Dragon and Liberator

"It is not easy to work in these confines," the Lordhighest countered stiffly.

He had a point, Alison had to agree. The storage room followed the shape of the ship's bow, reasonably wide at the aft end by the door but narrowing considerably toward the bow where the Death weapon had been mounted.

And with Neverlin, Alison, Frost, the three Valahgua, and six crewmen crammed in that narrower area, the Valahgua didn't have a lot of extra room to work with.

"Relax, Colonel," Neverlin said calmly from Alison's side. "We have time." He nudged Alison's shoulder, nodding back toward the door. "I trust you approve of our tactical landscape?"

Alison looked toward the room's door, her stomach tightening. The ship's twelve resident Malison Ring mercenaries were facing the door, five of them kneeling, another five standing behind them, the last two another pace back from the double firing line as backup. "It's beautiful," she said. "Draycos will cut through it like winter wheat."

"I hope he tries," Neverlin said. "I understand K'da evaporate into thin air when they die. I'd like to see that."

Alison's eyes flicked up to the ventilation grille just above the door. She hadn't seen Taneem since the K'da had wrecked the jamming equipment and Alison had ordered her to go hide.

She hoped Taneem had obeyed. She hoped even more that the K'da had found a hiding place somewhere forward and in the lower deck where Neverlin's planned sweep of the Death might miss her.

Jack found the displaced storage items on the third door he tried, two doors aft of the Death room. Everything he'd hoped for was there.

Three minutes later, he was ready.

Okay, he said, running a critical eye over his masterpiece: a rolling cart with three oxygen tanks strapped to it, twenty feet back from the Death room and lined up squarely on its door. We're good to go. You ready?

Yes. Draycos hesitated. Jack . . . if this doesn't work . . .

It's okay, symby, Jack said, a lump coming to his throat. We already said our good-byes, remember?

Yes, Draycos said. The moment had passed, and he was all business again. Do you want me to take another look over the door?

No time, Jack said. They looked like they might have the Death free any second now. Besides, where could anyone possibly have moved in there?

Point, Draycos agreed. Then let's do it.

He leaped out of Jack's collar and landed on the deck beside the cart. Jack moved up to the door, his usual full-size tangler in his right hand, Harper's tiny palm-grip tangler hidden in his left. Holding the butt of his tangler an inch away from the door release, he looked back at Draycos and nodded.

With a triple slash of his claws, Draycos sliced the ends off all three oxygen tanks.

The cart surged forward, picking up speed as the escaping gas drove it forward like a small, rolling rocket. Draycos loped along beside it, picking up his pace as the cart sped up, nudging it back on track whenever it started to drift off-target. Jack watched it come, holding out his left hand toward Draycos as he judged his timing.

A second before the cart reached the door, Draycos leaped up and forward, catching the back of Jack's hand and melting onto his arm. A half second later, with the cart still picking up speed, Jack tapped the butt of his tangler into the release.

The door opened, and Jack leaned around the edge. "Catch!" he called, tossing his tangler in a high arc into the room. Several of the mercenaries instinctively looked upward toward the flying weapon, before suddenly spotting the cart roaring through the door toward them.

The soldiers directly in front of it scrambled to get out of its way. As they did so, Jack lifted his left hand and fired both shots of Harper's tangler.

The cartridges hit the side of one of the oxygen tanks and burst open, their milky white threads snagging the nearest of the kneeling mercenaries and anchoring him solidly to the careening cart. The sudden drag sent the cart pivoting sharply to the side, changing its course and bouncing it into and across more of the mercenaries.

And as it careened through their neat double line, Draycos leaped out of Jack's sleeve.

He landed in front of the nearest mercenary just as the other got clear of the cart and started to bring his gun back around toward his attacker. The K'da got there first, slapping his paw against the man's gun hand and deflecting it to the side.

But instead of leaping to the next soldier in line, the K'da simply vanished up the first man's sleeve.