Page 63 of Alien Attachment

She turns in her chair, reaching up to trace my features with gentle fingers. “Some couriers deliver packages,” she muses. “Some deliver chaos. And some, if they’re really lucky, get to deliver themselves right where they belong.”

The question comes without words, flowing through our bond—where do you belong, Jhorn?

I lift her from her chair, cradling her against my chest as my tendrils wrap around her with exquisite care. The answer flows back through our connection, clear and absolute.

“Right here,” I tell her, though she already knows. “With you. On our ship. Charting our own course.”

Her kiss tastes of coffee and contentment, of choices freely made and bonds willingly forged. Through our connection, I feel her love—not the desperate need of someone seeking salvation, but the steady flame of someone who has found her match.

As I carry her back to our quarters, the Starlight Tether hums beneath us, extension of our bond made manifest in metal and circuitry. Outside, infinite possibility stretches in all directions. ApexCorp still hunts. Uncertainty remains our constant companion.

But I am no longer the weapon they created. I am Jhorn—chosen name, chosen path, chosen love. And in choosing Kaylee, I have discovered that some bonds liberate rather than constrain.

We are tethered to each other and to nothing else, free to explore whatever wonders await us in the vast, beautiful darkness between the stars.

And that, I think as Kaylee laughs against my throat, is the most successful modification I have ever made to my original programming.