The Plant

Editor's note: this story contains scenes of non-consensual or reluctant sex.

*****

Rue jogged down the metal steps into the research lobby. The room was the size of a small warehouse and packed with makeshift offices and labs set in white and grey tents. Busy looking researchers flitted between the tents carrying boxes and bags of samples or pushing trolleys with equipment unlike anything Rue could comprehend. There were a few dozen meme bees of the military dotted around looking bored.

From what she'd heard it was a dull assignment for all of them - this planet was uneventful. Hardly any predatory fauna, and all of those were smaller than cats and easily dealt with. Vinea-6 was barely more than a moon. The entire planet was made up of vast salt-less seas or dense mangroves and swamps. There were new species here, of course, but the planet was hardly anything to write home about. The Field found ones like it almost daily on their ever pressing mission for new colonies; it was a little miraculous that they even bothered to let the scientists go in first.

In all honesty, Rue was glad for the break. She spent 6 years, and all of her funds, training to become a captain. At nineteen, she'd be one of the youngest to pass the baptism of fire needed to get there. She was burnt out but all she had left to do was one elective module - the contest between biology and linguistics was a simple one in her mind. Who had time for words?

Rue brushed herself down, smoothing out the creases in her loose fitting T-shirt and cargo trousers left from the journey. This was the last push for her. She flicked a curled strand of blond hair from her eyes and consulted the instructions in her hands.

She'd shadow Dr. Rippens for six months in a bid to earn enough credits to pass.

Rue followed the hastily scribbled cardboard signs and found the biologist's tents off on the far side of the lobby.

'ID?' The private stood at the tent flaps asked lazily.

Rue handed it over with an awkward smile, adjusting her heavy backpack on her shoulders. She had outdone herself this time - it wasn't easy packing your entire life into one bag but she'd done it.

The private handed back her ID card and held the tent flap open for her.

The makeshift lab inside was packed full of equipment and devices - all busy and in action in some capacity. Substances bubbled, machines whirred. It was a busy environment but somehow calmer than the chaos outside.

Dr. Rippens wasn't how Rue had expected. She was only a few short years older than Rue with dark red hair cut short and a sweet face plastered in freckles. She was tapping away on a tablet. 'Hi,' she said, beckoning for Rue to come closer. 'You must be my new tech.'

'Rue Addle,' Rue said, shaking Dr. Rippens hand.

'Rippens if anyone important is around, Chloe otherwise,' Dr. Rippens said with a grin.

Rue warmed to her instantly.

Chloe was kind enough to show Rue to the dorms, chattering excitedly the entire time about various new species that she'd discovered over the last few weeks. Her enthusiasm for her work was so obvious that Rue almost felt bad for not feeling the same way. Botany was never going to be her forte.

At dinner Chloe suddenly shifted her attention to a subject Rue wasn't always comfortable talking about - herself.

'So, you're going for captain, huh?'

Rue smiled, picking at the chicken in her plate with a fork. 'Yeah, that's the plan.'

'Cargo, transport..?'

'Uhm, station with any luck. I'm on the merit programme so if I do well I get my rank pushed, too.'

'Woah, very cool. Where are you from then?'

'Beta-2,' Rue said awkwardly. "The planet of criminals and orphans" as it was not so nicely called sometimes. Her mother was a smuggler, though she never knew her. She had been born in prison and dumped into the system before she had time to take her first breath.

Chloe seemed unfazed by this information. 'You must have worked really hard to get here.'

Rue smiled. 'I think I have done.' She looked around at the hundred or so people, all bent over their own plates taking about everything and nothing. 'What about you?'

'Hm?'

'Where are you from?'

'Oh, Earth.'

Rue raised her eyebrows. That was a rare one. More babies were born in colonies than the home world now. 'Wow, why'd you leave?'

'It's overcrowded and overrated,' Chloe snickered.

Rue was a little disappointed. Earth was home from home - the place all people begun and few ever got to see. She decided to change the topic to their current world. 'So what's it like here, then?' She asked.

Rue had seen small glimpses of greenery through the small windows dotted along the corridors but not enough to understand where she truly was.

'Green and unusual. The air's good. It's fairly diverse so a biologist's dream but for most people it's just humid and quiet. It's too wet to colonise efficiently so it'll probably be ours for a while yet.'

'Ours?'

'Researchers. Colonist bids start early usually so we can't always get a whole lot done but this place is going to be empty for a while.'

Rue pondered on the world outside in bed that night. Humid and quiet might be right but she wanted to see in it what Chloe did, to feel something other than grim monotony for a while. The training programme had been hard on the girl. She was tired, even if she hated to admit it.

Mornings started early. By 6am Rue was half asleep strapped into the bay of a hovercraft zipping out across miles of swamp. She stared out of the window at the greenery whizzing past, catching glimpses of small bird-like creatures which glided effortlessly through the air.

'What's the plan doc?' the same private who had let Rue into the tent asked. He was one of a pair of guards assigned to Chloe and Rue for the day. The other was a stout woman called Saunders with thick dark curls and a curvy frame.

'We're getting more samples from that cave on the southern swamp. Nothing too dramatic, I'm afraid.'

Rue looked down at her grey jumpsuit and plucked at a loose thread near her wrist, passing the time by tugging at it. The supplied uniform was dull but fiercely practical - covered in loops and pockets for the easy transport of samples and small devices.

The landing wasn't that smooth but Rue was glad to be out. She took a breath of fresh air for the first time. It smelt floral and pleasant.

'Told you the air's good!' Chloe said, laughing as she took a big gulp herself.

They were poised at the mouth of a gaping cavern which stretched off into blackness into the side of a mountain made of dark and near-black stone.

'It was a volcano,' Chloe explained as the group descended into it. Her headlamp illuminated a path lined by rope which had been anchored into the cave wall. 'But it's been inactive for a long time - thousands of years probably. Now it's an ideal breeding ground for some amazing life.'

It took the team almost two and a half hours to descend through the cave network to reach the funnel. Each turn had a marker spray painted on the walls - Rue could easily imagine how one could get lost in the vast winding network of caves. Inside, a thick beam of sunlight drifted down and illuminated an amazing network of vines which stretched up over 200 feet from the floor to the opening. They were a deep green colour and wound in and out and around each other. In places there were small white flowers with delicately arranged petals clumped in a tight ball. The entire space smelt sweet and divine like a concentrated spray of the air outside.

'This is my baby!' Chloe squealed excitedly.

'It's a cool plant,' Rue said, trying to sound enthusiastic. In truth, her legs ached and she was regretting not signing up for linguistics.

'That's the thing, it's not just a plant. This isn't an animal or a plant or even a fungus, we don't know what it is. It's intuitive and clever, capable of living for centuries, maybe even millennia. We're trying to figure out what keeps it alive and healthy for so long.'

Rue listened patiently, taking instruction and performing menial tasks. They took samples and Chloe used Rue to talk to while she theorised. Judging by the two soldiers, this chatter was a common occurrence.

'It's incredibly intelligent, from the samples we've collected we've learnt that it recognises different species, maybe even different people, and it's capable of releasing different pheromone trails depending on what it comes into contact with. We think that it's some kind of pollination strategy but...Hm, that's strange,' Chloe said, staring up into the wall of vines.

'What?'

'There's a cave opening up here that I don't remember documenting. I think it used to be more obscured...'

Chloe, dressed in the same jumpsuit as Rue, began to climb up the vines. Saunders and the private shouted at her to come down but she ignored them.

'Rue, I need a hand,'

Rue looked at the pair of distressed guards and up to Chloe's elated expression and made the choice to climb up with her.

At the entrance to a small cave, Rue stopped and hung on beside Chloe. 'There's new root structures back here. They weren't here yesterday.'

Chloe craned into the opening while Rue looked on.

Suddenly there were screams from behind them. Rue spun her head but too much happened at once. She registered that Saunders and the private were gone just as Chloe fell face first into the new cave. Chloe grabbed at the collar of Rue's jumpsuit but her body weight was enough to drag them both into the new opening. All Rue knew then was the sensation of falling and the screams coming from her lips.

Rue was ready to die. No fall that lasted this long could result in anything else, she thought. Until she landed on something cushiony and soft. The impact hurt but she knew immediately that nothing was broken.

Chloe landed beside her, bruised but equally unharmed.

Rue fumbled at her belt for a lamp and set it on full, illuminating a large chamber which was entirely filled with vines.

They were different. Thicker and more densely packed, and all had a blue to purple hue unlike their green counterparts above. The white flowers grew only on the ceiling portion of the plant here but were too many to count.

As shock turned into awe, Chloe looked up and fumbled for her audio recorder. She began to take voice notes while Rue stumbled around the perimeter of the "room" looking for an exit.

'This is amazing!' Chloe squealed.

Rue shook her head. 'Not if we can't get out.'

'It's okay, we're okay. Don't panic.'

Rue glared at her like she was crazy.

There was a small rustling from above. The two women looked up to see the petals of every flower gently opening up, revealing bright pink cores which glowed brightly. A near invisible pink powder began to drop down from them, clouding up the air.

Chloe frowned and then widened her eyes as the first lungful hit her. 'Cover your face!' She barked, claiming her hand over her mouth and nose.

Her order came too late for Rue who, with just two shallow breaths of the powder, collapsed in a heap on the floor.

When she woke, the room had cleared of the noxious fumes but her head was cloudy and her vision slipped in and out of focus. The room was lit only by the bioluminescence of the flowers and what little glow the last of the battery in her lamp gave off. She noted grimly that she was suspended in the walls. Not on, in. Her hands were awkwardly pinned above her with their wrists encased in winding vines which were smooth and almost slick to the touch, like skin. Her weight was supported by vines around her waist and thighs. In places, her jumpsuit had been torn and was falling away from her.

She opened her mouth, coughed and then called out. 'Chloe?'

There was a muffled reply from the other side of the cave.

'I'm alive, are you?' Rue joked.

'I tried to not breathe but it was so smoggy and I...'

'Listen, listen, listen. Don't worry. What's this thing doing to me right now?'

'My only theory isn't a nice one,' Chloe called back after a minute.

'Well, I may as well know.'

'It might be a carnivorous organism. The pollen is designed to weaken the prey before digestion.'

Rue's heart began to pound and she increased her struggling.

Chloe gasped loud enough for Rue to hear. Rue peered into the darkness but couldn't see her new friend in the shadows. There were soft sounds. Movement and a quiet whimper of fear followed by staggered cries from Chloe.

'Chloe?' Rue called out. She renewed her struggle and kept fighting the vine's impenetrable hold.

Chloe cried out incoherently as though she were in pain. But the cries skunk between pain and ecstasy at a pace Rue couldn't keep up with. It was only when Chloe was suddenly quiet that she started to panic further.

'Chloe?!' Rue cried, tears streaming down her pale cheeks.

The vines around Rue's legs tightened and started to shift, rolling over her skin and lifting her legs higher.

She whimpered and let her eyes wonder to the writing vines in the ground beneath her as she thrashed and struggled. Vines of varying thickness sprung up and whipped at the air as though they were flexing. They ranged from the thickness of her little finger to the thickness of her forearm. All were an almost purple blue with their own soft bioluminescent glow.

One of the thinner tentacles began winding around Rue's ankle and up her leg, pressing oh so gently into her skin. It snaked its way up her thigh under her jumpsuit and then lurched away from her abruptly. The fabric tore and hung in shreds from her. Other small vines mimicked the action all over her body until her suit, bra and panties fell in a destroyed heap on the floor.

Chloe was quieter now but still moaning to herself. Rue knew that whatever fate had befallen the scientist was heading her way next.

As the small tendrils began to crawl across her pale skin again she wondered if her suit had been just the precursor. Maybe they'd tear her apart, too. But her suspicions were not confirmed.

The tentacle-like vines were gentle, probing at her skin and gently stopping at various spots to tickle and prod at. Their glow seemed to pulse and fade in time with Rue's pulse - a fact she noted as one tentacle wrapped around her small breast once and tightened up slightly.

She watched as it tightened and loosened its grip a few times before releasing her perky tit and slinking down an inch or so. The tip of the vine moved quickly over the surface of her flat nipple. It repeated the action until her nipple - despite her protests - began to stiffen up. A second vine repeated the same procedure in the other side until her rosy nipples both stood on end - achingly hard.

She grunted and continued to struggle while the two vines then began to flick and rub at her nipples more vigorously. Rue felt fortunate that such ministrations had little effect on her but no sooner had she thought that than the vines stopped. Both moved together onto one nipple and pressed from opposing sides, pinching the hard bud harder until Rue let out a muffled cry of pleasure. The vines stopped for a few seconds before repeating the action with one moving to the left and the other to the right, rolling her nipple gently. It had learnt something of her and intended to use it.

The vines worked tirelessly until her right nipple was sore before moving to the left and repeating the process. She was a panting gasping mess by the time they finally stopped.

All of those nights spent in her bunk tugging and pinching at her nipples flashed through her mind but none had felt like this. Rue snapped back into the present, aware now that she had stopped struggling. Chloe was almost silent other than the occasional moan and gag. Rue kept fighting but she knew there was little point. The vines were too strong and too numerous.

The small tentacles moved down her body, joined now by 4 or 5 more of the same size which wound up her legs. They met at her pussy and prodded at it. Her puffy pussy lips were overcrowded in tentacle tips which poked and pulled them apart. 3 on each side lined up and spread her lips wide apart, leaving the cool air to brush against her swollen clit. Rue squirmed uncomfortably and looked down to see a tentacle the same thickness as her forearm - if not thicker - slowly moving between her legs.

'No!' She screeched, realising its destination.

The vine neither stopped nor hesitated. It approached the young girls pussy slowly and rubbed up and down the length of it with its tip.

She'd only put toys there. No man had ever been close. And this vine was three times as thick as anything she'd ever used.

The vine rubbed back and forth, spreading a mixture of her own shameful wetness and its moisture up and down her, lingering over her sensitive clit.

Rue shivered and tried to remain calm and reactionless where she could until the vine tipped at an angle and began to rub her clit in tiny circles. She gasped, arching her back and letting out a throaty moan. The texture of the tentacle felt far better than her fingers ever had done and she could do nothing but whimper to herself as her pussy started to drool.

The vine rubbed and rubbed and rubbed. It adapted to whatever made Rue tense and moan the most and kept at it. She started to lose herself.

Rue tried so hard it ignore it but the pleasure grew. The vine suddenly started flicking up and down on her clit impossibly fast, vibrating and pressing, and it was just too much.

She let out an incredible cry as she started to cum. Her whole body rocked and shuddered as her dripping pussy clenched repeatedly. The tentacle only stopped once her moans turned to animalistic growls and grunts while she thrashed in a state beyond pleasure. It moved down quickly to her entrance, seemingly using her distraction as an opening to proceed. Rue was almost too far gone to care but as it started to slide in she remembered the size of it. The taper of the tip didn't give her ample warning, soon it ended and she was presented with nothing but the thickness of the tentacle as it pushed its way inside her. Tears streamed down her cheeks as it stretched her poor pussy wider than she thought possible. It pushed in until it could go no further and then slowly withdrew - coated and dripping in her wetness. Rue panted and arched her back, trying again to shield herself.

The vine stopped at her entrance, throbbing gently as it twisted and wriggled there and pushed into her again.

It slid in easier this time but Rue felt too full. Her cunt was splayed open by the tentacle. It pumped back and forth achingly slowly, seeming to enjoy how her flesh eased around it, savouring every second.

Rue hated herself for enjoying it.

The tentacle withdrew almost fully again, this time spending a few seconds teasing around her hole before slipping free entirely. Rue wondered if this torment was over. Her curiosity was soon put to bed, however, as the tentacle lined up against her pussy and drove in fast and hard, hitting the back wall within less than a second. All gentility vanished then. Rues screams and cries meant nothing to the creature as it hammered into her impossibly fast. It kept driving in as deep as it could, pressing against her cervix impatiently as though it would go deeper if only it could.

Rue thought back to those nights in her bunk, two fingers curled against her g-spot. That pleasure felt insignificant to her now. The pain shifted as the tentacle angled itself perfectly. Her cries of pain turned to those of ecstasy as orgasm after orgasm hit her. They came so fast that she could hardly tell where one ended and the next began. The pleasure of them took her wind from her and left her mind empty, all she could think about was her own lust.

The tentacle sped up further, nothing but a purple-ish blur as it defiled her aching cunt.