Chapter Six: Where You Are
Gradually, Nora learned her way around. It all looked like a mess, but there was an organization to it that made sense the more she walked it.
Important buildings were clustered together. The infirmary and the building where they kept food and weapons stored were close, about a hundred feet apart, actually. A ways off from that was Carro's workshop, which Nora learned was close to the infirmary because she was always hurting herself, not because her work was in the same class as the medic and people who kept watch over the food and weapons.
On the other side was the circle, where they met to eat and discuss the day's business and beyond that were the private residences. There was a training area in the middle that had been built from what looked like scrap and spare concrete and beyond that was a large, mostly empty building that was called the Shelter.
"It's so we can hide if we need to," Carro explained to her one day as they were walking from the food storage building to the circle. "In case of an attack."
Nora arched an eyebrow. From what she knew of the Amakari, which, admittedly, wasn't much yet, it didn't seem like they were the kind of people who hid from things.
Carro guessed what she was thinking from her lifted brow. "I know Galen and some of the others make it seem like we don't run from anything, but we're not stupid," she said. "Sometimes we get overwhelmed. We're a little junk moon, so no one comes looking for us for the most part, but if they did and they had a force big enough that we couldn't take 'em, we'd go hide in the Shelter."
"Couldn't they just destroy the building?" Nora asked, looking over at it. It didn't seem any more sturdy than anything else on the moon, honestly.
Carro nodded and smiled. "The building, yeah, but the first ones who settled here spent years digging tunnels and underground rooms and things like that. They can blow up the building, but we'll be safe under it."
"Oh," Nora said. "That's really smart."
"That's us," Carro replied with a grin. "We may look like just dumb muscle, but we know what we're doing."
"You're not dumb muscle," Nora said. Carro was one of the kindest people she had met here so far. She’d opened her home to her and made sure that she wasn’t lost and alone and that she got fed and taken care of. When Galen turned his glare on her, Carro was usually there to defuse the situation with a grin and a sharp comment. She was also apparently a genius, so pretty much as far from dumb muscle as it got.
Carro snorted, amused. "Speaking of dumb muscle." She nodded towards the training area as they passed it, and there was Galen, squaring off in the center with another of his fellows whose name Nora didn't think she knew.
The two women paused for a moment to watch, and Nora found that she was transfixed.
For all he was gruff and rude and didn't seem to like anyone, it was clear that Galen had plenty of skill when it came to this. He had a sword so comically large it seemed like it belonged in a video game in his hands, and he was shifting his stance to better be able to wield it properly, as far as Nora could tell. His fingers were wrapped around the hilt as if they belonged there, and there was a confidence in his stance that Nora had to admit was very attractive.
His sparring partner was wielding what looked like some kind of war hammer, thick and heavy, and his muscles were bunched up with the effort of holding it.
Carro snorted again. "Phelon has been trying to beat Galen in the ring for ages now," she said.
"No luck?" Nora asked, not looking away from the display in front of them.
"None at all. Galen's too good. No one knows how he got so good, and he's apparently not telling, but it's impossible to beat him when he doesn't want to be beaten. If the Amakari cared about champions, he'd be ours."
That was impressive. Or at the very least it sounded impressive. It wasn't hard to imagine that Galen was good at fighting. He always seemed to be spoiling for conflict, after all, and watching the way he held that sword, it was obvious that he had a passion for it as well as skill.
As they watched, Galen called something that they couldn't hear to Phelon, and the bout began.
At first, Galen didn't attack. He stayed on the defensive, blocking and parrying Phelon's attacks, which was impressive in and of itself considering how big and heavy the hammer looked. He also seemed to be offering advice on how to best move into each different attack, which Phelon didn't seem to be appreciating.
"Is Galen teaching him?" Nora wanted to know.
"Something like that. Galen's not a teacher, which probably won't surprise you, but he does give instructions during sparring matches. It just usually sort of all comes out like taunting."
That explained Phelon's red face and thundercloud expression, then. Galen was 'instructing' him and also blocking every attack, which had to be embarrassing for someone who had been trying to beat him for so long.
It only got worse from there because once Phelon started to get angry and let that show in his attacks, Galen started launching attacks of his own.
He was a blur of motion, and Nora was shocked that someone that large could move that fast, especially carrying such a heavy weapon. He moved from attack to attack, barely giving Phelon any time to recover or block, calling out something every time he landed a blow.
"Isn't this dangerous?" Nora murmured. "For Phelon to be getting hit with that sword?"
Carro shook her head. "That's Galen's practice sword. It's blunted. Worst he could do with it is break a couple of bones."
Nora finally looked away to stare at her, wondering how these people didn't considering breaking bones to be that big of a deal.
"We should keep moving," Carro said, nudging Nora lightly. "Lots to do today, you know."
Nora nodded and allowed herself one last look before she continued to follow Carro on their path.
She didn't know why she couldn't stop thinking about what she had seen. Galen was a good fighter, to be sure, but he was also one of the most annoying people she'd ever had the misfortune to meet. He was always alternating between breathing down her neck and pretending like she didn't exist, and it was impossible to tell which he'd be doing on any given day.
It was also impossible to tell which bothered her more. When he was accusing her of everything under the sun, it was irritating, but when he was ignoring her, there was a palpable sense of loss.
She hated it, if she were being honest, and he drove her nuts.
So of course, as soon as she stepped out of Carro's workshop that evening, he was right there, arms folded.
"Oh good," she said dryly, stepping past him. "You're here. Carro's inside."
"I'm not here to see Carro," Galen replied, voice stony.
"For me, then?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him. "I'm flattered."
He narrowed his eyes at her and then stepped closer. "You were watching me today," he said.
Nora winced internally. She should have known that was going to come back and bite her. She'd been hoping that Galen was so distracted with his fight that he wouldn't notice her there, but apparently he had been able to multitask.
It was hard to know how best to respond to his words. He already knew she'd been there, so denying it was pointless and would just lead to more suspicion, but she wasn't going to apologize for being there either.
In the end, she just folded her arms and looked up at him. "So?"
He seemed taken aback, like he wasn't used to being stood up to. "What were you looking for?" he asked.
She blinked. "Nothing."
"Don't lie to me."
"You say that a lot, and you never seem to get it through your head that I'm not lying to you. I don't have any reason to lie to you," Nora said. "And why would I lie about this? What, do you think I'm some kind of spy who's watching you fight so I can tell someone about it?"
Judging from the tilt of Galen's eyebrows, that was exactly what he thought.
Nora couldn't help herself then. She laughed. "You're insane," she said. "Who would I tell? I'm a human, remember? I'm from Earth. Even if people on Earth wanted to know about alien life, they don't have the means to get here."
"You had the means," Galen pointed out.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "And I've already told you a hundred times that I don't even remember how I got here." She huffed a sigh and decided it was high time she ended this mess. "You want to know the only thing I do remember?" she asked him.
He frowned and then nodded.
"I remember someone telling me to run. I don't know who it was, but they sounded scared and like they were trying to save me. So most likely? I was abducted and brought here. I don't know why, I don't want to be here, and I don't have any hidden plans, so if you could just leave me alone, I'd really appreciate it."
Galen stared at her for a long moment, seemingly considering her words, then, finally, he nodded and turned to leave her alone.
It was...perplexing.
She certainly hadn't expected him to actually do as she'd asked, and the fact that he was leaving her be like she'd wanted him to was starting to take her off guard. Three days passed, and the only time she saw Galen was at the circle in the evenings. Even then he sat on the opposite side from her, engaged in conversation with someone else.
Once or twice she'd thought that she felt his eyes on her, but when she looked up, he wasn't looking at her at all.
It was unnerving, and somehow worse than when he'd ignored her before.
"He's dramatic," Carro had told her when she asked about it. "You tell him to do something and he does it to the maximum. He--" she broke off, frowning at something on the table she was standing in front of. For a moment she was silent and then she swore loudly.
"What is it?" Nora asked, stepping closer.
"We're in trouble," she said. "Not even Imperials, this time."
From what she understood, the Imperials were the governing force of this area of the galaxy. The Amakari were unregistered and living on what was supposed to be an abandoned moon with no permission to do so. Sometimes they raided, trying to wipe them out, but they were half-hearted in their attempts, since the Amakari weren't criminals who caused them problems.
"Who is it, then?" Nora wanted to know, heart in her throat. Apparently this happened often enough, but this was the first time in the few weeks she'd been on Alinsoth that it had happened.
"Bounty hunters," Carro said, and she made it sound like something disgusting. "Always trying to get more than their share."
"Why would they come here?"
"Imperials don't like having to hunt us themselves," Carro replied, shutting down her machines with quick flicks of her fingers. "They don't like having to do any of the hard work themselves. So they post bounties for areas where those who live outside their laws might be likely to be hiding. Bounty hunters seek those places out, hoping to find something or someone worth some credits to the Imperials."
She jabbed her finger into another button and a light started flashing on the machine.
"So what do we do?" It seemed improbable that they were just going to stand there. "Do we go to the Shelter?"
Carro shook her head. "Not for this. For this, we fight."
Oh. "Carro," Nora said, trying to keep her voice calm. "I don't know how to fight."
"You won't have to," she replied. "Just stay here."
Alright, she could do that.
Nora watched as Carro hefted what looked like a cross between a semi-automatic weapon and a crossbow and then stepped back as she dashed out the door.
Outside, she could hear the sounds of shouting. She went to the window and looked out, watching as Carro ran to the nearest cluster of Amakari and told them what was happening. She pointed overhead, just as the sound of something loud and droning went over them.
A ship, maybe, and Nora forced herself to take a deep breath. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, trying not to get overwhelmed.
She didn't remember the ship that had brought her to Alinsoth, but in the back of her mind, she thought the droning sound was familiar.
It filled her with a terror like she had never really experienced before, and her hands went cold and clammy and started to shake. Her head was filled with that sound and the sound of voices, harsh and speaking a language she didn't understand. With her eyes closed, her mind supplied images.
Hands grabbing her, a white so blinding she couldn’t see anything. A light in her face, metal bars, metal chains. She could hear them clinking together as they moved. A face with too many eyes.
"No," she murmured. "No, no, no."
It hurt her head to think about it, and she had no doubt that she was having flashes of whatever had happened to bring her to this place. It seemed horrible and a very large part of her figured she was better off not remembering, even if it meant she could never go home.
Suddenly there was a sound like a door opening, and her eyes flew open to see the door to the workshop flung open wide.
For a moment, that was all she could see, and then there was a shadow in the doorway, cast by something large and hulking, and Nora shrank back, making a noise of fear in the back of her throat. Her mind supplied the words ‘not again’, and she shook where she stood, eyes darting around looking for something she could use to defend herself. That was comical in itself, seeing as she didn’t know if she had the ability to defend herself even if she found something.
There was a low chuckle from the doorway, and someone stepped in, cutting off her train of thought.
It wasn’t one of the Amakari.
Last she’d checked, they all only had two arms. Well. With the exception of Gladius, who had three, but that was neither here nor there.
This was a tall creature with four arms, who was almost more muscular than anyone on Alinsoth. There was a metal disc over one of its eyes, and it was dressed in the same manner that the Amakari were. Plain clothes in dull colors. Two of its hands were wrapped around the hilt of a sword, and one of the others held a very shiny gun.
Nora swallowed hard. As soon as the creature noticed her, the gun was pointed in her direction.
It looked her over and then the one visible eye widened.
“Well, well,” it said in a masculine voice that dripped with condescension. “What is this now?”
She didn't know if she was meant to answer that or not, so she just continued to stare, wide eyed, while the creature, a bounty hunter, Carro had called him, looked her over.
"Now, it's one thing to live outside the law on this dump of a rock in the sky," the creature continued. "But to be harboring a fugitive. That's something different altogether."
A fugitive? Her?
"What?" she squeaked. "I'm...I'm not..." She swallowed hard, and her hands shook. Where was Carro? Where was anyone? Heck, she'd have accepted Galen riding to her rescue just then because she was terrified and confused.
"Yes, you," the thing said. "You and everything that looks like you. The Imperials have their eyes on the humans, and these low lives are just hiding you here. Or did they kidnap you?" He leaned in closer, peering at her face. "Did they take you from your home or your keepers?"
"I..." Nora was at a loss. It was clear that this scoundrel had information that might be useful when it came to finding out why she was on this moon in the first place, but he also looked like he was more likely to shoot her in the face or take her away than offer her any assistance.
He clicked his tongue, reprovingly. "See, it's not smart to take the things the Imperials want," he said, voice dry. "People get killed for stealing and taking what's not theirs. And the Imperials, they're real touchy about what's theirs."
"That's just too bad for them, isn't it?"
Nora jumped when she heard the familiar voice, and both she and the bounty hunter made to stare into the doorway at who had just joined them.
The bounty hunter huffed a laugh. "You just don't know how to stay out of trouble, do you?" he asked, and lifted the gun up to aim it behind him while the two hands gripping the sword slashed it forward.