Jenny turned.
Sure enough, there was Karuk, holding Mr. F in his carrier.
They were talking about something.
From the way Mr. F was howling, probably about how much her pet hates being in his carrier.
Jenny waved her hand. “He’ll be okay.”
She hugged Brooklyn, and they finished their goodbyes, before she went back over to Karuk.
“Are you ready to go?”
Jenny nodded.
As they walked toward the airlock, Re-lee and Polly showed up.
“I’m so happy to see you two happy,” Re-lee said.
Jenny held up her hand. “You are so lucky that this is all working out.”
Re-lee stared at her. “What do you mean?”
“You need to be careful with those databases, ma’am. Uploading all of the scans here, that were all local, to the master mainframes? It could have gotten him killed!” Jenny snapped at her. “We’re lucky that his people didn’t actually want to kill him when they found him!”
“I didn’t upload anything. Those files remained local,” Re-lee said. “That’s all they were used for was testing here.”
“Well, someone did,” Jenny replied. “So you’d better look into that, and make sure no one else has any issues here. You may not get so lucky that no one died.”
Re-lee stared, her gaze darting to Karuk and then back. “I am sorry. I’m glad it’s worked out, but I am sorry for the mistake. Itake responsibility for it. And I will understand how those files were uploaded publicly. You have my word.”
“Good,” Jenny said. “And thank you.”
“For?” Re-lee asked.
“For him. He’s my Christmas savior, I think.”
Polly grinned. “Merry Christmas, Jenny.”
“Merry Christmas.”
EPILOGUE
Karuk 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?”
