Category Archives: Blog

Dragon Ascending Part 60: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week  Tenad Fallon’s willingness to suffer to be able to bond with Fury mystifies him. This week the search intensifies for Mac and Manning, and our heroes discover things could get much worse. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. This one is particularly long in order not to break the flow of events. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

If you missed the previous episode of Dragon Ascending follow the link for a catch-up. If you wish to start from the beginning, of Dragon Ascending. Follow the link.  

For those of you who would like to read the complete novel, Piloting Fury, book one of the Sentient Ships series, follow the link to the first instalment.

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

On a desolate junkyard of a planetoid, scavenger Lenore Felish, disturbs something slumbering in a remote salvage dump and uncovers secrets of a tragic past and of the surprising role she must play in the terrifying present she now faces.

Robbed of her inheritance after her tyrannical father’s death, Tenad Fallon is out for revenge on her half-brothers, one who happens to be the sentient ship, Fury. Fury, with his human companions, Richard Manning and Diana McAllister, has his own agenda – finding the lost sentient ships and ending the scourge of indentured servitude in Authority space.

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 60: We Are All Afraid Most of the Time

“Fury, we have done all that we can to boost my scanners to pick up the signals of dear Richard Manning and Diana Mac. I know that they live, as I am sure you do. This I can feel in my bones.” I had no bones. I was not at all sure why those words seemed to be best for my sense of knowing, as I watched Lenore working near my core, her clever fingers both gentle and efficient in their efforts. She had learned SNT technology and biology with exponential speed, as though she were born to it, intuiting exactly what to do, which pathways to tweak, how to make my systems more efficient. I ached at my core that she kept her distance, so carefully polite and considerate, since I had ‘tranned her back from Fury, a function I had not been able to access before she was attacked. As for Jessup Fallon, I found it was as easy as breathing to destroy the one who hurt her, though I might have preferred a slower death for what he had done. Still, before he breathed his last, my darling Lenore was safely returned to me. We were all hopeful when my ability to mole-tran and so precisely had come back to me when most necessary. As for my part, I was most sorry that I had not been able to do it before the Fallons had taken Fury’s dear compliments, for I knew now that I could have brought them to me and easily have overcome a lesser mole-tran. Fury of course could have done the same had there been any reason to suspect such a violation might occur.

But none of my new abilities had made my dearest Lenore any less remote to me. I had wanted to embrace her. I had wanted to take her to myself, to tell her how terribly sorry I was for wronging her so. I had wanted to erase the pain I had caused her and give her reasons to feel for me as I did for her. It always seemed that the abilities I lacked were the ones most needed at the time, and to draw Lenore back to me seemed beyond my programming. But there were other priorities now, urgent priorities, and we were both focused on getting Fury’s beloveds back to him. While Lenore had only been back a few hours, she had kept her distance, focusing on what we might be able to do to help Fury and not on what remained unsaid between us.

“You feel what any SNT would for their compliment” Fury spoke in response, “and those of their siblings. We know each other’s sufferings just as we also know each other’s joys, deep in our bones.” The pain in Fury’s voice was nearly a physical presence that beat against my heart, but he quickly changed the subject, for there was much to do, much to take in. “I have just given Tenad Fallon the second injection of my genetic material. Her body is adapting quickly, but she will be very ill shortly.”

“Good! I hope it feels like a thousand glass vipers are eating her alive,” my darling Lenore said.

Fury was no less displeased about the woman’s suffering than was I, but at the same time, we needed desperately to keep her alive. As it was with SNT’s, Fury read my thoughts.

“I know ways to keep her alive, ways that she will not like at all, but I promise you, my brother, she will not die until my beloveds are restored to me, and if they are harmed, then I shall keep her alive even a little longer.”

Lenore gave a little shiver at the thought, and I was not sure if it was at Fury’s bloodthirstiness or that she was delighted with the idea. Knowing the dear woman’s sense of loyalty and kindness, I could well believe it was the latter. “Since there’s no solid core on Tak Major,” Lenore said, “She can’t have hidden them underground. And I can’t imagine anyone in Sandstorm hiding them for her. Yes, they would like to get off this shit pile, but none of them would risk the wrath of the other Sandstormers to kiss Fallon ass. And even if they had the balls to do that, they sure as fuck wouldn’t cross an SNT. Apparently the word got around that one Fallon’s now nothing more than space garbage, not even worth the salvage fee. That was cause for a little celebration, from what I hear. They also know that Tenad Fallon is attempting to hold an SNT’s compliment hostage. They’re taking bets on how long it’ll be before she joins her brother for an impromptu spacewalk.”

 

 

“I think perhaps this is Kresho Ivanvic’s effort to redeem himself.” Fury said.

“It’ll take a fuck ton more than that,” Lenore growled. “Arji said that Evanovic knows things about me and my mother, things he thinks I should know, and I’d sure as hell like to hear what he has to say for himself. Arji said that was all the man would tell him for his own protection,” she added as an afterthought. And then the color in her cheeks flushed and her pulse picked up, for she had let her source slip.

“If you have gained this information, Lenore, then it is safe to assume you have spoken to this pub owner.” I promised myself I would not give her another reason to be angry with me, and yet I could not keep quiet.

“Yes.” She continued working as though I had asked her about the weather outside, as though she dared me to make an issue of her efforts, but her fingers were not quite as steady and she bit her lip the way she did when she was uncomfortable. That she had spoken to him and not to me; that he had treated her with kindness while I had hurt her, why would she not prefer to talk to him?

She stopped her efforts and sat up. “You don’t suppose Mac and Manning could be on Vodni Station, do you?”

“It isn’t possible,” Fury said, “for there have been no ships to or from Taklamakan Major since we arrived in orbit. They would have had to have been transported to a ship not equipped with SNT tech and then taken to the station. It is much too far for a transport and the curve of the planetoid would have prevented a transport to either of the other outposts. What else have you learned, Lenore Felish” asked Fury, who pushed such pettiness as my jealousy of this bar tender aside, his dear beloveds taking priority, as it should be.

Lenore continued. “Turns out Ivanovic and his people are spreading nasty rumors and making not only the locals nervous, but Fallon’s people as well. Has them all shitting themselves for fear of being shackled, but so far they’re still following orders. Tenad’s people have taken over Jessup’s dreadnaught. No surprise there.”

“And what else has Arji Finkle told you?” Fury asked.

This time she ran a hand across her damp forehead and huffed out a harsh breath, “He says that the dreadnaught and Tenad’s personal Jaeger, the Virago, are both are equipped with planet killers. Arji says people are pretty nervous about that. It would be just like a Fallon to use them for spite if nothing else.”

“Then it is up to us to see that does not happen, for we must protect the people of Talkalmakan Major, who have been dear Lenore’s family and our friends throughout,” Fury said.

I did not know how we could do that. I did not know how I could possibly help when I could not even move. Would a planet destroyer destroy me as well? In my helplessness, in my weakness, I thought that perhaps that might be the best thing for all of us. Certainly Fury would take my dearest beloved Lenore into his arms and see her away to the Rim, as she wished, and she would be safe, and I would not lose another compliment.

“And there you have said it yourself,” Fury spoke only to me in the depth of my core. “Do not let your fears stop you from doing what you know in your heart is right, dear Ascent, for we are all afraid most of the time. Usually we choose simply to push on and not to think about it. If we did not we would be paralyzed and lost in our grief and pain, rather than embracing the joy that is also there just beyond fear.”

 

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 59: Grand New KDG Read

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week  Tenad Fallon beegan to realize just what she’d up against to become compatible with Fury. This week she gets to experience the agony first hand, and Fury asks her why? As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. This one is particularly long in order not to break the flow of events. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

If you missed the previous episode of Dragon Ascending follow the link for a catch-up. If you wish to start from the beginning, of Dragon Ascending. Follow the link.  

For those of you who would like to read the complete novel, Piloting Fury, book one of the Sentient Ships series, follow the link to the first instalment.

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

On a desolate junkyard of a planetoid, scavenger Lenore Felish, disturbs something slumbering in a remote salvage dump and uncovers secrets of a tragic past and of the surprising role she must play in the terrifying present she now faces.

Robbed of her inheritance after her tyrannical father’s death, Tenad Fallon is out for revenge on her half-brothers, one who happens to be the sentient ship, Fury. Fury, with his human companions, Richard Manning and Diana McAllister, has his own agenda – finding the lost sentient ships and ending the scourge of indentured servitude in Authority space.

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 59: Why Put Yourself Through this Agony? 

“I do not understand why you would put yourself through this agony when I have already said I will give you all that you ask.” Fury said as he watched dear Camille bathe Tenad’s fevered forehead. It was something that the auto-doc could have done more effectively, but she would not have it. He knew that she did not believe that he would sabotage the treatments with the lives of his compliments hanging in the balance, though that is what she told him. She trusted the little indentured, and she took comfort in her presence. Yes, she was indeed an open book with much written between the lines. After getting to know Gerando Fallon, Fury suspected that were true of all of the Fallons who were old enough to have any memory of their father.

“I’m doing it because I want that bond, Fury.” Her words were slurred with pain and delirium. “I want that much control over you, and I want…” her words were swallowed in a wave of violent shivers and once that had passed enough that she could speak again, she continued between chattering teeth. “I want to know what it feels like, why Gerando would sacrifice everything for that bond.”

“Gerando proved himself worthy.” Fury said.

“And you don’t think I am?” Before he could respond she said, “he wanted to steal away your compliment too you know, hounded her ruthlessly, as I understand.”

“And in the end he restored my brother to me, the one I did not know I had.”

“You know, he was crushed by what our old man did to the SNT’s. He always loved the SNTs, even wanted to be a compliment, trained for it, but he was rejected.”

“I know his story, for it is now a part of all of our story,” Fury said.

“That nearly broke him. Did for a long time. You know what he was like. The old man would do anything to see Gerando fail because he knew that if Gerando ever figured out what he was actually capable of, he’d bring the old bastard down in a heartbeat, but it doesn’t matter now. And my dear brother got to be a compliment after all.” Her hands twisted in the cooling blanket that covered her and her mouth was a thin pale line of pain.

“And you are jealous?”

“I have no problem with Gerando fulfilling his fondest dream. I heartily cheer him on. When the old man was focused on the first fruit of his loins, he wasn’t busy trying to sabotage my efforts. What I do have a problem with is Gerando helping you gain access to the old man’s fortune and find a way to hide it all beyond the Rim.” And then the shivers took over and the pain and she did not speak again.

“We have been systematically searching the planetoid as best we can,” came Ascent’s voice in Fury’s subprocesser. “Also this Kresho Ivanovic is searching as well. Are you aware that the man is a compliment.”

“I am, yes,” Fury replied as he watched Tenad Fallon drift in delirium. “He wanted me to know, though we did not have time to speak. I thought it expedient for Tenad Fallon not to know he had paid me a visit. If his SNT still lives, I do not know.”

“I do not know which of our siblings would bond to such an unsavory character,” Ascent said.

“I think perhaps we have misjudged the man on some counts my dear brother, though I cannot forgive him for his complicity in the taking from me my dear ones.”

“I cannot forgive him for leaving my poor Lenore to such a horrible fate. Though I must admit I am not sorry that in the end that fate has brought her to me.”

Fury did not ask if he would consent to the bond to Lenore Felish now, though after all that had happened, it was not a topic he could broach without pain.

“Can he help us, do you think?” Ascent asked.

“I believe he wishes to, and we must have all the help we are able to obtain. How is dear Lenore?” He asked.

 

 

“Less angry with me, I believe, though at the moment all of her focus and mine goes to help you find your dear ones.”

“Fury?” Camille spoke softly, looking around the room, as all humanoids did in the beginning.

“Yes, dear Camille.”

“Shouldn’t we give her the immunosuppressant injection now?”

To their surprise Tenad Fallon managed a grunt of a laugh. “He wants to make sure I’ve suffered enough first, Camille.”

“I cannot begin to make you suffer enough for what you have done, Tenad Fallon. But no, what you are feeling is quite normal. The immune response to my genetic material must be fully activated before we can judge how difficult it will be for your body to adjust to my blood and plan your treatment accordingly.”

“And your compliments went through this? Wow! You must be one helluva ship if they were willing to go through this.”

“Only my dearest Richard had to suffer so and more for he was dying of severe radiation burns, and the treatments had to be forced. There were many extenuating circumstances resulting from the way he came to be my companion, but none of those concern you.”

“And Diana McAllister?”

“She was born to be my compliment, so she did not suffer in our bonding. But your father made sure she suffered far more than you will ever imagine before Richard Manning and I were able to rescue her.”

“My father made sure everyone he came in contact with suffered.” This time the pain on her face ran much deeper than her body.

“It is time for the injection,” Fury said. “I have laced it with a sleeping drug for you will need to be well rested before the next transfusion.”

“Thank you,” she said. “I don’t sleep so well these days.”

When the auto-doc approached with the injection, Camille took it. “Let me do that. She doesn’t like auto-docs that aren’t her own.”

Another forced attempt to laugh as Tenad watched Camille prepare the injection. “My father used to threaten us all whenever we were ill that his auto-doc was equipped to give us the SNT virus if we didn’t get better because invalids were of no use to him.”

“He did inject Gerando,” Fury replied.

For a moment she was silent, biting back pain in lips bled pale from exhaustion. “Like I said, he made everyone suffer.” Then she turned her face to the wall and within a few seconds was asleep.

Fury watched as the little indentured fussed about the woman who was without a doubt the source of all her suffering. “She’s kind to you?”

“She’s not cruel, and she doesn’t punish me, if that’s what you mean.”

“But you have never given her cause.”

“That seldom matters for indentureds. In my case it does, so I do as she asks and the rest of the time I do my best to draw no more attention than her med-bot does when it isn’t in use.”

“She will sleep now for a good many hours, Camille. Come down to the galley and have something to eat, and then you must also rest, for the next few weeks shall be grueling.”

She stood to her full height, which was not tall at all, and looked around, once more making an effort to hold his gaze. “Will she die?”

“I have no intention of letting her die before I have my loved ones back, then she may go to New Vaticana hell and dance with all its demons for all I care.”

Camille looked down at her mistress for a moment, squared her shoulders and headed for the galley.

 

Dragon Ascending Part 58: Brand New KDG Read

 

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Len got caught by the wrong person. This week, Tenad Fallon begins to realize just what she’d up against to become compatible with Fury. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. This one is particularly long in order not to break the flow of events. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

If you missed the previous episode of Dragon Ascending follow the link for a catch-up. If you wish to start from the beginning, of Dragon Ascending. Follow the link.  

For those of you who would like to read the complete novel, Piloting Fury, book one of the Sentient Ships series, follow the link to the first instalment.

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

On a desolate junkyard of a planetoid, scavenger Lenore Felish, disturbs something slumbering in a remote salvage dump and uncovers secrets of a tragic past and of the surprising role she must play in the terrifying present she now faces.

Robbed of her inheritance after her tyrannical father’s death, Tenad Fallon is out for revenge on her half-brothers, one who happens to be the sentient ship, Fury. Fury, with his human companions, Richard Manning and Diana McAllister, has his own agenda – finding the lost sentient ships and ending the scourge of indentured servitude in Authority space.

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 58: The Conditions of the Bargain

“Fury! What have you done! What the fuck have you done! Bring her back! Bring her-” Kresho came out of transport ass end over teacup and landed hard on the bridge of the Compass.

“Fury didn’t do anything,” Ori said over his subdural. “Well he did send you back here to keep the Fallons from seeing you. Make that Fallon,” she added.

He could almost hear the self-satisfaction in her voice, as he stood and stumbled to his seat at the console. “Where is she? Where the hell is she, I can ‘tran her back, it’s not too late, not for her, it’s not too late.” On the view screen, he pull up and magnify Jessup Fallon’s body tumbling slow motion in the void, hid dick still hanging out. But Len was nowhere to be found.

“She’s not out there. She’s back on the surface with the SNT there. Apparently, he’s not as helpless as they think he is.”

Kresho slumped in his chair and ran his hands over his face. “She’s okay then. Thank fuck.”

“I’m beginning to think our friend on the surface has a soft spot for her,” Ori said. “That’s very interesting.”

Kresho straightened and looked back out the view screen at Jessup Fallon tumbling end over end, then he shut it off. For a moment he stared at the emptiness of their own surroundings, then replicated a double New Hibernian and downed it in one. “Do you think he knows?”

“I doubt it. How could he? As far as anyone knows the only embryo to survive the experiments became Fury’s Diana Mac. And even those few that do know have no real idea what that actually means. Fury will figure it out though. He is SNT1 after all, and he knows Diana McAllister’s history.”

“And he despises me.”

“Clearly not as badly as you despise yourself. This mistake is on me. I should have sensed it. Fallons, at least some of them, are very wily. But they are only hacks when it comes to SNTs and SNT tech. The only one of any expertise is Gerando Fallon, and he’s exceptional. I’ve already begun creating the algorithms to help us find masked signals. Fury’s compliment have SNT DNA in their blood, and they are completely bonded to him. There are ways to uncover those signals. I just have to find them.”

“She’s not stupid enough to kill them. Surly she’s not.”

“She’s far too clever for that, but there are a lot of variables that are beyond even a Fallon’s control, and the Taklamakan system is unpredictable to say the least. Wherever they are, I wager they are not being kept in the lap of luxury.”

 

“Really, this isn’t necessary SNT1. I’ve had worse, and enjoyed it. Just not from my idiot brother.” Tenad Fallon chuckled softly to herself as the auto-doc in the infirmary worked on the nasty bruise Jessup had left on her cheek. “Hell, it would have been worth a lot more roughing up to see you ‘tran the bastard out into the void, end over end with his dick hanging out. Suitable end for the little prick, I’d say.” When SNT1 did not reply, she said. “I’m guessing the girl was also someone you didn’t want me to know about, still, ‘tranning her out into space, hell even ‘tranning my brother out I would have thought went against all SNT programming. Maybe my father was right after all and there is a little bit of psychopath in all of us.”

“You have no idea,” the ship said, voice cold enough to make her shiver.

“Oh, I probably do, but never mind that. You just totally made my day by ridding me of that pest. Ivanovic said to bring him along so we could keep an eye on him. That turned out to be a really stellar idea.” She waved a dismissive hand, “Oh don’t worry, Jessup didn’t know where your compliment are. I wouldn’t trust him with such important information, and he wouldn’t remember anyway once he had a little Mist in his brain.”

“Which you made sure he always had.”

“Well, he is a Fallon with a few resources of his own, though they were rapidly diminishing without the old man’s money. That dreadnaught is the only thing he has of any value. He’s ran a good crew into the ground and had them all cowed under the threat of the shackle. They don’t deserve that. They deserve the chance to shine.”

 

 

“And you would give them that.”

“Of course I would. Carrot, not stick, whenever possible, that’s my philosophy, SNT1. But I am very happy to use the stick if I have to.”

“So I have heard.”

“Now, we need to talk about this process I’ll have to undergo before we can bond. I’d like to start it as soon as possible. Oh, I understand if you want proof of life before we begin. I’m happy to arrange something.”

“That is not necessary,” the ship said. “I will know if they are dead, and so will you.”

In spite of the comfortable ambient temp in the room, goosebumps stood at attention on her arms. “Yes, I suppose I will.”

“If you are even to be compatible to bond with an SNT ship then you must, over a period of time, be injected with ever increasing doses of SNT core material, which your body will violently reject. When that response begins, these injections will be followed by immunodepressant treatments, which will also not be pleasant for you. Under ordinary circumstances, even to rush the compatibility of a compliment will take three months.”

“I see.” She touched her face and looked in the mirror the auto-doc held up for her to view the finished effort. “I want it done in a week.”

“No,” came the response.

“Are you reneging on our bargain, SNT1?” As with most humanoids, she looked around the room in an effort to see him. It was instinct, Fury supposed.

“I am safeguarding our bargain. If you die in the process before I have my compliment restored to safety, then they will die. That is not an acceptable risk, and I guarantee the process would kill you if we attempted to rush it so.”

“How much time than? A month?”

“A month you might survive, but it will be most unpleasant.”

She stood and straightened her worse for the wear clothing. “I’m good with that.”

“You will need help, help that normally my compliment would give if necessary. I cannot.”

“Camille then. I’ll have her ‘tranned over. She’s my indentured, and no, I won’t release her. That’s not part of the bargain.”

“Then I am very glad you shall be far too ill to abuse her.”

She forced a chuckle around the tight knot of nerves in her stomach at the thought of what lay ahead. She didn’t mind pain, but she was certain this experience would make anything she had ever experienced pale in comparison. She had always prided herself in being strong willed, able to get through whatever she had to, but this? Was it just that she feared Gerando actually was a stronger person than she? No. She would never believe that, never allow it. “Not everyone abuses their indentureds, SNT1.”

“You will not free them when they have done nothing to you, to deserve your enslavement. Is that not abuse by any standards?”

“While I see your point, SNT1, the economics of the situation simply do not allow society to be otherwise, and I won’t argue politics with you, when we have work to do,” she spoke into her subdural. “Have Camille ‘tranned over, no belay that order. Have her bring over the Andromeda. I would prefer not to transport any more than possible.”

She rubbed her hands together and stood. “Now, SNT1, I need a shower badly, and I’d appreciate it if you could replicate me something appropriate for my convalescence, then we can get started. If I’m going to spend the next month being very unwell, best get it over with.”

Tenad Fallon was frightened in spite of her bravado, something she could hide easily enough from other humanoids, to Fury, who was sensitive to humanoid emotions she was an open book, and one of which he would make very sure to read between the lines as their efforts began.

 

Dragon Ascending Part 57: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Kresho prepared to meet Fury, and possibly his doom. This week Len gets caught by the wrong person. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. This one is particularly long in order not to break the flow of events. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

If you missed the previous episode of Dragon Ascending follow the link for a catch-up. If you wish to start from the beginning, of Dragon Ascending. Follow the link.  

For those of you who would like to read the complete novel, Piloting Fury, book one of the Sentient Ships series, follow the link to the first instalment.

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

On a desolate junkyard of a planetoid, scavenger Lenore Felish, disturbs something slumbering in a remote salvage dump and uncovers secrets of a tragic past and of the surprising role she must play in the terrifying present she now faces.

Robbed of her inheritance after her tyrannical father’s death, Tenad Fallon is out for revenge on her half-brothers, one who happens to be the sentient ship, Fury. Fury, with his human companions, Richard Manning and Diana McAllister, has his own agenda – finding the lost sentient ships and ending the scourge of indentured servitude in Authority space.

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 57: Give Me One Good Reason

“Give me one good reason why I should not ‘tran you into space instead of on my bridge, Kresho Ivanovic, or should I say Keith Vanderbilt?”

“I don’t give a fuck what you call me, but I have information you need, information about one of your passengers. I would just as soon the Fallons weren’t privileged to it.”

When Fury didn’t immediately answer, he added. “Look, I can help. I’m an SNT Scientist. I was on the project before you were -”

“I know who you are,” Fury cut him off. “And I remember you as someone trustworthy back then. But that fact is drawn into question in light of what you did afterward, what you’re doing now, so I will ask again, why should I ‘tran you onboard?”

“Because you don’t know what I did, Fury. You have no idea. No one does. Look, I’m completely at your mercy. You know where my ship is. You could blow it out of the sky before I knew what hit me, and I know why you would love to do that right now, but we need to talk or huge mistakes that may cost you more than you can easily imagine will be made.” When there was no response, he continued. “Look, just ‘tran me aboard and make sure they don’t know. Once you’ve done that, I think you’ll have a lot more information that will help you and your friends.” He held back a little hiss as he sliced the inside of his arm with the old Terran switchblade he always kept on his person to give him that little extra edge should he ever need it. He cut it just enough for a thin ribbon of red to glisten to the surface. And then the bridge of the Compass shimmered with a transport in progress, and in an instant he was reduced to his molecular components, at the mercy of the angry SNT on the other end as to if they should be rematerialized into him or if they should become just so much space dust. This time he got lucky, but it was not Fury’s bridge he came back together on. Instead the tran ended none to gently in a small cell.

He landed on his hands and knees and caught a harsh breath, then coughed. “Jesu Vati it smells like puke in here.”

“I saw no point in cleaning it up so that you could add to the stench.” Fury’s voice filled only his head, “but I see now that I shall not have that pleasure of watching you disgrace yourself.” Instantly the room was pristine again and smelled more like herbs than harsh cleaners. “Was this your secret then? Who? Who would allow this with someone untried and untrustworthy?” His voice was a painful roar inside Kresho’s head.

“I didn’t come here to talk about who pulls my strings. I didn’t come here with excuses. Give me a little more credit than that. It’s the girl you have here,” he waved a dismissive hand before Fury could speak. “Yes I know she’s here, and I know what she thinks about me, but believe me, the only reason I didn’t come for her is because I was unable.” Christ, the downside of the old silent conversation was that the emotions were all there in the thoughts. There was no disguising them.

“I know.” That left him wrong-footed.

“Arji Finkle has told me as much, told her as much, though with no details since there has not been time. I am not certain she believes it, but I do.”

“And you still want to toss me out the airlock?”

“Lenore Falish is safe, and she shall remain safe, but my compliment are not. They have been stolen from me, a thing you were fully complicit in.”

“You think I had a goddamned choice? I have wet dreams about Fallon heads on a pike. “I need you to know about her, about Len. She’s more than she appears, more than she knows, and she’s the most valuable cargo I reckon you’ve ever had onboard.”

“And she is in great danger.” Fury said. Just like that the conversation was over Kresho’s jail door burst open.

 

 

Len didn’t know Fury’s schematics, and they were nothing at all like Ascent’s or Quetzal’s. While his core was the heart of an SNT, it was different from Ascents’s, but then no one was like SNT1. Not only was Fury the prototype for all SNTs, but he was the most sophisticated SNT ever conceived. He was the only one actually conceived, making him far more humanoid in his biotech and making his development to maturity far slower than his brothers and sisters, whose biological components were cloned from humanoid DNA. The plan had been that once Fury was fully mature, ships would then be cloned from his biological components. The thing was that Fury’s inner space, the space that was actually used as a ship, had been modified to pass for a small, battered, cargo/smuggler, which was apparently what he and Manning had done in order to keep SNT1’s disguise while they found a way to get Diana McAllister away from Abriad Fallon.

Len wasn’t unfamiliar with smugglers, since some of them doubled as salvage vessels when they were really down on their luck, but the thing about smugglers and salvage ships is that while the basic design might have been there beneath it all, the ships were almost always repurposed multiple times, and each time they were made over with salvage and secondhand parts so that their form fit their function. No doubt it was also the case with SNTs, the ones who had survived. They would have had to disguise themselves. That made exploring Fury truly an adventure, and she seldom knew exactly where she might turn up.

She had planned to hold fast until she, Fury and Ascent figured how to proceed with finding Mac and Manning, but then the strange energy had coalesced and dispersed on board, and energy she had felt just below her sternum, as though her chest were suddenly filled with nanites for a split second and then they were syphoned out. It was a transport, but no ordinary transport. It was then that she realized Kresho Ivanovic had just been transported onboard and that both he and Fury had intended to keep it a secret, to protect her, no doubt. But she didn’t need protecting, she needed fucking Ivanovic, or whatever he called himself, to explain why the hell he left her and her mother to die.

Fury had transported him to the same place he had transported the Fallons, but it didn’t affect him in the same way it had them, and she really couldn’t picture Fury going easy on him. There was something about that transport, something so familiar that she could feel it knocking on the inside of her brain, something she should have been able to figure out, some connection she should have drawn.

“Ascent?” She spoke inside her head, “I need to hear what’s being said.”

Immediately the conversation that had been blocked to her came to her once removed with Ascent acting like a transmitter.

“Yes I know she’s here,” she heard Ivanovic’s voice in her ear. “And I know what she thinks about me, but believe me, the only reason I didn’t come for her is because I was unable.”

That ratcheted up Len’s pulse and made her more determined than ever to find him. He had answers she needed. After several false turns, she found a lift that she was pretty sure led down to the cargo bay. Inside her head, Ivanovic said, “I need you to know about her, about Len. She’s more than she appears, more than she knows, and she’s the most valuable cargo I reckon you’ve ever had onboard.”

“The fuck,” she said in her head and Ascent shushed her.

As the lift doors opened, she moved down a narrow hall. An open door on one side revealed utilitarian bunks in a tiny space, which she ignored. Fury had told her there was a space at the end of the short corridor used for quarantine or as a holding cell for prisoners when there was a need. That’s where he was being held. She was so focused on the conversation, that she was completely caught off guard by an arm around her throat drawing her up tight against a sweaty male body that stan of puke and anger, just as both Ascent and Fury said at the same time that she was in danger.

“Well, well, well! What have we here, the entertainment?” The man behind her thrust a hard-on up against her back and raked an awkward hand over her breasts, and she went dead still. She didn’t care who the hell it was, though she thought she knew, she wasn’t going to be taken that way again.

“I haven’t had a good fuck since I got here. Ugly, dirty lot, all of you down on that sand heap. Still, a man has needs.”

He shoved her up against the wall, face to. While she hadn’t seen him, she could tell he was much bigger than she was, and the reek of him was nearly enough to make her gag. With one hand, he held her firm while with the other he went to work on his fly. He had to lean over her to yank and shove at her trousers, and it was then that she struck, bringing the crown of her head back hard into his face.

“Get off her, Jessup, you idiot! What the hell are you doing?” Tenad Fallon grabbed her brother and pulled him back, but he backhanded her in a wave of curses and sent her flying across the floor, giving Len just enough time to duck and scramble. As she crab-walked back out of Jessup Fallon’s reach, his body shimmered and he was transported. It was only before she blinked out of existence that she realized she was being transported too.

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 56: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week all hell broke loose, and we were reminded once again why  no one trusts a Fallon. This week Kresho prepares to meet Fury, and possibly his doom. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. This one is particularly long in order not to break the flow of events. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

If you missed the previous episode of Dragon Ascending follow the link for a catch-up. If you wish to start from the beginning, of Dragon Ascending. Follow the link.  

For those of you who would like to read the complete novel, Piloting Fury, book one of the Sentient Ships series, follow the link to the first instalment.

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

On a desolate junkyard of a planetoid, scavenger Lenore Felish, disturbs something slumbering in a remote salvage dump and uncovers secrets of a tragic past and of the surprising role she must play in the terrifying present she now faces.

Robbed of her inheritance after her tyrannical father’s death, Tenad Fallon is out for revenge on her half-brothers, one who happens to be the sentient ship, Fury. Fury, with his human companions, Richard Manning and Diana McAllister, has his own agenda – finding the lost sentient ships and ending the scourge of indentured servitude in Authority space.

 

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 56: I Should Have Seen this Coming

 

“I should have seen this coming! I should have fucking known better.” Kresho paced back and forth on the bridge of the Compass. “Now we don’t know where they are. Now our hands are tied. He turned to the com and all but shouted, “If they die, Ori! If they die their deaths’ll be two more deaths on my head, and I’ll deserve it when Fury blows me the fuck out of the sky.”

“They won’t die, Kresho. She can’t afford their deaths and we’ll find them long before that becomes an issue.”

“What part of that bitch masking their signals did you not catch?” He waved the question aside with a hand that was none to steady at the moment. “I should have killed that goddamned woman while I was in her quarters. Fuck knows she gave me the perfect opportunity.”

“For now, we need her alive,” came Ori’s voice over the com. She won’t dare kill Fury’s compliment, as I said. I think the stupid woman believes she can simply sever that connection, stick them aboard a transport to some remote system and keep them under lock and key with just enough contact that Fury will pine for them, and suffer, but keep her alive and do what she commands in order to keep them safe. She truly believes that she can replace them as simply as one replaces the drive on a replicator. She is a fool.”

“But she’s a clever fool. Now what?” He said wiping sweaty palms on his trousers.

“The plan hasn’t changed. Now it’s time you give SNT1 a visit and play our ace in the hole.”

“What the fuck ace in the hole? In case you haven’t noticed, Fallon just pulled a huge ace out of her ass, one I should have seen? Fury doesn’t need me now. I don’t know where Manning and McAllister are. I’m useless to him, me he may very well blow out the airlock for instigating this whole cluster fuck.”

“No, he will not, and you did not instigate this cluster fuck, as usual, that’s the Fallons’ job. Now stop with the damn self-pity already. We have work to do, and yes, we do have an ace in the hole.”

“How do you figure?’

I have called in all our resources, scanning the planetoid and even Fallon’s own ships. Though I think if the woman has SNT tech on board, it would be a huge mistake to hide the compliments of another SNT there. I don’t know if her ship is the only one that has it, but I would be willing to bet it is. That would not be the kind of information she’d share. Besides to install it on even one ship she must have gone to great lengths and great expense, even if she did steal the tech from her father. Yes, she is wealthy, but her resources are still limited. She cannot afford to treat SNT technology as casually as one would buy a holiday in the pleasure isles. No, Fury’s compliment will not be on any of the Fallon ships, and she certainly won’t trust her brother to keep them safe, or even keep them captive. Wherever they are, it will be remote, unlikely and completely secret. Knowing her, she might well kill the security force assigned to help her accomplish the task once it’s finished just to make sure there are no flapping lips. Besides,” she added as an afterthought, “if they were on any of those ships, I would know it.”

“What then? You said we had an ace in the hole.”

“I did, yes. While I did not find Fury’s compliment, I did find something else rather interesting. The Fallons are not the only ones onboard SNT1.”

“What? Who?”

“The one thing we had not taken into consideration when we were trying to deduce who had ‘tranned, and where they had ‘tranned to when we were analyzing Fury’s transports was that the single transport signals might not have been either of Fury’s compliment.”

 

 

“The fuck?”

“Between your interrogations and Tenad Fallons’s rather unorthodox methods, of the crew of the Dart, you learned that the three men onboard had violated a woman on their ship and left her for dead in the Sea of Death.”

“Yes? And.”

“Well that woman was our Lenore, Kresho.”

He barely made it back to his chair in time to collapse, and for a dreadful moment, he thought he would puke. Bloody hell, what Len had been through because of his failure, and now this.

If Ori were concerned over his shock, she didn’t show it, but then she never did. “Gerd did a little investigating in Sandstorm while you were occupied with Tenad Fallon, and she discovered that it was indeed Lenore.”

“Fuck! Even after I came clean with Arji and told him the whole story, he still didn’t tell me about … the Dart, about what had happened.”

“Of course he wouldn’t. I’m sure Lenore has painted a rather rubbish picture of you for him, and while he’s always trusted you before, well the woman has his heart, and he would do anything for her.”

“If what the crew of the Dart said then is true, and all evidence points to that, then Len should have died. Three men beat her and,” he swallowed his gorge, “beat her and raped her, then they threw her off the ship in the middle of the Sea of Death. Her chances of survival were, I’d say non-existent. Except … she discovered the SNT in the salvage dump, didn’t she?”

“At about the same time Fury sensed his presence on the surface. The lone signal that was beamed to and from the scrap yard and the final transport signal into Sandstorm and out was our Lenore.

“And then again yesterday evening when you were busy entertaining Tenad Fallon, the two signals that had tranned to the surface returned to Fury. Those would be his compliments. Then perhaps a little more than two hours later there was another ‘tran up. No one else was there but our Lenore, so it had to be her. She did not ‘tran back down.”

“Fuck me! Then she’s there onboard with Fury.”

“And I am guessing the Fallons do not know.”

“They barely know of her existence. They certainly don’t know who she is and if they find out…”

“They mustn’t find out,” she said. This is not a safe situation for her or for our SNT friend down below on the surface. Certainly there’s no way Fury could know, though I’m sure they’ve wondered why she of all people found an SNT hiding among the wreckage, one who didn’t want to be found. Kresho, we need to get her out of there. If the Fallons find out who she is, what she is, they’ll see her as an opportunity. We’ve got to get her away.”

For a tight moment there was silence and then Kresho simply said, “keep a lock on me.” Then he commed Fury.