Still, she felt in her gut that Karuk wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
Why she thought that she didn’t know, but she did.
“You should heed her words,” the other male, Bardon, said. “Telepaths are dangerous, on any world. You don’t want him anywhere near yours.”
Karuk crossed his arms. “You see to think you know my motivations.”
“You’re a telepath. All of you are the same.”
Now that just pissed her off.
Jenny wasn’t a big fan of anyone being judged by their entire race, and it pissed her off they would talk about him like that.
She would have thought that space-traveling species would have moved past such petty prejudices.
She took a step forward and pointed her finger at Bardon and Cher, not really caring how much taller they were than she was.
“Listen, I may be from a planet that doesn’t know much about the big old universe, but just because you had an unpleasant experience with one of his people doesn’t mean that all of them are bad. There’s a rotten apple in every bunch. Stopassuming that they’re all bad. If that was the way of the world, er, um, the universe, then we’d all be evil cannibals or something, and no one would leave their planets. So, get over whatever your dumb assumptions are, and treat him with respect.”
All three of them stared at her.
No one said a thing for a few moments.
Bardon opened his mouth to argue.
Jenny put her hands on her hips. “Go on. You all can move along. And think about what I said.”
Cher glanced at Karuk; the corner of her mouth tipped up in almost a smile. She put her hand on Bardon’s arm. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. They’re not worth it.”
Jenny turned and started to say something else.
Instead, she felt a hand on her shoulder that stopped her cold.
She glanced back and saw Karuk shaking his head. “She’s just trying to start things.”
“I think they succeeded.”
“I do not know their motivations, but they seem to excel in causing general high tensions.”
“Do you know them well?”
“They are my work team.”
“Maybe you should get a new work team.”
“I have considered it.”
“This is breathtaking,”Jenny said, her hand gripping the rail that let her get close to the station’s external window.
Or forcefield, rather. She could feel a sort of energy radiating off it, so it wasn’t actually glass, but something that kept the pressure in and the vacuum of space out.
The soft hum that she seemed to hear everywhere in the station was louder here. Not annoyingly so, but just more intense.
Invigorating, in a way.
The window showed a good portion of Earth on the left, but it also showed the stars beyond to the right. It was breathtaking to see the universe, just there. Like right there. She felt like she could touch them.
She glanced at Karuk, who stood next to her, looking out as well at the stars. “It makes me feel very small.”
