Shock Therapy, CH 22 (Patreon)

The shuttle landed softly, and even before Tristan started the shutdown procedures, the notification of the hatch was open came up. Because the model was designed to carry hazardous cargo, it shouldn’t have happened, but he’d had to bypass so many systems to get it to fly. He wasn’t surprised something had affected the lock system for it. If it had been needed for more than the two-hour flight, he would have taken the time to do a complete check to ensure something like this hadn’t happened.

When he stood, only he and Alex were still in, along with the two bodies. Which suited him. This was the first time they were alone since being able to remove his mask.

“What do we tell them?” Alex asked.

Tristan glanced to ensure no one stood by the hatch. “Nothing that contradicts the story they’ll have heard by the time we exit.”

“Look, I—”

Tristan had a finger on Alex’s lips to silence him. “You miscalculated. There will be consequences, and we will deal with them.”

Alex pushed the hand away. “Can’t you be angry at me? I screwed up. You used to—”

“That isn’t who I want to be anymore, you know that, Alex. This isn’t worth the extent I’d go through to impress on you how I feel about a mistake. Tell me you have learned something from it. I don’t need to punish you for that to happen. You are smarter.”

Alex settled himself and nodded. “I learned to leave the manipulating of people to you.”

“That was never a skill you had an affinity for.”

“You’d think how working with that bunch for your rescue would have taught me that much.” He let out a breath. “I’ll grab Kaleb.”

“Treat his body with respect. They saw him as a leader. We need to show we feel the same.”

“How do I treat his body with respect?” Alex asked, sounding perplexed.

“Do you remember Emil?”

“Of course.”

“Then, imagine it’s his sleeping form you are carrying.”

Alex picked up the body with care, then adjusted it in his arms. When he was done, Tristan thought it was as comfortable a position as could be managed. He picked up the bodyguard and exited the shuttle.

“What happened?” Krystal demanded.

“The mission failed,” Tristan stated. “The ship was damaged by escaping, and the storm aggravated it until I had to perform an emergency landing.”

“Crashing,” she snapped. “Don’t try to make it something it wasn’t. You crashed.”

“I kept us from dying,” he corrected. That, made it a landing, as far as he was concerned.

She motioned to the bodies they held. “Not all of you.”

“We were attacked.”

“So I’ve heard, How the fuck could you leave him alone?”

“I didn’t leave him,” Tristan said. “Kaleb ran off when the attack started. Everyone scattered instead of working together.” He kept his opinion of their training method out of it. It wouldn’t be conductive to the resolution he needed. “When we pushed the attackers back, we located Kaleb’s body, along with the man he’d brought as a bodyguard and one other.”

“Larry,” she said.

“He explained that while hiding from the assault, they were ambushed. He couldn’t find to courage to take part in their defense, so was the only survivor.”

“You think Spence and Kaleb died protecting him?”

“Each other,” Tristan added. Although, from what he’d seen of their interaction, Kaleb would have hidden behind his bodyguard until he fell. If he hadn’t been scared beyond thinking, his next action would have been to use Larry as a shield.

While her expression didn’t show she’d reached that conclusion, he could see her doubt as the idea Kaleb had fought back.

“Do you have any idea what this is going to do to us?” she asked, sounding pained, rather an angry now.

“The loss of a leader is—”

“He owned this! He was backing us! His motives might not have been as lined with ours as I would have liked, but without him, we are all headed for servitude. We can’t take on Karliak without the kind of founds he was able to provide.”

“We—” Tristan began saying, having already worked out a solution, since as part of their organization, he could justify the contract being automatically transferred to the rebels, instead of dissolved. Then, using Alex’s skill to cover their financial needs would simply be part of the work they were obligated to do.

Instead, Eastyn walked into the hangar with a serious expression. “Actually, I can take care of the finances.”

She turned, surprised. “I didn’t think you were still here. You made it clear you didn’t like us.”

“I didn’t like him.” He pointed to the body Alex carried. “I never liked underhanded businessmen. It’s too much like how corporations work. I came here to help, and he turned around, bought my help away from me just so he could be the force me out of running the operation. I was pissed when you found me, so I’m sorry for the language I used. You’re doing the best you can, and I want to help.”

“Can you? I don’t think you understand how expensive an operation like this is.”

“I might not have Kaleb’s financial depth, but I have my ways. I’m not going to let this go to waste if I can help it.”

At no time had Eastyn looked at Tristan while he spoke. He couldn’t decide if it was due to the man’s confidence Tristan would go along, as part of ensuring the job went as he planned, or if the man was getting emotionally invested. Either served Tristan, but the latter added uncertainty to the equation. Emotions could be manipulated, and while he was an expert at it, Tristan wasn’t the only one skilled in this room.

“Alright, I’m grateful you’re staying, and that you can support us, but this was the best plan we had, and now…”

“Now we can go after the tech,” Ramon said, entering, “like I said we should from the start.”

“Unless you have gained new information,” Tristan said, “I don’t—”

“Yeah, don’t care what you think after you screwed up another chance at our future,” the man replied.

Tristan’s ears tilted as he raised an eyebrow. Alex tensed, but didn’t move, while Eastyn faced Ramon.

“To be fair to them, from what I gathered by talking to the others, Kaleb caused the mission to fail, and it’s because of them there were only two casualties, neither of which they had a hand in.”

“Then they’re welcome to help in some other ways,” Ramon replied. “We don’t need that, helping us. We already have two of them, that enough.”

“Ramon,” Krystal said, “they—”

“I know you made it your just to keep everyone happy, but this is a human planet. We worked it, we’re going to save it.”

She grabbed his arm and pulled him away. “Let’s discuss this in private.”

“Do you have the funds to finance them?” Tristan asked once they were alone in the hangar. He hadn’t investigated the man’s finances any deeper than to confirm he didn’t have ties to the corporation, but that had been enough to see a large part of them.

“Not in the least,” he replied without hesitation. “I can talk to people and raise some, but nothing like they’re going to need. So I’m really hoping you can come up with a way to get me the kind of money they’re going to need.”

“I can get you Kaleb’s money,” Alex said.

“Won’t his family mind?” Eastyn asked.

“Let them. They aren’t our concern; your job is.” He looked at Tristan. “Unless you have an objection.” There was defiance in the tone. Alex, testing where Tristan stood in regard to unseen strangers.

He was surprised to note he had an opinion about it, instead of dismissing them out of hand as not mattering. That, in itself, was bothersome. He couldn’t afford to care about strangers. So he made the decision not to. He’d controlled how he felt his entire life, and it wasn’t because he had allowed himself to feel for someone, that he had to feel for everyone. He had Alex, his community, the rest of the universe could come second to the job.

“Do what’s needed to so the job can continue,” he said. “Eastyn, you and I need to rejoin Krystal before Ramon talks her into something that will complicate things further.”

“What about those?” the man pointed to their burdens.

“Over there.” He headed for the benches and put the body on it. Kaleb went on the next one, then Alex left.

“Are they going to buy that I’ve taken you under my employ again?” Eastyn asked.

“That depends on how angry you were when Krystal attempted to mollify you.”

“Yeah, she won’t buy it. She’s on sharp lady, and I had to go all out to convince her Kaleb’s ploy got to me hard.”

“Then we tell them that the contract had reverted to them.”

“That’s a thing?”

“No, but they don’t know that, and neither do you. I will handle that aspect.”

“Oh, Ramon will love that.”

“Hopefully, he will love defending his world more.”

Halfway to the meeting chamber, they heard the argument.

“I don’t think he does,” Eastyn commented.

“We need all the help we can get,” Krystal yelled, standing on one side of the table.

“We have plenty of people already!” Ramon replied. “What we need are the tools, the tech, to get the upper hand. We know where that is, somewhat,” he added. “We can get it. Then we don’t need—”

“Do you have the expert to use the terraforming technology?” Tristan asked.

“What are you still doing here?”

“Waiting to find out how the mission will continue.”

“Your boss’s dead. You can go.”

“Kaleb bought my contract in full,” Tristan said, “but as a member of your organization, not as an individual. That means that his death didn’t dissolve the contract. If you want it dissolved, you need to be the ones doing it.”

“Yes!”

“No!” Krystal yelled at the same time.

“Are you going to claim your voice as more weight than mine now that there’s only the two of us?” Ramon accused her.

She smiled. “No, I’m going to ask the third member of the leadership to weigh in. Eastyn, where do you stand on keeping the mercenaries you brought in?”

Ramon grinned triumphantly as Eastyn strolled to his side of the table. “I can’t say that I have any love for them, after the way they let themselves be bought off me. While I get that money is what drives mercenaries, I also expected a modicum of loyalty. Just for that, I should tell them to take a hike, then there’s the mission they just came back from.” He kept walking. “Salvaging a mess and bringing nearly everyone back alive.”

“What are you saying?” Ramon asked, losing his smile.

“That this is larger than our feelings. We’re trying to save our world, not just from Karliak, but from itself. We can’t afford to refuse the help, wherever it comes from, especially when it’s already paid for.”

“Thank you,” Krystal said, relieved.

“Fine,” Ramon grumbled. “Then how about we decide what we’re going to do next? Or is the plan to sit here and wait for someone else to come rescue us?”

“I—”

“With all due respect, Tristan,” Krystal said. “I think this is something we will decide on. Once we have a decision, or if we need an expert opinion on which one, among those we think are best, we will call on your expertise.”

Tristan glanced at Eastyn, then nodded before leaving. Eastyn knew the job, so he would ensure whatever was decided didn’t go contrary to it.

Finding Alex was only a matter of asking where the best computer was located, which returned him to the hangar, and a small Cabrek designed ship that has seen many owners, by the amount of modifications that had been made to it.

The interior was as claustrophobic as the schematics had given the impression. It had been designed for couples, but the designers had to have been of smaller statures.

“Hello,” the lanky alien said. Asharan, Alex had called the species. “You are Alex’s partner.” It moves hunched over, heading to a door, but didn’t seem to mind. A harness hung from the ceiling in the cockpit, where the pilot’s chair should be. A similar harness hung in the room before an impressive collection of computers. They were all old, the celeron at least two decades out of dates. The Kadary could be a few years younger, but they had nearly a dozen iterations where someone had to open them up to see the changes. That Alex was using them, seated before the assembly spoke, that they did what they needed to.

“He has been mumbling and not responding as he types. He is very good. I have monitored his work, and can hardly follow, only understand what he leaves behind.”

“Alex is the best,” Tristan replied with pride. He reached for the hand that went for Alex’s shoulder and the Asharan hurried to move it away. Tristan couldn’t read the expression.

“I apologize,” it said hurriedly. “I do not mean to infer that I am interested. We are not compatible.”

Tristan wondered about a culture where a touch could be interpreted as a sexual advance and put it out of his mind. “It won’t do any good. When he’d this into his work, nothing short of destroying the computers will draw him out.”

“Please do not destroy them. It has taken years to find and assemble this so I could work by myself. I do not wish to lose it.”

“He won’t do anything,” Alex said. “He respects quality work.”

“Did you have any issue?” Tristan asked.

“It’s the banking system. I have so many accesses through all of them. It was just a question of getting this one to ask the right one for confirmation. It would have been easier to start from one of the system I already control, but with the way Karliak controls outgoing signals, I wasn’t sure it wouldn’t attract too much attention. The banking systems are always talking to each other.” He took a data chip and handed it to Tristan. “That’s all the account information needed to take control of the assets.”

“Will anyone notice they are missing and inquire after them?”

“Kaleb didn’t have partners on the business side and that’s all I touched. There wasn’t enough in his personal account to make a difference. There is one issue you need to keep in mind. Kaleb has been lying to them about his finances. They way he’s had to spend to help them and the refugees, he’s down to weeks before it’s all gone. A few months, if everyone here is willing to tighten their belts.”

“They will not,” the Asharan said. “They have grown accustomed to the level of comfort Kaleb created, to lower it will cause resentment.”

“They’re going to lose it otherwise.”

“You can get more,” Tristan said.

“Sure, but at that point, we’re dealing with other problems.” Only his eyes moved, flicking toward the Asharan. “Someone’s going to have to decide how much risk it’s worth.”

Tristan nodded. Weeks should be enough for his job, considering that the chaos on the station should have Karliak relocating the bulk of its security up there. All he’d need was to ensure all the elements were in place and he’d—

“Hey, Bernie, you in there?” someone called.

“I am. I have visitors.”

“If it’s the mercs, you and them are needed by Krystal. We just found out the Karliak leadership is on the planet, and they need experts to work out what’s going on.”erapy