Tristan (Tristan book 1) (Draft 1)

Chapter 11

Over the next few days Jack and Alex made love every evening, and every morning when they woke up early enough. Jack would then see him off to work with a promise to keep busy.

As soon as Alex was out of sight Tristan sat down at the computer, a Tomika a few years out of date. That didn't affect its performance too much; the Tomika was a faster and more powerful system than the cheaper Celaran.

Tristan activated the program he had installed and it logged him remotely into Luminex's mainframe. He had thirty minutes to explore it before Alexander swiped his ID card to enter the building. If he was still in when that happened it would warn security that the user was in two places at the same time; this would prevent him from carrying on with his plans.

The first few visits were only for exploration, to learn the layout of their database. Like all large companies it had been custom built for them, both the hardware and the software. Fortunately with so many users it had to be easy to use. Within three days he had all the information he needed not only to write the program that would let him get in the building, but also those that would let him walk out.

The rest of the day was spent building the programs, even before he knew how Luminex's database was setup he could work on the skeleton for them, the command part that told the program what to do. Once he had the layout he could tell them how to do it.

A few days later the first program was done. To celebrate Tristan made some Alanian stew. It had been years since he'd had the spicy dish. The last time he'd had it was with his father, just before he left his home world.

He used the money chip Alex left for Jack to shop for ingredients. He had to approximate a few of the spices and the meat, but he was confident it would work. Back to the apartment he looked around to make sure there were no traces of the time he spent at Alex's computer. Then he set himself to cooking.

When he heard the door open and close Tristan was throwing the final spices in the pot.

"Something smells good," Alex said from the hallway.

"We're having Alanian stew," Jack replied, wiping his hands with a towel.

Alex stepped into the kitchen, "I don't think I've ever had that."

Jack kissed him tenderly, "I hope not, it's something my father created when I was a child."

"Your father was a cook?"

Jack chuckled. "No, we would go in the forest, only bring with us some spices and pots, and spend days surviving from what we could find and kill."

Alex pulled back in surprise, "you killed?"

"Only animals," Jack said, caressing Alex's cheek with the back of his hand. "My world isn't as advanced as yours; you'd probably consider it savage. The large cities are making progress to catch up to the rest of the universe, but we still have large expanses of wild land. My father believed in being able to survive no matter where you were.'

Alex closed his eyes and pressed against the hand. "Have you talked with him since you left?"

"No, he died before that."

Alex looked at him, "I'm so sorry," he said as he hugged him.

Jack hugged him back, "thanks." Jack then picked him up and brought him to the bedroom.

"I thought you were working on dinner," Alex commented.

"It has to simmer for an hour before it'll be ready, and unlike steak, it won't burn if we're a little late."

"That was your fault."

Jack didn't deny that as he deposited Alex on the bed.

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