Chapter 1: Awakening

The girl laying on the bed slowly opened her eyes and looked around the dimly lit room. The room looked like a bedroom or hotel room that she had stayed in before she had enlisted to help the Terran Accord fight the Affini before the treaty had been signed. She tried to move her left arm as she could feel something there, but was unsure what it was. Her arm moved a few inches and stopped, it was restrained in some way. She tested each of her other limbs and each had about the same amount of movement. What the fuck had happened? Her body was cold like she didn’t have clothing on or have a blanket covering her. It wasn’t cold in the room; but the air that blew across the room was cooler than the ambient temperature she was used to.

“Where…” a voice that was much deeper than one would expect to come out of the girl on the bed. The lights in the room slowly brightened a bit as the door slid open. The girl on the bed lifted her head and looked at the now open door as an Affini leaned nonchalantly against the side that the door had retracted into.

“I see you’re awake…” The Affini said, walking into the room. The door silently slid shut after the Affini had entered and the girl watched as the Affini walked over to what looked like a desk and sat, the vines from the body resting on every surface. The body was covered in light purple flowers, with the occasional pink or yellow flower. The general shape of the Affini gave the indication that this particular Affini was female. “Since you’re awake, finally, let me introduce myself.” She spun in the chair and faced the figure that was laying on the bed. “I am Lavandula Trell, Fourth Bloom, She/her. What is your name?”

“Analyst, Second Class Victoria Peters, Terran Cosmic Navy, N892334.” Victoria laid her head back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Being an analyst, she was technically part of The Office of Cosmic Naval Intelligence, but she was also assigned a serial number. Lavandula looked on with amusement.

“Well, Analyst Second Class Victoria Peters,” Lavandula said softly, tapping away on a data pad she’d pulled from somewhere in her vines. “As I said, I’m Lavandula Trell, Fourth Bloom. I am also your guardian, protector and owner. You may also address me as Mistress.” Victoria didn’t look toward Lavandula or make any movements other than her breathing. Lavandula continued to tap on her data pad. She paid the Terran on the bed little mind except to examine her body. “I’ll try to get you on some Class G Xenodrugs as soon as tonight; but it might not be until tomorrow.” Victoria opened her left eye and glanced in her captors direction, hatred flashing over the blue eye that looked at Lavandula.

“Analyst, Second Class Victoria Peters, Terran Cosmic Navy, N892334.” Victoria’s voice was softer now, and more subdued. She still didn’t turn her head to look at the Affini that sat next to the desk. She didn’t want to be “domesticated”; She was a human, not some… pet…

“You’re probably wondering what happened…” Lavandula said, tapping the datapad. The bed moved Victoria to a sitting position. The girl could now see the metal cuffs that had been placed around each of her extremities. There didn’t appear to be a way to remove them, and she was affixed to vines that came up from the underside of the bed. She could feel the weight of a collar around her neck and the tickle of leaves on her exposed shoulder. She stopped looking at her body when she saw parts of her anatomy that she wished weren’t there.

The lights in the room dimmed and a holoscreen appeared, showing a large Affini vessel approaching the station on Proxmia 20 where Victoria had been stationed. The vessel on the screen was massive, to the point that Victoria couldn’t even begin to get an idea of size. The station at Proxmia 20 looked like a toy car next to a real car and this caused Victoria to shiver in the bed. After the Human Domestication Treaty had been signed, the staff at Proxmia 20 had gone rogue and done some damage to the outside of the station to make it look like it was deserted and not in use. Even though they had mangled most of the dishes and long range antenna, the station had received updates sent from the Terran Office of Cosmic Navy Intelligence up until the time that the OCNI had stopped sending out information after Terra had fallen.

The remaining ten intelligence staff at the station used the low powered laser system to send information on the movements of Affini ships to the rebel forces that passed by. They had been operating undetected for about three years with rebel ships providing repair equipment and supplies to the rebel outpost. On the screen a beam of purple light shot from the ship toward the camera that had recorded the approach of the ship. Had we really been that gullible? Victoria wondered as the ship slowed to a stop and pointed a second purple laser at the station. The station responded with its own purple laser beam and bidirectional communication was established.

Victoria recognized the view, it was from the Poplar 8 satellite that, like its seven siblings, had stayed in a geosynchronous orbit around the station and acted as a periscope system. Four of them were pointed out into the space around the station; the remaining four pointed inward toward the station. On the holoscreen, there was an explosion on the far side of the station, one of the eight Poplar satellites being destroyed by the Affini vessel. A smaller transport craft departed the larger vessel and headed towProxmiaard the docking bay of the Proxmia 20 station. There were fifty of the Proxmia class stations and at least two thirds of them had been destroyed in the conflict. The ones that hadn’t been had been considered abandoned but the Affini checked every one they came across as feral humans often took up residence in them. On the screen, the transport ship undocked and headed back to the mother ship. A few moments later, the station exploded in a fireball and then the Affini vessel fired what looked like several torpedoes at the remaining Poplar satellites. The screen showed static and then faded from view.

“The vessel you see is the Scorpiris,” Lavandula said as the lights came back up. Victoria sat on the bed stoic. “Its purpose is to locate and destroy any rebel bases or vessels and take any surviving sophonts for possible domestication. You were one of them.” Lavandula tapped a few things on her data pad and the vines that held Victoria’s wrists to the bed released, but the others held firm. Victoria reached up and wiped a tear from her face. “All ten of you were evacuated to the Scorpiris, where we are now.” Lavandula slid the chair over next to the bed and reached up and stroked Victoria’s long blonde hair. “I am a communications and intelligence officer; I will say that it took a while for us to track down your station. We knew there was one in this sector, but we had to do some trickery to find you.” Victoria turned her head and looked at Lavandula.

“Analyst, Second Class Victoria Peters, Terran Cosmic Navy, N892334.” She said, her voice cracking and more tears starting to fall down her cheeks. “I am a free woman, and I will not be domesticated…” she spat. Those were the first words that she had spoken other than her name, rank and serial number. “I will not be your pet. Not to some overgrown plant…” The disdain in her voice was unmistakable.

“Victoria,” Lavandula said softly, taking in the sight of the pale skinned, blonde haired, blue eyed girl that was laying on the bed. Her slender frame was malnourished, but that was something that could be fixed with some proper nutrition. “From the moment that shuttle left your base with you onboard, you were no longer a free woman. I am now your owner, guardian, and protector. I will take care of you, better than you’ve ever been taken care of before.”

“No,” Victoria said. “Take me as a prisoner of war, but I refuse to be domesticated…”

“I can’t take you as a prisoner of war; the war was over with the signing of the treaty. Besides, you’ve already been picked for domestication,” Lavandula said, standing and pushing the chair back to where it started. “I’m going to give you some xenodrugs to help you relax, we will continue this discussion tomorrow when you wake up.” Lavandula tapped on her data pad, and the bed returned to flat and the vines connected to the cuffs on Victoria’s ankles retracted. Suddenly Victoria yelped.

“Ow!” She shouted, “What the fuck?” She rubbed her left wrist where it felt like someone had poked her with a needle.

“We’re going to have to work on that language…” Lavandula said, “That would be the administration of the xenodrugs. Don’t worry, you’ll start to fall asleep soon.”

“But,” Victoria said, her words already slurring a bit. “I am a free wom-” she passed out as the Class Z xenodrugs took effect.

Lavandula walked over and pulled a blanket up to cover the girl’ s body on the bed and then leaned over to give her a kiss on the forehead. “Sleep well, my little floret, you’ll come around soon enough.” Lavandula left the lights the way they were and left the room in the hab unit, returning to the main sitting area. She pulled up a holoscreen that would let her keep an eye on her charge, while she read through the report of Victoria’s medical examination and started to request the appropriate Class G xenodrugs for the girl.