11. Chapter 11

The intercoms were blaring. “Alert! Alert! Alert!”

Ava’s heartbeat picked up. She looked up from her desk where she was playing a card game on her tablet and caught Ebel’s eye. Dread was still swirling in her stomach as she thought about how the last visit with Vox went.

Ebel turned his screen to the mainframe security feed and immediately let out a gasp.

The Vorbax.

They were in the hallway near the animal cages, walking in a line. There was blood and Tuxa parts in the hallway where she had seen them sitting, playing guard, every time she walked in.

Ava’s hands began shaking, her mouth suddenly dry. She and Ebel watched the feeds as one of them, Rhutg, opened the control panel like it was butter. It immediately began to glow when he touched it. The alert overhead turned off a second later. The cameras also went out, static replacing the video feed on the screen.

Ava and Ebel looked at each other with twin worried expressions. Ebel checked other channels and then his com screen.

“All internal communications are down. Everything is down. Even the backups we had from the hacking attempt a few years ago are down.” He was frenzied, typing furiously on his keyboard.

Ava ran to her computer to double-check, touching the liquid screen rapidly. Nothing was loading. Even the card game she had up before was now a static screen. Her com watch was unable to get a signal from the Phor mainframe.

The engine was still moving though. The grind of the gears was apparent to her even now. In fact, they sounded louder than before with the computers no longer buzzing in the background.

“Shit, shit shit.” Ebel looked panicked, poking at his useless com on his wrist. His antennas were flying.

Ava halfheartedly pushed a button on the food processor. That still worked—it pushed out more pasta to her a second later.

They were completely blind down in the engine hall, cut off from everything happening in the rest of the ship. Ava bit her lip in thought and made a decision. It was the Vorbax, after all. They were just after the Tuxa. She was not afraid of them. And they were now . . . free?

“I’ll go up in the vents and look. Ebel, you lock yourself in here. I’ll be back fast.”

Ebel didn’t answer. He just stared his static screens blankly. Part of him seemed to have short-circuited.

Ava patted his back and threw on the thermal suit faster than she ever had before. Within a minute she was up in the vents, not even feeling the climb out of the engine hall with her adrenaline pumping. She moved fast, not caring about being silent.

At the top of the shaft, Ava didn’t know which way to go. The last she saw they were leaving the prisoner hold, so she started in that direction. Halfway though, she heard voices yelling overhead, in the section that contained the crew quarters and navigation. She turned at the next upward vent and climbed that, her magnetic bracers holding tight to the sides to get to that area.

She stopped at the first grate on the level to look out. Everything appeared normal. No activity. But not silence. She could hear screams, far off toward the starboard side, and moved that way.

Ava kept checking grates along the way and gasped when she finally saw something different. She quickly flattened her body against the grate to get a better look. Outside, there was a bloodstain running the length of the plain metal wall, ending in one of the fuzzy Haroo contractors lying in an unnatural pose. A pool of blood was around his body.

Ava stared at him in horror, at the stillness of his body.

He was dead.

Now she was afraid. Her palms slid on the vents from sweat. The Vorbax. They must have killed him. On the feeds, the Tuxa were killed much the same way. Vox . . . he seemed like a friend almost, how could he be capable of . . . this?

Her dreams of escaping with them, of living in peace and joining them, felt like chalk on her tongue. She had been delusional about their true nature if this is what they were capable of.

With the Haroo dead, it was clear they weren’t just getting revenge on the Tuxa. They were killing things not involved in their conflict at all. That Haroo was innocent.

She turned away from the broken Haroo and continued following the vent path. She was much quieter now, not wanting to alert them to her presence. She came across more dead bodies, gasping when she noticed that several were Phor, all swiftly executed, and a few other Haroo contractors on the ship. The concentration of dead bodies was becoming greater the closer she got toward navigation.

Navigation. They were heading for navigation.

Nuor.

Nuor was stationed there, and had been practically living there the last few cycles due to the asteroid belt.

Ava picked up her pace. She had to either warn her or see for herself what was happening. Her mind was scrambled. If she had to she could pull Nuor into the vents somehow, or help her hide. Ava was moving faster, clambering into a partition, when she felt a touch on her mind that made her freeze in place from the contact.

“Interesting . . .”a voice murmured. It spoke perfect Common in her mind, not in the robotic voice of the translator.

“What . . . ?”she thought almost automatically, followed by questioning her sanity.

“Hmmm . . . no, not insane. No space rat either.”

Ava, startled, resumed moving toward navigation. The voice chuckled hauntingly in her head. She moved to the nearest grate, and she saw a Vorbax looking up, standing right under where she lay. His large, callous, amber eyes appeared trained right on where she was hidden in the vent above. It was the largest of the four, Rhutg, the one that was always sleeping.

Neither she nor Rhutg moved. He continued glowing and waiting. Ava felt her mind being scanned. It reminded her of when she was weighed and measured in the Human nursery. The same feeling of impersonal judgment and nowhere to hide from it. She got angry.

Get out! She gritted her teeth and tried to move away, but it felt like her limbs were resisting. Her hands trembled as she tried to move her arm forward.

“Hmm . . . no, this is far too interesting. It is like another world being able to connect to you. What are your intentions? Other than to flee. Which . . .”

Ava gasped and found her muscles not willing to respond. Terror raced down her spine. Already her knees were starting to hurt from holding the awkward position, the metal cutting into her skin.

“Come closer. Relax,” his voice commanded. Ava was helpless to not obey, her body racing to comply. Immediately she lay flat on the ductwork with her face placed on the grate above him, her eyes glued to his imposing frame. Her heartbeat slowed. Her mind remained terrified, but her body basked as if she were lounging in the artificial rays of the solarium.

They waited each other out in silence as Ava felt her emotions and reactions being tasted and then carried away, along with every errant thought she had. Unbidden images of feeling helpless before she came to the Phor ship ran through her mind. Humiliation rose at being back in this position again as she futilely tried to move her arms and legs. She couldn’t budge an inch.

“. . . such fear. Not of this ship, but before. What are you? I remember you talking to Vox and saying Human. I have not encountered your form before.”

Ava felt a pressure in her mind to respond. She clenched her teeth to keep her words from slipping out even though it did no good.

Eventually the pressure built until she thought back, “There’s not a lot of us. I was bought by the Phor as a servant from a breeding facility on Cipra. The Phor needed additional hands to help do tasks in the engine and around the ship. That’s it. I . . . am nothing else.”

“. . . Human . . . hmm. Why are you above my head then?”

Again, Ava felt the pressure to respond and gave in quicker. “I can fit in the vents. I see what is happening when the Phor can’t watch.”

“Ah, a spy. How convenient. You were also that one posing as a Vali earlier, were you not? Ava?”

“Yes, Ava.” She still felt pressure to say more so her brain babbled, “My mama named me after her friend on a planet called old Earth. That was the planet she was born on. But it was destroyed when she was around fifteen in her years. She said Humans finally made contact with other aliens but they were . . . not a good kind. The fallout from their fighting made Old Earth poisoned. My mother was picked up and made into a breeder for servants.”

“So you were made planetless and then enslaved. How barbaric.” She saw his lip flip up in a grimace. “The more we come to learn about the society beyond our stars, the more nothing surprises us.”

“Rhutg, stop.” Vox strode up behind him, putting his hand on Rhutg’s shoulder. His brown jumpsuit was covered in blood and torn across his shoulders, showing firm muscles and swirling lines underneath. He began glowing as well, turning his face to look at Ava trapped above his head.

Immediately, some of the pressure eased on Ava and she was able to shift to her side to take pressure off her knees. She gasped in relief as she cupped her left knee, which was pressed into the grate the hardest, with her hand, rubbing away the sting. It was already sore from the fall she took earlier from the Tuxa.

Rhutg grunted slightly in the direction of Vox, but she felt the pressure ease even further, and was now able to move more.

Rhutg stared at her, eyes narrowed. “You’re lucky this one finds you interesting. I find you to be a distraction, but don’t take it personally.” Rhutg shouldered some wires that he was carrying, likely ripped out of the walls, and moved forward, no longer glowing.

Ava looked into Vox’s amber eyes through the grate after Rhutg walked away and his footsteps faded. She was no longer frozen but felt that way, still in the aftershocks of her fear.

Vox hummed slightly as the glow intensified and Ava felt a touch on her mind, stronger than the calming feeling she had begun to associate with Vox, which she had dismissed before a few times as being nothing. Unlike the harsh hold Rhutg had her in, Vox’s scan was more of a caress and less jarring.

“I have told them you mean us no harm.”

“No. I mean nothing. I am nothing. I don’t know what’s going on. You can talk in my head? How long?”

Ava began to shake.

A fury started to overtake her, breaking through her fear.

“The others will not harm you. We do not harm innocent females.”

“Then will Nuor be alright?”

“The Vali? It depends on her soul once we take a look. Even if she is female, we do not tolerate those who have had a role in harming us.” He cocked his head. “Come down. Let us speak face-to-face.”

Ava looked side to side. There wasn’t a convenient output grate here at ground level for her to exit. They were all ceiling vents overhead.

“I can’t.”

Vox let out an audible sigh from below her. “Then let us walk until you can.”

Ava crawled until she reached a room that had an inlet vent on the side. Vox mirrored her movements underneath until she found a branch off the ductwork that reached the ground level and ended in that opening. She’d never gotten out anywhere before from the vents other than the engine hall and cargo bay side panels. She slid down the vent and braced her back against the cold metal ductwork to begin pushing on the filter grate in front of her.

Immediately it was ripped away in a fluid motion, and Ava tumbled out. She was grabbed around the upper arm before she reached the floor by a strong hand, lifted completely, and set on her feet in front of Vox.

Ava straightened herself to stand in front of him. He looked at her hungrily for a moment and fingered her black hair that had fallen out of her bun, framing her face, dirt across her nose. Slowly, his eyes looked down and scanned her whole body, then came back to look in her eyes.

She stood in front of him, chest heaving with repressed emotion. Vox cocked his head questioningly, watching her.

“You never were restrained at all?” Her voice cracked halfway through, her fists slightly shaking. She angled her head upward to meet his eyes.

“Hmmm . . .” Vox said noncommittally. His large eyes watched her face raptly.

“Answer me, please,” Ava whispered. She could feel her face flushing.

He had just killed who knows how many creatures and here she was demanding answers from him. In the back of her mind she questioned her judgment but pressed forward foolishly regardless.

“Do you prefer males of your species helpless? Judging from your anger now, is capability not attractive?” Vox’s eyes widened and she felt the full measure of his attention.

This threw Ava for a moment, making her blush in a different way than anger. Silence stretched for a beat before she responded, “We prefer not being lied to and taken advantage of.”

Vox made a low growling noise, eyes narrowed. “Your mind is full of twists and turns I cannot comprehend. Lying to you was never an objective, it was a necessity of our mission. Why must you take it personally when it was just a result of circumstances?”

The fight flew out of Ava in the face of logic she couldn’t argue with. It didn’t change the fact that she still felt betrayal in her heart, but really, it had been an exhausting few cycles. She shifted her feet on the floor restlessly.

Feeling much smaller and with tears threatening, she asked, “Why did you kill them all?”

“Because it needed to be done for our objective. They would not stand down,” he answered simply.

“And why am I still here?” Tears started rolling down her face in earnest.

Vox’s eyes began tracking them, and he reached one slender finger up to her cheek, where a tear rolled onto it.

“Because you do not compromise our mission. Because you helped us. Because I did not want to see you be cold stillness.” He took her tear and pocketed it in his mouth, his long blue tongue coming out to catch it.

Ava watched him as he made another growling noise, not knowing what to make of his actions. She took her hand and rubbed the rest of her tears away herself, leaving another smudge of dirt across the bridge of her nose.

“What are you doing?” she said in a small voice.

“It has salt. Like a mineral block.”

“No. Not that. Yes, tears are salty. With this, Vox. What is happening? All the crew. What is going on?”

Vox smiled, and despite herself, Ava found herself admiring how smiling lit up his face.

“Did you really think those stupid Tuxa could have bested us? No, we are going to their planet on our own terms.”

“You never were a prisoner? You planned this? So you’re going to their planet and are going to . . .” Ava couldn’t finish. Her hands were trembling. It was too much to take in at once.

Down the hall, far away, screams continued.

“I would love to say yes, but we will not be leaving the universe in a blaze of glory. The Tuxa have stolen our females from us. I wish I could spend my last breath eliminating as many of them on their home planet as I can but, we are here to rescue the females. Spilling Tuxa blood is a side benefit. They will not get away with taking them or thinking we are so weak they can steal from us what is ours to protect.” His grin turned feral as he talked, his eyes narrowing.

Ava felt a shiver of fear run through her at the change in his expression.

His face softened a moment later, and he looked like the male she’d met in the prison once again.

“Why would the Tuxa be so reckless as to do that?”

“Our females have a type of pheromone that resonates with many other species and compels them to want to mate with them. They are genetically blank, meaning a lot of species can create young with them without having a crossbreed. It was the main reason we have been fighting with them all these years. Other species can control themselves, but the Tuxa have taken it upon themselves to covet our females and claim them as their own.”

Vox inhaled deeply. “You also bear a trace of that pheromone as well, but it is hard to tell under that suit you always wear.”

Ava was taken aback, unsure what to say. “But I am Human.”

Vox nodded. “It is very interesting to us. Perhaps in the cycles before this is resolved we can examine you out of that suit.”

Ava stepped backward, feeling like she was under a microscope already. It was a lot to absorb. She put her hands on her hair and tugged down her bun. If she refused them anything, what would they do? She could still hear screams, far off. But still . . .

“I don’t know if I want to do that.”

Vox raised a hand to her cheek. “We will discuss this later. It would be in your species’s best interest for us to know more about you.”

Ava stayed still as his hand brushed her hair away from her face to behind her ear. He looked at her ear carefully, a feature not present on his own skull. Instead, a divot on one of his frills seemed to serve the same purpose.

Lirell came bounding around the corner, blood splattered over his jumpsuit like Vox. Ava startled away from Vox at his approach, flattening herself against the wall before she registered who it was. Lirell’s eyes were bright and he carried one of the Tuxa’s phasers in his hands, raised, pointing it at them as he turned the corner. He quickly dropped it to his side after seeing Ava next to Vox, whose hand was still raised from touching her face.

Ava recoiled from Lirell, seeing him covered in gore, thinking of Rhutg and the reception she received there. Unconsciously she moved closer to Vox, hoping he might provide a shield in case Lirell was a foe as well. Her aching side from where Rhutg had her pinned in the vent throbbed, as if to remind her to be extra cautious.

It seemed the fear she felt was not needed, as Lirell broke into a friendly smile. “Ava? That is you? You look beautiful!” His grin was wide and open, at odds with the gore and blood on his face.

Ava nodded, carefully, feeling exposed in the silent corridor. She was very aware of being only a few steps away from bloodshed. She felt a prick on her mind, a soothing feeling, and heard a slight hum that came from Vox.

Erox walked in slower behind Lirell and also stared at Ava. His broad shoulders stretched the fabric of the jumpsuit, which was not nearly as stained as either Vox’s or Lirell’s. Erox’s gaze shifted to look at Vox, who returned his hand to his side, before fixing again on Ava.

Ava didn’t know what to say, feeling cowed by them looking at her with no cage cell between them and no disguise, but thankfully Erox and Vox began glowing and looking at each other. Ava quickly realized they were having a private talk now that she understood they could communicate telepathically.

She slowly went up to Lirell, who was staring at her raptly. She made the universal sign for deference to hopefully further convey she was no threat, her hands shaking.

Lirell grinned even wider, ignoring her fear and speaking in an eager voice. “Ava, you look similar to our females, only a different color and with strands on your head. No wonder we liked you right away. Do all Humans look like you?”

It was a hard question to answer. Ava’s mind was scattered and couldn’t collect itself. Lirell stared at her, expecting an answer. She pulled her mind together to focus on his questions. “No,” she stammered. “We all look a bit different. If we’re from the same mother we can look alike.”

Lirell looked at her, hungry for more information. Ava thought of all the Humans she had seen over her years. The list wasn’t long, but there definitely was enough to show that Humans came in all shapes and sizes. Hesitantly, she suggested, “Can you see what I think? Look and I’ll show you what I’ve seen.”

Lirell started to glow and Ava thought hard on her mother and sisters and others in the Human logs she had seen, cutting it off when she felt herself become even more emotional thinking about them. Tears ran down her cheeks, both from thinking of that and the silence she now heard in the ship. It was so silent.

By the time she was done, Lirell had fallen out of his glow and was staring at her, a bit awestruck. She noticed that both Erox and Vox had been looking at them and most likely seeing what she was thinking as well.

Ava wrung her hands together nervously and flushed thinking about all the unguarded thoughts she’d had around them these past few cycles. What a fool she was, thinking they could use her help.

“Not a fool,” Vox said softly.

Ava startled again, audibly swallowing and looking away. She kept forgetting that he was able to literally look inside her.

It would have been embarrassing had she time to think and wasn’t so on edge after this recent turn of events. They’d killed almost everyone, people she was talking casually to less than a cycle ago. How could she be sure that they wouldn’t just turn around and see her as a threat or inconvenient and end her as well?

Ava whipped back around to Vox, adrenaline pumping through her veins. “Vox?”

He tilted his head to her, looking away from Erox.

“Are . . . is . . . everyone dead?”

Vox shook his head. “No, not everyone. We will spare a few.”

“The drones are innocent too. They just follow orders.” She thought of the few she saw, bloodied and lifeless in the halls. “They just do as they’re told.”

“There were a few that stood down and were not harmed. The one in the engine hall you are close to, Ebel? He will be spared. We need to keep up the pretense of a functioning Phor ship for a little while longer. The queen has already been killed, so the rest of the drones will obey our orders now.”

Ava didn’t question how he knew of Ebel. She felt relief that he would be spared, and little in the way of remorse about their queen.

Now, if she only had the same reassurance about Nuor, she would feel much more comfortable. Wert too, but Nuor was at the forefront of her mind. It was becoming very apparent that they knew a lot more about her than she was aware of. Vox said they didn’t harm innocent females, which meant she was probably okay. Immediately after having that thought, she felt guilty over the relief she experienced by thinking her two closest friends were okay while the rest of the ship was gutted.

Nuor was on the tip of her tongue to ask about but Erox motioned to Lirell to follow, interrupting her before she could get the words out. She turned back to Vox.

“What are they doing?”

Vox didn’t answer that question. Instead he responded, “I think, until the rest of the ship is cleared out and more stable, you should try to rest and stay out of the fray.”

Erox grabbed Lirell roughly by the arm when he didn’t follow immediately; he was still staring at Ava raptly. Erox and Lirell finally walked away, leaving her and Vox alone.

Ava watched them go for a minute. They must be . . . securing the rest of the ship.

“If I walk away and try to sleep, what will happen?”

“Again, your mind leaps to conclusions. Then you will sleep, Ava. That is what will happen.”

“The rest of your team will not seek me out?”

“No, Ava. Pick a room from the crew quarters to claim for the next few cycles.”

She glanced down the hall, to where the doorway to navigation lay. “Nuor?”

He glowed and tilted his head as if listening far away. “Erox has taken the Vali to the cargo bay. She will not be harmed.”

Ava sighed, reassured.

Vox continued, “ I . . . no, we, request no more unplanned journeys into the vents or down to the engine hall.”

Ava heard the implied threat underneath indicating how far their trust of her went. Keep to where they could see her.

She nodded, unwilling to resist at all, but was now concerned about Ebel and if he was still in the engine hall. They said he would be unharmed, but did they even know which Phor he was? She told Ebel she would be back with news. What if he was still hiding there, afraid? Before she could settle someplace else she wanted to go check and see the state of the engine room that had been her home so long.

“Can I get my things from where I used to sleep?”

Vox nodded and gestured for her to follow.

Ava walked silently in his wake, stretching her legs to keep up with his longer, silent stride. She stuck close to his side, ignoring the chaos still occurring in the opposite direction.

The engine room was empty when she walked in, eyes scanning the entire time, searching for Ebel.

Vox followed as Ava felt the tears threaten again as she looked around at the static video feeds coming from the control room. The door was open and Ebel wasn’t there. It didn’t look like the entry was forced at all. Ebel must never have locked it and stayed put after she left.

“Ava. He is unharmed,” Vox said from the doorway, watching her survey the room. “I know you wanted to come down here to look for that Phor, Ebel, but he has already been taken away.” He waited while Ava spun in the room, her hands nervously clasped, before adding gently, “Let’s get your things now.”

Ava nodded and walked with him past the swirling biologics tank to her alcove. Vox stood a few paces outside and watched her as she picked up her patchwork blanket and the magazine printing of Joy. It felt wrong to leave her behind, alone down here in the engine hall. She pulled a few more of the jumpsuits she wore and put them in her arms.

She had so little. It never really struck her before as it did now, packing up to go someplace else for a bit. I have so freaking little. Everything important and personal to her that she owned she could carry in her arms. Only a few feathers from Nuor, gear ends, and scattered books on the shelves remained in the tiny room. Her area didn’t even have a door to lock behind her, the curtain pushed aside wide.

Feeling a prick on her mind she turned around, not surprised to see Vox slightly glowing as he reached out to probe her. She looked back at him. The fear of him from the ship takeover was quickly being tempered by her growing annoyance that she had been under constant telepathic surveillance since she met him.

“I am right here. Why do you need to scan my mind?”

“I wish to gain insight into the items you have reclaimed. They seem to make you sad.”

Ava bristled. “You can just ask me. You obviously have been searching my mind this whole time.”

Vox nodded, not dimming his shine. “I can, but we both know by now that your words and the actual truth running through your mind very often disagree.”

Ava didn’t have a comeback to that. Speaking out loud she answered, “It is just so little for me living here. I thought there would be more. So much has changed in the last few cycles and I have nothing to show for it.”

“Why do external items define you? I see in your mind knowledge learned. The best riches no longer matter when you are cold and still.”

Ava stilled, thinking of that for a moment before the intrusion became too much.

“Stop,” she said, firmly, raising her eyes assertively to look into his. Now, away from the horror in the halls above, in the protection of the engine hall and in her own small room, she felt the security of familiarity. He was still Vox. He was the same creature she had begun to trust in the prison cells. The same one she had dreamt about in this very room when she thought about gaining her freedom. She was not afraid of him.

Vox’s face made a small smile and he stopped shining. “We will talk instead.” He then picked up the picture of the smiling lady from her small collection of things, his chest bumping into her as he did so. Ava instinctively moved away from his searing heat, backing up against the wall as he moved into her small area. It felt cramped with the two of them now in it.

“It strikes me as odd how very different yet similar all you Humans seem to look.”

Ava gently tugged the photo back out of Vox’s hands. “Yeah, well, they tried to have a lot of genetic variety with us.”

“Who is they? The ones you referred to with Rhutg that captured your mother and forced her to bear young?”

“Yes. . . they were traders. It was more of a collective than any one species. My mother didn’t like to talk about how Earth ended.” Ava’s face pinched, remembering. She didn’t want to talk about that. Not now. She forced a fake smile and held out her hand, tugging on the photo of Joy.

Vox let her take the picture back, his eyes lingering on her as she tucked it into the knapsack she used to climb the vents. He reached out and gathered her blanket from her arms, briskly folding it to carry, before turning to leave the engine hall.

Ava began to walk after him, but stopped him with a soft, “Vox?”

He turned around, head angled down to catch her voice.

“We should . . . I should . . . feed the biologics before we go.”

He followed her gaze to the tank in the middle of the area, then walked up and pressed his hand against it, briefly shining. The biologics swirled around his fingers in a circular motion as his hand rested against the glass.

“Yes, they would appreciate that.”

“They can talk with you?” Ava asked, watching in amazement.

“Not quite. Sensations. They are rather fond of you . . . and I can feel their hunger.”

Ava felt touched at hearing they could care for her. She patted the glass before she went through the motions getting their feed, feeling calmer doing something routine. She must have fed them a thousand times, but never was she as aware of each step she took up to the feeding inlet vent as she was at this moment.

Vox watched her with an unblinking gaze the entire time, his face showing something akin to fear when she climbed to the high peak where the hatch opening was, sighing in relief when she got back on the ground.

He hardly waited for Ava to put the bag away in the storage alcove before he began to move toward the engine room door.

This time, Ava followed, and didn’t look back.