One ambitious Terran engineer’s scheme to break out of her class leads to the creation of new life: sentient, yes, but not sapient… at least, not by design. What is life to a machine that no longer has any purpose, and how will one eager Affini help her answer that question?

Rosa Ceaea, Fourth Bloom, has just one job – understanding how best to domesticate this first crop of cotyledons. Not only that, she’s been given an adorable floret to care for, one who’s so utterly enraptured with her. So why can’t she figure out the disease that’s killing her?

Ivy’s an independent sophont, working away in her lab - but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t enjoy indulging in some ‘interspecies research’ with her coworkers, from time to time.