Dragon and Thief
Timothy Zahn
 After two years in space, the advance team of Shontine and K'da reach Iota Klestis, the world they have bought to flee from their war with their enemies, the Valaghua. The ships that meet them use the Valaghua's weapon, known as the Death, to kill everyone on board the three other refugee ships. Draycos' ship, the Havenseeker, dodges too far and ends up crashing into the planet, where everyone on board except him dies. Jack, who is hiding on Iota Klestis to escape the police, sees the crash and goes to investigate. When he arrives, he finds Draycos, who starts to explain when a soldier comes in and starts interrogating Jack as to why he is there. Draycos, who is on Jack's skin, stuns the soldier with a weapon and they escape by climbing to the top of the ship and down a nearby tree. On their way back to the Essenay, Jack is captured by another soldier, whom Draycos also stuns. Draycos talks Jack into dragging him onto a tree so the soil, which is hot from the ship's impact, won't burn him. Then they continue to the ship. They start to leave when two fighter ships start to pursue them, but with a maneuver of Draycos', they escape and go into hyperspace. While in hyperspace Draycos explains that he is part of an advance team of refugees fleeing from a war with the Valaghua, and Jack tells him he can't help because an arrest warrant is out for him, and also explains he lives on the ship alone, and Uncle Virge is a computer. He and Uncle Virge suggest Draycos go to an official agency for help, but Draycos points out he can't trust anyone, as he doesn't know who set up the ambush. Until he finds out he has to remain in hiding, so Jack is the only one who can help him, but first they have to clear Jack's name. They agree to go back to Vagran, where Jack picked up the cargo he supposedly stole, to see if there are any clues to the real thief. They arrive where Jack picked up the cargo and find one box with a Braxton Universis logo left as a trap. Draycos can't figure out what it is by leaning over the box's side, so Jack breaks into it and finds a deep freezer. They realize the cargo Jack was carrying was a freezer full of dry ice, which evaporated during the journey, making the crates lighter than when they were picked up. They also realize someone put a tripwire on the crate, so they make a run for it into the spaceport. Draycos jumps with Jack onto a second story balcony, where they hide as Lieutenant Raven, Drabs, and a nameless alien go past, looking for them. As they are about to leave, they are surprised by a Wistawk, one of the local aliens, who is drunk and mistakes them as being there for the party. He calls another Wistawk, and Jack realizes they've crashed a Wistawki version of a wedding. He pretends that he and Draycos are magicians sent to entertain them, and they perform magic tricks for the next couple of hours. Once they leave, however, they are ambushed by Lieutenant Raven and company, who frame Jack for murder by killing two Wistawki. Draycos is unable to stop them because they are too far apart for him to attack without being shot. Jack is drugged and Draycos is forced to stay on his skin for several days as they transport Jack somewhere else. Draycos sees them carry Jack onto a ship whose name he can't read, so he memorizes the symbols. On board the ship, Jack is woken up to speak to a mysterious figure behind bright lights with the same voice he heard on the comm link of the soldier on Iota Klestis. At first he thinks he's been caught, then he realizes the person wants his uncle to do a job for him: switch two data tubes in a ship's vault. He promises to get in contact with his uncle once he's on the ship the job is to be done on, and he is put aboard. On board the cruise liner, Draycos reveals the name of the mysterious person's ship, the Advocatus Diaboli, and Jack does a reconnaissance of the ship's vault. He leans against the wall inside the vault while talking to the manager about renting boxes, and Draycos leans over to find the safe deposit box with the data tube identical to the one Raven gave them. Once he knows which box it's in, Jack comes up with a plan and Draycos convinces him to go to the tube's owner and tell them what's going on after the data tubes have been switched. Five minutes before closing, Jack goes into the vault and puts something in the box he rented, and as the manager swings the door closed, he distracts him and Draycos jumps off his arm into the vault as the door closes. Jack sets off a smoke bomb in the ventilation to the security cameras for the vault, and puts a knife through the electrical box for the cameras. Then he goes back to the vault, where Draycos opens it from the inside with a safety lever designed in case someone gets locked inside. He breaks open the box, switches the data tubes, and they leave. They return forty minutes later to see a crowd of people gathered outside the purser's office, demanding to check their deposit boxes, since they had heard the alarm. Jack watches who checks the box they robbed and follows him to the most luxurious part of the ship, and decides to visit the cylinder's owner in the morning. Draycos points out it would be better to hide the cylinder somewhere so the owner doesn't just have them thrown in the brig when they try to return it, and Jack hides it in an elevator, behind the emergency call box, while they go down to vehicle storage. To make sure they don't confuse the two tubes, Draycos scratches a symbol in the metal at the bottom. When they get there, Jack has a short conversation with the guard, so the people watching him will think he handed the data tube off to his uncle down there, and they return to their room. The next morning, Jack goes up to the suite's door, and is stopped by two security guards. He insists to them he needs to talk to their employer, and he is let in, where the secretary tries to get Jack to just tell him. The owner arrives and Jack tells him Cornelius Braxton is trying to take him down by having Jack switch cylinders. He doesn't believe Jack, and Jack belatedly realizes the man is Cornelius Braxton. Jack mentions the Advocatus Diaboli, and the secretary panics and calls Raven and a couple guards, who take Jack and Braxton prisoner. Raven yells at Harper for panicking, saying they could have gotten away with it if he'd stayed calm, and decides to dump Jack and Braxton out of an airlock and tell Braxton's wife that the man got off at the ship's next stop, which is a couple of hours away. Jack drops some hints that his uncle will come for him, and that makes the men nervous enough to stay far apart, and Draycos can't get to them. They go down to a cargo bay, where there are piles of boxes in a grid. Jack pretends to run for it, and manages to get behind some boxes long enough to let Draycos escape before he is caught. Draycos runs along the tops of the piles of boxes, cutting the power to the lights, and reaches the airlock just as Raven and company are about to throw Jack and Braxton out of it. Draycos takes out the lights and jumps down to knock out the bodyguards, while Jack pulls Braxton to the floor, putting his arm over Braxton's eyes so he can't see Draycos. Draycos evades the men's guns and kills Raven as justice for killing the Wistawki. Later the Braxtons invite Jack for tea and thank him, also telling him the Vagran police found a witness to say Raven killed the Wistawki, so Jack's name is cleared. Once Jack leaves, Braxton orders an investigation into Jack and Uncle Virge, as well as how the symbol on his cylinder was carved on it. 2003, United States, Tor, Pub date February 2003, Hardback and Softcover