Page 2 of Ava Stargazer (Planet Xai #2)

Ava retreated to her ship once the meeting was done, leaving Vox in the field feeding his flock of birds after returning the coar and cart to his brother, Erox. I need a few moments alone.

Bird sounds followed her into the cargo bay, a symphony of chirps and song. She leaned on the cargo bay panel as it closed, her back against the cool metal. The warm sunlight and her anxiety disappeared the moment she was within her ship’s familiar walls.

After taking deep breaths, she pushed off the metal siding and took the route to the engine room at a sprint. She made her feet heavy as she pounded the familiar floor, listening to the sound as it echoed and broke up the silence that still bothered her.

The jittery feeling of her nerves went away the moment she got into the engine hall and was able to climb high in the machine, calming herself down as she methodically greased the gears on the north end. Here, at last. She sighed, feeling right again for the moment.

Her ship. She put her hand on the side of the large engine. My ship. Celestial.

Despite her brief time on Xai showing her a different way to live life, Ava still felt her best here in the comforting closed confines, even when her mind spun almost fast enough to match the biologics tank across from her. Perhaps especially then. The bubbles danced merrily as if welcoming her back. I missed you too. She smiled, stopping her work on the gears to wave at them.

Despite the pull of Xai's sun, this ship would always be her home. The world outside was a lot to get used to after having only Ebel, the bug-like Phor she’d worked for—and was practically raised by—and a few others around her before.

She gripped the rag she held, her fingernails digging into her palm through the thin cloth. I did the best I could with the quorum. Loosening her fist, she spoke softly as she patted the biologics container around her neck. “It’s okay. Even if I just belong with you and Vox.”

Ava climbed down and walked to the control room, tapping on the larger biologics tank as she went. There she went through the start-up protocols on the ship, vibrating the large engine to check for any tension or error codes. Thankfully the ship was well sealed, designed to withstand the pressure of spaceflight, so dust never seemed to increase, other than what she tracked in on her shoes coming and going from the planet. The engine began its familiar whirr as she swept that bit of dirt from the floor now, finding the task soothing.

Ava didn’t know what would happen with the ship sitting idle so long, as it had now on Xai for two weeks, so she ran everything in the engine hall full power once per ... day. Not cycle. Day.

Day . Ava corrected her thoughts as she swept the broom in time with her musing. Day, night, day. Time was different here on Xai. Instead of a cycle, an artificial unit of time that was standardized for spacecraft, they had days. And nights. Her body felt like day and night could be right, but her mind wasn’t fully convinced.

Ava shook her head, her tied up hair flopping with the movement, and checked the computer feeds. Everything looks fine. The engine gave no errors after going to full power and ran smoothly.

She exited the control room and climbed back up high into the engine to observe the gears moving up close, tucking her biologics container in her waistband to keep it secure. The urge to just take off sometimes, up to the stars she was familiar with, was strong. To roam, soothing that restlessness she felt inside, if only for a while. Her legs dangled as she sat there, hands crossed on a railing while the gears spun, her head resting on her arms. It was satisfying to watch the engine move perfectly.

The large biologics tank danced as the engine spun, clearly growing restless with their energy output going unspent. Same as me. Ava rubbed the jar of biologics on her chest, watching the tank. “It’s alright, huh? All new for you too.” The container pulsed back against her palm. She smiled down at them and across to the massive tank in the middle. Everything was easier up here, just taking care of her ship.

“Sweet bird, come down.” Vox’s voice came from below, measured in its tone.

Ava startled from the sudden noise and looked down to see him standing there patiently, his blue, frilled head angled upward with his amber eyes fixed on her. Vox. She sighed out, gazing at the moving parts, reluctant to move. I can’t just stay up here forever. Her hands were already moving, then stilled on the metal rungs. Or can I? She shook her head and said, “Coming,” as she continued climbing down, her bare feet clinging to the holds.

Ava jumped down, a bit more heavily than usual due to Xai’s increase in gravity, and stood in front of Vox, rags in her hand and a grumpy look on her face. The suit he wore to the meeting was already removed and he stood in just the pants like he did at the lake earlier. She watched Vox take in her sullen expression, a calm and patient one mirrored back to her.

Ava tapped him on the chest. “You were right to want to put that meeting off.”

He leaned down close to her face and spoke in a low, forceful tone. “Ultimately what the quorum decides doesn’t matter. We have this ship, like I said before.”

How is he so confident in that, though? Ava closed her eyes. “Can we really just go around them? Like Rhutg said?”

“Yes. They will find that things on Xai are going to move very fast around them if they do not soon get on board. You have felt the reception from the other males and females, right?”

Ava paused, her mind going back to that day she’d walked off the ship two weeks prior. There was an initial gathering when she stepped off the ship, full of bright feelings and hope. It felt good. A light feeling lifted her heart remembering, clashing with the feelings from the quorum earlier. “Yes. It’s so strange how all the positivity can be canceled by just a few negatives though.”

“Don’t let it. Everyone knows what you did on Torga, Ava. And even if they didn’t hear our communications as we came back home from the ship, the five women you helped have been very vocal.”

Ava had to smile at that. “Especially Sai.”

Vox leaned against the railing, his lithe body flexing a bit as he reached to touch her face and to move a piece of hair behind her ear. “Yes. Sai wanted to come by today, but I told her to hold off because of the meeting.” Smirking toward her, his arms hooked on the railing. “Although, Sai is a bad influence. She does what she wants too much. No responsibility.”

Ava chuckled, body relaxing. Of all the five women they rescued, she and Sai had struck up the closest friendship. “You’re just mad that she told me that the women have the power in the relationship.” Ava walked close, poking him in the chest again. “I think she’s right, too.”

Vox leveled a look at her, his eyes crinkling with humor. “Like I said, a bad influence. She also cheats when we play cards.”

“No she doesn’t. You just don’t like to lose.”

Vox rolled his eyes upward.

Laughing, Ava broke the silence. “I knew it. I wish playing cards was all we had to worry about.”

She leaned into him and Vox folded her in his arms, holding her tight. His head dipped to the top of hers. “I love hearing you laugh.” The weight and pressure from his arms grounded her.

Ava put her head on his bare chest and felt his twin heartbeats as she said slowly, “It’s better here just with you.” She buried her head further into Vox’s chest while he hummed. I don’t get all of it. Politics was something she didn’t understand, an interplay that was different from anything she knew. Living as she had with the Phor, the roles were always clear-cut and simple. The queen ruled everything and the drones, like Ebel, obeyed. This place, Xai, had ... nuance.

Were Humans like this too, complex and with hidden motives?

Through all her mental worrying, Vox’s breathing remained calm under her cheek. Still . . . She leaned back and side-eyed him, her eyes lingering on his solid frame.“You aren’t worried?”

“I am not. I like what the stars have brought me so far. There is a balance I see that the quorum does not.” He hugged her close.

Ava sighed, trusting his assessment, content to just be held a moment and put the thoughts from the morning out of her head. Besides, she had more pressing matters to worry about, like making real progress on her goal of finding other Humans. Other Humans, the real reason she needed help. “Did Iryl check in yet?”

“Not yet.”

Ava bit her lip, head still burrowed on Vox’s chest. “It’s so hard waiting. I know Iryl found something about the other Humans. Any information from outside of Xai would be nice.” She glanced at the navigation panel where Nuor worked before. Several of Nuor’s feathers were still in the alcove she used to sleep in here on the ship.

Nuor was the other one she missed, the first true friend that she’d made herself, back when she lived amongst the Phor. “Haven’t even been able to contact Ebel or Nuor. It’s been so many cycles.” No. Not cycles. So many days ago. Days. Days. Ava gave a slight wince and corrected herself again, her brows furrowed.

Vox stroked her back, scratching lightly at the end on her waist. “I’ll contact Iryl in the morning. He keeps different times living at the board than us. But you’re right, he did say he found something.”

“Okay.”

He gestured above, at the window high in the engine room. The sun was starting to drop in the sky. “If we’re fast, maybe we can play a few rounds of jurn outside before it gets dark. The quorum visit is behind us now.”

She nodded and stifled a yawn, her body wanting her to rest even though the sun still shone brightly outside on Xai, where it was only late afternoon. He’s right. It’s time to focus on something else. Days were around one-fourth longer than the time she’d counted as a cycle before. As a result, she found herself still adjusting to sleeping during the nighttime and staying awake in the day on a set schedule, rather than whenever she felt tired like before.

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.”