quiet. A lot of times I sleep alone and play a video feed, and that helps.”
Ava nodded. I can understand that too. She sat next to Sai in front of the biologics tank, watching them swirl as she came to a decision. She got down from her ladder and tapped on Sai’s arm, as she was distracted with looking at the biologics, before she gestured to the control room. “C’mon. Let me show you how the engine works, in case I ever need some help while you’re here.”
The biologics swirled at her words, dancing in their tank. The ones around Ava’s neck did a similar motion.
Sai smiled at the tank, at the uptick of energy. “I think they’re happy with me coming along.”
“You’d know better than me—can you feel them too?” Ava said as she adjusted her jumpsuit from sitting, looking up at the tank in wonder.
“A little. They feel like ... if I run really fast and my hearts pound, that feeling. Like excitement. But I don’t get more than that.”
The tank danced with bubbles as Ava looked wistfully at it, and then down toward the container of the ones on her chest. “Vox can almost talk with them.”
“Yeah, nothing like that.” Sai frowned. “But they feel nice.”
Ava started to walk to the control room, but looked back at Sai, who followed a step behind. “If you’re coming, maybe you can help me with something too?”
“What?”
“I know it’s silly, but, like how you have trouble sleeping, I have trouble here on the ship. With the halls. Here. See what I’m thinking.”
Ava looked hard at Sai and thought about her ship and the walls and how they were so bare. Their lack of embellishments was such a reminder of the Phor, who hated anything decorative.
The memories of what happened in these halls before, the blood spilled from the takeover, still lingered for her even though time had passed. Ava wanted to change something, somehow, and make it different, beyond just the circuitry and exterior being modified with the Spry’s help. Maybe it won’t make much of a difference, but ...
Ava watched as Sai’s eyes widened, seeing what she saw, the interior of the ship colored like the walls of the women’s sanctuary. Bright colors and full of life. Only no red to be used, maybe only a pink.
Very soon Sai nodded, her amber eyes lit up from within. “Oh, yes. That is amazing. Your mind can create pictures like that, when it is not reality?”
“That’s what Lirell told me when he watched me dream. Can we paint?”
“Yes. We have lots of paint. That’s a good idea. It will give us something fun to do on the trip too. Can you think of something else not real?”
Ava looked at Sai and imagined her floating in the air, doing flips, remembering playing the same sort of jokes on Vox with her mind. Here, I'll put you right on top of the engine. Upside down!
Sai’s eyes twinkled. “What if I could do that for real?”
“You'd be better than me at fixing the engine.”
After a brief tour of the control room, Sai was ready to leave since the winds had died down and night was ready to fall. She peered at Ava’s face a bit too closely. “Are you sure you want to be alone?”
“Yes. I think I want to try to reach out to Ebel soon, and have time to think.”
“Oh. Right. I understand. I’ll come check back in.” Sai’s face took on a pinched expression, looking at Ava speculatively as they exited the cargo hold.
Ava pointed back at Celestial as they walked. “I’m not really alone either—the Spry are still here during the day working on the ship. They rest in the crew cabins at night as well.”
When they got back to Vox’s house, Sai climbed into her cart. Ava raised her hand to see her off, the coar walking away at a sluggish pace.
Alone at last. Ava let out a sigh of relief at the feeling of no minds around her again. After a moment, she went to go feed the birds in the pen, mimicking their bird calls back to them the way Vox did. Still can’t whistle like him. She thought back to him trying to teach her and found that she missed his dry, unintentional humor, even more now when he was gone.
The sun was setting in earnest as she walked slowly to stand in the doorway to Vox’s house and hung her head, putting her hand on the side of the wooden frame. There were stones at the foundation, around the perimeter. The additions that were more modern connected into the back seamlessly, but Ava liked the look of the more rustic front better. The rough wooden siding under her hand felt and looked so different from her metal ship. It was so different from anywhere she had been before, and she was drawn to its simplicity.
Her head was buzzing from all the socializing with the women. But it felt good. Why was I avoiding that again? The entire visit ended up being no big deal, and she had wasted so much time worrying about it before. I’m so silly sometimes. Never mind. Never mind. Ava took the feeling for what it was, walking inside the small house, satisfied tonight with the result despite how tired she now was. She rubbed her arms, as if that could help to dispel her thoughts. But she was not too tired to do the other task on her mind. Actually, she would do anything to keep the silence from creeping in and her worries about Vox from surfacing.
Ava’s eyes fell on the gray communicator on the table. She sat at a small wooden desk and spread the communicator components out that had been delivered a day ago but pushed aside with the activity of Vox leaving.
The screen turned on easily at her touch and she pushed in commands from memory from the many, many times she saw Ebel operate one that looked incredibly similar.
Thanks to the Spry’s handiwork, this new communicator was on a cloaked feed not at all associated with the Phor, uplinked through Celestial as its own entity. She strapped her com watch back to her wrist, now connected and active again as well, only no longer on any channels Ebel was in.
The communicator was a different model from what she was used to, but the function of all the components were the same as the one she remembered. She turned it on and stared at the screen as it loaded, the blue light bright in the house that now was quickly darkening from the sun going down. The screen flashed a familiar welcome screen. Thankfully the lettering is in Common.
She held the communicator up and turned it around as she turned on the soft lighting from a lamp on her desk. It’s just like the one Ebel used. Only this communicator was hooked up to its own small monitor so it was portable instead of being permanently linked to the feed in the control room. She scanned the systems, trying to see where she should search for messages. There were generic servers all lit up, giving access to various planets’ webs and broadcasts. Despite knowing how to use the machine, she’d never written a message to anyone outside the Phor ship herself.
Ava poked around aimlessly, her posture tense as she hunched close on the chair, her legs drawn up to her chest as she sat. I don’t know what I’m doing. Ava left anything Phor related alone and instead went to the Elyheim Galactic Board, the central hub that most, other than rogue planets, hooked up to as a central system. If Ebel sent the packet to Iryl here, it makes sense to start here. Maybe.
She clicked around, discouraged. It is a swamp pit though . There was no way for any message to get seen prominently without being too obvious. And she didn’t want to be too bold.
How can I do this? Can I just use my name? Ava scrolled through mindlessly for a moment, thinking it through. She couldn’t reference Humans. Or the Phor. Or Cipra. What about just my name and Ebel’s? No one really knew her personal name outside of Ebel and Nuor. The rest of the Phor ship crew she’d lived with, including Wert, were all dead. Those images flashed through her head. She shook the thoughts away. Focus.
Her mouth formed a tight line in determination, now settled on what to do. Anything, even if it’s not perfect, is better than nothing. Ebel would definitely be able to scan and recognize my name.
She wrote a message and put it on a board that was for individuals searching for work and for trade. She had watched Ebel navigate some of these servers before, when they screened contractors before they came on board. Even though none of them, other than the exception made for Nuor, were ever allowed in the engine hall. Her hands shook slightly while trying to remember the proper protocols.
“Ava is searching for a drone. An unmarked one, preferably yellow and clean. Must be mechanically inclined for engine work. Please contact Celestial at indicator 864222.”
The message was immediately buried, but she set up a reminder on her com watch. I'll post every day.
Ava was less vague when contacting the Vali planet. In fact, she had no hesitation, seeing Nuor message home there a few times and knowing her full name. She navigated to their governing board, then to an area designed for general requests, and wrote the message.
“Ava, friend to Nuor Syha, requests contact. Please communicate with Celestial at indicator 864222.”
Ava bit her lip while she looked at the screen, feeling inadequate. What was the proper protocol for everything? I have no idea. The communicator was officially linked to Xai, so her messages should be posted and taken seriously.
She tapped on the screen idly. I don’t know how to do so much sometimes. Maybe I can ask Iryl how to do this better. The messages would hopefully find their way, somehow. She looked over her written words this way and that, resisting the urge to edit them. It’s so vague . Her heart fell a little, having to admit to herself that her efforts weren’t as good as she had hoped. If Ebel does see it somehow, he will know. That’s good enough for right now.
With a huff, she clicked the communicator off and sat in the quiet house, done but not fully satisfied. She could continue looking through the Cipra logs but didn’t feel like doing that alone, at night, would do her any good.
Instead she looked at the radar, watching the positions of ships nearby like Ebel used to do. Lirell is right. There are a lot of Tuxa ships nearby. The Spry were here on Xai as a deterrent and a strong neural net protected the planet, but the Tuxa presence was unsettling knowing they were out there. There were also different ships , different species traveling through. I hope the peace talks will go alright. Now with the com on her wrist she sent a ping to Vox, knowing he might not get it right now in deep space.
She turned the feed off and rested her head on top of her knees as she sat. The clock Vox had on the wall ticked in the quiet, breaking up the silence. Tick ... tock ...
Ava looked around the room slowly. Maybe I should have stayed with the women. She hummed to fill the silence as she went and took a long bath, singing her lullabies to herself and the biologics that she put on the counter as she bathed while the bubbles floated and popped—both in her container and bathtub when she added the citrus smelling soap. As she pulled her clothes on, she couldn't resist trying to message again, sliding back to the keyboard, slipping her biologics over her head as she remembered another call sign to try.
Ava adjusted the container around her neck once she was done, but as she couldn’t talk with the biologics, it wasn’t enough. Sai was right . I'm lonely . Why did I insist on coming back here to be alone? It’s too late now to do anything about it.
She looked over Vox’s feather collection, meticulously arranged, but that only made her miss him. And Ebel, who was as orderly as Vox. The birds became vocal sometime during her bath, now that night was almost here. They made loud noises that broke up the quiet. Vox would like hearing them tonight. They are all so loud. Her hands froze while brushing out her wet hair, thinking of him. I have an idea.
Ava pushed the communicator aside and took out a notepad, scribbling an idea for a bird feeder she could make with extra components from the engine room. Something to give Vox when he got back home.
The birds finally quieted down and the silence grew louder again. It made her body tense as she listened to just the clock again, still drawing out her design. Tick ... tock ...
She put down the project and sat on the bed for a moment, frowning as the last of the sun outside slipped under the horizon. I don’t want to stay here alone.
The clock chimed as she came to a decision. She bundled up some of the furs that held Vox’s scent, along with her patchwork quilt, and carried them outside. The moons were halfway full, still light enough to see, but nowhere near as bright as it was for Orla’s mating ceremony.
Ava hesitated at the threshold of Vox’s house, but then crossed the distance at a run, her heart pounding as fast as her feet did on the dirt, even though the night was peaceful. Her bare feet barely took in the sensation of the dirt and rocks underneath. She breathed deep once she got back into the light again, entering the familiar cargo bay. The engine hall was already lit up as she again ran through the halls, welcoming her, friendly in a way that the stark fluorescent lighting shouldn’t be.
Ava sighed, feeling better as she caught her breath and dumped her blankets all in a heap at the bottom of the biologics tank. After inhaling the familiar smell of engine grease and oil, she took the communicator with her to the control room.
There she played the Boxhi tournaments, the connection clear and strong, dialed in from her memory, the feed Ebel always watched. She played the sound loud enough to echo through the entire engine room. Maybe Ebel is watching this game now too? She listened to the Boxhi tournaments, still not understanding the rules, and wiped her tears away while she fed the biologics.
Eventually she curled up to sleep with one hand resting on the tank.