Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, book two of the Sentient Ship Series and the continuation of Fury’s journey to find his family. In the meantime, if you have just arrived and would like to start at the beginning of Piloting Fury, follow the link, and enjoy! If you like what you’re reading, make sure to catch all of Dragon Ascending from the beginning.

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 39:  The Fallon Legacy

Jessup didn’t argue with anything after the mention of Mist. He only gave a surly growl before he turned and followed Gerd out the door with Dyrg right on his heels. Once he was gone, Kresho turned to Tenad, who had settled into the chair in front of his desk, legs crossed, hands resting on the arms like it was her throne. He said nothing, only moved to his desk and settled behind it pulling out a bottle of good New Caledonian whisky. Fuck if he didn’t need it, badly. He hadn’t bluffed that hard in years. At least for the moment they were buying it. Silently he cursed Ori once again. He offered Tenad some, but she shook her head.

“I don’t drink, which I reckon you probably already know, a man with your superior intel.”

He shrugged and pulled out a single glass. “Just thought after the joyful family reunion and then having to kiss all those credits good-bye, you might need one.” He filled it to the rim and drank half of it before the burn had calmed him enough to speak again. So far so good with the plan, but it was very early days. “You’re brother’s a little shit.”

“He is, yes. I hated Gerando, but even he had his moments, she offered half a grimace, “as much as any Fallon ever did I suppose. Now,” she leaned forward in her chair, that bronze ponytail cascading over her shoulder and down onto her breast.  He had an overwhelming urge to grab it and reel her in right onto the top of his desk. She carelessly shoved it back over her shoulder and offered him a mischievous smile. “Are you going to tell me how you suddenly came up with all this juicy information that just cost me a small mint’s worth of credits, and I didn’t even argue?”

“Of course I’m not going to tell you,” he said. “Did you really think I could run a space station out in the middle of nowhere if I didn’t have some damn good connections.”

She sat back and relaxed. “No. I guess not. But seriously, another SNT?”

“That’s right, enough to begin a small fleet all for the Andromeda Conglomerate, right? By no means the biggest, but a serious contender? You see, I always do my research. You’re the one with the low profile and the fat bank account.”

Her smile was genuine this time. “And once I have the Bright Star resources, I’ll finish the job SNT1 started, gut my father’s conglomerate and use the resources to build up my own. It’s only the liquid assets I lack to carry out plans my father was too conservative to make.”

“And tell me, did you dance in the streets when the old man got blown out an airlock with the SNT virus?” He asked, suddenly feeling all the resentment that all of these years of hiding and running had given him time to build up.

“I’m afraid I don’t dance, Ivanovic. But I did celebrate in my own way.” The crooked smile she offered, the way she looked at him like the prey and she was about to pounce on gave him shivers, shivers that weren’t entirely because he feared her ways of celebration could end up extremely painful, or worse. Ori knew enough details to make him both hard and chilled, and to wonder how the hell she’d gotten them.

He shoved back in his chair, hands behind his head and breathed out a deep sigh. “Well we certainly celebrated here. Then laughed our asses off when we heard what Gerando had pulled off on the rest of the family. I don’t think anyone thought he had that much of a brain.”

She stood to pace. “There was nothing wrong with his brain,” he could almost taste the bitterness in her words. “What was wrong with him was that he expected he could actually earn the old man’s respect, and even believed it was worth having. Most of us knew better, or we learned pretty early on anyway. No one mourned the daddy dearest. None of us celebrated any less than I’m sure the people on Vodni Station did.”

He was about to say he seriously doubted that when she turned and leaned over his desk so quickly that she was practically in his face before he knew it, her words a poisonous hiss. “Don’t ever think I want to carry on the Fallon legacy, Ivanovic. I hated the man. I hated everything he stood for. I used to pretend my last name wasn’t Fallon. I always swore I’d change it one of these days. There just hasn’t been time.”

“Then you’re the nice Fallon?”

She huffed out a breath and the smile returned to her face, this one made his skin crawl. “It would be a mistake to think I’m nice, Kresho, and you don’t look to me like the kind of man who would make a catastrophic mistake like that.” She stood and straightened the black blazer she wore over a crisp white shirt. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get about the business of expediting our contract if we’re going to get away on time tomorrow.”

She left him sitting in his chair cradling the glass in his hands. For a long time he sat there in silence wondering what the fuck Ori had gotten him in to. Then he downed the rest of the whisky, shoved the glass and the bottle into the drawer and slipped into his coat. Once in the lift, he said, “Flood it,” and headed for the Inner Dock.

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, book two of the Sentient Ship Series and the continuation of Fury’s journey to find his family. In the meantime, if you have just arrived and would like to start at the beginning of Piloting Fury, follow the link, and enjoy! If you like what you’re reading, make sure to catch all of Dragon Ascending from the beginning.

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 38: Two SNTS, But it’ll Cost You

Tenad’s mouth fell open, and for a long moment she was speechless. Jessup who was not, reverted to a primitive, half-whispered string of curses. “You’re sure of this?” He finally managed.

“My intel’s good,” Kresho said.

“How do I know we can trust you?” Tenad said.

“Well, lady, as you so kindly reminded me yesterday, you have me by the short hairs, and if I have to go down this route, I have every intention of squeezing every credit out of you fucking Fallons I can get, extra even for undue stress on me and my people.” Did Gerd actually try to look distressed?

“What about we just apply a little truth serum, get the information we need and leave you drooling and shitting yourself before we blow this chicken shit station into dust?”

“I’d like to see you try,” Dyrg growled and moved in on the man again, which shut him right up.

“You can do that if you want, but my information, my knowledge is all behavioral, all classic SNT science, and there’s no way you can extract the experience I have to deal with a situation that I promise will be so out of your depth you’ll regret the day you were born, I guarantee that will be the case when SNT1 gets through with you. He waved a hand at the view port to the void beyond. “Hell there are at least five, maybe six SNTs in hiding right now. My guess a good half of those, maybe all, have been bereft of their compliments, thanks to your fucking father and the Authority. If you think SNTs are just high tech computers waiting to be controlled and commanded, then you’re more naïve than even I give you credit for being, and believe me, I give you a lot.

“You see, people, normal people, suffer pain when someone they love dies, and if that someone has been sabotaged and brutally murdered, they want to avenge those they lost. Now then,” he said pacing in front of them, “imagine what it’s like for a person with a mind so far superior to yours that I don’t even have a proper comparison for you, and imagine the emotions, the humanity, the feelings and neuroses that we humanoids live with on a daily basis match that intellect. You think they don’t hate you? You think they don’t want revenge on Fallons and on the conglomerates? And if you are an SNT, for all practical purposes immortal, it’s the easiest thing in the world to bide your time and take your revenge properly.

“And you know what,” he said stopping to look Jessup right in the dry red eyes, “SNT1 has the lion share of Bright Star Conglomerate and Fallon resources safely tucked away in Atlas accounts somewhere beyond the Rim to finance that revenge once he unites his family. Hell he’s not even waiting to unite that family, the Armageddon, your father’s piss poor attempt at a Frankenstein’s monster version of an SNT has already been rescued and upgraded with SNT1’s DNA to a proper SNT, and while Fury and his compliments were at it, they just decided to go one better and create a brand new SNT out of the Dubrovnik. That’s what you two bozos are dealing with, what you’re stupidly dragging me into.

“So, we pool resources, we do it my way, and we might actually get lucky and get SNT1 for you. And if we’re extremely lucky, we might get that bonus mystery SNT.” He shrugged. “Otherwise you two will be the ones out there shitting yourself and drooling when Fury gets through with you, and that’s only if he’s feeling benevolent.” How many millions died before the SNT’s were under control? I forget, refresh my memory.”

That had both Fallon brats looking a little green around the gills, neither willing to supply the hideous numbers. They looked at each other, hate only barely disguised, and Tenad said. “All right. We leave first thing in the morning. I’ll expect you and your people aboard the Virago at 07:00.”

“Oh, isn’t that choice?” Little brother cut in. “You have them all onboard with you, you have all the information you need, and I’m left high and dry. Ain’t happening sister.”

“I’m taking the Compass,” Kresho cut in.

“What?” They both said at once.

“Sorry, children, but I don’t trust either of you any farther than I can drop kick you out the nearest airlock, so I’m taking my own ship and my crew. You’ve got enough hanging over my head that I won’t go AWOL, plus, we get out of this alive, you’ll be paying me a bloody fortune. Oh, and that reminds me,” he said as the Notary for the station pinged at the door and it slid open. “You both can sign over half of what you owe me to my notary right now, not including any bonuses or extras that I accrue along the way of course.”

“What the fuck?” Jessup growled.

“Oh, I’m not picky how you split it between the two of you. I’m feeling generous, so I’ll give you a good two for one deal, but piss me off and I’ll ask for stress pay.”

Jessup took one look at the notary’s offered infopad and let out a string of spittle-laced curses that would curl the hair of New Caledonian factory worker. “That’s fucking robbery! Nobody’s worth that goddamn much. I’m not giving my scan.” He shoved the pad back at the notary unscanned. The man took it distastefully between two fingers then pulled a sani-scanner from the pocket of his robe and gave it a quick going over.

Tenad took the pad from the notary, who wasn’t even trying to pretend he didn’t enjoy seeing a couple of Fallons get skinned. She shoved it back at her brother. “Scan the document, Jessup. It’s not like any of it’ll come out of your bloody pocket anyway.”

Jessup Fallon blushed furiously, but shoved his thumb against the notary pad for the DNA scan. Once he was done he practically threw it at his sister, who caught it deftly and placed her thumb on the pad. The pad pinged its acceptance of the scans, and she handed it back for the notary to check. Once the man was satisfied, he nodded and Kresho put his thumb to the scanner. The notary gave a brief click of his heals and left with the three of them watching.

“It’ll take the better part of the night to arrange a transfer of that size and set up the conditions you’ve requested, but I promise the credits,” Tenad shot her brother a glare, “all of the credits, will be in your Atlas by the time we leave tomorrow.”

“Good. We don’t leave until they are.” Kresho said, then he smiled magnanimously. “Until the terms are all sorted, and I see those fat little numbers in my Atlas account, please feel free to enjoy the hospitality of the station. And Jessup, if you hurt any of my hospitality workers, I’ll personally cut your cock off and shove it down your throat.”

The man’s face reddned. “My fucking brother does that shit, not me.”

“Just saying,” Kresho said. “With Fallons in the place, you can’t be too careful.” Though he planned to make sure the man was far too high to get his cock up or his fists. He added, “Also, no indentureds onboard the station or I can’t guarantee your safety. My people don’t take kindly to such things.” He shrugged. “Otherwise, knock yourselves out.” He nodded to Jesup. “Gerd will show you to the best Mist den on the station.” There really wasn’t one, but he and Ori had sorted that little detail in the wee hours. The Fallon sprog would be able to float to his ship by the time of their departure, though he might need a little help. Kresho would just as soon keep the turd high and pliable. His sister, Kresho knew only too well, would not be so easy. But there was a plan for that too. One he didn’t even want to think about right now.

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, book two of the Sentient Ship Series and the continuation of Fury’s journey to find his family. In the meantime, if you have just arrived and would like to start at the beginning of Piloting Fury, follow the link, and enjoy! If you like what you’re reading, make sure to catch all of Dragon Ascending from the beginning.

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 36: You’re Not in Authority Space Anymore

Tenad Fallon was pacing his office like she owned the goddamn place when he got there the next morning, feeling hung over and exhausted in spite of the fact he hadn’t had a drink. It had taken all night to set the plan in motion, and while he didn’t like it one little bit, like most of Ori’s plans, it had an uncanny chance of coming together without him becoming the sacrificial lamb. He took a deep breath before he stepped inside and offered Tenad Fallon a smile that showed enough teeth to be as predatory as he could make it. “You want me to help you get back the inheritance you say should have been yours, and my people tell me that your brother down there, cooling his heels in the fancy Dreadnaught wants the same thing.”

“Half brother. Idiot half brother.” She interrupted him. Aha! So she could be rattled. Ori had been right again.

“Look lady, I don’t give a shit if he’s your dog’s mongrel pup, if you want me to do this, if you want me putting my whole station at risk for a fucking Fallon, when I’d just as soon rid the galaxy of the lot of you, then I expect you to pony up. I expect that reward you so magnanimously offered before you threatened my people with the shackle fattening up my Atlas account nice and hefty-like before I set off with you.” He nodded to her PD. “Those are my demands.”

She studied him like this was something she’d been expecting and then glanced down at her PD, which beeped with his incoming message already written up in triplicate ready to be notarized to make sure she didn’t try to weasel out of any of it. For a moment she said nothing, just stared at it as though he had written it in Polyphemian Mountain dialect, and then she tipped back her head, red hair now in a flaming ponytail, and let out a raucous laugh that sounded like it belonged in a brothel on the Outer Rim. She laughed until her eyes streamed, and she wiped at them with an elegant fingertip. “I was warned you had serious balls, Ivanovic.” Before he could respond, she said, “you get half now and half when the job is finished to my satisfaction, and that will be when SNT1 is mine to command. I don’t mean when I’m simply beamed onboard, I mean that his compliment is out of his reach, and he is under my control, you got that?”

“Not good enough, Fallon. If I die in your hair brained scheme, I expect the other half paid in full plus another half bereavement pay to go to my next of kin, and that would be my station. I want those credits in a holding account you can’t touch with your slimy Fallon fingers, all notarized and ironclad. I’ve also made certain that if I die, the minute I stop breathing, my people will know, and I promise you neither you nor your fancy ship will survive if you try to trick me.”

She gave a dismissive shrug, clearly sidetracked with the view out onto the docking bays below. “I can live with that.” Then she jerked her head toward the scene unfolding down there and growled. “I’d give you twice that if you could get rid of my fucking brother for me. He’s been following me like a Karesian house hound since I left Outer Kingston. He’s the reason I lost SNT1 the first time.

Kresho moved into her personal space, close enough for her to have to look up to him. “Oh I can get rid of him for you, but if I were you, I’d make good use of him first. If nothing else, he’s a good canary for the goddamned triaxe mine of a disaster you’re about to get lost in.”

She batted impossibly long eyelashes at him and offered a smile he could almost taste. “What did you have in mind, Ivanovic?”

He opened his com. “Dyrg, escort the other Fallon up to my office if you would be so kind.”

The man on the other end chuckled low and evil-like. “Gladly, Boss.”

When he looked up from his PD, she was all over smiles. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such delicious hate of Fallons. Sets my heart a flutter.”

“Lady, you ain’t been around much if this is the worst you’ve ever seen,” he said, all but standing on top of her.

“Oh I get out plenty, Ivanovic. But most places I go prefer to kiss my ass and at least pretend they like me, for their own protection, if nothing else.”

“We don’t kiss ass on Vodni Station,” He gave a little shrug, never taking his eyes off her. “We don’t like someone here, we’re more likely to bide our time and kick some ass at the most opportune moment to give us the most pleasure.”

“I shudder with delight at the thought.” The bitch made it sound like foreplay. That made him hard, which made him angry, but before he could dwell on it too long, there was a ping at the door and he slid it open with the press of a button.

The man who burst in might have been considered handsome if he wasn’t high as a New Vaticanan Baboon’s asshole on Mist, Kresho would guess. An expensive addiction, but the bastard was a Fallon, after all. “I fucking ought to blow your goddamned shit piece of junk space station into dust for keeping me waiting, you fucking piece of –” That was as far as he got before Dyrg nearly pulled him off his feet into a choke hold that had him turning red, making fish faces and tiptoeing like an ugly prima ballerina.

“You’re not in Authority Space anymore, bub.” Dyrg hoisted him up just a little farther onto his toes. “We eat Fallons like you for breakfast out here. It might due to remember that when you’re speaking to our lord and master. He demands the proper respects be paid.”

“And a kowtow, a good face to the floor kowtow,” Gerd added, having stepped through the door just in time to see the action. “Especially from foreigners and barbarians from the Authority.”

“Mr. Fallon,” Kresho said, biting the inside of his cheek to hold back a snigger, “I apologize for slighting your delicate Fallon sensibilities, but we had protocol issues to settle, since your sister was here first, and your fondness for each other is talked about in hushed toned at bars all over the edge of the Rim, we didn’t want violence erupting on the station. Now, if the two of you can play nice, I’ll offer you some good hooch, or whatever the hell it is your smoking, and we can sit down like civilized people and discuss the situation.”

Dyrg released the man, who said. “What is there to discuss? I want that bitch off this station and escorted back to Authority space, and-” Dyrg tightened his grip again just enough to be threatening, and Gerd moved to flank him, not that he needed her help, but Kresho knew her well enough to know she didn’t want to miss out on any of the juicy details to share later down at The Hub over a pint or five. The woman could hold her booze. The man shut up and calmed. And Kresho nodded his thanks to Dyrg.

“Now, that’s better, isn’t it?” He looked the man up and down, he must have taken after his mother, Kresho could see none of his father in him, and certainly none of his sister. Where she had the red hair and pale skin of a New Hibernian, Jessup had the darker olive skin and hair of the New Kingston islands, but he was as fucked up as the rest of the Fallons. Your sister and I have been discussing how much more effective your search might be if you worked together.” Kresho raised a hand when the man opened his mouth to protest. “Oh I’m not saying you two have to have that warm family feeling or anything like that. Hell, I don’t care if you mutually blow each other out the airlock at the end of this little disaster we’re all heading out on. In fact if you two would do me that solid, drinks on Vodni for the celebration party will all be on me.” Jessup Fallon’s eyes flashed fire, but he had the common sense to keep his mouth shut this time. The redness of his nose and the heavy blinking of dry eyes told Kresho he was coming down from his high a little sooner than he’d planned. That was because Kresho had made him wait a little longer than he’d anticipated, being a Fallon and all. He would agree to almost anything right now to get back to his Mist supply. Kresho continued. “We’ll work together, pool information.”

“I’m not pooling information with that bitch.” He glared at his sister.

“Then neither one of you will ever get what you’re looking for, and even working together you won’t without my help,” Kresho said.

Now he had their full attention, and Jessup’s high had worn off enough that he would have to hurry and make the plan or get the fucker some Mist. “We’re all ears, Mr. Ivanovic,” Tenad said with a lazy smile.

“And you trust these two goons here with this kind of… sensitive information,” Jessup shot a glance over his shoulder where Gerd and Dyrg stood quietly at some semblance of attention.

“Those two goons are coming with,” Kresho replied, and got a raised bronze eyebrow from Tenad. And now, he had their full attention.

“I’m probably the only person left alive who worked closely with the SNT project. Your fucking father made short work of the others, and I escaped to a more hospitable place. He didn’t want to think about that escape, nor what it had cost him, so he continued on. “You’ll need me if you ever plan to take any SNT, let alone SNT1 and get the Fallon horde back from him and from Gerando.” They both bristled at the mention of their older brother.

“We don’t need his help.” He glared at Kresho, then turned to his sister, “I say we just go in and kill SNT1’s compliment and make him do what we want.”

Tenad rolled her eyes. “God, you’re an idiot. How do you propose to do that?”

“You have three of the most powerful Jaegers in the galaxy, and I have the best dreadnaught money can buy armed to the teeth with a planet killer, and I know one of your Jaegers has one too. I’d like to see SNT1 stand up to that.”

Jesu Vaticanus, what kind of monster gives his little darlings planet killers to play around with, Kresho thought, but he’d lived through enough to know the answer to that.

“And once you’ve destroyed him, his compliment and half the Taklamakan system, how do you plan to get the Fallon inheritance back, Jessup? Hmmm?” Taned said.

To that the man only shifted nervously from foot to foot, and finally said, “well I didn’t mean that we actually had to use them on him. Just the threat alone …” He blinked hard and wiped his nose on the back of his hand. It was getting harder and harder for him to hold it together.

“You’re both going about this all wrong,” Kresho said. “Tenad, you know where SNT1 is, and I know what he’s doing there. That’s serious leverage over an SNT.”

Jessup grunted a laugh. “What? SNT1 took his complements there on holiday?”

“He’s there because he’s discovered another SNT ship in hiding. Nothing I know of can get an SNT’s full attention quite like family.”

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, book two of the Sentient Ship Series and the continuation of Fury’s journey to find his family. In the meantime, if you have just arrived and would like to start at the beginning of Piloting Fury, follow the link, and enjoy! If you like what you’re reading, make sure to catch all of Dragon Ascending from the beginning.

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 35: Meeting Family

Len woke up alone in her bed, but she sensed Ascent not far, his attentions drawn elsewhere for the moment. She was tender and sore in ways that made her smile. They had made love through most of the night. She didn’t exactly remember dozing off, but surely she couldn’t have slept much. She stretched long and leisurely, almost certain she felt the gentle warmth of morning sun coming through a window onto her face, something she hadn’t felt since childhood. Perhaps Ascent had accessed some humanoid memory from his database, maybe her own while they were making love. Things bled through, feelings, memories, sensations. Hadn’t she felt like there were no boundaries between them when they came together, with him moving inside her? Hadn’t she, for a second, known the entirety of him, every circuit, every cell? She would ask him about it later. Right now she didn’t want to disturb him. She more than likely should try to get a little more rest, but her mind was too full of Ascent to even consider sleeping. She needed some time to process all that had happened in the past few hours. Groaning a little with the aches of muscles not used before, she crawled out of bed, took a very quick shower and slid into her surface clothes. She gave her pack a check-over, though there was no need. Ascent always saw that whatever items she had used were replaced when she returned and that there was plenty of water. Satisfied everything was in order, she shouldered it, settled it into place and made her way toward the outside airlock. Her PD informed her that it was early morning and she wanted to take advantage of the relative cool before the Shimmer.

The beginnings of a plan rattled around in her head, and there were certain items she knew she would need. Ascent had pinpointed on her PD several derelict ships from which she might salvage useful parts, not only to sell, but also to build a crude, but workable transport that would get her back to Sandstorm base. But now that seemed less urgent. Now there were other reasons to search through the salvage. Surely it was a mistake to make the kind of plans she was considering. Up until now her only plan had always been to get off this sand heap, and that had been vague at best, since she’d have to come up with the money for passage, and the only way to do that was to find something worth a fortune in the salvage dumps. Good luck with that.

Then she’d made love to an SNT, and suddenly nothing looked quite the same. She decided to keep her scheming to herself for the moment. Ascent was still too vulnerable, too sensitive. But sooner or later he would have to come to grips with the loss of his compliment and hopefully make the decision to rejoin the land of the living, though certainly there wasn’t a whole lot of living happening on Tak Major. Still, he was an SNT ship. He came here to mourn and to forget. He didn’t have to stay here. No, some of her plans she would definitely keep to herself for a little while, at least. She found it worrisome that he could not remember so much as his own name. The fact that she was alive proved that he could retrieve memories or at least data. That was another bridge to be crossed later, when he was ready, when they were more sure of each other.

She made the climbed down from the airlock quickly, descending into the furnace of early morning only beginning the temperature climb toward the Shimmer.

Once on the ground, she knew exactly what she was looking for, and judging the distance, and the topo graphs on her PD, she thought she could get to the wrecked Jaeger, which the night’s sandstorm had uncovered, find what she was looking for, and be back before the Shimmer. Checking the route, she could see that if she underestimated the time it would take by a little, there would be shade from the scrap heaps for her to walk in almost the entire way back. Though she didn’t plan to be gone that long. She didn’t want Ascent to worry.

Ascent had informed her that while he had been responsible for the openings in the de-mole barrier, he did not remember erecting the perimeter himself, and doubted that he would have done so, since he found d-mole tech barbaric, and if it were left to him, he would ban it entirely. He could be a little judgmental like that. When she thought of some of the destruction the conglomerates had brought about for their own greed, she wasn’t entirely sure she agreed with him. The de-moling of the entire board of directors and all the top shareholders of the major conglomerates would most definitely make the galaxy a better place. Still, it was a mystery who built it and why. What could it possibly hold that would be of more value than an SNT ship? Anyway, Ascent had easily manipulated it to allow her in and keep others out. So had the other SNT.            She looked up into the sky that was still the deep blue of early morning and not yet the hot iron burn of the Shimmer and wondered if the SNT above her somewhere in orbit had seen her exit the safety of Ascent’s shelter. Who was this strange SNT with two compliments? As she headed around the perimeter of the de-mole in the direction of the coordinates on her PD, she was thinking about how she might convince Ascent he should meet his brother when the world shivered around her and then vanished. No! The world didn’t vanish. She did, dematerializing into nothing. The last thing she heard was Ascent crying out for her.

For a moment she literally did not exist and then the world shivered again and she found herself on her hands and knees on the bridge of a ship, a man and a woman standing over her. But it wasn’t either of them who spoke, as the woman offered her an outstretched hand.

“Lenore Falish, please forgive the abduction. It was the only way we knew to open communications with my brother.”

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: You’re Coming With Me

“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. Your 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 a while he held his own with her. Maybe this would be one of those times.