The silence was oppressive. Alex wanted to say something to break it, but his courage had vanished when he’d buried his anger. So he focused on his screen, which was partitioned so he could see outside, not that there was anything to see at the moment. The heat of their reentry was vaporizing the surface of the asteroid and giving him a sheet of colored gases to look at. Another partition had information about the outside of the shuttle, pressure, radiations, micro impact and other things they needed to know to prevent problems from escalating. One of the readouts was for the temperature. The hull was close to two thousand five hundred degrees, hot enough that the inside was getting uncomfortable. He didn’t want to know how hot it was outside the asteroid. Clearly the universe hadn’t made it able to withstand these kinds of temperature. The third partition was the readout from passive scan. To alert him if anyone was scanning them. They couldn’t now, but in the last half hour before they entered the atmosphere, he’d detected multiple scans aimed at their wandering rock. By then everything had been shut down. Even life support had been at the bare minimum. Since they’d remained in one piece, no one had noticed anything. His view of outside improved as the air cooled. The individual cameras, now Alex understood why Tristan had requested models that could survive extreme heat, couldn’t have a clear view of what was around them due to melted rocks cooling around the lens, but the program he’d written created a composite from all of them and while it wasn’t as clear as when he'd shown Tristan and Emil the planet, it was clear enough for him to see the ocean, and the specks spread in it. Islands, Alex guessed. A lot of islands. Alex looked at the Samalian’s back. This was job-related, he couldn’t mind the interruption. “Tristan, didn’t the plan call for a water landing?” He sent the visuals to the cockpit. Tristan studied them, then muttered something that sounded like a curse. Alex mirrored Tristan’s screen and watched as images flicked by faster than he could really make out. Surface images, was all he could make out, grays and brown. They slowed as they showed water, with texts scrolling on the side. “There aren’t any mentions of islands.” Tristan cursed again. The images were replaced be calculations. More cursing. “Secure the boy. We’re going to hit land.” As Alex stood he saw a schematic that showed them bouncing. Or was that them breaking apart? Emil was seated at the desk, reading his datapad. He looked unconcerned, until he saw Alex’s expression. “Is something wrong?” “We’re going to have a rougher landing than planned. You need to get on the bed.” “Am I going under cryo again?” Emil climbed on and stretched out. Alex checked the controls. He couldn’t find an escape pod function. The system controlling the cryo field was outside the field itself. If it became damaged during the landing, Emil would wake up in the middle of it with nothing to hold him in place. “No, I’m just going to restrain you so you don’t bounce around and hurt yourself.” He activated the emergency landing system and the side of the bed opened, revealing straps. This was a fully mechanical system. Probably for the best, nothing to fail, but if he and Tristan died in the crash, Emil would be stuck, unable to get out—he forced his mind away from those thoughts. He pulled the straps and locked them in place on the other side of the bed. They tightened against Emil until he couldn’t move. “This is going to be stressful for a while. Do you want me to activate a vid for you?” he knew he’d seen a heads-up system in one of the cabinets. “I’m okay.” Alex watched him and then squeezed his shoulder. “It’s going to be fine.” Emil smiled. “I know. Tristan is going to keep us safe.” The faith in the child’s eyes made Alex sick. With another squeeze he left him and took his seat. He could now make out details on the closest island, mostly rocks with a few sick looking trees. “Can you change our trajectory?” Tristan didn’t reply. If he could he would have, that was what the silence meant. Alex wished the Samalian would talk, let him know what was going on. He hated not knowing. “Lock yourself in.” Alex looked for a command that would activate the emergency landing system. “Back of the seat; strap system, same as the bed.” Tristan wasn’t even looking at him. He’d known he wouldn’t think about that. Alex felt behind him, found the straps, locked them around him and they tightened. He watched as the ground came ever closer, then he closed his eyes. * * * * * When it was over, he couldn’t tell if it had lasted an instant, or an hour. He’d been shaken as rocks sheared apart. Metal had bent and then snapped. The sounds had been so loud he thought he’d end up deaf. Something had hit his shoulder, and he’d opened his eyes to see a nutrient pack hit the wall. Then he’d come to a standstill hard. Gravity was at an odd angle, and shifting. The only light was from the board’s controls. Someone grunted, fell. Alex saw a large form move in the cockpit. Metal was wrenched out. A moment later the lights came back, and gravity righted itself. Things fell to the floor and Alex looked. One of the cabinets was open, nutrient packs were spread all over the floor. Had he been in charge of that one? Had he forgotten to close it properly? Tristan would kill him if it turned out he hadn’t done his— “Alex!” He snapped his attention to the Samalian and had trouble focusing on him. “What’s the status of the hull?” The hull, right. He looked at the board and for a moment couldn’t figure out how it worked. Then it was clear and he brought the information up. “There’s a rip on the…” he searched for the term, but it wouldn’t come. “On that side.” He pointed. “We’re taking on water?” Tristan grabbed his chin and forced him to look at him. The Samalian cursed, went to a cabinet, pulled a bag from it and dropped it in Alex’s lap. “Take care of your head.” His head? Was there something wrong with his head? He touched it, found a place where his hair felt wet. He moved his fingers around the area and winced. When he looked at them, they were red with blood. That wasn’t good. His hand was moving without him thinking about it. Pulling things from the bag, popping them in his mouth. When he had the sealant in hand he realized he was acting on instinct. Years of being injured and what to do when that happened. He also realized he had a concussion. “How are you feeling?” “Huh?” he looked at Tristan, who was wet. “I’ve sealed the rip. How are you feeling?” He didn’t wait for an answer. He grabbed the bag and searched in it. He came out with an injector, checked it and applied it to Alex’s neck. “The hold’s dry. Go sleep this off. You’re not good to me right now.” Alex didn’t argue. He went down, found his roll and lied down. * * * * * When Alex woke up he had a headache, and he was famished. Pushing himself to a seated position his hand fell on a pile of nutrient bars and he devoured four of them, along with the two water packs before he felt like he could stand. He remembered the crash, but things after that were fuzzy. He looked at the chronometer, but it didn’t help. He couldn’t recall what time it had been when they made planetfall. Tristan was in the cockpit, Emil on his lap. He was showing him something on the screen. Alex saw browns and grays. “Hey, you’re awake.” Tristan smiled. “How long was I out?” “A day and a half. I gave you a Heal Shot. The last one you had. You’re going to want to wash up.” The Samalian indicated Alex’s head. Alex felt it and his hair on the left side was caked with blood. He took a quick shower and examine his injuries. The cut on his head was sore, but closed. It was the only indication of injuries he had left. The Heal Shot would have taken care of everything else, and he only remembered things that would bruise him, not added holes. “Where are we?” he sat at his board and brought up an image from the outside. Blue-gray skies above, brown and gray below. “Artus One,” Emil replied. “I’m looking for a safe place for us to meet my buddy’s father.” “Will the ships looking for us detect our presence?” “No, I’m keeping us close to the ground and moving slowly. The energy emissions will be diffused by the atmosphere, and since they don’t know we’ve arrived, they have no reasons to look down here. So long as we don’t give them something to look at, we’re safe.” “Tristan is smarter than the bad men,” Emil said. “That I am, Buddy.” “So no scans? Just visual?” “Yeah. I have a few promising locations, based on the surveys, hopefully they will be more accurate than the ocean surveys. At least one should give us a place to hide the shuttle and where we can hand my buddy over to his father. I bet you’re excited.” Emil nodded. “I can’t wait to see him.” Alex raised an eyebrow at Tristan. Had he caught that there was no ‘again’ there? Had Emil never met his father before? Alex forced a smile on his face. “So what’s the plan once we find the right spot?” “We set up a security perimeter, and then wait. I don’t know how long it will take him to get my message and reach us.” “And the bad men? Are they going to cause him trouble?” “I’m sure he’ll find a way around them.” Right, after all, Masters wasn’t who the mercs were looking for, and he’d be smart enough to come in a ship that would blend in. They flew for two days, and it was the fourth site Tristan decided would do. the multiple buildings of the decommissioned mining complex provided ample places to hide if things went wrong, Tristan explained for Emil’s benefit. And they was a hangar at the edge of the complex for their shuttle. Once they’d landed, Alex walked around the shuttle. It was in bad shape. The crash had ripped a lot of the outer plating, exposing systems that shouldn’t be exposed. Tristan didn’t seem worried about it and took them on a walk around the complex, indicating where they would have to place cameras to ensure their safety. Emil nodded and smiled. He acted like this was just another adventure he was on. That he couldn’t get hurt. That it would be fun. Alex wished he could feel this way, but he could see the multitude of ways this could go wrong. From the merc finding out they were here long before they were ready for them, to Masters not coming in person. Tristan acted confident, but he couldn’t know Masters wouldn’t send some third party, or sacrifice his son outright and not come. Let the mercs kill them all. He acted jovial for Emil’s benefit, but spent his time planning for what could go wrong with the job, and trying to decide what he would do once it was over. * * * * * It took more than two weeks for them to place all the cameras. During the day the three of them would work among the buildings, and at night, once Emil was asleep, he and Tristan would install the cameras in the warehouse where the meeting with Masters would take place, along with explosives in strategic spots. Once that was done, all they had to do was wait. Tristan did repairs on the shuttle, with Emil’s help. If he didn’t know any better, Alex would swear the Samalian was enjoying the child’s company. He certainly was smart and inquisitive, qualities Tristan had. He was hard working, he persevered. Just like Tristan, Emil didn’t seem willing to let anything stop him. Alex wondered if the Samalian could learn to care for someone who was similar to him. Of course, he couldn’t. It was a mask, an act. The goal was to get Emil to care, not the other way around. Alex shut off the screen and went to the hold to practice his knife handling, imagining Tristan before him and how he would cut him to pieces if he hurt Emil.