Dragon and Thief

Dragon and Thief
Author(s)	Timothy Zahn
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Dragonback series
Genre(s)	Young adult, Fiction
Publisher	Starscape
Publication date	February 2003
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	256
ISBN	ISBN 0765342723
Followed by	Dragon and Soldier (2004)

Dragon and Thief is a science fiction/adventure novel published in 2003 by prolific author Timothy Zahn. It is the first of a six-part series, concluded in 2008. The stories involve an orphaned youth, Jack Morgan. He was raised to be a con man and thief. Jack stumbles upon a crashed spaceship and finds himself with the most unlikely partner - a noble dragon-like alien warrior named Draycos who is out to save his people. His race is called the K'da and they hold themselves in high-esteem and believe in honor and self-respect. While it is lighter reading aimed at the youth market, the novels are very enjoyable for adventure fans of all ages.

Characters

Jack Morgan, the protagonist, is a fourteen year old boy, who is an orphan and Draycos' host. He lives aboard a small ship called the Essenay with Uncle Virge and Draycos, and is trained as a thief, able to pick locks and con people. Jack is very skeptical and suspicious of other people, including Draycos at first, due to the influence of his uncle, and wants to go straight but is unable to because he is framed for stealing from Braxton Universis, then for killing two aliens. He has to switch two data cylinders in a cruise ship's vault himself, though Neverlin thinks his uncle is doing it, then later Draycos talks him into going to the owner, Cornelius Braxton, and telling him what's going on.

Draycos is an alien from another arm of the Milky Way, and the last survivor of an advance team of refugees from a war, who were betrayed and killed. He is a poet-warrior of the K'da, who needs Jack as a host and tries to teach him the K'da warrior ethic. Draycos looks like a dragon; he has gold scales and claws, and can move faster than a human. His claws can also cut through metal. His species needs rest on a symbiont's body in two dimensional form for at least six hours per twelve hour period, or they will fade away into nothing. He can also "lean over" walls and other thin barriers while on Jack's back by moving part of his body into the fourth dimension and touching down again in the third dimension. Draycos' existence has to be kept secret, because they don't know who betrayed the refugees.

Uncle Virgil or Virgil Morgan, was the best safe cracker and con man in the Orion arm, who had Jack as his assistant. He imprinted his personality on the Essenay's computer before he died, creating another version of himself that continued to influence Jack after he died.

Uncle Virge is the ship's computer. He is unable to do anything but persuade Jack, which he tries to do all the time, with mixed success. He also constantly tries to undermine Jack and Draycos' relationship, because he doesn't want Jack involving himself in other peoples' problems.

Arthur Neverlin is the Chairman of the Board of Braxton Universis, who owns a ship called the Advocatus Diaboli. He sets Jack up for thievery and murder so he can get Virgil Morgan to switch a cylinder in a vault for him.

Lieutenant Raven is one of Neverlin's thugs who helps set Jack up, first by framing him for stealing equipment, then by framing him for killing two aliens called Wistawki, which he kills himself. He is also seen in Braxton's suite when Jack goes to tell the cylinder's owner what's going on. Draycos kills him at the end as justice for killing the Wistawki.

Drabs is another of Neverlin's thugs who comes after Jack.

Cornelius Braxton is the founder and CEO of Braxton Universis. He is unaware of Jack's being framed. Jack and Draycos save his life, though he doesn't find out about Draycos' existence. Jack and Draycos originally think he is the one who set Jack up, though later this is proved to be untrue. He tells Jack he is in his debt near the end of the book, but at the very end gives orders to his secretary to investigate Jack and Uncle Virge.

Harper is Braxton's secretary and gatekeeper.

Polphir is Draycos' former host who dies with the rest of the refugees. He is Shontine, a race similar to humans.

Plot

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.

Publication history

2003, United States, Tor, Pub date February 2003, Hardback and Softcover

Awards and nominations

• American Library Association: Best Library Book for Young Adults

References

• http://us.macmillan.com/dragonandthief

External links

• Amazon.com's review of the book
• The publisher's listing for the book