Dragon and Thief (2003) 228 pages by Timothy Zahn.

This was classic Zahn, possibly written for a younger audience. Jack Morgan is a 14 year old orphan who has been raised by his uncle Virgil. Virge had a small space ship that he used to carry freight and wasn't past being a con man, safe cracker or thief. Just before he died he had his thoughts and some of his personality loaded into the ships computer.

The K'da and Shontine are not from outside the Orion arm of the Galaxy fleeing a race that has a Death weapon and is set on their genocide. Draycos is among the advance scouts coming to Iota Klestis, an uninhabited world, when his ships are ambushed and he is the sole survivor--but not for long. The K'da can only live without a host for six hours or they fade from existence. What is a host? Well the K'da turn 2 dimensional (or at least 2 of the dimensions that we can see) and live on the skin of the host, like a tattoo.

Jack is running from the law after being framed for missing cargo, and flees to Iota Klestis. Draycos' ship crashes on the planet, Jack sees it and goes to investigate to see if there is anything to salvage.

Jack and Draycos set off to clear Jack's name, so that they can then get on to the business of saving the K'da and Shontine refugees.

Very easy reading, fun, not easy to put down. Really great story, and something that you could recommend to young readers.