The city looked liked an airier, greener, version of the capital on Deleron Four, from the air, at least the area around the shuttle landing port. Samalia's largest city, the shuttle pilot had announced the name over the intercom, but in Samalian, Probably since Alex was the only none Samalian on board. He hadn't quite understood, and when he'd managed to get his neighbor to repeate it Alex had thought it could be Grefrozon, maybe? He didn't bother getting him to repeat it.

    Alex found it odd, being the only human in this crowd, being the alien, but also a exhilarating. Samalians came in varying sizes and height, but most were about his height.

    Everyone's fur was multicolored, at least two, and there were no set patterns. Some had dark splotches on light background, some the reverse, some dark on dark, and one was a patchwork of white, brown, rust, black and tan. If Alex had seen the pattern on a show, he'd had thought it was made up.

    But what took his breath away was that almost none of them wore shirts. Jack had only worn one a time or two, and it seemed it was a cultural thing. Alex had to hold on to his bag and case tightly to stop himself from running his hand through their fur. He expected some of them were females, but they didn't have the significant body differences between men and women.

     When the shuttle landed he breathed in relief. He'd gotten to reminding himself he was with Jack, as a way to keep his hands to himself, and even that had started to fail. Grasping his things he rushed off the shuttle and away from the port.

    He was the only human leaving, but he saw a Fedolrinan, its lanky, almost tree like bodies towering over	everyone, but moving tentatively, It regularly referred to its datapad while trying to get a Samalian's attention.

    Alex had a moment where he considered going to help it, he knew a word or two of Feldorinan, but he reminded himself he had an appointment.

    From the station he'd been able to located the three Samalians who had crossed path with Tristan in a sufficient way that the law noticed. One was dead, he hadn't thought to instruct his program to take that detail into consideration.

    Another one was on the opposite side of the planet, a retired mercenary who had worked in a team with Tristan, decades ago. Because of the distance, and they had no shuttle service, Alex contacted her over Comm. She hadn't remembered Tristan. She could have been lying, but she looked old enough to have memory problems. Who knew what kind of medical technology they had there.

    The last had been another mercenary, but he'd retired younger and had a weapon repair shop in an outlying neighborhood. Alex had also contacted him from the station, but the Samalian hadn't even been willing to let him ask the question. In a gruff, heavily accented voice, he told him to make an appointment, Which Alex did.

    He tried to find a local shuttle, but none registered in his datapad, and none of the few vehicle traveling on the wide roads had signs identifying them as accepting passengers. He tried to ask someone, but other than glancing at him, they ignored him.

    Some of the aliens he'd talked with, back on Deleron Four, had told him how humans would often act as if they didn't see them, and now Alex was on the receiving end of it. If he had more time, he might allow himself to feel offended, he'd always treated the aliens he met with respect, he was entitled to the same treatment.

    The city had an open net, and from it he got a map. The repair shop was a good hour away at a fast walk, but at least, now he'd be able to make it. He wouldn't want to have tried that when still working at Luminex.

    As he moved a few blocks away from the port, the height of the buildings dropped dramatically. Those around the port were a dozen stories in height, and now they were no more than three.

    Samalians lived in close knit groups, his research had told him. Not always related family members, but always men and women who had known each other for a time. The articles didn't say, but Alex suspected they also knew each other intimately.

    A Samalian town would comprise a few of those groups, making for wide spread layouts. Compared to those, the city was tightly packed. But still they tried to keep to the group. The buildings weren't single family homes, as were on Deleron Four, but larger structure, often taking the entire block, and with an inner courtyard, he saw from an opening. He also saw that children played there, supervised by a few adults, and that none of them were any clothing.

    Alex forced himself to look away, but he now knew that Samalian females were as similar to human women as much as the male Samalian was similar to human men below the belt. The sight reminded him how much he missed Jack.

    He expected the building to spread further apart the further away from the port he moved, but the opposite happened, so that by the time he reached the repair shop he wasn't sure the road would let a vehicle through without scraping the sides of the buildings.

    By the shop's entrance was a bike. A very human looking bike, parked on its hover pads. He didn't know much about bikes, but he hadn't seen any here, and he had trouble imagining a Samalian riding one, their fur flying in the wind.

    He smiled; okay, he could imagine it, and he thought it would be something nice to look at. He stopped dreaming of being on one, holding onto Jack while they rode around, and entered the shop.

    "Finally!" a woman said. "I've been waiting for-great, you're not him." She was human, a little shorter than Alex, wearing leather pants and jacket with visible plates on them, and a gun at her belt. Alex found himself placing a hand over the sleeve where his knife was hidden, ready to pull it out. She was a dangerous person.

    She gave him the once over, and Alex got the sense she wasn't impressed with him. "Why don't you go back outside and wait your turn," She said.

    Alex raised an eyebrow and his hand tightened on the hidden knife's hilt. He began pushing the raising anger down then stopped. Fuck this, he wasn't going back to being the meek desk jockey just because he was off the ship.

    "What did you say?"

    "I told you to leave." She placed a hand on the gun at her hip. "I was here first, don't make me repeat myself."

    Alex took a step toward her. "Lady, i have no idea who you are, but unless you plan on paying me, you don't get to order me around."

    She gave him a vicious looking smile and her hand tightened on the butt of the gun. "I'm the one with the gun, that knife at your wrist isn't going to do anything against that."

    Alex found the only thing that smile did was make him angrier. He let that raise a little, but he kept it from overwhelming him. If she forced him to fight, he would, and he'd make sure to win. She didn't have a visible knife, which meant nothing, but her free hand wasn't moving. She either had extraordinary control, or she relied exclusively on her gun. All he had to do was get inside her reach and he'd have the advantage, and as much as he hated making a mess in this shop, he would take her out fast.

    A low growl stopped him from taking the next step. There was now a Samalian standing behind the counter. "No one fights in my shop." He said through the growl.

    The Samalian's claws were out, they looked long and Alex knew they could be very sharp. He'd seen Jack slice meat with his. Alex slowly raised his hands.

    The woman turned, not taking her hand off the gun. She gave him the once over too. "You Jofdelbiro?" She didn't seem to be impressed by what she saw.

    Alex figured she didn't know anything about Samalians, it was the only thing explaining her dimissive attitude. Even under the fire red fur with yellow stripes Alex could see the muscles on his arms and chest. He expected him to be ripped evenly, so he could easily jump the counter and cut her up.

    "Move your hand," The Samalian growled.

    "I don't have time for your posturing, I need a-"

    The Samalian's growl deepened and he flexed his hands, the claws extending a little more. Alex cursed softly as he realized they were longer than Jack's.

    She finally seemed to realize the Samalian was serious, and removed her hand from the gun. "Are you Jofdelbiro?"

    The Samalian studied her for a moment, and the growl lowered until Alex couldn't hear it anymore, although he still felt like his bones reverberated from it.

    "I am. Who are you?" His voice had the hint of a purr now. 

    "I'm Miranda Sunstar. I need you to-"

    "I don't know you," he interrupted her. He looked at Alex. "You?"

    "Crimson. I called earlier."

     Jofdelbiro nodded. "You leave," He told Miranda. "Call and make an appointment."

    "Do I look like I have the time to deal with that? How much is it going to cost me to get you to make him leave?"

    Jofdelbiro placed both hands on the wood counter and his claws dug in, adding grooves to the numerous others. "You leave, or I throw you out."

    Alex moved to the side. He didn't want to be in the way of that.

    Miranda made fists, and Alex thought he heard them creaking.

    Did she have harden skin? That might have given him trouble in a fight, he didn't have a mono blade on him at the moment.

    "Fine!" She turned on her heels and stalked to the door. "Don't expect to ever come to you again."

    The Samalian shrugged.

    With the atmosphere in the shop now calm, Alex wondered where he'd heard the name Miranda Sunstar before. Probably someone one of the crew had mentioned.

    "What do you want?" Jofdelbiro asked Alex.

    "I'm looking for someone you worked with, about thirty objective years ago. Tristan."

    "Why are you looking for him?"

    "I have some unfinished business with him."

    The Samalian's ears straightened. "Unfinished? Then you'd better head in the opposite direction, from what I know, the way That guy finishes businesses is never good for the others involved."

    This time Alex clamped down on the raising anger. "Look, just tell me where he lives, I won't tell him I got it from you, and I'll deal with the consequences."

    "If I told you, he'd know, and what makes you think I'd know where he is?"

    "You're one of the few Samalians he's worked with, it makes sense he'd contacted you when he came back here."

    "Here? You think Tristan is here?" Jofdelbiro let out a bark of laughter. "That male would have to be in a cage to come back here. Sure, I was on the same ship as him, but work with him? Tristan doesn't work with anyone, let alone one of his kind. It was only the two of us on a crew of a few hundred humans, I figured we should stay close, watch each other's back. He didn't care about that. The one time I pushed and tried to convince him we had to look out for each other, he broke my arm. I don't know what he thinks he is, but Tristan certainly doesn't consider himself a Samalian."

    Alex had taken a step back at the anger behind the Samalian's eyes. He suspected that a broken arm had been the least of what Tristan had done, if he was still this angry after all these years.

    "Okay, so he isn't here. Do you have any idea where he might be?"

    "What makes you think I'd keep track of him?"

    "There's only been a handful of Samalian Mercenaries, you have to have kept an ear out for what they were up to."

    "Yeah, I kept an ear, I didn't want to find myself in the same planetary system as him, but I have no idea where he's hiding. Last thing I heard was he'd been caught and was held on one of the prison ships flying around."

    "He escaped." 

    "Really? When?"

    "Eight, nine years ago, objective."

    "Huh, must be why he came asking about him then." 

    "Who?"

    "A human. Like you he had unfinished business with Tristan. Unlike you, he already had a list of places he might be, he wanted to know if I had anymore information about them, and which one I thought Tristan would hide on."

    "Did he leave any contact information?"

    "Sure." Jofdelbiro reached behind the counter and search for a moment, pulling out a datapad. Alex handed him a data chip. A moment later the Samalian handed it back.

    Alex pocketed it, and pulled out a cred chip. "What's that?" Jofdelbiro asked, taking it.

    "A thousand credit. I didn't think to get any of my money converted into local currency."

    "You realize this is a small fortune here?"

    Alex shrugged. "If your information helps me find Tristan, it'll be worth it."

    The Samalian shook his head, but he didn't hand the chip back. "If you do find out where he's hiding, don't go there. Tristan is dangerous. More dangerous than anyone I've ever known."

    "I know, but I'm not afraid of him." That was a lie, Alex was terrified, but he was willing to face any monster to get Jack back.

    Back outside he looked for the bike, but it was gone. It had been that woman's then, Miranda Sunstar.

    Alex's steps faltered as he remembered where he knew that name from. Miranda Sunstar had been the mercenary who had delivered Tristan to the Sayatoga prison ship. He'd wanted to talk to her, but he hadn't been able to find her contact information.

    He laughed. What else could he do at his luck. She'd been right there. If he'd realized who she was he could have gotten answers, she had to know more about Tristan than was on the files, to have caught him. There was nothing to be done about it now. He couldn't track the bike, since he didn't have any information on it. He couldn't track her, for the same reason.

    All he had left was what Jofdelbiro had given him.

    He went over it. Then he pulled up information off the open net. It wasn't going to be quick. He had to resign himself to that, and hope that Jack would still be there by the time he found Tristan. But at least this could net him multiple leads.

    And it was a direction. Moving toward something was better than floundering aimlessly. All he needed now, was to arrange passage on a ship.

    * * * * *

    The ship was taking on cargo now, instead of discharging. He'd expected the captain to be supervising again, but he was nowhere to be seen.

    "Hey Will," Alex called as his friend pulled a crate off the truck.

    "Crimson! Already found him?" 

    "No, is the captain around?" 

    "In the hold, with Lea."

    "Thanks." He followed Will in, talking with him but not saying anything. In the hold he saw the Captain and cargo master talking and headed for them.

    "Mister Crimson," the Captain said, "I didn't expect to see you back here."

    "Things didn't go as I expected. Is there any chance I can convince you to take me to Bramolian Six?" Alex smiled as he noticed Anders approaching. The man hadn't seen him yet, busy talking with Terence.

    "I've never been to the Bramolian system. It'd depend on what they have to offer, and how you are planning on paying for it."

    Alex smiled. Anders had looked in his direction, his eyes going wide. "Captain, To get to Bramolian Six, I'll coerce any ship you want me to. I'll join the assault on any ship you tell me to. I'll fight anyone you point me at. I'd rather not kill, but if you need me to, I will do it. There's only one thing I won't do."

    "Which is?"

    "I am not working for Anders."