Not Till We Are Lost (Bobiverse Book 5) by Dennis E. Taylor

Author:Dennis E. Taylor [Taylor, Dennis E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency
Published: 2025-01-05T00:00:00+00:00

I stood in the cargo doorway, Bridget beside me. The landscape of Jabberwocky spread out before us in all its primitive, undeveloped glory. This time, we were fully geared up, each wearing one of the dragon frontpacks—like a backpack, but worn over the stomach. The dragon physiology made backpacks a questionable design decision, but you still had to carry stuff.

We’d considered but decided against spears, or any kind of overt weapon. We each had a knife on our belt, but that was about as noteworthy on Jabberwocky as car keys were back on 20th-century Earth.

“Are you ready?” Bridget asked. “Once we start, this is a full-time gig, except when the drannies are supposed to be sleeping.”

“I’ve taken care of all our business dealings, Bridge. I’m good to go.”

“We’ll be heading for a relatively large floater, one with several villages on it. Hopefully we’ll be able to get lost in the population size.”

“We’re staying in the one place?”

“No, of course not. Just long enough to get our balance. And to find out about that patrol that chased us last time.” Bridget’s expression darkened. “I want to know if that’s still going on.”

I nodded, then made a you first gesture. Interestingly, the translation software converted it to a motion with my tail. It was probably human chauvinism talking, but it struck me as a little obscene. Bridget didn’t seem bothered, though, and did a graceful dive off the edge. I admired her lines for a moment, then followed. Bridget held the dive for several seconds before opening her wings and arcing upward. I followed, not especially trying to catch up. At the top of her arc, she pulled in her wings, whooped, and did a backflip before settling into a proper glide.

I pulled up beside her and grinned. “Addicting, isn’t it?”

She smiled back at me. “Quin was fun. This is incomparable. I wonder if we could put wings on hueys.”

“No, of course—” I stopped midsentence. Why not, exactly? I looked behind me. Well, if I remembered right, a tail of some kind was required for control and balance. But something could be rigged. Or we could just go with dragon physiology, since we already seemed to have it on lock. Of course, there were the issues of gravity and—

“Earth to Howard. Come in, Howard.” I started and glanced at Bridget, who was trying and not quite succeeding in not laughing at me. “You went into Bob-fugue. Were you analyzing the engineering or the profitability?”

“I plead the Fifth. Or whatever it is these days. But the engineering. Profitability is a given, I think.”

“It’s still the Fifth, Howard. It’s just a saying now. I doubt most people know what it refers to. I had to look it up myself.”

We flew in silence for a few minutes, unconsciously taking advantage of updrafts whenever possible. The dragon vision seemed to have some kind of sensitivity to polarized light that made updrafts visible. Made sense; it would be a survival characteristic. The dragons could put on good

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