Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Len learns that Fury and his compliments understand Ascent’s reluctance far better that Len can imagine.  This week all hell breaks loose, and we are reminded once again why  no one trusts 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. This one is particularly long in order not to break the flow of events. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

If you missed the previous episode of Dragon Ascending follow the link for a catch-up. If you wish to start from the beginning, of Dragon Ascending. Follow the link.  

For those of you who would like to read the complete novel, Piloting Fury, book one of the Sentient Ships series, follow the link to the first instalment.

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

On a desolate junkyard of a planetoid, scavenger Lenore Felish, disturbs something slumbering in a remote salvage dump and uncovers secrets of a tragic past and of the surprising role she must play in the terrifying present she now faces.

Robbed of her inheritance after her tyrannical father’s death, Tenad Fallon is out for revenge on her half-brothers, one who happens to be the sentient ship, Fury. Fury, with his human companions, Richard Manning and Diana McAllister, has his own agenda – finding the lost sentient ships and ending the scourge of indentured servitude in Authority space.

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 55: Something’s Wrong

“You’ve allowed her to your core?” Mac said to Fury. She joined Manning in the galley for coffee. “I thought perhaps you might. I sensed her wandering about last night, but my feeling was that she didn’t want my company or anyone else’s, except maybe yours.”

“I had hoped that it might comfort her,” Fury replied, “but I am certain there is only one source of comfort that will truly ease her suffering, ease both of their suffering.”

“Ascent’s in agony, Mac said. “Can she not sense his pain?”

“Surely you remember how it was with us, Diana Mac,” he replied. “Space was necessary for both of us so that we would be able to come together again. Yes we suffered. We suffered terribly, and I do not wish such pain on anyone, but that journey must be made and they alone must make it in order to find their way back to one another. As it was with me, it is as important for Ascent to come to understand how he has hurt her and how he must allow her to his heart, for that is where she belongs, as he belongs in hers.”

“Do you think it might help if we went to Ascent, Mac and I?” Manning said. “We know what it’s like to love a neurotic SNT and to have to learn to be together, to trust each other. Maybe we can help him. At least we can comfort him. He shouldn’t be dealing with this alone any more than Lenore should.”

“While I kept watch with him through the night, making certain he was aware of my presence, he chose not to speak to me, which I also understand, having been nearly non-verbal in my own pain when our Mac left us. But I do believe that it would be a great kindness to Ascent. It would perhaps help him view the situation through the eyes of a compliment. Certainly I believe we all understand why he will not take Lenore Falish to himself. We have, each of us, felt that unworthiness, and it is terrible. One feels so very alone. Finish your breakfast first. I will not send you to the surface hungry. Then you can go, and I will stay to comfort Lenore so that neither of them is alone.”

Breakfast didn’t take long. Neither of them was very hungry, though Fury prodded them to at least eat something. He was such a mother hen at times. They both understood too well what Ascent and Lenore were suffering. They also knew that it was critical that Ascent bonded with Lenore sooner rather than later when there were two Fallons with war ships orbiting Tak Major. Sooner or later they’d figure out how to get inside the mole-tran and then Ascent would be at their mercy.

“I will ‘tran you directly to Ascent’s core. Though he may be mostly non-verbal right now, he has opened himself for us, but more in hopes that Lenore Falish will return to him. Do tell him that we will return her the instant she is ready, and she will be ready. I feel it in my own heart.”

“Fury,” Mac reached out her hand and touched what she could not see, but he had manifest for her, a stubbled face that planted a kiss on her palm, “convince her to come home so they can know what it should be like.”

“I will do all that is in my power,” he said, embracing them both. “Hurry back. I will have great need of you when you return.”

“It’s good to be needed,” Manning said. They had come too close to losing each other too often to ever take good-byes for granted.

The static prickle of a molecular transport in progress passed over Mac’s skin the blink of an eye before the galley faded and dematerialized. For a moment that might have been an eternity, neither she nor Manning existed, and then there was light and feeling and the tingling of limbs being reconstructed in a nanosecond, all things Mac would rather not think about, and didn’t most of the time. But it was not Fury’s gentle transport landing that they experienced, rather a hard drop onto a cold floor. It  was most definitely not Ascent’s core that materialized before them when they came out of the transport.

“Something’s wrong,” was all Mac could manage. There was a brief flash of the deck of a Jaeger and a red-headed woman standing over them. On the com someone was yelling angrily. But before she could even utter her surprise, there was the sudden sting of a hypo in her neck and she was collapsing on the deck next to Manning as the world around them faded again, but this time to black.

 

“Fallon, what the fuck did you do? What the fuck do you do, goddamn it!” Kresho raged, pounding a fist on the console. Even as he raged, he knew exactly what she had done. How could he not have suspected?

“Oh come on, Ivanovic,” came the response over the com. “Did you really think I was ignorant of my father’s very sophisticated mole-tran system? Hell, I had it on the Virago before the Apocalypse did. Cloned it right under his nose, and it was a whole lot easier to install on a tiny little Jaeger.

“Do you realize what you’ve done? Do you fucking realize what you’ve just done?” he all but yelled into the com. “Fury will destroy all four of you ships before you even know what’s happening, and the Compass right along with.”

She cut his audio but allowed him to see and hear what was being said on her end, and she was haling Fury.

“SNT1, this is Tenad Fallon on board the Virago. I have your compliment. They’re safe, and they’ll remain safe as long as you meet my demands.”

The roar over the com system was deafening, even through Kresho’s coms. Fallon didn’t flinch. “If you let my brother and me transport aboard, I will tell you our demands.”

Before Tenad could say anything else, she was being ‘tranned off her ship, with Jessup right beside her.

 

It was a brutal transport. Tenad rematerialized on her hands and knees vomiting. Jessup was next to her doing the same. When she finally stopped heaving, she wiped streaming eyes and snotty nose on the back of her sleeve, and looked around, they were in a small featureless room with no visible door. She tried to crawl to her feet, but couldn’t manage it just yet. Jessup kept puking and cursing.

“They are safe?” Came the voice over the com they also couldn’t see.

Jessup managed something about blowing the goddamned SNT out of the sky before he gagged again.

“Shut up, Jessup,” She managed. “Yes. Yes SNT1, they are perfectly safe.”

“That is all I need to know.”

A vent opened overhead. There was a hiss of oxygen and then a sudden weight on her chest. The fucking SNT was syphoning the air out of the chamber. “Do that and you’ll never …” Her words were literally sucked from her mouth.

 

“Fury! Fury! If you do that, you will never find your beloveds again! Their signals have been masked.” It was Ascent’s’s voice that filtered through the rage and the pain. “Listen to me. Let them think they have won. We will find dear Diana Mac and Richard Manning together. We are not without our resources, brother. After that, these two, they will be easy enough to deal with however we choose.”

Fury came back to himself in such pain as he had not felt since his birth. But this time, he came into the comfort of his brother, and in that there truly was comfort, though the ache he felt was as though his inner workings had been ripped from him and flung far into space. With a thought, he restored air to the Fallons in his brig, but he did not do it very quickly, nor did he send in a med-bot to treat them for transport sickness. While he might be forced to keep them alive until he had his loved ones back, he did not have to make them comfortable.

When they could breathe again and they were not too nauseated to speak with him, at least the woman wasn’t, he spoke over the com. “What do you want?”

The woman coughed and pressed her hand to her chest, blinking back tears from both the vomiting and the struggle to breathe. “I’m pretty sure you know a part of that.”

“You want my inheritance.”

“My inheritance. The one that my dear brother Gerando stole from me.”

“You are not the eldest, and your name was not even on the will. As I understand what I have read, what Gerando has also told me, the will is legitimate and it is binding.”

“And now all the Fallon fortune and resources belong to you to do with what you will. I understand that. And if you want your compliment to stay alive, you will sign it all over to me.” She waved a dismissive hand, “Oh I don’t care about the indentureds. I have plenty of my own. Do with them whatever you want. The rest, I want back. That is my first demand.”

“What else?”

She tried to climb to her feet, but still could not manage it. Fury had to admit he took pleasure in seeing the sweat break on her forehead and her efforts to swallow back whatever still remained that was trying to push its way out of her stomach. This she did manage, and finally she spoke. “I want you to help me gain control over the SNT in the salvage yard in the Sea of Death. I know it’s there and I know you can get through the de-mole barrier.”

“He is not mine to control, or anyone else’s,” Fury replied, “and at the moment he is little more than salvage himself.” To this Ascent made a rude sound in his ear.

“Nevertheless, if you want your compliment to stay alive, you will do as I ask.”

“Is that all?”

“There’s one more thing.” This time she pushed her way to her feet managing to stay upright by pressing her back against the wall.

“Which is?”

“I want you to bond with me, SNT1”

This time Ascent cursed out loud and used language Fury had not heard from him before concerning the parentage and the sexual preferences of the two Fallons. Fury would have laughed at her had he not realized the woman was very serious indeed. Instead he spoke carefully, measuredly, as though he spoke to a child. “To bond with an SNT is no simple process even for someone who has been prepared over years so that their bodies will not reject that bond, and there are often -”

“Can it be done?” She cut him off.

“It is a very complex procedure, and it is quite possible that my core would reject you even after you have completed the course of immune-suppressants.”

“Gerando was accepted without that.”

“Gerando had undergone the training to become a compliment long ago, and that involved small transfusions of SNT blood over a long period of time. Without it the humanoid immune system will reject that joining, that blood, just as it does of a differing blood type.”

“But it can be done?”

“Possibly, but it may also kill you.”

“Well then,” she squared her shoulders and blinked large green eyes, “you had better make sure it doesn’t if you want your compliment to continue living.”

“If my compliment dies, you die as well.” Through the view screen he could see the fine hair on her neck and arms rise and gooseflesh as he made his message physically clear. “It is a very dangerous double-edge sword you now wield, Tenad Fallon, you had better be certain you know how to use it.”

“If I didn’t think I could use it, I wouldn’t have hefted it,” she replied, then jerked her head toward the wall in front of them. “Now let us out, find us a place to clean up and then show us to the bridge.”

He ‘tranned them immediately into a tiny space with bunked berths built into the wall and very small shower and toilet. It was only across the hall from the space they had been in.

“What the fuck is this? What the goddamned fuck is this little shithole? My fucking Indentured has a bigger space than this.”

“Shut up, Jessup,” Fury heard his sister say before the man made another dash to the bathroom to vomit again, but his sister did not.

Like all SNTs, Fury was aware of everything that went on within himself, but it was not the squabbles of the Fallons that drew his attention, it was the small, incredibly empathetic, woman at his core, feeling for him in his agony, steadying him, comforting him, and it was Ascent, who encouraged her to do so.

“I’m safe, Fury, and they don’t know I’m here,” Lenore said.

“They do not know that I’m here either, my brother,” Ascent said. “Best they believe I am, as you said, little more than a pile of salvage myself, for now you have allies.”

“You have more than us,” Lenore said. “Arji will help us and so will everyone in Sandstorm. We have the Fallons and their operation well covered. Someone will know where Mac and Manning are.”

“We will find your loved ones, Fury, and we will return them safe and whole into your arms.”

Fury did not reply. He had allowed his compliment to be taken from him, how could he have failed those he loved so terribly.

“What you are thinking, my brother will avail you nothing. And it is a lie, as you have told me. What has happened could not have been foreseen. It was not your fault. We will get your dear ones back, and I will rise up with dear Lenore, and we will take our revenge and go together to find our brothers and sisters and restore what has been taken from us.”

 

Happy freezing Friday everyone! It’s a perfect day in my neck of the woods to cuddle up with a hot drink and a good read. The hot drink, you’ll have to manage on your own, the reading part … I’m on it with another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Ascent refused to take Len as his compliment, inadvertently humiliating her in front of Fury and his crew. This week she learns that Fury and his compliments understand Ascent’s reluctance far better that Len can imagin. 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 Ascend Part 54: Been There, Done That

Once she was showered and changed, she found Mac in the galley. “Fury’s a good cook,” she called over her shoulder, scanning through the replicator in the galley. I highly recommend the New Roma carbonara. I swear sometimes I think Fury has a time machine and he’s travelled back to actually taste some of these things. But then he tells me he really can’t experience taste. Not sure I believe him though.” She scrolled through the menu. “If you’re in the mood for something sweet, just plain old chocolate pudding is the best.”

“I’m not really hungry, though I’m sure it’s all delicious.”

“Do not be ridiculous,” Fury interjected. “You must keep up your strength. You are spent after today’s efforts. Besides, if you do not eat, I will think you do not like my cooking. I am very neurotic, as Diana Mac has said.”

Len couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “I would say there’s nothing at all wrong with your sense of humor, Fury.” Suddenly the galley was filled with a delicious scent and Manning placed a steaming plate of pasta before her.

“Guaranteed to make you feel better,” he said.

“While Ascent has been doing his best, it is not difficult to tell that you are still thinner than you should be,” Fury said.

“Trust me, our weights and measures are the least disturbing of what an SNT keeps track of behind our backs,” Manning said rolling his eyes.

Fury made a rude sound, and his compliment flipped him off. But the smell won out in the end, and she found after the first bite that she most definitely was hungry. Mac and Manning chowed down on their own pasta and the conversation flowed easily and relaxed with a lot of laughter, full of stories of their own adventures together, and her heart ached to think of how that might have been with Ascent, if he hadn’t pushed her away.

Later that evening they moved up into the observation deck while Fury pointed out distance systems and shared interesting facts. “I want to leave,” Len said, while staring at the distant smudge of the Omega Galaxy out beyond the rift.

“And you shall as soon as Ascent is operational again,” Fury said. “The two of you shall then probably see much more of the galaxy than you would like if we are able to engage you in our efforts to find the rest of our family.”

“I’ll stay until Ascent has his memory back and he’s able to leave on his own, but then, I’m leaving,” she didn’t give anyone room to respond. “I’ve had a little time to explore the salvage dump, and I’ve managed to scavenge parts and tech worth enough to buy passage on a respectable ship out beyond the Rim. From there well, I’m not afraid to work. I learn fast. I just need you to ‘tran me into Sandstorm, or maybe better Sunward. I’d have a better chance of getting a ship there. I would pay,” she added quickly.”

For a moment there was silence. Mac and Manning looked each other but said nothing. It was Fury who spoke. “You do not understand, Lenore Falish. If you leave Ascent, he will never regain his memory nor the will to leave the salvage yard. You are his compliment in all but the proper bonding needed to make you both more powerful.”

“I’m not his compliment.” She kept her voice steady as she could, promising herself she would neither get emotional nor would she cry. “I’m an uneducated salvage rat, nothing more, and he’s made it abundantly clear he won’t bond with me.”

There was another long moment of silence and Mac spoke. “I told you that SNTs are neurotic, and I meant it when I said you have no idea just how much so.”

“I nearly lost both of my compliments before we bonded, not because of anything they had done wrong,” Fury said, and Len swore she could feel the entire ship vibrating with his passion. “You cannot imagine the parallels between your story and ours, Lenore Felish. “I was born too early, and I did not have a bonded compliment when I was sent out into the world, though one had been set aside for me, had been created especially for me, for becoming my partner, my love, when my time came to be born, and she was old enough to bond with me.”

“Mac.” Len said.

“I was sent out without her, and I believed that I wound forever be a fugitive, always to wander aimlessly and alone. I do not know if you can imagine what such a deprivation means to an SNT.”

“I know what it’s like to be alone, believe me, I do.” She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling.

 

“And yet you strove far beyond all expectations, far beyond humanoid power to survive against all odds, Lenore Felish. I, like our dear Ascent, finished the one mission I was assigned and saw the futility of it all as the SNT dream was destroyed before my eyes and the blame for it all was placed on me and my remaining brothers and sisters. I did not want to live. I had found a remote place in space to shut down, just as Ascent has, and it was then that I happened upon the Pegasus with its distress signal, one life sign, and that just barely. That was my dear Richard Manning. His death saved my life.”

“You were able to bring him back?” Len spoke around the hammering of her heart in her throat.

“In a manner of speaking. You see I was new and untried and I did not know what to do to save him. I only knew that I could not bear to be alone. I made many mistakes in bringing him back, and there was not a day that went by that I did not feel my own inadequacy, even though Richard Manning never saw it, never condemned me, never left me to wallow in my own inadequacy. He gave me a purpose and became my companion. In spite of all that I had caused him to suffer.”

“We weren’t compatible, you see,” Manning took up the story. “I was a smuggler, not connected even remotely to the SNT program. I had spent the last three years of my life shackled in a triaxe mine. My body rejected Fury’s genetic soup over and over again. I don’t know how many times I died.”

“Five,” Fury said, and this time Len was certain she felt the whole ship vibrate. “And when I could not bring him back…”

“When he couldn’t bring me back, when I finally died for good, Fury did the unimaginable. He created a physical matrix for my consciousness so that I would have one last chance and so that I would not reject his nano-blood.”

“I made many mistakes for which Richard Manning has suffered,” Fury said. “I created the tether that binds him to me too short, and he is somewhat limited to the amount of time he can be away from me.”

“Not so much any more,” Manning said with a shrug. “Not now that we’re properly bonded and Mac is here. You see it was Mac who was Fury’s intended,” Manning said.

“And you didn’t ever feel inadequate, jealous of her?”

“I might have felt inadequate, I mean I was a smuggler, and this goddess was conceived from the beginning to be Fury’s compliment. But I fell in love with her early on in our efforts to recover her.”

“That took a lot of years,” Mac said with a shiver.

“You were indentured to Abriad Fallon.”

She nodded. “Fury and Manning followed me quietly all around the galaxy until they had the opportunity to take me back.”

“Even then, she did not know that she was my intended compliment,” Fury said. “I kept it from her.”

“Why?” Len said, almost feeling the adoration between the three of them as if it were for her, and god, she wished it was.

“Because, dear Lenore Falish,” Fury said, “I felt inadequate.”

“But why? You’re SNT1, you’re amazing.”

“I feared I would do to her what I had done to Richard Manning, and in our bonding I would make the tether too tight. I feared my own inadequacy, that I did not know how to be an SNT, that so much of my education was missing, even though by then we had reconnected with Professor Keen, who helped me regain so much, and still I doubted. You see, Lenore Felish, I felt unworthy of her, and there are times that I still do, unworthy of both my compliments. I nearly lost my darling Diana Mac because of my own fears, for you see, she felt it was my doubts of her that had kept me from telling her the truth when, indeed, it was quite the opposite.”

“Ascents’s only memories are of loss and pain and of the fact that his beloved compliment is gone, that he couldn’t keep her safe.” Manning said. “I doubt you have any idea what that does to a male ego, any male ego, when he can’t keep the one he loves safe. It doesn’t matter at all if there was nothing he could do. He feels inadequate.”

Len turned away and stared up at the sky through the small dome. “It’s just a theory. Ascent’s not you, Fury.”

“Did he not wake up for you? Did he not bring you back to life when you were dead, even when the knowledge of what needed to be done had escaped him? That he woke for you from his stasis, and that you are compatible with an SNT is a thing I do not understand,” Fury said, “but I have no doubt that if you had died over and over again, in the end he would have done exactly as I have done for Richard Manning in order to keep you safe. You see, Lenore Falish, he woke for you, and he saved you because you are capable of becoming his compliment. For anyone else, he would not, could not have awoken.”

“That doesn’t mean he can’t reject me,” she said.

“But he has not rejected you,” Fury said. “He has allowed you to come to his heart. Anyone else would not have survived the approach. It is only that he fears he will lose another compliment. I do wish that Professor Keen would contact us. He could certainly ease Ascent’s transition, and he would know, perhaps what is to be done. You see, I believe his fear is his block, the fear that he will lose you, that you will leave him like his first compliment did.”

“Well I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t leave him. He should know by now I won’t die so easily.” She wiped at her eyes, unaware until now that there were tears. “But I won’t stay where I’m not wanted either.” She left the observation deck and went back to the galley. She had just replicated herself a pint of ale when she realized she wasn’t alone.

“That recipe is from a planet that no longer exists,” Fury said. “It was destroyed long before the Authority ever existed when its star went supernova.”

She stared down into the glass. “How did you get the recipe then?

“The planet knew of its fate long before it happened of course, and it sent out people and drones with all manner of memorabilia about their home, including recipes. It is thanks to their efforts we know anything at all about them. Oh there are claims that they some of them are the present day Digans, and other claims that they are the New Vikings far beyond the Rift. Sadly they were not so careful about keeping records of their progress after they left their home world.”

She sipped the beer. “It’s nice.”

“Yes it is, and that is why it is my theory that they must surely be the New Vikings.”

She laughed and took another sip, plopping down at the table. “Lenore, if you wish to stay here tonight, the guest room is ready for you. Ascent has known from the beginning that you are here and that you need some time. He knows that I would not let anything happen to you.”

“Thank you, Fury. I do need some time. I don’t want to face him just yet.”

“I understand. We are here if you need anything dear Lenore Felish. Do try and get some rest. You are exhausted, as we all are.”

 

 

Happy Friday everyone. I’m just back from a glorious writing retreat at the Gladstone’s Library in Wales. I’m all inspired and ready to share another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Kresho’s revelation to Tenad Fallon leaves her wanting more.  This week we discover that she’s not looking for information. 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 53: You Cannot Understand My Reluctance

 

“I swear to you, I cannot find the blocks I have placed in my memory,” Ascent said, “though it is obvious to me that I have laid them myself so that I might not remember.”

“There’s nothing else I know to do today,” Manning said, running his hand through hair that already stood on end making him look a bit like a mad scientist from an old Terran film. They all were looking a little worse for wear. They had spent a good bit of a hot day crawling through service tunnels and stimulating areas of D’s brain, both bio and tech. Len knew the paths and the tunnels of Ascent’s tech self and bio self better than any of them. He had removed all restrictions for her and she had done her best to explore what she could and help in any way that came to her mind, including trying to talk to him, ask the right questions. Sadly that only got her so far before he became frustrated and all but non-verbal, especially if she got too close to information about his bonding with his compliment or what he recalled about the SNT disaster. When they weren’t together, she poured over every single scrap of data she could find on the databases Fury had downloaded into Ascent’s CPU about SNTs, from the history, to those involved, to the biotech and schematics. Fury had made it all available to her when he discovered her eidetic memory and her penchant for understanding SNT tech.

“I am sorry,” Ascent said. “There are simply places I cannot get to, and I do not remember the pathways or how I managed to block them.”

“Don’t worry,” Mac said. “There are other things we can try.”

While Len didn’t have Mac or Manning’s experience and expertise, she couldn’t easily imagine just what those other things might be, even though she herself had been the one to suggest some of what they had tried based on her own research.

“But you are all exhausted,” Ascent said. “You will all do much better after a good rest. They cannot get to us through the de-mole.”

“Girlie? Are you there?” Arji’s message broke into the silence. It was routed through the CPUs of both SNTs.

Ascent growled and Len glared a warning. “I’m here Arji. What have you got for me?”

“It’s about Kresho Ivanovic. We just got shit-faced together and he, well let’s just say he told me how things are. There’s a lot you need to know. A lot he wants you to know.” Then he dropped the bomb. “He’s looking for you.”

Her heart went into overdrive, and she sat down hard on the floor of the service shaft. “Then he did recognize me.”

“Course he did. I never saw anyone so upset.”

“Well he fucking should be.” The rage she felt burned the back of her throat like bile. “He fucking should be.”

Before she could say anything else, Fury broke in. “Arji Finkle, I do not believe you should be giving any more information to our Lenore right now, for she cannot come to you at this time. And while this frequency is secure from prying ears, Your place of business may not be at the moment with all of your unwanted guests.”

There was silence, and then, “SNT1?”

“It is I, yes.”

“You’re shitting me?”

“Indeed I am not, though I do understand your confusion since I am often told my sense of humor needs work.”

To this, Arji laughed almost hysterically. “Funny thing, I get told that all the time.”

“Great minds, I would surmise,” Fury replied.

“Fucking A!” And then Arji quickly added. “Anyway, it’s a pleasure to meet you, SNT1, and this ain’t something that can’t wait, Girlie. Best you stay safe where you are. Ole Ivanovic definitely don’t mean you any harm, but I wouldn’t bet my right nut about the bad company he’s been keeping. Anyway, Ain’t nobody gonna get your location outa me since I have no godddamned idea how to find you.”

“We’ll find a way to get with you, don’t worry,” Len said.

“I’ll wait to hear back then. And Girlie-Girl, stay safe. You ain’t died yet in spite of the odds. You keep it that way.”

“There is something about Kresho Ivanovic that seems strangely familiar,” Fury commented. “I would be very interested to hear what Mr. Finkle has to say.”

“I do not like this Arji Finkle,” Ascent said. “I do not believe his motives are pure.”

“Jesu Vaticanus, Ascent! yours are?”

Manning cleared his throat and shifted from foot to foot finding a spot on the floor particularly interesting.

“Dear Richard Manning, you are certainly not immune to the jealousies of an SNT,” Fury said half teasingly. “Have we not had our own lovers’ spats often enough when you stoked my jealousies.”

“I didn’t!” Manning said, and now it was Len’s turn to blush.

“SNTs are programmed with a great capacity to love, and the humanoid side of that love in its most flawed form is well sprinkled with jealousy, especially for our beloved compliments.”

“I’m not Ascent’s compliment,” Len said, blushing furiously. Fury’s comment was just the kind of statement that would send Ascent off into another bout of silent brooding.

“Oh I think you are in every way that matters except for the one that might truly do Ascent some good.”

The service tunnel suddenly went dead silent, with both Manning and Mac noticeably holding their breath.

Fury continued. “All that we have done, Ascent, everything that we have tried has been for naught, and we have, all of us, known what would remove those blocks, what would heal you and return to you your identity. A part of you has been missing for all these long years. And now that part of you, has returned. I do not know how, I cannot explain the compatibility that should have been impossible, but it has happened against all odds. My dear Ascent, if you wish to recover that which you have lost, you must do what you know in your heart must be done for you to ever be whole again. You must bond with Lenore Falish, take her to your heart as your compliment and be healed.”

To this, both Mac and Manning simply nodded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, the simplest.

For a moment silence crackled in the air and the static of Ascent’s discomfort raised the tiny hairs along Len’s arms. The longer the silence stretched, the hotter her cheeks became. And then he gave the answer she knew he would. “No.” It would have been bad enough if he’d just left it at that, but he didn’t. “That is not going to happen. It cannot. Find another way.”

And then Fury had to argue. “Ascent, while I do understand your reluctance, it is clear to me that this is what must happen.”

“You cannot understand my reluctance. You cannot possibly,”

“I know that you mourn the loss of your companion, but she is lost and you cannot bring her back, and you must move forward. Bonding with someone new, while it may be unconventional, it was always the plan that there might be back-ups for such losses. And while Lenore Felish may not have had that training, she is compatible.”

“I’m here! You two! All right?” Len broke into the argument, doing her best to control the trembling in her voice. “Don’t fucking talk about my like I’m a goddamned piece of furniture, a replacement for something that was broken, something much nicer, something…” She stopped talking fearing the tears that were threatening. Goddamn if she was going to blubber like a baby, she’d do it later, not in front of someone who already thought her inferior.

“Bloody hell? Are SNTs always this fucking callous?” Mac said. And now to have pity, to have someone else fight her battles, Len wished the floor would open up and the sand below swallow her whole. But even Mac couldn’t just leave it. “Fury, maybe you’ve forgotten what it was like, how it was with us, but I sure as fuck haven’t.”

But it had given Len the little bit of time to regroup before Fury could speak. “Right.” She forced a laugh. “The lord of the manor has spoken. I don’t know about you two, but I need a break, and then I’ll see what else I can find in the database that might work. If you’ll excuse me, I need a shower. Thanks for everything. Fury, why don’t you ‘tran up your compliment and give them a break.”

 

 

“Lenore Felish, I did not mean to,”

“Forget it.” She waved a dismissive hand. “We’re all tired and strung out. We can regroup tomorrow.”

“The subspace is always open if you need us.” Mac gave her a quick hug, studying her with intense blue eyes trying to ascertain if she were all right. Well she’d been through worse, hadn’t she? Lots worse.

Manning gave her shoulder a quick squeeze, and when Fury tried once again to speak, Manning cut him off. “‘tran us up Fury.” Clearly the SNT did understand the warning in his voice. In a heartbeat, the two were gone.

Len only waited until she was sure that they were gone and then she turned and climbed down the service tunnel taking the shortest route to her quarters.

“Lenore?”

“I want to be left alone right now, Ascent. Go away.”

“Lenore now is not-”

“You humiliated me in front of Fury and his compliment,” She cut him off.

“Lenore I-”

“You never miss a chance to remind me that I’m not good enough, that I’m not her, but you could have at least said we needed to talk about it, saved my dignity, what little is left to me after everything, and then at least let me make it sound like it was my choice too, that I didn’t want you just like you didn’t want me.” Once she started she couldn’t stop. “And now they all feel sorry for me. They pity me. Goddamn it Ascent! I don’t want anyone’s pity.”

“Lenore, please, I didn’t-”

“Shut up, Ascent!” She stomped her foot so hard her knee popped as she reached the bottom of the ladder. “Just leave me alone, okay? Leave me alone.”

In her room, she changed quickly and grabbed up her backpack, and headed for the outer airlock. It was early evening, after the Shimmer but too early for the winds. She had a couple of hours.

“Lenore you cannot go out, you know this.”

“I’m going out, unless I’m now no better than a fucking indentured for you to command and control.”

To this he made no response, as the door slid open and she quickly descended to the ground below, thinking that maybe she might just spend the night in one of the derelict shuttles she had found that was still air-tight and relatively safe. She didn’t need Ascent’s help. She sure as fuck didn’t need Fury’s crew’s pity.

She walked hard for nearly an hour when Fury spoke onto the subspace. “Lenore Falish, I am sorry for my callous behavior. I still do not always understand human interaction as well as I would like. It was not my intention to make you uncomfortable in any way.”

She didn’t plan to answer, but after a moment of stomping through the sand and sweating profusely, she changed her mind. “What? Did your compliment read you the riot act?” she asked, “make you apologize.”

“I do not need my compliment to tell me when I have acted foolish. For the most part, I can figure that out on my own. And they do not know that I have contacted you. Well perhaps they do know, since I would not put it past them to be listening in.”

“Apology accepted,” she said. “Now can we please drop it? I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

There was a long pause during which she was pretty certain Fury’s compliment listened holding their breath. At last Fury spoke again, very cautiously. “Ascent is very upset.”

“Yeah, well he always is after he’s reminded me yet another time that I’m not her and that I’m nothing more than an uneducated salvage rat. I just need to leave. I just need to go somewhere else, anywhere that’s not here where it hurts all the time.”

She could sense Fury discussing with his compliment, and then Mac spoke. “Len, we’re ‘tranning you up for the night. You’ll be safe here, and I think we really need to talk.” Then she added quickly. “If that’s okay with you.”

It was then that she realized she stood rooted in the sand, not even bothering to fight back tears, and she didn’t want to go back to Ascent right now, but she also didn’t really want to be alone. She swallowed back the tightness in her throat and nodded. “Okay.”

Seconds later she found herself ass over teakettle on the bridge of SNT1 with Mac leaning back against the console. “I battled with the ‘tranning for ages,” Mac said, reaching down a hand to help her up. “I still don’t much like it. Manning took to it like he was born to it, but then he sort of was, I guess. I hope you don’t mind, but we told Ascent you were here so he wouldn’t worry.”

She took the offered hand. “Doubt he would really give a shit one way or another.”

“You know better than that,” Mac said. “Fury only suggested what he did because he knows Ascent knows that too.” Before Len could respond she said. “Come on. You can use the guest room shower and Fury will replicate you something to wear while you’re here, then we can talk.”

“I don’t need pity.”

“Good because you won’t get it here.” Mac pointed her to a small but pleasant sleep room with a bathroom incorporated. “But you know very little about SNT’s. Oh I know that you already probably know more about the science and the schematics than either Manning or I do, but SNT’s are as much of a mystery to us as humanoids are to them. We have to learn to be together and,” she leaned closer, “I’ll let you in on a little secret, they are even more neurotic and full of self-doubt than we are.”

Len grunted a laugh. “That’s a really scary thought.”

Mac smiled and waved her into the room. “Hon, you have no idea.”

 

 

Happy Friday everyone. I’m just back from a glorious writing retreat at the Gladstone’s Library in Wales. I’m all inspired and ready to share another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Kresho’s revelation to Tenad Fallon leaves her wanting more.  This week we discover that she’s not looking for information. 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 Part 52: I Hate You. Why Would I Stay?

“I hate you. Why would I stay?”

Her chuckle was like honey and whiskey, as she worked the buttons. “I want you to fuck me, Ivanovic, not like me.” Her fingers were agile, making him think of other things they might do. When he didn’t respond, only stood staring at her, she held his gaze, letting the blouse slide off her shoulders. “What? You want me to beg? Is that your fantasy?”

“My fantasy,” he said, taking in her heavy nipples and then her pouting full lips as he crossed the distance between them, “My fantasy is to shove you out the nearest airlock and have done with you.”

“I can work with that fantasy,” she said moving to meet him halfway, “as long as I can fight back.”

Before she could come into his arms, he stepped back and jerked his head toward Camille. “I want her out of here.”

“What? Are you shy? She’s seen sex before, and violence, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I don’t care what she’s seen before, I’m not into exhibitionism, not with what I plan to do to you.”

“Camille,” she said, moving into his personal space, eyes locked on his. “Wait in the library.”

When the indentured was gone, he grabbed Tenad, spun her about, and forced her arm behind her back, forcing it up until joints popped, and then he walked her on tiptoes over to the table and shoved her face down on it. The moan she gave could have been pleasure, could have been pain, and frankly he didn’t give a fuck which. From his pocket, he took out an old Terran-styled pocketknife, flipped it open and in one quick move slit her trousers down the back. She cried out as he shoved them down, and the straining up onto her tiptoes was now more about arousal than it was the arm he still pressed high against her back. Her ass! The woman’s ass was covered in a lattice of scars, some old, some not so old. He ran the sharp edge of a nail down one of the wider ones and she whimpered, trying harder to raise her bottom. He raked the scar again and then slid a finger in between her legs.

 

 

“So that’s how it is.” His cock pressed hard and stiff against his trousers as he stroked the slick swell of her. She protested with a wriggle of her ass and a groan as he withdrew his fingers to remove his belt. Doubling it, he gave her a hard thwak on each ass cheek. And she cursed and bit her lip.

“The buckle,” she managed, sounding like she was already about to come. “Use the buckle.”

Yes, that was exactly how it was. And he knew for a fact as he hit her again, leaving buckle marks on each buttock, his turn was coming. Half of her arousal was the idea of returning the favor. That thought was almost more than he could handle. He kneed her thighs open, shoved down his trousers and gave a deep brutal thrust, no more foreplay than a couple of bloodied bruises across her ass. It was pain she felt, as he all but ripped her open, and fuck knew he wanted to. There were tears on her cheeks, eyes watering from being penetrated before she was ready to accommodate his girth, and yet she thrust back so hard that the slapping of flesh against flesh was its own form of punishment. He pulled out, long enough to put a couple more stinging lashes with the leather right across the new wounds, then he grabbed those round, wounded ass cheeks and fisted them apart as he shoved back in hard. This time she screamed as she came, but before he could finish, in his distraction, she pulled her hand free, and reached around behind him digging jagged bitten nails hard along his right ass cheek, and as he emptied himself in her, the warmth of his own blood dripped down onto his thigh.

Later, much later, they both straddled chairs turned back to front as her med bot worked on them. They were close enough that their foreheads touched, but not their lips, which was just as well, his were still swollen and the nanobots working to heal them made them tingle and sting. He’d learned early on, kissing Tenad Fallon was painful, and yet he’d kept coming back for more. But he’d given as good as he got. He smiled lazily at the thought, and then forced himself to think about something else. At the moment he was pretty sure a hard-on was something the rest of his battered body did not need.

“How’s your delicate little bottom?” She spoke as though she were only just barely awake in spite of the pain. She refused the offered painkillers.

“Better than yours, I bet.” He’d insisted his ass be treated, she’d insisted hers not be.

She squirmed against the chair until her eyes watered and she bit her lip. “You wanna feel how wet I am because of the souvenirs you left on my bottom?”

With more effort than brains he reached around the edge of the chair and gave her a stroke. “Goddamn woman, you’re crazy as fuck.”

“And you’re sane?” She was quick. Her hand darted around, grabbed his erection and began to stroke.

“Fallon, you’re killing me,” he grunted, shifting his hips just enough to aid her hand lazily fisting up and down his cock.

“Not today, Ivanovic. I need you to get me SNT1. Now are you going to tell me your plan or am I going to have to hurt you worse.”

He grabbed her hand and stilled the motion, but she didn’t let go, teasing the head with her thumb.

He took a deep, still painful, breath and told her what he had in mind. This time she motioned aside the med-bot, and in a quick motion far too fluid for someone so wounded, she shoved him back out of his chair and straddled him on the floor as the rib cracked again. “And you think I’m insane.” And then, together, they cracked a couple more ribs.

 

Happy very cold Friday from the UK! Winter is definitely sinking its teeth in. I’m cuddling with a nice hot cuppa as I share another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Ascent invaded more than just Len’s dreams.  This week, Kresho’s revelation to Tenad Fallon leaves her wanting more.  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 Part 51: Something for me?

“I hope you have something for me, Ivanovic. I could use some good news,” Tenad Fallon said, welcoming Kresho into her private suite. She gave him no chance to reply with anything but a nod. “I’ve been pulling my hair out, frustrated as hell. I know SNT1 is out there. I know it in my bones, and I’m betting he’s in synchronous orbit above the Sea of Death, and yet with all our tech and all the creative minds who work for me, so far, we’ve found nothing.”

She ran a hand through mussed hair, invitingly loose around her shoulders. It was longer that he’d thought. Her white blouse was untucked, and her feet were bare. The delicate skin beneath her green eyes looked bruised from lack of sleep. He knew the woman was tenacious and disciplined, quite possibly the only Fallon who was, but seeing her in that mode was way too endearing for his comfort. She motioned him into a large room that served as her office. Beyond one open door he could see her bed, large enough for an orgy. He turned his attention back to the office to find Camille scurrying about tidying, burdened with a large tray loaded down with empty teacups, several half-eaten plates of food, and half a dozen crumpled linen napkins, clearing away the detritus of what appeared to have been a long and fruitless night’s labor.

“Camille,” he nodded a greeting, which she returned, looking him in the eye. He liked that about her. He supposed it said something about Tenad Fallon that she let her get away with it, that she had chosen not to break the girl’s spirit. But he wasn’t willing to give a Fallon any benefit of the doubt. His experience had been that none of them deserved it.

“Name your poison.” Tenad said.

“Coffee, black.” While he seriously wanted to start in on the cheap New Hibernian and not stop until he couldn’t stand up, he needed all his wits for what Ori had sent him to do, for what he feared he might enjoy too much, and to his own detriment. That he had never seen her in such disarray and so vulnerable made him fear that enjoyment even more.

She gave Camille a nod and the girl disappeared into the other room. “Too early for booze?”

“Never,” he said. “The stuff’s like mother’s milk to me. Still, if I’m gonna be hole up with a Fallon for any length of time, best keep my wits.”

She threw back her head with a laugh that sounded like it belonged in a brothel, not coming from the richest woman in Authority space, daddy’s fortune or not. “I’d say you’ve done your homework well then, Ivanovic. I wouldn’t trust any of us any farther than the shove us out the nearest airlock.”

“Is that a warning?”

“I doubt you need to be warned. I’m just stating facts.”

“Arji tells me you picked up the tab for everyone at the Dust Bowl last night and paid him in water rations.”

She shrugged. “Water’s not hard for me to come by, and better for my Atlas account than credits, though I’m okay with either. I’d rather have the people of Sandstorm hating me less rather than more.”

“So that’s how you’ve managed to grow your own conglomerate so quickly?”

Camille returned with coffee and another tea for Tenad. While she poured, Tenad said. “Kindness appropriately applied at the right time in the right places is worth more than all the Triax in the Authority mines. It’s currency, sometimes the best currency.”

“Fuck if I’ve ever seen anyone so mercenary,” he said, thanking Camille for the coffee.

“Oh don’t be so modest, Ivanovic. I know full well you could write a few books on being mercenary yourself.”

“You do what you have to.” He spoke about his present situation as much as anything.

“Yes, you do.” She settled in at a small dining table and nodded for him to do the same. As he pulled out his chair, for the briefest of moments he caught a fleeting glimpse of the soft curve of her breast swelling below the open neck of her silk shirt, and when she shifted to pick up her teacup, he saw even further to the pale peach nipple unhampered by a bra, and he knew the task before him would be more difficult than he’d ever feared and far too easy. Hell, in her unassuming and disheveled state, she was, stiffening his cock. Maybe especially for those reasons. Quickly he settled into place his lower half tucked safely under the table out of sight.

“So what do you have for me?”

Fuck! Did the woman do that on purpose?

He pulled a computer tab out of his jacket and called up the images Ori had shown him and shoved it toward her.

As she pulled the tab to her, he noticed that her nails were badly bitten, and he liked her better for it. She scanned through the images once, twice. “Look, I don’t mean to be dense,” she started the third scan and her breath caught, nipples practically shoved their way through her shirt and bright color rose in her cheeks. “Oh. Oh! Holy Vanticana Fuck! How did you ever find this?”

“I worked with the SNT project, remember? Part of my job was to find vulnerabilities and correct them. That’s a transport you’re seeing there. And that means we know exactly where SNT1 is.”

She blinked. “But couldn’t it move around for safety sake?”

“He could, but he hasn’t. There have been four transports and all from the same location. He’s well-hidden and he’s exactly where he needs to be.”

“So, what’s he transporting?”

“Oh my sweet summer child,” he said. “Not what, who.”

She blinked then blinked again. “What? You mean humanoid transport? I mean I had heard rumors, even heard that the old man had them on his orca class, but I never actually believed them. Even our best technology in the Authority isn’t anyway near that good.

“A part of why mole-tran tech was made illegal in Authority space is because only SNTs had the kind of mole-tran that was dangerous to civic safety, or some such horseshit my father made up after he orchestrated the whole SNT disaster.” She grunted a bitter laugh. “After the death of several million humanoids was laid squarely at his feet, he decided maybe he’d better be a little afraid of the SNTs who might have survived the mess and might be gunning for him.”

“And that doesn’t scare you?” Kresho asked leaning over the small table holding that bright green gaze.

“Of course it does. It scares me shitless. But then lots of things do. And if SNTs are as bright and as logical as they’re supposed to be, they’ll know that I was away on the Rim when the whole disaster happened, and I had no idea about any of the old man’s plan. I seriously doubt any of his bastards did unless it would help play one against the other. I would have been happy for the SNTs to survive and thrive. I figured in time we’d come around to some sort of partnership that worked for us all anyway. But sadly, that was not to be.”

Kresho wasn’t sure he believed her, but he was pretty sure she believed herself. He finished his coffee in one and came around the table. As he leaned over her, there was a barely audible catch of her breath. He made a couple of quick swipes with his finger and she studied the screen in concentration “There are three other transports that I’ve found. That was the most recent one, the one that alerted me to the situation.” He leaned over her shoulder and magnified the frame. “Here.” He pointed to the spot.” Her hair smelled like she’d been outside in the sunshine, real sunshine. “This was the first transport I could find, two signals down to Sandstorm and back.”

“SNT1’s compliments then.”

“Has to be, unless Fury has someone else on board we don’t know about. This was the first one I could find” He swiped again. “And this one, this a single transport. Believe it or not this one is from inside the de-mole up and here, back to the surface.”

“Wow! I had no idea SNT’s could do that, transport through a de-mole barriers, I mean. I had no idea the kind of tech and the funding for that size and sophistication of a de-mole perimeter even existed. Did the other SNT do that, you think?”

“It’s possible, I suppose, but I can’t see why an SNT would waste energy putting a barrier around the whole damn salvage yard. That thing covers half the Sea of Death. And anyway De-moles are really not SNT style.”

 

 

“Well it certainly didn’t do any good against another SNT, did it?”

He grunted a laugh. “You don’t seriously think he was trying to keep SNTs away, do you?”

“No. I guess not.”

“Here, here’s another ‘tran through the de-mole.” He swiped the tab, “that one is down and back, and it’s a double transport.”

“SNT1’s two compliments maybe? Down to our SNT in hiding?”

“That would be my guess, yes. The last one, though,” he swiped back to it, “That one is into Sandstorm, as far as we can tell. It’s hard to say where with all the built-in blind-spots.”

“One of SNT1’s compliments, you think?”

“Probably, but here’s the thing, the transport times coincide with the times when you and I were both there. More than likely, they came into the Dust Bowl right under our noses. I doubt there’s anyplace else they would go, and certainly that’s the place they would come for information. I wouldn’t recognize either one of them. Would you?”

“One I would have recognized for sure. Diana McAllister. She was my father’s most prize possession, shackled for the -”

“For the debt of her father and the loss of Merlin,” he finished for her. “Fuck! How could I forget that? I only saw her as a child, and then only once. McAllister was very protective of her. He always had her either onboard Merlin with him or hidden away somewhere secret-like. And after the SNT disaster, after I fled, it was several years on before I learned what your piece of shit old man had done to her. Well bloody good for her!”

The woman offered him a quirk of a smile, plenty of smug in such a small gesture. “Apparently she was instrumental in my father’s much-celebrated demise.”

“Like I said, good for her!”

“All of his loving bastards would have had a party in her honor to celebrate if any of us could have stood being in the same room together.”

“And Gerando got the final laugh,” he said.

“Game’s not over yet, Ivanovic, now do you have a plan yet?”

“I just discovered SNT1’s location and the fact that he’s not moving around. I have some preliminary ideas. The rest will come.”

For a long moment she studied the tab in front of her, flipping back and forth to the four ‘trans, then she leveled that green gaze at him. “You do know what will happen to you if you cross me?” She glanced back to where Camille sat quietly on the floor in the corner. “I’ve had indentureds who crossed me, Ivanovic. They don’t live very long, though most of them live a lot longer than they would like. I won’t be kind to you.”

“Believe me, Fallon, if I thought there was a way to drop you in it, I would do it with great gladness and then when the deed was done, I’d dance at your funeral. I’m the only chance you have of gaining control of SNT1. I just want it done so I can get you the fuck out of my life. You want SNT1, I’m the only one with any chance of getting him and if I don’t get this plan right, then you won’t get the chance to shackle me. You’ll be dead just like your father. But if we take the little extra time to get it right, and you get control of SNT1, you can get command of whatever SNT is hidden in the Sea of Death. After that, I’m fucking off back to Vodni Station and waiting for the fireworks.”

She raised a russet eyebrow. “Fireworks?”

He folded his arms and sat back in the chair. “You seriously think Every SNT in the galaxy won’t be gunning for you?” He stroked his chin thoughtfully. “What was the final death count, by the way? Refresh my memory.”

“Three and a half million,” she said.

He poured himself another cup of coffee and gulped it, tepid or not, the bite helped him fight down the rage he felt at the loss of everything that had mattered to him for nearly fifteen years of his life. “Let me see then, the compliment of a standard Jaegar is what, somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty, maybe seventy people on one this size, I’m guessing. And that doesn’t take into account all the servants and indentureds and seconded crew you think you might come in handy for this little venture. That’s three Jaegers and one Dreadnaught. Those are more like a hundred and fifty, aren’t they?” He shrugged. I’m not really up on the numbers, but I’m guessing the SNTs will find that an acceptable loss when they come for you.” He stood and moved to her chair, leaning over her so that she was trapped nose to nose. “Or are you thinking that with SNT1 on your side, you’ll be able to talk them all around?”

Her lips were parted just enough that her breath was warm on his face, her chest rose and fell as though she had been running, and she sat up straighter in her chair, just enough that their lips nearly touched. “I can be very persuasive.” Her voice was barely a harsh whisper.

“Good luck with that.” He pulled away and turned toward the door.

“Where are you going?” She all but tipped over the chair in her efforts to stand.

“Back to my ship. I have work to do if we’re going to pull this off and save your pretty little Jaegers.”

“And if I want you to stay?” She moved like a predator on silent bare feet, fingers on the top button of her blouse.