'Well, no, it's three-dimensional,' Jack said. 'It has length, width, and thickness.'
'But it is two-dimensional where it meets the deck,' Draycos repeated. 'At that meeting, it has only length and width. Do you agree?'
Jack shrugged. 'Fine. Whatever you say.'
'It is not a matter of what I say,' Draycos said, sounding impatient. 'It is a matter of whether you understand. Consider the deck to be a two-dimensional universe, with the data reader as a two-dimensional object existing within it. There is no thickness there, only length and width. Two dimensions only. Do you understand?'
'I understood before,' Jack said, a little impatience of his own starting to peek out through the heavy curtain of weirdness hanging over this whole thing. Having not been killed and eaten on the spot, he was starting to lose some of his initial fear, and he had better things to do than play word games with this Draycos character. 'So what?'
'Very well,' Draycos said. 'Now lift the data reader so that one edge remains on the deck.'
Jack did as instructed. 'Okay. So?'
'In this picture, the data reader is still two-dimensional,' Draycos said. 'Yet to an observer within the two- dimensional universe of the deck, it now appears as a one-dimensional portion of a line. It has length only, but no width. The part that would give it width has lifted away along a third dimension.'
Jack stared down at the reader, a funny tingling sensation creeping across the skin at the back of his neck. Was Draycos saying what he thought he was saying? 'Are you trying to tell me,' he asked slowly, 'that you're really three-dimensional, but that you somehow became two-dimensional? Just plain flat? And then that you somehow pasted yourself across my back?'
'I am still three-dimensional,' Draycos said. 'As with the data reader, most of my body is now projected along a fourth dimension, outside the bounds of this universe.'
On Jack's left shoulder, the comm clip had gone silent. Apparently, even Uncle Virge couldn't think of anything to say to this one. That was a bad sign. 'No,' Jack said. 'Sorry, but this doesn't make any sense at all.'
'Yet I am here,' Draycos reminded him.
'No,' Jack said firmly. He turned his eyes away to the left, away from the dragon head staring up at him from his right shoulder. 'This isn't real. It can't be real. It's some kind of trick.'
'Why would I wish to trick you?' Draycos asked, sliding around Jack's back to his left shoulder and again looking up at him. 'What purpose would it serve?'
'Stop doing that!' Jack snapped, twisting his head back the other way. Reaching around, he pulled the hanging sleeve back around and got his right arm into it. 'I don't know why. What purpose does anything serve? What do you want?'
'I want that which all beings desire,' Draycos told him. 'Life.'
'And what, you can't live anywhere except my back?' Jack demanded sarcastically.
'No,' Draycos said. 'I cannot.'
Jack had been about to fasten his shirt's sealing strip again. Now he paused, frowning down at the gold scales on his chest. 'What do you mean?'
'The K'da are not like other beings, Jack Morgan,' the dragon said. 'We cannot run freely for longer than six of your hours at a time. After that we must return to this two-dimensional form and rest against a host body.'
'Or?' Jack prompted.
'If we do not have a host, we fade away and die,' Draycos said. 'I was nearly dead when you appeared. Your arrival, plus the fortunate fact that your species is able to serve as a K'da host, has saved my life. For this I thank you.'
'You're welcome,' Jack said automatically. 'Not like I had a choice. So, what, you're some kind of parasite?'
'I do not know that word.'
'A parasite is something that feeds off its host organism,' Jack explained. 'It takes food or something else it needs from the host.'
'I take nothing from my host,' Draycos said. 'I must use the surface of my host's body, but that is all.'
'You take away his privacy,' Jack pointed out.
'I offer companionship and protection in return,' Draycos said. 'For that reason, we consider ourselves to be symbionts with our hosts, not... parasites. But perhaps you do not consider that a fair exchange. Does your species require more loneliness than I understood?'
'We all like to be alone every so often,' Jack said gruffly, trying to hide the sudden pang of emotion. Loneliness. Whether he'd meant to or not, the dragon had touched a painful nerve with that one. 'So why me? Why didn't you wrap yourself around a tree or something?'
'It does not work that way,' Draycos said. 'We must have a proper host. I do not know what it is that makes one species acceptable and another not. Perhaps none of the K'da do.'
'Oh,' Jack said, for lack of anything better to say. 'So... what now?'
'That is your decision,' Draycos said. 'Do you wish me to leave?'
The obvious answer—yes!—unexpectedly got stuck in Jack's throat. 'If I said yes, where would you go?' he asked instead. 'I mean, there's no one here but me.'
'After six hours had passed, I would die,' Draycos said softly. 'But I am a warrior of the K'da. I will not force myself upon you if you do not wish it.'
