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Tristan closed his eyes, the job was finally done. So why didn't he feel the satisfaction of a job well done?

The reason was behind him; Alex.

The job wasn't done while he was still alive. All he needed to do was turn and slash his throat open. He wasn't infected anymore, so that would be enough to kill him.

He heard the human take a step back. He was expecting something, ready for an attack. It didn't matter, he could take him in a fight.

He remembered the fear as Alex attacked him, backing up, trying to reason with him. Maybe taking him head-on wasn't the best idea.

He forced his body to relax, to be casual, and turned. Alex was tense. He wasn't holding a knife, but his hands hovered near his belt and all those he'd accumulated.

"The bridge." Tristan indicated for him to move. The hesitation was almost imperceivable. Almost. Still, Alex turned his back to him and walked.

Now was the time. He could grab him by the neck, smash his head against the wall until it was caved in. Or he could break his neck, watch him fall like the broken doll he was. He could rip his limbs out and watch him bleed to death. It didn't matter how he killed the human, so long as he did so.

He listed the methods to himself as they stood in the lift, going up. He could space him, that would be slow, let him suffer, yes, that would be satisfying. He could take his knives and plant each and everyone in his back.

Keeping his frustration in check was becoming difficult. Why was he thinking about ways to kill him when he should be just doing it.

On the walk to the bridge he watched Alex's back and tried to will himself to grab him, raise him over his head and throw him to the floor, but his body didn't obey him. Why couldn't he kill him?

The answer came to him when they entered the bridge. Alex controlled the computer. Sure, he could undo his work, but that would take time, which he didn't have. He needed to find the right place to send this ship so it would be destroyed as quickly as possible, that meant enduring the human for a little while longer.

Tristan hated that his subconscious hadn't been under his control, but it had kept him from making this job harder than it had to.

"I need navigation."

"You have it."

Tristan brought up the local map. They were still in the Bramolian system. Good, that meant the local star was close by. No, he couldn't use that one. The government would have sensors and notice a ship heading toward it. As the idiots they were they'd want to save the endangered crew.

He needed to find a star with no population, or at least low enough they wouldn't have much of a monitoring system. He found such a star, but it was almost a year away. To far. The virus would do it's work much faster than that, and no matter how thorough he was in locking anyone out of the system, they'd have the time to find a way around.

Unless.

He brought up the ship's schematics. This was a cruise ship, so it would have some form of long-term storage. It might just be a room where items were put in, but if this was luxurious enough it might very well have...

He smiled. The storage room had a stasis field to ensure nothing was damaged during the trip. They could pack the bodies there, turn it on and not have to worry about them.

The field would fail as they got close to the star, but by then it should be too late. He set the course then locked the navigation system.

He and Alex went out separately to gather the bodies in the storage room. Any Tristan encountered that were coming back to life he killed again. He broke their necks, or smashed their heads against the walls. Each time he felt some satisfaction. He considered it practice for killing Alex.

Once he was certain they hadn't left anyone behind, he even had Alex pick up the individual pieces in the medical bay and bring those, he turned the field on, made sure it would last the trip and headed back to the bridge.

"Lock up the ship's core processor. There are a few coercionists on the ship, I don't want them taking control when they wake up."

"Why don't we just blow it up?"

Tristan growled. "Because that would attract scavengers and bodies have been known to survive explosions intact. We don't know if vacuum will kill the virus."

Alex nodded and found a terminal.

Tristan hated that the human had questioned him. He was forgetting his place. But he hated more that he'd inadvertently pointed out something Tristan had forgotten to consider. A year was a long time. Someone might come investigate the ship. The odds were low, but not negligible. It was why ships always woke someone up when they detected a possible threat.

That wouldn't be possible here, both because the core would be locked and because there wouldn't be anyone for it to wake. He'd have to find a different way to ensure the virus couldn't escape.

The first step was to make sure no one could take control of the ship. Alex was handling the computer, but there were ways to bypass it and take manual control.

Tristan removed the possibility by destroying what was left of the controls. All he needed to do was rip out the wiring and circuits, but he wanted to be thorough. He ripped everything out. He threw himself in the destruction as a way of channeling his anger and frustration.

When he caught Alex watching him he glared back. This was his fault. He'd become too much of a threat. Tristan didn't fear anything, he didn't fear the universe; so there was no way he could fear this human. But it wasn't just the fear it was the other emotions Tristan kept having to push down that were the bigger danger.

Once there was nothing left on the bridge that could control the ship he headed to engineering. He destroyed the secondary controls there, then set about rewiring propulsion system. He didn't touch anything that might affect its current trajectory, but made it so that if anyone tried to change it, it would cause an overload and blow the ship. It would be difficult enough to do with the damaged he'd caused that there wouldn't be enough time once the field failed for the people on the ship to do it themselves.

Once that was done, he and Alex did another search of the ship, and only once they confirmed no one was hiding did he enter the mercenary's ship. He quickly bypassed the lock and detached it.

As he entered the coordinates for home Alex cursed. Tristan looked over his shoulder and the human pointed to one of the chairs.

"It's a fluid replacement system. I hate those."

"Then focus on making sure there's nothing in the computer that can hurt us."

He could work with that system. As before he'd put Alex under first, then the human would be incapable of offering any resistance. Now Tristan finally felt the end of his problems approaching.

Once Alex confirmed the computer was clean, Tristan told him to go under. A moment later he was watching as Alex took off his jacket and shirt. He was admiring the muscular back when the human bent down and took off his pants.

"What are you doing?"

Did Alex think he could sway him by exposing himself? It wouldn't work. Unlike him, Tristan wasn't a slave to his body, he controlled it. He did control it, he told himself again as his body began reacting to a naked Alex.

"I deal better with this kind of cryo when I don't wear anything." He shrugged at Tristan's tilted ear. "I know it doesn't make any sense. The few doctors I mentioned it to say it's all in my head, but it doesn't change the fact that if I wear anything while under I'm a mess when I come back out. I'm out of it for hours."

Tristan almost told him it wouldn't matter this time, but had enough self-control left to keep his mouth shut. He wanted the human in this moment. He wanted to throw him on the floor and use him, satisfy this need inside him that never seemed to go away.

He watched Alex sit down in a chair and place the armband over his well-defined bicep. He activated it and leaned his head back. The tubes were opaque, so Tristan couldn't see the blood being exchanged for the cryo-fluid, but after a minute the light on the armband went from green to yellow.

Tristan expected to feel some relief at the human being made harmless, but he was still tensed. He stood and growled at his erection. He didn't want the human, he was a threat. After taking a step he had to adjust it and growled again. This was what Alex did to him; took away all his control.

He stood before him. The human looked peaceful, his eyes closed, his body relaxed. He didn't pose a threat like this, but the moment he came out he'd be a danger again. Tristan wouldn't allow that.

He placed a hand against Alex's throat, his fingers against the soft skin. All he had to do was tense, extend his claws and move his hand across it. It wouldn't take much pressure to cut through the skin. Only a little more to then open his windpipe. Alex wouldn't realize he'd died.

His fingers moved against the skin, but his claws were sheathed. He ran his hand down the human's chest. It was covered with scars, but it was still soft.

Tristan's breathing was shallow. He wanted to do something, say something, but he couldn't figure out what. It felt like this ball inside him, blocking everything.

His vision blurred and he blinked. He felt wetness fall down his face. Was he bleeding? He touched it and his fingers came away clear.

With a jerk he back away to the other side. He did not cry. Tristan hadn't cried since his father had beaten the habit out of him. He hadn't cried when he'd killed him. He certainly wasn't crying because of that human.

He eyed the armband. He could rip it out. The process would be slower, as the fluid escaped Alex's body, but he would still die.

He reached for it, his hand shaking. It was like there was a force field around it.

With a scream he punched the wall, leaving a dent in it. He was Tristan. He was in control of not only himself but everything and everyone around him.

He ripped chairs out of the wall, smashed them against the wall, tried to hit Alex with them. By the time he'd destroyed half of them he was on his knees in front of an unperturbed Alex.

He looked up at him, tears falling freely. "What have you done to me?"