"Timothy Zahn - Dragonback 01 - Dragon and Thief" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

Draycos looked up from the systems monitor he'd been watching, his ears swiveling upward toward
the voice. Polphir, his Shontine host, was halfway up the ladder to the Haven-seekers main navigation
bubble, looking quizzically down at him. "Come on where?" Draycos called back. "We're here. We've
arrived. Our job is over."
"Hardly, my good but lazy K'da," Polphir said dryly. "All the long-range navigation may be finished, but
we still have to double-check the location of that planet down there. Come on, let's go."
"Very well, my good but slave-driving Shontin," Draycos replied. Crouching low, gathering all four
paws under him, he leaped over the bank of monitorsтАФand, incidentally, the two Shontine working at
themтАФand landed precisely at the foot of the ladder. He would have preferred to jump directly to the
navigation bubble and skip the climb entirely, but there was another K'da crouched at the monitor station
on the lower bubble deck, and there wasn't enough room for Draycos to land there without bowling her
over. Wrapping his paws around the ladder's side railsтАФonly the Shontine used the ladder's rungsтАФhe
started up.
The Havenseeker was alive with activity and quiet corn-motion today. Small wonder: after nearly two
years in space, the four bulky ships of the Shontine/K'da advance team had finally reached their goal, the
world known as Iota Klestis, and everyone aboard was excited. Several times as Draycos made his way
upward, one or the other of his pointed ears twitched around as an odd noise or fragment of
conversation caught his attention.
Polphir was already in his seat at the wraparound control board, working busily, when Draycos
reached the bubble. For a moment he paused at the top of the ladder, gazing out at the blue-green planet
turning slowly beneath them. An uninhabited world, or so their contacts in this region of space had
assured them. Uninhabited, and unwanted. Exactly what they needed.
'Twas night and blackness all around: K'da and Shontine held their ground . . .
"You just going to sit there and daydream?" Polphir called over his shoulder. "Or were you taking a
moment to admire yourself?"
"And why not?" Draycos countered, arching his long neck as he pretended to pose. "Have you ever
seen a more handsome representative of the K'da people?"
"If you think I'm going to answer a question like that in here, you're crazy," Polphir told him, his voice
rippling with good humor. "Wait till we get down to the planet where I've got room to duck, then ask me
again."
"Never mind," Draycos said. In truth, he hadn't even noticed his reflection in the smoothly curved
plastic of the bubble until Polphir made his comment. Now, though, he took a moment to focus on the
image.
It wasn't a bad face, really, he decided. The long, triangular head was mostly proportioned right, the
glowing green eyes beneath the bony protective ridges properly spaced. The spiny crest extending from
between the eyes over the top of his head and down his long back was just about right, though perhaps a
bit too narrow. His long muzzle with its razor-sharp teeth was well shaped, though some of the teeth
themselves were a little crooked and his forked tongue stuck out a little too far whenever he tasted the
air. His scales were a decent enough color, bright gold with red edges, though as a child he'd secretly
wished they'd been gray instead. The rest of his body wasn't visible in the reflection, but he could picture
it in his mind's eye: the body long and sleek, as befit a K'da warrior, the whip-like tail a little too short as
it restlessly beat the air.
After two years, he decided, it would be good to feel ground beneath his paws again. Turning to face
Polphir's broad back, he crouched and leaped.
 His outstretched front paws touched the Shontin's bare shoulders and flattened out, sliding along the
skin in both directions along his arms. As the rest of his body reached Polphir's, each part altered from
three-dimensional to two-dimensional form as it flowed onto his host's body. A split second later the
transformation тАвwas complete, leaving Draycos stretched like a living tattoo across Polphir's back and
legs and arms.
"Anyway, I'm not sure I'd trust you to judge K'da beauty," he added, sliding his now flat head along the