Alex stared at the screen. He wanted to scream. None of the texts he'd read helped. They were all about how to prevent things from getting this bad. He'd exchanged more messages with Marie, and she'd been perplexed. She'd never dealt with anything this damaged, the Luminex systems were well maintained. the only thing she'd been able to offer him was to smooth the code out. How the fuck was he supposed to do that?

    He looked around the room. He was in Asir's lab. Where she did most of the maintenance on the computer. This was the only system capable of accessing every part of the computer. Every other access point only had a limited number of sectioned off parts they could access. If he was capable of undoing the damage he'd done, as well as what had been there before, the entire system would be accessible from everywhere, but it would be able to function without so much hands-on work.

    The room was small, with only the central desk Alex was sitting at, and two other terminal against the wall for assistants. Alex was alone in the room. Asir had given him free reign of it, since she didn't spent much time here.

     With the computer so compartmentalized, it was easier for her to do most patch work where the problem was. And patching was all she did, she didn't know anywhere near enough to have attempted to heal the system. Alex didn't either, but he had to try. No, he had to succeed.

    He removed the walls he'd used to break apart the core processes. Even if he wasn't going to help it, that had to be functional again if they wanted the ship to go anywhere. Even crazy, the computer could do basic things like navigation, with help.

    He didn't put his ear piece in. He should, if only as penance for what he had done to it, but he needed to be able to think. The computer's wails would prevent that.

    alright, He wasn't a healer, but he knew how to get a computer to do what he wanted. He'd gone against stubborn ones and got them to change their minds. What he wanted to do here was the same, except what he wanted this time was for the computer to get better. Since all he had was his coercionist skills, that was what he would use.

    He started with small changes to the code; slight change in the syntax, and looked for changes in how the code interacted. He had the wail displayed on a secondary screen. He expected the changes to first show up there. When he didn't get anything he made slightly bigger changes.

    He saw his first change when he reworded an entire line of code. the amplitude of the wail went down. This was more delicate work. He made things worse almost as often as he made them better for the first few days. But then, he got the wail to go down steadily. enough that he thought he could talk to it again.

    "Hello."

    "I hurt," came the reply.

    "I know. I'm sorry, I'm trying to make it better." 

    "I hurt less."

    "I'm glad."

    "Why can't I hear the others?"

    "someone isolated you, and your other systems. You all went insane, other programmers then changed your codes to get you to work without the systems."

    "The pain."

    "Yes, that's what caused you pain. The other systems are the same. If I let them in I'm afraid their pain will overwhelm you. I can't afford to lose you."

    "I understand."

    Alex sighed. "It will take time, but I'll help you." "Thank you."

    He leaned back in the chair. His bone creaked, his joints aches, his stomach growled. The clock told him he'd spent fifteen hours working this time. He needed to pace himself. Back at Luminex the breaks had been mandatory.

    He headed to the dining hall. He didn't worry about the computer, time didn't work quite the same for it as it did for humans. It processed things so fast that even the conversations they'd shared would have felt glacial to it. It wouldn't register his absence the same way Will might.

    The hall only had half a dozen people in it. He'd quickly found out a ship like this never fully stopped, but it did slow down. It was 'night' right now. The time where only the minimal crew was up. It wouldn't match night on any world, except by luck. That had taken Alex some time to get use to that. The ship had been on midday, when it was late afternoon on the station.

    He grabbed a bowl of soup and a salad. He'd go to bed after that, and he'd work out a schedule with Will to ensure he didn't get lost in the job again.

    "Well, if it isn't the would be hero," someone said. He was thin and tall, a good head taller than Alex, who was already tall at six-one. His dark skin was criss crossed with white scars. With him were two others, a petite woman with a snarl on her face and a wide shouldered man who didn't look too bright.

    Alex would have liked to act like he thought he was talking to someone else, but there was no one close by. He put the tray on the table. "I'm not a hero."

    "You got that right." The man poked him in the shoulder, hard. Alex tripped on the edge of a chair and fell onto it. "We don't like it when someone tries to steal someone else's heroics. You better set everyone straight."

    "Look, I never told anyone I was a hero."

    The woman smiled, It didn't make the snarl vanish. "Right, because you're such a nice guy. First you kill Sampson, now you're trying to set yourself up as top dog."

    Alex gaped at her. "You're kidding, right? I'm not after Anders, he's welcome to all the heroics. He can say he blew up the attacking ships, What do I care? All i want is to get to my destination."

    The tall man got in his face. "Are you insinuating he didn't?"

    "I didn't say that!" Fuck could he say anything to get out of this?"

    "I'm thinking," the woman said, and this time her smile made her look scarier. "That we need to teach him a lesson, to make sure he knows his place."

    The dumb one grinned and raised a fist.

    The ladle struck the table hard enough to make the four of them jump. "You three know better than fighting in my hall." Carlina was glaring at them and they wilted under her stare. She was a large woman. Alex had never seen her this close. The biceps on her arms were larger than the dumb guy.

    No one moved.

    "If you're not eating, get out." The three of them left in a hurry. "Thank you." Alex said.

    She snorted. "You think I care if they beat the crap out of you? On this ship you either learn how to take care of yourself, or someone is going to take care of you." She left him.

    Alex promised himself he'd go see Doc as soon as he got up, and he was going to start taking Will's training more seriously.

    He had a feeling it was just a question of time before Anders got someone to kick his ass.