Chapter Text
I awake in the shoddy bunk bed that supported my aching back. My vision is blurry as I see the familiar if disgusting room. Old clothes covered the floor, ones I can’t wash or wear again due to their filth. The captain never allows precious water wasted on something unnecessary as laundry. I slowly get up, feet hitting the floor quick from how low the bed is. It’s once again too small for my larger frame. The grime on the cramped walls reek of oils and goddess knows what. It’s been a year since the war with the weeds started. Now I am stuck on a ship, forcefully drafted from prison to fill the navy’s numbers.
I hear a loud bang that makes me jump, covering my ears before shouting out at the top of my lungs. “What!?” I hear a chuckle from beyond the steel door before it opens to reveal my superior. An old bastard veteran of the Navy who selected me from a row of prisoners. I honestly would take the weeds over this bastard anyday! He made it his duty to torture me sensory wise everyday by never caring if loud noises upset me very easily. That fucker has a wide grin that took every inch of muscle to show he takes joy in my suffering before speaking.
“Get up soldier, we’re landing where the outpost went radio silent for thirty cycles. You better be the first of the landing party there or no food for another few days to teach you a lesson.”
He says this all with a twisted glee as I got up, having fallen asleep in my uniform. Stars what would I give just to escape this place. “Yes sir,” I barely mumble, getting up to put some old socks on with my boots. Bastard scoffs at his lack of rank being addressed and stomps away as I get ready. My uniform adjusted, I headed out of my room to the mess hall on the ship.
The place is cramped, the only place that didn’t reek as the commander made an exception to allow the people here to at least clean this place. It took a while to let them wash their hands though. Let’s just say the dumbass got nasty food poisoning before we even left the last port. I smiled every night that bastard was vomiting his guts out. Either way, I slowly sneak in through the back to meet with the only staff who’s nice to me. This young trans girl by the name of Sally, somebody young we picked up last port.
Lucky for me, I did not need to get her attention as she turned, hairnet keeping her long blonde hair from spilling out. She stares at me with her pretty green eyes, gaze soft as a teddy bear. Her voice came out so cute it kind of made me feel a little funny in my chest. Probably a crush, or lust or something.
“Michael, you can’t keep sneaking back here.”
I fucking hate my name, but it’s the only one I got. Not like I can change it, I would look silly. All I could focus on is the little stash of food she usually gives me. I did not feel like speaking so I simply made the motion with my eyes, receiving an audible groan. She opened a cupboard to pull out a paper cup stuffed with old french fries. My mouth has already started watering.
“Fuck girl, you’re spoiling me at this rate.”
As soon as I reach out for it with desperate hunger in my shaking hands, stars I need this so bad! She suddenly holds it back from me as my hands start to shake more. Goddess, I feel like a freaking drug addict here. She spoke with a sternness in her tone I usually don’t hear.
“You better promise not to tell the commander I’m trans.”
Now that got me looking dumbfounded, all the while trying to snatch them from her. I only found out she was trans by accident when walking in on her injecting herself in her thigh in the bathroom. The latrine’s lock was shoddy at the time and sometimes glitched to being open. My dumbass walked in on her and we both stared at each other for god knows how long. I just asked if she was doing drugs and she sheepishly replied that it’s for HRT.
Either way, my fucking golden food is so close to arms reach! I pin her against the countertop before biting the edge of the paper cup. She got the hint very quickly that I was not going to let go. The moment I smirk and finally decide to let go. I feel someone grab my hair to pull me back. Now, I’m looking right at the Commander’s face. His very angry sneering face- oh fuck.
“Soldier, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Shit, shit, bastard probably thinks I was trying to assault her. I just wanted my food, and he just snatches it from my mouth to suddenly dump it on the floor. Nooooo my food! That was before he plants a punch right in my gut, wheezing before striking his elbow into my back to make me fall face first into the pile of old fries. His boot slammed into my head before I heard him bark an order.
“Eat it ya damn dog!”
Oh. Oh. The sheer force he applies is enough to make my head burn, feeling the pressure. I can’t even look, stomach growling. I haven’t eaten in days, driving me to the peaks of a madness that overtakes me. I start to eat the dirty fries, tasting god knows what filth as I coughed. My throat hurts and yet my ears start ringing. My mind blacks out, mind stopping in its place. When I come to, The Commander is gone, and Sally is trying to wake me up.
“Michael, Michael, MICHAEL!”
Ow, Ow, OW! I get up swinging before barely stopping when my fist is about to collide into her nose. I still get pushed away before falling onto the floor with my stomach burning. I lurch forward to hurl up what I just ate, all over my uniform. It burns, fuck it burns. I can’t handle it. I can’t! I start to run, not hearing a word and only yelling back when I think I hear her speak.
“Don’t fucking look at me!”
Time no longer exists to my mind, only agony before I find myself throwing up again into a toilet. How I got here, I don’t know, but I have to hurry back to the landing pad. If the Commander finds out I am late, I will be beaten again.
I … I don’t want this to happen again.
I zone out for the whole walk to where we need to be before a sudden alarm blares. Someone is panicking on the intercom about most of the people piloting the ship are unconscious before an audible thud is heard. I found that I happened to walk near an escape pod. If the weeds, or pirates, are invading the ship, it’s best I get the hell out of here right?
Fate had to throw a wrench into my plans.
Why? I feel the ship shake and the dock opening to something dropping in with a loud bang. I look around to try and find something to hide behind. All I see is an open, old fuel drum. The smell is rancid, but beggars can’t be choosers. I quickly climb in before the door opens, and through the hole in the barrel, I peek through to see …
.. Oh, oh fuck. It’s a weed!
A being of plant, form composed from vines moves across the hallway, looking straight ahead. Its body is composed in mimicry to us, even going so far as to have clothes. It looks like a long white lab coat, a doctor maybe? Her hair is long and red, eyes looking like red and blue gems with shifting black orbs that would seemingly sway and shift in sync with her, green eye lashes in- … Oh crap.
She’s looking right in my direction.
It barely takes a second before she is above the barrel, looking down at me. I see into her eyes, feeling a weak pressure in the back of my mind. The moment she speaks, it sounds soft, almost with a stern patience that is unbreaking.
“Petal, would you care to explain why you’re in … there?”
She hesitates for a second, lurching back from what I guess is the smell. It does smell pretty bad here. Honestly, I have grown used to the rotting smell so I barely could notice. Either way, I stayed there frozen in horror at the sight of our very enemy, yet the puzzling factor is why I wasn’t being consumed. Was it the smell, or am I so hideous I don’t even muster this creature’s appetite? Rather than wait for an answer that never comes, it instead proceeds with a question.
“Um, Petal, are you non verbal?”
Its expression forms a mimicry of our own, raising a non-existent eyebrow that only drives further confusion inside me. Unfortunately for her, I never answer. Fear tends to have this funny fucking shit where you clam up when horrified of the enemy in front of you. It carefully picks up the barrel and gently puts a hand in to grab me by my uniform to pull me out. I finally answer with a very pathetic, “Hey, let me go!” No response until she pulls me out and tosses the barrel aside. It flew and slammed into a wall, denting before I was held to her face. She winces and makes a sound familiar to a groan before placing me on my feet.
“Sweet Everbloom! Petal, when was the last time you even bathed?”
Now, embarrassment was not the first emotion I expected to be feeling, but there it is. The first impression to the enemy is that I reek so much it barely can stand my presence. Not that I blame it. Many have said I am quite disgusting! All true. Who would want somebody so hideous? This time I do answer, not wanting to keep it waiting.
“Um, well, our superior doesn’t really allow any water to be used on utilities. At most, we get a canteen refilled with barely drinkable water every 10 cycles.”
Suddenly, I hear what sounds like music radiating from this creature, in dissonance for a second before its whole body shivers. The look on her face is one of horror, even more in her tone when speaking.
“Let me see if I am hearing this right, not a single person on this ship has had the ability to bathe or even wash their hands for who knows how long?”
Honestly, seeing somebody, or something, be this disgusted by what she’s hearing did give me some hope I could have a bath finally. Wait, what the fuck am I thinking? Sh-It, is the enemy! I have to run. I need to find some way to- oh she’s throwing up. They can do that? It vomits up something red and thick before coughing, vines flinging out each time it does. Now’s my chance to escape, I turn around and bolt to the escape pod, knowing my legs would carry me. That is before a set of vines grab at my wrists and ankles to stop me dead in my tracks.
“Just where do you think you’re goin-irk, stars you need a bath you taste like waste!”
I carefully turn around, not breaking eye contact no matter how hard it hurts. I think back to when I last brushed my teeth. If this weed is this grossed out by touching me, I suddenly move one of my hands as much as she allows, and I lick her appendage holding on to my left wrist. The sheer volume of her yelp before the vine let go, I instinctively lick the other before all the vines let go. It is freaking out and trying to wipe the spit off her vines.
“Uugh, stars and everbloom , when was the last time you even brushed your teeth? Oh stars, I can taste it!”
I didn’t stick around, running to tap the screen to open the door to the escape pod, turning around to shut it right when the weed slams into the door. Her face pressed against the murky glass, I hear a loud bang as it is trying to break the door down. I ran for the console, not caring where it went as I scanned the interface before hitting the part of it that said, Launch. The whole pod shakes as it launches out straight from the ship. I barely caught a sight I will never forget.
Another ship, one looking to be a black flower molded in shape to a mushroom of sorts. Silvery tendrils slipping out of this almost planetary sized thing to consume the very ship I just escaped from. The sheer scale made me collapse to my knees in horror at this realization while the pod flies to the nearby planet we were investigating.
This was an ambush from the start, we were baited by the weeds to come here so we could be captured!