Willow Blàthan, Third Bloom was not in a good mood. She sat in the docking bay, two other Affini discussing how excited they were to see all the cute Terrans they were about to rescue while she tapped away on her datapad. She was trying to clear out some of the quickly growing pile of paperwork that demanded her attention to little effect. She didn’t even need to be here, A rescue mission for a Terran vessel of this size scarcely needed one affini’s attention, so the two volunteers sitting across from her should have been more than sufficient. Yet the Captain had requested she embark on this mission nonetheless, despite the many duties and tasks that required her attention. Willows leaves rustled in frustration and she could have sworn she felt some of her foliage begin to wither. 

Lillian was always doing this, always sending her away on capture missions or the like in the hope’s that she’d come back with a brand new Floret in tow. Each time being disappointed that Willow came back empty vine’d. It’s not like she didn’t enjoy the company of the florets, she was always eager to pet sit for her friends when she got the chance, but looking after one full time was an entirely different kettle of horses. Besides, she quite simply did not have the time to take care of a floret properly. Being the Chief engineer for a ship as old as the Aurelium demanded her full attention day and night. It had all sorts of little quirks and eccentricities that only she was fully familiar with and it would take her weeks if not months to train up an assistant, time she could spend just fixing the problems herself. 

It wasn’t long before the Aurelium was within visual range of the Terran ship, and even less time for them to be within range of boarding spikes. The two Affini volunteers raced off, practically climbing over one and other in order to be the first to board the Terran ship. By contrast Willow seemed almost hesitant, pulled forwards more by her obligation to the captain more than anything else. Again her foliage ruffled, air flowing through her vines and leaves in an approximation of what humans called a sigh. She might as well make the best of this, seeing a Terran ship up close was always an interesting if not the most enlightening experience, and from what she was aware this was a class she had never seen before. Signing off on a few final reports Willow made her way down the boarding spike and onto the Terran vessel. 

The corridor of the ship that Willow found herself on was tight and cramped even by Terran standers, forcing her to pull her leaves and vines tight. This was probably the thing she disliked most about terran ships, squeezing herself together so tightly took a not in considerable amount of effort and was far from comfortable. Lazily Willow moved through the ship's corridors, occasionally stopping to pry panels off of walls and scrutinise the inner workings of the ship, making notes on anything intriguing she finds. This vessel was a curious one, it’s far more heavily reinforced than most other Terran ships of its size and if the internal wiring was anything to go by, had a much higher power output as well. She would have to pay a visit to the ship breaking yard once this mission was over so she could get a better look. 

One thing that surprised Willow even more than the construction of the ship was the seeming lack of Terrans. Most Terran ships were packed full of the little cuties but somehow she hadn’t run across a single one. Were they all just on higher deck’s, she was more or less right at the bottom of the ship, perhaps this area was reserved for housing the ship's autonomous functions.

Just as she was finishing her thought she heard the unmistakable sound of bi-pedal footsteps slamming against the steel floor of the deck and moving away from her at speed. No use delaying any longer she supposed, might as well get this done quickly. In a flurry of foliage Willows vine’s shot out of her, pulling her along the corridor, easily manoeuvring in the microgravity. She followed the footsteps, hearing them get louder and louder until suddenly they stopped, poor things must have run into a dead end, no matter, soon it would be safe and happy with a new owner to take care of it.

Turning around the corner however, Willow found herself looking upon a sight she did not anticipate. A Terran, vapour drifting up off of their arms in thin wisps had just ripped a hole in a security door. This was fascinating, all the reports on Terran’s had shown that they were a relatively weak species in terms of physical strength, certainly not capable of performing the feats she had just witnessed. Simply fascinating, was there an error in their records, or was this Human unique somehow, she had to know. While Willow pondered the possibilities she noticed the Terran begin to leave through the hole they had created, thankfully it had not noticed her yet, clearly having been too focused on opening the door. Snapping herself out of her pondering Willow soon changed that.

“Oh, there you are little Terran, I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Her Vine’s made short work of restraining the Terran, grabbing them by the wrists and ankles and pulling them in close so she could get a better look at them. Now that she had gotten a proper look at this Human the secret behind their strength became obvious, all four of their limbs were entirely mechanical. This was fascinating. Willow had heard of Terrans using cybernetics before, but seeing one so heavily augmented was a rarity indeed, she simply had to know more. 

“Now why did you go and run away? I would never hurt a cutie like you.” 

Willow tried to calm the poor thing down, hoping it would stop struggling so much and give her a chance to examine them in more detail but her words only seemed to frighten the little one even more. Willow couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle, seeing these humans struggle so much was rather cute, but this Human was putting up a surprising level of resistance, nothing that Willow couldn’t handle but clearly the augments of this creature were well constructed, at least by human standards. Using her vine’s to examine the human more closely willow scanned over the casing of their limbs, each plate seemed to be made of composite steel and while they had clearly not been maintained in some time the actual construction was almost masterful, plates seamlessly interlocking with one another without restricting the range of motion each limb was capable of. It was then that Willow heard the human speak for the first time.

“Disable coolant systems, code: Delta nine.”

Willow's eyes moved to the human's face with a quizzical look, unsure of what they were trying to do although that quickly became apparent. She felt the casing of their limbs begin to rapidly heat up and soon they were in quite severe and obvious pain. Honestly, of all the reckless and irresponsible things rebels did just to avoid their help, it was baffling. Willow felt a pang of guilt rush through her, she should have recognised just how scared this human really was and sedated them, it was cruel to let them remain in that state and now because of her inaction the human was putting themselves in danger. 

“Oh no no, we can’t have you hurting yourself little Terran, i think it’s time for you to take a nap.”

She moved one of her vine’s, loaded with Class-E's, towards the human's neck, quickly injecting the substance into the poor thing. The struggle stopped, the limbs began to cool, the little rebel was fighting off sleep so hard but eventually they were out like a light, held limp in willows vine’s. 

Gently she wrapped more vine’s around the human, providing them with a comfortable place to sleep off the sedatives while she moved to assess the damage they had done to themselves. It was just as Willow had suspected, severe burns around the shoulders and hip joints, as well as evidence of muscle and ligament damage in the same area. This one was going to need to see the vet once they got back to the Aurelium. Moving back towards the boarding spike willow made sure she kept the little Terran sleeping in her vines safe and comfortable. It didn’t take her long before Willow had made her way back on board the ship, pulling herself back up the boarding spike and into the docking bay. It was then that she heard a familiar voice coming from off to her side.

“Hey Willow! How was the trip! Find any cute rebels!” 

Of all the missions Captain Lillian had to come down and oversee herself, it just had to be the one where Willow brought back a human. With no way to hide the creature before the rapidly approaching affini got to her willow resigned herself to her fate, shifting her mass to face Lillian, her wooden face contorting into a forced smile at her captain's approach. 

“Captain, so good to see you, I’m surprised you came all the way down here just to observe.”

Lillian lit up both figuratively and literally with excitement when she saw the human wrapped up in willows vines. “Never mind why I’m here, what is that you’ve got, finally given in and got yourself a Floret I see” 

Willow couldn’t help but wilt a little at her captain's playfully smug voice, she had to find some way to escape this situation, otherwise she was never going to hear the end of it.

“No Lillian, this Terran managed to hurt themselves, I'm just taking them to the vet.” she said in the most dismissive tone she could muster, hoping to douse some of Lillian’s enthusiasm.

A vine reached out to ruffle the humans hair, giving them some nice scratches before retracting. “Oooooooh, well if that’s the case you’d better hurry and don’t worry about filing the intake papers, I’ll make sure everything gets taken care of. All I need you to do is make sure our little cutie gets the attention they need.” 

Something about the way Lillian said that sent a shiver through Willows core, clearly she was up to something but right now she didn’t have time for the captains games. “Understood, If that’s all I'll be on my way now.” Again Willow spoke with a cold and formal tone hoping to put Lillian off of whatever scheme she had brewing, it had never worked before but who knows, maybe this time would be different. Turning to walk away from the captain, Willow began her journey towards the vets before hearing Lillian's voice calling out to her.

“Have fun! And tell Dex I said hi!” 

Silently willow simply raised her arm and waved, her back still facing the captain.

The trip to the vet’s office was thankfully a short one, only taking around 15 minutes ship time. The door’s opened with a satisfying swish and Willow made her way inside. She was surprised to find that there weren’t any Floret’s in the waiting room, save for the staff. Usually there were at least a few pets needing examination, no matter, that just meant this one would be seen all the sooner. Approaching the front desk, she tapped the bell with a vine and was quickly attended to by a cute little Terran Floret wearing a floral patterned sundress and holding a little datapad.

“Hello miss! How can I help you today!” Willow’s foliage couldn’t help but flutter, the girl's chipper voice striking her right in the core. 

“Well hello dear, do you know if Dex is busy at the moment.” Willow reached out a vine and gave the girl some chin scratches, eliciting a few delightful mewls. “I’ve got a freshly rescued terran here that needs some care.” 

“The last patient was a little while ago so they should be free.” 

“Excellent, I'll just head into their office then, thank you dear.” Willow gave the girl one last set of head pats before moving towards Dex’s office. She thought she heard the girl try and say something but either it was too quiet or she was just imagining things. knocking on the door with a bundle of vines. “Dex, it’s Willow, I've got a patient for you.” At Willow’s call she heard some light crashing and scrambling from inside the room, as if someone had just been startled awake. The door soon opened only for Willow to see Dex, their foliage unkempt and ruffled, not entirely unusual for them but the earlier sounds made Willow suspect he was sleeping on the job again. She decided not to press the issue, they were a good vet, even if they were highly unprofessional.

“Willow, good to see you. Has Lillian finally forced you to adopt or is this another rescue that needs fixing.”

“A rescue, though quite the interesting one.” Willow set the Terran down on the bed, moving over to their side with Dex. 

“You’re right, don’t see many augmented Terrans these days, especially not to this extent, would you mind waiting there while I do my scans?” Dex pointed to a chair to one side of the room and began to attach various medical devices to the Terran, taking a variety of readings and measurements.

“Sure, Do you have any idea how long the scans are going to take?” Willow had no intention of leaving the Terran alone until she was sure they would be alright, after all it was her fault they’d hurt themselves in the first place, but she really did need to get back to work. The thought of her duties going undone while she sat and waited in this office filled her with creeping dread, but there was nothing she could do, she had a responsibility to this Terran, even if that means she was likely going to be having a very late night.

“Oh it should be too long, her injuries don’t seem to be too severe but I’d like to do a full work up just to make sure everything's alright, I must admit augmented sophonts like this one are not my speciality so I would like to air on the side of caution.” Dex turned towards Willow giving her a knowing look. “Besides, I’m sure you are as curious about this one as I am”

Willow said nothing in return, instead looking down to her data pad as Dex went back to work, letting out a slight chuckle as they did. It wasn’t long before Dex called Willow over to look over the Terrans results. “It is as I suspected, the wounds are not something we need to worry about, I should be able to repair most of the damage in an hour or two and what’s left will heal itself over time. But this is intriguing.” Dex handed Willow a datapad, she was glad to hear that her mistake hadn’t caused this Terran any serious damage but her mind was quickly taken over by curiosity as she looked down at the pad.

These results truly were intriguing, just under 40% of this Terrans body was mechanical in some way, All four of her limbs as well as parts of her spinal cord, she also seemed to have a dataport in the back of her neck that presumably allowed for direct interfacing with computing systems. Fascinating, how exactly did she get like this, was it by choice or was she in some kind of horrible accident. If only the Terran was awake to answer some questions but with the sedatives they had been given they would likely be out for most of the day. Perhaps she could get in touch with their guardian once they were assigned one, that is if Willow could find enough free time to arrange a meeting. For now, Willow was confident that Dex could take care of her and she really did need to get going. “Thank you for your assistance Dex, I trust if I leave them in your capable vines you’ll see to it that she gets fixed up?”

“Yes, yes, I’ll make sure they're right as rain in no time!”

With a nod and a smile, Willow moved towards the door and just as she was about to leave she heard her pad beeping with a notification. Looking down she saw it was a message from Lillian and after a few moments of hesitation opened it. 

Dear, Willow Blàthan, Third Bloom

I am pleased to inform you that you have officially been designated as the guardian of “That cute Terran you brought in earlier” until official adoption can take place. All the necessary adjustments to your habitation unit have already been ordered and will be completed shortly. I understand that taking on the guardianship of a sophont can be a stressful if highly rewarding ordeal, as such please find enclosed a brief guidebook to help you in your endeavours.

“What’s the deal with being a guardian - A guide in the proper care of newly rescued sophonts” 

Love,

Lillian Cleasan, 18th Bloom. <3 

So that’s what she was up to. She knew Lillian could be forceful but this was ridiculous, she was going to need to have a serious talk with her captain about personal boundaries once this whole mess was finished. Turning around her leaves rustled and she looked to Dex who was preparing to treat the Terrans injuries.

“On second thoughts Dex, I think I’m going to stick around a bit longer”