“The things I had to do are done,” Keene told her. “What Alicia said was right. The future we need to be thinking about now is here, not at Saturn.”
In the light from the lamps, he saw her eyes moistening. “You’re not going back with the Varuna?” she said, her voice catching.
He shook his head and slipped an arm around her waist, drawing her closer as they walked. “And anyway, you and I have got a lot of lost time to make up, haven’t we?”
“You really mean it?”
He nodded.
Vicki dropped her head against his shoulder, closed her eyes. Around them, the night breeze between the looming shadows of the base was fresh and cool, bringing a hint of rain with the scents and sounds of the new world.
The new world beginning.