Loretta Pritchard was crying alone in an escape pod, having just inadvertently escaped the Carrier Rings of Saturn. She clutched her beloved stuffed moth Fluffy to her chest, unable to remember how she got there. Her entire life aboard the Rings seemed to be slowly slipping away from her until she could barely remember it. Just the broad details. That terrified the poor girl more than it honestly should have.

She knew she had been drafted to serve as an Electronic Warfare Officer. She knew that the captain was the nicest person to her on that ship. She knew somebody had tried to hurt Fluffy, and she had run away as the ship was preparing to jump. She didn’t even realize what she was doing until she saw the white flash of the ship leaving.

Now she was stuck alone in the void, unable to do anything but cuddle Fluffy, completely emotionally exhausted. She knew what she suffered from and knew she had had her medications rationed and then ceased altogether. Same with her HRT, which may have something to do with the dissociation as well.

She floated around in the pod, with no gravity to hold her steady, staring at the blinking red SOS button on the radio. If she pressed it, it would send out a message on all emergency frequencies that she needed help. Given the region of space, she was in, that help almost certainly was coming from the Affini.

She didn’t know why it had her so nervous; perhaps it was the propaganda that featured ‘pets’ with dazed distant expressions, only lighting up when presented with their owners. Perhaps it was the Accord's own propaganda that depicted them as man-eating demons from another galaxy. Whatever the answer was, she didn’t even know if she cared at this point.

It would be so easy to just wait for the air to run out on her little escape pod and calmly die in her sleep holding Fluffly. It would be so easy. Hell, the pods were designed to emit carbon monoxide as oxygen levels ran out so that she could die peacefully in her sleep rather than suffer. Well, given the Accord, it was probably more of an unintended benefit of corner cutting somewhere, but she couldn’t be assed to care.

She looked Fluffy in her cute, distant eyes and sighed. “You wouldn’t want that for me, would ya, girl?”

She pressed the button and waited.

It was several more hours before the bright flash of a jump drive filled her vision, blinding her for a moment, and she saw the giant Affini vessel. She had seen a group of them before while on the Rings. While the memory was hazy and distant, she remembered being stunned at how the smallest ship in the Affini flotilla absolutely dwarfed the Rings, herself one of the largest ships in the Terran Cosmic Navy.

Not that it existed anymore, anyway. She couldn’t remember why the ship had even joined the rebels; what she could vaguely remember of her conversations with the captain indicated that the Captain didn’t even want to do this. She always talked about how pointless it was and how she shouldn’t tell anyone else, but only after she was properly inebriated.

It was strange how the only person she could remember from the ship was the captain. Whenever she tried to think about anyone else, she felt a stomach-churning dread and her mind seemed to go, ‘no dear, you shouldn’t think about that.’ It was probably the PTSD she knew she had, and she supposed her time on the ship didn’t help.

As she was thinking, the vessel seemed to gently wrap her escape pod in vines, pulling her in slowly. Hopefully, they wouldn’t take Fluffy. That would hurt. They wouldn’t do that, right? She shook her head and waited as her pod was latched inside. Soon the pod door behind her opened, and an Affini entered.

She knew the Affini were big, but she didn’t know they were this big. They were twice as tall as the tallest human Loretta had ever seen and seemed to be able to shrink to enter the small escape pod. The Affini in question had some kind of cherry blossoms for hair, and those same pink blossoms spread down her body, along with berries fluttering from some of her vines.

“Oh dear, have you been crying?” The Affini asked, pulling the girl in close. “Did something happen?”

The Affini’s voice was melodic and sweet, and her scent intoxicating. Loretta couldn’t help but cry again, not that she could even be sure why. “I don’t know why… I don’t remember. All I remember is somebody tried to hurt fluffy and….”

She blinked for a moment and realized who was holding her. Terror seeped back into her bones as she looked up at the Affini holding her. Her tears grew more rapid as her heart rate spiked. “Y-you aren’t going to take Fluffy, right? She didn’t do anything wrong… I was the dumb one who got drafted and then was forced to join the rebels. I-i don’t remember anything from the ship. I uh…”

The Affini shushed Loretta, shushing her. “Well… It will be a bit complicated, dear, but since you ran away and came to us willingly, we may have a bit more leeway. But I assure you, we would never think about taking your Fluffy from you.” 

The Affini patted Loretta on the head, followed by her patting Fluffy.

Loretta felt like she should be scared. At least, that was what her brain was telling her. But her body was far too tired to care at the moment, so she just accepted the headpats and let herself doze off. What was the worst that could happen? She was oh so exhausted and really didn’t want to fight it right now. She might regret it when she woke up, but… whatever.

* * *

Loretta woke up in a soft bed, softer than any she had slept in before. The sheets were soft, the mattress felt like it was barely there, Fluffy was pressed against her chest, and she could feel herself not really wanting to wake up. Was it really worth it at the end of the day?

She dozed around for a bit before finally deciding to sit up and look around. The room was definitely not her room on the Rings… not that she really remembered what it looked like. Though she did get vague impressions that it was way less comfy than this.

She began to flit through her memories from yesterday. There was a large wall if she went back far enough, but then right after that, there was a hazy memory of an… Affini…

WAIT, SHE HAD TURNED HERSELF INTO THE AFFINI? OH FUCK OH FUCK, OH FUCK, OH FUCK, OH FUCK. Her heart began beating faster as she looked around, shooting out of bed and keeping Fluffy close. She had to get out of here, she had to get out of here… nononono they couldn’t take her, they wouldn’t take fluffy from her, they couldn’t take fluffy from her, they couldn’t take fluffy from her.

Loretta barely paid attention to the beeping until she felt a prick against her neck, causing her to jerk and tug at it. She had a collar! Oh no, they were going to turn her into one of those dazed-out pets. She was doomed.

She felt the warmth flood from the site of the prick, flowing from there up into her head, and… oh, the scary thoughts went away. All her negative thoughts and panic spiraling disappeared like a warm chemical blanket. She fell onto the floor face-first. Luckily it was made of carpet. It didn’t hurt much. Wow, this stuff was strong… no wonder all those ‘florets’ looked all dazed out.

Hmm? The door opened, and she heard a voice. It was calm and melodic and pierced right through her drug-induced haze.

“Oh, poor petal.” She said, sending out vines that quickly wrapped Loretta up into a hug. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up! I was busy getting all your paperwork from the Archaeobureaucrats and didn’t think to check in before I left. You were just sleeping soooo soundly.”

Oh, it was the same Affini as before. She had the same smell, at least. And she moved the same way and sang the same way… hmm. She could barely even piece together why she was scared before. That was rather bizarre.

“Well, I guess I might as well tell you while you are calm. I am Cherry Adaira, Third Bloom, and I’m going to be your caretaker for the time being! We are just gonna be keeping you until we can be certain that you can take care of yourself, so don’t worry your cute little head one bit.” The Affini said.

A question surfaced as Loretta processed this thought even through the haze. While she would normally deny it, she knew that; she had a very strong impression that she was quite bad at taking care of herself, at least on the Rings.

“W-what if it’s determined that I can’t take care of myself?” The dazed human asked.

The plant smiled, but this wasn’t the usual calm, ditzy smile Cherry usually seemed to have, at least from the human's limited experience with the Affini. This was predatory. It caused Loretta to shiver… she would usually tell herself it was fear, but all of that had been boiled out of her. It was a different feeling, one she really wasn’t interested in addressing.

“Well, you would be referred to the Human Domestication Program. I’m certain you would make a very good pet cutie!”

For some reason, that statement took her by surprise; as such, her dazed mind could process it for what it was without all that extra stuff, like the cultural context that made things complicated. For whatever reason, it felt exciting to Loretta. However, soon that brief moment was over, and she shoved the thought out of her mind.

“I-i uh don’t want to be a pet, ma’am.”

“Well, that’s a shame! However, if you are a good girl.” The predator above her said, running a finger along her cheek, causing a shiver to run down her spine. “You won’t have to worry about that one bit!”

Right, good. She just had to be a uh… g-g… well behaved, and she would be all fine. Sure she wasn’t capable of fearing anything right now, much less that predatory glare, but she was more than comfortable lying here for the time being.

“Oh, are you sleepy, petal?” The plant asked, receiving a nod from the human.

“Well, let's put you back to bed; we can give you the tour of the Hab when you wake up!”

Soon Loretta was lowered down into bed and tucked in. She went out like a light.