Chapter 5: Infirmary
CW: Talk of past history of suicide and self harm
The room smelled like a waiting room, it would have probably looked more like one if it had seats; otherwise it was just a large room. Lavandula led the Terran that she had on a leash up to a large counter, situated in the center of the large wall opposite of the door that they entered. There were steps to allow a Terran that was of average height to be able to see the sophont that was working the other side of the counter. Victoria didn't have to worry about that as Lavandula picked her up so she could see over the counter.
"Eeep..." Victoria emitted as she was lifted in the air. On the other side of the counter sat a Terran, a male, who sat there and smiled at the Affini and the Terran that stood across from him. A shiny metal collar was very visible around his neck.
"Good afternoon, I'm Peter Impus, First Floret, he/him Pronouns." Peter smiled. "How may I help you?"
Lavandula smiled at the floret. "Good Afternoon, little one. I am Lavandula Trell, Fourth Bloom, She/Her Pronouns," Lavandula didn't as much as say, but rather what she did was closer to vibrated. "And this is Victoria Trell, First Floret, She/Her pronouns. I was messaging with someone earlier about wanting to see a sophont by the name of Emma Wilson. She was part of the group that was brought in from Proxima 20." They watched as Peter picked up a datapad and tapped a few things on it.
"Yes, I was instructed to have my Master come out and talk to you when you arrived..." Peter sat his datapad back down and looked at the two of them. "He will be out shortly."
Victoria felt a sense of foreboding and leaned into Lavandula's body. Something must have happened to Emma. Lavandula sensed the girl’s distress and gently wrapped vines around her. A few moments later, an Affini that was at least a meter taller than Lavandula came out. "Good afternoon, I'm Serpha Impus, Seventh Bloom, He/Him pronouns. I would be the veterinarian on duty at the moment." The vines and assorted flora that made up the nine foot tall Affini were much more varied than the purple and white flowers that made up Lavandula. He had yellows, blues, and even a few black flowers. Victoria was confused, she had never seen black flowers on an Affini before and she had seen a lot of Affini propaganda; almost all of the Affini were covered in colorful flowers. Lavandula looked at the new Affini.
“I am Lavandula Trell, Fourth Bloom, She/Her pronouns, and this is Victoria Trell, First Floret, also She/Her pronouns.” Lavandula gently petted Victoria’s head. “We are here to see Emma Wilson, who was one of the group brought in from Proxima 20.”
Serpha nodded and looked at the two standing in front him. “Let’s go into my office really quick so I can bring you up to speed. If you don’t want your floret to hear this, you can have her stay out here with Peter.”
Lavandula felt a hand wrap tightly around one of her vines. “She can stay with me, we can always switch to Affini if we need to…” Lavandula carried Victoria into Serpha’s office and closed the door. “So, what’s going on?”
“So, we have Emma on a mild Class E,” Serpha said, walking around his desk which resembled a fallen oak tree. “She’s been constantly asking about a sophont named Tori, who I presume was also on the station…” He didn’t sit, but instead pulled a video up on a datapad and handed it to Lavandula.
Victoria watched as two of Lavandula’s eyes looked down at her; another two watched whatever was on the datapad, she couldn’t see the screen or hear any audio from it. The other two looked at Serpha. All of a sudden, a number of Lavandula’s vines started flailing around; Serpha’s started doing the same and Victoria thought that they were holding a conversation. After a few moments, they both stopped and just looked at each other. Lavandula pulled a datapad out of… somewhere, and a few seconds later, Serpha’s datapad dinged. “I hope that makes my position clear…”
“Perfectly…” Serpha said, making a sound that resembled a sigh. “Let’s go to the room that Emma is in.”
Victoria looked between the veterinarian and Lavandula, finally having processed that he had initially introduced himself as a veterinarian. “Wait…” she said. “Did you say you were a veterinarian?”
“I sure did, little one.” Serpha chuckled. “I specialize in taking care of other species of sophonts; that makes me a veterinarian rather than a doctor.”
“Oh…” Victoria said quietly. “I never thought of it that way…” She snuggled up in Lavandula’s vines, feeling safe as the two Affini walked out of Serpha’s office and toward a door which presumably led toward the patient rooms. As he approached the door it slid open silently, sure enough this door led to a corridor of patient rooms. They walked down the corridor until Serpha stopped at a door and tapped his data pad. The door slid open to reveal what looked like a hospital room with a lot of phytotech.
Emma looked up at the three beings on the other side of the door. "Emma Wilson, Analyst, Fourth Class, Terran Cosmic Navy, Division of the Office of Cosmic Naval Intelligence, O593298" She stated. before she locked eyes with Victoria. She didn't speak, she just closed her eyes.
"I can handle it from here, Serpha. thank you." Lavandula said.
"Message me if you need something, Her chart is accessible to you as you have filed a NoID..." He tapped a few things on his tablet. "You can now control the door from your datapad. Your floret won't be able to open the door, so only leave her in here if you trust her with Emma..." Emma looked from Lavandula to Victoria.
"I'm pretty sure that they pinnates, and she's not going to hurt Victoria." Lavandula said, looking at Emma. "I have the standard set of Xenodrugs and if I need to, I'll use them and let you know that I did."
"Sounds good. Message me if you need something." Serpha said, before walking back down the corridor toward his office.
Lavandula walked into the room still carrying Victoria. As soon as they cleared the threshold, the door slid shut. Emma just glared at the Affini that was now standing in her room. Lavandula sat Victoria in the bed. "Good afternoon, Little one." Lavandula said in her musical voice. Emma just looked from the Affini to Victoria and then up at the ceiling, not looking at either the Terran or the Xeno in the room. "I just want to talk to you about a few things that are going to affect your life going forward."
"Emma Wilson, Analyst, Fourth Class, Terran Cosmic Navy, Division of the Office of Cosmic Naval Intelligence, O593298." Emma said again.
Victoria looked at Emma laying in the bed, noticing the vines that held her feet from being able to leave the bed. Glancing up at Lavandula, Victoria opened her mouth to speak. "Mistress, may I speak to Emma alone?" Out of the corner of her eye, Victoria watched as Emma looked at her slowly.
"You may, Petal." Lavandula said, her voice its normal musical melody. "Just shoot me a message on your datapad if you need me, and I'll be in here before you can blink."
"Yes, Mistress." Victoria said, watching as Lavandula left the room. The door silently slid shut and Victoria turned her attention to Emma. Her pinnates lithe form was visible under the moss green blanket. "So..."
Emma glared at Victoria. "I can't believe you..." She paused, a tear escaping her right eye. "You led them to us?"
"No..." Victoria said. "I didn't do anything to lead them to us. They have been looking for me for some time.”
“Is that why you’re wearing a collar now, Tori?” Emma spat. ”You decided that it would be better to be a pet?” Venom seethed from Emma, and Victoria just looked at her.
“This isn’t what I wanted.” Victoria said, her voice on the verge of shouting. “Do you think that I would willingly give up my rights and become a pet to the aliens? What did we always say, Emma? We said we would rather die than be taken…” Tears escaped from Victoria’s eyes. “I didn’t want this; but what I know now is that this is what is best for me. I don’t have to hide any more, I don’t have to worry about “is today the day that someone is going to space me”. I’ve been given a new lease on life, there is a lot that you don’t know about me because it wasn’t relevant on that hellhole of a station.”
Emma opened her mouth to speak, and then processed what Victoria had said. “Wha…” She paused, tipped her head to the left in confusion, and then spoke again. “What?”
Victoria sat on the bed next to Emma. “Before I start telling you my life's story and what led to this moment, do you need me to call Mistress to bring you anything?”
Emma looked at Victoria and smiled for the first time since Victoria had entered the room. “Do you think she’d be kind enough to release me from the bed so that I can sit up and we can cuddle?”
“We can ask.” Victoria smiled back. “I was so afraid I’d lost you…” She tapped a message out on her datapad and a few moments later, Lavandula entered the room.
“I was afraid I’d lost you too, Tori.” Emma said quietly.
“Tori?” Lavandula asked, confused. “If you used another name, petal, why didn’t you say something?”
“It’s just something that most of my friends call me and it’s kinda informal…” Tori said. “I don’t mind you calling me Victoria, Mistress.” She paused, and looked from Lavandula to Emma. “Umm… Perhaps I should do introductions.”
“Probably a good idea…” Lavandula said, her vines wiggling as she chuckled. Emma glanced between Victoria and the Affini in the room.
“Emma, allow me to introduce Lavandula Trell, Fourth Bloom, She/her pronouns. She is my Mistress, owner, protector and guardian.” Tori said, blushing slightly as she said Lavandula's title and roles. “Mistress, I would like you to meet my girlfriend, Emma Wilson.” Tori noticed the blush on Emma’s face. It was the first time that Tori had ever introduced Emma as her girlfriend. “I am, or will soon be, Victoria Trell, First Floret, She/her pronouns.”
Lavandula smiled. “You forgot something, petal…” Tori looked at her, confused.
“I…” her voice trailed off… “I did?”
“You are, or will soon be, Victoria Trell, First Floret Pinnate, She/her pronouns.” Lavandula said. Tori blushed.
“What’s a pinnate?” Emma asked, having not heard the word before.
“I’m going to release you from the bed, but I need you to be good. It sounds like you and Tori have some stuff to talk about and Tori will be able to explain what a pinnate is.” Lavandula said, releasing the vines that held Emma to the bed.
“Yes, Ma’am.” Emma said. She was being nice to Lavandula because Lavandula was basically giving her some freedom of movement.
“Tori, you can also tell her about the other thing, as it’s related to you two being Pinnates.” Lavandula said. “I’ll be outside, message if you need me.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Tori said, watching her leave the room again. aid, climbing up in the bed to cuddle with Emma. She was glad that they were together again, having missed the nightly cuddling sessions until they both fell asleep. “So where should I begin?”
“Starting at the beginning usually helps, love…” Emma said gently. Her fingers traced the collar that was around Tori’s neck. “You know, I do have to say that this does look good on you…” Tori blushed.
“So," Tori said, trying to ignore the blush in her cheeks. "I have to go back to when I was a young lass, shortly out of secondary school. My prospects in life were looking rather bleak." There was a beep, and then a hum and suddenly a box of tissues appeared on the compiler that Tori hadn't noticed in the corner as it was designed into the wall in such a way to make it not noticeable. "Apparently, Mistress thinks we're going to need those and she's probably right..." Tori got up and went to take the tissues off the compiler, carrying them back to the bed before curling up with Emma again. "I kept trying to hold down a job, but I couldn't even do the simplest things, it seemed." Tori's voice trailed off as she pondered how to explain her thought process at the time.
"What kind of stuff were you doing?" Emma asked, sensing the lull in the conversation.
"I was doing construction, if you can believe that..." Tori chuckled, thinking back on how absurd it was. "All 55 kilos of me; let’s just say I wasn't good at it. I have always had an analytical mind and I kept questioning the people above me as to why we were doing things the way we were." Tori pulled a tissue out of the box, she knew she was going to need it sooner rather than later. "Needless to say, after getting fired and then evicted because I didn't have the credits to pay my rent, I started to spiral. I lost everything I had, except for what was in the backpack that I managed to grab before I was locked out of my place and all of my stuff was trashed. I managed to save some of my clothes, and my datapad, but not much else." Tori reached up and wiped a tear from her cheek, it was the first that escaped, but there were plenty more behind it. "I hit rock bottom, before finally deciding that the universe would be better off if I was gone." Emma had a tear escape her eye, and Tori stopped it with a finger "I tried to inflict enough damage that I'd lose enough blood and just pass from my miserable life to whatever was next."
"Sweetie, I had no idea..." Emma said softly. "You've never really talked about your past before."
"Oh... There's more..." Tori said, as Emma curled up into her. "So I didn't do it right, I lost blood, but not enough for it to have the intended effect." Tori looked at Emma. "When I woke up, I found myself in a hospital. That was problem number one: there was no way I was going to be able to afford that bill. Problem number two was that I was being told that I was going to be transferred to a mental health facility until I was stable enough to be released. Well, the war with the Affini had been going on for the better part of a year and the TCN was desperate for sailors, and I enlisted. About the same time, I learned that my parents had petitioned the court for guardianship. I figured I could at least be myself in the TCN, my name and gender marker were already changed, and given the rate at which I was hearing of vessels going missing and those sailors vanishing. Maybe that would be my way out." Tori smiled at Emma. "That was mid 2552... By 2553 I was assigned to the OCNI and in 2554 sent out to Proxima 20. Mistress had gotten her hands on my file somewhere in there..."
"So you enlisted in an attempt to escape your parents and a way to possibly finish what you didn't succeed." Emma said, making sure that she understood the thought processes that had led Tori to that point. "You had already been on 20 for a few months before I arrived, and you didn't seem that you were in any distress. What happened?"
Tori smiled, it was her first smile in the time that she had been telling the story. "Well, two things happened, darling, but not at the same time. The first was that I was in a position that allowed me to use my analytical skills; not only was I an analyst, I was heading up a team of them. The second thing… was you." Tori reached over and stroked Emma's cheek. "I know we were on different teams, but that is what let us get away with being in a relationship." Tori smiled at Emma. She had been thinking in the back of her head how to explain the pinnates thing to Emma.
Emma smiled at Tori, that sweet, innocent, disarming smile that Tori loved to see on Emma's face. "Credit for your thoughts?"
"We're never going to have to worry about being separated again." Tori said simply. Emma's smile faded, with her not understanding what Tori was getting at.
"We..." Emma tipped her head to the side. "We what?"
Tori smiled at Emma. "As of right before we were led to this room, Mistress went to the clerk’s office and filed something called a Notice of Intent on you. That means that if you seek domestication or if you are determined to not be able to care for yourself, she gets first dibs on you. She asked me before she filed it if I would be ok with that and, yes. I was already worried that I had lost you; I don’t have to worry about that any more.”
Emma furrowed a brow. “So I don’t get a choice in if I get domesticated?”
“That’s something you will have to talk to Mistress about…” Tori said, her shoulders raising slightly as she shrugged. “If you don’t, or if you volunteer, we will be together. They won’t separate pinnates.”
“What if I don’t end up being domesticated?” Emma asked. Tori looked at her and pondered for a second. “How would that work?”
“Uhh…. I’m sure that you could live with us as an independent…” Tori said, shrugging. “I think that we would need to ask Mistress how that would work though.”
“Do you think she would let me move in with you two?” Emma asked quietly, “I don’t have anywhere else to go and I don’t want to lose you again.” Emma curled up into Tori’s side. Within minutes she had fallen asleep. Tori just let her sleep and stroked the now sleeping girls hair. Tori pulled her datapad out and messaged Lavandula. She briefly explained what Emma had said about not wanting to be separated from Tori again and about how Emma was now asleep. Tori herself fell asleep shortly after she sent the message to her owner.
Emma opened her eyes and looked at Lavandula who was siting quietly in the corner, watching the two of them sleep and reading something on her datapad. "Good afternoon, Miss Trell." Emma said quietly.
Lavandula wiggled some vines. "Good afternoon, little one, did you enjoy your nap?"
"Yes, Ma'am." Emma said. While she was still scared of the Affini, this one had direct power over her.
"So, Tori sent me a message about your concerns." Lavandula said quietly. "I've filed paperwork to have you come back to our hab. I don't know that you will remain independent, but as Tori told you, I've filed a Notice of Intent to Domesticate on you."
"Does that mean I don't get a choice?" Emma asked quietly.
"You do, for the moment..." Lavandula said. "While I could just break you and bend you to my will, I would much rather you come willingly."
"If you can break me so easily, why not just break me and take me?" Emma asked, a little bit of disdain evident in her voice.
Lavandula smiled, the smile both disarming and threatening at the same time. "That's not fun for me. I want you to want to be a floret, you and Tori are Pinnates. We can make it work if you’re an independent, but I think you’d settle into the floret life pretty well.”
“But what if that’s not what I want?” Emma asked.
“Sometimes what you want isn’t what you need…” Tori mumbled, finally starting to wake up.
"Well, you're going to get to experience it before you have to decide." Lavandula said. "Do you think you can walk back to the hab or do I need to carry you?"
"I want to be carried..." Tori said, her voice sounding very sleepy. Emma thought that Tori might fall asleep on the way back to the hab.
"What about you, Emma?" Lavandula asked, "Do you want to walk or do you want to be carried?"
Emma chewed at her bottom lip for a few moments before responding. "I've not walked in... However long we've been on this planet."
"We are..." Lavandula said gently. "We are not on a planet... You are aboard the Scorpiris. Which is an Affini intelligence vessel."
"Wait..." Emma said, her voice showing her confusion. "We're on a ship?"
"Yes, we are." Lavandula said, picking Tori up and cradling her in vines. "My question still stands: do you want to walk or do you want me to carry you?"
Emma sighed. "Let me see if I can stand up." Emma swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and the tan scrub like dress that she wore fell to her knees as she stood. It turned out that her legs were somewhat weak from being in a low gravity environment. She attempted to stand, but her legs gave out and vines caught her, before gently sliding her back on the bed. "I guess I'm going to need to be carried..." Emma's voice was dejected. So far her wardship was not looking like she would remain independent for long...