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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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Ember awakens with a massive headache. Noise from across the room catches her ears, but she can’t make out what it is. Is that a sports car in the distance? A Western? A hyperdrive cooling down? None of those can be right.
Where is Ember? Then she remembers. She’s in her bed. So where’s Ginger? Wrong bed. She’s in Verda’s, where she’s gently tied to the headboard and footboard. This is where she woke up the last time she offended the weed in chief of the fleet. The victim of war crimes shifts. Her hearing clears, leaving her to bask in not really understanding what’s going on anyway.
The lights are dim, as though it’s evening, even though it’s clearly the middle of the day. Given how much light is entering through the gap between the curtains, she must’ve been asleep at least twelve hours. Verda sits in a corner of the room, staring at her tablet. Her artificial face is pointed straight ahead and her arms are folded neatly in her lap, but she’s clearly very interested. There are two voices, one that sounds male and the other female. It’s very obvious they’re shouting, even from wherever the camera was stored..
“-am one. That’s how I know about you. It’s obvious as shit, sis.” That’s the woman speaking.
“Don’t you dare call me that! I’m nobody’s ‘sis’ and I’m sure not yours, freak!”
“I know I know, you’re ‘stopping xeno degeneracy’, right? Ever wonder why you’re so angry about this? Like why do you even care?”
“Because it matters!”
“How come? Who gives a fuck? We don’t even have time for this. I’m fucking sure I’m not here for me.”
“Damnit.”
“Yeah yeah yeah. Let’s jump to target now. I’ve got a contact too, who knows your contact, and who wanted me to check on you. Xe’s worrie-”
“‘Xe?’ The fuck is that?”
“That’s right, xe. Your contact goes by xe/xir.”
“How dare you say something like that! She’s a woman, not one of you… freaks.”
“Oh really? I should’ve known you were like that. Look, you’re coming with me. We’ll get you out of here, and you can think long and-”
“You aren’t taking me anywhere. Now get out of my sight or I’ll tell everyone what you are! And don’t you ever pretend something like that about ice_petal again! She-”
“Xe, moron. Xe’s not a woman. Xe’s an affini and xe’s very concerned an egg like you-”
“What did you call me?”
“Egg? Oh. Shit.”
“That’s it. I knew better than to trust something that fishy. So we’re both compromised. I’ll turn myself in too, at least I’ll save the fleet that way! You won’t get away with this you lying freaks! I never should’ve trusted you or her!”
A gun fires and a woman screams. That’s the end of the conversation.
Ember is easily able to rise in the low gravity of the Affini ship and does so, even though its brain sloshes a little from the change in position. Verda looks over with some complex weed emotion her prisoner doesn’t recognize.
“What was that about?” the slightly less free than usual Terran asks.
“I’m just… researching other feralist domestications, attempting to figure out where I went wrong.”
“And?”
“And good morning, pet.”
“I’m not your pet.”
“You’ve mentioned that… pet.” She turns back to her tablet.
“What are you looking at?” Maybe the weed can be distracted from plotting Ember’s destruction.
“Nothing of value so far, tdaiyn.”
“Really? What was that one about?”
“This? Some security footage of a bad situation that shouldn’t have happened. Another floret to be who seemed to radicalize by exposure. No need to worry about that. She’s fine now.”
“She? Seriously?”
“Yes?”
Ow… Ember’s head is killing it, but it knows better than to share that information. “No wonder.”
“What do you mean, pet? Do you have some profound insights on the taming of terrans?” Verda raises what passes for her left eyebrow.
“No, but I think it’s fairly obvious what went wrong. You weeds know nothing about us.”
“How so? The legions of joyful pets around us would say the opposite.”
“You really don’t understand why that Terran was unhappy?”
“To an extent. Are you saying you know, from the little you’ve been awake for?”
“How long have I been awake, and how do you know that?”
“Your breathing changes when you wake up, Ember. You get much more tense.”
Telling her to stop listening is very unlikely to change anything whatsoever, even Verda’s facial expression.
“Well, it is kind of obvious. The second one wouldn’t stop pushing even when the first one was mad.”
“And you believe that that was detrimental?”
“I don’t believe you think it wasn’t. You aren’t that stupid.”
“I’m flattered by your high esteem, darling.” That wasn’t Ember’s intention… “This was a very delicate situation, and one that probably didn’t have a true solution. Many were wounded in the aftermath.”
“What kind of solution do you call true?”
“Nobody getting hurt. That’s the minimum standard we apply to… such scenarios.”
“Hm.”
“When a future floret becomes violently angry, it’s difficult to achieve that.”
“It’s your fault for not being able to avoid antagonizing everyone around you. Are the Affini even capable of not making enemies?”
“We’ve acquired many friends, Ember. They’re reward enough.”
She didn’t answer the question, but it certainly seems she’s saying Ember is right. She knew it. The weeds can’t help poking every snake they come across. One of these days, a snake is going to teach them a lesson they won’t survive to apply. Such is the way of snakes and those who tread upon them.
“Nice reward. How does that factor into you somehow getting somebody shot? It sounded like she was on your side at one point. Weren’t you supposed to protect her? Not even from your enemies… You couldn’t even protect her from your allies!”
Verda sighs and rubs her forehead. “It’s not that easy, pet.”
“Of course it is.”
“Would you like to hear the entire story, so you can understand that these things aren’t as simple as you prefer to believe they are?”
“Fine. As long as it doesn’t take all day.”
“Sparing you numerous text based conversations’ transcripts, one of our intelligence operatives made a contact in a Terran fleet, back when those still existed. Another operative made a different contact on the same ship. Both were trans women, though one had transitioned and the other was in denial. Don’t ask how we knew about that. The latter was in an intensely fragile mental state necessitating intervention. Not being on the ship with them, her handler requested the other terran’s assistance through our intelligence architecture. She was less diplomatic than would have been optimal for the context.”
“That’s obvious.”
“Yes, I’m aware, darling. What’s less obvious is how that came to be.”
“Well, it’s obvious that the idea of being trans wasn’t taken well.”
“Naturally.”
“So what your operative should’ve done is backed off, rather than pushing harder and getting angry over nonbinary nonsense. Why would somebody who thinks all trans people are freaks be expected to be accepting of that? It’s stupid. You weeds are clueless. Are you sure that’s even real? I have trouble believing anyone would make that mistake.”
Why is she telling the weed this? Not that it matters any more.
“It’s quite real, Ember.”
“Then you’re all awful at this and you only get your way because of xenodrugs. Stars know I’d never let you touch me without them.”
The admiral’s vines stiffen. That struck what affini have instead of nerves. That reminds Ember of… something. Last night. She never begged. That’s something to be proud of.
“As though you could do better,” her tormentor snorts.
“I could. It’s not complicated to figure out, you know.”
“Really? How is that, pet?”
“For a start, I wouldn’t be antagonizing an egg who was already under a huge amount of stress.”
“What would you be doing instead?”
“Ignoring things that don’t matter. What possible benefit is there to doing something that you can tell in advance is going to lead to confrontation?”
“I’m sure it would be different in the moment.” Her vinetips twitch back and forth sharply.
“I’m sure it wouldn’t be.”
“It’s easy to say that from here. Most of your passengers probably had a lot to say about your flying skills.”
“They haven’t, actually. Nobody’s complained. Excluding those miserable excuses for Terrans who couldn’t appreciate the glory of the cosmos and just wanted to go somewhere boring.”
“Florets to be are not machines, Ember. You’re speaking as though you can optimize away their individual quirks. They have psychological needs. It’s different.”
“I doubt it.” Verda should know better than this, especially since she thinks she has any right to keep somebody as a pet.
“I’d like to see you try!” she scoffs.
“Maybe I could. When the bar of acceptable conversations is that low, I’m certain I’d be adequate.”
“Really? Is that an offer?”
“I refuse to help you enslave anyone… but, I suppose I’d be willing to crack an egg to prove the point, since that’s the most blatant failure you showed me. To prove the point. What are you getting at?”
“As a matter of fact… That’s entirely possible. I could arrange for you to find a delightful ‘egg’ in need of a hen.” Even if Verda’s face is serious, she can’t hide her exhilarant body language.
“How’s that supposed to work?”
“In our effort to ensure maximized welfare for all conscious beings, the Compact as a whole sifts through vast amounts of junk data. A savvy parser could find just about anything, even the sort of person we’re discussing. I wouldn’t want your face associated with this, so a layer of anonymity is required.” She hums thoughtfully, drumming on her tablet. “I believe this will work. Once you’ve been unleashed on the unsuspecting target, what happens next will be entirely up to you. Provided, naturally, that you’re willing to accept all consequences as solely your fault.”
That makes sense. If she’s giving it that much control, she isn’t going to take the blame herself if something goes wrong. Wait a minute!
“I’m not sure…” This sounds very fishy. She has to be scheming something. This feels a lot like a trap. Ember had thought she was just reprimanding her for running a sloppy operation but-
“As you wish, pet. I won’t force you to try to show your superiority at wrangling ferals.”
“Ferals?”
“Of course. Anyone else would be screened for such issues and helped long before you or I would ever hear of it. You should be able to relate very well to those living outside the Compact’s society.”
“I thought you said you’d gotten everyone. Did that change when you realized we weren’t that easy to keep down?”
Verda laughs. “No, Ember. That doesn’t mean that there still aren’t some stragglers who insist on rejecting civilization almost as obstinately as you do. There are still pirates. Perhaps an outlaw colony or two who refused to deal with the rest of the Terran Accord.”
“Seriously?” It’s very aware of the difficulty in assaulting Affini vessels, especially the larger ones, and especially without proper weapons. “Where do they even get their ships?”
“There seems to be an endless supply of pirates, spawned fully formed, as it were, from the void,” she answers, facing the camera.
“That’s not very compelling.”
“And yet, there they are. I’m sure you’ll come into contact with one… provided you’re willing to exercise the needed determination.” Ember gets the feeling there’s something she isn’t telling it.
“And what does that mean?”
“That nothing is simple. I’ll see what we can do, if your interest is genuine. For now, I think you could use something to eat.”
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Cellulose & Steel