Dragon and Soldier (2004) 299 pages by Timothy Zahn.

The second novel in the Dragonback series. This picks up right after the end of book one. At this point Jack and Draycos are now free to tackle the problem of finding out how to stop the Valahgua before the Shontine and K'da refugee ships enter the Orion arm of the galaxy.

They don't have much to go on, just the type of ships that destroyed the survey party, and very little else. There are too many Djinn-90s to look into the public records to find out which ones they could be. Then they decide that the computer system of any mercenary group would probably be able give them that info. So Jack decides to join a mercenary group in order to get close enough to hack into their computer system.

The plan was to get the data as soon as possible and get out of their, but Jack's first attempt during basic training doesn't get him the information and he decides to stick out the ten day training and then get the heck out of there. His plans change and he gets sent on a mission with the Whinyard's Edge mercenaries.

Besides the action and story which are great, there is the development of Jack from being an all for himself con artist to a person who goes out of his way to help others. He has the two voices, Uncle Virge -- the ship's computer which was programmed with the thoughts and personality of the real Uncle Virge shortly before he died -- who is warning Jack to look out for himself, and the voice of Draycos, the K'da poet warrior, who has his warrior ethic to do the right thing, not because it's easy or will help you, but because it is the right thing to do. I'm certain that this is going to be a recurring theme in the final four books, and there's a possibility that Draycos may even win over Uncle Virge to his thinking.

I am definitely looking forward to book three.