Avert by Viola Grace

Doesn’t cost much and you may do me a favour one day.” He lifted his goggles and the red blaze of his eyes took her by surprise.
    He must have noticed her staring, because he laughed. “I am in rut, we all are. The shavirel eggs are the only entertainment here. Your eyes are a little different. What species are you?”
    She smiled brightly. “I am a mutt. Not even my mom knows how many species are zipping around in my bloodstream.”
    Makkos smiled and helped her out of the skimmer, walking with her toward a ramshackle building with a tankard out front.
    The interior was as dim as it looked from the outside and it smelled twice as bad.
    Makkos steered her to the bar and helped her take a seat next to him. An exhausted-looking bartender came up to them and served each of them a glass of water.
    “Who is this, Makkos?”
    “I found her wandering in the desert. She is wearing one of those weird belts but has no idea of who she is. She also has a pair of scissors, so I think she picked the belt up somewhere.”
    Sky just blinked and smiled vaguely. “I make clothing.”
    Makkos offered her the glass of water and she picked it up, giving the glass a good look. “There is something floating in here.”
    “How is it that you haven’t seen a shavirel egg before?” The bartender wiped the counter absently.
    “I don’t know. What does it do?”
    Makkos gulped down his water and shuddered in reaction. His hands clenched and released repeatedly. “It gives you the feeling of being in the embrace of the most talented lover you could imagine and then engaging in the most stimulating sex you can think of all in a matter of seconds.”
    He moaned and twisted on his chair for a moment before shuddering with his teeth clenched.
    Sky asked the bartender, “Is it an insult to refuse it?”
    The man shrugged. “Not particularly, but all of the water left here has been treated with the eggs.”
    She cocked her head, “Where do they come from?”
    The bartender pointed to a tank in the centre of the room. There was a small creature inside and it was sitting on top of a mound of tiny crystals.
    “Can I go and look?”
    “Sure. It’s the last shavirel in existence. Its entire environment was wiped out during the first solar storms and this one had been in a private collection.”
    Sky wandered over to the tank and wiggled her fingers at the creature inside.
    Are you here to kill me?
    Sky jerked as the voice echoed in her mind. With concentration, she tried to think toward the creature. I am not. I am here to take you to safety.
    Are you like him?
    Him?
    There was a male here with the same energy signature. He tried to take me and they captured him.
    Do you remember anything else about him?
    The small, fuzzy insect with the wide abdomen rose up and waggled its feet at her. He smelled like you.
    “Aw hell.” She continued to wiggle her fingers and smile vapidly at the shavirel before she turned and returned to the bar. Giggling a little, she asked, “Makkos mentioned that there was an execution in progress.”
    The bartender nodded. “In the main square. Take a sun shield, the third is rising soon and you don’t want to get crisped.”
    She smiled brightly. “Thank you. You have been very kind. I just wish I knew why I was here.”
    He grinned and waved her off.
    She made a show of putting on the shield before she tiptoed out of the bar and into the burning heat of the town.
    About a dozen of the locals were circled in the center of the open square. Her suspicions were realized when she saw Tavik strapped to a post in the centre of the exposed space.
    Everyone around her was wearing a sunshade made of foil and lined with a white soft material.
    Tavik was stripped to the waist and his knife was jammed into the floor at his feet.
    She moved quickly through the crowd and looked up at him, giggling slightly as she had heard several females do.
    The third sun burned the ground as it passed. The remains of the village were