The halls were empty, the ship making an eerie creak as the massive hunk of steel made its way through the void of silent space. There were no windows, no viewing deck near where Lily worked. That was only reserved for the captain and the other staff on the bridge. Lily managed to reach there a few times when the captain wasn’t answering her pagers, but other than that, the outside universe was a luxury rarely given.

Her footsteps echoed through the hollow hallway, metal against hard rubber as she looked around, searching for any sign of someone else. It all felt off, the ship had never been this silent, only the low thrumming buzz of the engine remained, the insistent creaking of metal against metal as if the old ship was groaning from age, the heavy thuds of her boots. She walked down the hall and into the mess area.

The mess was as empty as any other place, there was no food, all of the benches were cleaner than Lily probably ever saw them, she looked behind the counter for any sign of life, finding it as empty as the rest, eerie. She ran her hand against the cold metal, she could taste the faint blandness of the synth cubes, feel the cardboard texture on her tongue. Smell the combined stench of a crew who only got to shower for 10 minutes a week.

A sudden sound brought Lily’s attention to the hallway once more, a deep thudding. Another one, louder, then another. Lily’s body froze as she moved towards the doorway, looking out, down the hallway to find nothing. The thudding came again, this time with a sound of metal bending and cracking from the brig. Her heart leapt in her chest as she slowly moved closer to the thumping.

Metal crunched, bent and shattered under the weight of something. Part of Lily was worried the entire hallway would break open to the cold empty void as she took tentative step after tentative step. Her mind rushing through the different reasons for such a noise. An attack? A pipe exploding? No, that would cause the alarms to go off. Moving closer to the brig Lily’s nostrils were hit with a deep earthy scent as the door in front of her seemed to strain against a force.

Lily’s body shook with fear as the door creaked, metal screaming its final, painful cry as it gave way to a flood of vines. Green, long, strong vines. They were rough to the touch, filling the hallway, surrounding Lily as she let out a scream and tried to run down the hallway again.

Vines followed suit, exploding through the empty halls like a flood as it tore through metal with little resistance. Her legs carried her as quickly as she could as the vines started to wrap around her, tripping her as she rolled onto her back. Her eyes grew wide with a pure primal fear as the mass of green enveloped her.

Lily awoke in the forest once more. She found the natural bedding of the undergrowth to be more comfortable, the earthy tones of the flora around her reminding her of her shop in a weak sense. She slowly stretched, letting her body feel every muscle as she looked to her side. Yawning softly as she stared at the sleeping form of Tara. It seemed like her arm was gonna be a pillow for a little longer.

During that Lily spent her time thinking over what she dreamt of. The scents, the feelings, the experience was too lucid for her liking. Part of her could still feel the vines wrapping around her swallowing her, as if it were still there. Looking at her hand it seemed normal, it’s fleshy tones, smooth skin. That was her hand right? It was supposed to be bones over muscle over skin. Not vines that wrapped around into a facsimile of such a concept.

Lily pondered what happened for a moment, it was unlike most of her other dreams. Sure, she had episodes of being back on the ship, scenes of her working, old repressed memories, that no matter how much she tried to press down. Just… didn’t seem to disappear. Thinking over such memories made her feel the pain, the memories of lost soldiers, of people she couldn’t save.

This was different, it was as if those episodes, those parts of her life were slowly getting corrupted. The ship she spent so much time in slowly breaking apart and those memories seeming so… distant. Even as she felt the pain, it was duller, like a butter knife more than a blade. She looked down at Tara, looked at her hand, bark surrounding the wrist and main part as it grew into five distinct ligaments. Four fingers and a thumb. She felt… nothing. She felt only the strange pride of the lily that adorned the outside of that hand. She rubbed at the petal, sniffed it, and felt it’s calm as she rested back against Tara.

Today was the day. Lily could finally return to her shop after the accident. Her wounds to her abdomen were still not fully healed, the flower patch there making the skin around slightly tight. So she couldn’t over exert herself, which was why there was an affini shadowing her. At least she had the decency to walk with her without a leash around her neck.

Elowin was following along, humming a tune that fell into chord with her rhythm. Lily wondered what brought that kind of emotion. It was a song, a tune, a rhythm, harmony and melody. Something she could hear, yet it could be felt deeper. Like the deep rumble of a ship, or the explosive impact of a torpedo against the hull. It reached deeper than that, further than that.

Lily hummed that melody to herself, she found it was easier to follow the strange curves of the melody, the droning rhythm. She was back on the xenodrugs now, a curtain hiding the brunt of the emotional load, it was calming in a way. The biorhythm could be overstimulating, the music that sent terrans to their knees had a tendency to be overwhelming. Even still, part of her missed that experience, to let the rhythm take care of most of her thoughts and experiences.

Trexa was busy, very busy. Busy busy busy. They enjoyed the work of caring for the flower shop, but hiccups arrived almost as soon as Lily was sent to the medwing. Trexa worried for the terran, the strange furless species had a tendency to harm each other and it took a lot of time for them to recover. That being said, the availability to take care of the shop gave Trexa a lot of time, a lot a lot of time to care for the flora.

Most of the flora when Trexa arrived was terran in nature. Trexa didn’t mind that, Terran plants were pretty and the flower shop was cared for by a terran, but it was so… unison, monotone. Trexa wanted variety, diversity, this was all bland? Bland, is a bad word, but yet apt for how the flower shop was, now the flower shop was, not bland.

The door opened as Trexa skittered forward their companion dress flowing down their sides as the deep blue of their primary color was mixed in with leafy green and small explosions of yellow. The sleevless dress was a little dirtied, the work with soil and water having caused small splotches of discoloration on their dress. It made it look better in Trexa’s eyes, well worked with.

Their mouth moved, chittering escaping their mouth as they welcomed the visitors before stopping up at the sight before them. Lily was back! With an owner? Exciting! The rinan hurried over to the two and gave their best impression of a grin as their ears flicked slightly with excitement, hand moving to grab hand.

Lily was surprised at the agility of the rinan, their ears flickering as they bared their fangs in what she could only assume was a grin. She felt her hand get pulled by the creature as she smiled back and shook it, the chittering language of the Rinans filling the air as the translator worked its magic.

“Lily! You’re back, I’m glad! Is this your new owner? Exciting! I am Trexa Ludium, First Floret. A pleasure!”

Lily’s body froze as Elowin simply started laughing, stars that laugh. Like chittering birdsong deep within a forest. It made Lily’s body stop tensing as she laughed along and pet the rinan. “No, Elowin here is not my owner, she’s a friend and caretaker as I recover. She’s simply with me to ensure I don’t overexert myself or do anything stupid.”

Trexa’s ears flicked again as it bowed slightly to Elowin, happily bouncing on their feet at the joyous laughter of the two and invited them into the shop, closing the door behind them. “We’ve been working on updating the inventory with plants that I personally know of and know how to care for. None of your plants are gone, mind you, that would be a great misfortune for this shop, but I wanted to add something of my own here!”

Lily walked into the earthy, floral and humid shop, she missed. A part of her was squealing with joy at the scents that flooded her. The forest in the hab was enjoyable, but this… this was something else. Moving through both old and new flora, Lily saw how they complimented each other, the gentle sound of flowing water as all the water lines slowly carried supplement water to the plants. She was back, she couldn’t stop smiling.

“We’ve been giving away a few flowers, many regulars asked for you, and when we explained that you were recovering they asked us to tell them when you’re back, and now you are, so I think I’m gonna go and message them straight away!” With that the Rinan disappeared, Lily spotted Serenaia behind the desk, fiddling with her datapad as she looked up and gave that ever gentle smile.

“Lily, I’m so glad to see you recovered, and even bringing Elowin with you? Are you planning on making this shop a park?” Elowin’s vines and leaves rustled at that as Lily looked between the two affini before giving a snort and shaking her head.

“I would love to, but Elowin is here to make sure I’m fine and not overexerting myself. I’m still recovering, but I’m managing fine with some activity. Speaking of which, my hands are itching to start grafting again. How’s the list looking?” Before waiting for the answer, Lily looked up the schedule to look up the grafts that were ordered. Wow… that was… a lot. 10 affini, all having their grafts pushed back.

A knot formed in Lily’s stomach as she looked up at Elowin and Serenaia with a nervous smile, both affini’s vines tightening at the sudden emotional distress of the sophont before she started to organise the appointments over the next few weeks. “No time like the present it seems, I’ll need to make sure everything is up to date in the grafting room, maybe have 3 sessions today, would it be fine if you and Trex take care of the front room?”

Serenaia’s vines curled at the nickname, a wide smile, much more playful, shown on her face as she nodded and pet Lily. “Of course dear, we’ve really enjoyed it while you were gone, but make sure to come out every now and then to say hi to the regulars. I’m sure they’d highly appreciate seeing you safe and well.”

Leaving a blushing Lily behind, Serenaia quickly hurried towards the plants and her floret, leaving the terran and other affini to themselves. Elowin gave a warm smile as her own vine slowly reached down to pet the flustered little thing. Rewarded with a squeak and a soft mewl, she felt her leaves flutter with excitement as she petted more. Lily only made a contested huff before softly sighing and leaning into the vines soft playing against her skin. There was a warmth in the touch that she hadn’t felt before. A few moments later, the vine retracted, the warmth disappearing with it as she let out an indignant whine, blushing as she realized what happened. “L-let’s check out the back, it hasn’t been used in a few days.”

Elowin nodded before following Lily into the room where they officially met for the first time. The seat as she remembered, the utensils not on the table as Lily moves through the cupboards talking to herself. Keeping a record of what is needed in her own mind, interesting. The human psyche was always so fleeting, yet it seemed as though Lily knew with perfect accuracy where everything was or should be. Even seeming to fuzz when she didn’t find solutions where she usually kept them. 

Lily sighed and moved through the different things required for the grafts, she read them a while ago so they were still fresh in her memory. It was clear that even though Serenaia and Trexia were keeping up with the dates, they sometimes misplaced where things should be, it would lessen her flow. Quickly grabbing some solutions from one cupboard, she moved to another to replace them there. It was taking some time, but she’d lose twice that if she wasn’t fully aware of where everything was. If she was back on the ship, that would mean precious seconds lost. Her mind shuddered at the thought as a flood of emotions filled her before being subdued, she sighed and kicked herself slightly before moving to the drawers and stopping at the scalpels.

“Is everything alright dear?” Elowin was upon the terran almost as soon as she felt the disturbance in the girls rhythm, Lily looking over the razor sharp edges with a distant look, was she having a regression, Elowin’s vines tightened as she got ready for Lily to start to breakdown, but it didn’t happen. Instead Lily simply took one of the blades and brought it to the little table she had before looking to Elowin. “I’m fine, this isn’t something I want taken away.”

“Of course dear, but you went through a traumatic moment just days ago. Are you really sure yo-” There was a cold gaze that met Elowin, a gaze that made her tighten slightly as Lily shook her head and returned to finding the rest of her utensils. The rest of the time was used in silence as the first customer walked into the shop.