Chapter Eight: Venn Diagram
Nora opened her mouth wide, trying to gauge how wide it needed to be to get all the way around Galen's cock.
He was proportional, but it didn't really matter because he was the biggest man she'd ever had from his height to his muscles all the way down to his cock.
It was magnificent, really, hard and thick, nearly as long as her forearm. She could barely close her hand around it, and she didn't have small hands. When it was hard it was flushed with blood, the tip shiny with precome, and Nora spared a moment to be glad that even though they came from different planets and were probably different species technically, this was the same.
The heated look in his eyes as he looked down at her was the same, too, as the looks she'd gotten from other men that she'd done this for. There was something about a woman on her knees with a man's length in her hand that translated to the same thing through space, she was pretty sure, and she smirked slightly before leaning in to lick the head of Galen's cock.
He groaned, tongue darting out to lick his lips. "Now who's being a tease?" he said, voice low with need.
"Not me," Nora replied, voice all innocence. "I'm just getting prepared. You're so big."
He was such a man, honestly. Compliment his dick, and he was practically preening like a peacock (hah, peacock). It would have been irritating if it weren't so charming.
But she had a plan here, and she wanted to get to it before she lost her nerve. Slowly, she eased the head of his cock into her mouth, sucking experimentally. It had been a while since she'd done this for anyone, let alone someone with a cock the size of a baby's arm, so she took it easy, using her hands and her tongue to compensate for what she couldn't do with just her mouth yet.
It didn't seem to bother Galen one bit. He was swearing above her head, and when she rolled her eyes up to look at him, he had that blissed out expression on his face that she was starting to enjoy quite a bit.
It had only been a few days since Galen had kissed her that first time, and they'd pretty much spent all that time having sex whenever they could find a spare moment to do so.
By some unspoken agreement, they were keeping it quiet, so they had to fit it in in the moments where they could. They would do it in Carro's house when she wasn't there, and there had been one time in Carro's workshop of all places when she'd gone to a meeting with Donlan that Galen had known would take hours.
This was the first time they were meeting at Galen's home, and Nora hadn't even had time to look around yet. Galen had put his hands on her waist and pulled her close to his chest, murmuring against her lips that he wanted her, and that had been distraction enough.
He was good at putting his cock inside of her and making her come on the spot, but she'd wanted to try something different this time, and she'd sunk to her knees on the floor in the front room and started undoing Galen's pants.
When he'd asked her what she was doing, she'd just arched an eyebrow and stared back at him as if waiting for him to figure it out.
The look on his face when he had was amazing.
So now she was there, still on her knees, giving him her best with her mouth. Galen swore in languages she had never heard before and didn't have any hope of understanding, and it was flattering to have that kind of effect on him.
When her jaw got tired, she pulled back some and worked him with her hand, licking and lapping at his cock while she caught her breath.
"You look amazing like that," Galen said, voice rough.
"Like what?" Nora asked innocently, blinking up at him with a smile.
"On your knees. With my cock in your mouth."
She snorted. "Do I?"
"Yes," he said, and the conviction in it warmed her.
She took him back in her mouth, bobbing her head and working until she had about half of his length hot and heavy on her tongue. When one of his hands found its way into her hair, she shivered and made a low sound of pleasure that reverberated along his cock. He pushed his hips forward just a bit, but didn't try to take control, which she appreciated.
He seemed much more interested in letting her do what she wanted, which was empowering in its way because he could have easily picked her up and tossed her on the bed and had his way with her.
Not that she would have complained about that overly much, because it was always fun when he wanted to have his way with her, but she was on a mission here.
She kept up her exploration of his cock with her mouth, kissing and licking and sucking at the head and at as much as she could get in her mouth at a time. She used her hands to make up the difference, stroking the base of him and playing with his full balls where they hung low.
Praise and filth spilled from his mouth in equal measure, and it was such a turn on to know that she was the one doing this to him. He was a barbarian, one of the strongest there, and she was making him come undone at the seams with just her mouth and her hand.
Her other hand had been bracing her against his body, but soon enough she had snaked it down to the warm space between her legs and started touching herself, needing something to take the edge off the need that was building in her faster than she knew how to handle it.
She started just stroking her clit lightly, but soon enough she had two fingers plunged inside of herself, working them in time with the bobbing of her head as she sucked Galen off.
By the time she had come on her own fingers, it was clear that Galen was getting close to his own release, which was a mercy because her jaw had started to ache something fierce. There were definite downsides to Galen’s stamina and her stubborn need to finish what she’d started.
“Nora,” Galen choked out, looking down at her with those dark eyes. “I’m...I’m close.”
She held his gaze, breathing hard through her nose and dared him with her eyes to let go.
With a broken cry, he did as she wanted, filling her mouth with his warm release. Nora swallowed it quickly and then pulled off of his cock as it softened, licking him clean and teasing just a little until his hissed breath made her stop before she got him going again.
There was no such thing as a quickie when it came to Galen, and it was their responsibility to prepare dinner for everyone that night.
“Good?” Nora asked, when she had released his cock and rocked back so she was sitting on her heels.
Galen gave her the slow blink of someone who had been deeply satisfied, and Nora rather thought that the look spoke for itself.
"You know, I always thought there would be some kind of newfangled machines on other planets that cooked food for you," Nora said. She leaned against the counter, watching Galen as he poked a slab of frying meat with a long poker.
"They have those on some planets," Galen said. "You add grain and vegetables and some meats into the machine and it makes your bread and roasts for you. We don't have things like that out here."
"I'm not complaining," Nora said, reaching out to touch his arm. "We don't have those on Earth, either. We cook this way, too. We have better seasonings, though."
Galen arched a brow. "Like what?"
"Like garlic."
"What's garlic?"
Nora blinked for a second, trying to figure out how to best explain garlic to an alien. "It's...an herb, I guess? Or like a plant. It's like a small onion." He just gave her a blank look at that, so she looked at his pile of vegetables and picked up one that was the most bulb shaped. "Like this," she said. "Only it's mostly used for flavoring. You chop it up all small and then cook it with your food and it makes it taste better."
"What does it taste like?" he wanted to know.
"Sort of...buttery? But also kind of sharp. It's hard to explain."
"We have these," Galen said, nudging a bright purple pepper looking thing over to her with his stick. "Uwana."
"Uwana," she repeated. "What is it?"
"It's a uwana," he said. "It's spicy."
"So like a pepper?"
"If those are spicy, then yes. But these are also poisonous."
Nora looked alarmed. "Then why are you putting it in food?" she demanded.
"It's only poisonous when it's raw. Cooking it kills the toxin."
He jabbed the stick into two of the uwanas and then held them over the flame. As Nora watched, they turned from purple to a sort of burnt orange color, and Galen smiled.
"Not poison anymore."
"That's incredible," she said.
"Will you chop them for me?" he asked her. "But be careful. Don't touch your face once you've touched the uwana."
She nodded, taking the stick from him and putting the peppers on the counter. "That's how it works on Earth, too," she said, taking up a knife that was really more of a tiny sword to her eyes and slicing the peppers into strips.
It was more domestic than anything she'd ever expected to find here. The Amakari were blood thirsty barbarians who she had seen kill without hesitation, but they were also just people. They had their lives and their hobbies and they were like a family.
The two of them would carry this meal up to the circle soon and eat it with the rest of the Amakari, and it would be a lovely evening.
"You should tell Carro about garlic," Galen said, breaking into her thoughts. "She loves hearing about stuff like that. Stuff that's different in other places."
"I'll do that," Nora replied. "I wonder if you could get garlic to grow up here. You know, if you got the seed for it and planted it."
Galen shrugged a shoulder. "I'm not sure. The conditions are probably different, but then, I've never been to Earth before."
It was something to think about, at the very least.
Something to think about other than how close Galen was and the way his muscles moved and shifted under his skin while he stirred and tossed the food in the pans. She had been so surprised to find out that he cooked, much less that he enjoyed it. Nora had seen him fight, after all, and it was clear that he was very skilled with his weapons.
But she’d tasted his food, and it was clear that he was skilled in the kitchen, too. It was so much easier to fight her attraction to him before she’d learned that he had depth of all things. And of course, before he had kissed her and made her come harder than she could remember coming before in Carro’s house.
Carro wasn’t going to be pleased if she found out, but then, Nora didn’t think anyone was going to find out about her and Galen.
Why would he tell anyone about it?
The others trusted her to some extent, but with the exception of Carro and Donlan, she didn’t think very many of them liked her. Ashera was always nice, but that was just Ashera as far as she could tell. She was nice to everyone.
But that didn’t mean that they would accept that she and Galen were...doing whatever it was they were doing. Neither of them had a label for it, and she honestly didn’t know what any of it meant. They’d slept together plenty of times, but were they friends who messed around? Lovers? Did Galen plan on a lot of repeat performances?
Nora didn’t know, and it seemed rude to ask. At the very least, this wasn’t the time for it, since they were going to be late for the circle if they didn’t get a move on.
She grabbed the covered baskets that Carro had rigged with a sort of heat and waterproof covering system and she started piling the completed dishes inside them, so they could carry them to the circle. When she looked up, Galen was watching her.
It was still such a new thing to see something other than tension and suspicion in his eyes directed at her. There had been a fair amount of lust the night before, of course, but that had been very new, too. He wanted her for some reason, and the way he was looking at her now proved that. She wanted to ask him what it was that made her desirable to him, but she didn’t know what answer she wanted to that question, honestly.
If it was something about her being strange and exotic because she was from Earth, then she wasn’t going to be best pleased.
But it was easier not to worry about it, honestly. Getting caught up in Carro’s work, helping Ashera, and spending time with Galen was much easier and much more enjoyable, and when, one night when they were walking from the circle, Galen took her hand, Nora wondered if things might just work themselves out.
What had started out as just sex turned into sex and talking not long after.
Galen held her as they came down from the high of their orgasms, stroking her skin with calloused hands and murmuring to her about whatever was on his mind. He asked her about Earth, about what she could remember, and she was able to tell him general things that stuck out to her, but nothing about her life in particular, which was frustrating. She asked him about his life instead.
At first, he stuck to talking about his life on Alinsoth. He told her about the trade moons and about mercenary work. He told her about some of the most exciting fights he’d been in and some of the most absurd.
Nora didn’t try to ask about what had come before.
It was clear that those stories were personal to each of the Amakari. Ashera had told her how she’d come to leave the Allied Planets and how things had been for her, and she knew a little of Carro’s story, but it wasn’t something you just came out and asked people, she could tell that well enough.
So, when Galen pulled her close one night, a good few weeks into whatever it was they were doing together, and asked her if she wanted to know who he’d been before this, she was stunned.
“You don’t have to talk about it,” she said. “I know it’s not something that you guys like to dwell on, your lives before.”
He shrugged one shoulder, hand smoothing down her back. “Doesn’t mean you can forget what happened. And I…” he trailed off, clearly searching for words. “I want you to know me. I think.”
That was more sentiment than she’d ever heard from him, and it made her smile, though she buried it against his skin, pressing a kiss there. “I’d love to hear about it, then,” she said.
Galen snorted. “You’d think that, but it’s not really a good story.”
“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?” Nora replied.
"You should know that I used to be a lot different than I am now," Galen began. "I wasn't rough and I wasn't strong. I was smart."
Nora realized too late that her noise of surprise wasn't actually very nice. "Sorry."
He just laughed. "No, it's okay. I don't even feel like that person anymore, honestly. I was just. I wanted to make my parents proud, and they wanted me to be smart. They thought I could be somebody in the Allied Planets if I knew different languages and about history. So I worked hard at it."
It was nearly impossible to imagine Galen with books or whatever people in the Allied Planets used to study from. Pouring over the words and memorizing facts and figures, no weapon in sight. It boggled the mind. "So what happened?" she asked.
"My father died."
"Oh. I'm sorry. Is it rude to ask how?"
Galen snorted and shook his head. "I don't know. I mean, it's not rude to ask, I just don't know the answer. That's why I left. He was a Keeper of the Peace, which is pretty much just what it sounds like. It was his job, along with the others in is order, to keep the peace. That basically just meant that anytime someone had a problem with Imperial leadership and wanted to start a riot or a rebellion, they had to go put them down in a way that made it clear that kinda thing wasn't going to be tolerated. A lot of people died all the time, and it wasn’t ever the Keepers. Except for my father.”
“Sounds suspicious,” Nora said.
“That’s what I thought,” Galen agreed. “They tried to make it out like it had happened on the job, but they wouldn’t give us any details. They wouldn’t say where he’d been or who had done it or what had happened to them. So I kept asking questions. I ignored my studies and everyone who told me to stop digging. I couldn’t stop. It was my father. I needed to know. And I was starting to doubt that the Imperials were as good as they thought they were. As they told everybody they were. So I left.”
He made it sound as simple as that. Just packing up and leaving behind everything you had ever known to step into a life that was completely new. Nora supposed she had done the same thing in a way, but it hadn’t been by choice, as far as she knew. She didn’t know if she could ever have made that choice.
It was interesting, how she could just accept that this might be her life from now on. She could wake up in the mornings in Galen's arms, listen to his sleepy grumbles about having to get up and how he didn't want to, revel in the feeling of his mouth at her neck, biting gently at the skin there. She could spend every morning being kissed by him, touched by him, and then laughing as he slid down to kiss lower, more intimate places with that wicked mouth. She could spend time with Carro, learn from Ashera how to heal people, learn from Donlan how to be diplomatic. She could let this place and these people become her home.
There was a still a large part of her that knew she didn't belong here, though. It knew that she had another life, probably another family, a place where she was supposed to be and people who loved her, or at the very least, who missed her. But it was easy not to think about them when she couldn't remember. When it was all just hazy half memories that could have been dreams for all she knew.
It was easy.
Until the day she woke up and remembered everything.
It was after a very good night with Galen, when he had insisted that she stay with him instead of walking back to Carro’s. He’d held her close and pressed kisses to her cheeks, her lips, her neck, her chest.
“Stay,” he’d murmured into her skin. “Stay here with me.”
And she’d been helpless to resist him. She could still count on one hand the number of times he’d actually asked her to stay. Usually it was just taken for granted that she would, or she just passed out once he was done with her. But there had been a look in his eyes that had said everything Nora needed to know, so she’d nodded and snuggled down with him, expecting the morning to go just the way mornings with Galen usually went.
And then this.
Her eyes shot open and for a moment, she couldn't breathe. Where was she? What was happening?
There was an arm draped over her, heavy and corded with muscle, and for a moment it seemed like she was trapped, and she nearly thrashed to get free before her current memories and the ones she'd been so sure she'd lost found some common ground and started to melt together in her mind.
That was good. For one horrible moment, she'd felt like two people, or one person torn in two, but as she lay there, fighting to breathe, it all came together.
Nora remembered. She was from Earth. She had a family. She had friends. There had been some loud noises on the roof of her apartment building, and some sort of creature had grabbed her.
Presumably, he had thrown her into his ship and brought her here, but the frustrating thing was that even though she remembered who she was and what had happened now, she still was no closer to knowing why.
What would any alien get from kidnapping her? And what was happening on Earth?
So many questions and not nearly enough answers. For one long moment, she regretted knowing what happened. It had been so much easier to just be nearly a blank slate, piecing together a life here, and Nora wondered if that was how Galen and Carro and the rest of them had felt when they'd first struck out on their own.
Galen.
What was he going to say when he found out that she remembered? Nora had a feeling that the person she'd become when she couldn't remember the person she had been was different from who she really was, and she had no way of knowing if Galen would even like the Nora who was too driven for her own good and never satisfied.
She hadn't expected getting her memories back to feel like losing everything else.
Nora closed her eyes and let it all wash over her.
There were aliens on their building. Extraterrestrials. Creatures from another planet. Either that or a prank was being pulled on their entire building by someone with too much money and time on their hands.
Before she could do much to contemplate that, there was an unholy screech from the side of the ship that she couldn’t see and something came flying down over the side of the building.
It landed hard on the ground on its feet, and Nora took a giant step back.
She had been expecting to see the thing from the store, but this creature was so much worse.
It was grotesquely mottled, its skin the color of sludge. Its face was misshapen, eyes bulging out of its head. When it smiled, it showed rows of sharp teeth that were yellowed and caked in something that Nora didn’t even want to contemplate.
The thing wasn’t small, either.
It towered over her and everyone else, hunched over and still at least a foot or so bigger than anyone else who was standing nearby.
Someone screamed once more, and the creature jerked its head around to look for the source of it, letting out that same screeching sound that it had made before.
"Oh no," Nora heard someone say. "Oh no oh no oh no."
It was an apt sentiment, she was sure. They had no idea what this thing was, though what it was there for seemed pretty clear at the moment with the sinister way it was looking around at all of them like they were on a buffet line.
When its head snapped back around to where Nora could see its face, it opened its mouth and low, grating words came out, like the sound of stones grinding together. It was in a language that she didn't know and hadn't ever heard before, but her blood ran cold all the same at the threat in the tone.
This was not good.
As if some sort of spell had broken, whatever had been holding them there, transfixed by the sight, dissipated, and they all scattered, running and screaming off in different directions.
Nora took off, running back towards the building. If they could get inside, maybe it would be harder for that thing to come after them. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Britt had the same idea and was at her side.
From above there was a shout. More words she didn't know, this time spoken in an imperial, commanding tone.
There was some acknowledgement from the creature and then the sound of claws scraping against the concrete before the thing was in front of them, blocking them door.
It moved like it didn't take any effort at all, and Nora's head spun.
With a last, sickening grin, it reached out for the nearest thing it could find, long fingers curling and grasping around Nora’s neck.
She heard someone screaming her name, but it was too late. Nora had time to gasp once and then everything went dark.
“Mmng,” Galen mumbled behind her, pressing himself closer against her back. It was gentle, but enough to snap her out of her thoughts. Her eyes flew open, and she was disconcerted to realize that her heart was racing.
"Good morning," Nora said, the same as she did every morning, only now her voice sounded too high and too nervous for it to be the same.
Luckily, it took Galen several long minutes to wake up every morning, so he was none the wiser. He tightened his arm around her and pressed a kiss to the back of her neck. "Time's it?" he mumbled.
She huffed a laugh. "You ask me that every morning, and every time I tell you the same thing. I can't tell time on your weird clocks."
"Not weird," he replied. "Earth clocks're weird."
"Your face is weird," she retorted, and her heart was heavy. It didn't feel the same. Usually the playful morning exchanges were a source of amusement and good feeling that carried her throughout the rest of the day, but now it just felt fake. False. Like she was pretending to be something she wasn't and didn't know how to stop.
Because it was her. Both Noras were her, and she didn't know how to reconcile them into something that Galen would want. Or into something that she even understood how to be. It was perplexing and she was displeased.
Finally, Galen was waking up enough to notice. He stroked her back with one large hand and made a soft sound. "You okay?" he asked.
Nora forced herself to let out a deep breath. "Yeah. Yeah. Just a bad dream."
He hummed and pulled her even closer to his broad chest. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
She shook her head. How would she even talk about this with him? "No, that's okay. It's just got me a little shaken."
"Bet I could take your mind off it," Galen said, and she didn't need to be able to see his face to imagine the look he'd be wearing in that moment.
"Oh really? You sound very confident of that."
"I am. Have I ever failed before?"
Nora had to admit that he hadn't. But this...this was a different thing altogether.
Galen apparently thought himself equal to the challenge, or rather, he wasn’t aware that this was a bigger challenge than what he was used to. He rolled over so that he was on top of her and smirked, heat in his eyes.
It was Galen’s brand of being thoughtful, wanting to get her off so she wouldn’t be sad anymore, and she appreciated him for that, really she did. She closed her eyes and let him go to work, kissing down her body and spreading her legs so he could take up residence between them. His lips were just slightly chapped as he kissed her thighs and then found her center, and Nora had to admit that even distracted as she was, it still felt good.
She moaned in all the right places, arched her back and bit her lip when he got close to right where she wanted him. Her fingers found their way into his hair, and she held on tight, practically humping his face before it was all said and done.
Before she could come, he was pushing into her, giving her a repeat performance from the night before that had her shaking and shuddering, calling out his name as she fell apart for him.
And even with all of that, by the time she had slumped against the bed and he was kissing her, letting her taste herself on his lips, her mind was still going a mile a minute.
“You’re welcome,” Galen said, winking at her as he got up from the bed.
“Thank you,” Nora murmured and then sighed as he disappeared into the bathroom. It was going to take more than that.
Carro was more observant than Galen, so it was no surprise that she took one look at Nora’s face when she showed up at the workshop and then yanked her inside, closing the door. “What happened?” she demanded.
“Who said something happened?” Nora hedged, wondering if she could get away with not telling anyone before she was ready.
“You look like someone died,” Carro said. “Is it Galen? Is he being a pain?”
Nora shook her head. “No, he’s… He’s fine. It’s me who’s the problem.”
“You’re not a problem,” Carro said automatically. “And if Galen is making you feel like you are again, then I’m going to—”
“No, no,” Nora said, cutting her off. “It’s not Galen. I swear. It really is just me.” She heaved a sigh. Clearly there was only one thing to do, and honestly, at this point, she needed someone else to know. “I got my memories back this morning.”
Carro’s eyes widened. “That’s wonderful!” she said, clapping and hopping in place. “You know who you are again! That’s so… Unless...oh no. Is it bad? Did you really come here to hurt us? Is that why your face looks like that?”
“No!” Nora hurried to say. “No. It’s nothing like that. I still don’t know why I’m here, even though now I can remember what happened to get me here. Sort of.”
“Thank the gates for that, then,” Carro said, and Nora was touched that she seemed so concerned. “What’s the matter, then? I thought you wanted to remember who you are.”
“I did. I mean. I’m glad that I remember. It just. Makes everything harder. Anyway, can we talk about something else?”
Carro eyed her for a moment, but then shrugged and launched into an explanation of her latest project and how she wanted it to work. Nora let herself get absorbed in that, because it was easier than dwelling on her own little drama.
They broke for lunch sometime later, and Nora realized there was something that was still bothering her. Now that she remembered how she’d come to leave Earth, she realized that she didn’t know how she’d gotten to Alinsoth. The ship that she’d crashed here in was much smaller than the one that had been parked on the roof of her building.
There had to have been something between the two events--her being taken and her crashing here, and something niggled in the back of her mind.
"Carro," Nora said, trying to be casual, and knowing she was failing. "Can you tell me about the Imperials?"
Her friend gave her a sharp look. "What do you mean? You know who they are."
"I know who they are to you guys, the Amakari, but I don't know anything else about them, really. I know the Allied Planets are a thing, but I don't know how they came about."
Carro sighed, considering. Finally she nodded. "Okay, but I'm going to talk while I work because I need to get this finished."
Nora smiled at her. As if she had expected anything else. She settled in on her bench to hear the story.
"The Allied Planets were so called because there was supposedly a representative from each planet that made up its number in the government. If everyone was represented and they were all seeking the same goals, then they had to be allied, was the thinking."
"Makes sense," Nora said. "Assuming any of it was true."
"And that's the thing," Carro said. "For a while it was true. People were able to forget about how violent the whole thing had been because life was actually better. This was a while ago, of course, before I was born. Maybe Donlan has been alive longer than the Allied Planets have been a thing, but not many of us could say the same. Before the Allegiance, all those planets had to fend for themselves. They fought and they stole from each other, and there was no cohesive manner of trade or way to open up talks without at least three people dying every time they tried. It was a mess. And then, someone had an idea."
Even with her head inside the hull of an old ship, Carro was good at storytelling. "For the Allegiance," Nora assumed, applying the capital letter with her tone the way everyone else seemed to.
"Yep. For the Allegiance. Wouldn't it be great if all the planets could work together under the same government to reach the same goals? They were all close enough that putting them under the same government wouldn't be a bad thing, and if everyone was represented, then, well, no one would have a cause to complain, right?"
Nora blinked. "Not right?"
Carro shook her head. "Not right. See, people get set in their ways. No one wanted to have to give up the lives they were living to conform to whatever everyone else was going to want. They were all afraid that their lives and their cultures would have to change too much if they went along with that plan. It was new and scary and too big to seem like it would work. So they said no."
"And nobody listened."
"Basically. The one who had the idea, his name was Osera, and he was a Grisep. You know what those are?"
Now it was Nora's turn to shake her head.
"They're from one of the planets right smack in the middle of the Allegiance. Very smart, very headstrong, always think they're right. If you look at how the Imperials are set up, most of the higher ranks are held by Griseps. Osera was born with a gift for government people always said, and he was furious when no one realized how good his plan was. He tried to do what he could to sway people with his words, and when that didn't work, he turned to violence. To this day, no one knows where he got an army from. Maybe they were mercenaries or maybe he was more important on his planet than anyone knew. But he had ideas and now he had muscle to back those ideas up and everyone else was so busy clinging to what little they had that it was easy for Osera to get what he wanted."
"But how is that an Allegiance?" Nora wanted to know. "If it was just one guy taking over?"
"That's the question, right? How could one man putting his ideals and plans over everyone else's be an Allegiance? That's the question everyone keeps coming back to, anyway. But he made it work. He took one high profile person from each planet and he put them in a position of power. These are the Imperials. Now there are elections to see who will represent each planet, so it's all very nice and democratic. No one can complain that their voice isn't being heard when they chose the person who stands up and speaks for them in the Imperial Court. But see, the thing is, they hate when anyone isn't in line with them. Yeah, they made life better for a lot of people and they brought all this innovation and trade to the people, but they're also ruthless. Anyone who stands in their way gets cut down. Brutally. They squash rebellions before they can even start, and they're always, always looking to expand. Griseps are never satisfied with what they have. And Osera always wants more."
"He's still alive?"
Carro nodded. "He's supposed to be old by now. Like, really, really old. But somehow he's still in alright shape to lead the people. Since it was his idea, he's the Grand Imperial. Everyone else ranks under him."
"And when he dies? Who gets to be Grand Imperial then?"
"Good question. No one knows. I think everyone likes to think that the new Grand Imp will be chosen from the other Imperials, so maybe some other race will get a chance, but Osera doesn't seem to be letting go anytime soon."
It was a lot to take in. Nora had known there had to be some complicated history when it came to the Imperials, considering how the Amakari felt about them, and now she understood why. Now that she remembered everything about who she was, she had the sneaking suspicion that her being here had something to do with the Imperials.
She knew that she hadn't come here on their behalf willingly, but there was a good chunk of time still missing between when she'd been grabbed on Earth and when she'd crash landed here. There were images in her mind that she didn't understand, that might have been from that time, but she didn't know what to do with them. She didn't know what they meant.
"He'll be pleased for you, you know," Carro was saying, and Nora shook herself and looked to her friend who was looking at her.
"What? Who will?"
"Galen. That you've got your memories back. You haven't told him, have you?"
The sigh came out before she could think about it. "No," she admitted. "I haven't. Not yet."
"You should. He's not going to be happy if he thinks you're keeping it from him."
She already knew that. For all Galen was gruff and played at being uncaring, Nora knew that he didn't like being deceived. And he trusted her now, or he seemed to, so there was no reason not to tell him. Except...
"You don't think it changes things?"
"Changes what?"
"I don't know," Nora huffed, frustrated. "Things. Everything."
Carro peered at her for a moment and then grinned. "I know you think that we don't all know what's going on between the two of you because you're being oh so secretive about it, but we all know. We see how you look at each other and you've been sitting with him at the circle and leaving his house at odd hours of the night." She held up her hand when Nora would have interrupted. "No one's upset about it! Surprised, yeah, but not mad or anything. You look happy. Galen looks happy, and that only usually happens when there's a fight to be had."
"Okay," Nora replied. "So what does that have to do with things changing?"
"It means that we all like you, Nora. And we all knew you would get your memories back eventually. And if there's nothing in them that proves you're here to harm us, nothing's going to change. People will ask you more questions about Earth. That's probably it."
Carro seemed so sure, but it was still days later before Nora even considered telling Galen that she had her memories back. She'd tried to avoid him a bit, claiming to be busy or that she wanted to help Carro and Ashera, and she could tell that he was getting suspicious.
She told Ashera that her memories had returned, if only because the woman had been so insistent upon nursing her back to health when she'd arrived here, that Nora thought she definitely deserved to know. She didn't explicitly tell her not to tell Galen, but she knew that Ashera wouldn't.
Nora was going to have to do it, she just needed to figure out how.
Of course, Galen's impatience and natural suspicion didn't really give her that much time. When they were together she tried to be the same Nora that he knew, the one who wasn't burdened by the weight of her own ambitions and the secret she was carrying, but it clearly wasn't working.
She wondered if she even still knew how to be that Nora.
One day, when she was walking from Carro's workshop to Ashera's infirmary, Galen cornered her. "We need to talk," he said, and his mouth was set in a grim line.
Nora nodded, seeing little other choice, and her heart pounded in her chest. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Come with me."
She followed him, and he led her to the training arena, which put her on high alert. Did he think he was going to put a weapon in her hand and get the answers out of her that way? She'd be killed.
The alarm must have shown on her face, because Galen snorted. "Stop panicking," he said gruffly. "I'm not going to fight you. I can just think better here."
That did little to calm her nerves. "Okay," she said. "What did you want to talk about?"
He pinned her with a look. "You tell me. I haven't been suspicious of you in awhile, you know. Since right before we started being...whatever it is we are now. And now you're acting weird, and I wanna know why. If you don't want to do this with me anymore, you only have to say so."
Her eyes widened, and Nora shook her head. "No! No, Galen, that's not it. I promise that's not it."
Something in him seemed to relax at that, and Nora had a second to be surprised that rejection was something that bothered someone like him. He could probably have whatever women he wanted, probably with the exception of those here who knew him best, and he seemed to care that she wanted him.
"Then what is it?" he asked, folding his arms.
Nora looked away, both so that she could try to formulate her answer without having to deal with his hard stare, and so that the sight of his muscles wouldn't drive her to distraction. Honestly, it wasn't fair that he had to be so built and so good looking.
Finally, she sighed. She'd hoped that when it came time to tell Galen this, she'd have all the words she needed to say already prepared. But the time had come, and she still didn't know how best to explain, so she just started talking and hoped for the best. It had worked for her before.
"I got my memories back."
Galen stared. "When?"
"A few days ago," Nora admitted. "I would have told you, but..." She sighed. "I was afraid."
"Of what?" Galen asked. "What did you remember?" He seemed resigned, and Nora had a feeling that he thought he was about to be proved right when it came to her being sent by their enemies.
"Who I was before I came here. Not why I'm here, though, so you don't need to panic. I don't remember being sent here, just being taken from Earth against my will."
That made him relax, and Nora was relieved to see it. She didn't want him to go back to hating her. Not now that she cared about him.
"Okay," he said, letting out a breath. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Nora sighed. "Because I don't like who I was before I came here," she said, and it was the first time she had really let herself think that. "I don't...I wasn't happy, I don't think. I was just trying to be what I thought would make me happy, and I was making myself miserable. And the person I was becoming when I didn't remember anything was a lot better than the person I actually am, and I just. I don't know how to be both of those people. I don't know what to do."
Galen looked at her for a long moment and then smiled slowly.
“What’s so funny?” she asked, tilting her head to one side.
“Nothing,” he said. “I’m not laughing.”
“You’re smiling an awful lot,” she returned.
“I’m relieved for one thing,” he told her. “And for another, you’re on a moon with people who have lived two lives before, Nora. You’re in good company.”
Nora blinked. She was stunned that she hadn’t come up with that on her own. “Oh,” she said. And then she smiled, too.