The LSS Freedom glided along the star spotted mat that was space with effortless grace. The ship had not long left the planet Chie'D, and was travelling along towards its next destination without any haste, cruising along at an easy, laid back velocity. Only an hour ago, the ship had been on alert again...

Slipstream, or at least who LONAC believed to be Slipstream, lay on the operation table in Medbay, Restore and Welder working their best to bring the space fighter out of her critical condition. A medical drone was also there, working on the lesser damaged areas while the medics did what they could to repair her critical systems. Not far away, Roadkill waited impatiently for an update on Slipstream's condition. All he could do was pace around the small table in the waiting area of Medbay, his mind racing with a thousand questions and concerns. Avalanche had left the Medbay not too long ago, content that Roadkill would not rush into the operating room and be an unwilling annoyance to the medics.

The rest of the ship had fallen back to its usual running state. The bridge was in a state of chaotic order, the plaza had a small amount of activity going on, primarily in the bar. Both the ventral and dorsal observation decks were being used by a few of the crew, and the rest of the crew were scattered throughout, mostly in their quarters.

Sunspot had left the bridge a brief time ago, and was now in main engineering, along with Panelbeater and Anchor. They were finishing up with some minor tuning to the ship's primary systems.

"Sorry!" Panelbeater called, having accidentally dropped the syncro-laser on Sunspot's head. The golden femme bot couldn't help but let out a little smile as she rubbed her head.

"Ow, heh. Lucky I had you doing that instead of realigning the phase displacers, I'd hate to know what it feels like having a waveguide spanner dropped on me!" she said good naturedly, poking Panelbeater's side with her free hand.

"I've finished the check, everything is good to go," Anchor announced from a console on the opposite side of the room. Sunspot and Panelbeater moved over to him.

"Good, the ship has needed this since before Sabel, I just kept putting it off. Initialise the settings," Sunspot said. Anchor keyed in the command to the console and the changes were activated. No one but them, and probably Waitstate, Bit and Format, would know that a change as slight as this one had occurred.

"Well, I think this place can run on automatic again for awhile, I'm gonna go see if I can find Avalanche, see if he wants to talk about what happened a little while ago..." Sunspot added. Panelbeater and Anchor nodded, and the trio parted ways.

It was dark inside the quarters belonging to Autumn Beauty. Hardly a surprise, given the time of day was what most would consider 'late night'. Autumn Beauty herself was laying on her recharge bunk, in idle mode, as she was most nights at this time. Her quarters was more like a jungle than anything else. Lush green plantlife was so abundant here that apon entering the quarters, one would think they had just stepped off a shuttle and on to the surface of an Amazon class planet.

On a wall, a holovid screen could be seen. The holovid was normally covered up by plants also, on a tray specificaly made to move aside when needed. Autumn had forgotten to hide the screen this night it seemed. In the primary living area of the quarters were a small table, and two chairs. Even Autumn had to sit now and then of course, for the holovid, or whatever else.

On the table, sat a strange plant, one which Autumn had picked up from the surface of Sabel. It was rather plain, smooth stem, branches and leaves. Its sinlge flower bud was closed, like many flowers throughout the galaxy, it opened only with light. It was rather large, taking up most of the space on the table.

The plant began to move, but there was no breeze here. It moved only slightly at first, but then trembled, yet only for a moment. Thorns sprouted from its leaves, stem and branches. Vine like tendrils emerged from the stem and the base of the bulb, slowly writhing around as if feeling out its surroudings. The general shape of the bulb also changed, as did the entire surface of the plant, becoming more rough looking. These were not the only changes. The plant seem to grow in height and width also, bursting free from its pot, spilling soil across the floor and table top. The roots wriggled fast and furious, becoming longer as the plant grew. Almost as fast as the process begun, it ended, leaving a vastly different appearing plant in the room...

Waitstate sat in his office, content to leave the bridge for awhile and raid his private mini bar, hidden inside the wall by his personal lift access. The last few hours had been trying, and he missed how well the mini bar fit the look of the room when it was exposed. He poured himself a moderatly strong beverage, ingesting it almost as quick before closing the wall panel, concealing the bar once again.

"Ahhh..." He sighed and sat in his chair, looking over the mess of various data pads and other business matters that was his desk. It was what Overwrite liked to call the 'paperwork mass grave'. Waitstate shrugged, and decided that if Overwrite loved doing it so much, he might as well handle this lot as well. He reached down to the carry box he kept under his desk and began to place the work into it when Overwrite buzzed him from the reception area just outside. Waitstate would always smile at the thought of the reception area. It was Admiral Lilwall's idea, more so as a joke than anything else. Overwrite had overheard it and simply had to have it.

"Waitstate, sir? Do you have a moment?" he asked. Waitstate sighed again, wondering what else would go wrong today, and tapped his comm.

"Not really, no. Why?"

"Crystalline is here to see you," Overwrite said. Waitstate relaxed in his chair, certain that this would not be bad news.

"Send her in," he said, tapping off the comm before he got a response. After a short moment, the office door opened, and Crystalline walked in, smiling and waving. Waitstate peered over the edge of his desk as she came closer, but eventually couldn't see her anymore.

"Perhaps you'd like--" he noticed Crystalline was climb up onto the chair ahead of his desk, "-- a seat... What's on your mind?"

"Opal and I finished up the specs for that recording studio we talked to you about, thought you might want to take a look," Crystalline said, tossing a data pad on Waitstate's desk. Waitstate picked it up and looked it over.

"Ah, good. I was hoping it wouldn't be more bad news of some kind."

"Heh. Speaking of bad news, any news on Slipstream?" asked the powermaster engine. Waitstate sighed as he looked over the datapad.

"Nothing further than what we had a little while ago. I honestly don't know what to make of all this. The medical staff were quite convinced that Slipstream was rather deceased."

"Glad I could help out, either way."

"For which I'm most appreciative, Crystalline. I'm sure Roadkill will be too. Well, everything here looks good," Waitstate said, getting back to the data. "I won't make any promises, we don't have the resources or credits to construct this anytime soon. But it looks like it could be a valuable tool to have on board."

"Opal and I were thinking the same thing. We could rent it out to other musicians, too. Have you seen the average cost per hour for use of a studio these days?" Crystalline commented. Waitstate nodded, adding the datapad with the others in the carry box.

"No doubt one of the biggest reasons for actually building one. Your music aside, of course," Waitstate said, smiling beneath his faceplate. Crystalline made a face at him and waved him off, jumping down from the seat.

"Keep us posted?" she asked.

"Definitely," Waitstate called, following her out of the office, box under arm. Crystalline continued on and out of the reception area, while Waitstate placed the box down at the side of Overwrite's desk.

"Got a moment?"

Autumn Beauty's optics flickered on from a dark grey colour to their regular bright blue glow as she dropped out of recharge mode. She stretched her joints and sat up, disconnecting from the power transfer circuit.

"Lights on, morning setting," she annouced, and the computer brought the lights on. She stood up and moved to a side room from her recharge bunk, ready to start her daily routine of pruning her quarters, and watering the areas that needed it on this particular day. She had removed the door for this small closet sized room to grant faster and easier access to it. The room was filled with various bottles, containers, tools, spare soils, seeds and various mechanical devices that would assist her in her chores. First things first, like every morning, she took the largest water can off a hook that hung on one of the walls, and keyed a button just inside the doorframe of the room. A faucet emerged from an opening wall panel, and Autumn activated it, placing the watering can underneath to catch the nutrient enriched water inside. As the can filled, she moved out into the main living area to move her newest plant, from Sabel, to a new location in her quarters that she had spent most of the day before organising. It always took her hours rearranging the forest that was her quarters. She gasped as she noted the room was vastly different.

"What in the name of Primus..?" she said, bewildered by the state of her quarters. Along all the walls, ceiling and floor there were long, thick vines, all with noticable thorns. They appeared to have a choke hold on most of the room, the leaves that grew out of them even more thorned than the vines. In the center, was a large, ugly, open flower. It was almost as large as Autumn herself, and it too had numerous thorns across the edges of its six petals, almost in a teeth-like pattern. Dozens of smaller vines, like tendrils, were lined around the base of the bulb. They flickered about wildly when the flower itself seemed to notice Autumn. The table beneath it had clearly been snapped under the weight. Autumn wasn't completely sure, still taken by shock, but she almost thought the plant was happy to see her.

"What are you?" she asked aloud, unaware the thought had translated into words. The largest of the tendrils stretched out and reached her, the flower opened its petals further, leaning towards her also. Autumn backed away, slowly moving back into her recharge room. She keyed the door closed, and bolted into the store room, shutting off the water, which by now overflowed from the watering can. She took a number of devices from a shelf and activated them shakily, not sure if she was terrified of the thing in her quarters, or excited at the prospect of discovering a new species. She readied a series of scans and test with the devices, calming herself as she did so.

Cuffs and Hitchhike arrived on deck three a short time ago, and were not that far from Autumn's quarters. It was just another routine check up on the security devices installed inside the ship, something that Cuffs liked to do more regularly than anyone else could stand to put up with. Hitchhike opened a floor panel, while Cuffs removed a wall panel, both going about their work. Hitchhike hadn't been running her check for too long before noticing something under the next panel. She lifted away the panel, but didn't know what it was she was looking at.

"Hey Cuffs, there hasn't been any new type of circuitry installed to the ship, has there?" She asked. Cuffs turned away from his work and moved towards her,

"No, why?"

"Look at this, I think it's organic." Hitchhike pointed, showing Cuffs the half dozen or so creamy white coloured objects that appeared to be circuits at first glance.

"How did anything organic get in there? We may have a security leak," Cuffs said, kneeling down to scan the matter. "It is the root of some kind of plant, and it is alive."

"How can it still be alive if it's in here?" Hitchhike asked, removing the next piece of panel to see more of the root. Cuffs scanned again.

"I detect no severing of any kind, this root is still connected to the plant," he said, standing and double checking his findings. He removed another four panels, all with the same bunch of roots hidden inside.

"That's impossible. No plant could bore through the floor!" she said, reaching in to take a sample.

"I know. We should report this immediatly," Cuffs said, but before he could activate his comm, Hitchhike called out to him with surprise. Cuffs turned to see the root had sprouted a thorny vine, and it was rapidly wrapping itself around Hitchhike.

"Get this thing off of me!" she called, struggling to keep any form of free movement. Cuffs dropped his scanner and took out his weapon, firing on the vine and snapping it from the root. He moved forward to free Hitchhike, but a new vine had sprouted, and it entangled him.

"I.. I can't break free!" Cuffs exclaimed. Hitchhike tried, but she took could not free herself. A number of vines emerged, wrapping around both bots, and around the walls, floor and ceiling of the immediate area. From these vines, sprouted many more, as well as leaves and smaller flowers. The roots still hidden under floor also sprouted vines, each one boring through the floor and repeating the cycle. Cuffs and Hitchhike struggled as best they could, but it did them little good. Soon they were up against the wall, and they could feel something bore into them, slowly draining their strength.

"There is weapons fire on deck three. I register Cuffs and Hitchhike in the area of origin," Drill Master reported from the tactical station on the bridge. Admiral Lilwall sat in the command chair, and activated the comm.

"Cuffs, what's happening down there? We've detected gunfire," he asked, but was met with no reponse. He turned back to Drill Master. "Scan deck four, anything else out of the ordinary?"

"Cuffs and Hitchhike are still in that spot. Autumn Beauty, Dark Star, Scope, Recoil, Opal and Fragment are all in their quarters. A large amount of vegetation..." Drill Master reported, sounding curious about the last part.

"That'll just be that shy girl's quarters." Chameleon called from the helm.

"No, I detect vegetation of some kind all through deck four. Almost as if it were filling up with it," Drill Master replied, double checking the data.

"It's flooding plants up there?" queried Aries.

"Wait, deck three just lost power. There's vegetation in every room on the deck, Dark Star, Recoil, Opal, Scope and Fragment are now all in the same corridor as Cuffs and Hitchhike," Drill Master added.

"I can't communicate with any of them, they mustn't be able to activate their comm units," Amethyst reported from the comm station. Admiral Lilwall activated the comm again.

"Waitstate, you better come and see this."

The plaza was in turmoil. The bar was first hit by the vines, taking away the crew that were inside. Snake-Eyes and Terrafirma soon followed as the vines over took every store. Line-In and Powerplay were as helpless as the others. After the plaza, the vines ripped through the rest of the deck, engulfing Recoil, Lightning, Twilight, Cirrus, Sunspot and Thrashmane, stealing them away and taking them to back to deck three.

Autumn moved cautiously around the bulb of the plant. It seemed awfully fond of her, and would caress her with its tendrils. Autumn could not gather any sort of useful information that could assist in a method of stopping its rapid growth. She could not move to the rear of the room any longer, the flower and its multitude of vines had grown too huge. It rate of growth was unbelievable, and it had to stop.

"Affectionate, aren't you? Probably see me as your mother..." she said, pushing the tendrils aside again for what must have been the hundredth time. A tendrils latched onto her and tried to bore in, but Autumn jumped back sharply. The tendril tried again when she cautiously moved forward again, she pushed it aside, unsure of how to proceed.

"No. That hurts, you know," she said, putting away her scanners. A thought suddenly dawned on her, while she held the same tendril back again. A plant this big would have to have some kind of root. She carefully lifted a large petal, trying to avoid contact with the thorns. She could see massive roots from the plant had gone through the floor.

"Wow... What could you be after with those?" she asked more so to herself than the plant. A tendril latched onto her back, this time boring right through. Autumn gasped in pain and struggled to get upright. Autumn cried out as she felt her energy get drawn from her body, and reached behind her, grabbing the tendril and ripping it out of her. She clambered up and backed up against the door, the tendrils reaching for her again, and the flower leaning towards her. Autumn slapped them away,

"NO!" She screamed at the plant. The flower tilted towards her further, letting out its own high pitched shriek. Autumn opened the door and ran out into the corridor. She tripped over the floor covering vines in her rush. As she regained herself, she saw what the plant had been up to all this time. A large number of crew were stuck against the walls, none of them in much condition to struggle or talk. The flower closed up, now looking like a monster bulb with all the thorns from the petals looking like teeth even more. It tore itself from its root, and slammed against the open door, trying to fit through. Autumn gasped again, looking back to see at least a quarter of the bulb was out the door. She quickly glanced around, noting many the countless other flowers that were all over the vines, some larger than others, but all would grow as fast as the original. Each one was far more alive and savage looking than she would like them to be. They were all screeching for her, vines and tendrils waving about to touch her.

"The small ones... They... They still want to be cared for..." she murmered out aloud. She quickly reasoned that the older one was big enough and independant enough to eat its mother. If it was going to kill her, it's likly that's why it was bringing the crew here as well. She activated the scanners inside her chest and followed the path of the roots, hoping to find a way to stop the monster before it destroyed her and the ship.

"I should have reported this as soon as I found it... This is all my fault!"

Restore and Welder did what they could to protect themselves and Slipstream, firing their weapons at the attacking vines, but it proved to be a hopeless act. The vines wrapped around Slipstream with ease, and were already dagging her limp form away. Roadkill fought bravely to overcome the onslaught, but was as powerless as Slipstream in the end. Restore and Welder had no more luck, and were also taken away. Lifeblood was protected only for a short time. The force field that kept him in the medi brig was all that stood between him and the plant. The members in their quarters on this deck were also quickly overwhelmed, some slower than others. When the power to the deck shut down, the force field dropped, and although Lifeblood put up perhaps the biggest fight of all, he too was taken by the plant.

"Now deck five lost power, the snared crew are enroute to deck three. The plant is still going down..." Drill Master reported. Waitstate shook his head.

"We're next... Arm yourselves, and evacuate this and all decks below us to the ventral observation deck," ordered Waitstate. Before the evactuation notice could be announced, however, vines suddenly began to emerge in the bridge.

"Look out!" Chameleon called, letting loose with his meltas. The rest ofthe bridge staff did their best to fend off the vines, but soon the metal walls were replaced with green vines, as was the floor, chairs and stations.

"Now what do we do?!" Amethyst called out, as she and the others were wrapped tightly. No one answered. No one could. They could only hope that someone else would handle it. If they had known it all seemed to depend on Autumn, they probably wouldn't be hoping anything less than a miracle.

Autumn had taken too long to follow the path of the roots. While a number of doors were jammed open, most were jammed shut and she had to find another way around. She wasn't really sure where she was in the ship, but she knew she was well past the living areas, and had moved into the working areas. The countless vines, tendrils and flowers were all reaching for her longingly, each wanting the care and nurturing it required. She was confronted again with a door, this one as vine covered as the last. She guessed the entire ship looked like this on the inside now. She cut away the vines with a blade she carried, noting that the other vines and flowers didn't like this any more than the last ones did. None of them had attacked her yet, but she didn't know how long that would last at the rate she was cutting open doors. Pulling away the cover, the sign on the door told her that this, was main engineering.

"Of course... the engine! That has to be what you're after, but why now? Why not before?" she said to herself. She looked around nervously. She had kept her calm relativly well on this occassion, maybe it was because she was dealing with something she could understand on a better level than what she had encountered in recent times.

"Computer, open main engineering door," she didn't think it would work, but it was worth a try,

"Engine room access is prohibitted. Command level authorisation required," replied the computer. Autumn clawed at the door, but try as she might, she could not open the door, she just didn't have the strength for it. She didn't know of any other ways inside the engine room.

"Waitstate... He can give me access, if he hasn't been eaten... I have to hurry!" she thought out aloud, running back for deck three. She slapped off tendrils and vines that got too close, and hoped she could reach Waitstate in time.

Nearly fifteen minutes had passed. Autumn Beauty was exhausted. The vegetation everywhere, and the damage to her back, were taking their toll on her. She was one of the smaller members on board, and didn't have the stamina for this kind of exertion. She slowly made her way about deck three, hoping the original flower monster had given up on trying to get out. It was dark, like most of the ship had been, without power. Emergency lights still functioned, but they didn't provide a great deal of light. She passed one crew member after another. Each was as limp and drained of energy as the next. The idle stares that some held on their faces sent a jolt through Autumn's systems, and she tried not to look directly at them. She was almost certain some of them were looking at her with hate, blaming her for what had happened.

"They should be mad... It was my silly plant," she said, downcast. She came to a stop just around the corner from where her quarters were. She hadn't yet seen Waitstate, and assumed he would be on the opposite side of her room. She sighed, knowing it could never have been easy for her. She crept around the corner, but was met with a surprise.

"Oh no..." She whispered, feeling herself begin to shudder. The door to her quarters had been torn down, and lay across the ground. The walls on either side were ripped outwards into the corridor as well. The monster was likly to be roaming around freely by now, and certainly much larger than it was before. Autumn slowly moved to the opposite wall, and stayed as close to it, without bumping into a crew member, as she could. She peered into her quarters as she passed by, praying that the plant monster wouldn't be there, and was lost some where that wasn't anywhere near her. She sighed when she saw nothing, and kept movingly, keeping a nervous look out for the beast. Soon, she was before Waitstate, trying to awaken him.

"Waitstate? Please wake up... Waitstate?" She urged, shaking him as best she could, the vines wrapped around him too tight. She began to cut away some of the vine, giving Waitstate movement of his head at least, which slumped down to stare at the floor. A loud and terrifying shrill echoed through the entire deck, and Autumn snapped to attention, feeling fear begin to overwhelm her.

"Waitstate! Wake up! Wake up!" she yelled, slapping him across the face. He began to stir, and strained to raise his head.

"Auuutuuummmn?" he said sluggishly in a quiet and tired voice. Autumn held his head in her hands, she could hear the monster coming closer and closer, thumping loudly on the ground.

"I need computer control!"

"Whyy? What's... What's goi--" The plant monster appeared around the far corner, announcing its presence with another circuit chilling scream. Its size had almost doubled, and it barely fit between the crew that were stuck on both sides of the corridor walls. Its long tendrils flickered about furiously, the teeth lining the bulb's mouth were curved and pointed, clearly capable of chewing up metal.

"Give me FULL computer control!!!" screamed Autumn. Waitstate paused for a moment before his head slumped down again.

"D... Done..." he said. Autumn looked back to the monster for a moment, then ran as fast as she could the other way. The monster gave chase, its thudding and stomping a big enough giveaway if ever there was one. LONAC's resident botanist was frantic, the only way she knew back to engineering was cut off by the demon that was trying to kill her. She knew at least for now, her size was an advantage. The monster had trouble trying to move fast without being slowed by bumping into the walls. Autumn gain a little ground, but had come to a dead end at a blocked up door. She took out her blade and began madly slicing away at the vines. The monster was catching up very quickly, and she had no time to lose.

"Come on!" Autumn called desperatly, pulling away at the vines. The monster came into veiw behind her, charging towards her, appearing to drag itself along with its large tenticles. Autumn bashed at the console, opening the door. She screamed as the monster was right on top of her, diving into the door. The monster shrieked as Autumn did, and torn through the door space with ease as it leapt at it and Autumn. The monster crashed to the floor and slid across it for quite some distance. Autumn Beauty got to her feet, taking in her surroundings. She was inside the primary launch bay, and it was untouched by the monster plant's vines. She noticed a command console on the wall just behind her, and hoped it could help her in some way. The plant had regained itself, and came stomping up to Autumn, who pressed her back against the wall. The beast towered over her, and leaned in close, stroking the side of her face with a tendril. Autumn tapped the console beside her, hoping she hit the correct button. On the other side of the launch bay, the large doors began to open, making a loud humming noise as they did so. The monster turned to face them, confused. Autumn tapped another button while the plant's glance was at the doors. The protective sheilding that prevented everything from being sucked out into space was suddenly gone. The monster knew it, turning back to Autumn and shreiking at her.

"Mother knows best, petal..." Autumn said to it, grasping tightly to the twisted and out bent metal that was once the door. The monster was lifted from the ground, and sucked out into space as it cried out with its horrible noise. The beast was soon no more, as it fell victim to explosive decompression syndrome. Autumn also cried out, losing her already weak grip on the metal. She stretched out against the pull of the vaccuum, tapping the console again. The shelding returned, and Autumn fell to the floor, completely exhausted. She looked around, expecting to see the bay completely empty. All the shuttles remained however, as did the various types of equipment found on the bay. Taking the time to look, she found they were magnettically clamped down. Autumn sighed, confident she could handle the rest of the ship's little problems now.

"Time to start my pruning..." she said to herself as she hauled her body upright. Entering in the proper commands, she shut down the engine core and peered back into the corridor. The vines and flowers dropped to the floor. Those from above simply dangled, and began to slowly die.

Six days had passed since Autumn Beauty had saved the ship from the plant monster. Autumn had reactivated all of the drones on baord the Freedom, and had them free the crew and repair the medical staff, who set about repairing everyone else. Lifeblood was luckily put back into the medi-brig before he could get too wild for anyone. Power was restored fairly quickly, right after the core roots of the plants were vaporised, of course. The rest of the time since then had been spent cleaning up the left overs, and that task was now complete. Autumn helped where she could, returning to her meek and shy little old self when everyone was repaired. She had requested to clean up deck three on her own, skipping the occupied quarters, however. She didn't think many would appreciate her going through their homes after the mess she put everyone in. Especially with the likes of Dark Star living on the deck.

Much to her surprise, there was no retaliation against her. Not even a single bad word. It took her three full, long, days to clean out the entire deck on her own. She then retired to her quarters to clean it up as well. Her remaining living plants were few in number, leaving her home to look very dull and lifeless as far as she thought. She had plenty of seeds that she had planted, but thankfully these ones would take much longer to grow than the monster plant, so she could put up with dull quarters easily now. She sat in her chair in the main living space, watching a documentary about flowers from the planet Gymil on the holovid. The door chime rang, and she stood up, nervously answering,

"Y.. Yes?"

"It's Waitstate, come we talk?"

"Come in..." Autumn said. The door opened and Waitstate walked in. The pair just stood there for a moment, Autumn fidgetting. Waitstate motioned to the chairs.

"May I?" He asked. Autumn quickly sat back in her seat, nodding at him,

"Yes.. s.. sorry,"

"Heh, it's fine. We've disposed of the plant's left overs, and those dead plants of yours you asked me to take care of. We dumped them into the atmosphere of an uninhabited planet we passed a little awhile ago. It all burned up harmlessly in the atmosphere," Waitstate informed her. She nodded, clearly interested, yet still seeming to appear as if waiting for bad news. Waitstate continued.

"Sunspot and Restore discovered that the plant that caused us all that grief, was being affected by what is harmless radiation to anything else. The radiation was given off by the engine core, it recently got a tune up. So there's no reason for you to think this was your fault, if you were thinking that at all. The whole crew knows it wasn't, so..." Waitstate waited for Autumn to say something, but she was happy enough to sit there nervous, but relieved by the news. "Well, I just thought you should know. Oh, and to give you this," Waitstate took something from subspace and handed it to her.

"What is this?" Autumn asked. She looked at it, a small statue carved from wood. It was the LONAC sigil, with a rose vine twisted twice around it, and and open rose flower at its end, sitting on top of the sigil. It was perhaps the size of her hand, and had a small plaque attached to it with two words etched onto it.

--Thank You--

"I had Snake-Eyes make it up for you, the crew don't even know about it, except for our department heads, anyway. I didn't think you'd be one for a public gathering, so consider me to be the official bravery award ceremony, and that to be your official bravery award."

"I... I don't know what to say..." Autumn muttered, surprised by it all.

"You don't need to say anything. Well, I have other things to attend to, so I best be going. Have a good day!" Waitstate stood and gave a small wave before leaving Autumn to herself. She stared at the statue for a moment longer before placing it in the center of her new table. She turned her attention back to the holovid.

"And coming up next; Plants Of Sabel! Right after this commercial break!" Called the announcer over the credits of the previous show. Autumn smiled and shook her head at the holovid. She turned it off.