Dragonback 05 Dragon and Judge

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30

" 'The quick red fox jumps over the—' " Taneem paused, her glowing
silver eyes narrowing in concentration, her whiplike K'da tail making
little circles in the air behind her long, gray-scaled body. " 'Lassie
dog'?" she suggested.

" '
Lazy
dog,' " Draycos corrected, keeping his own tail
motionless. Having grown up among the Phookas instead of proper K'da,
Taneem's body language was very different from his. He didn't want to
make any gestures that she might interpret as impatience. "The 'y' at
the end of the word makes the 'a' long."

" 'The
lazy
dog.' " Taneem gave her tail another flick.
"There are so many rules to this language," she said ruefully.

"And so many exceptions to those rules," Draycos agreed, his mind
going back to his own introduction to written English. He and the
others of the K'da/Shontine advance team had learned a fair amount of
the spoken language from their peoples' earlier contacts with the
Chitac Nomads. But it wasn't until the advance team had been ambushed
and destroyed, and Draycos had linked up with Jack Morgan, that he'd
been introduced to the written form. "But you'll make it through," he
assured Taneem. "I know you will."

"Then I will," she said firmly, turning back to the display. "
'When the tall cliff is lit by the sunlight . . .' "

Draycos listened with half an ear, his eyes tracing down the
smooth lines of her neck and across the sleek scales along her flank.
She did so much remind him of the other Taneem, the friend he'd lost so
many years ago to the Valahgua and their horrible Death weapon.

Which made it even more of a shock sometimes when he remembered
that only a couple of weeks ago this Taneem had been little more than
an animal. A Phooka, rooting around in the forest of Rho Scorvi for
grubs, with no knowledge of starships or computers or written English.

Or of war or hatred or enemies. Enemies who had launched a war of
conquest against the K'da and Shontine in their distant homelands,
ultimately driving them out and into a fleet of refugee ships that was
still making its long journey here to the Orion Arm part of the galaxy.

Enemies who had now made that same long trip across space in order
to intercept and destroy those K'da and Shontine refugees. Bringing his
gaze back to Taneem's silver eyes, Draycos wondered if he'd really done
her a favor by taking her away from that simpler, safer life.

Taneem finished the page, and Draycos keyed for the next one.
Nothing happened. Feeling his tail curve in a frown, he tried again.
This time the next page came up.

But that second's delay meant that the ship's computer was busy.
Very busy.

Had Jack made it in?

"Please continue with your exercises," Draycos told Taneem as he
headed for the dayroom door. "I'll be back soon."

He found Jack in the
Essenay
's cockpit, sitting in the
pilot's seat and glowering at the displays. Alison Kayna was standing
behind him, leaning an elbow on the back of his seat as she gazed
thoughtfully at something on a handheld computer. "Anything?" Draycos
asked as he padded up behind Alison.

"No," Jack growled. "For a minute there I thought we were in. But
then it locked back up on me." "I told you it wouldn't work," Alison
said. "Malison Ring computers aren't easy to get into without the
proper passkeys and protocols."

"I suppose you want to give it a try?" Jack suggested acidly.

"Well, not
now
I don't," Alison said. "The whole system's
been alerted."

"What do you suggest?" Draycos asked.

"We pull up stakes and try a different base." Alison cocked her
head. "Only next time / get to try first."

"Forget it," Jack said. "
My
ship.
My
mission."

"Your ship,
Draycos
's mission," Alison corrected calmly.
"It's
his
people at risk out there, not yours."

"Maybe his people happened to be the first ones on the field,"
Jack countered, "but that doesn't mean the rest of us are sitting on
the sidelines. Once the Valahgua finish them off, what's to keep them
from turning that Death weapon of theirs on everyone else in the Orion
Arm?"

"Numbers, for a start," Alison said, shutting off her computer.
"If and when you're ready to give up on that, I've got something to
show you."

"Fine," Jack said, keying a handful of switches. "I'm done."

"Thank you," Alison said. "Uncle Virge? Pull up your record of the
Iota Klestis battle, will you?"

"Jack, lad?" Uncle Virge asked.

"Sure, go ahead," Jack said in a tone of strained patience. "While
you're at it, go ahead and call the port tower for clearance. We might
as well get off this rock."

"Preferably before the Malison Ring traces your intrusion
attempt," Alison said.

"Alison—"

"Okay, here we go," Alison interrupted him smoothly as the main
display lit up with a set of slightly fuzzy spaceship images. "Four
Malison Ring attack ships, four K'da/Shontine advance team defenders.
Note how the Malison Ring ships open up with that whatch-ya-call-it—"

"It's called the Death," Draycos said, his tail lashing the air as
the memory of that horrible day came rushing back. "The weapon that
kills right through bulkheads and walls and even the heaviest metal or
ceramic shielding."

"And I still don't understand how that can work," Alison said.
"But I'll take your word that it does. Anyway, note how the Malison
Ring ships all open up with the Death in perfect unison?"

"Yes, we see," Draycos said.

"And we've been through it a hundred times," Jack added.

"Maybe you should have gone through it a hundred and one times,"
Alison countered. "Remember your theory that Neverlin and the Valahgua
must be really good allies because the Valahgua gave him their precious
Death weapon to play with?"

Jack's back visibly stiffened. "
Look
—"

"We're listening," Draycos cut him off, his eyes on the display.
Arthur Neverlin was the brains behind this plot. He'd been the second
most powerful man in the megacorporation Braxton Universis until he'd
tried to kill Cornelius Braxton and take over the company. Jack and
Draycos had foiled that attempt, driving Neverlin underground in the
process.

But even on the run, the man had plenty of resources to draw on.
One of his allies was the Chookoock family of Brum-a-dum, with their
collection of slaves and big Brummgan soldiers. Another ally was
Colonel Maximus Frost and his team of Malison Ring mercenaries.

All of them with just one goal: to assist the Valahgua in their
attempt to utterly destroy the K'da and Shontine.

"Okay," Alison said. "Let me fast-forward a bit . . .
there
.
See how all four Death weapons also cut off in perfect unison?"

"Because all the K'da and Shontine were dead," Jack said with
exaggerated patience.

"No, they weren't," Alison said. "That's the point. The
Havenseeker
's
little twitch maneuver had slipped it out of the beam for a few
seconds, which is why Draycos and the rest of the bridge crew were
still alive at this point. So why did the mercenaries quit firing?"

"We were already on the path to a crash landing," Draycos said
grimly. "They had no need to continue."

"No, what they didn't have was the capability," Alison corrected.

Jack frowned over his shoulder at Draycos. "Is she making any
sense to
you
?"

"Yes," Draycos said, the pain of memory fading into cautious
excitement as he suddenly saw where Alison was going with this. "The
Malison Ring ships didn't shut off the Death weapons. The weapons shut
off by themselves."

"Bingo," Alison said. "Probably with their innards burned to slag.
The Valahgua didn't trust their new allies not to double-cross them and
fly away with their wonderful little Death weapons. So they put a timed
self-destruct into each of them, giving the mercenaries exactly three
minutes forty-seven seconds' worth of juice they could use to take out
your advance force ships."

"Which is two
birs
of Valahguan time measurement," Draycos
said.

"Even a nice round number." Alison looked at Jack. "You see now
what I meant about them not being ready to take on the whole Orion Arm?
They don't even have enough people here to secure and operate the
weapons aboard four ships."

"Which also makes sense," Draycos said. "In order to have arrived
before our advance team, they would have had to travel faster, with
more fuel and fewer passengers."

"It also means they don't trust their new allies any farther than
they can spit them," Alison said.

"Not really surprising, I guess," Jack said. "Not with what we
know about Neverlin and Frost. Though that doesn't mean they don't have
a few more Death weapons stashed away to use against the main refugee
fleet."

"Oh, I'm sure they do," Alison agreed. "But at least this means
we'll mostly be tangling with Neverlin and his buddies. At least those
are known quantities."

"Known quantities who want to kill us," Jack muttered.

"Well, they want to kill Draycos, anyway," Alison said coolly.
"Possibly me, too.
You
they just want to capture."

"That's so encouraging," Jack said, stroking his cheek
thoughtfully. "I wonder what their plan is."

"That's easy enough," Alison said. "Neverlin wanted to kill
Cornelius Braxton so that he could take over his company."

"For the money," Jack said.

"Sure, that was part of it," Alison said. "More importantly,
though, controlling Braxton Universis would give him access to the
corporation's security force. Including a
lot
of armed ships."

"Would the Braxton security men really have cooperated in this
kind of venture?" Draycos asked.

"I doubt it," Alison said. "But he didn't need them. That was
where the Chookoock family came in—they were going to supply Brummgan
mercenaries to crew the security ships. Frost and his renegade Malison
Ring buddies would provide leadership and also form the core of the
attack force."

"And while they engaged the K'da/Shontine ships, the Valahgua
would be moving in and out of the fleet using the Death weapon on
everyone," Draycos said, a shiver running along his crest.

"At which point they would be free to loot the fleet for new
technology, which they'd probably market through Braxton Universis,"
Alison concluded. "Very simple, actually. And very,
very
profitable."

"That's what their plan
was
," Jack said patiently. "
My
question was, what's their plan
now
?"

"Oh," Alison said in a slightly more subdued tone. "Good point.
Neverlin can't get those Braxton ships now, can he? They'll have to go
with some other plan."

"Which I believe is what I just said," Jack reminded her. "The
question is what that plan might be."

"Jack, lad?" Uncle Virge spoke up. "We've got clearance to lift."

"Take us up," Jack instructed him. "And give me the two next
closest Malison Ring bases."