Dragon and Liberator

He grabbed at the K'da's paw, trying to pry it loose. But Draycos had cut off the man's air supply, and as Jack watched tensely the clutching hands went weak and limp. Belatedly, he seemed to remember he was armed, and dropped his right hand to the gun holstered at his belt.

But it was too late. The hand scrabbled for a second at the gun, then went still. The man's eyelids sagged, the eyes behind them rolled upward, and he was out of the fight.

The controls, Draycos's thought whispered through Jack's mind.

Jack glanced around. The attack had been so quick and quiet that none of the Brummgas seemed to have noticed that anything had happened. Even now, with Jack standing close to the unconscious man and Draycos's half-hidden foreleg keeping the other from collapsing to the floor, there was little for them to notice. What do I do? Jack asked.

Move around behind him, the K'da instructed. I first need to see if he finished programming in the target system.

It was quickly apparent that the man had only gotten halfway through that part of the task. Fortunately, he'd written the coordinates on a small mark board taped beside the cheat sheets Jack had already noticed. With Draycos giving him step-by-step instructions, he got the rest of the destination programmed in.

The center section runs the countdown sequence, Draycos continued when Jack had finished. Activate it with the two keys beneath the leftmost display.

Got it. Jack touched the keys.

"Williams, what's the holdup?" a voice called from a speaker across the room. "Come on; get your butt off standby."

"Off standby and shaking," Jack called back. "Sequence is going."

"Who's that, Chiggers?" the voice demanded. "What are you doing in there?"

"Williams needed help; I'm helping," Jack told him. "What's going on, anyway?"

"Who the frunge knows?" the voice growled. "We're suddenly doing a six-day evasive to Point Three instead of going straight there. Something to do with that Pergnoir-7 that blew in a few minutes ago, I think."

Jack felt his throat tighten. Wasn't that the class of ship Alison had said the Essenay was? "I suppose someone'll tell us when they figure we need to know," he managed.

"Sure they will," the voice said. "You said the timer's going?"

Jack looked helplessly around for the proper display. He had no idea which one it was.

Three minutes to fall charge, Draycos told him.

"Three minutes," Jack said.

There was a grunt, and the other voice fell silent.

Do you think the ship he mentioned could be the Essenay? Draycos asked.

You know any other Pergnoir-7s that might be wandering around the area? Jack retorted, looking around. There didn't seem to be any external displays in the room. We've got to find out what's going on out there.

There's a monitor station out the door to the left, Draycos said. They may have it activated.

Good. Let me have his head.

The K'da foreleg stretching out through Jack's flight suit released its grip on Williams's neck. Jack eased the man's head against the chair's headrest, balancing it to stay as upright as he could.

The result wasn't very convincing, he knew. Especially since Williams's eyes were closed and his mouth hung slightly open.

But the Brummgas in the room didn't seem particularly attentive. Hopefully, the deception would last long enough. Stepping away from the slumped figure, Jack headed for the door.

Three Brummgas were in the monitor station, standing beside the too-small chairs and gazing at the wall of displays. Most of the screens showed views of the Foxwolf's interior, but Jack spotted three that were linked to exterior cameras. One of them showed a telescopic view of the Advocatus Diaboli.

And docked beside it, looking like a baby whale nuzzling up to its mother, was the Essenay.

Before Jack could get more than that one quick look, there was a single warning hoot from somewhere, and the view dissolved into the blue of hyperspace.

Was it the Essenay? Draycos asked. I couldn't tell.

It was, Jack said grimly. What in space is Uncle Virge up to?

Draycos was silent a moment. If it is Uncle Virge, he said at last.

No, Jack said firmly. Harper and Chiggers couldn't have gotten loose.

We will hope not, Draycos said. In the meantime, we have a job to do.