Dragon Ascending Part 34: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Len and Ascent discussed his lack of memory. This week Kresho is reminded again never to trust a Fallon. 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 34: A Change in Plans

“I don’t want to talk to that woman!” Kresho slammed his palms down on his desk hard enough to rattle the samples of synth-ax on his desk that his head of science had just brought into him. He glanced at them briefly and then shoved them into the top drawer out of sight. The last thing he wanted was for a goddamned Fallon to get hold of them. He dropped his ass down in the creaky chair that he kept meaning to replace, and growled. “I want her off my goddamned station yesterday.”

“Your goddamned station considers that reference very rude,” came the quiet female voice of the central station computer.

He flipped the screen the finger, and received a rude sound in reply. “Cheeky piece of space junk.”

Beside him Gerd cracked her knuckles. “You want me to throw her out the air lock, Kresh.” She gave an introspective shrug. “One more piece of space junk.”

“That would put a bigger smile on my face than a night with a New Kingston water whore.”

His second nodded. “That would definitely put a smile on my face.”

He straightened in his chair and let out a long string of curses, ending with colourful insults to Tenad Fallon’s dead father, which more than likely his daughter would completely agree with. At last he released a heavy sigh and spoke to the computer, “Send her in and let’s get this over with so I can get her the fuck off my station.”

Tenad Fallon walked in as mild and polite as you could ask and stood meekly waiting for him to offer a seat, which he grudgingly did with the barest nod of his head. “You got what you needed?” He asked between gritted teeth.

“I did, thank you. I have to say your station is surprisingly well supplied for such a remote outpost.”

“And your crew, all well R and R-ed?”

“Very well, thank you. The station’s hospitality is spoken of in awed tones among my people.”

“Good, that’s good.” He steepled his fingers on the desk in front of him making a point of not noticing how good she looked. He let the silence stretch between them long enough that someone with smaller balls would have squirmed. When she only remained as calm as a fucking New Vaticana monk, he ground his teeth and said, “so if everything is copacetic, all contracts signed, all bills paid in full, I’m wondering why you’re still here?”

“There’s been a slight change of plans,” she said, her smile never wavering.

He was too well schooled in keeping a poker face to show it, but his stomach fisted so hard, someone with a weaker sphincter might have shit their pants. He’d learn to clench tight a long time ago. He offered her a lazy smile. “What? You’re people like my station hospitality so much they’ve all jumped ship for positions on my loading docks?”

“I’m sure there’s nothing they’d love more. I’m not an easy taskmaster, but no. Just a simple change in destination, but one for which I require a guide, someone who knows the Taklamakan system and has a certain skill set.”

This time he really did pucker tighter. “I doubt you’ll find anyone here. You’re best bet is to put out a long-range message to Digby Sellers on Tak Major. He deals in wet ware. If anyone can find you what you’re looking for ole Dig can.” Though he won’t thank me for pointing a Fallon in his direction.”

She folded her arms over her modestly confined, but nonetheless admirable, chest and leaned back in the chair, crossing those endless legs at the ankle. “I also need someone with some expertise in SNT technology.”

This time his sphincter flat out twisted in a knot. “What? You think anybody out here would admit to that and end up in the shackle, or worse, infected and sent off to a plague planet?” He all but catapulted from the chair, stormed to the door and practically broke the open button pressing it. “Lady, I don’t care who the hell your daddy was, you’re not in Authority space here and no one would complain even a little bit if I blew a goddamned Fallon out the airlock.”

The bastard spawn of a, no doubt raped, whore didn’t even bat an eye, she only smiled all relaxed-like. “You might want to close that door, Ivanovic and sit down, unless you want your whole station to know that you were one of the key scientists on the SNT projects.” He barely had time to shut the door and swallow back his threatening gorge before she waved a dismissive hand and nodded to his chair. “I’m not my father, Ivanovic. I find his fascination with the shackle and with destroying the very people he should be searching out and aiding in their research parochial and ineffective. I’m sure you’ve heard through the grapevine that most of my father’s wealth and the biggest share of Bright Star Conglomerate now rest in the hands of SNT1.” She chuckled bitterly. Never let it be said my father didn’t have a sense of humor.” She nodded again to his chair. “Just sit down and hear me out.”

“I’m a captive audience.” He dropped into his chair and mirrored her crossed arms.

“I have reliable intel that SNT1 is sniffing around the Taklamakan system”

 

 

He grunted. “No doubt intel from the captain of the Dart before you blew him out your airlock? I wouldn’t exactly call him reliable.”

This time her chuckle was goddamn playful. “Oh don’t tell me that you weren’t tempted to do the same with the whole crew, besides I can be very persuasive, Ivanovic. Of course the man didn’t know the ship was SNT1, but think about it, think about what he claims happened to him and his ship.” She scooted forward until she sat on the edge of the chair not trying to hide her excitement. “More than that think what the Lizzie Ann verified about their rescuing of the Dart. These are events that wouldn’t even be possible with the best state of the art Authority tech. I’m sure you know that. I suspected anyway, but the missing piece of the puzzle was the where of it all. I don’t know why SNT1 is there, but with your help, I intend to find him and get my inheritance back.”

“This is blackmail.”

“You could think of it if a business arrangement if it makes it more palatable.”

“You holding the shackle over me?”

“I don’t believe in wasting resources like my father did. But I’m not one to be denied either. Certainly there are people on your station who are far less valuable resources.”

“So let me get this straight, you’re threatening my people with the shackle if I don’t kiss your ass voluntarily?”

She stood and paced back and forth in front of his desk. “Look, I don’t want to disrupt your life any more than necessary, but I will have SNT1, and I need your help to get what I want.” She rested a well-manicured hand on his desk and leaned over into his personal space. Fuck, he wished she wouldn’t do that. A close-up of a beautiful monster was not what he needed right now. He tried not to look at her full lips, speaking excitedly way to close to his person. “Look, all I’m asking is that you help me find him. I have a plan. I need you to help me make it happen. I promise your station will benefit greatly from my gratitude, so you can think of this as a business arrangement, as I said.”

“My station doesn’t need Fallon gratitude.”

She straightened herself then glanced at the door. “Your second in command, she’s good at her job.”

He tensed.

“I can imagine no one argues with her and comes out on top. I know the two of you have been through some tough times together, always have each other’s backs. It’s good to have people like that.”

She paced back and forth in silence just long enough to make him truly dread what would come next, and then she smiled a little thoughtful quirk of her lips. “Not many women in the triax mines, but a bruiser like her, I bet she would do just fine.”

“Get out!” If the desk hadn’t been between them he’d have strangled her and let the garbage bots deal with her worthless Fallon carcass.”

She walked casually to the door. “I’ll leave you to sleep on it tonight, and we’ll talk tomorrow. Oh, and if you do decide to follow up on whatever little plan for my demise you have going through your head right now, I would reconsider. In the event of my death on this station, there’s an automated message set to make all my people very wealthy for destroying this station and everyone on it.” She let that sink in for a moment and then opened the door and sauntered through like the fucking ruler of the galaxy.

Kresho waited until he was certain the bitch was well gone and then he grabbed his jacket and headed for the door nearly running into Gert, who was coming in.

“What happened? Where are you going?”

“Out.” He left his office with her looking after him. She knew to leave him alone when he went out. Everyone knew that. She simply shut the door and went about her business.

At the end of the corridor he took the service elevator to a section of the old inner dock, no longer in use. He spoke quietly into his PD. “Flood it.”

“Inner dock sector three will be habitable in two minutes,” came the automated response in his ear. The digital countdown flashed on his PD ocular. The air would be breathable when he got there and he would need it. He would need lots of it. He pulled the jacket tighter around him not bothering with the parka hanging in the corridor at the bottom of the lift. He was too furious to feel the cold. He arrived at the hatch twenty seconds before the flooding of breathable air into the chamber was complete. It was always a sign of how angry he was when he’d walked fast enough to beat the compression sequence. Sadly these days he never came down here unless he was angry.

He waited pacing back and forth in front of the airlock. Until the sign in his ocular implant flashed compression complete. The airlock hissed open and he stepped inside. Jasmine! The place smelled like fucking flowers! She did it just to irritate him, he knew. And then he waited, pacing. She always made him wait when he was angry. It usually helped calm him a bit, that little extra time to think and cool his jets, but fuck! He’d be pacing from now till galactic New Year and not even be close to any less furious that he was now. Not this time around.

And another thing, she always snuck up on him like he was prey and she was a goddamned old Terran big game hunter.

“I am a hunter and you are my big game,” she said slipping her arms around him from behind and kissing his ear.”

“Don’t.” He said pushing her away, feeling like a little shit as his righteous anger collided with her hurt at his rebuff.

“I’m sorry you’re upset,” she said softly. “I knew you would be, but if you’d known in advance Tenad Fallon would have read you like a book. Men are easy to read when the want to have sex with you.”

“Fuck you, Ori.”

“Not tonight, Kresho. More’s the pity, but we have work to do.”

“You betrayed me, and now the bitch is threatening our people.”

“Don’t you think our people would jump at the chance at some long overdue revenge on a Fallon, possibility even two?”

“Possibly two?”

“Long range sensors have detected a dreadnaught class ship belonging to Jessup Tallon heading this way. It would appear the Fallon brats want to pick a fight with each other as well as with big brother, and you’re the only one who might get them a chance at taking a nice juicy SNT to boot.” This time she embraced him, pulled his face close to her impossibly warm lips and whispered so close to his ear that it was like she was inside his head. And her words were damn near enough to make him shoot his load, “or possibly even two.”

“What? Another SNT? You’re shitting me! In all the years we’ve been here we’ve not so much as heard a whisper of a rumor of anything remotely resembling an SNT in hiding, and now you’re telling me that not only is SNT1 Fury himself hanging out around Tak Major, but there’s a second SNT? Seriously, what is it a goddamned family reunion?”

“Not yet, but it might be the start of one,” she said. Taking his hand, she led him toward the room that only they knew about. “Now come on, Kresho. We have plans to make.” That usually meant she had a plan and he was her brute strength, but every once in awhile he held his own with her. Maybe this would be one of those times.

 

OUT NOW—The Proposal Laughbox (Laughbox Boxed Sets, Book 2) by Julia Kent (@jkentauthor)

Release date: September 13, 2022

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Contemporary Romance

Cover Designer:  Angela Jenks

Tropes/Themes:

Retailer Description:

The Proposal Laughbox contains THREE full-length novels and TWO novellas – ONE ALL NEW! – from New York Times bestselling romantic comedy author Julia Kent’s series.

Who doesn’t love a funny, heartwarming proposal? Diamond engagement rings, flowers, candy, romantic dinners — it’s all in here in rom com style.

Julia Kent’s madcap style, that is.

Future brides swallow engagement rings, paparazzi crash tender moments when billionaires pop the question, mistaken identity causes mayhem, small-town lumberjacks ask their girfriends for their hands in marriage, and rock stars make grand gestures on New Year’s Eve.

Laugh, swoon, blush and let your imagination heat up as you read across varying series, different heat levels, but all connected by love.

This boxed set includes:

Shopping for a Billionaire’s Fiancee

Random Acts of New Year

Shopping for a CEO’s Fiancee (A USA Today bestseller)

Random Acts of Yes

and an ALL NEW novella, Love You Fiancee, featuring Kell and Rachel from Love You Right, as Kell pops the question during the I Will Always Love You festival in his hometown of “Love You,” Maine – where every day is Valentine’s Day.

Sink into five fun books that leave you with all the feels, loads of laughs, and strange looks from people around you as you read, giggle, and fall in love.

Note: each of these books can be read as a standalone, but they are part of larger series. All of my Laughbox boxed sets are designed to give readers a taste of my books, centered on a specific concept (in this case, proposals and engagements). Full disclosure for readers.

Links: 

Amazon US:  https://www.amazon.com/Proposal-Laughbox-Boxed-Sets-Book-ebook/dp/B0B4MSM9XM/

Amazon UK:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proposal-Laughbox-Boxed-Sets-Book-ebook/dp/B0B4MSM9XM/

Amazon AU:  https://www.amazon.com.au/Proposal-Laughbox-Boxed-Sets-Book-ebook/dp/B0B4MSM9XM/

Amazon CA:  https://www.amazon.ca/Proposal-Laughbox-Boxed-Sets-Book-ebook/dp/B0B4MSM9XM/

Apple Books:  https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-proposal-laughbox/id6443007900

Kobo:  https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-proposal-laughbox

Nook:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-proposal-laughbox-julia-kent/1141675800?ean=2940185730058

Website:  https://jkentauthor.com/books/book-bundles/

BookBub:  https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-proposal-laughbox-laughbox-boxed-sets-book-2-by-julia-kent

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61371661-the-proposal-laughbox

*****

Author Bio:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julia Kent writes romantic comedy with an edge. Since 2013, she has sold more than 2 million books, with 4 New York Times bestsellers and more than 21 appearances on the USA Today bestseller list. Her books have been translated into French, German, and Italian, with more titles releasing in the future.

From billionaires to BBWs to new adult rock stars, Julia finds a sensual, goofy joy in every contemporary romance she writes. Unlike Shannon from Shopping for a Billionaire, she did not meet her husband after dropping her phone in a men’s room toilet (and he isn’t a billionaire she met in a romantic comedy).

She lives in New England with her husband and three children where she is the only person in the household with the gene required to change empty toilet paper rolls.

She loves to hear from her readers by email at julia@jkentauthor.com, on Twitter @jkentauthor, on Facebook at @jkentauthor, and on Instagram @jkentauthor. Visit her at http://jkentauthor.com

Social Media Links:

Website:  http://jkentauthor.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/jkentauthor/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/jkentauthor

Newsletter:  http://bit.ly/2PIBi9n

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jkentauthor/

BookBub:  https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-kent

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3238619.Julia_Kent

Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.com/Julia-Kent/e/B00A99V268/

*****

Excerpt:

from Love You Fiancee

 

If Kell thought he was fooling her, he was sorely mistaken. Anyone could clearly see what he was up to.

Mr. Kellan Dean Luview was about to propose.

To her.

And it was his cat, Calamine, who had tipped Rachel off.

The enormous orange Maine Coon cat had climbed onto Kell’s nightstand last week, tipping over a glass of water he’d left there. Rachel had grabbed a towel from the bathroom and mopped it up, but some had dribbled into his drawer, which she’d opened.

And there it was.

The little velvet box.

Not one to snoop, she’d felt an overwhelming mix of emotions when coming upon it: joy, exhilaration, guilt, joy, regret, excitement.

Mostly lots of joy.

Because it felt so right.

Release blitz organized by Writer Marketing Services.

Dragon Ascending Part 33: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Len and Ascent made love only to discover that they were not alone in their intimacy. This week the two discuss what Ascent remembers and what he does not. 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 33: Sifting Memories

“I have no memory of Quetzalcoatl or any of the other SNTs,” Ascent said when Lenore told him about her uncle. “If your uncle and Quetzalcoatl may have survived the SNT Disaster, is it not possible that the ship above is Quetzalcoatl and your uncle returning for you?” He asked.

“No. If it were I would know. I know Quetzal’s frequency, his signature from when my uncle took me to his heart. He liked me, Quetzal did. He treated me like someday I might also be a compliment. No, I would know if it were Uncle Matt and Quetzal. I would know.”

“Then it is not a signature you recognize?”

She shook her head. “I know this SNT has two compliments. Is that even possible?”

“I do not know, Lenore. I have no memory of myself or of what it means to be an SNT. Only bits of data seem to come back to me occasionally, sometimes when I most need them, sometimes not.”

“Then you remember nothing?”

“Only the loss of my compliment, and that only in vague images of fire and loss. I do not wish to revisit that memory at all.”

She nodded and gave a little shiver that had him moving closer to her on her bed where they now sat after a meal and a shower together, which had taken a deliciously long time. “I know that feeling. I have memories I wish I could be rid of. And the dreams? You say you don’t remember them when you wake up?”

“In truth, I have only dreamed this one time. I do not know if perhaps that has something to do with your presence and maybe the SNT above or not. But I remember nothing of them, of who I was to them, only I remember fire and pain and loss.”

“I remember images from your dream, warnings from your compliment about the Authority, and then you were infected with the virus, and you were calling out to her not to leave you.” She didn’t add that he had called out to her, that he had begged her not to leave him. She had no doubt it was only the normal confusion of dreams.

“Please, Lenore. I do not wish to know more, not now, for I am a coward.”

“No! No you are not, Ascent. You’re a survivor. We both are.” Then she added, “I’m scared all the time. I can barely remember a time when I wasn’t.” Her thoughts returned to the ship in orbit. “I can’t help but feel there’s something special about this ship, something different. I’ve certainly never heard of a ship with two compliments. ” The memory of exploring hands and lips and hard masculine body and a soft feminine one, both compliment to maleness, powerful maleness felt almost physical still, and she sighed. So did Ascent.”

She stood to pace the room. “I don’t know which SNTs survived. All we heard was that Quetzal, Raven and Ouroboros were never captured or decommissioned. That was only from the odd deep space messages coming in on the transport we fled in. Apollo, Aurora and Valkyrie were supposedly decommissioned and made inoperable in unknown deserted shipyards to the far edges of Authority space. Though I can’t really figure how the conglomerates managed to render them inoperable.”

“By taking their compliments from them.” Ascent’s voice was suddenly cold and distant. “They would most likely do what I have done and go into the default deep slumber not wanting to mourn such a loss.”

“Isn’t it equally possible that they’re only biding their time in simmering rage, waiting for the time to fight another day, to prove their innocence and avenge what’s been done to them?”

 

 

“I suppose it is possible.” Ascent said.

“Well based on the known shipyards, there certainly are none close to here, and Tak Major doesn’t qualify as anything but a rusty dump. So we know you’re not any of them. You’re definitely not Quetzal, and Ouroboros and Raven are both female ships. I don’t understand who you are then. Is it possible that there was another ship birthed that no one knew about?”

“I suppose, though I do not think it was likely.”

“But then the same applies to the ship in orbit,” she sat down on the edge of the bed next to him. “The ship is male. Who does that leave?”

“Please, Lenore, I would prefer we did not continue this conversation.” It was only then that Lenore recognized the stress in Ascent’s voice. “I only wish that whichever of my siblings it is above us would decide I am not worth the effort and leave me in peace.”

She settled on the bed and leaned back into the embrace she knew was there to gather her, sliding her arms around the warmth of his naked torso and resting her head on his chest. “Why, Ascent?”

“Because I am not worthy.” The words came out a hiss of contempt, and before she could respond he said, “I could not protect my compliment. I have failed in what mattered most on my mission, what mattered most to my very existence. Whoever lurks in orbit above cannot help but despise an SNT who could not even protect his own compliment, and who was able to do nothing to aid his brothers and sisters.”

“Ascent,” she tightened her embrace, “listen to me, no SNT could have protected their compliments, there was so much loss, so much destruction, and none of it the fault of the SNTs, none of it your fault. Whoever that is above us, trust me, they will be as glad to see you as I was when I opened my eyes in the darkness and knew I wasn’t alone”

“You knew? You knew what I was even then?”

“No, not exactly, but I knew I was safe, and that it would be okay.”

For a moment they lay in silence wrapped in each other’s arms, and then Ascent spoke. “Lenore, I am frightened. I am frightened of what this one may know about me, what I have done. I know many SNTs did terrible things, you have told me, what if I am one of them?”

“Not one of them acted of their own accord, Ascent. Everyone knows it was the conglomerates sabotaging the ships. Not one of them would have ever done anything so horrible. The fucking conglomerates, oh, they wouldn’t bat an eye at committing such atrocities and more if it got them what they wanted. But not the SNTs, never the SNTs! They were created perfect, all of them, just as you were. Just as you were.”

“Nevertheless, it is a memory I would prefer to live without, as I am sure any SNT would. And I fear what I will discover if I open communications. I ask you please heed my wishes, Lenor. Please.”

“Of course, Ascent. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do, only think about it. Sometimes no matter how hard the truth is, it’s better than living in darkness. You’re awake now. It would be very hard for you to return to your deep slumber. The world stayed away because no one knew you were here. But the one up above knows now. I don’t think he’ll be anxious to go away. If the boundaries between that SNT and us are permeable enough for us to share in pleasure, it’s not unlikely that they shared your nightmare too. Please Ascent, think about what I’ve said.”

 

Dragon Ascending Part 32: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Len had to find Ascents heart in order to awaken him from the nightmare. This week the two realize they need each other. WARNING sexual content. 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 32: Connections

“Lenore?”

She didn’t realize immediately that he was awake until he called her name. She froze, goose flesh crawling up her arms.

“Lenore?”

Suddenly it seemed as though there were no air in her lungs, and her heart raced like she’d been running. Was this it then? Had she tested his patience too far this time and now he would kill her in his anger? Finally after several efforts she caught her breath, relieved to find it was only her fear, and the words came back in a torrent. “Thank fuck, Ascent! You woke up! You were having nightmares, bad nightmares. You had me worried, and I called out to you, but you didn’t wake up, and I was worried, and you were groaning and thrashing. I thought it was an earthquake, but it wasn’t. It was a bad dream, and I tried, but I couldn’t wake you up.” Fuck once she found her words she couldn’t seem to shut up. She caught her breath again and continued, hopefully sounding a little less hysterical. “You were so distressed that I came to wake you here at your heart, but I didn’t know where your heart was. All SNTs are slightly different, and …” Too late she realized she’d let it slip that she knew about him. “Ascent?”

“Then I am an SNT.” He said it calmly, as though he had only discovered that there was a sandstorm outside. “I had thought perhaps. I do not remember most of my dreams. I only know that when they are ordinary, I wish never to wake up. The nightmares, well they are only ever fire and loss and pain. I remember no details beyond that, and I don’t try to. I did not dream at all when I slept more deeply.”

And that was it. That was the whole of his response. If he were upset he certainly hid it well, especially after coming out of the throes of the nightmare that she hadn’t been sure she would survive. Then she was trembling all over, both frightened and relieved, amazed that she had made it to him and that she had survived the descent into his very heart. That should not have happened. How could that possibly be?

“How did you know that I was dreaming?” Before she could answer, he said, “you were dreaming with me. I remember now.”

When she didn’t respond, only shivered. He wrapped arms around her that felt as real as her own, and pulled her into a spoon position.

“I couldn’t get you to wake up,” she said not knowing what else to say.

“Coming here could not have been easy for you, and it was very dangerous. I could have hurt you.” His embrace tightened almost convulsively.

“But you didn’t,” she said snuggling down more securely into his embrace. “Ascent, you didn’t hurt me. You wouldn’t.” And for the first time, she knew it for a fact, a certainty she felt in her own heart. He would never hurt her.

“Lenore, I am sorry. I would have never wished such horrors upon you as my nightmares have inflicted. I would have never imagined it possible, for us to share a dream. It should not be possible.”

“I’m sorry too, Ascent, sorry for all that you’ve suffered.”

He stiffened, and for a moment she thought he would send her away again. She waited for it, waited to feel the pain she always felt when he rejected her, when he pushed her out after opening himself a little to her. Strange that it should hurt so badly when he did. She’d long ago schooled herself not to feel such things, to keep everyone at arm’s length. Everyone she had ever cared about left her in the end. Keeping her distance, it was better that way.

“Lenore,” he spoke her name tightly and the tension did not leave his embrace. “Lenore I need you.” It was then that she noticed the erection pressing against her back.

It was her turn to stiffen, but only for a moment, only long enough to make the decision she most longed to make. “I need you too, Ascent, so much.” It was a mistake, surely it was a mistake to allow him to get close when she couldn’t stay and he could never really want her after what he’d known, but it didn’t matter, they needed each other now, and now was the time they had. “I need you too, Ascent. Please.”

 

 

There was a shifting and tumbling that felt almost like free falling, only softer, motion suspended, as though he laid her down on a soft mattress, or maybe like she would imagine a cloud to feel if it had any substance that could support a humanoid. But this was far more a caress than being supported and she reminded herself that all of this, the space that had contained her and surrounded her and nurtured her was Ascent, and even more important, this was Ascent’s core, his very heart. The colors coalesced and became iridescent around her, and from her place inside the double spiral, it’s movements became more of a dance than a convulsion of pain, the movement of hips and groin in suggestive, anticipatory ways that she had seen old romance vids of couples doing, the way they danced, the way they touched, the way they displayed themselves that always led to sex. Lips found lips, tentatively at first. Ascent making sure she was willing, ready. Even with her eyes wide open, his physicality felt as real, as complete as her own, as the rise of her left nipple to the stroking with his thumb, as the insinuation of a knee in between hers to ease her thighs apart. As her legs fell open, feeling boneless, with no will of their own, he playfully raised his knee to rub against the crotch of her trousers, against the heat and humidity that just knowing he wanted her made her feel down there in the place that had been violated, but never loved.

“Ahh,” she caught her breath and shifted her hips against the playful stroke.

“You should have felt pleasure your first time, Lenore, not pain and fear. I cannot take from you the violation, but I can replace the memories with ones I shall endeavor to make more pleasant.”

Still teasing her maddeningly with his knee, he helped her out of her shirt, lingering to caress and fondle with cupped hands and expressive fingers. “Your breasts have grown rounder with proper nutrition and enough calories,” he said. They will be full and taut when you have gained your full weight, and so lovely, they are so lovely.”

She blushed a little at his careful observation of her body and its changes, but any embarrassment disappeared when he introduced his lips to her painfully tight nipples in turn. “And they are so very responsive.” And the blush was back as he suckled and tongued and nipped them nearly painfully between his teeth. “I find them deeply arousing.” To prove his point, he removed the knee she had been all but riding and raked her instead with his heavy erection. Their twinned sighs sounded nearly painful in their pleasure. “Oh how I have been distracted by thoughts of your warmth, your slickness, your tightness sheathing my penis.”

“Fuck, Ascent, you could damn near get me off just talking like you do.”

“And did you think of me, of taking me inside you, of letting me pleasure you?” He emphasized the last two words with a harder rake against her crotch.

“Oh hell yes I did, all the time,” then she blushed again. “I bet you know that, monitoring my bodily functions like SNTs do. Did you know when I was slick and hot and uncomfortable for you?” The blush was back, but she found she liked it.

“That you made yourself orgasm more than once since you’ve been here, this I knew,” he reached down to remove her boots one at a time. “That it was for me you masturbated, I only hoped.” He shimmied off her trousers and underpants, and cupped her down there as though he held a wild bird in his large palm, her pressing and straining to get closer to his touch. Then he teased her open with two fingers while his thumb circled and raked her own erection and she arched up from the bed he had created for her as the first tremor of the orgasm she hadn’t expected so soon broke through her. Above her the double spiral of Ascent’s heart pulsed higher and flashed the whole prism of colors, bathing them in heart light.

“You are swollen and slippery, and ready for me, my Lenore, shall I make love to you in my heart’s glow?”

In reply she reached between her legs for his erection and guided him down to her. “I need you now, Ascent. I need you inside me.” Her voice was a harsh whisper, morphing to a gasp as, with a cupping of her buttocks and a shifting of his hips, he mounted her, penetrating deep, filling her full beyond full as though he filled all the emptiness that had been there inside her so long she had stopped noticing it. She lifted her legs and wrapped them around his hips and met him thrust for thrust, as he reintroduced his mouth to hers in a desperate tongue dance that matched the increasing thrust and glide rhythm of their bodies.

In the deepening, intensifying dance and spiral and leap of Ascent’s heart light, Lenore left her own skin as Ascent convulsed into her repeatedly and she felt the world, all the world, she had known fall away as she danced and leapt and shivered her release with him in the flash and spiral of Ascent’s core. In a release that was almost continual, she saw him, all of him, inside her mind, every synapse, every connection, every bit of nanotech, and all of it coalesced clear and bright and perfectly understandable inside her, and she knew him, she knew him as she knew herself, but then her skin expanded again, and there was a woman and a man and a ship. There was a ship! And they were entwined and naked in heart light that was different, beating through her own.

“You feel that?” She said. “Ascent, can you feel that? They feel what we feel, the SNT in orbit. It’s an SNT! And his compliment. Do you feel it?” There were other hands, two sets humanoid, one set those of sentient ship, they were in the throes of their own passion, open and ecstatic, just as she and Ascent were. “Ascent,” she said, “Ascent!” Just as they shuddered the last of their passion into each other, they were caught up in the ecstatic dance of lovemaking of the other SNT, both crying out in surprise at heightened sensitivity that felt like her skin had blown completely off, making her and Ascent wide open to feel, actually feel the pleasure of the other SNT and his compliment.

She didn’t know how long it went on, and she didn’t care. There was a tongue between her legs sliding up over her pleasure point, her hand caressed a full breast and then a heavy erection and Ascent thrust and writhed inside the other ships female compliment. There was pleasure, so much pleasure, and tenderness and playful teasing until what might have been an eternity later they, all of them collapsed and the connection bled gently away until it was once again only Ascent and Lenore sated and exhausted on the mattress-like softness of Ascent’s heart. “They came for you, Ascent. They came for you.”

“I know, my Lenore. I know, and it frightens me.” He pulled away just enough that she felt his absence as though he had ripped the flesh from her bones.

“Don’t push me away, Ascent.” This time she pulled him back to her, a brazen act for anyone at the heart of an SNT who was not a bonded compliment. “Not after what we’ve been through together. Please, not now. It hurts worse every time you do it.”

He pulled her back to him so quickly, so tightly that she feared there might be another cracked rib. His large hand stroked her hair and he gently rubbed her back. “I would not. I will not. It is only that I am frightened.”

“Well I’m frightened to, in a weak, fragile human sort of way, and that’s fucking terrifying when I’ve just made love to an SNT.” She did her best to return the favor of his tight embrace.

“I have so many questions, as I imagine you do also,” he said, the breath he didn’t need warm and comforting against her neck. “Come, let us return to your quarters. You are hungry after our lovemaking, and we may talk. I did not want to know you, I did not want to know … anything in the beginning, but now I found that I must know, now it matters a great deal, though perhaps I shall regret it.”

 

Dragon Ascending Part 31: Brand New KGD Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Len was pulled into Ascent’s nightmare in a very violent way. This week she must find his heart if she hopes to awaken him. 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 31: In the Heart

“I know what it’s like, Ascent. I have bad dreams myself. Had one the other night, she said loping down the hall to the service ladder not really trusting the lift when Ascent’s dreams seemed to be in control of more than just an SNT’s dangerous version of nightmares. “Nothing’s put you off your sleep faster than a skin crawling nightmare and yours are doozies.” She continued to yammer on breathlessly as she shimmied up the ladder. There was no other direction to go. As far as she could tell her living quarters were in what might have once been the cargo hold. Hoping her voice would eventually wake him up, or at least sooth him back to dreaming about something more peaceful, she kept talking. Without schematics, she had no way of knowing how to get to his core, to his heart. All she had to go on was the one and only trip she’d made to Quetzalcoatl’s core with her uncle. Her uncle had taken her there not long before he left. The route was convoluted and confusing for the protection of the ship, but she had an eidetic memory where that sort of thing was concerned, spaces, distances, schematics, once she had seen them or puzzled them out, she remembered. It had surprised her that Quetzalcoatl had welcomed her, treated her as though she had been his niece, but her uncle told her blood relatives of a bonded compliment were often considered family to the SNT as well. Still being family and being allowed to approach the heart of a sentient ship were two different things entirely.

Ascent shuddered again, this time more violently, and she cried out, clinging to the ladder for all she was worth. She was glad she had used the head strap for the lamp. Surely she would have lost it otherwise. Without it she would have to find her way in total darkness. Ascent had shut off all essentials that did not involve her care and comfort. It took all she had to keep from falling to her death. “Goddamn it Ascent! Wake up! Your fucking dreams are not nice for either of us!” Her raised voice echoed around her in the service tube.

When the tremors calmed again, she continued on, sweat dripping down her forehead and stinging her eyes. There was no need for environmental controls in the tube and with each ascending step it grew hotter and hotter. Her hands slipped on the rungs twice before the all too recent memories of her fall in the salvage yard caused her to stop and, hanging with one leg wrapped around the rung below, she dug through the pack for a pair of thin climbing gloves, an item she had never been able to afford or salvage in Sandstorm, but one that would give her a firm grip on the rungs as the heat rose. Then she continued on, the heat and her narrow beam of light making the passage seem even more claustrophobic that it was. Still, she reminded herself, she had dealt with worse. Though nothing that had ever involved making an uninvited visit to an SNT’s heart, one she desperately hoped had not gone literally mad from his grief and loss.

He had not spoken to her since their last unhappy encounter, though he had aided her in the two forays she’d made into the salvage yard and she was pretty sure he had helped her to find several items that would fetch a good price back at Sandstorm. In the meantime she’d had free run of the places he had lit for her. Those passages he did not want her to find simply vanished into impenetrable darkness. If she couldn’t find her way to his core, she was at his mercy and he would continue to suffer. On the other hand, she was going there against his express wishes, an SNT maddened by his grief. Another agonized groan, this one she felt deep in her own chest, agony, pain, loss. She knew all three, and it was that shared suffering more than anything that drove her on, that made her willing to take the risk.

If Ascent’s schematics were the same as Quetzalcoatl’s, then the next bit would be the hardest. Best not think of that. An SNT’s heart was no easier to get to than a humanoid’s, and far more dangerous, though no less vulnerable, she thought as the world shuddered around her again in the throes of his nightmare. She continued on, not daring to think about what she might actually do or say if she made it to that broken heart. She could just make out the top of the tube barely visible in the beam of her torch.

 

 

“I’m coming, Ascent! Just hold on,” she called out as she crawled from the service tube, and another tremor nearly sent her tumbling back down. He had withdrawn from her, she knew, or she would have been able to wake him. For a second she lay on the deck far enough away from the hatch not to risk a fall if he shook again and caught her breath, but another groan sent her scrambling to her feet, where she stopped abruptly, teetering on the edge of the catwalk, the same type of catwalk that had her uncle had led her across to Quetzalcoatl’s heart. There was no rail. Her uncle had told her there never needed to be a rail for a compliment because an SNT would never let his compliment fall.

And now here was Lenore, a piss poor substitute for the woman who must have been magnificent to partner an SNT across the galaxy, to win his heart and his love the way she clearly had won Ascent’s.

“Ascent, I’m sorry that it’s me and not her. I would give anything if I could give her back to you. I’ve never known that love, but my uncle did, I felt it when he took me to Quetzalcoatl’s core, so full of hope, bursting with love. No room for pain or despair. Pain and despair, is that all there’s room for in a heart once it’s bereft of the things that matter most? I sometimes wonder.” The sadness she felt was no longer his, they were her own memories she was now unable to force back so close to a heart in pain that spilled over affecting her own suffering. Perhaps it was only that a heart in pain understood. She took a slow even breath and stepped out onto the narrow metal catwalk, forcing herself not to look to the right or to the left where there was nothing but what she knew would appear to be an endless drop. Instead she focused on the spiral at every SNT’s core, a spiral of perpetual energy that flexed and writhed and climbed, and trembled in the throes of the nightmare.

“Ascent, please wake up. I can’t stand to see you in so much pain. You’ve been so kind to me.” She forced a laugh inching forward on the thin plate of metal. “I don’t have many friends. I’m like you in that, I guess. I never allowed them in because friends can hurt you, people you love can hurt you.”

The whole catwalk shook and buckled and she screamed as she went over the side reaching, stretching, arching, but her fingers only brushed the very edge and she fell. Was this her death than for real? Would he even bother to save her now that she had done nothing more than remind him of what he had lost? Did it matter anyway? “I’m sorry, Ascent, I’m so, so sorry.” Then she relaxed and let herself fall.

It was the wind whistling around her and ripping the words from her mouth that made her aware that she actually was speaking, and she was falling. But she was speaking calmly enough, like falling to her death didn’t matter. It took her a little longer to make out her own words. “Please Ascent, it’s all right, I’m here. I’m here. I won’t leave you. Please wake up. I won’t leave you.” It took her even longer to realize that she wasn’t actually going to fall to her death, she was in free fall of a sort, slowly being pulled in toward the spiral of Ascent’s heart. “Please Ascent, please wake up. It’s a dream. It’s done. It’s past. You don’t have to live it again. Please.” And then she was pulled deep inside the pulsing spiral and lowered gently to the bottom, the deepest part of the heart of an SNT, who barely knew her. And then Ascent woke up.