Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending. Wow! We’re down to the last three episodes in book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series! What a wild ride it’s been. I hope you’ve had as much fun with it as I have. In this week’s instalment, Gerando Fallon deals with a family problem. 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 is especially true as we draw nearer the end of the novel. 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 ofDragon 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 78: Refuge for a Fallon

Food was served in the big dining room and, from somewhere on the station, Gerd had actually come up with a small band that played upbeat, danceable music. Who knew she was so good at party planning?

“This room is amazing,” Keen said as he watched Rab spin Flissy around the floor.

Kresho felt a surge of Ori’s pride, pride in him. He could feel her construct sitting close to him, hand resting on his thigh. “We wanted a place where all SNTs could come and bring their constructs to interact with their brothers and sisters and their compliments. I don’t think either of us imagined that we would be dealing with SNTs taking multiple compliments, but that makes the space even more essential, I think. When it’s not being used as a dining room and gathering space, it can be subdivided into smaller spaces where small groups of the family can get together and chat over a meal or wine or just nothing more than simply be with family.”

“I doubt there is anything we SNTs have missed more than family, more than being with others,” Ori said.

“And everyone onboard Vodni Station knows about you?” Fury asked.

“They do, yes,” Ori said. “The survivors of the battle with the Authority simply think of me as their home. They teach their children about the battle and about how the station became sentient. I am aware of everyone who lives here. When new people come in, they find out before long. Most stopped thinking of me as an SNT a long time ago.”

“Besides,” Kresho added, laying his hand over hers, “we’re all a bunch of rebels and smugglers here, trying to make a living as far away from the Authority as possible. There’s not one person on Vodni who wouldn’t fight beside the SNTs to bring down the Authority.”

“And no one ever betrays you, Ouroboros?” Gerando asked?

“They don’t live very long if they do,” Kresho replied. And then he waved a dismissive hand. The people sort that out. Other than my governing the place… ish, the local government, law and order, punishment for crimes, that’s all in their hands, and the one thing they don’t tolerate is betrayal of home or family.”

“Was it station justice where Tenad and Jessup were concerned?” Gerando asked.”

“It was I who ‘tranned Jessup into space,” Dragon said. “He was going to violate my beloved.”

Gerando’s hand flinched slightly around Stanislavski’s and she shot him a sympathetic glance. “I only ever met Jessup once. He was a mist head even back then. Tenad, I knew a little better. Tenad scared the shit out of me.”

To everyone’s surprise it was Griffin who responded. “Perhaps too much of our father’s blood in them.” Then he added matter of factly, “I did the same to him for killing my brother and threatening my eldest brother’s beloveds.”

“Nary a fucking shit stain deserved it more than Abriad Fallon,” Rab commented.

Gerando slid his arm around Stanislavski, drawing her closer, only nodding at Rab’s remark. After a sip of Andavinian coffee he cleared his throat and said, barely opening his mouth. “My sister?”

“I gave her what she demanded,” Fury replied.

Stanislavsky nearly came out of her chair. “Was the woman crazy? Didn’t she understand the risk she was taking, that it would kill her?”

“Of course she did. I explained everything.”

“She couldn’t have undergone the series of necessary treatments in such a short time,” Gerando said.  “It took me nearly a year and I handled the side effects better than most.”

“She was very ill,” Fury replied, “but she insisted hurrying along the process and when dear Camille, the woman was then her indentured – you shall meet her later — escaped with knowledge of her plan, she wished to bond with me immediately believing that she could then command me.”

For a long moment there was chilled silence as they all thought about the implications. Finally Keen heaved a sigh and said, “at the risk of sounding like a calloused bastard, I would like to autopsy the body, if that’s okay,” he glanced over at Gerando. “Perhaps what I learn can help us to ease transitions for future compliments.”

“Oh Tenad Fallon is not dead,” Fury replied. “She is just not functioning at present time.”

There was a collective gasp around the room and a low rumble of comments. Then Fury continued. “We have done what we could to make her comfortable in her catatonic state. As you know all bondings are different and they often involve more looking inward than looking at ones future partner.”

Gerando gave a shudder. “She’s a Fallon and I have yet to meet a Fallon who could relish looking inward. That part of the bonding nearly killed me, probably would have if it hadn’t been for my brothers.”

“I would request a place for her onboard Dubrovnik where she might receive the best care science may give her,” Fury said.

“Is she dangerous?” Harker asked. “I have too many vulnerable people onboard to risk a Fallon running a mock.”

“Captain Harker, I do not believe she will ever be the same if she does recover, and I do not know if there is any hope to hold out for such a recovery since nothing like this has ever happened to any of us before.

“All the same, she’s a Fallon. No insult to you intended, Gerando,” Harker said.

“I agree with Harker,” Gerando said. “I wouldn’t have her on Griffin.”

“I would override your choice if you did want her onboard,” the ship replied.

“She can stay here,” both Ori and Kresho said at the same time. And Kresho felt the reassuring squeeze of Ori’s hand.

“I’m not Keen, I know,” Kresho said, “but I’ve probably had more hands-on experience with an SNT than anyone here, and Ori can speak to how hard she fought in the beginning to keep me alive. My scientists have made some huge breakthroughs with Ori’s help, and we have space for her.”

“And what about your people,” Keen asked. “You’re not afraid for their safety.”

“My people have handled worse,” Ori replied. “They have no reason to fear her.”

“As I have said, I do not believe she will ever be a danger to anyone again.”

Fury commented. “Though of course none of us can ever be sure.”

“None of us has ever been sure, Ori said. “Of anything.”

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Dragon rose from the desert  and the race was on to rescue Mac and Manning and Len. This week, Tenad learns she’s been betrayed and gives Fury an ultimatum. 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 68: Ultimatum

Tenad came up from the depths of drug-induced slumber with her ears wringing and her head feeling like it would split in two. She managed to shift herself just in time to vomit over the side of the bed – no! It was not a bed, it was the slab in the fucking auto-surgery, a fact that only made her puke harder.

When she could manage to settle the gag reflex and the nausea passed enough that she could function, she shoved her way off the gurney and promptly landed hard on her ass, but at least she wasn’t lying on the glorified autopsy table of the auto-surgery. She shivered not from the bitter taste of bile but from the nightmares she’d had of what she’d seen her father do on exactly those tables with his victims. The memory always came back with such clarity that she was a child all over again, realizing all over again what a monster her father was.

When he became aware that she was watching, he looked up from his efforts and laughed at her. “Girl, if you’re going to puke, get out of my sight or you’ll be next up here. I don’t have time for mewling, puking weaklings.” She hadn’t. She hadn’t puked then. She learned well from her older brother’s endless humiliations, never, ever show weakness in front of the old man. No, she would never cry in front of him, she would never show fear in front of him, and she would certainly never puke in front of him. Instead, she meant his eyes calmly, forced herself to take in what he was doing to his indentured, a woman, so far gone that she shouldn’t even be alive, a thing that should not have been allowed to live, wounded, diseased from her shackle, and yet she lived, yet she felt every agony. And Tenad had known then, as did that hapless indentured that he would not let her die, no matter what extreme measures it took to keep her alive. He would have gotten off on that, he would have kept her conscious and suffering as long as he possibly could, maybe even taking notes on her body’s responses to the SNT virus, to his torture. Once Tenad had carefully, clinically, forced herself to stand and take in the hideous, pitiful sight on the table long enough to prove to him that she would not humiliate herself, she turned on her heels and walked unhurriedly away, feeling as though she were in a surreal dream, feeling as though she were outside of her body, observing what she could not take into herself if she were to stay sane inside that home of flesh and bone. She walked carefully, deliberately out of the room and down the hallway. Behind her she could hear her father laughing, not the kind of laugh he so often used to humiliate Gerando, no, this was the laugh that told her he was proud his spunk had spawned her, and she almost felt she’d rather have that laugh of humiliation. She did not want his admiration. She didn’t want his attention at all. It was a temporary thing, and it was never safe when he admired you. His admiration would always be followed by humiliation. That was the game he played, his sick competition with his own children, even the smallest. That, she understood at a very young age, and until now, as the second child and as a girl, she had managed to stay beneath his notice.

No, she had not puked. She had returned to her quarters and calmly ate her dinner, then finished her studies for the evening. But she had locked herself in the bathroom that night when the nightmare woke her, and she could no longer keep what she had seen outside herself. And then she did puke. The nightmare didn’t come often now, but every time it did, she would find herself hunched in the bathroom over the commode. The next day she had returned to her mother’s house and convinced her to send her away to school, far away. It was one of the outlying free universities where life was tough and the education tougher, but it was a waltz in the park compared to staying in that monster’s lair. She was only his second child, and a female. She would remain irrelevant to him as long as he had a male heir, and he had plenty of those and was constantly having more. She was just fine with that. There were other ways to get what she wanted. She didn’t need to suckle at the Fallon teat. She closed her eyes to the memory, shoved her way to her feet and looked around her into the stabbing light of the med bay, light she knew SNT 1 had made no effort to dim.

“Where’s Camille?” Tenad forced the words up through a throat that felt blistered. “Why the hell was I in the fucking auto-surgery? She knows I hate auto-surgeries. I told you I hate auto-surgeries! Camille! Camille!” Her attempt to yell came out cracked and rusty, and fuck she was trembling in front of the goddamned SNT! He would know. He would sense her fear. From him, she knew she could hide very little.

“You are in the auto-surgery, Tenad Fallon, because without it you would have died,” SNT1 responded.

Her laugh felt like shards of glass at the back of her throat. “And you wish I had.”

“You are very wrong, Tenad Fallon. I will never allow you to die,” came the ship’s icy response. “I will make sure you live. As long as you hold my compliments hostage, you will live, no matter how much that life makes you suffer.”

The quick flash of her father and what he had done to his indentured all those years ago went through her head, and like it or not, she was puking again barely making it to the sink on the cabinet next to the medical supplies. Instantly a med-doc appeared with a hypo and a quick sting against her arm made her flinch.

“Only something to ease the nausea,” the ship said.

She spat into the sink, then rinsed her mouth from the faucet. “I don’t suppose you could have done that a little sooner.” When no response came, she chuckled, or tried to. “I should have known that, under the circumstances, you might just have a lot more fun keeping me alive. Now where is Camille? I need her.”

“She is not here.”

Carefully, she forced herself to turn, as though she could actually face the voice that addressed her. “What the hell do you mean she’s not here? Did you send her to rest at a time like this just so you could torture me a bit?”

“While I was fighting to keep you alive, Camille Ingraham took your transport and left.”

If the nausea and the battle with her body’s immune response hadn’t hollowed her out enough, Camille’s betrayal felt like a gut punch. “And you didn’t see fit to stop her.”

“I did not. And I was busy.”

“Need I remind you that the lives of your compliments are in my hands?”

“Need I remind you that if anything happens to them I will be the first to know and I am sure I don’t have to tell you the consequences will be dire? I owe you nothing, Tenad Fallon, and you holding another person in bondage is abhorrent to me. Why would I stop her?”

“She’ll die anyway. Surely you know that? And it won’t be a pretty death. I was good to her. I never tortured her. I never even punished her. I treated her well.”

“She seems to think that a painful death is better than the life of a slave, a thing.”

“You do know that once we’re bonded, I’ll make you find her, and I won’t be kind to her when I do. In fact, I may make you do the honors.”

“You are welcome to try, Tenad Fallon.”

She pushed away from the counter and despite the last wave of rejection, realized she didn’t feel too bad, which was just as well because Camille’s defection had forced the issue. “The treatments are working, aren’t they?” She asked.

“Yes.”

She paced the room on shaky legs that seemed to feel stronger with every step. She barely noticed her nakedness. “Even though I nearly died?”

“It is not unexpected since each infusion of my bio-tech is bigger than the last, and we are essentially doing in a few days what would normally take months, possibly years.”

“And tell me, Fury, is it enough?”

“It is not as much as you would receive in a normal training for bonding, but you are tolerating my bio-tech better that I would have expected.”

“Why wouldn’t I? My brother is a bonded compliment.” She raised a hand to stop his response. “I know that he was trained to it, but I’ve been reading about the process. I’ve been doing a little research of my own. Isn’t it true that there is something in the genetic make-up that makes certain people compatible for bonding? Isn’t it true that most people just can’t, no matter how much of immunosuppressant you dose them with?”

There was a long silence, and if she were reading another person, she would think it was because the ship didn’t want to tell her. “Isn’t it?” She repeated.

“There is some evidence that there might be a connection, yes, but before the research could be completed, in fact barely more than began, your father infected my family and destroyed those scientists who might have come to find out.”

To this she only grunted. “My father often did not have much foresight, and look where it got him.”

“I am not certain you have a great deal more, Tenad Fallon.”

“Isn’t it possible that my genetics would be a good match for an SNT bonding since my brother’s was?”

“It is possible, yes,” came the response.

“And tell me, SNT1, isn’t it possible that I could very well be ready and that I could survive the bonding now?”

“As I have told you, Tenad Fallon, I will not allow you to die.”

She managed a shaky sigh and resolved nod. “Then do it now, the bonding. There are too many variables I can’t control when I’m incapacitated. When we’re bonded, I’ll have an SNT ship at my disposal, and then I’ll control those variables.”

“I have told you that isn’t how it works, Tenad Fallon,” the ship said evenly.

“Oh I think it is when the life of your compliments is on the line,” she said. She was no fool. Camille knew everything and if she was willing to run, she was willing to share what she knew, possibly even willing to risk a rescue attempt, though she didn’t see how she could possibly pull that off even with the Andromeda at her disposal, even if SNT1 had deactivated her shackle. “I think it’s quite possible at this point you’re just dragging your feet, possibly even making me ill to prolong the situation until you can figure something out. So, I’m calling your bluff. I want something to eat, I want a shower, and then I want us to get on with the bonding. Is that clear?”

There was a long pause, and Tenad could feel the static in the air around her making goose flesh raise on her arms. But she knew it was now or never. She braced herself, squaring her shoulders and doing her best to look relaxed, confident, neither of which she felt right now.

At last the ship spoke. “Very well, Tenad Fallon. If that is truly what you wish for, then it is what we shall do.”

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week  Mac and Manning found out just how bad things could get. This week they uncover a stunning secret. 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 62: What if You Weren’t the Only One?

For a moment the two of them sat in silence, Mac swiping back through the entries in Len’s journal, and then Manning said, “I don’t understand why the Authority would kill Len’s mother and leave her here to die. They would have been worth a fortune in a shackle, not just for the debt of the Quetzalcoatl, but for Janesha Falish’s knowledge of SNTs.”

Then Mac let out a long, low whistle, wiping at the returning condensation on the screen and squinting down at it. “That’s because it wasn’t the Authority who killed her mother. It was … Jesu Vati, Manning! It was the fucking men from the Dart! They did this! They were scavenging for the tri-axe cells and for the food supplies. That’s all they wanted. That’s all those bloody bastards wanted!”

“We should have blown them all out the airlock when we had the chance,” Manning growled.

“And we fucking turned them loose. I turned them loose.”

“We all did, Mac.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze. We couldn’t have known, and certainly Fury’s justice seemed pretty appropriate at the time.”

The computer flashed the message: 15 minutes to generator power-down.

They took the two computer tabs and headed to the enviro-shelter, which they had checked out and prepared beforehand not wanting to be caught out. It was small, but not uncomfortable, and it would keep them from freezing to death until the generator kicked back in at 05:30. Inside they settled in on the cots and began systematically going through the content of the tablets hoping to find a way to get a message through to Fury.

“Do you remember Janesha Falish or Keith Vanderbilt?” Manning asked Mac.

“No. My father kept me away from the SNT docks and laboratories, for reasons that are obvious now, I guess. I only vaguely remember Professor Keen. Because Merlin was the flagship of the First Fleet, he visited from time to time. When any of the other science crew or engineers had to come onboard, my father sent me away to stay with a family friend in the countryside. Mabel Farmer. She was nice. I liked her. She understood SNTs, and she understood me. I think maybe she and my father were lovers before he bonded with Merlin. I remember a lot of people believed she was my mother and neither of them would say otherwise. I understand why now. I never wanted to know if she was, which I suppose is strange, but I had my father and I had Merlin, and he was quite the mother hen, just like Fury. I think it’s an SNT thing.” For a moment they were both silent thinking about the emptiness they felt in Fury’s absence. “I hadn’t known it would be so bad,” she said, rubbing a hand over her chest as though she felt a physical pain.

“Me neither,” Manning said. “I know I always missed him terribly when I was away, but I knew I would be back in his arms soon and that no one would keep me away.”

For a moment neither of them spoke, and then Mac said, “Manning, how do you feel?”

“I’m fine. I don’t think the tether will be an issue while we’re together. Fury didn’t seem to think so.” It was always uncanny how easily they could read each other.

“But we’ve never put it to the test before.”

“Well,” he forced a smile, “here’s our chance.”

Again silence. “Say it, Mac. I can always tell when you have something to say but don’t know if you should or not.”

“Manning,” she came and sat on the edge of his cot next to him, holding his gaze, “I need you to promise me something.”

“If I can,” he said slowly.

“If you start having problems, because of the tether, I mean, you’ll let me put you in stasis in one of the cryo-tubes. They’d discovered the only way of escaping Tak Minor in the case of an emergency was the programable cryo-pods. “I mean we both know that Fury will come for us. All we have to do is hold out, but no one knows about the tether, and if you should start feeling weak, please, Manning, please don’t risk it. I need you safe. I need to know that we’ll make it through this together.”

“Mac,” he took her hands in his and kissed her gently. “I am safe, and I’ll stay safe. I trust Fury’s diagnosis with the tether, and even Keen agreed.”

“I don’t care. If they’re wrong, I want you safe.”

He studied her for so long, she thought he wasn’t going to answer, and then he let a long slow breath. “All right, Mac. If it comes to that, we’ll both do what we have to do to survive, to get back safely to Fury.”

“And to kick some Fallon ass.”

He pulled her into his arms and stroked her hair. “You know it.”

To Mac’s surprise, they both slept in spite of their shit situation. She figured that the little run in with the lovely weather on their way to the generator shed and the desperate effort to check their resources, organize and hunker down, had something to do with it, or maybe the cocktail of drugs Fallon had given them.

In the morning, they had a hot breakfast of some kind of New Caledonian gruel. Manning told her ice planets demanded hot food and more frequent meals to maintain both body temperature and weight. They bundled up, roped up and went out to explore their surroundings. According to the logs and the information pages always left for the incoming scientists, the early morning hours were the safest and the calmest. While it was still brutally cold, there was almost no wind. By noon the wind was already getting up and visibility limited. Outside, covered from head to foot so that every centimeter of skin was protected, the wind was still brutal, though visibility was a little better. The weak sun, too distant to give off much heat or a great deal of light rose to bathe the planetoid in the dusty gray of dawn, pale and anemic, only a few degrees above the horizon. There was no axial tilt so there were no seasons. The sun stayed as a fixed point rising and setting at the same time every day of the planetoid’s existence, though the eratic orbit meant that the length of the years could vary greatly as could the weather. At the moment they were in a fairly close orbit, so Tak Minor was having a heat wave. For the most part the surface was pock marked with ice craters. It was only Mount Orion that rose above the pocked surface to any noticeable height, and it was noticeable, since the station was built on the mountain’s flank. A little farther up the slope on a spiraling path was the only other humanoid built structure, the dock, barely big enough for a starling class freighter because it was rarely used for anything other than cargo drones.

There were no other landmarks in any direction as far as the eye could see, just the flat pockmarked surface that receded to the horizon. They trudged up to the landing pad, which was literally nothing but a landing pad. The view from the flank of Orion gave them just a glimpse of the curve of the planetoid, which was considerably smaller than Tak Major. By that time the wind was already picking up. From there they returned to the safety of the station, already exhausted from the cold and the wind. As they stripped in the anteroom, Manning said, “We might be able to get a message out from the top of that mountain, but we can’t do that without environmental suits. We’d never survive the trip up and back. We can charge the suit.”

“No. There’s only one suit and we’re sticking together. We have to, Manning. Besides, you know as well as I do there’s only one tri-axe cell. Charging the suit would be one helluva drain on it.” She didn’t tell him that she would make the attempt on her own if it came to putting Manning in the cryo-tube. And then she would come back and join him in the other tube if no more supplies were delivered.

“Then we find another way,” Manning said. “We find another way. We’ve got a whole library of information at our fingertips in there on that computer. Surely we can find some way to maybe rig a connection for our sub program link. If a thirteen-year old girl could get off this ice ball with such limited resources, then surely the compliments of the most powerful SNT in the galaxy can do the same.”

“Agreed,” she said, “But first we eat.” Manning was shivering. She wasn’t. Not that she wasn’t freezing her ass off, but it worried her anyway.

After they had eaten they went to work on the computer dredging up all the information they could find on Tak Minor. None of it came as too much of a surprise to Manning, since he had spent way more time on ice worlds than he ever wanted to again. “I found some files here that are encrypted,” he said, frowning down at the monitor. “The weird thing is it’s almost like an SNT sub-processor message. I recognize the wave patterns, you know like brain waves.”

Mac came to his side and looked down at the pattern. “That’s…” She dropped into the chair next to him and began to work on the keyboard. “Manning that’s almost identical to the sub-processor I share with Fury.”

“Christus Vati, you mean the one that was implanted in you at the embryonic stage?”

“Only Fury and I shared that sub-processor language, but it stands to reason that possibly… What if…”

“What if you weren’t the only one?”