“Good morning, wonderful sophonts!!  What floor do you need to go to on this fine morning?”, the cheerful AI asked, and the Terran gasped, looking up and around. 

“Is that the AI?  It sounds so…so happy?” she wondered aloud.  Terran AI’s sounded far more wooden and dour.  WHEN they existed.  Most ships that she knew of didn’t waste the computing power on an elevator.

“Well, of course I’m happy, little cutie!! Why wouldn’t I be, when it’s gorgeous outside and I get to help you get to where you need to be?”, it said.

“Oh.  Ummmm…Errr..what floor are we going to?”, Kitten asked Gladialis, who smiled and looked up.  “65, if you please”, Gladialis answered.

“Sure thing!!”

Kitten looked up and at the door, which had closed without a sound.  There were no buttons to press, no call bell for an emergency, none of the things that she was used to.  She wasn’t even sure where the lights were, since..she turned around and shrieked in terror, pressing herself against the door.  They were so high UP!!!!!  Shooting UP!!!!!  SKY!!!!!!!  BEEEEEEEPP.

“What?  What’s wrong?”, Gladialis reacted in an instant as Kitten pressed herself to the door, looking at her.  What?  What had she done?  She hadn’t….not at her, but outside. Oh, DIRT.  It wasn't her that the Terran was scared of.  It was heights.  Kitten had told her that she'd grown up in an underground mining colony.  So she wasn't used to heights, or the kind of views and horizon that Kitten was seeing.  All of this flashed through her mind in a split second.  In the next second, Gladialis's vines erupted from her as she let her form dissolve, blocking the windows in a curtain of tightly woven vines.  She snapped, "Darken the windows, completely opaque!!", to the AI controlling the elevator, but it was too late.  

As she watched, the cuffs on Kittens wrists turned red, and Kitten let out a long, exhaled "ohhhhhh" as her knees buckled.  Her eyes fluttered as the cuffs delivered a small dose of a Class-A, probably euphoria carnatia, what the healthcare team thought was enough to stop any panic attacks.  And it worked, a bit too well.  Kitten started slumping over, and Gladialis threw vines in her path, catching her and the bag of her things before she could hit the elevator floor.  She'd promised to keep her vines clear unless Kitten was in distress or danger, and this certainly counted.  She made sure there were some leafy ones to help cushion her, even as she began to withdraw from the windows.  The now completely opaque windows.  The lights in the elevator car came on, and with a word Gladialis made them dim.

Kitten was lost, dazed and confused.  Everything felt good, the things she was laying on were moving and had these soft things.  Then they rubbed over her skin and she mewled, lost in sensation.  Too focused on that to feel the panic that had been washed away by drugs that the cuffs had delivered to her.  She rubbed them again, and shifted as they cradled her, letting her lay down.  Mewling as the things rubbed her, clothing shifting, she held onto them tightly, just the feel of them sliding in her palm something wondrous and pleasurable.  A soft voice above her spoke, and she whined, turning and rolling slowly to try to see what or who it was while rubbing herself with the vines.  Each time she tried to focus, the things she was holding shifted and her concentration blew apart like rock dust before a blower.

“Well.  Elevator, halt.  Tell building maintenance that I’m tending to a sophonts in distress.”  Interruptions now halted, she could focus on the little kitten who had turned over and was looking at her with the kind of slack-jawed expression that a dose of Class-A’s would provide and some solid therapeutic touching could help.  She wasn’t a vet, but she had taken the mandatory classes in caring for a ward when the Affini had first begun moving in earnest against the Accord.  She knew that the xenodrugs alone wouldn’t be enough, so she let her vines rustle against each other, the noise taking Kittens attention until their movement sent her into another paroxysm of bliss.  Grabbing her tablet, she considered, her attention fixed solely on Kitten while her vines absently dashed off a quick message to the building superintendent.  She expected that the answer would take a day at least, and so she put the tablet back within herself, smiling and cooing as Kitten rolled around.  Debating whether to give her a counteragent or not, she decided not to.  No sense in waking up her just so she could panic again.  “Hmmm, Leiara was right”, she said as Kitten tried to focus on her, the moving vines keeping her from doing that.  “We need to make you a vet appointment.”

Kitten could hear the voice, but the movement and the pleasure, combined with this dizzying and free state, were enough to keep her from focusing on it.  Eventually it began to die down, and she mewled, blushing as she woke up and found herself cradled in vines.  “You had a panic attack, little one”, Gladialis told her as she began to thrash, and the vines withdrew, leaving her sitting on the floor across from Gladialis.  “I think you might be afraid of heights, little one.”

“What…how long..?”, Kitten asked, hugging herself.

“How long were you drugged?”, she asked and the little Terran nodded, drawing her knees up underneath her.    “Perhaps an hour, no longer.  The dosage was significantly lessened and the compound itself was altered from what you first got.  Just enough to break the attack, but not enough to knock you out for 6 hours like last time.”  Gladialis paused, then forged ahead.  “You were in distress, and I…I couldn’t let you fall.  You could have been injured, little one, and then…well, you had a horse-grip on the vines, and you needed some therapeutic touch.  I never would have touched you otherwise, little Kitten, I promised and I keep my word.”

“It’s ok.  I…I understand”, Kitten said, blushing.  “Thanks for not letting me crack my face open.  Ummm…can I ask you something?”  When Gladialis nodded, she cracked her knuckles.  Figuratively, and literally.  “Can you disable the cuffs?  Please?”

“Disable…I…I suppose I could.  But why would I do that?  The cuffs stopped your panic attack, little one.”

“I know, but…look, let be…umm…let’s be honest.  I’m scared.  You’re drugging people against their will, there are these mindless looking people all over.  I’m…I get nightmares, especially since I’m off my meds.  I don’t want to be drugged every night, or just because I got scared.”  She took a deep breath, and kept going.  “Please turn them off.  I don’t want to…the fear of being randomly drugged is enough to make me panic, like this…like this rifle pointed at my head that could go off randomly.”

“I…How about this?  When we’re home, or at night, I’ll disable them, if you’ll promise me that if you start feeling anxiety that you’ll come talk to me.  I’ll set you up a vet appointment, and you go, AND take the medications that the doctor prescribes, then…then that sounds like a deal I can get behind, little one.  Now…who are we drugging against their will?”

“Well, ummmm..the Free Terrans, for one thing?”, she said, making an expression that said ‘duuuhhhhh’.

“Oh.  Well…yes.  But that’s the gentlest way to get them to stop resisting and to keep them and everyone around them safe. We do our utmost to avoid any injuries, little one, even to those that are fighting us.  You know that from firsthand experience.  And as per section 57 of the Treaty on the Methods, Limitations, and Procedures for Human Domestication, anyone actively resisting or fighting the Affini are subject to Domestication.  For their own good, and the safety of everyone around them.  We try to make them as happy as possible, no matter what.  To help them be their best, and have the best life that they can.  Any Affini with a floret cares more about their comfort and happiness than even their own, regardless of how that floret came to them.”

“But you take away their choice in that”, Kitten protested, looking at Gladialis.

“For their safety and the safety of everyone else”, Gladialis insisted.  “Kitten…if you saw a sophont about to do something harmful, like…like jump out high window, you’d intervene, right?”, she asked, her vines quivering at the very thought of someone doing such an activity.

“Well, of course I would”, she said.  “Who wouldn’t?”

“And if you saw that same sophont attempting to do the same to a different sophont?”

“Well, I’d notify the authorities, and attempt to….I see.  You’re saying that the Affini are the authorities in this case”, and she sighed as Gladialis nodded. 

“We are.  Not because we’re stronger, but because we’re right.  Now, are you feeling a bit better, little one?  In my experience, if you’re up to debating philosophy, then you’re feeling better.  Because if you are, we should let someone else use the elevator.  And you’ll feel more comfortable at home.”

“We shou..Oh!! You stopped the elevator?  Why?  Won’t that make everyone else upset?”, she asked, suddenly worrying that a horde of angry Affini were gathered outside the elevator door, unable to leave or go anywhere.  “You…they’re going to be so upset…you didn’t have to do that”, she whispered, and Gladialis looked at her, confused.

“Upset?  No Affini in existence would ever be upset at someone taking an elevator for some time because they were having a panic attack, little one.  Every single one of us would want nothing more than to help, in any way we could.  In fact, now that I think of it, we should probably get some kind of soothing music or something in these elevators.”

“And you didn’t carry me into the apartment because?”, Kitten asked.  Still curious about that.

“I promised to keep my vines clear and not touch you unless you were in distress.  Catching you and keeping you safe and occupied was part of that promise.  But I thought that it might distress you waking up in a new space.  Besides, I wanted you to be…well…upright the first time you walked in”, she admitted. "Going into a new home is kind of..it's an important thing, don't you think?"

“Oh.  That…umm…”, and the Terran was at a loss for words, and then squeaked as Gladialis stood up.  ‘So you’re also dramatic as fuck’, she wanted to say but didn’t.

“I’ll be happy to answer all your questions and explain everything to you, Little Kitten.  But lets do it at home, ok?”  She smiled at the Terran who nodded and got up, holding onto the wall for a moment.  “Please resume regular travel, inform building superintendent that the crisis has passed, but don’t clear the windows until after we’re out and the doors are closed.”

“Sounds like a good idea!! You and the cutie have a great day!!”, the AI responded in a cheerful tone, something that still baffled Kitten.

“Umm…th..thanks”, she said, and the AI chirped another obscenely cheerful goodbye at her.  The hallway was large, wall sconces bringing light, and there were plants and these things that she guessed were paintings.  Large splotches of color in geometric shapes that seemed to subtly change.  “Ahhh, you like those?”, Gladialis asked her, seeing her squint at one that she was SURE had changed as she watched.  The little Terran nodded, walking without taking her eyes off of the painting.  Which, after three steps, meant that she bounced off the wall that she walked into.  Rubbing her shoulder, she glared at the wall that she was SURE had just jumped out at her, and then back at the painting, and...yep.  It had shifted again.

“One of the other Affini who live in the complex makes them.  They’re quite talented, yes?  And the best part is that they’re never quite the same.  I still don’t know how they do it, but I enjoy looking at them”, Gladialis told Kitten with a smile.  “And here we are”, she said, gesturing to a door.  It looked similar to the others, except the door handle was made out of what looked like wrought iron and featured flowers,vines, and little animals on it.  Pulling out her tablet, Gladialis tapped a few buttons.  “Hold the handle tightly, little one, so that the AI for the hab can log your biometrics.”

Kitten grabbed the handle, marveling at how it felt, even as she stared up at Gladialis.  “You…you have an AI for a hab?!?!”  Such a thing was seen as an ultra-luxury, something for the rich to play with.  Certainly not something that she’d ever experienced.  Suddenly there was a small click sound and a feel, and the door slowly swung open. 

“Welcome to our home, Kitten”, Gladialis said.