Dragonback 06 Dragon and Liberator (21 page)

They reached the next level up, and with Draycos again on Jack's
back they continued heading forward. A few minutes later, they reached
another of the tween gap access doors.

Draycos spent a few minutes with his ear pressed against the wall,
listening for signs of activity. Then, at his direction, Jack pulled on
the handles and slid the panel open.

The room beyond was unlit, but in the glow from Draycos's eyes
Jack could see that it was long and narrow and low ceilinged. Nearly
the entire floor space was filled with cylinders, longer but thinner
than the
ghikada
containers and sporting a different
stripe/spot pattern. They were connected to each other and the deck by
a confusing array of pipes, all of which seemed to have unique
stripe/spot patterns of their own.

Wait here
, Draycos said. Again bounding out of the boy's
collar, he made his way nimbly across the cylinders and piping to
another small door at the far end of the room. There he again pressed
his ear against the panel and listened.

A minute later, he straightened and crossed back to Jack. "The
area outside appears to be deserted," he murmured. "We should be safe
here for a while."

"Good," Jack said. Gingerly, he stepped into the room, trying not
to slip on the cylinders. "What is this? More
ghikada
?"

"Fire suppressant," Draycos identified it. "This room handles fire
control for most of the upper/forward sections of the ship."

"And the Brummgas and Valahgua don't know about it?"

"They may," Draycos said. "But only if they bothered to examine
the rest of the data diamonds Alison retrieved from the safe at the
Chookoock family estate."

Jack frowned. "You kept your ships' schematics in a
safe
?"

"The complete schematics, yes," Draycos said with a sort of grim
amusement. "The set freely available on the ship's computers has
certain gaps and omissions."

"Such as this room?"

"Such as several of these rooms, the tween gap areas, and most of
the equipment crawl spaces," Draycos said. "They also indicate the
ventilation ducts are narrower than they actually are."

"Too narrow for K'da to get through, I suppose," Jack said. "Man,
you guys really planned ahead."

"We were traveling to unknown space, to meet peoples we knew
little about," Draycos reminded him quietly. "We had to be prepared for
attack and betrayal."

Jack felt a shiver run up his back. "I'm glad we're on the same
side," he said. "Still, even if they found the actual schematics, I
doubt the Brummgas and Valahgua could squeeze in here anyway. I just
wish I knew how many humans Frost has aboard."

Draycos was silent a moment. "Actually, no one
has
to come
in here after us," he said reluctantly. "The Death, as you'll recall,
can penetrate any thickness of material."

Jack felt his stomach tighten. "That
does
kind of put a
damper on things, doesn't it?"

"Though it's not necessarily as bad as it sounds," Draycos assured
him. "For one thing, the weapons below us are long-range models, hardly
suitable for lugging around the ship."

"True, but they hardly need to move them, do they?" Jack
countered. "All they have to do is get everyone out of the way and
sweep the whole hull area right from where they are."

"That
is
a possibility," Draycos conceded. "However,
recall the situation at Iota Klestis. There, according to Alison's
theory, each Death weapon was programmed with a limited amount of
operational time. If that's still the case, they may hesitate to waste
any of that time and energy on us. Certainly not with major combat
still lying before them."

"Sure, but who says they've got that same setup here?" Jack asked.
"Our theory was that the weapons at Iota Klestis were gimmicked because
the Valahgua didn't want Neverlin and Frost double-crossing them and
getting hold of functioning Death weapons. Going into full-blown combat
is an entirely different scenario."

"Not necessarily," Draycos said. "The Death is their sole
advantage over the peoples they've destroyed or conquered. Without it,
they would have been victorious over few, if any of their victims."

He lashed his tail contemptuously. "They certainly would never
have driven us from our homes without it. No, they can't afford for its
secret to escape their control."

"That's good to hear," Jack said. "Paranoia can be useful, as long
as it's in the other guy."

"True," Draycos said. "Though that doesn't mean that they might
not feel it worthwhile to spend a few seconds of power if they should
locate us. We must continue to be quiet and vigilant."

"I'm with you on that," Jack said.

"The other reason not to worry overly much," Draycos continued,
"is that I'll be doing everything in my power to destroy the remaining
Death weapons as quickly as I can."

"I'm with you there, too," Jack said. "Do bear in mind, though,
that they're on to us now. It's not going to be nearly so easy to get
access to the blasted things."

"We'll find a way," Draycos promised. "Meanwhile, we need
supplies. You stay here while I go find food and water."

"You want some company?"

"Thank you, no," Draycos said. "There are ways about this ship
that only a K'da can travel. You just rest. I'll be back soon."

"Fine," Jack said. "But don't get greedy and go after any of the
Death weapons alone. I want a piece of them."

"Don't worry," Draycos promised grimly. "You'll have your full
share."

He crossed to the door and again listened for a minute. Carefully
opening it, he peered outside and then slipped out into the corridor
beyond.

Jack took a deep breath, let it out in a long sigh. He was tired,
he realized suddenly. Tired, and tense, and worried.

But not worried about himself. He had Draycos at his side, after
all, a trained poet-warrior of the K'da.

Instead, to Jack's mild surprise, he discovered he was worried
about Alison.

And Taneem, too, of course. But mostly he was worried about Alison.

It was a rather annoying discovery, actually. Alison herself, he
knew, was probably not worried about
him
. And she certainly
gave the impression that she knew how to take care of herself, as well
as knowing everything else.

Still, he couldn't help feeling some concern.

With an effort, he pushed the thoughts away. They were probably
Draycos's fault, he decided, these unwanted feelings about Alison. He'd
probably picked them up while the K'da was riding his skin. Draycos
worried about everyone, even Alison.

Meanwhile, Jack had more urgent things to spend his mental energy
on. Carefully, he laid himself down between two of the cylinders, his
shoulders and legs straddling them. It was, he discovered, a more or
less comfortable position.

He didn't know the ship like Draycos did. But he
had
seen
the rooms where the Valahgua had set up their precious Death weapons.

And Uncle Virgil had taught him all the best ways of getting into
locked and guarded rooms. It was about time he put all those long years
of criminal training to some use.

Lacing his fingers together behind his head, he closed his eyes
and settled down to think.

Back in the monitor room Jack had noticed that the two remaining
Death weapons were in the same rooms on the starboard side of the ship
as the two he and Draycos had already hit on the port side. One of
those rooms had the same direct access to the tween gap as the last
room they'd been in.

They would have to do it quickly, of course, before the Brummgas
and Valahgua had time to figure out how the whole tween gap thing
worked and come up with a way to block it.

Accordingly, as soon as Draycos returned with their supplies Jack
laid out his plan. Draycos approved, and they headed out.

They reached the back-door entrance without incident. Draycos did
his looking-over-the-wall trick, pinpointing the positions of all eight
Brummgas who had taken up guard positions around the weapon.

With the previous attack still fairly recent, Jack figured the
aliens would still not be completely up to speed. He was right. Draycos
popped the door and Jack instantly opened fire with his tangler,
nailing all eight aliens before they could do more than draw their
weapons.

Still, they were more alert than he'd hoped. Even as the last one
hit the floor the door across the room slid open and the backup group
charged in.

Or at least, they tried to charge in. Jack had another clip in his
tangler in time to nail the first two as they started through the
doorway. They went unconscious as the shock capacitor knocked them
cold, and sagged still more or less upright as the milky white tangler
threads glued them to the sides of the doorway.

The rest of the Brummgas behind them howled in rage and
frustration. A couple of the nearest lifted their guns over the heads
of their unconscious comrades and blindly opened fire into the room.

Jack responded by shooting at the flailing arms with more tangler
cartridges. That silenced the guns and added a couple more bodies to
his makeshift roadblock.

He had drained that clip and was grabbing for a third when Draycos
leaped back through the opening beside him. "Go," the K'da said,
stretching his forelegs up toward the overhead bar.

Jack grabbed the panel's handles and shoved. As the panel slid
shut, he caught a single glimpse of the pile of rubble that was the
remains of the Death weapon.

Draycos had the bracing bar ready by the time the panel was back
in place. Even so, they nearly didn't make it. A fraction of a second
after Jack slid the bar into place there was a terrific thud that
seemed to shake the whole bulkhead.

The impact jarred the bar partially loose. Jack and Draycos got to
it at the same time, and with two hands and two paws tugging at it they
managed to get it back in place before the next blow came. "Head aft,"
Draycos murmured, touching Jack's hand and sliding up his sleeve.
I
want to take a different route back to the fire control room
,
Draycos added as his contact reestablished their telepathic link.
There's
another section of climbable mesh about twenty feet back
.

Jack nodded and headed down the narrow space.
That seemed to
go well
, he commented, wincing at the blows still slamming into the
panel behind them.
They do seem a mite perturbed, though
.

As well they should
, Draycos agreed.
Three Death
weapons down. Only one to go
.

Jack grimaced.
Actually, it's probably more like two to go
,
he said reluctantly.
Now that they're on to us, they're going to
take a hard look at the one I gimmicked
.

Will they be able to fix it
?

Theoretically, yes
, Jack said.
Unless they're complete
idiots, they'll certainly spot the first booby trap I set. The only
question is whether they'll be happy with that, or whether they'll
delve deeper and find the other one, too. I'm sorry—I should have tried
to do more
.

You had limited time and opportunity
, Draycos reminded him
calmly.
If you'd taken too long, either the Brummgas with us or the
watchers in the monitor room might have become suspicious. That would
have ended the subtle approach right there
.

I suppose
, Jack conceded.
I was still hoping I could do
something more permanent to it
.

Things don't always work out as we hope
, Draycos said.
That's
the way with many endeavors, and warfare is no different. The warrior
must always be ready to adapt to the unexpected
. The K'da paused,
and Jack could almost see one of his open-jawed grins.
Wasn't that
also true in your previous profession
?

Jack had to smile.
Believe it, buddy
, he agreed.
I
can't even count how many times Uncle Virgil had to scramble like crazy
to fix some plan that was about to go gunnybags on us
.

Then this is merely standard procedure for both of us
,
Draycos said.
Very well then. Two Death weapons to go. We'll leave
yours for last, since there's a chance they won't find the damage
—

Hold it
, Jack interrupted, frowning. Was that a light he
was seeing in the distance ahead?
Close your eyes a second, will you
?

Obediently, Draycos shut his eyes, cutting off their green glow.
It was a light, all right, Jack decided as he peered down the tween
gap. Had the Brummgas found one of the other entrances?

A second later, he got his answer. With a thunderous roar that was
even louder than usual in the confined space, someone ahead opened fire.

Draycos was off Jack's skin in an instant, grabbing the boy's arm
and pulling him straight down. Jack landed on his chest on the meshwork
floor, the impact knocking half the breath out of him. Another second,
and he was slammed again as Draycos landed full length on top of him.
"Draycos—!" he gasped with what air he had left in his lungs.

"Stay down!" the K'da shouted in his ear, the words barely audible
over the gunfire. "Ricochets!"

Jack tensed. With the sound of the firing hammering his ears, he
hadn't even heard the quieter impacts of the bullets themselves as they
bounced their way between the walls of the tween gap.

A second gun joined the first, this one somewhere behind and above
him. "Do we have a plan?" Jack called.

There was no answer, only a strange squirming of Draycos's body on
top of his. The K'da's weight was still pressing him against the mesh,
making breathing difficult.

A third gun opened up ahead and above him. Then a fourth added its
roar to the din, and possibly a fifth. Jack pressed his cheek against
the mesh, waiting helplessly for the bullet that he knew was bound to
find him.