The terran was laying in one of the medwing rooms in the affini quarter. Her form is still, silent, except the soft breathing of her masked face. The ventilator ensures a steady supply of sedatives and oxygen in order to ensure the highest form of comfort to the sophont. Her stomach was bare, a small flower growing from the wound that had pierced her skin and insides. The gallery was filled with affini, a hum that resonated with the walls. It was the sound of blame, responsibility, failure. A sophont was hurt under their care, they needed to fix what had caused the hurt.

Elowin sat off to the side as the other affini discussed security measures and proper procedure relating to newly captured terrans. Vines twisting and wrapping around each other as every department starts to explain what they did wrong. The murmur soon disappeared in the background as her eyes fixed on the body in the other room. She was the last line of defense for the girl, and she’d failed her. A vine reached to entwine itself with one of her own as her light came to her side.

“You can’t blame yourself for this one Elowin, there was supposed to be no danger to Lily, and you did all you could in the moment. If you weren’t there, we might have dealt with the death of a sophont, not the injury of one.”

She knew the words to be true, but she did fail. She should have convinced Lily to not finish the visits. She should have urged Lily to wait until more security could arrive to ensure nothing like this would happen. She should have walked in first, so that Lily was not exposed.

“We both know that isn’t entirely true. I am as much to blame as the others here, I was requested to help escort her and to ensure her safety while traversing the medical wing. You can see the result yourself.”

The vine tightened, the murmur stopping as the door opened. The newcomer enters the examination room with a myriad of vines created for precision within sophont care. Their vines were bare save for a crown of pure white flowers that adorned their “head”.

“The terran’s condition is stable. The puncture wound was messy, and harmed the intestines of the subject, yet did not show any sign of permanent or debilitating damage.” There was a sigh of relief from the ensemble, stressed rhythms slowly returning to a more mellow tune as Echona and Elowin looked at the resting form of Lily once more. “Her mental trauma however is more… severe, due to past experiences, it seems to have caused a chain reaction in her mind. Scans and evaluations have shown signs of further harm to her own mind. Higher doses of class F xenodrugs is recommended. My personal opinion, we should consider immediate domestication.”

Elowin’s vines tightened at the mention of domestication. Her worry for the girl’s mental health resounds in Echona as the two wrap themselves around each other. Her mind reeling with this new information. She knew that Lily had a bad background, being a medic on a federalist ship was shown to be one of the more traumatic jobs as the action of ejecting sick patients was common. Her mind once more wandered to how she could have stopped this all. Comforting vines enveloped her, calming her and sending rhythms of calm into her as Elona stood in the two affini’s place.

“We’ll request the transfer of Lily Aveler’s residence, to our hab unit for now. As the primary contact for Lily, we’d like to request the redesignation to the caretaker. Any objections?”

The merged entity looked around the room, no one voiced any concerns. Good, they really didn’t want to deal with having to argue for the care of the human. The room eventually returned back to discussing the ways in which to improve security. The doctor pressed something on their datapad before looking at Elona.

“I’ve assigned Lily Aveler to be discharged under your care. I’ll add the required xenodrugs and afix the proper equipment to ensure that she won’t suffer if need be. Like I urged before, do please convince her to be domesticated sooner rather than later. I expect her to be in a traumatic state for the next few days as well, so keep her away from your floret if possible.”

Elona nodded, eventually leaving as the discussion moved to how to handle the attacker. Elowin’s core thrummed a painful rhythm as they left the room, the two disentangling as the worry grew too strong. Echona moving to wrap vines around her roommate in comfort. The gentle thrum of her core filling, trying to convince her partner to calm. Her flowers wilted slightly as it didn’t seem to help.

“I’ll go and distract Tara, perhaps find a restaurant to eat at while you take care of Lily’s transfer. Perhaps we can modify your greenroom into a bedroom of sorts for the girl. She might find the different flora pleasing.”

Elowin was silent for a moment, her core thrumming a morose rhythm as her colorful vines turned shades blander. Color draining as vines tightened, her face was neutral, betraying no human emotions. Soon she responded, the melody arising from her a painful, discordant tone, the grating of metal on metal.

“Very well… if you believe that is the best course of action. I’ll send Merana a message about my room needing a redesign. You go and reassure little Tara. She must be worried sick over both of us.”

The two wrapped their vines tighter before separating. In a way, Elowin understood how a floret felt when separated from their owner. With Echona walking down the hall, her biorhythm no longer accompanying hers, she felt alone. As if her one half had suddenly left. Her flowers wilted more, dirt, frost, she wasn’t good at this at all. She thought she might have been able to… but now?

A croaking sigh escaped her as she moved towards the main desk, forms upon forms piled on each other, a welcome distraction. Slowly sifting through the paperwork, she tried not to think upon her mistakes, her blame.

Tara sat in her hab unit. Well, Mistress’s. Well, Mistresses’. She was on the couch watching an old terran show, it was of course the floret cuts. Tara didn’t mind, nor care, they were fun to watch, even when some scenes jumped in story, or a clear overdubbing happened when someone said a bad word. She wasn’t watching, more than letting it take her mind from how quickly her mistress hurried from the hab. Apparently something work related had happened that she needed to take care of.

The hab unit’s door soon opened, her mistress’s form slithering through the opening. There was a leap in her heart, the rhythm of her mistress returning to her as she grinned and ran towards its source. Her steps slightly uneven as her body moved faster than her mind could react. She easily tripped, but she knew vines would grab her before she fell. As if she could tell fate, vines finally wrapped her, keeping her from falling.

“Hello little one, how about we go and get something to eat.”

Tara grinned and nodded enthusiastically as she was picked up. Her mind wandered to Lily, wondering when she’ll finally visit once more.