So once again Sarah was alone, left to stew in her own thoughts. Why did she have to pick now of all times to start getting worked up over the past like that? It’s not like she could do anything about it. Even if it was all her fault, even if she deserved to- Damn it! She was doing it again. Getting stuck in her own head when she had far more important things to be dealing with. She was being held prisoner. It didn’t matter that her prison was far more luxurious than anything she had ever experienced whilst she was free, or that her warden was a nice plant lady who seemed to genuinely be trying her best to look after her. A gilded cage was still a cage, and she was not one for being locked up. 

Hopping down from her chair clutching the now empty bowl she made her way back into the kitchen, getting up on the stool to reach the compiler. Sarah briefly considered trying to use this thing to make herself a weapon of some kind but quickly banished the thought. Willow had mentioned that it had some safety features. So it probably wouldn’t let her make anything dangerous and it would probably report her if she tried. She placed her bowl back into the compiler, silently cursing the machine for being a narc and watched as the bowl vanished in a flash of pale blue light. Even if this thing could make a weapon for her, anything she was familiar with wouldn’t even come close to threatening an Affini, at least if what happened on the vengeance was anything to go by. No, if she was gonna defend herself she was gonna have to get creative.

That’s when a devilish thought entered into Sarah’s mind, Willow had mentioned her workshop before, if she was gonna find anything that might stand up to an Affini in the hab, that was the best place for her to look. Moving back into the livingroom Sarah scanned her surroundings. There didn’t seem to be any kind of surveillance in place, at least none she could recognise. Besides, this was supposedly Willow's home, it would be weird if she had cameras set up inside her own house. Sarah approached the door to the workshop, her mind drifting back to the tour that Willow had given her. Staying out of the workshop was pretty much the plant's sole request. Was she really about to violate her trust, do the one thing she had been asked not to do?  Sarah hesitated, she could still stop if she wanted, but then she remembered, remembered who brought her here, remembered who was keeping her prisoner. A pang of anger and resolve flashed across her body at the thought. Steeling herself she opened the door.

The inside of the workshop was not what Sarah was expecting. She had anticipated a workshop like the one’s she was familiar with, only several times more advanced but what she found was more like a……..cybergreenhouse. Organic and plant based components blended seamlessly with inorganic materials to make what Sarah could only assume were some kind of living machines. Devices that appeared to be as much grown as they were manufactured were littered across various desks and workbenches. Sarah couldn’t even begin to guess what most of these things were for, let alone how they worked. A sense of awe washed over her, she felt like she could spend a lifetime in here just trying to figure out how it all worked, but she didn’t have a lifetime. She began to search through the workshop, hoping that willow kept some kind of journal or development log. After some time of searching, being careful to disturb the room as little as possible, Sarah finally found what she was looking for, or at least what she hoped she was looking for. A large handwritten book was tucked away inside of the drawers in a workbench, but unfortunately it was written in some strange flowing script, probably the native tongue of the Affini. Letting out a dejected sigh Sarah leaned against a wall, this book was gonna be useless if she couldn’t read it and it’s not like she could just ask Willow to translate for her. That was when it hit her, the pad Willow had given her! Maybe that had some way of translating the book. Rushing back through to the living room, book in hand Sarah scooped up the Datapad. It only took her a few minutes of searching on something called “The Overnet '' to find an Affini to Terran standard dictionary. Eagerly she set to work translating the book.

Less than an hour later Sarah had thrown the pad across the room in frustration. She never had much of a mind for languages and Affini seemed to be as complex as they come. Despite the assistance of the dictionary, finding translations that made any kind of sense was a nightmare. At this point she had only managed to translate the first paragraph of the book. Even then she was only about 60% sure it was anything even close to right. Scooping up her tablet Sarah marched back into the workshop, hoping that getting a look at some of the devices up close would help her understand.

Her eyes were met with the same dizzying array of strange and esoteric devices, their functions just as unclear as their inner workings. Picking one at random Sarah clambered up on a chair to get a better look at the machine. A dark metallic green sphere sat upon a tripod. Numerous vines connected with the sphere at various points and at its top lay an enticing red button. Seeing no other option to understand this device better Sarah reached out her hand and pushed the button. The machine came to life letting out the distinctive humm of a strong electrical charge. Alongside the machine several screens flickered on as well. From what Sarah could tell they seemed to be monitoring the device, though given they were all in Affini she couldn’t be sure. With its activation providing no more insight beyond the device having some kind of electrical component, Sarah picked up the device, examining it to see if there were more buttons or switches she could press. This more intensive examination proved to be poorly thought out however, as soon the monitors began to flash red, letting out loud beeps and buzzes that could only be warnings of danger. Panic flashed across Sarah’s mind and she hastily set the device back down on the tripod, hoping that being returned to its original position would calm the device. It did not. Seeing that the warning of danger was as loud as ever Sarah reached out her mechanical hand to press the button at its top, thinking to just turn off the thing completely. The second her hand touched the device however she was met with a bright spark that leapt from the machine to her, sending a searing bolt of pain through her arm and up her body, causing her to recoil back, falling off her chair in the process. Recovering from her fall Sarah looked up at the machine, smoke now rising from its surface as the monitors gave no readings. Fuck, how the hell was she going to explain this to Willow? It would be pretty obvious that this was her fault, shit. Sarah quickly realised that getting caught breaking the rules was the least of her problems, as she noticed her right arm hanging limp by her side, stubbornly refusing to move.

Fuck. 

*      *      *

The moment Willow was out of the hab she raced to the ships reactor. Her humanoid form disintegrating to allow for freer movement. Vines shot out, searching for any purchase they could find as Willow pulled herself along at great speed, expertly weaving through and over the crowds of people as she rushed to her destination. Willow couldn’t help but feel anger bubble up from her core. She couldn’t count how many times she had petitioned for the ship's outdated reactor to be replaced and every time she was met with the same response. ‘This is a heritage ship’ they would cry ‘you might as well have us scrap the ship entirely.’ Honestly, sometimes her species’s penchant for eccentricity frustrated even her. They did have a small point, the Aurelium was an ancient ship and the whole point of restoring her to her original specifications was so that she could serve as a piece of living history. Yet that came with some significant drawbacks. Not the least of which was her captain using what amounted to a flying museum in capturing Terran feralists. Something that WIllow repeatedly insisted could be left to the actual war ships. Yet her captain would insist she was simply. ‘Doing her duty as an Affini.’

Finally arriving at the ship's reactor she was met with a deeply troubling sight. As chief engineer, Willow had three other technicians working as her subordinates and when she rushed into the reactor room she found all three of them rushing around trying to solve the problem with the reactor. Willow slammed two of her vines together, a loud clap ringing out throughout the room. In an instant all attention was focused on her. “Byssum give me an update, I need details.”

A tall humanoid Affini, whose body was scattered with tufts of cotton like fibre spoke up. “Ma’am! The reactor's Matter-Antimatter ratio is slipping out of balance, It’s already reached 1:1.1. We’ve tried to run diagnostics but they haven't turned up any results!” The panic in Byssums' voice was obvious and with good reason. Any deviation from the standard 1:1 ratio was a serious problem and by the sounds of it things were only getting worse.

“Alright listen up people! Vivian, Darach.” Willow motioned to the two other Affini in the room. “I want the two of you to run a manual check on the flow regulators. If you find anything, report it to me. Byssum, I need you to stay here and monitor the reactor, if the ratio slips above 1:1.3 start the emergency shut down. If that doesn’t work we’ll need to eject the reactor.”

The three other Affini each set to work on their assigned task. For her part Willow went to run checks on the magnetic containment chamber for the Anti-matter, theorising that a fault there may be the cause of their issue. Willow worked tirelessly, examining over every inch of the containment chamber for even the slightest hint of damage or malfunction. All the while her Datapad beeped regularly with updates from Byssum, each one informing her that the reactor was getting steadily closer to the 1.3 mark. Her foliage bristled with nervousness, she had to figure this out soon, she needed to do this.

Yet more time passed and the deadline grew closer with each passing moment, soon she got a notification from Vivian and Darach. They hadn’t found any faults in the flow regulators. She ordered the pair to go and Assist Byssum and went back to her work. If the regulators weren’t the issue the problem was almost certainly coming from here. She estimated she only had about 5 minutes left to find and fix the problem. 

Finally she found what she was looking for! One of the magnetic nodes had slipped out of alignment and was allowing a small stream of anti-matter to flow into the reactor chamber. After correcting the alignment of the node Willow rushed back into the reactor chamber, grabbing hold of the monitor to see if her fix had worked. A wave of relief crashed over her as she saw the Matter-Antimatter ratio of the reactor hold steady, then begin to drop back to normal level. Despite the emergency being resolved however something still bugged her. An issue like that should have been picked up on a diagnostic, so either her team had lied to her, a highly unlikely option, or something was very wrong with their systems. She made a mental note to run checks on their computer systems the next time she got a chance. “I assume the three of you can handle things from here?”

Byssum spoke up first. “Yes Ma’am! And sorry for bringing you here on such short notice, we know you just took a floret but it really was an emergency. How is your new pet? Is she as cute as the captain seems to think?”  

Willow was usually quite good at keeping her emotions in check, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to not broadcast her annoyance with her biorhythms. Lillian really didn’t know when to quit and it seemed she was determined to do all in her power to force Willow to take Sarah in as her pet. “The girl isn’t my pet, she’s my ward. I’m only looking after her until a permanent home can be found for her.” Willow strode to the door, stopping just before she left. “Oh, and if you see the captain again, tell her to stop gossiping about my personal life.”  

Willow pulled out her pad and sent a message to Sarah, letting the girl know she was on her way home.

*      *      *

Sarah was frantically pacing around the hab unit, her right arm still hanging limp by her side. Not only had she broken into Willows workshop and damaged some of her machines, she had also managed to break her own arm in the process. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. What the hell was she going to do now?!? It’s not like she could fix her arm or hide what she had done before Willow got home. Oh shit, what was Willow going to do to her? She had broken pretty much the only rule willow had set out. Was this the moment she got sent to the mines?! Or worse implanted with some Affini seed so a little Affinilying could grow from her corpse?!? The panic racing through her body grew with every passing second. Sarah was only broken out of her thought spiral when she heard the buzz of the datapad, still laying on the floor where she had tossed it.

Picking up the pad her panic turned to pure fear as she read the message. Willow would be home any moment now. Her breathing became rapid and shallow as her mind raced a mile a minute. There had to be some way out of this, there had to be something she could do. There had to be, but what?!? She couldn’t overpower the thing without some kind of weapon and she wouldn’t be able to hide what she had done. When Willow saw what had happened it would be off to the dungeons with her, never to see the light of day again. Despite being entirely mechanical her legs began to feel weak as her body stiffened, paralysed by fear knowing that she had no way to escape her fate. 

Sarah felt like she was about to shatter into a million pieces, any solution she thought of was quickly dismissed as impossible, the one inevitable conclusion staring her in the face. Her legs finally gave out from under her as she dropped to the floor. Soon she pulled her knees up to her chest and held herself tightly with her one functional arm. She desperately tried not to cry. All she could do now was sit here and wait for the inevitable. Tears began to stream down her face.