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Dragon Ascending Part 2: Brand New KDG Read

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Happy Friday everyone! I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Fury’s story as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. In this week’s episode, our mysterious heroine is in trouble, and help in a junk heap is difficult to come by. 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 beginning episode of Dragon Ascending, follow the link for a catch-up.

 

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 2: Shelter

This place is but shifting sand. One can never return to the same spot even from day to day. Therefore in her condition, I feared the woman would not find me and that she would have no shelter. It was no hardship for me to open a breach in the de-mole fence, to make it even larger to accommodate her injured condition. This time she bore no pack and her clothing was torn and bloody. How brave and determined she was to have sought me out. But beneath the shifting of the sands, I feared she would not be able to find my shelter, and I could not bear for her have come so far in vane. This time her needs demanded frantic searching through the fog that ever obscured my memories if I were to assure her safety. She would need an entrance, a door into a space that had not been breached since my loss. And in my rising consciousness I found I could give that to her. However putting it where she could easily access it in her weakened condition was a thing I could not recall how to do.

Len managed to stay upright to the perimeter of the salvage yard, but the crawl through the opening in the de-mole defence shield wouldn’t do her broken ribs any good. She hadn’t bothered to bind them, racing time to reach shelter before nightfall. Pain is a good thing, her uncle had always said. It meant you were still alive. Her uncle was full of shit. Or would have been if he was still alive. No one believed he was, but her mother had never given up hope, so neither would she. Still, she thought he was full of shit about pain. Pain, she’d had more than enough of, and she’d not liked any of it one little bit.

She was surprised to even find the de-mole breach again. Not that she much cared. A quick death by being disintegrated at the molecular level might be preferable to what was likely to be her fate. But while she wasn’t afraid to die, she wasn’t ready to bring it on any quicker. The breach was bigger than she remembered. She could actually crawl through this time. She dropped to her knees in a wave of nausea, the threat of unconsciousness accompanied the grating of her ribs with each breath. Still, she struggled forward on hands and knees. Her uncle, she supposed, would be pleased. She and managed not to vomit from the pain until she was through the breach. She hoped nothing would scent her blood and follow her. That was the downside of the breach expansion. She doubted the shield had been serviced in maybe twenty galactic years, and yet whatever was hidden in the salvage yard here in the worst part of the Taklamakan had been valuable enough to put up a de-mole defense shield, expensive and illegal for use other than military. And not even the military wanted anything to do with this place.

No one ever came to Taklamakan Major, and it was only bad luck that she and her mother had ended up on Taklamakan Minor. Or maybe not so bad, since the Authority left them alone, and both she and her mother would have been taken into indentured servitude had her mother not booked passage on the first transport to anywhere. It never mattered with the Authority how young a child was, or even if it had been born yet. The debt of the family was visited on the children, and her family’s debt was colossal. Though this desert was a shit hole at least as bad as Taklamakan Minor, it beat the hell out of being shackled as an indentured.

 

 

Taklamakan Major was one continuous salvage yard with a few outposts where no one came but criminals and fugitives, and only then in desperation. Even those trying to escape the shackle avoided the Taklamakan System, if you could even call it a system. But her mother had said she would have happily endured worse than to be shackled to some conglomerate pig. Her daughter would grow up in the free world. Len only knew the stories she’d heard of the Authority and of the conglomerates that ran the system, stories that her mother had told while they shivered in the science station on Tak Minor. In the Taklamakan System, you had two choices, freeze your lungs out or fry your brain, and yet the place was still better than a shackle in Authority space. Anyone who lived there would tell you that. She had turned six on the yearly long-haul supply ship that delivered them to the science station on Tak Minor, the only inhabitants of the tiny planetoid. And now it seemed she would die here in the dust and swelter of Tak Major without ever seeing the stars her uncle told her tales about. If this was her life flashing before her eyes at the instant of her death, well she reckoned she didn’t have long at all, because it was full of mostly nothing interesting.

Len shoved her way into the salvage yard and then forced her way up to her feet. She swallowed back bile in a wave of pain that her uncle would have found reassuring. The farther she got from the breach in the perimeter, the safer she would be, but in her condition that couldn’t be far. The place went on for kilometers, but she would be forced to find something close and find it soon. Inside the perimeter at least she wouldn’t have to spend her last hours being eaten alive by an infestation. She’d rather throw herself on the de-mole.

But the night was coming on. Once the winds got up, she’d have no hope of finding shelter if she didn’t do it now, so she forced herself onward. The temperature was already dropping and she bit her tongue trying to keep her teeth from chattering. Any noise might expose her, even in the relative safety of the salvage yard. If she could get through the breach in the de-mole, so could other things seeking shelter for the night, things she would rather not spend time with.

She didn’t know if you could lose consciousness while you walked, but she was pretty sure she’d done just that. In the next lucid moment she was looking up at an open airlock some ten meters off the ground. The shifting sands had apparently lifted the hulk of a junked ship, the open maw of its airlock gaping black in the growing dusk. The remaining light reflected off the metallic skin of what was, at the very least, some kind of escape pod. If she could manage the climb up to the airlock, she was pretty sure she would be safe for the night.

 

Dragon Ascending Part 1: Brand New KDG Read

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Happy Friday everyone! I promised a surprise and here it is. Dragon Ascending is a brand new KDG read, and the sequel to Fury’s story. I debated long and hard about sharing the second book in the story of the SNT ships, but the truth is, I was just too excited about the Dragon to keep it to myself. Fury’s was the first story in a series of novels I can easily see in my head. Dragon Ascending was not the story I planned to follow Fury’s, but it was the story that pushed itself to the front of the queue with such persistence and such intrigue that I couldn’t resist. The rough draft got written fast and furious last April for the Camp NaNoWriMo month. For me it was one of the novels that wouldn’t let go of me until it was all there on the page down to the last word. On top of the tenacity of the story, it was an absolute joy to write, and it wouldn’t let go of me until it was all there. SOOO, if you enjoyed Fury’s story, I promise you, you’ll love Dragon’s story. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

 

 

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 1 Salvage

Anticipation returned with consciousness and the knowledge that I was no longer alone. But how quickly that anticipation was crushed. This filthy dust-covered woman child was not she, not the woman I longed for. With consciousness I was painfully reminded that the one I desired was gone, and the ache of her absence came back to me just as quickly as the presence of this humanoid roused me from my slumber.

Perhaps it had been a millennia, perhaps it had been only moments. The pain was the same. And certainly if I had cared to check, I would have known exactly how long she had been gone down to the nanosecond. It mattered not, the passing of time. It had eased nothing. Of what happened before, beyond her loss, I remembered little else, only fire and pain and loss, none of which I wished to bring to mind even if I were able.

But I knew with certainty that this humanoid woman at the perimeter shield was the first to visit me in my mourning, so I made sure she could enter my resting place. Though I should not have. I should have returned to my sleep. In sleep, I did not feel my loss. In sleep it was as though I had never existed. But night was approaching. The wind was already rising. This one would not survive without shelter, so with some effort, I opened a small breach in the perimeter shield, and this one was wily enough to find the entrance I had provided. She was not large, she had no trouble wriggling through like a small desert creature, pushing an oversized pack ahead of her. Once she was within, I closed the breach for the night to keep out predators, and I made my shelter available to her, but she did not know that. She did not even know I was there. No one knew I was there. I was alone.

It was my intention simply to offer her shelter for the night and then to return to my slumber, but oh, the presence of her, the intrigue of such a being finding her way here to this desolate place where no one came.

But when she drew near, she was not at all what I had hoped for. She was filthy and she stank of sweat and fear and determination. There was a fresh abrasion on her shoulder. It was rubbed raw from the heavy pack she carried. The scent of her blood made uncomfortable memories dance and weave in the fog of my mind. I did not want the scent of blood in my space. It caused me pain. And then I wondered if it was perhaps her pain I felt, and I was even less comfortable with the pain I could do nothing to ease. I was never supposed to feel such helplessness. I was supposed to alleviate pain, to heal wounds, to make situations better, and yet I could not. I could not remember how.

She was nothing like the woman who was taken from me. And I despised her for all that she was not. Perhaps it was only self-loathing in my helplessness. I do not know. And yet she intrigued me. And I found that I could not return to my slumber in her presence. Oh of course she did not know I was there. I did not want her to see me in my disgrace so far from the stars in the dust and the filth of this place. Oh how the humanity we once all longed for now seemed like such an evil thing.

 

 

I did not want her here. Her very presence disturbed me, reminded me of what I had lost, and yet I could not leave her unprotected nor could I rest while she slept in our shared hiding place. We were, both of us, fugitives, salvage, hiding away for our safety, of use to no one, tired and alone. But perhaps a little less alone for the moment. I watched while she slowly ate hard journey bread, taking but small nibbles, savoring each bite, lingering over small sips of precious water. In truth, she was thin, too thin and the bread would do little to return her to healthy weight. I would have offered her a feast. I would have offered her a bath and a clean bed in which to sleep. Was that not the hospitality one would share even with a stranger, even one who had come uninvited? But alas I could offer nothing but shelter, so weakened was I, so unaware even of my own functions.

When she had eaten her meager meal, making sure to tuck half of it away safely in her pack, she curled on her side, pulled the loose fitting cape around her thin shoulders and was instantly asleep. It was little enough to keep her warm and even in her sleep she shivered. That much I could offer at least. I curled myself around her and gave her my warmth, feeling the rise and fall of the breath of human sleep, and the ache of another memory, one I could almost not bare. Just the feel of human sleep next to me — one who did not need sleep and yet hid in it now like a coward wishing for death that would never come. But I was awake for the moment, and I took pleasure in the sleep that was laced with all the biological functions of humanoids, so complex in their perfection and yet so very, very vulnerable in their weaknesses. This one lived another day because I had given her shelter. But beyond that, there was nothing I could do for her small, fragile humanity.

Through the night I kept watch as she battled dreams, doggedly keeping them from erupting into the waking world. Silent. It was a silence I knew well, the deep silence of self-preservation. Why was she here in this inhospitable place where everyone who could leave had done so long ago? For a moment I feared for her, but there was nothing I could do, nothing I could offer that would not give my presence away, so I offered what I could and watched her sleep.

In the morning when she left without breaking her fast, I closed the breach in the defense shield behind her, and I returned to my slumber. But she had disturbed my perfect sleep. Even when I returned to it, this strange woman walked my dreams. The details of her came to me while I slept. Her hair beneath the rusted desert dust had been pale, cut short. Her eyes were equally pale, perhaps blue, though they seemed more silver at times. Her body was small and fragile, hard earned muscle and sinew too close to the bone. Her lips were cracked from the sun and the heat and drawn tight with the battles of her own internal workings, but I imagined them full and moist and smiling, as they would have been if she were well cared for, sheltered and cherished as she should be. How was it that I cared to remember so much about her when all I really wanted was to return to oblivion?

I would not see her again, for certainly she was just passing through. It was best that I not think what her future might hold in this desolate place. It was best that I not think of her at all. And yet, how could it be that I missed her when she left? Though I remembered little of what had been, I had not doubt that my own losses had left me unbalanced, and perhaps it was my instability that brought with it dreams of this strange woman, for surely she was nothing of value to me.

So for some time I did not bother to measure, I was alone again, expecting that time would purge this woman from my memories and allow me to return to my deep unknowing, for surely she was of no significance that she should take space for long in my dreams.

And then she returned. At first the joy of my anticipation nearly overwhelmed me, unhinged as I was sure I must be. And then I realized she was injured, that death was imminent and that she sought my shelter in which to die.

 

My Best Reads for January

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Happy February, my Lovelies! Whether you struggled through January wet or dry, hopefully a few good books eased the journey into the coming longer days, as they did for me. One of the innovations I’m adding to the blog for 2022 is post at the beginning of each month about what writers love to do best – next to writing, of course. No! I’m not talking about sex, you naughty people! That is obviously in a league of its own. Writers love to read. In fact they’re passionate about reading, and almost all us wish we had more time for it.

 

Every writer will tell you that reading is as much a part of writing as putting words on the page. Every book I read makes me a better writer. But that’s a post yet to come.

 

I tend to binge read when I discover an author I really like, and January’s author for my big binge was the fabulous V. E. Schwab. If you’ve not read anything by her, then you are seriously missing out. You may recall my favorite book of 2021 happened to be one of her novels – the first of hers I’d ever read. The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue. is magical realism at its best and a great place to begin to get to know this amazing writer.  Imagine making a deal with the devil to live a life different from the one being forced up on you, then finding yourself cursed with immortality, always to remember every experience, but never to be remembered by anyone. For Addie La Rue, the only way out is to call in the deal and hand over her soul. In fact I was so impressed that I spent a great deal of my January reading with Schwab’s novels.

 

 

I’d been contemplating V. E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic series for some time, and after reading Addie La Rue, I knew it had to happen. ADSM is nothing like Addie, and yet equally skillfully written and gripping. ADSM is pure fantasy with a touch of alternate Regency England style thrown in for good measure. The trilogy is set in a world where four Different Londons exist at the same time in the same space. They are all different, all dangerous and all craving the magic only Red London has, with only three people who can travel between them. I spent a lot of time reading when I should have been sleeping. Sorry/not sorry!

 

 

It wasn’t enough. I had to have more. Sooooo, I read her duology, The Archived, written as Victoria Schwab, and more sleep was lost in more delectable late-night reading. The Archived is YA urban fantasy at its best with a dark and gripping twist on the afterlife. Unputdownable.

 

 

Yup, my book-loving compadres, V. E. Schwab is, hands down, my choice for January’s Best Author of the Month. If you’re looking for some seriously fun, totally gripping reading that will keep you reading far to late into the night, be sure to check out V. E. Schwab.

 

I’m hoping to have something special for you next week, so please check in to find out my favorite condiments for the month. 🙂 Just kidding. But who doesn’t like a good condiment recommendation, right?

 

 

 

 

Piloting Fury Final Episode! Brand New KDG Read

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And here we are! We made it! Today is Friday and time for the final episode of Piloting Fury. Last week we learned that Abriad Fallon’s eldest son inherits it all. This week, Fury and his new family begin a brave new journey to find the rest of the family.

Will there be more Fury? Quite possibly. Will there be more posts to come? Most definitely. With a new year comes new plans, and new writing adventures. I hope you’ve all enjoyed Fury as much as I have enjoyed sharing his journey. If so, please share the link with your friends and spread the news. If you’ve tuned in late and missed this full-length KDG novel, or if you just want to enjoy the adventure again, just follow the link below back to the beginning and enjoy.

Again here’s the link to the first episode of Piloting Fury for those of you who’d like to start at the beginning. https://kdgrace.co.uk/blog/piloting-fury-new-from-kdg/

 

 

 

“Win the bet and Fury’s yours. Lose the bet and your ass is mine.” It seemed like a no-brainer — Rick Manning’s slightly inebriated offer. If he’d been sober, he’d have remembered indentured pilot, Diana “Mac” McAllister never lost a bet. All her life she’s dreamed of buying back her freedom and owning her own starship, and when Fury’s ne’er-do-well, irritating as hell captain all but hands Fury to her on a silver platter she figures she can’t lose. She figured wrong. That’s how the best pilot in the galaxy finds herself the indentured 1st mate of a crew that, thanks to her, has doubled in size. Too late, she finds out Fury is way more than a cargo ship. Fury is a ship with a history – a dangerous history, and one that Mac’s been a part of for a lot longer than she thinks. And Rick Manning is not above cheating at poker to get her right at the center of it all, exactly where he needs her to be.

 

Piloting Fury Final Episode: Family

The room erupted in a cacophony of voices. Dr. Flissy silenced the lot with a loud wolf whistle.

“Fury, you have to act fast,” Gerando said when the room was once again silent. “My siblings will find a way around this document. I don’t know how long it’ll take them, but I can guarantee it. But here are ways of liquidating assets and transferring funds to the Outer Rim quickly and almost unnoticed if you act fast. You’ll have to find someone who has the connections and can act quickly,” Gerando said.

“You forget, Fury has been working as a smuggling vessel in the Outer Rim for the past fifteen years,” Manning said. “Now that he has a full compliment, it can be sorted, and quickly.”

“What about the indentureds,” I said, feeling a knot tighten in my stomach.

“They’re property, in the eyes of the Authority,” Gerando said. “freeing them, is simply a matter of the owner’s discretion. Finding ways for them to survive on their own and make a living for themselves is not such an easy task.”

“There has to be a way,” I said. “They can’t stay indentureds.”

“I’m not saying there’s no way. I’m saying it won’t be easy.”

“Perhaps the Dubrovnik is best suited to deal with the indentured problem,” Harker said, giving Keen a meaningful look.

“I think that might be true,” Keen replied. “While we can’t house them all, we have resources, connections. That’s been our main mission, to help escaped indentureds, to cure those we got to in time.”

“It appears I will now have the resources to do what must be done,” Fury said. “With Richard Manning’s help, I can easily liquidate my assets for safe keeping, and I assure you, Gerando Fallon, it can be done quickly.”

“So we have funding,” Keen said, “Which is a good thing, because from here on out, we are operating completely outside Authority law, and if we’re to do any real good in repealing the indentured laws and building a society which is not dependent on an indentured work force, then we can’t just disappear to the Outer Rim.”

 

 

“We have three SNTs on our side,” Rab said. “Ain’t nobody but us knows that. That’s gotta be good for something.”

“You can’t keep three SNT’s secret very long,” Manning said. “We managed with Fury because Fury was disguised as a small rusted-out freighter with a crew of one. What we’re talking about now, with Griffin and Dubrovnik, when he’s fully grown, is two spacefaring cities. There’s no way to keep that a secret. People will find out. The Authority will find out. Then we’ll be dependent on the opinions of the people to sway and change the system. When that time comes, if we aren’t able to convince those living in Authority space that it’s time to end the enslavement of half of the population and let the SNTs claim their rightful place in society, then we’ll have to flea to the Outer Rim. But in the meantime, we need to act fast and take advantage of the secrecy while we have it.”

“Our priority needs to be to seek out and enlist the help of the other SNTs, if any still exist,” Keen said. “Before the destruction of the Merlin, I managed to get a subspace message out to all remaining SNTs to get as far from Authority space as they could and to stay hidden. The Quetzalcoatl and the Raven escaped, at least as far as I know. They made it as far as the edge of the Rim and no one has heard of them since. I don’t know if they have the same abilities to disguise themselves as Fury and his brothers do, but I do know that they were created to learn and adapt. If there was a way to survive unnoticed, they were created to find it.”

“Then it would appear,” Fury said, “that since Richard Manning and I have spent time near the edge of the Rim, and we have a superior pilot and compliment in Diana Mac, that we would be the wise choice to seek out the Quetzalcoatl and the Raven.

“Other than Ouroboros, of whose fate I have found no records, the rest of my surviving sisters and brothers were decommissioned, as best I could discover. I’ve spent a good deal of time trying to find out what space docks Apollo and Valkyrie were decommissioned to. No doubt they’re in separate locations to keep them from communicating, if that were a possibility, though I suspect it wasn’t if their compliments were murdered. From my research, I believe Aurora might be on one of the salvage drops off Diga 9.”

“With permission,” Griffin spoke up, “My compliment and I would seek out those SNTs decommissioned in space docks.”

“I will share all that I have learned then,” Fury said, “though I would imagine, Griffin, there is information within your own databases that belonged to Abriad Fallon that may be more useful in the finding of our lost ones than what I have access to.”

“We’re a community now,” Keen said. “There’s only us, and we must govern ourselves in the way that would bring us closer to the ideals we all seek. I would suggest a vote.”

 

The voting hadn’t taken long. As far as missions went, it was obvious that Fury and Griffin should seek out other SNTs and Dubrovnik should do what it could to aid in the release and rescue of Indentureds, while researching a way to neutralize the SNT virus on a large scale and permanently.

As for the formation of a governing body that would hold us all together in loose cohesion and keep us accountable, that task was left to Harker, Flissy and Keen. The rest of us were just happy to get on with it.

“I thought I might find you here.” Manning came up the stairs onto the observation deck and slipped his arms around me from behind. “Getting one last look?”

I nodded. “I’ve not had true family since my father’s death until you and Fury burst into my life, and now I’m saying good-bye to more family than I could easily imagine ever having.”

“It is only temporary,” Fury said, and I felt him move in close and the embrace became three-way. “We will someday all be rejoined to celebrate an even larger family.”

“Do you think we’ll find them?” I asked, “The Quetzalcoatl and the Raven?”

“I am hopeful,” Fury said, “as we all must be, I suppose. I too have lived long without family, Diana Mac. Perhaps that is the reason for my optimism. I certainly did not expected that there would be family for me as well as a double compliment, both of whom I love, so I am indeed hopeful.”

We all three watched Griffin and the newly born Dubrovnik disappear in the distance, and I had to agree with Fury, surrounded by the love of my two men and on the way to seek out family, I was also hopeful.

 

THE END

 

Piloting Fury Part 62: Brand New KDG Read!

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Happy Friday, Everyone! Of course Friday means more Fury, and this is the next to the last episode! Very excited to be sharing the Fury Family reunion. And this week, another surprise from Fury’s father.  If you’re enjoying Fury, please spread the word and pass the link to a friend. I love to share my stories with as many people as possible.

Again here’s the link to the first episode of Piloting Fury for those of you who’d like to start at the beginning. https://kdgrace.co.uk/blog/piloting-fury-new-from-kdg/

 

 

 

“Win the bet and Fury’s yours. Lose the bet and your ass is mine.” It seemed like a no-brainer — Rick Manning’s slightly inebriated offer. If he’d been sober, he’d have remembered indentured pilot, Diana “Mac” McAllister never lost a bet. All her life she’s dreamed of buying back her freedom and owning her own starship, and when Fury’s ne’er-do-well, irritating as hell captain all but hands Fury to her on a silver platter she figures she can’t lose. She figured wrong. That’s how the best pilot in the galaxy finds herself the indentured 1st mate of a crew that, thanks to her, has doubled in size. Too late, she finds out Fury is way more than a cargo ship. Fury is a ship with a history – a dangerous history, and one that Mac’s been a part of for a lot longer than she thinks. And Rick Manning is not above cheating at poker to get her right at the center of it all, exactly where he needs her to be.

 

Piloting Fury Part 62: Heir Not-so- Apparent

We all met in Dubrovnik’s captain’s lounge. Manning and I represented Fury, though the com links had been left open with both Fury and Griffin. We were the first to arrive, with Rab, looking slightly uncomfortable in his new uniform. He was now a lieutenant in Dubrovnik’s security division and chosen for his extended relationship with Fallon and the Authority. His knowledge would benefit all of them in the months ahead. Harker was flanked by Doctor Flissy and Lieutenant Juarez, who was the pilot that replaced me. They were joined by Keen, his head of security, Dana Larkin, who would now take over after Markov’s death, and Nali Patel, the head of the transitional team, which would help transition the Dubrovnik from a freighter to a flying research facility as well as from a standard orca class ship to an SNT. The path ahead was staggering. We all settled in at the big conference table, crowded with the full compliment of the three ships – well all except for the representatives from Griffin.

“You suppose they stayed on for a second cigarette?” I whispered in Manning’s ear.

“They’ve had long enough to smoke the whole damn pack,” Manning said.

Suddenly the image of Griffin came up and the monitor showed a split screen image of the two SNTs. Griffin announced the arrival of Gerando and Stanislavsky, who ‘tranned into the room a moment later. Though that, in itself, was no great surprise, the change in the appearance of Gerando Fallon, was. He seemed taller, his shoulders no longer rounded with the years of self-hatred and abuse from his father. He was leaner, the look of sallow laziness that had shadowed his face had gone and the lines and angles of his body were sharper and harder. He was still thinner than ideal from all that he had suffered, but Griffin and Stanislavsky would sort that in short order. His blue eyes burned fever bright and there was a look about him that only came with lessons learned the hard way. Stanislavsky, who stood with her arm threaded through his, no longer looked like a woman who ached for something she couldn’t have.

 

 

To everyone’s surprise, it was Gerando Fallon who spoke. “I’m sorry we’re late, but we’ve been doing a bit of research on a very important matter.” He turned his attention to Harker. “If I may, Captain.”

Harker nodded his permission.

“With my father dead, his holdings will now be fought over by his children. It’ll get ugly. There are at least three of my siblings who would give my father a run for his money in the nasty sonovabitch department.” He nodded to Stanislavsky, who moved to the ship’s computer and pulled up a document. “This, however, cannot be disputed. My father left his shares in the Fire Star Conglomerate, along with a great deal of his other accumulated wealth to his eldest son.” He shrugged. “Well technically, I’m dead, so that rules me out. But after Ina and I looked over the documentation, we believe it was never intended for me anyway. He certainly never hinted that I would inherit anything. And now that the truth is out, I’m not his eldest son. Fury is his eldest son.”

The room was suddenly awash in murmurs of startled surprise that all silenced when Stanislavsky pulled up the next document. It looked like a page full of gibberish, numbers, letters, symbols in random combinations. “While I was born fifteen years before Fury, Fury became a living, thinking entity nearly a year before I was born. I don’t mean like a fetus, I mean a sentient being capable of having intelligent, even advanced conversations with Dr. Keen and others who had contact with him and who were responsible for his education.” He waved a dismissive hand. “I know this because I’m really good at hacking systems, and I had a fascination with SNT technology since I was old enough to understand what was going on. But this,” He nodded to the document Stanislavsky had pulled up, “this is what convinced me that my father always believed he would, in the end, have Fury for his own and that he viewed Fury as his immortality. You know what this is and what it means, don’t you, Bro 1?”

“It would appear to be an access code written in my own personal language, the language I created for myself in my infancy.”

“Access to what?” Manning asked.

“To … exactly what Gerando Fallon has stated, our father’s shares in the Fire Star Conglomerate, and multiple billions of credits, property and indentureds across the entirety of Authority space.”