7. Chapter 7

Ava got back into the vents above the engine hall, slid down the shaft, and climbed out of the grate opening slowly. She was sore from climbing and crouching so much in one day, and her muscles protested the entire way.

While she was gone, Ebel had found the bag of the small yavi fruit and put a small pouch of them on her desk in the control room.

“Welcome back,” he stated as she emerged, dusty and sweaty. His fanged, furry mouth was slightly red from the fruit. He ate them without bothering to remove the pit.

“Yep. I’ll fill you in after I get clean,” Ava remarked briskly, busy taking off the thermal suit and grumpy from being sore.

She put the suit in the laundry compartment where the UV light immediately began cleaning it. She then took off her jumpsuit, adding that as well.

Ebel turned away while she took off her undergarments. He found her unclothed body just as unattractive as she found his.

Rid of her clothing, she went to the bathroom and into the shower setup. She groaned when the water hit her, pounding on her back. Ava set about washing away all the sweat and dirt and pom droppings she’d picked up from crawling nearly all cycle. She took her black hair out of her bun to give that a good washing too. It felt satisfying to finally be clean again.

After getting out of the shower and wringing the excess water from her hair, she sat in a towel for a few minutes while the UV cleaner worked on her clothing. She put her head in her hands and rubbed her neck a minute before she stretched out. The warm water helped, but extending her body helped more. The cleaner was taking a long time to get through her clothes, a testament to how dirty they were.

“So, how’d it go?” Ebel turned back to her as she continued to squeeze water from her hair.

“Well, there’s prisoners on board. Not doing much, just sitting and eating. And I guess going to the bathroom. I didn’t get to that part in the Vorbax logs to see what that looked like. Everything else about them looks similar to me so maybe that’s the same too.” She started running her fingers through her hair, attempting to comb it.

Ebel grimaced at her nonchalant comments. “Well at least it’s peaceful for the moment. The Phor are going to do a sweep tonight and do the late night feeding, but you’re on the schedule for the next one after you rest. You’ll have to do it at least once every twenty hour rotation. The queen wanted you to do all the feedings but I explained how you need to rest and how vital you are to keeping the engine going.”

“Thanks, Ebel.” Ava smiled at him while she finished combing through her hair. She meant it too. Finally, he tried to help me. He didn’t like to question authority, but the fact that he pushed back on her behalf, especially to his queen, meant a lot.

A soft tone signaled her clothing was done. Ava pulled it out and began to dress again in her undergarments and jumpsuit, warm and toasty from the dryer. It felt cozy putting it all back on, a nice change from the chill of the vents. The thermal suit got hung back in the closet, a little more firmly than necessary.

She checked her com once she was dressed and was not surprised to see the chatter onboard was less than optimistic.

“Have you laid eyes on our new guests yet?”Nuor had finally pinged her.

“Yes. I’m going to have to see a lot more of them too. The queen wants me to take over guest duty,”Ava messaged back, fingers flying.

The response from Nuor didn’t take long. “This is so bizarre. I am going to have words with the collective about my contract once this gag order is lifted. The Vorbax I don’t know much about. My cousins mentioned them once, there’s a representative on the main Galactic Board, but he avoided them.”

Ava’s mind pictured the Vorbax from the Phor logs. She was beginning to respond when Nuor pinged her again before she could finish.

“Actually. I don’t like this at all, Ava. The Tuxa are disgusting.”

“Disgusting as in how?”

“As in they shouldn’t be around anything female that moves,”Nuor replied. Ava stared at the words a second, frowning and tapping her foot, before turning to Ebel while staring down at her com.

“Ebel, Nuor is messaging that the Tuxa . . . ah . . . aren’t the best around females.” Ava looked up from the com screen to judge Ebel’s reaction, her heart starting to pound.

Ebel thought for a minute and then looked a bit flustered, antennas flattened. “Yeah, she would know. The Vali had to put conditions on their services a long time ago. That’s also one of the reasons we’ve never had one as a contracted employee on our ships . . .” He trailed off as he regarded Ava, a frown on his furred mouth.

Ava stared at him and pressed, “Is it a good idea for me to help out with them?”

Ebel didn’t answer; he seemed to fall into deeper thought. His antennas drooped farther. He turned back to his touch screen and poked it a few times absently, bringing a Tuxa picture up on screen. An ugly reptilian face stared at them.

Ava didn’t break the silence. Instead, she looked at the photo with him until Ebel answered, “Tell Nuor to come down here. She might have a few ideas to mask who you are.”

Stomach sinking, Ava pinged Nuor, who replied almost immediately that she would be down soon.

While waiting, Ava reached out and put a hand on Ebel’s fuzzy arm. “Does your queen know? Would she change the order and I could stay in the vents in the thermal suit or help some other way? The suit blocks everything.”

Ebel looked back at her, frown still on his fuzzy face. “I will message Wert to approach her again, but I don’t know what to do beyond that. The queen views you as one of her drone workers instead of a female capable of independent thought. In our species there can only be one female in her collective, so it’s a blind spot for her having you here.”

Ava looked down, her chest feeling tight, tears threatening. “So I’m a tool more than a living being. Only a pawn.”

Ebel put his hand on hers, covering it completely. The palm of his hand had a velvety texture, differing from the long fuzz on his arm. Not denying Ava’s words, he instead answered, “We will figure it out when Nuor gets here.”

Ava nodded and removed her hand from under his slowly. She went to her desk corner, sitting on the chair with her foot underneath her and picked apart a yavi to eat absently. She knew Ebel cared in his own way about her, but his biology always put his queen and her wishes first. She was lucky enough that he’d been able to come to regard her as a whole being at all. Wert also, in his own nervous way, had come to show some affection for her. The queen, however, had no affection whatsoever. They’d barely ever exchanged words other than an initial greeting when she first came on board. In fact, Ava didn’t even know how much affection the queen showed her drones, despite their undying devotion to her.

The queen is aware of me enough to use me though. Ava frowned cynically as she wiped her hands on her jumpsuit from the yavi fruit.

She pulled up the public trade agreement between the Vali and the Tuxa that Ebel had referenced on her much smaller touchscreen anchored to her desk. Nuor would be able to tell her more when she got here, but it was better to be doing something rather than just wait.

The public agreement was sparse on details, just signifying that if a Vali had a complaint regarding brutality during their services the Tuxa would be hit with a huge credit amount.

Curious as to why the Tuxa would be so interested in females of other species, Ava pulled up a picture of the Tuxa females. Despite the unease in her stomach she couldn’t help but let out a snort of laughter. That was why. They were not depicted like that in the romance book she had featuring them. She couldn’t believe she never bothered looking up a picture of them before.

“What?” Ebel turned around to see what Ava was laughing at.

Ava shoved her screen toward him. “Ebel, in my book they do not look like that.”

He saw the picture and then chittered to himself. The Tuxa female was reptilian like the males, but short and squat with wide hips for laying multiple eggs. They looked like a puke-green blob with legs. They never left the nest, and the notes said they were relatively mindless, without any purpose outside of egg laying. Judging by the fact that her romance book had the female Tuxas looking a completely different way made her assume that the male Tuxa felt the same way about their appearance.

Ava was still chuckling when a ping on the control room door signaled Nuor had arrived. Unlike the other contractors, Nuor had access to the whole ship and didn’t need to be manually let into the engine room. Ebel overrode her security clearances after her and Ava became closer and trust was built between the three.

Nuor took a look at the Tuxa logs on Ava’s screen and let out a melodic sigh.

“Right, that. I had to attend to a few when we visited one of their outposts. They hired our troupe to celebrate one stupid achievement or another. At any rate, I drew the unlucky lot and had to go.” She flattened her beaklike nose in a line. “Luckily I only drew the unlucky stick that one time.”

“But” she said, turning to Ava, “they have agreements with the Vali to keep them from being too awful. They’re restricted to just dancing, and they won’t mess with us if they don’t want to be blacklisted.”

Turning to Ebel she continued, “Does your queen hate Ava? Why would she send her to service them? They’ll think it’s for more than food.”

Both Ava and Ebel flinched at that. The previous humor was forgotten. Nuor continued, “I would even take her place, because they know to leave me alone.”

Ava was touched by Nuor’s words.

Ebel looked abashed. “You can’t. The queen checks the clearance scans frequently, making sure we are all doing the tasks she assigned. I did try to get Ava out of some of it, but our queen didn’t want to spare the drones all the time from their current posts.”

“Sorry, Ebel, but your queen is stupid.” Nuor whipped her head around and looked at Ava, her feathers floating behind her. “Not only would they see Ava for more than general housekeeping, but you are bringing Humans to their attention if they haven’t already encountered them in a close-up manner before. I’d never heard of Humans before coming here. So the Tuxa are probably unaware of them too, but here you are, dangling one, a female without any rights, in front of their snouts for them to report what they saw back to their home planet while they were on our transport.”

Ebel didn’t respond to the slight on the queen, frowning even further. Nuor’s assessment sunk Ava’s spirits even more.

Ava started to tremble. “I don’t want to do this,” she said softly to both Nuor and Ebel. “I help with the engine here and anything else she asks me to do. Isn’t that enough?”

Nuor put her arm around Ava, patting her on the back.

Why do I have to do this?She’d been so hopeful before, thinking that after she saw the prisoner setup it would help her to sleep this cycle. Now she was more keyed up than ever.

She pulled out of Nuor’s embrace to sit down in her chair, pulling her black hair over her shoulder and winding it around her hands nervously.

“I’ll put a message in to Wert. He seems to be the one our queen favors most.” Ebel turned down to his com to do just that, delicate fingers flying.

Nuor sighed, looking at Ava consolingly. “Try that. In the meantime, let’s figure out what we can do to Ava to make her less appealing or noticeable.”

“Could I pretend to be a different species? Would a hologram hold up if I projected other features?” Ava questioned, dropping her hair and turning around to start digging in their cabinetry of extra parts. She didn’t know what she was looking for. It was all a mess of grease and gears in her area compared to the pristine organization of Ebel’s drawers. She pulled out a half-smashed ration bar and began ripping it up the rest of the way fretfully while Nuor talked.

“No. If they touch you, a hologram wouldn’t hold up, and then they would just look at you more closely.” Nuor reached out and fingered Ava’s hair, almost dry now from her shower.

“We can hide this under a cap or cut it short. Maybe even get you a hood that covers your face . . .” She trailed off, voice ending on a harmonious sigh. “Or maybe a hologram for just your face if we cover the rest of your body. They wouldn’t go and touch just your face if the rest matched. Problem is sourcing those; the ones you got for the Phor last time have already been sold.”

“I’m pretty sure there were more in this shipment. I could get some more.” Ava put down the ration bar and fingered a stray gear from the cabinet.

Nuor ran her eyes up and down Ava’s slight frame. “Hmm . . . you are too small to pretend you are a male of your species. And even then, I would rather them not look at what Humans are in general.”

Ebel, finished from sending his message to Wert, looked up and joined in, “I think disguising her as a different species is a good idea. What would be the most similar and still pass?”

He moved over closer to Ava and grabbed under her chin, turning her face roughly. “Maybe a Haroo?” Ebel turned Ava’s head the other way. “We could project the fur with a hologram.”

Nuor shook her head. “Haroo rarely wear clothes.” She tilted her head as she contemplated further. “Stick with what you know. I will go grab some of my clothes for her and we can see how she looks as a Vali. I can put her in my ceremony hood. The Tuxa fools don’t know our customs. I can say she has taken a vow of silence and is undergoing her training in order to serve them in the future. We want her to serve now to get used to their splendor. Blah blah, they’ll eat it up. I’ll go there personally with her at first and tell them that if they try to engage with her in any way and mess with her training, I’ll report back to our colony to terminate their agreement.”

Ava let out a sigh of relief at hearing a solid plan. She leaned forward and hugged Nuor, who hummed out a note and hugged her back.

Ebel looked on and nodded. “Okay, lets see how that works.” A ping from his com made him look down. “Wert says the queen is in a foul mood, though he will try to approach her. But let’s not plan on changing anything. She is mighty pissed.”

Ava let go of Nuor. Her tiredness was gone. She was now amped up thinking about how the next cycle would have to go.

“Tell him to take some of the yavi fruit when he goes to ask.” Ava motioned to the red fruit on her desk.

Nuor looked where Ava pointed and took a few fruits for herself, letting out a pleased hum. “Oh, that’s a lucky find.” She took a bite as she began to walk out of the room.

Ebel nodded absently while watching Nuor leave, a frown permanently etched on his face from recent events.

Nuor turned around and called over her shoulder, “I’ll be back. Don’t go to sleep before we figure this out.” The control room door dinged after she left, and then the engine hall one let out a separate ding as she exited the area.

Ava and Ebel stared at each other, the engine’s whirl filling the silence. Ava rubbed her eyes. Even without Nuor saying it, she couldn’t sleep anyway. She wasn’t tired anymore, but her eyes didn’t seem to get the same message, feeling heavy and gritty. She also had a slight headache developing.

“Did you replace the pistons?” Ava asked, trying to distract herself. She rubbed absently at her forehead.

“Yeah, it didn’t take too long. Got everything done on your list.”

Ava nodded and grabbed a few rags. She might as well check the east side of the engine and keep herself busy. The biologics were hungry too. The pin pad that they communicated to Ebel with was flashing a muted orange. It would turn bright red before long if they were not fed.

“Ava?” Ebel’s voice stopped her as she was walking out of the control room. She looked back at him questioningly.

“You’re not just a tool to me.” Ebel’s antennas picked up and connected at the top as he said it. His convex eyes quickly met her dark brown ones before he turned back to his touchpad.

“You’re not just a drone to me either,” Ava replied, looking away. She then left the room before either could feel more embarrassed.

Nuor took longer than Ava would have thought just grabbing a few outfits. Ava had already topped off the biologics tank with more powder and they were back to swirling around merrily.

Technically she didn’t need to be sitting up on the engine, greasing the gears on the east side with her bucket and rags, but she was just too jittery on the ground. It was better up on the engine, where she had the simple goal of making sure everything was not wearing out and had enough lubricant. It was relaxing. Or it would have been, if she didn’t have so much on her mind making her nervous.

Over the massive engine noises, Ava kept an ear out for the ping of the engine room doors opening. Once she heard it, she scampered down so fast that she beat Nuor walking down the long hall toward the control room. Looking over her shoulder, she saw how much Nuor was carrying and walked back to take a few bags out of her arms.

“This is a lot.” Ava opened one bag to look inside.

“Stop. Wait until we get in and then unload it; I don’t want it flying around in here. Some of this are feathers, and that would suck if they got stuck in the engine.”

Ava closed the bag and carried it with Nuor to the control room where they laid the bags down with huffs in the middle of the floor.

Errant feathers went everywhere once they were no longer contained. Ava glanced at Ebel’s reaction to seeing so much mess on his immaculate floors, but for once he seemed to not care.

Ava picked up one incredibly long tapered green and purple feather. “Did you pluck this from yourself right now?”

“No, silly, this is from my last molt.” Nuor opened another package containing even more feathers that she had started to weave into an elaborate bow. “I thought that if we are going to do this thing, we could do it right and give you a little tail we pin on or something. Not that the Tuxa are smart enough to really think too hard about it, but it can’t hurt anyway just in case one of them is a bit bored and a bit more curious.”

“Ah.” Ava picked up the plain cotton robe that she had worn whenever she and Nuor went off ship. It covered her head and made her inconspicuous enough.

Nuor picked the robe out of her hands. “I brought this just in case, but it really is too simple. So it’s just a backup. Here’s my ceremonial robe. Try that on.”

From the leftmost bag, Ava pulled out the beautiful robe Nuor had shown her from when she used to work as a courtesan. She held it to her face briefly. It felt incredibly soft and shimmered in the light.

Nuor, impatient, took it from her arms, put it on her, and tied it up. It fell past Ava’s knees, where it normally would fall on Nuor. Then she took the feather bundle out and tied it in the back, where there was a seam that a tail would normally poke out from on a true Vali.

The robe did not have a hood, so Nuor then took the whole thing off, put the plain robe on Ava with the ceremonial robe over it, and pulled the hood over her head to shade her face.

Ebel came over with a small hologram and put it behind her ear. He tweaked the hologram until it looked like it seamlessly blended with the rest of the outfit.

Then with shoes and gloves put on, Ava finally walked to the mirror and studied herself.

It will work. She turned her head side to side, admiring. I look like a smaller version of Nuor. The hologram made her eyes a bright aqua and projected feathers on her face and a beaklike nose over her regular one.

Nuor stuck some more feathers on the cuffs of the sleeves and in the areas the clothing joined to complete the look.

Ava poked her face and wound up poking her real eye, as the hologram projected an inch or so out from her actual face.

“Oww.” She squinted her real eye and noted with fascination as the hologram attempted to squint as well. She turned around and admired it from all angles. With Nuor’s actual feathers and robes it looked better than she would have thought.

“Where did you get the hologram from?” Ava asked Ebel, pretending to shake her tail.

“I kept one from the last time you grabbed some off the transport. I keep a few extra things here just in case to give the queen if I need to. Shh. No one needs to know. You owe me an extra now though, so be sure to get one from this transport before this is all over.”

Nuor walked around Ava, thinking critically. “This looks okay. You just need the thermal suit underneath in case you smell, or they can sense body temp differences. You can’t talk though. No offense Ava, but not only do you not speak our language, you don’t sound like us at all. Unless we have a voice synthesizer?” She looked at Ebel hopefully.

“Nope.” He shook his head, antennas flying.

“Ah, okay. Well, you are my cousin or sister who has taken a vow of silence and are in deep meditation.” Nuor’s eyes suddenly looked tired as well. “Let’s sleep and then meet up here when you’re due to go up. Is there any answer from Wert?”

“Nope,” Ebel repeated. “I doubt you’re going to get one either. The best he will do is turn a blind eye and not report the getup we have Ava in to see the prisoners. Her biosignature will register the same on the file we’re keeping logs on. The queen won’t know what we’re doing to keep her safe.”

Nuor and Ebel stepped back and looked at Ava for a minute, then both agreed it would suffice.

Ava took off the outfit and put it on her desk in the control room, then bent over with Nuor to pick up the feathers that she didn’t end up using. After putting them back in the bag, she put the bag on top of the counter.

Ebel went into the closet and pulled out a vacuum cleaner and cleaned up any loose ends they didn’t collect.

“Ping me when you get up and I will walk with you to the prisoner cells to introduce you. That should be good enough,” Nuor said.

They all stared at Ava for a minute, until Nuor broke the silence and put a hand on Ava’s shoulder. “Let’s try to get some sleep for now.”

Ava murmured thanks and checked her com to see that a schedule had already been drawn up for who would be on duty next. Her turn would start roughly ten hours from now. Enough time to hopefully get some sleep. Now that a solution had been found, all the tiredness from the previous cycle hit her like cement, visibly making her shoulders sag.

Nodding to Ebel, who looked up from his vacuuming to nod back, both her and Nuor walked back out to the engine hall, saying goodbye at Ava’s little alcove. Ava sat on her pallet bed and listened to Nuor head out of the engine room.

Ava pulled off her jumpsuit and lay down on her bed on her side. Fluffing out her undergarments, she reached down and rubbed her aching bare feet. What a cycle. She rolled her shoulders, stretching. She still felt stiff from the vents.

Ava put her com a little too forcefully on the side table next to the magazine cutout, making it fall backward.

“Whoops! Sorry Joy,” Ava muttered, apologizing to the picture before picking it up and putting it back upright. She carefully refolded the back that contained the auction house’s digital code behind the smiling picture and placed a small gear on the flap so it sat upright on her stand. Ava didn’t know Joy personally; she didn’t even know if that was really her name. She just assumed it was since it was next to the auction lot number, but Joy was the only picture she had of a Human smiling. The Phor logs had pictures of Humans, but they all had dour, despondent expressions. Ava doubted Ebel ever would have realized how important the picture would become to her when he gave it to her one day after finding it in some subscription pamphlets.

She grabbed her eye mask to blot out the lights she couldn’t turn out and put it on over her eyes. Despite thinking she wouldn’t be able to sleep for some time, she fell asleep almost immediately. She was lucky to have both Ebel and Nuor. Despite everything, her heart felt full knowing just how hard they were trying to help her out. It alleviated some of her fear. That calmed her, as did the mysterious calm waves she’d felt from the prisoner in the animal cells that still lingered in her psyche.