Dragon and Liberator

"Alison called while you were in jail. She found out that Neverlin has twelve newly purchased KK-29 system patrol ships waiting to be picked up from the Progline Skyport on Bentre. She also gave me the name they're registered under."

Jack frowned at Draycos. "Does that mean Frost has given up on the idea of hijacking ships from Driftline?"

"She didn't say," Uncle Virge said. "All she said was that you should try to get to Bentre ahead of Neverlin and sabotage the ships."

"What are these spacecraft like?" Draycos asked.

"Six-man fighters, though one can fly it in a pinch," Harper said. "Pilot, copilot, and four blister gun stations, two on either side."

"Sounds like some serious firepower," Jack said.

Harper shrugged. "Serious enough," he said. "Just how well armed is this fleet of yours, Draycos?"

"Extremely well," Draycos said grimly. "But if the Valahgua are able to get close enough to use the Death, all their weaponry will be useless."

"I still don't get this Death thing," Harper said. "How can this beam thing go straight through armor plating like it's not there? Wouldn't something that penetrates hull metal more easily than even gamma rays also tend to go straight through the crewers without causing much damage?"

"The Death is not a form of radiation," Draycos said. "It's possibly a vibration of space itself, which seeks out the core of a living being and destroys that core and its connection to the rest of the universe."

Harper snorted. "Can we steer clear of the philosophy aspects?" he asked. "I'm looking for the physics of the thing."

"I don't know the physics." Draycos paused, his tail arched in thought. "Perhaps an analogy would help. Suppose you wished to destroy the center of a planet. A normal weapon would first have to blast away layer after layer of crust and mantle until the core was exposed. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Harper said. "So?"

"The Death does things differently," Draycos said. "In this analogy, it would be like a weapon that could ignore the outer planetary layers and seek out and destroy the core directly."

"That would be some weapon," Harper acknowledged. "But living beings aren't planets."

"No, but we all have a core of life within us," Draycos said. "Somehow, the Death is able to focus on that core."

"Still sounds like magic," Harper declared. "But never mind that. If you're right about its range being only a couple of hundred miles, the K'da and Shontine ought to be able to take out Neverlin's force long before they can get close enough to use it."

"Especially if we can get to Bentre and eliminate the ships he's planning to pick up there," Uncle Virge added.

Jack scratched his cheek. A rather outrageous plan was starting to form in the back of his mind. "Who, said anything about taking them out?" he asked.

Draycos and Harper both looked sharply at him. "Alison did," Uncle Virge said, his voice as wary as Draycos's expression. "She was very specific."

"I'm sure she was," Jack said. "But why destroy them when they can be more useful in one piece?"

"If you're thinking you can get the refugee rendezvous from their course settings, forget it," Harper warned. "Neverlin's bound to have at least two midway points along the way."

"I know," Jack said. "That just means we'll have to hitch a ride."

"Hitch a ride?" Uncle Virge all but gasped. "Jack lad, there's nowhere in one of those things where you can possibly hide."

"And even if you could find a spot, what then?" Harper added. "It's going to take days to reach wherever they're going. You going to sit there quietly that whole time?"

"Something like that," Jack said. "Draycos? You game?"

"I don't know what exactly you have in mind," Draycos said. "But I have no better suggestions to make. At any rate, we have three and a half days to work out a proper plan."

"Make it four," Jack said. "We'll want to skulk around a bit first and check out the area."

"Four days, then," Draycos said. "Regardless, I'm with you."

Uncle Virge gave a snort. "And these were the two," he muttered, "who were so keen on not taking chances."

CHAPTER 8

Bentre was exactly the way Jack had expected: quiet and sparsely settled. Best of all, it was inhabited by the mostly easygoing Compfrins, who usually didn't ask awkward questions.

It was the perfect place, in other words, for someone planning genocide to pick up a few attack ships.

"Ah, yes—the spacecraft for Sidj Kimtra Varn," the manager of the Progline Skyport said, peering at his computer display. "Twelve KK-29s, surplused from the Grimnau Customs Office." He peered intently at Jack's face. "You are not Sidj Warn, are you?"

"No, I just work for him," Jack said. Human faces were hard for Compfrins to distinguish between, but he wasn't quite ready to try to pass himself off as either Neverlin or Frost.