Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Kresho Ivanovic laid down the ground rules that must be met if Tenad Fallon wants to resupply at Vodni Station. This week, Tenad gets an unexpected lead on the whereabouts of SNT1 Fury. 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 Ships Series

On a desolate junkyard of a planetoid, scavenger Lenore Felik, 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 22: A Possible Lead

Tenad returned to the Virago after the unsatisfactory tour. Anders was well versed in the boring details of Vodni Station, but he was about as interesting as a wet bath towel. Certainly he gave nothing away that might give her the upper hand on Ivanovic. And she wanted the upper hand on the man. She’d like to have both hands on the man, actually, but that was out of the question even if he were willing. She could certainly persuade him to be interested given a little time with him.

She paced her cabin unable to settle, unable to figure what it was about Kresho Ivanovic and Vodni Station that troubled her.

There was a ping of her door and it slid open. Derek, her head of security stepped inside. She’d been expecting him. He spoke without preamble. “The crew of the Dart are being held and questioned onboard their ship. It’s less quarantine than it is being used as a makeshift brig.”

“Interesting. How did you find out so quickly?”

The man gave a broad shouldered shrug that made his neck disappear in his uniform collar. “My guess is that for some reason Ivanovic wants us to know. More than likely he’s checking us out at the same time. Apparently the tavern has rolled out the best booze and feel-goods, and made easy with the staff who might like a good fuck with a stranger, and to charge handsomely for it.”

“I certainly would,” she said. “And you’ve made sure the crew know to loose lip it?”

Derek nodded. “They know.”

“And what about the crew from the Dart?” She continued to pace. “Why is the crew of a ship being held against its will instead of receiving the comfort of the station?”

 

 

“The crew claims they were about to crash onto a remote planetoid, they were tractored by some strange tramp freighter, treated for injuries while their ship was repaired, then given some kind of chemical castration, and flung back into space. The Lizzie Ann only just managed to grab them and tractor them in or they’d have been hurdling toward the Rift. The captain says-”

She raised a hand to stop. “There’s no contagion? They’re safe?”

“Safe as rapists and abusers can be, I guess. I hear that’s why Ivanovic won’t let them on the station, but I think there’s more to it than that.”

“Get me a secure connection to Ivanovic,” she ordered the com officer over her PD.” Then she turned back to Derek. “I think I may have found a way to scratch Ivanovic’s back and convince him to return the favor. In the meantime keep trying to find out all you can about Ivanovic. Everyone has dirt in their past. Find his.”

She dismissed him and settled at her desk. Camille brought her Polyphemian basil tea and silently served it. She could have gotten it from the replicator, but it was better when Camille made it from scratch. She always served it at just the perfect temperature, so Tenad didn’t have to wait. It always helped calm her and settle her nerves, always helped her think more clearly. It was her only vice, and as with all aspects of her life, she carefully controlled it. She had long ago stopped considering her activities in the bedroom as a vice. Sex brought relief and pain brought clarity. The two together gave her the edge that had kept her safe in the Fallon viper’s nest and allowed her to succeed in the world of the conglomerates.

When her heart rate had returned to normal and the tea had worked its calming magic so that she could focus once again, she was certain down deep that the ship who had flung the Dart into space and done such exquisite repair work was none other than SNT1. She was sure that she could get far more out of the Dart’s captain than Ivanovic ever could.

The door slid open silently and the med-bot glided in. She eased out of her uniform top and said. “Fix the ribs, and anything else that might interfere with hard interrogation.” The tingle of the med-bots efforts caused her skin to goose flesh, as she sipped at the tea and waited for Kresho Ivanovic to get back to her. She didn’t really need his permission for what she would do, but she wanted him well in her debt in case she needed bigger favors. She wanted him as an ally and not another formidable enemy she didn’t need. And her gut told her he was way more formidable than anyone thought.