Chapter 13: CH13: A Garden in Her Face

Small bioluminescent creatures were the only entities casting light across the cylindrical hole that bored into the sandy ground as deep as one’s vision could see. Despite being a residential and garden zone, there were neither coral spires nor any outcroppings. Instead, all of the buildings were carved into the sides of the hole. The carved facades evoked images of fish and plants entwined. Seagrass vines crept across the edges of these carvings, adding color to the otherwise achromatic stonework. Along the sides of the hole were wooden railings, allowing sophonts with physical disabilities easy access to the crevice.

 

Hiren tugged on her owner’s vine as she swam through the cool water. Blue light shone on her smooth skin and shadows from other sophonts darting back and forth danced across her body. The light was dimmer at this depth, as the creatures who lived below 800 meters did not like the harsh light of the sun, instead being used to the gentle light of bioluminescent plankton and lava deposits— Or, on the Cladophor, the simulated lava deposits. The same deposits warmed Hiren the deeper she swam into the blue hole.

 

“Hey sweetheart— we should probably wait for Amida, I don’t think she knows her way around the Cladophor quite yet,” Melvol said to his floret, who was tugging on his vine to coax him into moving faster.

 

Hiren came to an abrupt stop, almost causing Melvol to crash into her, “Oh!” She said, “You’re right!” Hiren turned to her owner and nodded her head. Melvol smiled.

 

“You’re too cute, Hiren.”

 

Hiren blushed and pressed her head into her owner’s chest. Melvol embraced the Mielyu. “Hush, master! Someone’s gonna hear!”

 

“Let them hear, petal,” Melvol cooed, wrapping his vines around Hiren as the pair floated in place. The Mielyu maid happy little yips as their Affini cradled them.

 

Hiren perked up and reached for her arm. Around the Mielyu’s bicep was a small pouch that held her communicator and a booklet— or, at least, it was supposed to be holding a booklet. “Aww Master, I forgot the flower gifting guide!”

 

“Like you haven’t memorized exactly what you wanted by now, miss pre-planning,” Melvol said, poking his floret’s cheek with a vine.

 

Hiren’s blushy face tightened into a pout. “I do, I do, but I wanted a copy for Amida!” Hiren grumbled, “But I guess she can just use the link I sent her on her communicator.”

 

Melvol reached a vine into his chest and retrieved a booklet bound in green then handed it to his floret. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I got it.”

 

Hiren hugged the book against her chest and smiled up at her owner. “Oh wow! Thanks, Master!” She beamed. Her master was always on top of things.

 

“Hey, you two.”

 

Hiren cocked her head to the side to see Amida free-floating in the water, her dark feathers seemed to shimmer in the blue light of the phytoplankton.

 

“Hi Amida!” Hiren said. The pair swam to each other and embraced in a hug. Hiren ran her hands through Amida’s feathers, feeling the soft silky surfaces between her fingers. Amida let out a few gentle coos. She was so cute. Hiren nuzzled into her neck, Amida’s chest plumage tickling her chin.

 

Amida giggled and rubbed her hands down Hiren’s smooth back. “Heh— hey, Hiren,” Amida giggled, “Whatcha’ up to?”

 

“We were just waiting here for you! Are you excited to see the xenodrug garden?”

 

“I am, I haven’t been this deep before, though,” Amida said, spinning around and gazing at the lip of the blue hole. “It’s a little dark.”

 

“Your eyes will get used to it,” Melvol said as he wrapped a vine around his pet and pulled her close.

 

“It does get darker, though!” Hiren said, pressing her body against her master.

 

“You can hold my vine if you want,” Melvol said, smiling at Amida. The Terran took the Affini’s vine and returned the smile. Almost as soon as she clasped her hands around the appendage, Melvol shot off into the depths of the blue hole, Hiren still clutched against his chest. The Mielyu nuzzled her face into his vines, feeling the warmth from his core against her cheek. His fresh scent flooded her olfactory receptor, a scent laced with a trigger causing her haustoric implant to release a light dosage of class-E drugs into her bloodstream. Her muscles relaxed, thoughts of everything but her master’s touch leaking from her brain. The floret let loose a whimper, prompting her owner to stroke her back.

 

The trio reached a large cylindrical greenhouse attached to the wall via a pair of wooden plant-tech arms. The walls were a spider web of windows covered inside and outside in vines, coral, and algae. Hiren could see through a few of the vines, spying the pillar in the center that both provided warmth and diffused minerals into the water for the plants. The Mielyu let go of her owner’s vine and swam towards the structure, gesturing for Amida to follow.

 

“C’mon!” Hiren called.

 

“Wait—” Amida glanced back at Melvol. The Affini waved at her. “Are we allowed to go in without an Affini?”

 

“I have a universal access card! I work here from time to time,” Hiren said, slipping into the greenhouse. Her tail fluttered behind her. Amida followed the Mielyu in.

 

The room opened up into a vertical botanical garden filled with vines, algae, and seagrass. Aquatic flowers and bulbs popped from every inch of the room. A central column glowed orange, surrounded by a cage to keep sophonts from injuring themselves. That same glow provided a dim light to the room, blanketing the plants in a cozy warm ambience.

 

“So— these flowers are engineered to convert heat to energy,” Hiren said, swimming up to a blue flower and touching its soft petals. “You should be careful here by the way, these are all xenodrugs, and most of them are supposed to be controlled by Affini.”

 

Amida nodded and looked around. The woman was in awe at the sheer amount of plants crammed into such a small room.

 

Hiren cracked open the green book she was holding, flipping through a few pages. The book Hiren was holding was Decemviros Florilegium, a guide to the traditional floret and owner romance language of plant gifting. Complex combinations of colors, breeds, and arrangements could be used to convey a message to one’s owner via only a collection of plants. It was a language all Affini knew just in case a sophont was ever to gift them a bouquet. Many of these had to do with Xenodrugs and were a way for florets to tell their owners exactly what they wanted to be done to them through a non-verbal code.

 

“Hello there, cutie. Are you unaccompanied? I may chaperone if you do not have your Affini with you,” An Affini said to Amida.

 

“I—I’m independent!” Amida choked, her face beet red.

 

“She’s with me, Aponaga, ma’am!” Hiren said, swimming over to Amida and the Affini. She was a large, purple Affini covered in algae that burst into small yellow flowers which fluttered as she kicked her faux-fin through the water.

 

“Oh, hello Hiren,” Aponaga said, “Nice to see you out and about. Care to introduce your friend?”

 

“This is Amida Lother, independent,” Hiren said, taking Amida’s hand. Amida gave a small bow to the Affini.

 

“Nice to meet you, Amida. My name is Aponaga Harmut, fourth bloom. It is uncommon that we see Terrans around the Cladophor, but with minor bio-modding, many of our xenodrugs can be used on other species, I expect yours is no different.”

 

“Thank you, ma’am!” Amida said, “Do you do the bio modding here or is it something I have to do at home?”

 

“Generally we do not want inexperienced xenodrug botanists playing around with them, so we do them on-site unless you are licensed,” Aponaga said with a nod, “But if your Affini is a hobbyist, you can take one home and request they modify it for you. The process would involve splicing it with other plants and diluting the flow or production of the drug carrier with another element.”

 

“Okay, I’m independent, but I do have an Affini friend who is a burgeoning xenodrug botanist.”

 

Aponaga nodded. She didn’t respond, but she had an almost imperceptible smirk pulling at the corners of her wooden mask. “Let me know if you need anything, Amida. I’m sure Hiren here could more than help you, though.”

 

Aponaga swam off, giving Hiren a gentle pat on the head. The Mielyu’s fins wiggled in response.

 

“Hey, Amida?” Hiren prodded.

 

“Mhm?”

 

“Are you doing okay? You’ve been really insistent about the— the independent thing. More than usual, I mean. It’s okay to be independent and all, but you get really tense when you bring it up.”

 

“Well it gets brought up a lot, everyone on this ship is a floret, Hiren!” Amida snapped.

 

“I’m— I’m sorry. That’s probably stressful.”

 

Amida sighed and wrapped an arm around Hiren’s side, pulling the Mielyu in for another hug. Hiren accepted, allowing Amida’s feathered arms to wrap around her back and cover the two in a warm, soft blanket. “I’m sorry Hiren. I’m being a bitch.”

 

“No no! I like— totally get what you mean. This ship’s floret to independent ratio is kinda wild, it gets brought up a lot.”

 

“It’s not even that. I kinda had a bad experience with Halophele and Gortha earlier today,” Amida sighed.

 

“Oh gosh, what happened?” Hiren gasped.

 

“They didn’t do anything. I— honestly I don’t know why I’m so hung up on it. I snuggled them and we watched TV and it was nice and all, then Halophele showed me to the new dry room in their hab…” Amida trailed off.

 

“Then what?”

 

“Then nothing, Halophele just talked about work and I left.”

 

Hiren nodded her head. She didn’t understand why this encounter had distressed Amida, and it didn’t sound like Amida did either, but she would get to the bottom of it. “How did you feel after that?”

 

“Empty. I felt like something was unresolved. I felt like I wanted Halophele to say something and I feel like she doesn’t want me, and Gortha doesn’t seem to either,” Amida began, “When they hold each other I get jealous and I get mad. Sometimes they just hug and kiss and forget to pay attention to me. I know I’m being self-centered but— fuck.”

 

Hiren went silent for a moment, going over Amida’s statements in her brain. The Terran was sobbing now, eyes turning red and nose running. “Why don’t you think they want you? I mean, like— Halophele is all over you whenever I see you two.”

 

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“I really don’t know Hiren. I just feel empty inside— and I love being around them. But there’s just this yearning.”

 

Neediness biting away at your insides, making your stomach feel like it’s upside down and the only remedy is the firm guiding hand of your master. Hiren remembered that feeling— because it was the way she felt after a month or two of knowing Melvol pre-domestication. The issue was telling Amida this without frustrating her. She seemed pretty clear that she was a firm independent who would not be swayed, but to Hiren, she seemed like a seed that needed to sprout. “Maybe it’s because Halophele hasn’t offered to, like— domesticate you?”

 

Amida scrunched up her face, “I mean, I dunno. I don’t— I guess when I see her and Gortha together it feels that way. Like she unified with Gortha but didn’t want to domesticate me. I feel left out, like she wants Gortha and not me,” Amida’s crying slowed as she continued, “And I want us to all be a family— kinda. But they don’t want that.”

 

“Domestication and unification aren’t mutually exclusive!” Hiren said, “And who said they don’t want you?

 

“I know, and I mean— it feels like they don’t want me. Bad brain I guess.”

 

“Hey, y’know— maybe Halophele and Gortha are just as choked up as you! Maybe they’re worried you won’t accept!”

 

“I wouldn’t accept! I just— I want the offer. I’m selfish! I dunno.”

 

“Are you sure you wouldn’t?” Hiren said, cocking her head and flattening her fins against it.

 

Amida stayed silent. The Terran averted eye contact with her companion but continued to grip the Mielyu’s hand— tighter and tighter.

 

“We don’t have to keep talking about it. Hey, maybe you can pick out a gift for Gortha and Halophele! That’s actually why I brought you here.” Hiren said, pushing her copy of Decemviros Florilegium against Amida’s chest. “This is yours now!”

 

“What’s this?” Amida asked, taking the book in her hands and inspecting the cover.

 

“It’s Decemviros Florilegium! It’s a book of non-verbal, like—botany language that allows you to tell your Affini things or request things from them through plants! I know you and Halophele were getting into xenodrugs, so I thought maybe you’d wanna try it out here?” Hiren said.

 

Amida’s eyes lit up. Her smile returned to her face as she flipped through the pages of the green book.

 

“It’s like— really cool. I was going to buy a gift for Melvol using Decemviflos. That’s the name of the plant language!”

 

“This is really interesting, thanks Hiren— just, wow.”

 

“You’re welcome! Now go get those two lovebirds something nice. I’ll get out of your hair for now.”

 

“You’re not— not bothering me or anything. I am a bit explosive right now though.”

 

“Take a minute to cool down then we can go play Delechek at my hab,” Hiren said, smiling at her companion. Amida smiled in return.

 

Hiren kept an eye on Amida to be sure that she wasn’t going to drug herself by accident but otherwise allowed the Terran to flip through her new book and pick out some xenodrugs. Hiren already knew what she wanted. While Hiren had not been much of a psychonaut in the past, she wanted to experiment with class-H and class-F drugs in specific. Having something to bat away all those intrusive thoughts while being lulled into a hypnotic trance sounded like pure heaven, and she knew Melvol would enjoy it too.

 

Hiren swam over to a vine composed of orange flowers, ‘Anguflor sisnocus’, a low-intensity class-H that could assist with manual or implant-driven hypnosis. The plant did not have actual ‘flowers’, but the leaves and bulbs were arranged in such a way that it appeared to be flowering. The Mielyu slipped her hands under the leaves of the plant and plucked it from the vine, replanting it in a small wooden bowl of dirt. The flower smelled of pepper and wood like a cinnamon vanilla cookie.

 

Hiren glanced back at her companion. Amida was looking at a blue class-A while Aponaga rambled in her ear about something. Amida was wide eyed, and her mood seemed to be improving. Hiren smiled, then turned back to her own hunt.

 

The class-F was next. Nolens Obedu was the plant she had in mind. A medium-intensity spore-based xenodrug that could be used to suppress intrusive thoughts and to some degree dampen a desire to move, but not to the degree of a full-on class-M; hence its classification as an F. Hiren spotted it on the far end of the blue plant section. The current greenhouse configuration was sorted by color, but it could be hot-swapped to sort by any number of categories; this included taxonomic name, size, weight, and growing conditions. 

 

Nolens Obedu was a midnight blue fungus with a brown stem. Small specks of white dotted its cap. Hiren had to be careful with this one, it was contained within a clear membrane that prevented it from being mishandled, as the potent oils on the underside of the cap could rub off on skin and cause the drug to take effect.

 

“Aponaga, ma’am?” Hiren called

 

Aponaga paused her conversation with Amida and turned to Hiren, “Yes, cutie?”

 

“Can I get a carrying case and gloves for a Nolens obedu? 

 

“You don’t have to ask, cutie. But I will retrieve those for you.”

 

“I’m not working so I didn’t want to go rummaging around!”

 

“Working involves coming in and tending to the plants whenever you like. There is little difference between working and taking leisure time here.”

 

Hiren nodded. She knew that! The xenodrug garden was just a more dangerous and strict work environment than usual. Well—dangerous in that one could get sleepy or horny on the job should they handle a plant the wrong way.

 

Hiren swam over to her companion as Aponaga swam to retrieve the plant for her.

 

“Found something? Whatcha’ got?” Hiren asked, looking at the vivid violet flower Amida had procured.

 

“Uhh— it’s embarrassing,” Amida whimpered, turning to hide her plant from Hiren.

 

“Hey, no need to be embarrassed! But if you want to keep it a secret that’s like— totally cool.”

 

Amida smiled. “You’re too sweet Hiren, really.”

 

“So you’ve got your centerpiece, you need dressing next!”

 

“All the dressing in this book was just normal flowers,” Amida said, thumbing through her book again.

 

“They sell dressing here, at the top!”

 

Hiren took Amida’s hand and swam to the top dome of the greenhouse. The roof was splayed outwards, and an immense number of plants were fanned around the center, all sorted by color. The light there was brighter due to small bioluminescent plankton floating in the water. The room was a complete sphere, as though Hiren and Amida were in the center of a flowery meteor.

 

“Oh, wow!” Amida beamed.

 

“There aren’t, like— a ton here, but there’s enough to get across what you need with xenodrugs,” Hiren said as she floated towards the red colored section. The Mielyu inspected a red plant with orange accents. “It takes a bit of practice to get across what you need, but Affini are pretty forgiving.”

 

A red sea grass with five grouped leaves, passion/intimacy/physical affection. Hiren retrieved it and added it to her planting bowl. She scanned the room again, swimming to the white section. A three-leafed flowering plant with pink splotches, I want/vanity/I vainly desire. Hiren added this plant as well. Next, blue algae with yellow pips, take/use/keep (the centerpiece). Finally, Hiren draped vibrant green vines along the edges of the bowl. This signified a ‘please and thank you’ while also making the bouquet look pretty.

 

“I have your plant, Hiren,” Aponaga said, reaching around to Hiren’s bowl and planting the Nolens obedu next to the first centerpiece, then giving the Mielyu a safety box for the gift. Hiren whimpered as the Affini’s vines brushed against her sides. The safety box was wooden and designed to fit the bowl within. A hidden plant-mech gyroscope within meant that the box could be flipped on its head without damaging the bouquet within.

 

“Th— thanks, Aponaga, ma’am.”

 

“You are welcome, cutie. Does your little ‘independent’ friend need any help?” Aponaga asked. The pair looked over at Amida, who was cross-referencing green kelp with a plant in the Decemviros Florilegium.

 

“I think she’s good. She’s a bit embarrassed.”

 

“Mhm.” Aponaga looked down at Hiren, a wide grin on her wooden mask.

 

“What?”

 

“Nothing,” Aponaga said, swimming over to Amida.

 

Hiren grumbled. Aponaga was always giggling about something. It was sexy, but it was frustrating. Hiren opened her gift box and inspected the bouquet inside, then closed it again. Just in time, as Melvol had swum into the greenhouse.

 

“Are you all done?” Melvol said, “What did you get?”

 

“Hehe— you’ll find out, master!” Hiren said, hiding the box behind her back. Melvol smiled at his pet, wrapping his vines around her soft, smooth body. Hiren’s body loosened, her fingers unconsciously dropping the box behind her back. Melvol retrieved it, putting it in his chest until Hiren was ready to give her owner his gift.

 

“Ooh— that’s my sweetheart,” Melvol cooed. All the thoughts seeped from Hiren’s brain as vines snaked their way around her form, as cozy as could be. The Mielyu whimpered and pawed at her master’s side, eyelids unable to stay open as every nerve in her body was filled with overwhelming warmth.

 

“Are you two ready to head out?” Amida asked. Melvol turned around to reveal his floret wrapped in vines and whimpering in pleasure. Amida’s face turned bright red.

 

“Mhm! Want to head back to our place? I can cook something for you couple of cuties if you want.”

 

Amida nodded, throat unable to squeak out anything at the sight of Hiren wrapped in her master’s vines and unable to do so much as lift a finger against her treatment. Hiren’s lazy, half-lidded gaze fell on Amida. The Mielyu smiled meekly at her friend.

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