Epilogue

EPILOGUE

K aruk never thought he’d step back onto his world again. To see the mountains that bordered the Vorjan territories. The trees with their blue and green leaves. The ground. The flora.

It was his grounding. His anchor.

Well, it was.

Until he met Jenny.

Now it was his world, but it wasn’t his home.

She was his home.

Jenny stood next to him at the foot of the ship’s ramp. The wind blew across the ground, lightly, bringing a scent of trella flower to them, the sweet scent smelling like candy.

He glanced at her. “What do you think?”

“It’s beautiful,” she said, staring at the world with wonder. “The purple mountains, and the soft blue grass? It’s stunning. I cannot believe I’m on another world.” She took a few steps forward. “I kind of want to just sit in the grass and look at everything.”

“We can do that. Maybe not right now, but we will after we get settled.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

He stepped to her side and put his arm around her. “I thought we didn’t have plans. We just improvised.”

She grinned. “We do that too.”

He leaned down and kissed her. She hugged him back, and he held her close against him, savoring the taste of her.

Finally, they broke apart, but only because others were coming down from the ship’s ramp.

They stepped out of the way and just watched everyone unload.

“Thank you,” he said.

“For?” Jenny asked.

“For coming. For questioning.”

She smiled. “It was the right thing to do. Just like what you did. The right thing.”

“Speaking of the right thing,” Karuk said. “I got a message from Re-lee from the space station.”

“What about?” Jenny asked.

“Apologizing. She found the leak of how the data got out. Evidently, it was some saboteurs from the station, who wanted to get me in trouble.”

“Who?” Jenny asked.

“Cher and Bardon,” Karuk said.

“Your teammates?”

He nodded. He’d been shocked, initially, with the news, but as much as the two of them didn’t like him, he should have guessed it would have been something like that.

Though even that seemed a little far-reaching because they didn’t like him.

“Well, I’ll be sure to, uh…” Jenny stopped. “I’m not sure what I’d do. They’re both a lot bigger than me. But I guess I could yell at them some more.”

“Won’t do any good. Re-lee is having them brought up on charges for privacy among other things. They’ll get what they deserve.”

“I hope so.” She looked back out at the scene. “I cannot get over this blue grass.”

“It’s very soft. You should feel it.”

She squatted down. “Oh my gosh, it’s like silk. We totally have to have a picnic sometime and just sit in it.”

“We can, I promise.”

He’d give her whatever he could. Whatever she wanted.

He’d never been so lucky in his life to find someone like Jenny.

He truly was blessed. She’d saved him from a fate worse than death.

She’d saved him from himself.

“Karuk,” came a voice. It was Falkin. “It is time.”

He nodded and followed. Though he held out his arm. Jenny slipped her hand in the crook of his elbow, like she had that day before on the station.

“We are going together,” she said.

“I would rather it be no other way.”

End