“You’re, uh, kind of in the way,” Jenny whispered.
And raised her tray.
Karuk glanced to his side, realizing he blocked the recycling station, so no one could put their trays away.
“Apologies,” he said, and walked away.
A wave of foolishness overtook him as he walked away, and he forced himself to keep his steps solid and not show any effect of the interaction on his demeanor. If only to make sure that his teammates did not realize his error.
But as he walked through, a glance at them showed the two of them holding back laughter.
Resko gave him a quiet clap, mocking his moves.
“I thought those pretty boys had the swagger,” he heard Girrick say.
“Guess not,” Resko replied.
8
“Crap, now I’ve offended him or something,” Jenny muttered.
The more she saw Karuk around the space station, the more she wanted to know about him. His skin glistened. She noticed the closer she got to him, and she could see it looked like he had gold flaking in his skin.
What was that all about?
She wanted to know more.
So much more about him. Like more than just the biology, though that certainly activated her bioengineering side.
It wasn’t like he was the only alien around—they were everywhere. They worked with alien doctors and engineers every day to make sure their scanning equipment properly worked with human genomes.
As she watched Karuk stomp off, she felt horrible. It was obvious he wasn’t happy, and she didn’t want him to think she was some mean person.
“Well, better fix this,” she muttered to herself as she darted after him.
He left the cafeteria and went down a hallway she guessed was to his quarters or something. She hadn’t been in this area before, so she wasn’t sure where she was going.
“Wait,” she said, increasing her pace to catch Karuk as he walked out of the cafeteria.
“The last thing I need is to get lost in here,” she muttered to herself.
Karuk must have heard her, because he paused and turned. “Is there something you require?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, as she took a few more strides to catch him.
“For?”
“Offending you.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because,” she said, moving from one foot to another. “Because of back there. I didn’t mean to be rude or anything.”
He blinked. “You were not.”
“Are you sure? You stormed out of there pretty fast. I was afraid I had offended your great ancestors or something.”
“Why would you offend them? They’re dead.”
