Chapter 6: Florets Pinnate
Emma and Tori had been cuddling on the couch ever since they had returned to the Hab unit some three hours earlier. “Are you two hungry? Lavandula was standing outside of the door to her office, having come back out after dealing with some paperwork.
“I’m a little hungry, but I could wait if I needed to.” Tori shrugged. The last meal she had eaten had been breakfast that morning and because it was early afternoon, she was starting to get hungry. Regular meals hadn’t been something that had been easy to come by on Proxima 20.
“I am…” Emma glanced up at Lavandula. “I never feel like I get enough to eat…”
“Your intake report indicated that you were a little under nourished.” Lavandula’s vines fluttered around as if there were a breeze in the hab unit. “But we will be working on fixing that. Nice thing about the Compact: you get hungry, we can get you some food. No money required…” She smiled, her toothy grin, really just a collection of thorns in a human like mouth. “What would you like to eat? I c# an either compile it here, or we can go out and get something.”
“Pizza…” Emma replied, glancing toward the door when there was a chime.
“You’ve got a visitor.” A female sounding robotic voice came from everywhere and nowhere all at once. Tori and Emma looked at each other as Lavandula moved toward the door, which silently slid open. On the other side, a sophont stood there with two boxes resting on a cart.
“I’ve got the personal effects of Victoria and Emma Trell.” The sophont said, holding a datapad out for Lavandula to take. She scribbled something on the datapad and handed it back and then effortlessly picked up the two boxes and sat them on the counter. “Have a nice day, Ma’am.” The sophont said, before disappearing down the path.
“Why did he use Lavandula’s name for both of us?” Emma quietly whispered into Tori’s ear.
“I.” Tori’s voice trailed off. “I don’t know.” She was confused. As of this moment, neither woman had signed a domestication contract, so their names hadn’t changed yet. “Maybe it’s because she’s our guardian?”
“I think that we should have a talk.” Lavandula turned around and looked at her two wards. Victoria might be a floret in all but name at this point, but she still hadn’t signed her contract. Emma, however, was a ward and Lavandula needed to explain to her what that meant, and what her likelihood of remaining independent was. Given that they were both part of the resistance movement, if they decided to remain independent, a council of her peers would vote on their fate and they would probably end up domesticated. ”Do we want to get this pizza and bring it back to the hab?”
“I’d rather have a conversation where there are people…” Emma scowled. “You might have ensnared my girlfriend, but I’m not going to go as quietly as she did. I will not just —“ She stopped talking and glanced down at her right hand.
Tori slid her hand into Emma’s and gently gave a squeeze. “We will go wherever you wish, Mistress.” Tori’s voice was quiet and she looked at the floor in front of Lavandula, not wanting to bring her gaze up to see her soon to be owners expression.
“Do you two need a minute?” Lavandula asked, looking at Emma with two pair of eyes and Tori with the other two pair. It was eerie and made Tori realize how little she'd be able to get away with
Tori blinked a few times, Lavandula’s eyes making her brain do mental gymnastics in order to figure out who she was looking at. “I’m good, Mistress.”
Emma, on the other vine, stood ramrod straight and looked Lavandula full in the face. “No, Ma’am.”
“Ok then,” Lavandula said, a vine extending and wrapping around Tori’s cuff and then down into her left hand. A second vine extended toward Emma and stopped in front of her. Emma looked down at it and then took Tori’s right hand. Tori used her left hand to place the vine in Emma’s right hand, it slid up and loosely wrapped around Emma’s wrist. Emma felt the vine wrap around her wrist and realized that it was soft, like a silk rope. The only time she had ever felt rope so soft was the epaulets of her dress uniform in the TCN. She glanced at Tori, who held up her left hand in a ‘just trust me’ gesture. Emma simply nodded. “Let’s go get you girls some pizza”
Lavandula led Tori and Emma into a small restaurant, not too far away from the hab They had walked for around ten minutes before arriving at what looked like a diner right out of a television sitcom. The walls were what appeared to be polished aluminum, with large windows showing the inside, which resembled diners that were common in the 1950’s in what was then The United States of America. The sign above the door simply read “Roberto’s Diner” with no clue as to what they actually served. “I’ve been told this place has the best Pizza on this ring…”
Emma and Tori looked at each other. This didn’t seem like the kind of place that would have pizza, but in the Compact, who knew. Lavandula led them through a door and toward a booth that had stairs so that smaller sophonts could get up on the bench by themselves. Lavandula let Emma and Tori climb up and seat themselves. Lavandula sat across the table and looked at the two Terrans. "So, is there a menu or something?" A few seconds later a short, maybe five foot tall Terran walked over and up the steps to the end of the table.
“Good afternoon,” she said, flipping one of her goldenrod braids back over her shoulder. “I’m Rachel and I’ll be—“ she stopped talking as she realized the Affini at the table was Lavandula. “Miss Lavandula!”
Vines wiggled as Lavandula recognized the floret. "Rachel, How have you been?" A vine snaked up and rubbed the back of Rachel's neck, gently massaging the scar where the Terran's implant was placed.
"I've been good, Miss," Rachel said, leaning into the rubbing that Lavandula was doing. "So are these your florets?"
"Kinda..." Lavandula said, a deep sound that was kind of like a chuckle escaping her body. Tori felt it through her body. "This one," a vine pointed toward Tori, "Is a floret in all but paperwork." The vine then pointed at Emma. "And this one I'm still working on, but she will be mine eventually." She paused, taking a simulated breath. “But, I’d like you to meet Victoria and Emma, they are pinnates.”
“Pinnates!” Rachel gushed, a happy squeal escaping her lithe body. Such displays seemed like they commonplace in the Compact that no one did more than a quick glance in their direction. “Aww, you two are lucky that your owner is going to be Lavandula.”
"She got me through some of the darkest days of my life..." Tori's voice trailed off as she looked at Emma and smiled. "I'm so thankful for her."
Emma smiled, sliding her hand into Tori's hand. "And she got me through the homesickness that I had from my family on Luna..." The pair glanced at each other, the love very evident between the two of them.
"So, can I get nutrient soup?" Lavandula asked, trying to bring the conversation back to the reason that they were in the eatery to begin with: food. The last thing she wanted to deal with was some kind of breakdown; not that she couldn't handle it, but it would be better if it occured in a controlled environment.
Tori turned to Lavandula. "Nutreient Soup?" She asked, eyebrows raised. "Can we get a peperoni pizza, please?" Tori asked, smiling at Rachel.
"Sure thing." Rachel said. returning to server mode. "What to drink for the two of you?"
"Rootbeer, please?" Emma responded.
"Rootbeer, and for you, Tori?" Rachel smiled, brushing her strawberry blonde hair back out of her eyes.
Tori blushed as Rachel said her name."Rootbeer as well, please?"