Page 61 of Alien Barbarian's Little Human

“Am I going to go crazy? Is there room in my head for three lifetimes of memories?”

I kiss her again, more tenderly.

“My love, if you take two candles and hold the flames together, they become one. Such it is with your past lives. Nothing is diminished or lost, simply unified.”

“You always did have a poet’s tongue, Varona…Gog. Magog. Shit, this is confusing.”

Her eyes snap open, and she stiffens up as a piece of timber.

“Wat’s wrong?”

“Oh my god, I just remembered…Svarz. The nanotech entity. He killed us the first time.”

“And the second.”

She grabs the bandolier on my chest and pulls in close, her expression and tone filled with urgency.

“Magog! I’ve seen him!”

“In your memories, my love?”

“No.” She vehemently shakes her head. “No, I’ve seen him here. I’m trying to tell you, Svarz is here on Horus IV.”

CHAPTER 18

NERITA

Fear cuts through the junglev of past-life memories like a knife. Svarz is here, on Horus IV, and that puts us in danger.

And not just us.

“We have to go,” I say simply, taking Magog’s hand. “We’re putting these people in danger just by being here.”

“Perhaps that is the best course of action. Perhaps it is not. Let us weigh our options.”

I consider him for a long moment as his eyes grow distant.

“You’re…different this time around, Gog. I mean, Varona. I mean…oh damn it, I think I’m just going to say ‘hey you’ from now on.”

Magog blink his golden eyes several times and then focuses his gaze on me. The affection, the tenderness I see reflected in their depths reassures me. A little.

“I apologize. I was accessing my onboard CPU. I cannot link up to the Holonet, but I still have a considerable database of knowledge on my hard drive.”

“So, you’re a cyborg. A chiphead.”

“That term is derogatory, and typically only aimed at Alzhon.”

“I don’t mean to offend you, Magog. I’ve considered getting cybernetic enhancements myself.”

“I apologize if the process unsettles you.”

He cups his big hand on top of mine. It looks so strange, the dark red of his scales on top of my dingy pale skin. I flash back to a memory of Gog holding my hand. That was before I knew about Drokan horns.

“What are you laughing about?” Magog asks, looking at me as if I am a crazy woman.

“Oh, nothing. I just…do you remember being Gog? When you put me on your shoulders and I used your horns for a safety handle?”

“Ah, yes.” He grins, showing off rows of sharp teeth. “I do recall. You had no idea Drokan’s horns were an, ah…”

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