Dragon and Liberator

"First signal the Backstop ships to go wide and institute bubbles of their own," Frost added. "And have them spread outward to the sides as far as they can and still keep their bubbles overlapping ours. If we're going to make a blank spot, we might as well make it a good, wide one."

"Yes, sir," the captain said. He tapped a key and started giving orders.

As he did so, Alison felt a movement on her skin. She looked down as Taneem's head slid up her shoulder and neck just far enough to see through the opening in her collar. "Hey," Alison whispered, tapping urgently on her shoulder. If Frost or Neverlin should happen to glance over here, the whole game would be up.

The captain finished relaying the orders and keyed another pair of switches. "Bubble activated," he reported.

Alison tapped again on her shoulder. This time, to her relief Taneem slid back down out of sight.

"Fine," Neverlin said, still glowering at the Lordhighest. "Continue the operation."

With a shove from his hind paws, Draycos leaped off Jack's shoulders, through the vac suit and bulkhead, and into the preparation room next door.

The question of how to take over the troop carrier had occupied most of Draycos's thoughts for the past three days. Without knowing the ship's layout or crew complement, he'd known from the beginning that such an undertaking would have only a small chance for success.

Now, to his relief, all those thoughts and concerns had become irrelevant.

Bounding across the room, he reached the rack of oxygen tanks fastened to the sidewall. There were exactly twenty-eight of them, he noted in passing as he began slashing through the metal with his claws.

Within a minute the rack was wobbling violently back and forth as the compressed air spewed out into the room. Crossing to the airlock that led into the hangar bay, Draycos keyed open the inner door. Waiting until the extra air pressure in the room began to hurt his ears, he slashed through the airlock's inner door.

His eardrums fluttered at the sudden change in pressure as the air in the preparation room began to flow into the vacuum of the hangar bay. Draycos waited, crouched against the wind, hoping the oxygen from the bottles he'd opened would be enough to fill the bay.

It was. A few seconds later, as the pressure between the two areas evened out and the wind slowed to a stop, he keyed open the inner door.

Jack was watching anxiously as Draycos stepped into the bay. The boy's worried look changed to one of relief as Draycos hurried over to him. "I was hoping all that wind was your doing," Jack's voice came faintly through the helmet.

"All part of the plan," Draycos assured him. Five more slashes of his claws, and Jack was no longer anchored to the bulkhead.

"It's always nice when these plans work," Jack agreed as he popped off his helmet. "Come aboard and let's get out of here."

Draycos touched the boy's neck and slithered onto his skin. Jack hurried toward the main hatch controls, putting his helmet back on as he jogged across the bay. He reached the controls, double-checked his helmet seal, and flipped up the opening switch's safety cover. "Get ready, Uncle Virge," he called. "Here we come."

"Ready, Jack lad."

Getting a grip on the handhold, Jack threw the switch.

The hatch slid open, creating an instant hurricane as the air Draycos had just poured into the bay went pouring right back out again. Jack held on gamely until the wind had stopped, then looked out.

Draycos slid up his neck and looked out, too. The Essenay was right outside the hatch, pacing the carrier no more than fifty yards away, its hatch wide open. I guess we jump? Jack asked.

Yes, but not too fast, Draycos said. Remember that the only thing available to slow us down is the airlock's back wall.

Got it, Jack said dryly. Taking a deep breath, he bent his knees, leaned halfway out of the hatchway, and shoved off.

"The Essenay is still pacing the carrier," the captain reported. "No indications yet that the prisoner has escaped."

"That won't last long," Neverlin growled, pounding his fist rhythmically on the edge of the captain's chair back. "All Morgan has to do is blow the hatch, suit up, and unweld the kid from the bulkhead."

"And then get to the edge of the jamming bubble in time to warn the refugees," Frost said. "Maybe we should detach one of the Djinn-90s from Backstop and have it deal with them."

"If the Hammerfall Leaders are confused by one ship out of five being diverted, they have no business being the leaders of anything," Neverlin agreed. "Do it."

"Just a minute," Alison spoke up, leaning toward the display. "Are we sure Virgil Morgan is actually aboard that ship?"

"If it's not Morgan, who is it?" Frost retorted.

"Maybe no one," Alison said. This was one of Jack's deepest secrets, she knew, and she felt a little funny about revealing it without his permission.