Morning Bloom

Chapter 2

by BiSound

Tags: #cw:noncon #D/s #dom:female #f/f #pov:bottom #scifi #sub:female #bondage #clothing #dom:internalized_imperialism #drugs #Human_Domestication_Guide #indoctrination #medical_play #petplay #slow_burn #sub:capitalism

Alenia Nu, second bloom, was beyond excited to finally get to meet humans. This was her first ever Domestication Program and she had been trusted with work on the front lines! To teach humanity about the joy of Domestication! Tort was standing next to her and was significantly more calm. That might be partially because of bumble resting on his shoulder. The beeple was his pride and joy, and bumble was such a good floret too, having even insisted on taking a name pronounceable to the Terrans, just like she and Tort had. Alenia suddenly found her vines petting the bee-like creature and got a knowing smile from Tortolin.

Tortolin was Alenias mentor, a renowned expert in the field of Xeno Domestication history and application. He had taken part in 15 different Domestication programs and helped write 9 Domestication treaties. He knew how to express the cuteness of a sophont in 200 different languages, including 10 Terran ones. but most important of all he was an amazing teacher, both to her and the sophonts they met with. He knew how to be patient and make them understand that the only realistic and good way forward for their people was Domestication, and maybe even convince them to try out domestication themselves.

Alenia on the other hand was nothing special, she had spent most of her first bloom running around without direction. She knew she wanted to work with sophonts, but didn’t have talent or interest to go into veterinary fields, or the ruthless sort of love needed to deal with ferals. It was after a chance encounter with Tortolin, not long after her second bloom, that Alenia found her calling. She would be an educator, an expert on Domestication who would help research, to find the perfect ways to convince every new sophont they came across. Alenia might not be someone special right now, but that would change one day, and it all started with the successful introduction of these Terrans to the Human Domestication Program! Maybe if she was especially lucky one of them might even want to be her pet.

***

Elizabeth was trying not to panic. The voice had sounded friendly, surely they wouldn’t eat them right away. They were here to discuss the terms of surrender after all. Not that there would be a surrender. The Terran Accord wasn’t going to go down without a fight, that, if nothing else, was a certainty. Judging by the size of the craft that was hovering above Cathedral-x32 however, humanity may be getting themselves into a fight they couldn’t win. But that's besides the point. Not that it was much of her concern anyway. Her job was to make a good first impression on the invaders. As the air pressure inside their craft slowly changed to match the outside their luxury cruiser went in for landing on the salty desert airstrip of New Salt City.

When stepping outside one thing became obvious, everything was salt. The ground was salt, the stone was salt, even the air tasted like salt. They had concrete under their feet, technically, but there seemed to be a light layer of salt covering it, luckily though, they didn’t have to head far to reach the welcome center, which would hopefully have air filtering. The two guys seemed to be looking for Elizabeth to take the lead, and with a shrug she threw her bag over her shoulder and made her way inside.

Once inside the welcome center the air was better, a lot better. And after brushing off the salt on their clothes they made their way through what had once been security. Then, after rounding a corner, Elizabeth found herself face to face with an affini for the first time.

To be precise, there were two of them, and the first thing Elizabeth noticed about them was how absurdly tall they were. From the videos she had seen they had come across as vaguely human, and she had logically assumed they would be about human size, not at all. These creatures were at least 9 feet tall and if it wasn’t for the space Mormons insistence on ‘leaving enough space for god’ there was no way they could have stood comfortably. As it were their heads just barely avoided hitting the overhead lamps. She recognized Tortolin Fren, the affini who had sent them the message upon arrival, but the other one was new to her. Just like Oxalis this one had a form that was clearly meant to come across as femenine, despite the obvious alien clutter of vines, flowers and other plant matter that made up the towering creature. She also betrayed the genetic diversity of the Affini. Her body was covered in something similar to Spanish moss and dotted along it were gorgeous white flowers. It wasn’t easy for Elizabeth to read much from the body language of the plants, but this new one seemed to be almost shaking, every part of her body moving constantly as she was trying to contain something Elizabeth hoped was excitement, and not of the ‘excited to eat you’ kind.

Elizabeth steeled herself, as the only member of cabinet among the small human group she needed to put on a good first impression, and not to show how terrified she was of getting eaten by the giants. She represented Terra, after all. Stepping ahead of the two men she put on a brave smile. That was when Elizabeth laid her eyes on the cutest creature she had ever seen.

Over the shoulder of Tortolin poked a fuzzy, black and yellow face, with two very bouncy antennas ending in yellow dots and a bright smile on it’s adorable little face. A bright yellow collar gently wrapped around its neck. Unlike the Affini, with their hard to read plant bodies, everything about this creature was an open book, a book that screamed cute, huggable and friendly. Elizabeth had been about to say something but all that escaped her mouth was a long awwwww, the cuteness of the creature Elizabeth could only describe as bee-like was somehow enough to distract her from the giant plant aliens, at least until Tortolin spoke up.

“Welcome Terrans! As you already know I am Tortolin Fren, Sixth Bloom. This is Alenia Nu, second bloom, who, I am sure, is very excited to meet you.” Alenia held out her hand for a shake and Elizabeth, snapping her focus back from the creature on Tortolins shoulder tentatively shook the twirled vines. “I really am! This is my first time educating a brand new species of sophonts!” Part of Elizabeth felt like she should be insulted that the Affini didn’t send someone more experienced, but Alenias excitement was surprisingly infectious and she found herself smiling.

“I’m sure you will do well Alena, and last but certainly not least, my pet beeple here is bumble Fren, Fourth Floret.” Tortolin reached up and scratched the adorable bee creature apparently called bumble. “Hi!” The little thing buzzed, waving at the humans to the oohing and adoration of the two affini, his little antennas vibrating with pride. It took Tortolin a little while to regain his focus and continue “We are here to teach you cuties about Xeno Domestication, a brief history and what it will look like in practice within soon to be former Terran Space, as well as the details on domestication.”

Elizabeth was confused. Wasn’t this supposed to be a negotiation on the terms of surrender? She had been expecting generals, lawyers, bureaucrats. Instead she was face to face with a professor, his bubly assistant and his pet bee. But first things first, they needed to introduce themselves. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, I am Elizabeth Morningstar. This is my bodyguard, Aleister Thorn, and mister Yung here is representing our...” Agent Yung spoke up, interrupting her.

“Yes, I’m Terry Yung, professor in alien relations. Here representing the Board of Terran Academics” Elizabeth shut up, it seemed the good agent rather not have them know who he is. She supposed it wasn’t her place to argue.

“A pleasure to meet all three of you, please follow us to somewhere a bit more fit for your course.” The two Affini guided them through the building as the bee pet zoomed about adorably. Elizabeth wondered how light it had to be to be able to fly without a huge wingspan, bumble was about half the size of Elizabeth, but even then he would have to be incredibly light to fly around like this. These thoughts kept Elizabeth distracted until they stepped outside and the salt hit them once again. The affinin did not seem to notice, as they somehow stretched out to become even taller, but bumble did fly over to hide between Tortolin's vines. The affini opened its body up to allow the beeple inside. It should probably have been horrifying, but the truth was that it made total sense considering what their bodies looked like, and the sound of lightly muffled, buzzy snoozing coming from inside Tortoni was oddly calming.

They finally reached a building it was quite obvious to Elizabeth wasn’t built by humans. The building was new, for one, and was built in the same alien style of architecture as the ship floating above them. Plant-like in nature, not a sharp corner to be found and doorways more than tall enough for the now even taller affini to pass through the opening. Once inside the door closed behind the group of six and soon the taste of salt had disappeared from the air.

Elizabeth found herself inside a large lounge with a screen and a podium on the far end. Everything seemed scaled to a giant, or more accurately to an affini. As they made their way to the front of the room Tortoni took his place behind the podium and bumble once again climbed out onto his shoulder, meanwhile Alenia guided Elizabeth over to one of the oversized lounge chairs. “Do you need help getting up?” She asked cheerily.

For a second Elizabeth was going to inform her in a friendly, yet firm way, that she didn’t need any help. But seeing to her side the much larger men having issues getting up she sighed, and gave a nod. Getting help would probably be less humiliating than having to pull herself onto the chair. “Yes please, thank you.” Elizabeth put on her best smile, and instead of lifting her into the air Aleina gave her a little boost to help her get up in her seat. Elizabeth still had to pick between curled up against the back of the chair, or legs dangling and no back support, but curling up quickly became the obviously more comfortable option.

“Now, if everyone is feeling comfortable, we are ready to begin the presentation.” Tortoni turned to the screen and retrieved a pad from between his vines, as Alenia joined him in front of the three humans the screen came to life and a very colorful presentation started.

“The Affini Compact originates from a planet many galaxies away from here. Where we evolved along with the beeple.” Tortolin took an arguably longer than needed break from his presentation to pet his own beeple. “Affini and beeples have always had a symbiotic relationship. Affini would protect and nurture our beeples and they provided a vital role in our reproductive cycle. While we have made it past the need for using pets to reproduce, Affini culture still values our Florets more than anything else.” The picture on the screen was a cartoonish take on the Affini and the beeples, showing scenes like beeples hiding under leaves from the rain, hugging and getting doted on, and finally being sent off to hug and snuggle with each other.

Elizabeth figured all of this added up. they were plants after all, and this was about the same way pollinating used to work back on earth. At least according to her own, limited knowledge of plants. But still, she had no idea of what this had to do with Terra and Human Domestication.

“From taking care of our beloved beeples we learned the inherent value of the life around us, but once we reached space we realized this was not the view of all sophonts. We found civilizations of sophonts in our galaxy tearing themselves apart, unable to take care of themselves. We couldn’t stand to see them hurt like that, and that was the beginning of Xeno Domestication.” The pictures shown were of affini hugging beeples, affini hugging affini and piles of Affini and beeples snuggling. But then as he moved on to talk about the other species in their galaxy the mood got sad, the colors got darker, and the very humanoid seeming affini were crying watching some snake like creature fighting each other with swords, and denying another snek food.

Ahhh, there it was. There’s the justification for Domestication. ‘Humans can’t take care of themselves so we are going to turn them into beasts of burden, or perhaps feed them to our beeples.’ No wait, that didn’t sound right. bumble was way too cute and innocent to eat anyone, she would not be surprised if told that adorable thing could live off affection alone.

As Tortolin switch to the next picture proud, colorful letter declared ‘Domestication and Humanity’ It seems that Elizabeth was about to get the answers for her main questions, what exactly the Affini wanted, or rather, what they wanted the Terran Accord to believe they wanted. “The primary goal of Domestication is to provide for all sophonts.” A drawing of a happy human standing in front of a house and grilling showed up under the text. “As part of that goal credits will need to be abolished, and weapons will be outlawed.” The sign for credits was shown crossed out beside the picture from earlier, soon followed by a rifle that had also been crossed out.

Well… that’s interesting. Even if Elizabeth decided to trust that the Affini wasn’t talking totally bullshit, and she wasn’t, both those things would be deal breakers to any system within the Terran Accord. Most planets were owned by corporations after all, and there was no way they would give up on money. Providing for sophonts was also way too vague for Elizabeths liking, but that meant she had something to push on. “Excuse me, Professor Fren, can you tell me exactly what you mean by ‘providing for sophonts’?” As soon as she finished talking she realized she might have made a mistake, because even the alien form of an affini couldn’t hide how excited both Tortolin and Alenia were about that question.

“Great question Elizabeth!” Tortolin exclaimed. “Have a berry!” Alenia chimed in, a vine extending from her to offer Elizabeth a little fruit. She hesitated for a moment. Were they trying to poison her? Would it be rude to turn it down? Wasn’t this entire interaction incredibly condescending? After a moment's hesitation Elizabeth plucked the berry from it’s vine. it was round, red like a strawberry, and smelled faintly sweet. Popping it in her mouth and chewing down she had to admit, the taste was wonderful, and focusing on that meant she didn’t have to think about the way the plants were looking at her.

“We believe that anything a sophont needs to live a happy and fulfilling life should be provided to them. We divide needs into two categories, generic and personal. Generic needs are things like food, clothes, housing, hygiene supplies, healthcare, overnett acces and so on. Anything anyone would need will be provided for them and should always be in supply for anyone when they need them. Personal needs would be things not everyone needs, but are important for individuals to reach their potential, take art supplies or a music studio as an example. These will be provided promptly on request to...”

“You have to be kidding me!” Elizabeths usually stoic bodyguard exclaimed, his sudden outburst interrupting Tortolin and shocking Elizabeth.

“Excuse me little one…” The professor said in a stern voice that she had no doubt was supposed to put Aleister in his place.

“Do you really expect us to believe this bullshit? ‘Just give us your weapons and disband your army, we promise that we will take care of you once you have no way of fighting back.’ Do you think we’re retarded?” Aleister spat, the burly man now standing on his lounge chair, putting him almost eye to eye with Tortolin.

“There is no need for such language.” Aleina insisted.

Elizabeth was feeling her own anxiety rising. What the Affini claimed to offer sounded amazing, finally someone with the power to actually make things better doing something. But on the other hand what Aleister said did make some sense. She couldn’t trust them, could she? It didn’t help her anxiety that bumble was hiding behind Tortolin, clearly the outburst made the little thing uncomfortable. It seemed like Tortolin was trying to talk, but Aleister was screaming at him. The words however were hard to catch, she felt her pulse spiking, her breath getting faster and faster. She hadn’t felt like this in years. Since Ratchet tore her apart, since she started giving up.

She felt like she was about to hyperventilate when a soft vine, covered in something similar to spanish moss, brushed up against her back. “Slow down, flower, calm your breath.” Aleina had silently slid over next to Elizabeth and was discreetly stroking her back. It was oddly calming, and while her stress didn’t disappear entirely her breathing soon normalized. “Good girl.” Aleina whispered and took a step back, just as the yelling finally calmed down. “I believe this is a good time for a break, we will let tempers calm and reconvene here in one terran hour to continue the presentation.” Alisteir was out of the room by the time Tortolin finished talking, and Agent Yung wasn’t far behind. Neither of them realized that meant Elizabeth was left alone with the Aliens.

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