The Affini are here. The Affini are here. The Affini are here. They're so close to making it through this that they can almost taste it. They let out a gentle laugh as a giddy feeling sweeps over them. Wait, can they actually taste it? Is the air... xenodrugs in the air, right. They contemplate just staying in bed, and letting the xenodrugs do whatever they were designed to do, but... what if the Affini don't find them? What if one of their soon to be ex-comrades does, and decides that they'd be better off never waking up. No, they really can't afford not to wear the gas mask, and so they press it against their face and strap it on.

Next on the list: the gun. That one's more complicated, but not a lot. Same thing as before, if they don't look ready to fight, anyone one of their 'crewmates' might just decide that they're a traitor and shoot them on the spot. They'll just have to hope that the Affini are as understanding as their propaganda makes them out to be. They draw their pistol from its holster, but leave the ammunition behind. They're not planning to shoot any Affini, and while there isn't anyone on the crew that they actually like, they still don't want to kill any of them. If not wanting to kill someone is what gets them killed, well... so be it.

Next up: stay or go. Staying might be safer, at least until the fighting dies down, but again, their crewmates might try to kill them for cowardice, or not fighting, or whatever. Going is riskier, but then they won't be quite so trapped if a terran shows up. Waiting would also mean sitting still. Which is really tempting. They could just put the gun away, and lie down, and... that's the xenodrugs talking, and they didn't even breath that much of it. Wow, the Affini weren't kidding about their xenodrugs being strong. Although that's about the one thing that the rebels actually agree with Affini on. 

Okay, so. Mask yes, gun yes, and... going. There's no point to the mask and the gun if they're just staying. If they're out there, they'll at least feel like they have some control, and they've always been bad at waiting. 

They open the door, and a gentle blanket of what could only be the xenodrug rolls out of their room. Out, not in. Which means it's probably in the vents, rather than just being pumped in wherever the Affini are boarding from. Which means the Affini control the vents, which means they control life support, which means they have somewhere to go.

They can't go straight to life support, though. They'd have to go past escape pods, a weapons station, and the jump drive. The kinds of things that the soldiers might want to protect. They decide take a somewhat circuitous route, and almost make it, before they almost collide into an unfortunately familiar figure. Well, the gun was familiar. Some big energy thing that might even hurt an Affini.

"Is that you, Jezza? Where the fuck do you think you're going?"

Fuck. They'd been caught, and so close to safety, too. "Uh... life support?"

"Life support? We've been boarded! Deal with it later, we've got weeds to kill!"

Wait, he didn't get it, did he? How could he not have realised that there's Affini in life support. "Sir," they couldn't remember his name, let alone whether he outranked them, but it just about everyone did, and it never hurt to be careful. "They're in life support. They're pumping the xenodrugs in through the vents."

"They're in-? Fuck. Alright. Good thinking. Follow me, and watch my six."

Okay, good news, not getting shot. Bad news, now they're stuck with a man with a gun, and not enough sense to not use it. Maybe they'll be able to do something when they get there? They're not exactly keen on the idea of wrestling the gun off him.

He takes the lead. He probably thinks he's being heroic, or something. They follow, close behind. There's a flicker of movement followed by a burst of light as he shoots. "Ha! How'd'ya like that, you damned weed!" He shoots again. They flinched after the first shot, but the second shot just made them angry. He's going to ruin everything.

They raise their empty gun, point it straight at his head, and they tell him, "Drop your gun."

"The weeds don't have guns, Jez-" he glances back in their direction. To his credit it only takes him a moment to react, "You fucking plantfucker!" He swings around, bringing the gun up to point straight at them.

They close their eyes, and shrink in on themself, as if that will make any difference to his gun. Even through their closed eyes they see the flash. They hear a soft groan, and then silence.

"Little human," the voice is distinctly feminine, but also distinctly inhuman. "You can open your eyes now."

They do. The other human is on the ground, his gun is nowhere to be seen. It's hard to make out the Affini clearly in the dark, but they're still pretty sure that she's meant to have two arms, not one. And definitely not one and the still slightly glowing, charred stump of another. "You- your arm! You're hurt!"

"But you are not, and I will recover. Now, why don't you hand me that," her remaining hand gestures to the gun still in their hand, "before anybody else gets hurt"

"It's... it's not loaded," they thrust the hated weapon towards the Affini, who reaches out a thin vine to take the pistol and hide it somewhere in the mass of vines and bark that makes up her chest.

As soon as the gun disappeared into the Affini's chest, they laugh. They can't stop laughing. They did it! They actually survived the Horizons. They actually survived the war, the navy, and the rebels. Now all they have to do is survive the Affini and everything will be fine. Their laughter quickly turns to hyperventilation as they realise that their worries have only just begun.

The Affini cautiously moves towards them. They should be terrified of her size, but right now it just makes them feel safe "Everything is going to be okay, little human. I'd like you to take some big deep breaths. Can you do that for me?"

They nod, as they try to slow their breathing down. It helps to watch her eyes. To breath along with the gentle pulse in the glow of her eyes. She reaches out to them, and gently slides a vine under their mask.

"I'm going to take this off now, but I want you to keep taking those nice big breaths. Let the xenodrug in, and I'll take care of you."

They make a groan of disagreement, but don't make any effort to stop her. After removing the mask, the Affini comes in even closer, vines snaking out from her body to reform the arm that she'd lost. "Don't worry, my precious petal, you'll be perfectly safe in my vines."

Even as they were drifting off to sleep under the influences of a potent xenodrug, their heart skipped a beat as a wave of giddy excitement shot through them. 

Petal. That feels... important. It feels... right.

Petal.

...

Oh.

Delphinium Vinia, Third Bloom, looked down at the sleeping form of the human, gently stroking their brow as the tension finally faded from their face. She'd check on the other one in a moment, but for now she needed to destress from seeing this human in danger. This adorable little human had nearly gotten themself hurt, after all. In the effort of trying to protect her, no less. It was utterly unnecessary, of course, but that just made it even more adorable. She reached a vine inside, to check the gun that the human had told her was empty. It was. This tiny, precious thing almost gave its life trying to protect her, and while she certainly couldn't countenance putting any sophont, let alone one so adorable, at risk, seeing something that cute was definitely worth losing a few vines.

Delphinium briefly wondered whether threatening somebody with an empty gun was enough to qualify for 'risking harm to another', or whether threatening somebody armed with an actually lethal weapon was enough to qualify for 'risking harm to oneself'. It probably did, on both counts, but it wouldn't exactly be fair. Even if the human was adorable. There was probably already another Affini interested in this one, and Delphinium preferred not to step on anybody else's roots. Although, those new pinnates came from this ship, and they probably could have brought this one with them, if they were already the target of another Affini's affection.

With a gentle sigh through her vines, Delphinium rose, and stepped over to check on the other human, trailing a vine behind her to continue to pet the brow of... Jez? That was what the other human called them, at least.

After checking over the other human (the xenodrug she put in the air, and the xenodrug she injected him with shouldn't have any contraindications, but it never hurt to be careful), she stepped back to Jez and pulled the human into her lap. She did tell them that they would be safe in her arms, after all, and she'd hate to break a promise to somebody so adorable.