Dana was at my side immediately. "You okay?"
"Better than okay." I wiped my eyes carefully. "He's alive. He's here. He gave me permission to be happy."
"You don't need permission to be happy," Bea said.
"I know. But it helps." I looked at my three best friends—my found family who'd stood beside me through everything. "Thank you. For being here. For not giving up on me when I was actively self-destructing."
"We're friends," Jalina said simply. "That's what friends do."
"Plus," Dana added with a grin, "we have a vested interest in you being happy. Miserable Elena was exhausting. Happy Elena is only moderately exhausting."
I laughed, the sound breaking whatever emotional tension remained. "I love you all."
"We know." Bea checked the chronometer. "Twenty minutes. Time to move to the ceremony hall."
My stomach executed a complicated series of flips. Twenty minutes until I bonded with Vaxon. Twenty minutes until I stood in front of everyone we cared about and promised to build a future together.
Twenty minutes until I chose, officially and irrevocably, to live instead of just survive.
The walk to the ceremony hall felt both too long and too short. Dana, Jalina, and Bea flanked me like protective guards, their presence grounding. We passed crew membersin the corridors who offered congratulations and blessings in a dozen different languages.
The hall doors opened, and I saw it.
Jalina had transformed the space into something that honored both human and Zandovian traditions. Earth flowers Dana had coaxed from hydroponics mixed with Zandovian light crystals that pulsed like heartbeats. Seating arranged in hybrid configuration, human rows and Zandovian standing spaces merged into something new.
Captain Tor'van stood at the hall's center in his formal command robes, ready to officiate. The crew filled the space, Zandovians in geometric tunics, other species in their cultural garments, the handful of rescued humans wearing their best approximations of formal Earth clothing.
And at the front, waiting beside Er'dox and Zor'go and Zorn, stood Vaxon.
My breath caught.
He wore traditional Zandovian bonding robes in deep black with electric-blue markings that matched his natural patterns. The formal garments should have made him look rigid, militaristic. Instead he just looked devastatingly handsome and completely focused on me.
His cobalt eyes tracked my approach with an intensity that made my heart stutter.
When I reached the front, when I stood before him and saw his markings brighten in response to my presence, everything else faded.
Just us. Two broken people who'd found each other in the wreckage.
"You're beautiful," he murmured, voice rough with emotion.
"You're staring."
"I'm memorizing." His hand found mine, an enormous palm engulfing my smaller fingers. "In case this is a dream."
"Not a dream." I squeezed back. "Real. This is real."
Captain Tor'van's voice cut through the moment. "We gather to witness the bonding of Elena Vasquez and Vaxon, joining human and Zandovian in partnership. This union represents more than personal commitment. It symbolizes the bridges our species build together."
He continued with the formal ceremony elements, blending human marriage vows with Zandovian bonding rites. I barely heard the words. Too focused on Vaxon's face, on the way his markings pulsed in time with my racing heartbeat.
"Elena Vasquez," Tor'van said finally. "Do you choose this bond? Do you promise to stand with Vaxon through whatever challenges the universe presents?"
"I do." My voice came out stronger than expected. "I choose this. I choose him. I choose us."
"Vaxon," Tor'van turned to him. "Do you choose this bond? Do you promise to honor Elena's strength while offering your protection, not as control but as partnership?"
"I choose this bond." Vaxon's voice was absolutely steady. "I choose Elena. Today and every day forward."
