Avion (Cyborgs: More Than Machines, #7) by Eve Langlais

Zvali’dus are slender and gray-skinned bipedal beings with overly large olfactory orbs, bulbous, bald heads, four fingers with the tips padded and imbued with sensory receptors.
    You sound so matter-of-fact about this.
    I am One. The only one left of our group who returned to teach our world about the universe and the T’xa.
    What happened to the others? Avion asked.
    The military killed them.
    Talk about a conversation killer.
    Aramus hissed, “They’re coming. Stand down unless threatened. We need to infiltrate their ship and see what’s going on before we make our move.”
    “They won’t harm you.”
    Not harm maybe, but take prisoner, definitely.
    It turned out Aramus didn’t need them on their best behavior because no sooner was the outer airlock opened than a gas permeated the chamber.
    Despite their usual resistance to drugs, it knocked them all out cold.

Chapter Fourteen
    T he swirling gas that rushed into the docking bay chamber knocked her out, but Lilith recovered quickly. She blinked awake and stared at a seamless beige ceiling. She sat upright on a bed, the mattress spongy and oddly familiar. The whole room seemed familiar.
    I am on the ark ship. The hazy memory of a journey taken long ago flitted through her synapses. The alien merchants had her, and they’d placed her in the barracks they used for storing acquisitions which meant she was in no immediate danger. I’m not, but what of everyone else? It didn’t take a cursory scan to realize she was the only prize in the room and it wasn’t because of a lack of space.
    Row upon row of bunk beds, bolted to the wall, marched the length of the large chamber. Each one sported a foam-type mattress with slippery sheets and a small pillow. At the far end, just past the last bed, she noted the social grouping of couches and chairs, covered in a gray fabric with a hint of a silvery sheen. Angling her head, she glanced toward the other end, but she already knew what she’d see—long, gleaming white tables flanked by benches where repasts were taken.
    A shudder went through her. She’d not missed the unappetizing lumps on a plate that didn’t harbor a pleasant taste. No amount of salt in the universe could have made those meals palatable. She could only hope the slavers had improved on their culinary offerings in the long years since her last voyage.
    The familiarity with her accommodations made just for humans—abducted ones—didn’t bother her much. What was unusual was she was the only occupant. Her companions were gone.
    She didn’t like it at all. Especially the loss of one particular person.
    Avion, where are you?
    He didn’t reply, but she touched the edge of his slumbering mind and relaxed a little as she realized he still slept off the effects of the drug the slavers had gassed them with.
    A gas that worked on her as well, unlike the stuff they experimented with on Earth. How much they still have to learn. Too bad the humans weren’t nice to her. She could have taught them so much.
    Didn’t I teach them not to hurt me? She did, and yet in the end, they hurt her worse by locking her away.
    Rising from her bed, she noted they’d garbed her in a fresh robe while she slept. Cream-colored, and lacking adornment, it covered her from neck to toe. The slavers were fanatic about decontamination. Despite their space-faring habits, the Zvali’dus were quite susceptible to alien disease. Even a common cold could prove deadly.
    I’ll have to make a point to sneeze on one. Giggle.
    The floor, covered in a warm, sponge-like material, cushioned her bare feet as she made her way to the exit.
    Before she reached the door to the chamber, it slid open, and a Zvali’dus slaver stepped in, flanked by some hulking beasts who closely resembled reptiles but walked on two legs. Their yellow, slitted eyes regarded her with hunger. The tummy kind, not carnal. Preferable really, given she knew from her databanks that their reproductive organs ejected spines from the