Category Archives: Blog

Dragon Ascending Part 44: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Len ‘tranned down to Sandstorm and had a very enlightening chat with Arji. This week Kresho gets his own painful case of enlightenment. 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. I hope you find this switch-up helpful. 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 Ascendingfollow 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 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 44: Who’s the Girl?

“Thank you, Camille,” Kresho said when she sat the two drinks in front of him. He noticed Tenad always stiffened when he addressed her indentured like she was something more than a serving bot. He supposed it never entered the bitch’s mind that his behavior was simple common courtesy. But he also noticed she never punished the girl, never even raised her voice. Of course he had no idea how she treated her in the privacy of her suite.

“Thank you for the gesture, Ivanovic, but I really don’t drink,” Tenad said.

“It’s on your tab,” he said. “Besides, I didn’t get it for you,” he downed the first glass in one, still staring after the woman chatting to Arji, then gave a shiver at the aftershocks. Once he could catch his breath, he turned his attention back to the indentured. “Camille, who’s the girl?” he asked. “The one you were with.”

“I don’t know. She didn’t introduce herself.”

Tenad gave a grunt of a laugh. “Of course she wouldn’t, Ivanovic. She would know that if I happened to be curious enough to ask Camille her name, as an indentured, she would tell me.”

When Kresho didn’t respond, only kept craning his neck toward the bar, Tenad followed his gaze to the woman who stood talking to Arji after he all but swallowed her face.  “Clearly you think you know her.” The thing about Tenad Fallon that he couldn’t afford to forget was that she never missed anything.

“Thought she might be one of the whores I used to visit every now and again when I had the misfortune of having to come to this rock.”

“You thinking you might need a little entertainment tonight, are you?”

“Might need to blow off some steam after hanging out with you lot.”

“She’s tiny. You like ‘em young, do you?”

“I like ‘em consensual,” he said, wishing like hell the woman would turn around. It couldn’t be who he thought it was. He’d be unlikely to even recognize her now even if she had survived. “Besides,” he said, “No one born on this shit pile gets very big. Everybody here is slightly malnourished and dehydrated. Most people made sure they’d not sentence a child to grow up here, so they make sure they can’t have any. Still, every once in the while someone gets someone knocked up and the poor woman doesn’t have the heart to do the fetus a solid and end it before it’s born into this mess.”

“She must be good, the way you keep staring at her.”

He shrugged, careful to keep his angst to himself. “She does the job, and she’s not bad on the eye. Cheap too.”

“I always did like a bargain. Does she do women?”

“Never pictured you as a slummer, Fallon,” he said, glancing over at her. “But then again, I’m guessing you did the Dart’s captain before you shoved him out the airlock. He wasn’t hard on the eye, and I assume it wasn’t that hard to treat whatever SNT1 did to him so that his cock worked without him puking on you.”

 

 

She shrugged and ran a finger around the rim of his full beer glass, then looked up at him with those bright green eyes. “I’m a woman without an inheritance, Ivanovic. Waste not want not is my motto. Ah, you snooze, you lose. Looks like our gracious host beat you to it.” They both watched as Arji led the woman into the back room.

Kresho lifted her finger away from his drink. He didn’t miss the way her eyes followed the drink to his mouth and lingered on his lips. Fuck, the woman was a real cock straightener, wasn’t she just? He sipped, then licked the foam from his upper lip. “It won’t take ole Arji long. He’ll be finished in no time.”

She threw back her head and laughed a rough-edged laugh, which would have made him good and stiff, if the woman with Arji hadn’t turned and glanced back at the rest of the bar just before she followed him behind the curtain, and it was all Kresho could do to keep his heart from hammering through his chest. Christ, it couldn’t be her! It couldn’t. It wasn’t possible.”

“You looking forward to her that much?”

Too late he was reminded again that Tenad Fallon never missed anything. He shrugged, trying to bring his heart down from a gallop. “Man needs a good emptying of his sac every once in the while.”

One corner of her full lips quirked up. “You don’t seem to me to be the type of man that has to hold his load too long if he chooses not to.”

“A life of power is a lonely life, Fallon. You know what I mean, I’m sure.”

All sense of humor fled her face and she looked down at her hands folded on the table in front of her. “I do know exactly what you mean.” The smile returned, bright as sunshine, if a little forced. “It’s lonely at the top.”

“Tenad, you cunt! You think I don’t know what you’re up to in here without me!” Jessup Fallon all but fell into the bar shoving aside a couple of locals and spilling their drinks in the process, before two of Tenad’s security detail flanked him with Gert and Dyrg shadowing them.

She came to her feet, her eyes on her brother. “Camille go to the bar and have the barmaid make sure those two Jessup disturbed have free drinks for the rest of the night and anyone else my idiot brother has disturbed.” The girl did as she was ordered and Tenad spoke to Kresho, without taking her eyes off her brother. “The thing about the top, Ivanovic, is that there’s always someone thinking they belong there in your place, most of them without the balls it takes to actually get there. If you’ll excuse me.”

It was exactly the kind of break Kresho needed to get away from Tenad and find out if he was going crazy or if he’d actually seen the impossible. He shoved back from the table and headed for the back room as fast as he could shove his way through the crowd.

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 43: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week no one was happy about Len ‘tranning back to Sandstorm. This week we see what she finds there. 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. I hope you find this switch-up helpful. 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 43: Damn Tourists!

Fury ‘tranned Len down in a blind spot just behind the Dust Bowl. She knew where all the blind spots were, as most of the residents did. Those were places where contraband would be safe from prying scans. They were all heavily shielded parts of the wrecked ships that had literally been used to build Sandstorm. Many of those blind spots were shielded by bits of ships that could have been sold off for a tidy profit. But everyone here understood they didn’t have a lot of protection of their own, and what little they could get was worth the loss of a few water credits. Everyone also understood that nothing would get you sent on a one-way trip into the Sea of Death in your underwear faster than tampering with the blind spots.

Fury had fitted her with every piece of SNT tech he could load on her to keep her safe and to be able to ‘tran her back in a hurry if need be. And the amazing thing was that none of it was visible to the naked eye. Still, when she pushed open the shield door of the Dust Bowl and stepped into the biggest crowd she had ever seen, she felt more than a little exposed. Jax was pulling pints as fast as her arms could pump them up and Arji stood behind the bar looking angry and hassled. He was yelling at some Fallon uniform, who was a couple dozen centimeters taller than he was, but that never slowed the man down much. She’d forgotten how his voice carried when he was angry. “Look I don’t give a goddamn glass viper’s fuck what your high in the heel boss told you, I ain’t got no more room in my fucking bar, and that’s that. She wants to shuttle down another dozen grunts, then they’re gonna stand outside when the wind gets up and the sandstorms set in. I’m just bloody well fine with that. Fewer of you Authority lot stinking up my bar, the better.” She couldn’t keep from smiling. The man always did have big balls.

Carefully she made her way through the crowd, keeping an eye on Arji, trying to subtly catch his attention, but she wasn’t quite carefully enough. She bumped into a woman carrying two pints, and before she could apologize, she looked up to realize the woman was a small, wiry indentured, who had suddenly lost all the color in her pale face as the drinks hit the floor and shattered. She followed the girl’s glance back to see what had to be fucking Tenad Fallon sitting like the queen of the universe at the table in the far corner, leaning over chatting practically head-to-head with some stranger she didn’t recognize. Probably someone who couldn’t wait to kiss her butt if it would get him off this sand dune.

Lenore felt a little pale herself. She hadn’t seen an indentured since she left Authority space. And while any indentured would be treated with kindness here, their holders would be loathed. She had no doubt the Sandstormers would slit their throats, or worse, leave them to the Shimmer and the Wind, if they had any hope at all of freeing the indentured. They didn’t. And if their contract holders felt they were abused in any way because of said indentured, well, shit rolls downhill.

“That bitch got your clamp?” They both looked up to see Digby standing over them, eyes gentle like Lenore hadn’t seen them too many times. The man might have been the hardest hard ass in Sandstorm, and one who could afford to leave if he wanted to. He hadn’t. He’d always been civil to Len, but she had always treated him with respect.

The girl nodded, fearlessly meeting his eyes, a thing most indentureds that belonged to a Fallon were far too timid to do.

“Glad you’re back, Girlie. How’re you pissing?” he said to Len, giving her a pat on the back that nearly knocked her off her feet. Almost everyone in Sandstorm had called her Girlie when she arrived so unceremoniously all those years ago. The affectionate moniker had stuck. “Arji’ll be glad to see you.” Then he turned his attention back to the indentured. “Don’t you worry none about this mess. It happens. Hell, most of us would gladly dump ole Arji’s swill on the floor if there was anythin’ else ‘round here to drink. I’ll clean it up, and this ‘un’ll take you back to the bar and get you sorted right up with a couple more.” He glared back over at Tenad Fallon. “‘th any luck, it’ll give the bitch a bad case of the shits. It does that with off-worlders ever once in a while. Specially them that’s a little high in the heel.”

The girl fought to keep back a smile at the thought, but in the end, she let it flash, only briefly, but it seemed all the brighter for it.

“Dig,” Len leaned close to be heard in his ear above the din. “I need you to keep quiet about me being back. And keep your eyes open.”

He gave her a quick nod that would have been barely noticeable to most, but she was used to the subtle unspoken conversation that went on between the salvage dealers.

As she and the indentured elbowed their way back toward the bar and Dig bent to pick up the broken glass, the girl looked up at Len and said. “She won’t hurt me.”

“What?”

 

“Taned Fallon. She won’t punish me for it.”

Len didn’t even try not to laugh. “What? She’s kind to you then?”

“I’m a tool to her, nothing more. Most of the time she treats me like she does her med-bot. She gives orders, I do them and the rest of the time she ignores me. It’s like I’m not even there. I like it just fine that way” She bit her lip. “I’ve seen what she does to others.”

“Vaticana Jesu,” Len cursed. “Would hate to think what she does to her friends.”

“She has no friends,” the girl said.

“Who’s the man she’s with? Do you know?”

“Kresho Ivanovic.”

“You mean the bloke who runs Vodni Station?”

The girl nodded.

“Do you know what they’re doing here?” She felt guilty about using an indentured, but there was too much at risk for her not to use every resource.

“I do, yes.”

“Girlie-Girl! How the hell’re you pissing?” Suddenly Len found herself locked in a bear hug, her face pressed to Arji’s, who planted a big fat kiss right on her lips. That was the last thing on this sand heap she expected. And Ascent would have a Fury’s eye view of the whole thing. She definitely did not need that. He pulled away and looked down at her with a wide smile. “I told everyone you’d find a way back. Didn’t I tell you Jax?” He called over to the bar maid, who offered her a nod of her head and the quirk of the corner of her mouth that could either be a smile or the lip equivalent of the middle finger. Since she had no reason to dislike Len, she took it for a smile.

He started to motion over a couple of locals she knew standing at the bar, but she stopped him with a shake of her head, placing a finger to her lips to silence him. “I need you to keep quiet about my visit, and I need your help.” Ascent growled in her implant something about Arji taking liberties, and mentally she rolled her eyes. No one else said anything. She wondered if Fury was the jealous type.

He nodded, looking around the room. “A fucking takeover this is. No room for our own. That ain’t right.” Then his face softened as he saw the indentured standing next to her. “You all right Camille?”

The girl looked him in the eye and nodded.

“I ran into her, spilled two pints and broke the glasses. You can put those on my tab, and can you have Jax fix her up? On me too.”

He nodded to the barmaid and raised two fingers. “On the Fallon tab, and an extra one or two for you too, if you still got the stomach for it.”

They watched as Camilla inched her way down the bar to pick up the new pints Jax handed her. “How much do you know?” Len asked.

“A bit,” he replied. “The bastards and their ass lickers barely got into orbit before they were dropping out of the sky by the shuttle-loads, lining up at the goddamned door.” Tula and Vaness are turning a good few credits, though. Hell the line outside their door’s damn near as long as mine. Those two’ll be walking bow-legged for a month. Though I reckon we’ll all have fatter pockets for it, but at what price, I wanna know.” Out-worlders thought Arji’s curtained off room was for whores, but Tula and Vaness had a gutted-out sparrow class back behind the Dust Bowl where they lived and did their business. They’d fixed it up really nice considering the limited resources. They’d tried to talk Len into going in with them, an easier living, they said. And maybe it was, but she was an explorer, and she’d rather eat less and be a little thirsty and at least halfway enjoy what she did. Though there had been times she’d been sorely tempted. Arji jerked his head and motioned her across the bar to the curtained room. “Let’s find us a little more privacy. Jax,” he called over to the barmaid. “Com Clapper to get his ass out front and cover for me a few minutes. And you never saw Girlie Girl, here, got that?” She was already shouting into her PD to be heard over the noise and gave them both a nod before they turned to go.

 

Dragon Ascending Part 42: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week week Fury and his crew tried to help Ascent get his memories back only to discover company is coming. This week no one is happy about Len’s solution to a major 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. I hope you find this switch-up helpful. 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 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 42: A Temporary Fix

In her ridiculous ruminations, she had managed to find and focus the view screen on the three Jaegers and the Dreadnaught along with the little Kestrel, which kept its distance from the others. She couldn’t properly scan them, not without giving away their location, but she could tell enough about them to know that these weren’t just standard military, but then if Tenad and Jessup Fallon owned them, they would be upgraded and state of the art with weapons to the teeth. She shivered at the thought. She was sipping water from one of the flasks, leaning back in the chair watching the ships on the screen, when she realized she was no longer alone. Her shoulders tensed, half expecting him to tell her to get out of the chair that belonged to his compliment. When Ascent did not speak, she kept the silence watching the ships hanging peacefully above the planet and yet they were there for only destruction and pain. That was all Fallons ever left in their wake. At last she spoke, as much to herself as to him. “We were hounded by Jaegers for days when my mother and I and Van escaped Authority space. Van was my mother’s lover. Every night I went to bed wondering if we’d all be shackled by morning, and every morning when I woke safe aboard the Valentine and free to find we’d outrun them a little while longer, I cried.” She huffed out a harsh breath. I was just a little girl. I didn’t understand why I cried when we woke up free rather than crying because the Jaegers had caught us. Jaegers still fly in my nightmares.”

“I am sorry,” he said softly, and she felt as though he had moved to stand close behind her.

She only shrugged. “It’s over. I survived.” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered anyway. Then she added quickly, not wanting him to see how vulnerable she felt. “I got bored. I came here and, well the control panel is very user friendly.”

“I am sorry,” he said again, and she stilled as he lay hands on her shoulders. “For what I said, for the way I treated you. I am sorry. It is only that I am afraid Lenore. I am afraid for you, what might happen if you go back there, that you will decide not to come back. Certainly now, with all that has happened, you would be safer there in Sandstorm.”

“I would be in the viper’s den, Ascent. Last I checked there’s still a bounty on the head of anyone ever associated with the SNT program. My uncle’s debt at the loss of an SNT settles on me now, with my mother dead. But even if it wasn’t, my mother was one of the chief scientists, and I’m guilty by birth, even if I knew nothing at all.”

“But you know a lot, don’t you, Lenore.” She felt him nod to the panel. “And you have perhaps as many secrets as I do.”

 

 

“I don’t know much, Ascent, or I could help you. This, going back to Sandstorm, finding out what the Fallons are planning, this I can do. I was seven when we fled. I hardly look like that plump little girl who wanted to join with an SNT and see the stars.”

He came to her side and pulled her to her feet. “Lenore, you have helped me more than Fury and his compliment and all the scientists on the Dubrovnik ever could, and I do not like it when I hurt you.” He settled into the chair and pulled her onto his lap. She had made no effort to turn on the bridge lighting. She hadn’t needed it in the glow of the control panel, and she had not wanted her shame exposed to the light.

“I’m sorry that I hurt you too, Ascent. I say things when I’m angry, things I don’t really mean, things that hurt.”

He pulled her closer and she laid her cheek against his shoulder, felt him kiss the top of her head, felt a hand move over her belly. Instinctively she sought his mouth in the darkness, and found him willing, ready, opening to her. “Lenore,” he whispered brushing her tongue with his. “I want to make love to you now.”

She pulled his hand from her belly and slid it up onto her breast. The little sound coming from her mouth into his as the rake of his thumb stiffened her nipple was almost the mew of a small animal.

While he might have been clothed when he came to her, he certainly was not now. Come to think of it, she could not remember him ever being clothed, nor was there any reason, since he took what human form was necessary, tactile, not visible, and had probably never needed clothes with his compliment. She lifted her arms so that he could slide her shirt off over her head, palms pausing long enough to skim over her breast in his efforts. Then he went immediately to work on her trousers, sliding them down just far enough that her bottom was bare, flesh raking flesh, the shifting of his hips maneuvering until his erect penis splayed her open. And for him, muscle memory made accommodation, swollen, trembling and slick.

Another shift and glide, large hands supporting her buttocks and he entered her, her legs bound together by the trouser so that she could not take control and turn to straddle him. Instead he entered her from behind, pulling her down tightly onto his laps holding her hips as the first tight-fitting shock of his fullness passed over her and morphed to quivering anticipating of one thrust and another, of each glide and rake, of the feel of her breasts swollen and heavy from his fondling, at the tightness of his own nipples against her back. She gripped him tight, down there deep, her head falling back on his shoulder as though her neck suddenly had no bones, his mouth, his teeth even, finding the soft spot just below her ear making her squirm even more. The shift and glide tensed to a manic hammer and clench until she had forgotten how to breathe, until she knew she would never breathe again until he gave her what she wanted. A stroke of a finger against her own pebble of an erection, and her whole body convulsed, tensed and clamped down as he came inside her, squeezing her tightly against his body. Then she collapsed back against him, able to do nothing but gasp for oxygen, a thing he mirrored beneath her.

“I am at home in you, my Lenore. Inside you, I know myself.”

She snuggled him closer, wishing with all her heart that it were true, but it wasn’t. It couldn’t be. He didn’t know himself, did he? And he loved someone else. That shouldn’t matter. It had never been her intention to feel anything, nor to illicit any feelings in him, but it was far too late for that now, wasn’t it?

Carefully and lovingly he guided her down to her bed. With him surrounding her there was no need for the headlamp. And when he had helped settle her beneath the coverlet, he slid down next to her and pulled her close against his chest. There, so close to him, deep in his embrace, she did the thing she knew better than to ever do, she pretended that all he had said was true. She pretended that it was her he loved.

Dragon Ascending Part 41: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week week Fury and his crew tried to help Ascent get his memories back only to discover company is coming. This week no one is happy about Len’s solution to a major 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. I hope you find this switch-up helpful. 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 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 41: Solution Unacceptable

 “The Fallons? What the hell are they doing here?” Len asked, her heart going into overdrive.

“They want their inheritance back,” Manning said.

Before Len could question further, Fury said, “They will be able to pick up our transmissions in one minute. “We will cloak and speak only on our sub-processers, Ascent. The Authority cannot tap in.” Instantly his words became almost subliminal.

“We have to find out what exactly they’re planning,” Mac said.

“There’s a pub in Sandstorm,” Manning said.

“The Dust Bowl, yes.” Len replied. “That’s Arji’s bar. It’s the only place in Sandstorm to drink and blow off a little steam. Some of the locals are happy to whore a little if they can wring a few extra water credits out of off-worlders.”

“Fury could easily ‘tran us in, but the problem is,” Mac said, “half of Sandstorm, both the Fallon brats and probably all of their crew know what Manning and I look like. We were there already when we were trying to find you, Lenore.”

“If you could get me ‘tranned straight into the bar,” Manning said, “I might be able to pull off my famous New Vaticana monk disguise.”

“That would definitely draw the attention to you,” Len said. “No way in hell a monk would visit here. There are not nearly enough souls for them to give a shit about and worse yet, none of them have any real credits to aid the church. That would be suspicious to the locals and the Fallons. Let me go.”

“No!” Everyone said at the same time.

“Look,” she said, jumping to her feet. “I’m the only one who is a local. Arji is my friend.”

“Who wants to be a lot more than your friend,” Manning said. To which Ascent tensed, and she could feel his scrutiny.

“Don’t be ridiculous. We’re friends, just friends, and anyway that’s not the point. The point is, I can waltz right in there. Besides you can bet everyone in Sandstorm will be doing their best to find out just what the fuck two bloody damned Fallons are doing here with half an army.”

“They’re fucking Fallons,” Manning said. “Don’t you think they’ll happily pay to get someone to betray you, to betray us, someone who would do anything to get off world? It’s nothing to them, and if they’re not feeling generous, they’ll just kill the snitch when they’re done with him.”

“Of course there are people who would do anything to get out of Sandstorm, including being stupid enough to trust a Fallon. But I know who I can trust, and if there’s anyone on this sand heap that knows how to stay hidden it’s me. I know who I can trust, and Arji is one of them, plus he runs the damn pub, he hears everything, sees everything. If there’s information to be had, he’ll have it.”

“I do not want you to go, especially if this man, Arji wishes to copulate with you,” Ascent said.

“Fuck, Ascent! Whatever the hell Arji might wish, he’s a good man and a gentleman. He would never hurt me, and besides, it’s none of your damn business.”

“Your safety and well-being is my business, Lenore. I will not let someone unworthy paw over you.”

“I do not like the idea either, Ascent,” Fury broke in before the argument could heat up. “Lenore Falish is far more vulnerable that my compliments would be, and certainly I do not want to put them at risk.”

“Well Ascent is indisposed at the moment, and no matter how good you are at disguising yourself, Fury,” Mac said, “I’m pretty damn sure you can’t disguise yourself as a local and saunter right on in to Arji’s pub.”

“Couple of goddamn mother hens,” Manning muttered. “Look, we have to do something.”

“For the moment there is nothing we can do,” Fury said. “It will be several hours at least before shuttles will be allowed to disembark, and then a little longer before the locals can glean any information. Perhaps in that time we may think of another plan.”

But Len knew there wasn’t one. She was their only hope of getting in unnoticed. “They know that you’re here, don’t they Fury?”

“I suspect that is the only reason they would come to this place in force. But they will not easily be able to find me”

“Perhaps it is better that you leave then,” Ascent said. “To protect your compliment and my Lenore.”

“And if they find you?” Lenore said. “Ascent, you can’t move. You don’t even know who you are. But they are Fallons. They could hurt you, they could do horrible things. They could force you to do horrible things. I can’t even think about that.”

“Lenore Falish is right,” Fury said. “We must stick together. There is far more at stake than just the two of us. In the meantime let us hope that Dubrovnik swiftly receives our message and Professor Keen contacts us. If anyone will know what to do, it is he and the science team at his disposal. Even so, my family has been destroyed by the Fallons and the conglomerates once, we will not let that happen again now that we are only beginning to reunite. We must stick together.”

Fury had barely ‘tranned Manning back to the ship when Ascent said. “I will not allow you to go back to Sandstorm, to go back to this Arji, who wants you.”

“First of all, Manning is full of shit,” she said. “And second of all I’m not yours to boss around like some fucking kid.”

“Then perhaps you should stop behaving like one.”

“Ascent, don’t be ridiculous. I’m the only one who can safely do this task and not get caught, and we need the information. We need it badly.”

“Perhaps that is true, but perhaps you are just anxious to get back to this Arji of yours.”

 

 

“Seriously? You can’t seriously believe that? Arji is my friend, nothing more. He’s never touched me except to revive me when the drone landed on Tak Major. Then he turned me over to Tula and Vaness to nurse back to health.” She shivered, “I’m not anxious to go back there at all. I don’t ever want to go back there, but I’m happy to do my part to rid the world of a couple of Fallons and bloody the Authority’s nose one more time. I can’t think of a better place for Abriad Fallon’s obscene fortune than put to use to find your brothers and sisters and make an end to indentured servitude.”

For a moment, Ascent made no response, and then he simply said. “No. I will not let you go. Now if you will please return to your room, it is time for your noon meal.”

“Last time I checked, Ascent, I was a full partner in this situation with a vote and a choice, and you can’t keep me from going. I don’t belong to you. What the hell, do compliments on SNTs get ordered around like this? I bet -”

“You are not my compliment,” he cut her off, “you could never be.”

The feel of cold static crawled over her skin from his anger. That she barely felt, but his words, his words gutted her on the spot.

“And you never miss a goddamned chance to remind me of it, do you? You even house me in the cargo bay. I get it all ready.” She turned and fled his heart chamber, taking the ladder down to her suite. There she found lunch set out before her, another exotic, and no doubt pleasing, meal. She ignored it, grabbed up her bag and went to explore the only space open to her, Ascent’s fucking corridors. He did not come after her, nor had she expected him to. He might just tell Fury to ‘tran her to Sandstorm base and be done with her. But she had options now, didn’t she? She paced the hallway. Surely Fury would be kind enough to help her get to the Rim. She would be happy to work for her keep. Well, she would allow Fury to ‘tran her to Sandstorm with or without Ascent’s permission, and then when she had gathered what information she could, she’d simply not come back to Ascent. Clearly he didn’t want her here. She was so far inferior to his dead compliment that he could only see her as an ignorant child in need of his care and protection. Hell, he had no idea, no idea. She stopped being a child when she and her mother fled the SNT docks with the Authority in hot pursuit. She paced the halls setting a plan in motion that would give her options when Ascent refused to take her back. Her enthusiasm for it waned as her anger cooled and as Ascent’s silence stretched on.

In the evening, she returned to her suite to find the lunch meal cleared away and dinner set before her, one she was sure was designed to tempt her, like one would tempt a child with candy. Her stomach clenched in anger at the thought, a thought that was followed too closely by the painful memory of his words. No, she was not his compliment, and she could never be. She didn’t look the meal. For the first time since Ascent brought her here, she wasn’t hungry, but she figured that had little to do with appetite. She had wandered the space he lit for her over and over until she felt like she could scream. She had only returned to her suite for her pack. She put on her headlamp and shouldered the rucksack.

Her memory had allowed her to memorize the schematics she had seen Richard Manning studying while he was onboard. They were now laid out in her head as clearly as they had been on the charts he had pulled up on his computer pad. With that information, she made her way up the maintenance shaft on hands and knees until she found Ascent’s bridge. It was very different from Fury’s, smaller though not by much, a little more stylized, more ornate. A woman’s touch, she thought settling into the captain’s chair, the only chair on deck. Ascent’s woman, his bonded compliment, his love. The feel of the chair that did not quite fit her body, the chair Ascent had shaped lovingly for someone with more curves, for someone less starved, more of a woman, more of a pilot, trained to be his true companion. She, on the other hand, was little more than a temporary fix, whose only value was to keep the pain at bay for a little while. For a moment jealousy burned through her chest so bad it hurt. For a moment she hated the woman for giving to Ascent what she could never give him, what he would never allow her to even if she could. But that was the way it was supposed to be with SNTs and their companions. It took years for them to train, to prepare, to take the immune suppressants so that they could be fully integrated. She rested her hand against the control panel. With a soft glow, the view screen came to life. She gave a little yelp of surprise, pulling her fingers back and glancing around, half expecting him to come raging, telling her to get out.

When that didn’t happen, she wiped sweating fingers on her trousers and, remembering the layout of Fury’s control panel, tried to piece together the function. The pilot’s controls were worthless right now, since Ascent couldn’t remember how to fly, and she was not actually a trained pilot. Apparently Diana Mac was. Apparently she was the best in the galaxy. Worthy compliments, she was bloody surrounded by them, while her proper education had come to an end at Tak Minor when her mother died. After her escape to Tak Major, it was never more than just survival. How could Ascent possibly look at her as anything more than just the filthy little urchin girl grown up in the dust and sand?

She had dreamed of one day training to become a compliment to an SNT. Hadn’t even Quetzalcoatl said she was a natural? Born to it, he had said, but not now, not with no training, with not preparation, and not with a grieving, uncooperative ship, who could not even remember his own name.

 

Dragon Ascending Part 40: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week week Kresho got a peek into the Fallon family dynamics. Meanwhile, back on Tak Major, Fury and his crew try to help Ascent get his memories back. 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. I hope you find this switch-up helpful. 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 40: Blocking Memories

“I have never had sex with a man before,” Ascent said. Len had begun to recognize his moods, his emotions. He was nervous with Fury’s compliment Richard Manning running the diagnostic of his hearts blood. The man’s hands were competent, strong and very gentle in their touch. She knew that it moved Ascent to be treated so. It moved her. She smiled at his shyness, reminding her of herself with him the first time.

“Well mate, you were with two the other night and you held up your part of the bargain admirably, I can vouch.” Manning didn’t seem nearly as nervous about it as Ascent did, but Ascent definitely had that pleased, very male, attitude at the compliment on his sexual prowess.

“Ascent, what is the last thing you remember before you became aware of Lenore Falish’s presence?” Fury asked. All channels were now being kept open all the time. Diana Mac, or Mac as she went by most of the time, was with Fury and Manning was here. Len stood watching him, feeling Ascent’s presence as though he stood right behind her resting a hand on her shoulder

“I remember coming through flame alone, feeling as though my heart were suddenly no longer there. I remember settling into sand and metal and beginning the shut-down sequence, wanting only to sleep, wanting never to wake up again.”

“I recall that feeling, Ascent. That was most definitely my plan before Richard Manning came into my life.”

“I do remember that the de-mole barrier around this salvage yard was not there when I settled. I would have remembered such a thing, I am sure.”

“I would guess someone was either trying to keep you in or trying to keep others away from you,” Manning said. “But if that’s the case who the hell could put up that many kilometers of de-mole fence and not draw any attention? Even as remote as this place is, that’s the kind of thing that definitely gets noticed.”

“Then someone knows Ascent’s here.” Len shivered at the thought and leaned back into Ascent’s comfort.

“I saw only sand and metal. There was nothing else, and I saw that this was a place I could rest undisturbed.”

“It would appear that was not the case after all,” Fury observed.

“Surely it couldn’t have been the Authority,” Mac said.

“Sandstorm gets a visit from an Authority ship maybe once every five galactic years, if that,” Len said. “It’s always someone setting down with ship troubles, and they never stay longer than absolutely necessary. Sandstorm’s not a very hospitable place when it comes to Authority visitors. There’s no other reason for an Authority ship to come here. There’s nothing to be gained. Technically Tak Major is a part of the Outer Rim Free Alliance, though ships from there don’t come here much more often than the Authority’s do. Most of our supplies are off-loaded to a space station and then sent in from there, as often as not on drone ships. Most often they come from Vodni Station or Hammer Fall, on the other side of the sector. Vodni is slightly closer, but not as big. Otherwise all we get are desperate salvage vessels, and even those only a few a year.”

“Then how the hell did all that salvaged space junk get here,” Manning asked.

“Taklamakan Major was not always such an inhospitable place,” Fury said. “The erratic orbit caused a major climate shift a hundred and fifty galactic years ago, and while it was never more than a desert planetoid, it was a good salvage dump, with a healthy trade going on between salvage vessels. The shift caused the temperatures to rise, and the winds to become deadly at night. The population shrunk to the three remaining outposts and they shrunk to only those who could not easily get off.”

“I do not remember any of that information,” Ascent said. “I did not care for anything other than the place was remote and no one would disturb my slumber.”

“I’m going to probe the memory nodes in your prefrontal cortex,” Manning said. “That might help to stimulate enough memory to cause a cascade that will bring it all back.”

This time Ascent’s grip on Len’s shoulder was almost painful. “I am not certain I desire a cascade, Richard Manning. It cannot be pleasant.” Sensing his discomfort, Len offered an embrace, which earned her the ships equivalent of returning in kind.

 

 

 

 

“It will not be pleasant,” Fury answered, “I cannot imagine any SNT still living who would not wish never to revisit those memories of loss and deception, but there are many reasons that you need to remember, Ascent. First of all, and perhaps foremost, we must try to learn who set up the de-mole perimeter. The Authority would have had neither the technology, nor the resources to do such a thing in such a remote location. Then the only logical assumption is that the barrier was placed by another SNT, set more than likely to protect you from those who might come with ulterior motives.”

“But who?” Which one?” Manning asked. “This is so far from the last recorded locations of any of the SNT ships.”

“Ascent, your compliment suspected that the Authority would sabotage the SNT mission,” Len said. “That’s why she chose to take you to a remote part of space. I remember that now from your nightmare. Though she never said what remote part of the galaxy you were sent to, but you were here with her in the dream,” she said. “I remember now.”

“Dreams are not always literal,” Fury commented. “My database shows no deep space missions anywhere near the Taklamakan System.” He added, “any journeys an SNT would have made here would have been off program.”

“I do not remember any of my dreams,” Ascent said. “I am somehow conscious that they are not all nightmares and that I would happily linger in those that aren’t. But it is little more than a feeling of contentment, I suppose. As for the nightmares, I only remember fire, pain and loss, and that I am unable to wake up from it.” Then he added. “I have only dreamed at all since my awakening.”

“You would not dream in your deep sleep,” Fury commented.

“Fury,” Mac said, “were there other SNTs and their compliments who feared sabotage from the Authority?”

“SNTs are, by nature, very optimistic, and in most cases, I believe the scientists and the compliments felt that the SNT technology was unassailable by the conglomerates, but surely there had to have been concerns. The Authority’s pervious behavior suggests they were not to be trusted, especially that they would allow control to such technology to anyone else but the conglomerates.”

“You believed your compliment was being paranoid,” Len said, “and then …” She bit back her words she was about to say, wishing suddenly that she’d kept her mouth shut.

“And then what?” Manning asked.

“How long will what you’re doing take, Manning?” She asked, trying to change the subject.

It was Ascent who spoke. “Lenore, you do not have to protect me. What you have to say may be helpful. And then what?”

“And then you became infected.”

It felt as though everyone, including both ships, held their breath. The feel of dry static surged over Ascent’s heart space, and at last he spoke. “Then it is possible that I may have done horrible things. It is possible that my bonded is dead because of me, and I do not know if there are others dead at my doing.”

While Len would have softened her response, trying to be gentle with him, Fury simply replied. “It is possible, Ascent, for many of our brothers and sisters did things they would have never done if not for the Authority’s egregious sabotage.”

“Then perhaps that is why I do not remember what happened.”

“You don’t remember what happened because you’re somehow blocking the memories,” Manning said.

“What?” Len and Mac said at the same time.

Manning looked up from his efforts. “I’ve been doing everything I know to stimulate your prefrontal cortex, Ascent, and you keep kicking me out. The de-mole is nothing compared to the protective perimeter you’ve placed around your memory. I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe if Keen were here, he’d know what to do, but I’m stymied.”

“I have already put out a deep space signal to Professor Keen on Dubrovnik,” Fury said. “We should be hearing back any time now.”

“Is there anyone else who might have blocked those memories?” Len asked.

“There is not,” Fury said. While there are parts of an SNT’s technology that can be upgraded, changed, or modified, the brain and heart of an SNT are organic. The virus might have caused damage, but if that is the case, then a simple infusion of my blood, my nanites, would instantly begin a repair, and that we have already tried.”

“Is it possible there might be a delayed reaction, or maybe even some sort of rejection of your biological soup, Fury?” Mac asked.

“I have never heard of such a thing, and since each SNT already contain my cloned biological soup, as you call it, Mac, I am only aiding my family, all compatible to me,” He said.

Ascent spoke very quietly. “Then what I have blocked must be truly horrible.”

“It would be best not to speculate,” Fury said. “Since we do not know which of the surviving SNTs you are. We do know that you are not one that we believed to have survived, and we do not have records of any SNTs ever being in this sector. Therefore we must learn who you are, and only then will we be able to piece together what drove you to this place. If perhaps you received the message I sent out in my efforts to escape, in my efforts to save Richard Manning’s life, your compliment would have known how to cure you of the virus. I do not know if you or if any of my brothers and sisters received that message. That is the anguish I will live with until we are all once again united.”

“There was no sign of infection in your brain when we scanned it,” Manning said. “I would say somehow you were cured. If your compliment didn’t get the message, then she figured out some other method of beating the virus.”

“She said you must live to fight another day,” Mac said. “I remember that part of the nightmare you shared. She said it was the only way. I don’t remember much but that I remember now.”

“I remember that too,” Manning said.

So did Len.

“Please,” Ascent broke in. “Please I do not want to continue. She sacrificed herself, and I could not save her, and I cannot bare it, please.”

“We are not alone.” Fury spoke into the charged moment. “Three Jaegers, a Dreadnaught and a Kestrel class.”

“Fuck me!” Mac said. “Don’t those bastards ever give up, and now it’s a damned family reunion come along with their plus one.”

“Goddamned Fallons,” Manning hissed.

“They will be in high orbit in five minutes,” Fury said.