"There aren’t many places we can land away from our bases," Mick told her. "If something goes wrong we have to bail out."
"Bail out?"
"Use our ejection seats."
"Ejection seats?"
He looked over at the dragon. "Yeah, I guess you don’t have much call for those."
"Now," Karin said, settling herself on a log by the fire, "what happened to you, Major?"
"It’s Mick, as long as we’re on a first-name basis."
Karin frowned prettily. "I thought you said your name was Major."
"No, that’s my rank. My first name’s Michael, but everyone calls me Mick."
"Ah," Karin said. "When Stigi and I are in the air we are called Patrol Two."
"That’s like a call sign. I was Eagle One on my last mission."
"What happened to you?"
Gilligan sighed. "Kind of a long story. Basically we were getting some peculiar-ah, indications-from an area out over the ocean and they sent us out to look. My wingman and I found something, but we couldn’t communicate with our base. I sent him back and went on in for a closer look. There was a little tussle and I came out on the short end."
It was Karin’s turn to sigh. "That is more or less what happened to me. I was out on single patrol, near the great fog bank where this World connects to yours, when I was attacked from behind. I managed to avoid the attacker and I even got a shot off at it, but in the maneuvering Stigi sprained his wing."
"Sprained it?"
"Our dragons seldom hurt themselves so, but this is a strange place and things are not exactly as they are in our world."
"They’re not as they are in our world, either," Gilligan said, looking over at Stigi. The dragon’s head was resting on the ground but one unwinking yellow eye was fixed on Gilligan.
"What jumped you, another dragon?" he asked as he turned so he didn’t have to look at the dragon looking at him.
Karin frowned. "Something strange. It was all gray and roared as it came. I did not get a good look at it."
Uh-oh, Gilligan thought. Gray and roaring and came at her from behind. Hoo boy.
To cover himself he asked the first non-personal question that came to mind. "You keep talking about different worlds. What do you mean?"
"There is our World, where magic holds sway. There is your World, where I gather magic works poorly or not at all?" He nodded and she went on. "And there is this World, where both the things of our world and the things of your world work after a fashion. But this World is new. Some say it was created by our enemies."
"Your enemies?"
"Powerful wizards who command legions of non-living beings," Karin explained. "It is said they prepare war against both your world and ours. But surely you know this?"
"All we know is that there’s something funny going on out over the ocean. We thought maybe it was someone from our world. That’s why I was sent to investigate."
The dragon rider frowned. "If that is all your people know then surely you must return to bear word to them."
"That’s my plan."
Karin sighed. "I wish I could contact my base, but my communications crystal stopped working just before I was attacked. I am sure my squadron commander would know what to do."
"You seem to be doing all right," Gilligan said, looking around the camp site.
Karin smiled. She had a wonderful smile, Gilligan noticed. Then she sobered. "Thank you, but I feel so inadequate. I have been a rider for just two seasons. I have never been in combat before. In that time there has been no one to fight."
"I know the feeling," Gilligan told her. "I’ve been in for ten years, I’ve got about 1800 hours in F-15s and I’ve never been in combat either." He had missed Iraq because he’d been in the hospital with hepatitis, but he didn’t tell her that.
Karin looked astonished. "Ten years and never a battle?"
"We’ve been at peace all that time," Gilligan said. Well, more or less. "Actually we’ve been at peace for almost twenty-five years and we haven’t had a major war in nearly fifty."
"Forgive me, but if that is so then why do you maintain fighting fliers?"
"Because for most of that time we’ve been close to war. My nation and another great nation were ready to go to war at a moment’s notice."
"Yet you did not? You must be remarkably peace-loving in spite of it."
Gilligan grinned mirthlessly. "Not peace-loving. Scared. We got too good at it. We developed weapons that would let us destroy cities in an eyeblink. Weapons we had no defenses against. All of a sudden a major war didn’t look real cost effective."
Karin shivered. "I do not think I would like to see war in your world."
"Neither would we," Gilligan told her.
"But," Karin said thoughtfully, "with such weapons you would be powerful allies against our enemies."
"Maybe. I don’t make policy, but I’m sure willing to carry the word back to the people who do."
"We must get you back to your World, then."
"You mean you can get me home?"
"The Mighty at the Capital certainly can. The Sparrow knows how."
"But first we’ve got to get to your Capital. Are they going to come looking for you?"
Karin shrugged. "Probably. But they dare not search too long or too hard. Magical methods work poorly here and we are too close to our enemies’ hold to risk many riders and dragons."
"So they aren’t likely to find us."
"No, but I do not think that will matter. Once Stigi’s wing is healed, he will be able to carry us back to my people."
Gilligan looked over at the snoring dragon. "You mean that thing can really get us out of here?"
"In easy stages, of course. Stigi can carry two for a ways and there are many reefs and islands where we can rest."
"That’s something to look forward to, anyway."
"Meanwhile," Karin said, getting up. "It is late and morning comes early. Let us to bed."
Mick Gilligan fell asleep that night and dreamed about flying and girls with blonde hair and freckles.
Twenty-eight: IMAGE ENHANCEMENT