'Will your companion not defend it?' Draycos asked from his now customary headrest on Jack's right shoulder.
'Not very well,' Jack told him. 'Just keep your fingernails crossed.'
'Pardon?'
'Skip it,' Jack said, scooping up Dumbarton's slapstick and stuffing it through the back of his belt where it would be handy if he needed it. Or, more likely, if Draycos needed it. 'Come on.'
They reached the top of the ridge without seeing or hearing anyone else and started down. Here, outside the crash zone, the forest was alive with color, bright reds and yellows splashed against more subdued blues and blue- greens. Spindly bushes shared space with the thick-trunked trees, along with the curly-fry grass that seemed to grow everywhere on this part of Iota Klestis. Here and there Jack caught a glimpse of a bird or large insect flying about on its own business.
'Is that your ship?' Draycos murmured as Jack crouched down behind one of the bushes and gave the area a quick study. 'The group of bushes at the far edge of the clearing against a line of trees?'
'That's it,' Jack said sourly. 'Only it's not supposed to be that easy to see.'
It certainly wasn't to him, anyway. To his eyes, the Essenay's outline was only barely visible along the edges of what seemed to be a group of bushes and grasses swaying gently in the breeze. The only reason he could see it at all was because he knew exactly where to look.
So naturally Draycos, freshly arrived in the Orion Arm and who knew nothing about anything, had picked it out of the background without a second glance. So much for the big, fancy chameleon hull-wrap Uncle Virgil had installed two years ago.
'It is quite well concealed,' Draycos assured him. 'My eyes accept slightly different wavelengths of light than yours do, and your camouflage does not exactly duplicate them. Also, as a warrior, I am trained to search for hidden objects.'
'A handy talent,' Jack growled. 'Let's just hope our buddies back there don't include anyone like you.'
Still no one in sight. Either they were all off searching a different part of the forest, or they'd already found the Essenay and were lying in ambush for whoever might show up there.
Either way, there was nothing to be gained by sitting here waiting. 'Okay, we're going whole hog,' he muttered to Draycos. 'Hang on.'
Taking a deep breath, he gathered his feet under him and sprinted toward the ship.
If there was an ambush waiting, it was a rotten one. No one shot at him as he slipped between the trees and pounded into the open area of the clearing. He kept going, hoping he wouldn't catch a foot on something hidden in the grass and end up face-first on the ground.
He was about thirty feet from the Essenay when the airlock hatch slid open and the gangway extended itself outward. Jack braced himself, wondering if that was the signal the hidden attackers had been waiting for.
But there was still no reaction from the surrounding forest. A second later he was charging up the gangway, ducking his head under the hatchway, trying to skid to a halt before he slammed full-tilt into the bulkhead on the far side of the narrow airlock.
Draycos had already anticipated the problem. Again, the sudden telltale weight appeared on his chest as Draycos came up and off him, putting all four legs straight out in front of Jack like gold-scaled shock absorbers to help absorb the impact.
Between the four K'da legs and two human arms, they bounced safely together off the bulkhead. 'Close the hatch,' Jack snapped as he regained his balance. Draycos dropped all the way off him, his long neck swiveling around as he checked things out. 'Uncle Virge?' Jack called again.
'All right, all right, I'm not deaf,' Uncle Virge said, his voice sounding odd as the hatch slid closed. 'I take it this is your new friend?'
'Draycos, meet Uncle Virge,' Jack said, slapping the door pad. The inner hatch slid open, and he headed forward at a dead run. A glance over his shoulder showed Draycos was right behind him.
He reached the cockpit, tossed his leather jacket and the slapstick in a corner, and slid into the pilot seat. The preflight had been done, he saw, and Uncle Virge had computed an ECHO course for use once they were outside the atmosphere.
The weapons panel, he noted with decidedly mixed feelings, had also been activated. Uncle Virgil had taught him how to use it, but he'd never even had to turn it on, let alone actually shoot at anyone.
'How may I best serve?' Draycos asked. He was standing behind Jack on his back paws, his body stretched upward with his front paws braced on the back of the chair. His pointed snout was swinging back and forth over Jack's shoulder as he studied the controls.
'You can't,' Jack said, getting a grip on the Y-shaped control yoke. 'This is a one-man operation. Hang onto something; here we go.'
Without waiting for a reply, he threw power to the antigrav lifters. The Essenay shuddered once, then lurched up and out of the clearing. They cleared the trees, Jack switched over from the lifters to the main drive, and they were off.
As the ship headed up through the drifting smoke, he felt a brief weight on his shoulders, then nothing. The dragon had found something to hang onto, all right. Him.
'They will send ships to intercept,' Draycos warned from Jack's right shoulder. 'Is this vessel armed?'
'Right here,' Jack said, letting go of the yoke with his left hand long enough to tap the weapons panel. Getting a two-handed grip on the yoke again, he turned the Essenay into a tight right-hand curve. 'We've got two meteor- defense lasers and a short-range particle-beam shredder. And four small missile launchers.'
'Jack!' Uncle Virge protested. 'The missiles are privileged information, lad.'
'What, you think he's not going to notice when we fire them?' Jack retorted.
