Dragonback 04 Dragon and Herdsman (5 page)

Maybe Jack himself had been an exception. Then again, maybe he
hadn't.

But things were different now, he reminded himself firmly. He
did
have a friend—Draycos—and he was going to make that friendship work.

And part of that process was for him to earn the dragon's respect,
which meant keeping his promises. "No one's suggesting we have to
become Alison's best friends," he told Uncle Virge. "But we
are
going to take her to Rho Scorvi. Period."

"Whatever you say, Jack lad," Uncle Virge said with a theatrical
sigh. "Would it strain the duties of a proper host if I at least kept
an eye on her?"

"Of course not," Jack said.

"I agree," Draycos seconded. "Keeping a promise does not require
one to abandon caution."

"Then we're in agreement," Uncle Virge said with false
cheerfulness. "How wonderful for us all."

"Don't be snide," Jack admonished him, climbing out of the pilot's
seat. "And while you're being all vigilant, I'm going to get some
sleep."

"Fine," Uncle Virge said. "Incidentally, I trust you realize
there's one other option."

"About . . .?"

"About those Braxton Universis men," Uncle Virge said, his voice
going a bit darker. "It could be they were looking for
you
."

"Why would they seek him?" Draycos asked.

"Because he's crossed paths twice now with Arthur Neverlin," Uncle
Virge reminded him.

"And both times Neverlin has come out the worse for the exchange,"
Draycos reminded him.

"True, but Braxton may not realize that," Uncle Virge said. "If
I
were him, and I saw two people keep running into each other, I'd wonder
if there were dots that needed to be connected. At the very least, he
might want to borrow Jack for a nice cozy chat somewhere."

"Which I really don't want to do right now," Jack said. "Actually,
Uncle Virge, that
had
occurred to me. But I don't see much I
can do about it."

"I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page," Uncle
Virge said soothingly. "Good night, Jack. Sleep well."

The trip, including fueling stops, took eight days.

It wasn't nearly as bad as Jack had expected it to be. Alison kept
mostly to herself, coming out of her cabin for meals and sometimes to
play games on the dayroom computer terminal. Other than that she spent
most of her time sleeping or writing in a small notebook she always
kept with her.

She didn't poke or pry around the ship in the middle of the night,
either. Jack had half-expected her to try that. Uncle Virge was clearly
annoyed that she didn't.

Twice she accepted Jack's invitation to pair up for one of the
two-player games he hadn't played since Uncle Virgil's death. He beat
her both times, but by a much smaller margin the second time. Clearly,
she was a fast learner.

For all her hermit tendencies, her mealtime conversation was
bright and cheerful. But it was mostly empty words, the sort of chatter
Uncle Virgil had taught Jack how to do when he wanted to fill time
without actually saying anything. Jack's efforts to get past the
surface froth got him nowhere.

Which was extremely irritating, and not just for Jack. By the
fourth day Uncle Virge, who was as frustrated at Jack's failures to dig
anything out of the girl as Jack himself was, began pushing for Jack to
let him have a go at her.

It was a ridiculous suggestion, of course. Even if Uncle Virge was
careful with his voice and mannerisms, Alison would be bound to notice
the sudden change in the computer's personality. But he kept pushing,
until Jack finally had to give him a direct order not to bring it up
again.

That stopped the demands. But it did nothing to lower the tension.
Between Uncle Virge's sulking and Alison's useless conversation, Jack
was thoroughly sick of both of them by the time they finally reached
Rho Scorvi.

"There," Alison said, pointing out the cockpit canopy at a large,
dark green forest at the edge of a wide plain. "That's where they'll be
putting down."

"Nice," Jack commented, studying the area. The forest was about a
hundred miles across, lying mostly to the east of a range of
snow-covered mountains. A churning river rolled down the slopes,
widening as it went, cutting through the center of the forest and then
continuing eastward across the plain. "If you like that sort of thing."

"I take it you don't?"

"I prefer my nature in nice, neat layer gardens," Jack said. "So
what are they coming here for?"

"There's a colony of nomads that travel around the edge of the
forest," she said. "My friends are supposed to be doing some trading
with them."

"What kind of trading?"

"Some kind of wild herbs, I think," Alison said. "I'm a little
foggy on the details. The Erassvas—those are the natives—hang around
the edge of the forest picking fruit, digging up roots, and pulling
edible bark off the trees. They get clothing materials from other
plants."

"Hunter-gatherer types, then?"

"Right, minus the hunter part," Alison said. "They're nomadic,
too. Once they've cleared out an area, they move on around the edge of
the forest. By the time they've made a complete circle, it's been a
couple of years and the stuff's all grown back."

"Sounds like your basic Garden of Eden," Jack suggested.

"More or less," Alison agreed. "They just have to make sure they
don't go too deep into the forest, where all the nastier creatures
live."

"How nasty?"

"I don't think anyone knows," she said. "No one's ever seen them,
except maybe the Erassvas, and they're not talking. But there are
legends, and the handful of researchers who've gone into the forest
have found and documented some very intriguing claw marks on trees and
even on some of the big rocks."

Jack winced. That sounded ominous. "Lucky for us, we aren't going
in there," he said, keying in the landing sequence. As he did so, there
was a quiet beep from the board. "Computer?" he asked, frowning.

"Another power glitch," Uncle Virge confirmed. He was still trying
to sound like a normal P/S computer, but Jack could hear the tightness
in his voice. "Still unable to locate the source."

Jack drummed his fingers thoughtfully on the edge of the control
board. This was the third time since leaving Bigelow that this
mysterious power dip had happened, as if some system aboard the
Essenay
had suddenly decided to take an extra helping of power without telling
anyone. Uncle Virge had run the diagnostics a dozen times but hadn't
found anything out of place. "Any ideas?" Jack asked, looking over his
shoulder at Alison.

She shook her head. "I just hope it's nothing serious."

"Well, you won't have to worry about it much longer," Jack said.
"Computer, do you have a line on those nomads yet?"

"I'm picking up a group of beings at the southern edge of the
forest," Uncle Virge said. "I'm not sure how many—the forest canopy is
scrambling the infrared readings."

"That's probably them," Alison said. "There shouldn't be anyone
else around. I'll go get my stuff together."

"Need any help?" Jack asked with just a touch of sarcasm. At their
first fueling stop, at Jack's suggestion, Alison had gone off to do
some shopping. From the size of the two travel bags she'd lugged back
to the
Essenay
, he figured she'd decided to get started on next
year's wardrobe.

"I can manage," she assured him. If she'd noticed the sarcasm, she
didn't mention it. "See you."

She left the cockpit. "You really can't track this power glitch?"
Jack asked when she was out of sight.

"No, and it's driving me crazy," Uncle Virge said irritably. "It's
like there's an intermittent power drain somewhere. Probably in the
ECHO."

"Why in that particular system?" Draycos asked.

"Because the only time it shows up is when we come back into
normal space," Uncle Virge said. "There's a pulse in power utilization
right as we shut the ECHO down; then a few minutes later we get this
dip effect, like something is sucking up extra power."

"Could it be a problem with the cooldown?" Jack suggested. "Some
wire contracting too fast and making contact where it's not supposed
to?"

"If it is, it's not showing on the diagnostics," Uncle Virge said.
"I'm probably going to have to do a systematic shutdown to isolate it.
But I don't think we want to hang around this rock while I do that."

"On the other hand, we may have the necessary time to spare,"
Draycos said. He jabbed his tongue toward the sensor display. "I see no
sign of any ship."

"So?" Uncle Virge asked.

"If her friends have been delayed, Alison may be marooned,"
Draycos said patiently.

"All Jack promised was to bring her here," Uncle Virge said tardy.
"He never said we'd stay and hold her hand."

"We cannot simply fly away and abandon her," Draycos insisted.

"It's none of our business," Uncle Virge insisted right back.
"Besides, there's half a chance she won't
want
us to see who it
is who comes to get her."

"Can we just get down there?" Jack interrupted. "We can decide
later whether or not to throw her a going-away party."

The winds sweeping over the mountains made the approach trickier
than Jack had expected. But Uncle Virge was equal to the task, and soon
they had passed over the snow-covered peaks and were flying over the
river on their way to the forest below.

"Interesting," Draycos commented, the side of his triangular head
pressed against the canopy as he tried to look straight down. "I do not
believe I have ever seen water quite so chaotic."

"They're called rapids," Jack told him. "Fast and shallow water
running over big rocks just below the surface."

"Actually, the only rapids I spotted are higher up the mountain,"
Uncle Virge said. "The water along here is really pretty deep."

Jack frowned. "Then what's causing all the white water?" he asked,
maneuvering the
Essenay
a few yards to the side to give him a
better view of the river.

"Probably have some underwater springs coming in under pressure,"
Uncle Virge said. "I can't tell for sure—there's a lot of silt churning
around down there throwing off my sensors."

"So it's like a free-flowing spa tub?" Jack suggested.

"A free-flowing spa tub for walruses," Uncle Virge said. "That
water's mighty cold."

"I wasn't suggesting we take a dip," Jack assured him, turning his
attention to the forest. Close up, it looked even darker and more
ominous than it had from low orbit. "You spotting any technology at all
down there?"

"None," Uncle Virge said. "As far as I can tell, this place is as
primitive as you can get in the Orion Arm."

"I guess Gardens of Eden are supposed to be that way," Jack said,
shifting his eyes to the more cheerful-looking plain at the forest's
southern edge. "Well, let's get to it. The sooner we drop Alison, the
sooner we can get back to the job of rescuing Draycos's people."

Given their apparent lack of technology. Jack had half-expected
the colony of Erassvas to scatter in panic as the
Essenay
flew
past overhead and then settled to the ground a hundred yards from the
forest.

Not only did they not scatter, but most of them didn't even bother
to look at the big metal bird that had invaded their territory.
"Certainly are calm types," Uncle Virge commented as Jack shut the
ship's systems down to standby.

"It's better that than the alternative," Jack said. "Draycos, can
you see all right?"

"I am fine," the dragon assured him. "And I can hear and smell, as
well. If there are any predators nearby, I should detect them before
they become a threat."

He pushed against Jack's shirt as he lifted his head from Jack's
shoulder. "Or is that not what your question meant?"

"Yes, it was," Jack said, grimacing. Sometimes the dragon read his
mind a little
too
well.

Alison was waiting at the air lock, her two travel bags at her
sides. "I'm told there are enough traders and mining speculators poking
around these colonies that there should be at least one or two Erassvas
in the group who speak English," she told Jack as he keyed the outer
door. "You might want to let me do the talking, though "

"Be my guest," Jack said, gesturing her to go ahead of him.

"Thanks." She gestured at the tangler Jack had belted at his
waist. "And you'll want to keep that in its holster, too."

"It's just a tangler," Jack said.

"With shock rounds?"

"Low-current variety only," Jack assured her. "Just enough juice
to stun most beings without damaging them."

"Good," Alison said. "Keep it in its holster anyway."

The Erassvas hadn't been much interested in the
Essenay
's
approach. They were just as uninterested in the two humans walking
across the hairlike grass toward them. A couple of the aliens looked up
but then returned calmly to their work of picking berries off the
colorful vines that grew up the sides of the trees.

"What?" Alison asked.

"What do you mean, what?" Jack growled.

"You were muttering something."

"Oh." Jack hadn't even noticed he was speaking. "I was just
thinking."

"About . . .?"

He gestured at the Erassvas. "I did some berry-picking work a
while back. It wasn't very pleasant."

"Ah," Alison said. "Well, in the future, if you want to talk to
yourself, talk a little quieter."

Clamping his jaw firmly shut. Jack kept walking. Focusing his
attention on the aliens, he tried to force back the memories of the
Brummgan slave camp.

The Erassvas were actually quite human looking, if bald,
pale-skinned creatures who looked like overweight sumo wrestlers could
be said to look human. The twenty children Jack could see were already
starting to fill out, while the thirty or forty adults were just plain
huge. It was a wonder that their stubby legs could even carry all that
weight.