pretty lame tbh.. it should just stay in your inventory and once you "use" it, it stays active all the time
It should just be a power that gets added to your list when you click the redeem button from the c-store. Then when ever you activate it, it spawns a little shuttle that flys next to your ship. I still have no idea why the hell they would program it to disappear as soon as combat started.
Disappearing during combat actually makes sense. A shuttle would dock in that situation and not stay exposed if at all possible.
Yes all the above reasons make sense if it was a real shuttle, but its just a silly pet that is their for no other reason then to make your ship look cool and different then the rest of the peoples ships. Its a little hard to show it off when practically every dam thing you do makes it disappear.