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That didn't last very long.

He'd been hopeful that with all the winces and lack of confidence, Tristan had still pulled himself together, but no, it was a mask, and one that didn't even hold up to the first problem, whatever it was that had him frozen in the hatch.

Alex waited a few seconds, and when Tristan still hadn't moved, He shoved him out of the way, at this point confident the Samalian wouldn't even raise his voice about it. It took some strength to get Tristan, who was over a head taller and massed much more than Alex to make it happen, but Tristan stumbled forward going rigid again, but Alex was able to see what the problem was.

People. Humans, actually, and a whole lot of them. For a moment he wondered where they'd all come from, then turned to look at Tristan. Maybe he'd seen someone, and...what? Frozen in place, made himself a perfect target? This wasn't who Tristan was.

Alex cursed even more when he saw the Samalian's eyes, they were wide with something Alex had become far too used to seeing in them recently, fear. They flicked around from person to person, as if he was searching through malicious programs for that one safe route, but not finding it.

They didn't have the time for that. Tristan grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, only to have it yanked out and had Tristan's angry gaze on him. Anger was better than fear at least.

"Don't touch me," Tristan growled.

"Then move. We don't have the time to stand here a gawk at everyone, and we're starting to attract attention." The concourse was filled with humans, and the occasional Samalian, who glanced in their directions. This was different from the last time he'd been here, when humans had been the exception.

Tristan's eyes were back on the crowd. "I can't--they will--I'm not." Fear was back. His hands were shaking now.

"Get back in there," Alex indicated the hatch, and Tristan seemed more than happy to get away from everyone. "Keep an eye out," he told Jacoby.

Tristan was against the wall, arms wrapped around himself. He was mumbling something Alex couldn't understand.

"What's the problem."

Tristan motioned to the open hatch.

"Talk," Alex ordered through gritted teeth. Tristan glared at him, but immediately looked away.

"They're going to kill me."

"Who?" Alex looked through the hatch, trying to locate anyone who looked like they could be a threat.

"Them," Tristan motioned at the crowd.

"Them who?" If he didn't start making sense, Alex was going to take out a knife and--

"Them, all of them!"

All of them? Those weakling wasting their time doing whatever it was they did here? "What do you mean? You can kill them without even trying. I can kill them without trying."

Tristan shook his head with vehemence. "They're going to gang up on me, crowd me, bury me under them and tear me to pieces."

Alex had trouble responding to that absurdity. "They can't hurt you, they're weak. They probably don't even know how to wield a knife."

"You weren't there, Alex. You didn't feel them tearing your fur, your flesh off your bones. Biting it off, digging their fingers in your eyes. Over and over again until I died."

Alex ran a hand over his face. "That was the drugs. It wasn't real."

"Yes, it was!"

"Fine, then how come you're here now, alive, if they killed you?"

The question confused him, as if he hadn't been able to notice the contradiction before. It did little to alleviate the fear in his eyes, but he did nod.

Finally. "Come on, let's go."

"No!" Tristan recoiled from the hatch.

"That's enough! You're Tristan, you're one of the most feared person in the universe, stop acting like a scared kid."

"Alex, I can't, They--" his voice was pleading. And the sound made Alex angry. It was a good thing the woman who'd done this to him was dead otherwise Alex would have made her suffer.

"No, you don't get to tell me you can't do something. Not after what you put me through. I murdered for you. I tortured. I blew up a fucking freighter just because you wanted to see how much I'd protest. So shut the fuck up and take control of yourself."

Tristan's mouth moved, but no sound came. "Alex," he finally said, sounding more scared than before. "I don't know how."

"Put a fucking mask on. Or are you telling you forgot how to do that too?"

"Who?"

Alex wanted to scream. He wasn't supposed to be the one making the decisions. He saw Jacoby looking at them and took control of himself. He certainly couldn't let him be in charge. He'd turn them, around and fly them to his home, without any chances of Alex ever getting Tristan back.

"Who's Parmalien?"

Tristan didn't seem to understand the question, then his face gained a semblance of control. "He's a merchant. He had a store ground side, his children take care of it most of the time, he likes to travel. They don't know it, but it's because he can't really stand being around them."

Jacoby had an eyebrow raised.

"Okay, so he can deal with a crowd like that, right?"

Tristan nodded. "He's always dealing with crowds, markets, stations."

"Good, then be him."

Tristan looked at his hands, turning them over. "My fur's not right. His is gray with black swirls, I need to--"

"No, that doesn't matter. They don't know what Parmalien looks like. Just be him."

For a moment it looked like Tristan would protest, but after searching Alex's eyes he nodded. He stood straighter, then slouched a little, not the fear, just age, Alex realized. Parmalien had a soft gaze and he smiled, but the lops were trembling with the effort it took Tristan to maintain it.

"Can we go now?" Alex asked, making an effort to keep his voice soft. Only a slight hesitation and Tristan--Parmalien--nodded. Alex followed him back to the concourse. "Stay on his other side," he told Jacoby and they joined the crowd.

Alex kept an eye on Tristan as they walked among the others. He kept hunching in on himself, and then loosening his shoulders as he remembered who he was supposed to be.

"I can't believe how much this place looks like any other stations I've been on," Jacoby said. "I'd thought that being so far from everything there'd be more local colors." He pointed to a door with a name over it. "That's a restaurant chain from Firnak."

Alex looked around and Jacoby was right. "It wasn't like that the last time I was here."

"How long?"

"A couple of decades, objective, maybe a bit more."

"Don't keep track?"

"I used to, but I don't see the point anymore." He looked at Tristan, whose hands were starting to shake, and the smile seemed brittle. He was who Alex kept time by now. Well the real Tristan, not this parody of him.

"I remember these being more stores that catered to Samalians, things brought in from space for those groundside. A marketplace more than," he waved around. "This." Everything seemed to be aimed at the humans. Like the restaurant. One store sold clothing, warm and cold weather, but clearly for humans. Another had what Alex through were souvenirs.

Tristan flinched and Alex reached for a knife he wasn't wearing. He cursed the sensors and the fact he'd lost all his undetectable knives on the Sayatoga. But it wasn't a threat, just someone bumping into Tristan, that had almost sent him running. Alex couldn't deny it anymore, Tristan was about to lose it.

"Over there," he guided the Samalian to a column out of the crowd. There was enough space around it for someone as large as Tristan and he blocked the view of the crowd, if not the sounds. "Rest there, catch your breath."

"I can do it," Tristan protested. "I'm going to be okay." The words, the tone, felt so wrong to Alex he couldn't decide if he would cry or scream.

He didn't do either. "No, you're not. You're shaking. Get yourself under control."

Tristan might have protested, but Alex glared at him.

"Well, now we know why Leisuretek owns this station," Jacoby said. Alex glanced at him. He was looking at a terminal on the column. Curious Alex moved so he could look at it and still see Tristan.

"Welcome to Samalia," the screen read. "The newest vacation destination from Leisuretek. Come experience primitive life, an archaic belief system. Come see the natives endure brutal weather. All in the comfort of Leisuretek's best recreational hovers."

"A vacation world," Jacoby said with disdain. "They're turning this place in a vacation spot for the rich."

It explained the large numbers of humans, and why the store catered to them and not the Samalians. He felt more than the disdain Jacoby felt. For a moment he felt a sense of betrayal. SpaceGov was supposed to keep that from happening. They were supposed to protect local populations from the might of the corporations.

He shoved it aside. Not knowing where it had come from. Probably some naive part of himself that had managed to survive this last decade. This place didn't matter to Tristan, so it didn't matter to him. Let the corporation strip it clean, so long as they waited until the two of them were gone.

Tristan was back to hugging himself, and now he was rocking in place.

"There's no way we can take a public shuttle," Alex told Jacoby. "There's no telling if he'll go from being terrified to going berserk."

Jacoby raised an eyebrow. "I didn't think you cared all that much about their kind." He nodded to the crowd. "Didn't you tell him he could cut a swath through it earlier?"

"Yes, but in his current state I'm not certain he'd be able to keep himself from tearing the shuttle itself apart if he panics. I need us to be alive if he's going to be fixed. I need you to go get us a shuttle." He took a credit ship from a pocket. "There's enough on there to cover something good."

"Wouldn't it be better if you took care of that?"

Like Alex would trust the man alone with Tristan. "Do you know how to deal with an out of control Samalian?" he asked instead. Not that he was sure what he'd do himself if that happened. As expected Jacoby shook his head. "Then get us a shuttle. Something that can handle a Samalian family should be large enough to accommodate the three of us."

Jacoby took the chip and headed off.

Alex watched him vanish into the crowd and ignored the looks he received. He had more important things to handle then them wondering what he was doing. Tristan looked to be regaining some control, but how long that might last there was no way to tell.

"Is everything alright?" a woman asked. And Alex turned, ready tell her to mind her business, but she had a gun at her belt, her hand by the butt, and wore a light blue uniform with a barge that, while he didn't recognize it, meant 'security.'

He reigned in his anger. "We're fine, Ma'am."

"Really? He doesn't look fine. I don't recognize him. Is he one of eh new guides? Looks to me like he still needs to get some training. They're supposed to be better behaved by the time they're allowed up here."

"He isn't a guide." Alex wasn't able to keep the anger from his tone. "He's a friend."

Her smile wasn't amused. "Haven't you read the warnings about associating with the locals? If they aren't trained there's no way to know what they'll do. How about I take him off your hands." She reached for Samalian size cuffs.

Alex just barely kept himself from wrenching her arm out of its socket when he grabbed her hand. "Please don't." He placed himself between her and Tristan to make sure he couldn't see what she'd been about to take. "He's just overwhelmed. He wanted to see the station. He's never been off ground before. He thought it would be fun, but he didn't understand there would be so many people. I have someone getting us a shuttle and we're heading back down."

She looked at Alex, then over his shoulder. "You really befriended one of them?"

Alex nodded, trying to keep his face friendly. How did Tristan manage to do this so easily? "He's nice, he isn't like the rest of them."

"Famous like words, Buddy." She shook her head. "Okay, fine, you take him down. If he causes any problem I'm taking you both in, got that?"

"Got it, thanks."

She turned and headed back through the crowd. Alex imagined himself cutting her up to release the tension he felt.

"What was that about?" Jacoby asked, indicating the security agent.

"Nothing." Alex didn't bother keeping his anger in check anymore. "You have the shuttle?"

"Yeah. Couldn't find one for a Samalian family. The guy there looked at me funny when I asked, but I got us a shuttle for a three human family group. Should be large enough."

"Let's go, before she comes back and I decide imagining her death isn't enough."