Inosculate Prolgue, Ch1, Ch2

/Sapph's Note (I recommend not skipping the note for this particular post)

Hey folks! Here's something brand new that I've been working on for about a week now. I was really hoping to have it be done by today, but then, in classic SapphicSounds fashion, this story turned out to be way longer than intended. Either way I'm like threee? chapters from finishing so it shouldn't be long! For now I'll be posting up through chapter 9 of this in three chapter segments.

Anyway so this is Inosculate, which is actually the first shared universe / fanfiction project I've undertaken in well... ever actually! This particular work takes place in the "Human Domestication Guide" universe (very horny name, I know), which is very much in vogue over on Read Only Mind. For the uninitiated, the gist of the premise is that in the 2550s, humankind's hypercapitalist government was recently overthrown by a race of immortal ultra-advanced post scarcity plant communists who think humans are absolutely adorable and make great pets that deserve lots of affection and fun drugs. This particular story follows a woman fighting in the Terran Rebellion who tries to save her girlfriend from domestication after her ship is captured by the affini, only to wind up captured herself. You don't have to read anything else in the setting to get the gist, I don't think, but there are a lot of great stories using the #Human_Domestication_Guide tag on Read Only Mind. In particular, though, I'd like to shout out:

The original work in the setting. Glitch Robo's "Human Domestication Guide"

As well as Fluxom's Abcission

I'm giving Abcission a shoutout cause what you're about to read was actually inspired by a throwaway line in one of Abcission's more recent chapters, and also because I'm actually borrowing the characters Hesperia and Ilex from Abcission (with Fluxom's permission, of course). Anyway, with that all out of the way, I hope you enjoy!

CWs for the story as a whole: Mind control, pet play, medical play, drug play, dubious consent

/End Note

Prologue

Serena was never one to believe in a higher power, or fate, or causality, or anything of the sort. This did nothing to prevent her from seeing the way her timing shook out as nothing short of a cosmic insult. For two months she’d been crawling around the galaxy in her little freighter, Petrichor, delivering shipments, relaying secret communications, transporting personnel. Not a day—perhaps not an hour, were one to ignore her time spent asleep—had gone by in which she hadn’t fret over her absent partner. Kenzie wasn’t supposed to have stayed behind. If she hadn’t fallen ill only days before Serena was sent out on her supply run, they could have ditched their crew, taken Petrichor and made a break for it together. Their tenure on Neptune’s Tempest, their service under the rebellion, they could have left it all in the past. Instead, Kenzie had stayed behind, remaining aboard Neptune’s Tempest in quarantine. All their plans had been postponed. And now, none of it mattered. Now, Serena could only watch helplessly from a distance as Neptune’s Tempest was slowly encased in colossal vines, soon to be swallowed whole by an affini warship.

From her viewing port, the heavy gunship looked like little more than a model toy in the grasp of those tangling, crushing vines. Too slow, Serena had been far too slow. She could have made it back to the Tempest days, maybe even a week sooner. The ultimate irony was she’d taken the long way around to avoid attracting an affini tail; it would have done her no good to lead those plant bastards right to such a juicy target. In hindsight, that sort of rationale seemed utterly purposeless, idiotic. The whole point was to get out as soon as possible. The writing had been on the wall for months: if she and Kenzie stayed in the rebellion, capture, followed by whatever unenviable fate the affini subjected dissenters to, was inevitable. For a moment, Serena considered running. She had a crew to think about, cargo in tow, responsibilities and obligations and none of that fucking mattered. Right now, her girlfriend was on that ship, her girlfriend was being captured by sadistic imperialist plants. Her crew would manage without her. They could have her ship, take it and run if that’s what they wanted. She wasn’t abandoning Kenzie.

With a start, Serena lurched from her captain’s chair, and strode purposefully toward Petrichor’s tiny hangar bay, ignoring the sudden outcry from the crew around her. She took the stairs two at a time, daring anyone she passed to get in her way. The door to the hangar bay slid open, revealing the small one-manned fighter within. A new prototype, loaded with nearly as much firepower as a typical light-frigate, and far more nimble. It wasn’t hers to take, but she was supposed to deliver it to the Tempest somehow, wasn’t she? She swiped her override key across the little reader on the wall, locking the door behind her, it wouldn’t do to have the crew trying to interfere with her little heist. What, exactly, she intended to do with the ship wasn’t something Serena had actually thought out yet. That didn’t slow her down as she raided the hangar’s weapons locker, donned the ship’s flight interface helmet, and climbed inside.

Pulse pounding, Serena strapped in, powered up the engine, opened the bay doors, and rocketed into open space. Admittedly, Serena had never flown a craft this small, let alone something this… new. She had no time to figure out what each button and dial meant. At the very least ‘shoot’ and ‘go’ were well delineated enough. Besides, it would be fine, she was the best pilot in the whole rebellion. Or, at the very least, she was an above average pilot in the rebellion, an above average pilot slowly creeping more and more toward the best pilot in the rebellion as more and more ships were captured by the long arm—vine?—of the Affini Accord. Either way, such things didn’t concern Serena in the moment, instead, she took off at full speed toward the Tempest, which drew ever closer to that gaping, vegetal maw.

Logically, Serena knew the affini warship was massive. Logically, she understood that Neptune’s Tempest was a Terran Heavy Gunship with a crew of thousands. And, logically, she understood that since the affini ship looked as though it could easily house a hundred Neptune’s Tempests, she was attacking something which dwarfed many Terran cities, let alone ships. The truth was, however, given the state Serena was in, the sheer desperation she felt when faced with the encroaching reality of losing Kenize, logic was hardly something Serena had taken into consideration. Drawing closer and closer, the reality of just how futile her struggle truly was became all the more clear as the affini ship’s unfathomable scale became more and more apparent with each passing moment. Yet, somehow, Serena didn’t care. She had no time for awe, no time for doubt, the clock was ticking and if she didn’t do something Kenzie would be gone forever. Things like odds, scale, power meant nothing to her; Serena’s reality was boiled down to one simple truth: she was going to save Kenzie. She would find a way to win. That's how it happened in old flicks, wasn't it? Against all odds, the hero won. There wasn’t an alternative, not even death. It was this, or null, nothing, unreality.

Fueled by that single-minded determination, she hurled the little fighter toward her target, accelerating to blistering speed, and firing off a barrage of rail-cannon warheads at the underside of the ship, just to be sure she actually knew what she was doing. Serena cackled in immense satisfaction as explosion after explosion rocked the ship’s hull. This was happening, she could do this, she was going to do this.

With almost instinctive ease, Serena pointed her craft toward the massive of vines which ensnared Neptune’s Tempest, and surged ahead into ripper-gun range. She waited for the auto-lock systems to accept her target, and unleashed her ship’s full range of firepower on the nearest vine, pulling up only a split second before crashing into the vines at full speed. Laughing triumphantly, she whipped the fighter around, dodging a lumbering column of plant matter as she readied for a second attack run. It was then, as her original target swung back into view, that her entire world shattered. She’d hardly even singed it. A fucking vine, Serena was shooting literal plant matter with weapons that could tear through six feet of steel like tissue paper. Serena was never one to believe in a higher power, but then and there she understood, she might as well be picking a fight with god.

Before she could so much as cry out in despair, another vine, smaller than the others, but still impossibly large lashed outward with blinding speed and accuracy, plucking her ship out of space as though she were nothing more than a troublesome little puppy nipping at her owner’s ankles. Her whole ship lurched as it came to a sudden stop. Serena’s safety harness snapped against the force. The last thing going through Serena’s head before she flew face first into the dashboard was annoyance that even in their most cutting edge prototype ships, the rebel fleet still couldn’t bother to invest in proper harnesses.

Chapter 1

Wherever she was, Serena was comfortable. Her head felt heavy, cloudy. As she blinked awake, her vision was hazy. Still, she was certainly comfortable. Whatever bed she lay in was far and away the nicest she’d felt since at least before the war. It wasn’t just the bed, either, the sheets were soft, the ever present distracting rumble of ship-board commotion was absent, there was actual, honest to goodness gravity. As nice as it all was, the more Serena realized the uncanny luxury she found herself in, the more she realized that said luxury was… well… uncanny. As though swimming through molasses, her mind strained to understand just what it all could possibly mean. The last thing she remembered was—Serena bolted upright. At least, she tried to bolt upright; unfortunately, as soon as she did, Serena discovered her arms were secured by cloth restraints.

A growl of impotent rage rumbled in her throat as she helplessly thrashed in place, more and more of her memories slowly bubbling from the surface. The jump drive depositing Petrichor back into ‘normal’ space just in time to witness the Tempest’s entanglement, her desperate and futile attempt to save the Tempest—really to save Kenzie, but to accomplish one was to accomplish the other—the final fate of her her own stolen ship, the impact, all of it began to slide back into place with agonizing clarity. With all that in mind, Serena realized there really were only two possible explanations for her state: she was either dead and had been wrong about the existence of an afterlife, or, far more likely, she had been captured by the affini. Truthfully, after everything she’d seen, Serena couldn’t say for certain which fate was more immutable.

Grimacing, she forced herself to calm down and think rationally. Thoughts like that weren’t helpful, they weren’t what would get her out of this. Serena was alive and felt more or less unharmed, which meant there was a chance that somewhere aboard this ship, Kenzie may also be alive and unharmed. Worrying over her failed first attempt wasn’t what Serena needed, what Serena needed, was to come up with a plan. Slowly and quietly as she could—just in case, she had no idea whether or not she was being observed—Serena sat as far up in bed as she could, and examined her surroundings. She was in a fairly well furnished room, it wasn’t exactly decorated, but it had more than the basic necessities. There was, of course, her bed, as well as a desk and chair, a recliner, a coffee table with a tablet, and a television.

If there were any cameras or microphones around, they were well hidden. But unless the little potted plant in the corner was somehow an affini in disguise—a possibility she couldn’t entirely rule out—Serena was alone. At the end of the room was a plain looking door, but from her spot on the bed Serena had no indication of what lay beyond it. From where she was laying, Serena couldn’t see any sign of any of her possessions. Even her simple pilot’s jumpsuit had been replaced by a soft, flowing garment purple that seemed part hospital-gown, part actual dress. This, of course, posed a problem. Admittedly, Serena should have expected no less than to have the small arsenal of weapons she’d taken with her confiscated, but without them, the question of what to do next became infinitely more uncertain.

Even if she somehow managed to escape her bindings, Serena was now unarmed and trapped inside a literal flying city which doubtless contained millions of deadly, ruthless affini soldiers, all armed with affini weapons. These were the same soldiers and weapons which had effortlessly brought the entire Terran Accord to heel. Which was systematically stamping out the remains of the rebellion. Serena was one woman. Good soldier or no, she was doomed. More importantly, Kenzie was doomed. Somewhere aboard the ship, her girlfriend was alone as those stars-forsaken shrubs put her through who knows what, and there was nothing Serena could do about that. So, in that moment, the fruit of all her planning came to bear, and Serena was left to stew in lonely desperation, helplessness, and fright. When the door to her holding room eventually slid open to reveal two towering affini, that was how they found Serena, crying in her bed over the fates of herself and of her love.

“Oh dear, she seems quite upset.” Serena was too wrapped in her own despair to bother looking up at the sound, but even preoccupied as she was, Serena could tell that whoever was crooning over her, they weren’t human. The voice just wasn’t quite right. It was pretty, clearly feminine, and easy to understand, but laced with this ethereal alienness, almost like if the creaking of a tree in the wind could speak.

A second voice spoke, equally unusual, and laced with just as much—clearly performative and deceptive—sympathy as the last. “Poor thing, probably has her head full of that awful rebel propaganda.”

The two continued to speak, rhythmically alternating their sentences as though they were somehow linked. “Such nasty little fish, the lot of them; at least the seas have been fruitful so far.“

“We’re truly fortunate, as is she.”

“Indeed, now that this little Terran is in our care, I’m sure she’ll understand soon enough; a change in perspective really works wonders.”

“Of course, it’s better for everyone this way.”

“Much better,” they agreed simultaneously.

At this point, Serena found herself desperately hoping that she was somehow dreaming, praying that if she tried hard enough, she could awaken still out on her supply mission aboard the Petrichor, or, better yet, someplace safe with Kenzie. Several moments of uncomfortable silence passed, broken only by quiet sobs; Serena could feel the xenos’ gazes upon her the whole time. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t wake up. Her mind raced as she scoured her brain for some idea, some scheme, anything at all that could get her out of this; then her efforts were interrupted by a soft rumbling sound which could only be described as affini approximation of a throat clear.

Feeling very much at the end of her rope, Serena shuddered, and slowly opened her eyes. Serena had always known the affini were tall; these two were either on the tall side even for affini, or Serena simply hadn’t mentally prepared herself for the reality of seeing an affini up close. And, to be clear, they were very close, far closer than she’d expected. They loomed over her, practically joined at the hip as they stared directly at her. Meeting Serena’s gaze, the taller of the two gave a soft smile.

“Hello, little flower,” she cooed.

“No need to cry, we’re not here to hurt you,” the other chimed. Fat chance, Serena thought to herself.

“This is Hesperia.” The taller one motioned to the shorter one.

“And this Ilex,” Hesperia purred, returning her counterpart’s gesture.

“Can you tell us your name, little one?”

“We couldn’t find any identification in your belongings.”

When Serena remained silent, the pair breathed a simultaneous huff, but seemed to decide against pressing the issue. “We understand you don’t want to be here.”

“So if you cooperate, we can have this done in two shakes of a frog’s tail.”

“We just have a few questions we’d like to ask you, dear,” Ilex sang.

As though they’d choreographed the whole thing ahead of time, both affini took a long step to either side of her bed in perfect synchronization,  as Ilex produced a tablet, and Hesperia reached into her pocket, withdrawing what looked like a handful of brightly wrapped candies. With a little forish, Hesperia extended her hand, offering Serena the little brightly colored treats. “Would you like one?” She crooned.

For a moment, Serena’s gaze lingered on the shiny, colorful wrappings. It admittedly had been a long time since she’d had anything sweet besides her shitty synthetic chocolate rations which tasted almost entirely of butyric acid and chemical sweeteners. She wasn’t a fool, though. Not even bothering to acknowledge the offer, she looked up at Ilex, sniffled a little, and tried to put on a tough face despite it all. “So you’re interrogators, then?”

“Of sorts, nothing like your nasty little Terran interrogators though.”

“Such barbarism from such adorable little fish; no, we’re not at all like them.”

“We only have the nice way.” As she spoke, Hesperia deposited her candies on the bedside next to Serena.

For her part, Ilex flexed her forearm, revealing a needle pointed flower. “And the really, really nice way.”

At the sight of the needle, dripping with some unknown fluid, fear coursed through Serena’s veins; she had heard about the affini drugs. The rebel command had extensive reports detailing how the affini would break the minds of their captives with a smile on their faces, leaving mindless husks and eager slaves for whatever horrible forced labor the Affini Compact was surely built upon. Serena tried to be brave, she couldn’t. Bravery hadn’t gotten her anywhere so far. Instead, she begged. “Please don’t. I’m not loyal. The rebellion means nothing to me. We were deserters, or at least, we were going to be, I swear. I’ll tell you whatever you want just…” laying there, trembling and weeping under the affini’s gazes, Serena remembered why she was there to begin with, and found her bravery. “No, I won’t talk,” she said, somehow managing to find a firmness to her tone even between sobs. “Not without a deal.”

That, at least, seemed to get the plants’ attention. Their artificial faces twisted from a mask of deceitful warmth and understanding, to surprise and interest mixed with a healthy sampling of amusement. “Is that so?” Hesperia asked.

“We’re always happy to negotiate.”

“I think you’ll find that the affini compact can be very… accommodating to cooperative little fish like you.”

For the first time since she woke up, real genuine hope welled up inside Serena. Perhaps it was naive of her to believe this could work, but if the xenos truly had no intention of being amicable, why even consider a deal? “Just let my girlfriend and I leave free and unharmed,” Serena pleaded. The reality that this might be too much of a request was not lost on Serena, which really only left her with one option, as much as she hated it. She took a quiet, shuddering breath, then continued. “If you can’t do that, I’ll stay. But at least let her go.”

Her offer seemed to give the two affini pause, as they quickly shared an uncomfortable look. “Girlfriend?” Hesperia began.

“I see...” Ilex finished, trailing off as the affini once again exchanged glances.

“She is aboard this ship then?”

The xenos’ reaction to her request hadn’t exactly been encouraging, but Serena had to hold on to hope. “She was on Neptune’s Tempest. Her name is MacKenzie Powell.”

Another long pause followed. If Serena didn’t know any better, she’d suspect the two affini of being psychic and having an entire conversation behind those two sets of shining eyes. Actually, the more Serena thought about it, that sounded entirely plausible given everything else the affini seemed capable of accomplishing. After enough time had passed that Serena was starting to wonder if she was actually supposed to say something more, Ilex slowly turned her head to face Kenze, and sighed. “We will… see what we can do, little flower.”

With each passing moment, the light at the end of her tunnel seemed to shrink smaller and smaller, eclipsed by a growing understanding that no, Serena wasn’t getting what she wanted. In that moment, Serena wanted to just give up, to curl into a little ball and just beg them to get it over with and kill her. Fresh tears were streaming down her cheeks as she trembled, forcing herself to respond, for Kenzie. “Is there something wrong?”

For the first time since she’d first encountered the affni, Hesperia and Ilex looked downright uncomfortable. “There’s something you should know, dear,” Ilex began. “I imagine this might come as quite the surprise to you, but it’s been about ten days since Neptune’s Tempest was captured.”

With a start, Serena bolted upright, catching against her bonds, which Hesperia and Ilex mercifully took a moment to slacken, just a little. Sitting up properly, she looked disbelievingly between the two affini. There was simply no way that could be true, Serena was sure of it, she’d only just attacked the ship and wait—“how long was I unconscious?” Serena asked, her voice wavering.

“Not long, a little more than a day, and most of that was from our sedatives, not your injuries.” Ilex assured her. “You were hurt, but not terribly, and affini medical science is lightyear’s ahead of your adorable terran tech. You’ve healed up quite ni—”

“So how can—” Before Serena could finish, one of Hesperia’s vines suddenly shot up to gently cover her mouth.

“Please don’t interrupt, dear,” Ilex chided. Serena let out a muffled yell of anger, fear and confusion, but without use of her arms, there was little she could do. Well, actually, she could—

“I wouldn’t try to bite down, if that’s what you were thinking, little Terran,” Hesperia giggled. “Not unless you’d like the rest of our conversation to also serve as an introductory course on the wonderful effects of affini 'xenodrugs,' as you Terrans them. You’d enjoy it, I’m sure, but we wouldn’t get far with you blissed out of your mind and gasping at our every touch.”

Point effectively conveyed, Hesperia and Ilex watched in satisfaction as Serena flinched and sunk into her bed before nodding compliantly.

“Good girl.” As Hesperia withdrew her vine, she let it slowly drag across Serena’s cheek in a tender caress. Without warning, another vine appeared with a tissue, dotting Serena’s tears as she grimaced and bore the indignity. While Hesperia withdrew her vines, Serena watched as the two affini briefly made eye contact, Ilex giving her counterpart an incredulous, slightly annoyed look. Hesperia seemed to suddenly remember herself, and stiffened. “My apologies, little human. I sometimes get carried away, but this is not the time for that” She looked to Ilex. “As you were, darling.”

Ilex returned her piercing haze to Serena. “You’re curious as to how Neptune’s Tempest could have been captured over a week ago when your attack was only yesterday?” Nervously, Serena nodded. “Engine problems, dear. Very bad engine problems. You Terrans really love to cut corners, you know that? Someone did a bad job of keeping your reactor in good condition, when we first caught the ship in our net, it's reactor was a few bad days away from blowing a hole in space. Naturally the Compact wasn’t going to let a ship full of useful little secrets go to waste like that, so our engineers pushed it back out into space—just in case—and got to work fixing the reactor. You attacked just as your freshly repaired Neptune’s Tempest was being pulled back in.” The way Ilex was spoking, or rather, the way Hesperia hadn’t been, was far and away more unnerving than the affini pair’s typical affect. That playful, otherworldly energy had been sucked out, from the way Ilex spoke, she sounded rather grave, almost apologetic.

As the implications of all her captors’ had said took hold, Serena whimpered. She didn’t want to believe it. She couldn’t believe it. If what Ilex was saying were true, that would mean everything she’d done, all of it, had been for nothing. That would mean she’d risked everything for a ship full of affini engineers. That would mean… she shuddered. “So then... Kenzie?”

A twitch of movement caught Serena’s eye. Hesperia had apparently reached out with one of her vines again, only to catch herself and withdraw it. “We understand this news is likely rather frightening and upsetting for you, little human,” Hesperia murmured, her tone now carrying the same deflated tone as Ilex’s. “We can tell from the way you’ve acted that you don’t trust the Compact, or likely affini in general. But please believe us when we say we don’t want to hurt anyone. Please believe us when we say that wherever she is, your Kenzie is safe, and taken care of. In all likelihood she’s someone’s floret now. Take it from us, there is nothing affini delight in more than ensuring their florets are happy and provided for.”

Floret was a word Serena had heard before. She’d heard it in the affini propaganda broadcasts, she’d heard it on the rebel command channels, she’d heard it whispered from the hushed, fearful voices of paranoid crewmembers. A slave, they had turned her girlfriend into a slave. In their propaganda broadcasts, the affini called them pets and pretended they were beloved and pampered, but Serena wasn’t a fool, she could read between the lines. Serena sunk back into her bed. Her eyes gazed blankly toward the ceiling, looking past the room, past the ship into nothingness. Distantly, she heard Ilex, or maybe Hesperia say something; whatever it was, Serena couldn’t make it out. “Just do whatever you’re going to do.” Even her own voice sounded so far away. “Kill me, torture me, drug me, break my mind and turn me into one of them. Put me in one of your factories or sign me up to be experimented on. I don’t care. I won’t talk. Fuck the Accord, fuck the rebel command, but I won’t talk.”

Again, one of the xenos said something. The deafening static in Serena’s mind blocked it out. There was the sound of footsteps, the door to her prison slid open and closed. Distantly, she felt her restraints undo themselves and fall uselessly to the side of her bed. Serena didn’t move.

Chapter 2

Mirabilis Luz, Seventh Bloom, had, in the words of her darling pet, ‘flown off the handle.’ For one, anything which happened to be both ill-timed and critical enough to tear Mirabilis away from the girl during her recovery was, practically by definition, going to be unpleasant.  For two, she had put in the request days ago to be notified the moment this exact errand became necessary, and, of course, hadn’t been told until half a day later. At the very least, Mirabilis had the been awarded the slightest stroke of good luck when Seductrix—the Terrans just had to have a subspecies of moss called ‘shiny seductive moss,’ for her rooting dirt-clown friend to name herself after, hadn’t they?—volunteered to keep Mirabilis’ little treasure company while her Mistress was away. And, loath as Mirabilis was to admit it, Seductrix was actually very good with the little human. Really, Seductrix was a hit with just about any floret, especially the ones blissed out of their minds, probably on account of her being very fuzzy.

Regardless, the fact that her precious pet was in good hands did little to quell Mirabilis’ annoyance. What did lend her some small satisfaction, however, was that the look on her face and the purpose in her stride were apparently enough to ensure that anyone she crossed paths with would stay out of her way. Mirabilis was also at least a little grateful that the Baiera was a small ship. If she’d been aboard something larger, then stars knew how long it might take for word to finally reach her. As a small bonus, it also meant she didn’t have to walk as far. Rounding a corner into the Baiera’s detention area, she caught sight of two familiar faces, and quickened her pace. The pair were huddled together, practically intertwined, discussing something in a somewhat hushed, worried tone, but as Mirabilis drew near, she caught their attention, and the pair straightened out, then turned to face her. When recognition didn’t immediately dawn on their faces, Mirabilis cleared her throat and introduced herself. “Hesperia and Ilex, yes? We spoke very briefly this morning.”

“Ah, yes, Mirabilis Luz. Our apologies, we’ve been a bit distracted this afternoon. We just had a rather… difficult meeting with a captured rebel,” Hesperia—at least, she was fairly certain that one was Hesperia—replied.

“She’ll be okay,” Ilex added. “Poor dear has just been through a lot.”

“She has a lot to unlearn,” Hesperia agreed.

Refocusing their attention, the pair gave her an inquisitive look. “We won’t make you wait any longer, though. We have people looking into her needs.”

“How can we help you? Something about one of the ships we captured recently?”

“Petrichor,” Mirabilis answered. “It was captured last night, was it not?”

Neither Hesperia nor Ilex appeared to have the slightest idea of what Mirabilis was talking about. They gave her a blank look, then shared one of their own, before understanding bloomed first on Hesperia’s face, then Ilex’s. “Ah, you mean that recovered wrecked freighter? We weren’t involved in that.”

A chill spread through Mirabilis’ vines. Wrecked? What did they mean wrecked? Dirt, roots and leaves this had better be some kind of misunderstanding. “I’m looking for the captain of the ship. A rebel named Serena Pace. It was my understanding you two were the ones to speak with regarding our sudden influx of rebels.”

Again, Mirabilis was only met with confusion. “We can show you the report. But our understanding is that Petrichor was already abandoned when the Baiera discovered it.”

“Apparently they flew as far outside our sensor range as their thrusters would take them—at least without activating their jump drive—and got a pickup from another ship,” Ilex explained.

“But not before activating their distress beacon and rigging Petrichor with an irksome little bomb.” Hesperiea looked to Ilex, as though to confirm. They shared a nod, and Ilex continued.

“The silly fish thought they could catch us in a trap.”

“They used a civilian distress beacon too. Tricky little things.”

Mirabilis didn’t want to believe it, but she had no reason not to. “So… that means Serena is gone?”

“I’m sorry,” Hesperia answered. “We have no information regarding a Serena Pace.”

With that, Mirabilis slumped forward, feeling a slew of new emotions wash away and replace her annoyance and anxiety. There was disappointment, no small amount of anger, most of all though, Mirabilis couldn’t bear the thought of having to explain this to Kenzie. No matter how much Mirabilis assured her floret that they would find Serena one day, the poor dear remained a little ball of anxiety unless subjected to a healthy dose of Class-As. With her Mistress’ help, Kenzie had even gone so far as attempting to contact Serena directly, recording a message and setting it to loop on the private encrypted comm channel which she and Serena shared. It had recounted her capture and experiences with domestication in detail, begging Serena to disregard the rebel’s propaganda and join her. But with Serena’s location unknown and the Baiera soon to be moving on from the sector, neither Kenzie nor Mirabilis had any idea whether the message would reach its intended recipient. When the Petrichor arrived in the sector, had Serena simply not received Kenzie’s Message? Or had Serena abandoned Kenzie? To her dismay, Mirabilis realized that If she was asking herself that question, then Kenzie was certain to wonder about it as well.

Seeing Mirabilis’ distress, Hesperia and Ilex drew in closer, each putting a comforting hand on either of Mirabilis’ arms. “This rebel, who exactly is she to you?”

“We may not know where she is now, but we can put out feelers.”

“Absolutely, we’re always looking for new fish to hook.”

With a sigh, Mirabilis nodded appreciatively. “She’s not much to me. Or, at least, I’ve never met her. She’s my floret’s girlfriend.”

Hearing that, Hesperia and Ilex immediately perked up. They shared a look, politely excused themselves for a moment, and began to talk in hushed whispers. Their strange reaction was almost enough to make Mirabilis forget just how awful she felt. That, and it kind of seemed like she might have just told them something important, which was certainly a little intriguing. A few moments later, they straightened out, and turned back to Mirabilis.

“This Terran you’re looking for. Do you know what she looks like?” Ilex asked.

Mirabillis nodded. “I’ve seen pictures of her, yes.” A kernel of hope was starting to build within her; she did her best to keep it in check.

“Short black hair, freckles, purple eye mods, cute mole on her left cheek, large erm...” Ilex trailed off.

“Dawn calls them ‘mommy milkers,’” Hesperia added helpfully.

Mirabilis grew rigid in surprise, then stifled an amused giggle while also struggling very hard to keep that rapidly growing hope. “Um, that sounds about right, yes.”

Seemingly equally encouraged, Ilex continued. “Your floret, is her name MacKenzie? Formerly MacKenzie Powell?”

At this point, it was just hope, Mirabilis was overcome with relief. “Yes, yes that’s her. Please tell me you know where Serena is.”

“We do have a Terran rebel matching that description,” Hesperia answered. “Yesterday afternoon, a little while before Petrichor was found, we were attacked by a rebel pilot who stole a ship to try and rescue her girlfriend.”

“Which is honestly very adorable. You have no idea how much self control it took to keep ourselves from fawning over her. Or rather, how much self control it took one of us to keep from fawning over her.” Ilex shot a pointed, but amused gaze toward Hesperia, who simply shrugged. “Regardless, at the time we had no idea where this Terran came from, but in hindsight it only makes sense that she must have taken off from Petrichor,” Ilex explained.

Hardly able to believe what she was hearing, and half expecting some little detail to come along which ran counter to all the evidence, Mirabilis found herself struggling to respond. The next few seconds were mostly characterized by her awkwardly tripping over her own words, before finally managing to make her tongues behave. “So she’s here? I’d like to take her home with me please, as soon as possible.” Her relief was palpable as she spoke, the tension evaporating, leaving her almost giddy.

“Well, there is one problem,” Hesperia replied.

Seeing the way Mirabilis suddenly tensed, Illis hurried to explain. “Nothing unusual, just typical rebel mistrust for affinil. Maybe a little exacerbated by how worried she is about your MacKenzie.”

“Honestly it would be quite adorable if the poor thing wasn’t so upset.”

“We wouldn’t want to push her over the edge by forcing her to go with you. She might get violent then.”

“She could hurt herself!”

“It’s certainly something we can overcome,” Ilex assured, “we just don’t want to put the cart before the salmon.”

Pausing in confusion, Mirabilis cocked her head to the side. “Don’t you mean cart before the horse?” She asked.

“Ah,” Hesperia muttered flatly.

“She’s one of those,” Ilex chortled. The pair broke out into oddly synchronized laughter, before returning to the matter at hand. “Never mind that. Would you be able to fetch your pet? I’m sure as soon as little Serena hears it straight from the salm—um, excuse me—as soon as she hears it from her girlfriend, she’ll realize everything is fine.”

It was about then that an inconvenient realization struck Mirabilis. “Hmm,” she murmured. “That actually might be a bit of a problem, especially if Serena is worried we mean her or Kenzie harm. Again, nothing we can’t overcome, but another obstacle.”

“Oh?” The pair asked in unison, their voices rising, drawing out the sound to the point they could almost be considered harmonizing.

“Kenzie had her implant put in a few days ago. She’s still recovering and can barely string together a few words. If Serena saw her now she’d think… well.” Mirabilis trailed off uncomfortably.

“She’d think we’re exactly what her rebel propaganda tells us we are,” Hesperia answered.

Frowning, Mirabilis nodded. “Exactly that.”

The three affini paused for a moment, weighing their options, before Ilex chimed in. “How soon can you have her relatively lucid?”

“Good question,” Mirabilis began. “She’s healing very well, responding to her drugs well too. She might get a bit grumpy, but I think I can start offramping her tonight and have her presentable by tomorrow evening.”

“I’m assuming from the way you talk about her that she’s already well behaved and would be willing to talk to Serena?” Hesperia asked.

“Oh goodness yes. Poor thing was scared half to death when we captured her. Apparently her superiors were starting to suspect she’d defect, which they were right about. Kenzie was hardly excited to be captured, but as soon as she realized I wasn’t going to hurt her she came apart wonderfully. And she adores the way I put her back together—when she’s lucid, anyway.” For a brief moment, Mirabillis allowed herself to get lost in indulgent memories. She remembered the look on Kenzie’s face when Mirabilis first collared her, the way her eyes had begged for her Mistress to take her. She remembered the first time Kenzie asked Mirabilis to drug her. Eager to indulge her floret, Mirabilis had tied Kenzie up in soft silk, then cranked the girl’s sensitivity up, and her lucidity down as she teased the girl with the gentlest of phantom touches all over her body, showering her with praise the whole way.

A pair of amused smiles crept across Hesperia and Ilex’s faces as they watched Mirabilis reminisce. “I can see you’re eager to do it all over again,” Hesperia commented.

“You have no idea. Two adorable little girlfriends, both of them mine? I think about it every day. All the lovely little things I’ll do with them, all the lovely things I’ll do to them. I think about it almost as much as I think about the look on Kenzie’s face when she sees what I’ve brought home for her.” Actually, Mirabilis had already picked out a collar for Serena. Purple, to match her eyes, and linked to a special microchip which formed a network linking Serena’s collar to Kenzie’s collar, as well Kenzie’s implant, and someday soon, Serena’s implant as well. Mirabilis had spent many an evening gazing down adoringly at her pet, thinking of all the fun she would have once she finally owned them both.

“You’ll have to send us pictures when you finally get them together. If nothing else, so we can see that adorable face when it isn’t wet with tears.” Ilex mused.

“Or at the very least, when it’s wet with a different, more fun kind of tears,” Hesperia added, causing the pair to again burst into almost conspiratorial laughter, as though Hesperia’s innuendo were some private joke.

Mirabilis frowned at the sound of that. In her excitement, she’d allowed herself to forget that her would-be floret was currently not only not hers, but was actually apparently having a pretty horrible time. Suddenly stricken with worry, Mirabilis’ worst impulses prodded at her. “She’s… being observed, correct?”

“Of course, if she attempts to harm herself a nurse will intervene.”

“An affini nurse,” Ilex reassured.

Mirabilis thought for a moment, thought about the poor girl alone in a detention hab, convinced something horrible had been done to the woman she loved. Serena had been so brave. And yes, obviously Serena had been misguided. But even so, Mirabilis couldn’t help but feel strangely proud of the Terran. She’d attacked the Baiera alone, certainly knowing how desperate and futile that was. More so, Serena had done that while wholeheartedly convinced that, if she were captured, the affini would do awful things to her. Why then, had Serena done it? Mirabilis knew the answer to that, of course. Serena had done all of it to protect Kenzie. Strangely, Mirabilis almost felt a kinship with the Terran. Adorable and misguided as she was, Serena did what Mirabilis tried to do every day: keep Kenzie safe and happy. Knowing that, the thought of leaving Serena to suffer alone, scared, depressed and uncertain, even if it was just for a night, was simply unacceptable. Nodding to herself, Mirabilis looked to Hesperia and Ilex. “Do you know if she’s awake now? I’d like to see her.”