His steps resounded in the empty shuttle. He dumped the case of boosters on the floor and dropped in the seat. He tried to bring the computer online, but nothing happened. With a silent curse Alex typed a series of commands and smiled as the screen lit up and the computer booted up.

At least Tristan hadn’t installed some sort of physical off switch, or worse, set it so the shuttle exploded if the computer was started up without his consent. Of course, the Samalian was probably going to be angry—angrier—that Alex was going on the net without telling him, but there was no winning with him. He’d be angry no matter what Alex did.

The screen finished scrolling text as another set of steps entered the shuttle. Alex didn’t turn, or even try to catch a reflection in the screen, but he readied himself. At this point Tristan wouldn’t settle for arguing, he’d be physical.

The steps stopped short of the cockpit and Alex turned. Tristan was letting Emil out of the room and taking him outside. He wondered for a moment what they were going to do, then set that out of his mind. He didn’t want to deal with people right now, he wanted to deal with something he could control.

He put the earpiece in, looked over his shoulder as he adjusted it, trying to make it comfortable. He wouldn’t be able to take long, but he was going to take the chance, if only to thumb his nose at the Samalian.

“Okay, talk to me.”

“You are not the authorized programmer.”

“Like you’d know what he sounds like. He never speaks to you.” Alex sent out a few searches, he needed to identify whatever detection program Tristan had put in before he did anything serious.

“The authorized programmer only accesses my systems from the main console. You are not at that console, therefor you are not authorized.”

Alex glanced at the pilot’s seat. Should he do this from there? It would certainly go faster, but what safety measures had Tristan put in place to keep others from accessing those boards? And how would the Samalian react to finding him seated there? It wasn’t like Alex had a reason, or had been given permission.

“Look, I’m just looking around. I’m not going to do anything, okay? I want to familiarize myself with how you work in case there’s an emergency.”

“That is a lie.”

“Excuse me?”

“You are using a forced connection to access me. You have not been granted permission to access my systems.”

Alex cursed softly. No, he wasn’t letting a computer talk to him that way. Not after having to endure that from Tristan. His program hadn’t found any hidden security in this section to the system so Alex began altering the code.

He had to be careful, there was little original code left, Tristan had altered most of the programs, and added many more. He had to either hide what he was doing deep enough it wouldn’t be noticed, or manage to approximate the Samalian’s syntax enough he wouldn’t realize lines had been changed.

Fortunately, Alex was a quick study of code syntax, it was one of the things that made him such a good coercionist. And his skill had only improved since he’d become a criminal, had to take on organization like the Law and other corporations without corporate protection of his own. Now, if he failed in his task, it didn’t mean a lower rating on his annual report, it meant prison time.

He kept the conversation going as he made minor alterations, expanding where he wrote as his program either indicated there weren’t any security programs there, or it found one and Alex coded around it.

There weren’t as many security programs as he’d expected. He’d expected someone as paranoid as Tristan to fill this system with them, but they were mostly located at the external access points. They were solidly built, the Samalian knew his code, but their attention was very narrow. And the few programs he’d seen roaming freely within the system seemed to be mainly there to reinforce the anti-virus against infections that made their way past the initial sentry.

The toughest thing he wanted to do was get the system to recognize him, not the station he was using, or the handshake code from his earpiece. He wanted it to always acknowledge him no matter where or how he contacted it from.

He couldn’t use a voice print, since his earpiece was what translated his voice to the system. Another earpiece would make him sound differently to it. It would have to be actual words. A code to identify himself to it. Something he could use if others were around and they wouldn’t understand the significance.

Anyone other than Tristan. Alex had no doubt that the first time he did it, the Samalian would pick up on it. If he needed to use it to save himself from him, he’d only have one chance.

Shit, how long had he been at this? He looked at the time, over two hours. Where was Tristan? He hadn’t come in, Alex would have known that, the fist against the side of his head would ensure that, but how long until he did come?

He was no where near close to having things set up so he could take control if he had to, but he couldn’t take the chance Tristan would walk in on him. At least the computer wasn’t quite as cold anymore.

He went over the code and didn’t find anything that stood out. He had to hope that if Tristan looked it over he’d be happy that everything was working as it should and not look any deeper. His life might depend on it.

Satisfied he took the earpiece out and listen for any indication of where the Samalian was. Nothing. Not even sounds of Emil.

Was it a good sign if he couldn’t hear them? Maybe Tristan had taken Emil into the woods to…what would they do there? Maybe he should check on them?

Was there anything he needed to do on the net? No, everything was already in motion.

At the ramp he looked around. He couldn’t see them. They couldn’t be far. Not with the sun going down. Tristan needed Emil, he wouldn’t endanger him by staying in the woods after dark.

He walked around the shuttle and no signs of them among the trees there. The cookers were cold, so they hadn’t made food. Emil wasn’t in his tent. 

He was about to call out for Emil when he noticed light coming from the hover. He headed for it, and heard voices as he came closer.

“So, what does this tell you?” Tristan asked.

“The red light tells me that there’s too much current?” Emil answered.

“Good, what do you need to do?”

“I…I need to change the input at the junction box.”

“The output, buddy. If you change the input, everything else connected to it will be affected.”

“Right, I knew that.”

“I know you did.”

Alex stepped in. Tristan had his back to him, crouched on the floor, looking at the gap where the panel was missing. Small legs came out from it. “What are you doing?” 

Tristan glanced in his direction before he looked at the gap again. “Helping my buddy here fix your hover.”

Emil sat, the rest of his body becoming visible. “Tristan’s teaching me how to make repairs.” He sounded like this was something he’d always wanted to learn.

“I’m not teaching you anything, buddy. You clearly already knew all of it.”

“No I didn’t.” Emil grinned.

“Why are you doing this?” Alex didn’t move. He didn’t want to get any closer to the Samalian until he knew what was going on.

“You need the hover repaired, don’t you?” Tristan sounded so casual about it Alex’s hackles rose. “I don’t think you want to try flying it the way it was.”

“And you’re having Emil do the repairs?”

“It’s easy stuff, and he was eager to help.”

“And I’m smaller,” Emil said, “so it’s easier for me to reach the stuff that’s further back.”

Alex saw the way Emil looked at the Samalian, the admiration and the budding affection. Alex opened his mouth to warn him against doing that, but Tristan’s face became hard. Right, he needed Emil to get attached. He needed them to bond. 

Emil couldn’t see Tristan’s face, but he was looking at Alex, and concern crossed it. “Is everything okay?”

“Sure thing, buddy.” Tristan’s face was warm and inviting by the time he turned to Emil. “Alex’s just put off because you’re doing the work. Where he’s from there are rules against eight year olds fixing hovers.”

“Really?” The news seemed to surprise him.

Alex forced the worries off his face and smiled. “Kids shouldn’t be working, they should be playing, having fun.”

“But I am having fun.”

Alex wanted to scream that Emil was being used, but he kept silent and continued smiling. “Are you sure Tristan isn’t forcing you? He’s pretty good at tricking people into doing what he wants them to, you know?”

The Samalian glared at him, but Emil laughed. The reaction seemed to surprise Tristan for a moment.

“No, he’s been real nice. He answered all my questions, and he took me in the woods to learn about the plants. Which ones I can eat and which ones aren’t good for me. He caught one of the rat thing for me, but we didn’t eat it. He let it go.”

“Sounds like you had a good time. So when do you think you’ll have the hover fixed?”

Emil looked at Tristan, uncertainty on his face.

“A few hours at the most,” the Samalian said, “we’re almost done calibrating the power flow, then we’ll fit in one of the spare stabilizers I have, and fix the sensors and inertial dampener.”

“The dampener’s out?”

“Yeah. If you’d picked up any kind of speed on your way here you would have realized it. The lack of a stabilizer forced you to go slow.”

Alex nodded. He tried to come up with something, anything that would let him take Emil away, but nothing came that wouldn’t make it clear to Tristan what he was doing.

“Okay, I’ll let you work then. Do you want me to prepare food?”

“Nah, we ate.” Emil lied back down and pushed himself further in the gap.

“I grabbed us a few nutrient bars earlier. We’ll be fine.”

Alex didn’t comment. Tristan wouldn’t care about Emil’s health, and Alex couldn’t even get himself to be angry about it. What did that say about him? He wondered as he left the hover.