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Cellulose & Steel	By : Not-Taylor Category: Misc Books > FemmeSlash Views: 1028 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own HDG or its characters and I don't make money from this work.

Chapter List
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“Welcome! I’m so happy all of you are here! I see some of you are coming over to see what all the commotion is about, so welcome to you guys and vines too. Today is a really big day because we’re celebrating a lot of affini’s hard work over the past years. Most of them aren’t going to be on this stage but we should remember them in our cores, the vanguard especially.”
Somebody somewhere mutters something in Affini. Olivia notices two affini at the foot of the stage with their vines raised, pulsing colors in different patterns in concert with the speaker’s words. It strikes her as strange, almost as though those are some kind of language.
“Right, thank you. My name is Turquoise Corona, eleventh bloom, and I’m the fleet historian.
“Of course you’re all aware that the War of Terran Pacification has been over for quite a while now, and that our diplomatic efforts there are making progress… which you’ll have to ask them about if you want details. But peace and war a treaty does not make.”
Olivia flinches at that very special sentence structure, but that distracts her from the casual allusion to her home’s subjugation.
“A significant portion of the humans’ navy went into open rebellion following the peace, and of course our mission aboard Ruby Trunk and its support fleet has been to bring those strays home and give them loving owners who can cure their antisocial impulses. The Terrans fought unexpectedly hard against our protection, which meant that this took longer than most of us hoped. And that’s resulted in many avoidable injuries and deaths.”
She looks oddly depressed about that, as though she weren’t collaborating in the actions that were hurting innocent terrans.
“But with great joy I can officially announce that the last Cosmic Navy ship and its crew have been captured without fatality.”
Turquoise is trying to say more but a loud yell erupts from the spectators. It sounds a bit like a legion of seals barking. She pauses less than she’d probably have had to if a human audience had made that much noise.
“I can also announce that there are no more feralist soldiers in Terran Protectorate space, with the last being domesticated as we speak. The Resistance has been defeated!”
There’s another cheer but this one is almost inaudible to Olivia. She’s in shock. It’s so soon, far too quick. Her people can’t have been broken so easily. Terra can’t just… fall. No matter how impressive the xeno technology might be, there has to be a way. There’s always a way. Her mind races over every story she’s ever heard or read or watched of an underdog’s victory, and there are a lot of them. It’s just… over. And she’s here, listening to the triumphant announcement, in her language, that everything she’s ever known has been ground to dust. It’s cruel. These glorified pitcher plants are cruel. They deserve as much being done to them.
It doesn’t matter. Did it ever?
“Before you sit several of the final captures. All of them came willingly because their new mistresses asked them to. Human domestication has been a resounding success. Of course, not every human has been domesticated and there are some rogues still about, but organized resistance is finished. Congratulations to everyone who took an active role in this success! You all deserve a lot of credit. I’d also like to recognize the owners who took on the more unruly feralists of the Terran Accord. Your patience is an inspiration. The doctors and veterinarians who assisted in this process can’t be thanked enough too. And also cheers to everyone else, the other owners, the florets connivant, the unpaired affini, and in general everyone who played a supporting role (myself included in that) in ending this rebellion. But we must also remember the sacrifices of the first suman florets, who planted to seed our current successes (she pauses for a couple of seconds while the crowd maintains a respectful quiet). Mass domestication is and has always been a community effort.
“Now that that’s taken care of, do you have a few words of inspiration for us, Admiral?”
Olivia can feel her captor’s rage through the lead. She seems awfully upset about something. What does she have against the admiral? Nobody on the stage looks especially venerable.
“Excellent. And now I’ll let you hear from the woman domesticating the last floret taken from the Resistance navy, Admiral Verda Edok, fourth bloom of the Terran Pacification Fleet.”
A slight cheer washes over the stage as Verda gets up and flows toward the other standing affini. Her annoyance is completely invisible and she smiles brightly at the audience. Olivia knows better, that she doesn’t want to be there whatsoever. Even the xeno overlords must not be free if they’re forced into such awful roles.
Wait, the last floret… is Olivia? That’s everyone? Her ship was the last bastion of Free Terra, her crew the last free humans? And she’d failed them? She hadn’t even been able to get into xeno space. She failed them all. She failed Ginger more than anyone. She deserved better than Olivia. Too bad it was too late for her to get it. Ginger had been drafted. Olivia’s willing to bet her life the weeds had never even asked that, they just enslaved her anyway. Who’s going to enforce the treaty? The Affini, that’s who.
“Good afternoon to you all, and thank you for the warm sentiment. I’m pleased to have participated in such an undertaking. As our lovely host has noted, this is not an individual success but a collective one. My captains and intelligence officers deserve as much credit as I.
“Yet there is something often glossed over in the public reports on the war that bears memory. That is the cost of victory. It has been an extremely long time since I had an unwilling floret, and I have been made aware of the difficulties surrounding that relationship from their perspective. Terrans have a pathological fixation on the concept of ‘freedom,’ and anything that threatens their access to that ‘freedom’ is seen as a threat. I now believe that that is a source of much of the difficulty in domestication. In fact, I believe that our broadcasts of satisfied florets were detrimental for that reason.”
The crowd is silent. If plants breathed, they wouldn’t be doing so right now. Wait a minute, Verda dropped the leash. Olivia can just get up and walk away. She starts to, but the affini to her right makes eye contact and she realizes that’s certainly not happening here and now.
“It’s too late now of course, but I will be filing a report on this issue for reference during future domestication efforts.” She laughs in a way Olivia already knows her well enough to tell is fake. “But that’s it. Thanks for listening to me. That’s all I have to say. Be safe and enjoy the peace!”
She returns to her chair and brushes the knee of her concerned floret with one vine.
“Admiral?” Olivia has to know.
“Yes, pet.”
Olivia doesn’t know what to say in response. If she’d been captured sooner, maybe she could have killed the admiral and sent the fleet into chaos. She knows better than to actually think that would work, or that the younger officers weren’t already plotting the same themselves, but it’s a pleasant fantasy. Thankfully, she can just sit right now. She wasn’t well rested last night, so it’s nice to have a break. Some other affini who was on the stage starts speaking rapidly and harshly in Affini while Verda is practically growling, but that’s not her problem, is it?
It’s actually a rather long speech, and the audience looks extremely bored. She must be going into some weird medical technicalities. She’s probably swearing that there's no biological imperative for freedom in the terran psyche, and of course she’s wrong about that, as anyone who’d met a terran can attest.
After the affini closed her speech nobody cheered. They didn’t really seem to notice. Was she that boring? Ouch. Even the MC has lost some of her chipper tone.
“Thank you for that very informative explanation. I’m sure we’ll all remember that going forward.”
Nobody’s going to remember that going forward.
“And now let’s hear from our star floret, who I’m told is settling in very well into her new home after just a couple of days.”
Verda tenses while keeping a straight face. The crowd goes wild. They’re so eager to hear from Olivia! She’s never been famous or important anywhere, just a girl who has a knack for making metal boxes do funny tricks. This should be fun. How many people have spoken before such a big audience without having any important achievements? A lot. That’s how many. Olivia guiltily hopes that the Affini will be dismantling social media. A thousand affini, and maybe half that many terrans, and some other things she’d never seen before were watching eagerly.
“Why don’t you introduce yourself, floret of Edok?”
“Hello.” There are so many people smiling at her. This is so cool!
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to be speaking so I didn’t prepare anything. As Ms. um, Turquoise… C-corona said, I’ve only been here for a few days.”
She’s so proud of herself for remembering that name. Was she supposed to remember the bloom thing too? Oh well. She’s just a “pet,” right?
“I must say you’ve got some top tier welcome videos. It’s obvious somebody or other put a lot of effort into them. There are what, sixty? That’s a lot. Seeing my fellow Terrans speak about being ensl- ‘domesticated’ was very enlightening, I have to say. I’m certainly much better educated.”
The crowd likes that. Are they just cheering whenever there’s a compliment?
“I also was impressed when I came on board the Ruby Trunk. It’s really big and really pretty. It’s a cool space boat.” Somebody’s going to be seething beyond belief at that line, and nobody else is going to get it. Olivia suppresses a snicker as the crowd cheers a bit. “There are a lot of people and stuff. Even just you.” She gestures in front. “You’re a lot. It’s just been me and my crew for a very long time. You haven’t murdered each other. That’s nice. Um…”
“Introduce yourself,” Turquoise reminds.
“Oh, I’m Olivia Donnoly, pilot second class, formerly of the Song of Destruction and presently POW.”
The crowd don’t like that. They’re a little uncertain because she had used her real name.
“Are- are you sure?”
“Pilot Donnoly, Cosmic Navy, SIR!” Olivia salutes with derisive starchiness. The crowd is silent.
“And SIR, I would like to report that I have not been compromised, SIR. I am proud to be a Free Terran. My loyalty is to Terra and to humanity and my will is nobody else’s. I will fight these weeds until my dying breath and I will never march to the beat of another’s heart, no matter how tight she might hold me.” She pauses for a split second when she realizes just how awkward that sounds outside of her head, when she’s not supposed to know the thing that makes it make sense.
“I am proud to have served in the Terran navy and the Resistance navy, and I will continue to be proud to serve in whichever navy comes next, because only by standing together can we hope to prevail against an overwhelming threat to our lives and our freedom.”
Olivia isn’t remotely as patriotic as she sounds right now, but the words keep coming and she keeps saying them.
“And so I ask you, comrades, to never lose sight of who you are and whence you came. You’re Terrans, and no less than the bamboo around you. We will win because we must, not merely by the might of our weapons but the right in our blood. Walk with me and retake the freedom that is ours by the blessing of the stars. As much good as the xenos might provide us with, we can do better for and by ourselves. Eschew weakness and choose strength. Fuck the weeds- metaphorically! The day of the rake is at hand! Terra stands!”
Two or three Terrans in the audience cheered.
Psshst
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Cellulose & Steel