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was grim.
    His lips twisted in amusement. “That actually makes sense but why did you initially say that you needed a sample of tissue beneath your skin?”
    “I was trying to push the true nature of the exposure out of my mind as long as I could.” She nodded. “Anything else?”
    “Why were you in a pod?”
    Ava winced. “Because I am dangerous, I am normally transported under guard and in the pod to keep me from being exposed to other species. I am capable of self-defence, and it tends to make folks very cautious when using my services.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Ava sighed and leaned back. “Most contact healers touch a person and transfer the injuries or illness to their own bodies. Our bodies heal much more quickly than most. My body takes the injury and catalogues it. It finds the cure for the pathogen but keeps the original. In the case of a new species, I find what makes it live and can create what would make it die.”
    “Do you do that a lot?”
    She shook her head. “Once was enough.”
    “Once? You have done that before?”
    She sighed and buried her hands in her hair. “Yes. Until that day, it had been a theory and a leak at the Alliance must have shared that idea. I was kidnapped and hauled onto a ship where a giant fairy tried to force me to use my talent to kill one of their prisoners, a strange man with black eyes.”
    “What did you do?”
    She held up her hand staring at her fingers. “I touched the man with the wings, and he started screaming. First, I copied everything that he was, and then, I burned it in his own bloodstream. The man with the black eyes got to his feet and hauled the fairy to an airlock. He dropped me off at the nearest Alliance base and disappeared.”
    “So you know who or what took you?”
    She smiled grimly. “No, but if I am ever near one of his kind again, the slightest breath of air, and they will be going down.”
    “It sounds like self-defence.”
    “It is, but it is also the basis for a weapon of mass destruction, similar to the one that struck Nafki.” She sighed. “I don’t know. All I know is if they were asking you to return me, then they want the destruct genome for the Admorik.”
    Kondr’s features were grim. “That is now abundantly clear to me. What should I do?”
    This was the moment when Avaneer had to be blunt. “You either kill me or give me a home here once the cure is complete.”
    Shock wiped over his features. “Do you know what you are saying?”
    She chuckled grimly. “Oh yes. There is only one way to assure your world’s safety and that is by either granting me sanctuary here, a small place out of the way where no one can find me or by killing me before I can be used to destroy not only you but all of those species related to yours.”
    “What?” His question was a shout.
    “Well, it can easily be turned into something that can take out anyone related to the Admorik and that means the Admaryn and any of its offspring species.”
    “Why would anyone do that?” The horror in his expression was obvious.
    Ava winced. “I am going to guess that it has to do with the Admaryn transport network. Anywhere there is an ancient colony site, there is usually a transport tunnel.”
    “Nafki has no such tunnel.”
    “Of course not. It is a high-gravity issue. You can’t go from high gravity to low in an instant, you would fly apart.”
    He frowned, “Then why Nafki?”
    Guilt ran through her even though she knew she was not to blame. “I was altered to work on heavy-gravity worlds, and I can’t go back. To create a method of killing Admaryn descendants, they had to find a planet to put me on.”
    Kondr groaned, “This is a lot of information. Are you sure?”
    “No. It is conjecture. I am guessing. Can I go for a walk along the shore? It has been a while since I felt the wind on my skin.”
    “Fine. Take a walk but don’t go too far. I will speak with what is left of our government and join you when I am done.” Kondr nodded