The alarms were blaring, and Jackie was scared. The suspected traitor on board had finally made their move.

Damnit, not even a week before I planned to bail.

She could hear the dull thumps of footsteps alongside the loud cracking of gunfire, terran shouting and affini condescension. Jackie held her gun close with shaking hands, and watched the entrance to her hideaway, waiting for the vines that never came. Her radio came to life with a burst of static and the armorer’s voice:

“All remaining hands, make your way to the starboard escape pods, we’re abandoning—”

The instructions abruptly cut off, and was quickly replaced by another speaker.

“Alright cuties. Surely by now you’ve realized that any further resistance is futile, and that none of you will make it to those pods in time. Take a deep breath for me, darlings, and we’ll come take you to your new homes.”

 

The affini’s message was followed by a soft hissing sound, as a pale blue mist filled the air, rushing out of the vents. Jackie dropped her gun and scrambled for her gas mask, but her skin started fizzing and her eyes rolled back and she had just enough awareness to aim for her makeshift mattress before her world collapsed.

 

…………………

 

The alarms had shut off, and Jackie was scared. The Stellar Horizon had gone silent, and the mist had cleared up. She didn’t dare touch her radio, for fear of what might be listening. The power core had cycled down, and it was starting to get cold.

Somehow, her snoring hadn’t attracted any attention, given that she was still in her hideout, and not in the vines of a drug-happy plant.

 

She was incredibly glad that none of the crew had found her either, in this hidey-hole she’d made for herself in a gap between some pipes she’d found while replacing a valve. Slacking off while on the job was already tantamount to treason in the eyes of the captain, let alone coming here when the affini arrived.

 

Sighing, Jackie roused herself, shaking off the last of the mist’s influence, and started crawling towards the rest of the ship. She had no idea how long it would be before the affini scuttled this scrap heap, and she wasn’t going to be aboard when that happened.

 

Step one: get to the escape pods. They should still be there, the gas came right after the call to abandon ship.

Step two: get the fuck out of this war. Maybe Duri? Jackie hadn’t heard any reports of the Affini Compact being that far out from Terra… yet.

 

That’s the plan then.

 

The first problem was the lights. She’d been asleep for the better part of a day, apparently, as both the main lighting and the backup lighting had gone out, and with the power core down, there was no way she’d be able to get them back on without being noticed. Luckily, she still had her gun, and more importantly, the torch slotted into the shoulder stock. Turning it on, she got her first look around since the battle began.

It was…

Remarkably tidy, all things considered. The occasional blue splatter on the walls marked inconvenienced affini, but that was about all that remained of any combatants. Not much point bringing the weapon with her then, for all the good it seemed to do anyone else.

 

Stalking through the darkened halls, torchlight flicking from side to side, Jackie could swear that she wasn’t alone. The affini vessel that captured them had its vines constricting the hull, and Jackie shivered under their gaze whenever she had to pass a window.

 

The second problem, she realized, was that the vines had made it inside the ship itself. Pale and thin, they hung from the ceiling and draped across doorways like strands of a spider’s web. Jackie dared not disturb them, even trying to avoid illuminating them, and taking a longer path when she didn’t trust herself to evade their gently drifting grasp.

 

Her fears justified themselves when a shift in the vines grasping the ship caused her to stumble, and brush her back against one of those dangling vines. With a muttered curse, she scrambled to release her arms, and swore again as she watched her jacket get dragged off into the darkness.

 

 

Now they definitely knew she was here. Abandoning her pretense at stealth, she made a beeline directly in the direction of the pods, flashlight flickering across the halls to try and find a safe path. There were only a few more corridors to pass through before she had her freedom. Taking off her shirt, she tossed it at a veil of vines blocking another doorway, sacrificing it to open the last path she needed.

 

Twisting herself sideways to fit through the gap, she held her breath and squeezed herself through, trying to keep the light on the vines to aid her. Falling through into the room beyond, Jackie let out a sigh of relief, which turned into a muffled shriek as she felt her lifeline, the torch, get pulled out of her hand and thrown against a wall hard enough to shatter it.

 

The affini’s voice thrummed from all around her, and Jackie whipped her head in every direction, trying to pinpoint the sound, to no avail.

 

Jackie pushed herself away, crawling until her back was up against a wall. The contact would have been comforting, if it wasn’t sapping the warmth out of her body.

No…
Not when I’m so close…

 

Wrapping her arms around herself, she curled up and tried not to start sobbing.

Every rustle and tap from the approaching affini drew another panicked breath out of her lungs.

 

“P-please. Don’t take me away.” she managed to choke out between breaths, before flinching when the first vine crept over her shoulder from behind.

 

 

“No, I -”

 

The vines continued to encroach upon her, slithering and twisting around her back. Jackie could feel the affini looking her in the eyes, but she could see nothing but the inky blackness of an abandoned vessel.

 

“I am going to take you away, because I already know just what you want. You were done with this silly rebellion of yours long ago, weren’t you, my little moth?”

 

“H-how could you know that?” Jackie whimpered.

“Because if you truly believed in your own independence, you would have fought and failed with the rest. Your light of hope for a free Terra has gone out, and now you’re curled up in the dark. But there’s no need to worry, little one, I can light your way forwards now.”

At her words, a dim glow emanated from in front of Jackie. A small luminescent flower, blooming on the tip of a vine, cast an oil-and-water sheen over the large, stained-glass eyes that had snuck up on her in the dark. They were both terrifying beyond comprehension, and yet still the most beautiful things Jackie had ever seen.

 

“Please. I know that I need help, but I don’t know why.”

Wrapping vines around her limbs, pulling her off the ground and into an embrace, Jackie felt an ember of warmth for the first time since the attack began. She slumped, going limp, but she wasn’t allowed to fall.

 

The affini raised her glowing flower towards Jackie’s face, brushing past her chin, and running over her lips. She poked it with her tongue and her mouth filled with sweetness, her vision filled with the same rainbow light that had been her world for the past few minutes, and Jackie fell into a blissful unconsciousness once more.

 

…………………