Happy Monday everyone!  I hope 2026 is treating you well.  And 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.

Piloting Fury Part 26: Kill the Messenger 

“My med-bot took care of your little problem?” Tenad said when the door to her quarters slid open. She didn’t look up from her PD. She knew no one could get in that she hadn’t invited. She was a little surprised that Ivanovic had agreed to her interrogating the captain of the Dart. She hadn’t told him the interrogation would be her ship, in her quarters. She didn’t want to run the risk of him telling her no. That wouldn’t have stopped her, but she preferred at least a façade of cooperation whenever possible. If Cronin Teagues had any information about the SNT1, and she was pretty sure he did, she planned to have it and she’d have it much easier without Ivanovic’s interference.

“That’s a treasure, that bot of yours is.” The captain of the Dart’s voice was butter and honey smooth. “Ours is a piece of rubbish we salvaged off Diga X12. It can give you a jab in the ass if you’re taking on radiation, and it can almost set a bone, if you’re not too concerned about how well the job’s done. Definitely wouldn’t trust it with the family jewels. But that one of yours, that one sorted my junk right out and gave me a hand with the test drive after just to be sure I didn’t puke again.”

“It must have been very unpleasant, that. Puking at such an inconvenient time.” She turned to face him and let him ogle her up and down, while she returned the favor. She knew he liked what he saw. She was not hard on the eyes, especially when she was out of uniform. Not that it mattered much what he looked like or what his opinion was of her. She seldom paid much attention to looks now. They mattered far less than end results where her sexual encounters were concerned, and the longer they lasted, the harder it was the less often she needed to make special arrangements to take care of her needs. Looks aside, this one, she knew his kind, dangerous because he was easy on the eyes. One should never assume that because something looks good that it’s good for you in any way, as Captain Teagues was about to find out.

“Let’s just say projectile vomiting is no substitute for a good sac emptying in just the right spot.” He wiggled his eyebrows in a way she assumed some women found charming. For her, charming wasn’t necessary.

“I see your point,” she said, deliberately glancing down at his crotch.

He brushed long slender fingers over the fly of his trousers and offered her a full-lipped smile, dark eyes sparkling. “Not yet you don’t but we can certainly remedy that, can’t we … Do you have a name?”

“I do,” was all she said. She had made sure he didn’t know who had asked to see him or why. Most people didn’t actually know what Tenad Fallon looked like. She kept a much lower profile than her high viz brothers, who more often than not were making public spectacles of themselves, and the gossips and the paparazzi loved them for it. But she learned long ago that if no one knew who she was or what she looked like, well that was a currency all its own, often worth more than a conglomerate’s worth of credits. “And I look forward to you showing me that point,” she said giving him the walk around, which made him a little wrong-footed. He was used to being the aggressor with women. She slid her hand over his well-muscled buttocks, lingering to slide a finger along the seam in between with enough pressure that she felt the muscles around his anus clench in anticipation. Enjoying that little orifice would come later. She traced the trim, straight contours of his hipbone and moved on around to a casual caress of his balls and cock, already tightening in his trousers.

He caught his breath with a curse and a little grunt that ended in a chuckle. “You like slumming, do you? Rich and bored? Some conglomerate mogul’s daughter?”

“Something like that,” she said, increasing the pressure of her caress.

Another chuckle, this one with just a hint of bitterness, his hips now shifting into her strokes, his voice a little tighter, a little more breathless at her efforts. “Well I’m just fine with that. I like a little upscale pussy every now and again. Always happy to spread the pleasure.” He reached for her breasts, and she grabbed him so fast that he quickly stepped back, or tried to. But she’d caught the ponytail, which hung thick and dark between his shoulders and spun him around close to her, the bones in his neck cracking at the odd angel of force as she pulled him back to front against her body, her arms sliding into a choke hold. He was about her height, slender built, wiry, strong no doubt, and that made the muscles below her belly tighten in anticipation. No doubt he was fast, but she caught him off guard and held him firmly tightening her hold just enough to still him, then just a little more to remind him of how essential breathing was, but not enough to extinguish the anger radiating off of him at being bested by a woman. She wanted him angry. “I hear you like to hurt women, captain.” Her words came out a throaty whisper against his ear, a whisper he mistook for anger and he tensed in her embrace, his own anger practically vibrating through his whole body, especially his cock.

The press of her forearm against his trachea made him cough and scrabble with his fingers to loosen her grip, nails bitten short scratching across her skin raised goose bumps down below her navel.

“I have yet to meet a chick who doesn’t like it a little rough. They may play coy, but they don’t really know what they want till I give it to them. What about you? You like it rough, don’t you?”

“You have my number all right, captain, I like it very rough. What about you?” She wrapped his hair around her hand and pulled it tight. “That bulge of yours tells me you might just like it a little rough too.” She released him with a shove that landed him on her bed.

His eyes grew round, the subdued lighting rendering them little more than black holes in his angular face. His cock jerked in his trousers. “Honey, I can take whatever you can dish out and give it back till you scream for more.”  He cleared his throat a couple of times and cracked his neck from side to side.

“I’m slick at the thought, captain.” She toyed with the tie at the waist of her white robe. She liked white robes when she knew blood was about to be shed. While he eyed her fingers on the robe expectantly, he was no dummy. “Who told you I like to hurt women?”

“Who do you think? Ivanovic, of course. He’s holding you and your men on your ship against your will, right?”

“How do you know that?”

“Bored, rich conglomerate mogul’s daughter, remember?” She untied the robe and he rested a hand against his surging penis.”

Still eyeing her with a wary blend of lust and mistrust, he chose his words carefully. “No doubt the crew of the ship that flung us into space left a message in our files for anyone who found us. The sick bunch of fucks onboard were about that crazy to leave us puking and living on space rations with full sacs wondering where the hell we’d end up.” He half coughed up the chuckle from his still irritated throat. “Pretty nutso, huh?”

“Indeed. In fact no one would have ever believed such a tale if the Lizzie Ann hadn’t corroborated your story.”

“Fuck me! You have no idea. And even with all that, it was still a nightmare to convince that hard-assed security bitch of Ivanovic’s that we were telling the truth. Now then, I want to test your med-bot’s handiwork in something other than my fist. How about you show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.” He gave his package a salacious stroke. “Talk is cheap, and I think you want to play as badly as I…”

His words died in his throat as she slipped the knot of the robe and with a shrug, let it slide off her shoulders and over her hips in the hiss and caress of silk. Stroking his still clothed bulge, he watched as she walked naked to a small bench she’d had Camille set up next to the vanity table. She fingered the items laid out meticulously, just the way she liked them, all promising exquisite pain when rightly applied, and she knew exactly how to apply them. From the selection she picked up a length of rope, rough and abrasive like the old Terran hemp ropes she’d seen in museums as a kid. Then she turned to face him, running the abrasive weave of the rope over her palm. “Tell me about the ship that … flung you,” she slapped the end of the rope whip like against her hand relishing the sting. “And get undressed.”

Teagues lazily climbed off the bed his burnt-hole gaze shifting from her tits to the rope and back again as he worked the buckle of the belt that held his trousers up. “I see you brought toys.” The bravado wavered the tiniest bit when she did not smile. “Who’s tying up who?”

“Take off your clothes and tell me about the ship.”

“All right.” He bent slowly to take off his boots, careful to keep his eyes on the rope now, her body secondary at the moment, and that thought made her very slick indeed. “It wasn’t big, a tramp cargo ship, smuggler I’d bet.”

She had to hand it to him, in spite of the dangerous situation in which he found himself, his hands were steady as he slipped the shirt off over his head and went to work on his trousers. “Nothing special about it. It looked as old and battered as the Dart, but I’m guessing that was only a disguise.”

“I’m guessing so,” she replied. “Sounds like some pretty illegal shit on that boat.”

“You got that right. I mean no ship I know can ‘tran humans without scrambling their brains and their junk. I know cargo ships use illegal Mole tran tech, hell I’d have it on the Dart if I could afford it. But this, this was something else again. I doubt even your rich ass could afford it.”

Vaticana Jesu, the man was going to spill his guts without any real interrogation. Well, she supposed she was all right with that. In the end it wouldn’t matter anyway. She’d get what she wanted. All of what she wanted.

He continued, “Being ‘tranned was bad enough, but then to take our entire ship and toss it out toward the Rift at speeds like that, I figure it was either some top secret project some conglomerate’s carrying on out here or it was all stolen, I mean what else could it be?” When he was undressed, hands shielding his erection, he stood facing her expectantly, gaze returning nervously to the rope in her hands. “Look, honestly, sweetie, the rope isn’t really necessary. I’m harmless.”

With a quick flick of her wrist, the rope shot out and lashed him across the chest leaving an angry red welt. He gasped and stepped back barely catching himself to keep from falling on the bed again. “Sonovabitch! What the fuck?” His cock surged and he grabbed it as though he were reining himself in.

She chuckled under her breath. “I don’t want you harmless, Captain.” Then she snapped out the rope again. This time around his neck and reeled him in and his string of abusive language along with. With him flush against her body, skin to skin, chest to chest, she ran her hand down and cupped his heavy sac. “You’re right, captain, some women don’t know they like it rough, but I very much assure I’m not one of them.” She slid the rope free with a jerk leaving an angry abrasion around his throat.

“Fuck!” Was his only gasped response.

“Now, I want to know absolutely everything about that ship and it’s crew that so abused you.”

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.

Since this is the last post until just before the New Year, I’d like to wish all of you who celebrate this season in whatever tradition,  and also those who choose not to,  love and joy and light and all good things. Happy Holidays! And as a little giftie from me to you, today’s post is a long one. Enjoy the little extra with my love.

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 23: You Were Dead 

Ascent’s patience was infinite, like all computers, she supposed. But unlike all computers he claimed to have brought her back from the dead. He waited while she did her best to let that fact soak in. It was only death. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been there before, and certainly this time was no more traumatic than the first. In fact this was a waltz through the Kingston poppy fields by comparison. Her chest still hurt when she thought about it. Death, sweet New Vaticana Jesu, she’d lived so fucking close to it for so long that she damn near took it for granted like a well-worn pair of shoes. How sick was that?

Finally when she was certain she wouldn’t vomit what she’d just eaten, which would have been a real pity when it was so delicious, she spoke the truth that had always been there inside her head knocking to get out. “Then I was right. I did come here to die. I thought so.”

The computer didn’t answer. There was no needed when she was merely stating facts. At last he spoke. “When you came back to me for refuge I could not let you die when I could be of help, and yet I did. I did let you die.”

“Of course. You were here all along, weren’t you?”

“It is not as though I have anywhere else to go.” He said, and in his words she could almost feel a tinge of bitterness at the back of her throat.

“And you remember me being here the first time?”

“Of course I remember. You were the first humanoid to come to me since my long slumber began, and it was you who awakened me. A fact I still do not understand, nor was I best pleased about at the time.”

“And that’s why you kept silent?”

“You were not who I expected.”

“You were expecting someone?”

“A ghost from a dream. That is all.”

The glass of orange drink had been refilled at some point during their conversation and she ran a finger around the rim, then noticed the dirt beneath her nails and quickly placed her hand back in her lap. “I thought … I dreamed that I wasn’t alone.”

“You were cold. I gave you my warmth. I did not want you catching a chill and having to convalesce in this place.”

She laughed. “I’ve slept in worse conditions, but I appreciate your effort.”

“I believed you would leave and I could return to my slumber. I could not imagine why you would return to this place. I believed it must be some mistake.  When you left I believed I would simply return to my deep sleep. But it was imperfect after you left.”

“Sorry I disturbed you. I came here looking for something, but when I found a way through the fence, I had only a tiny bit of time before I had to rendezvous with the ship.”

“And what were you looking for, Lenore? Surely whatever salvage you could find in this place would not be worth the cost of transport here and back.”

“You were worth coming for,” she said. “And anyway, sometimes it’s less about making money and more about discovery. My mom used to say that.”

“And that is why you took such a terrible risk with the crew of the Dart?”

She only nodded her response. “Arji told me I should have waited, but I’m not very patient.”

“If you had listened to this Arji, you would not have died, and I might have eventually returned to my slumber, but when you returned to me so damaged and violated, and I could not remember how to heal you, I did what was necessary to bring you back”

“Is that why when I was outside, I could move like I could in the Shimmer? Is it because of something you did to bring me back?”

“That is correct. I apologize if your sudden abilities have upset you. Had I not let you die, such measures would not have been necessary.”

“It’s all right, Ascent. I’m not afraid to die, but I would just as soon not be dead if there are other options. I don’t even feel like I’ve lived yet, and I’d really like to see the firestorms on Diga Prime before I die for good. I’d like to see almost anything that’s outside the Taklamakan System.” She thought for a moment and absently nibbled her pasta, which had amazingly not gotten cold. “Perhaps Arji is right then. Perhaps I am a cat.”

“I do not understand.”

She swallowed and drank more water. “There’s an ancient Terran legend that domestic cats had nine lives. It’s not the first time I died.” She hadn’t meant to tell him that. She would never deliberately bring that up even to herself. What was wrong with her?

There was a sudden chill in the room and a rush of goose bumps rose up her spine. A wave of static crackled over the fine hair on her arms. “Who killed you?” Came the voice suddenly gone ominous and threatening, the same voice that had chilled her when he had informed her she would not have to worry about the Dart and its crew ever again.

Jesu Vaticanus, why had she brought it up? “No one killed me. I killed myself.” She shivered and chafed her arms. “It was the only way I could make it to Tak Major.” She spoke quickly hoping that he would not question further.

But he was not ready to let it go. “Why would you want to come to such a desolate place so badly that you had to kill yourself to get here?”

She put down the fork and bit her lower lip, forcing herself to breathe deeply. “It wasn’t that I wanted to come here, but Tak Major was the only place I could get to on a supply drone with any chance at all of being revived if I did die.” She twisted the napkin in her lap, much the same way her stomach felt like it was twisting. “It was dumb luck that it worked and when Arji and Fido opened the drone, Fido knew how to revive me. Anyway it all turned out okay, didn’t it?” She tried to smile, but the corners of her mouth twitched with the unnatural act she did not feel at all like doing.

“Then you came from Taklamakan Minor.” It was not a question. There was no other place she could have gotten from on a drone and survived.

It was what he might say next that she did not want to hear. Computers had databases. He could easily enough access what had happened on Tak Minor, and no doubt he would, but she didn’t have to discuss it. Still mentally kicking herself for bringing it up in the first place, she pushed back from the table slopping electrolyte supplement across the clean white tablecloth. “I need a shower.”

“A shower can wait.” She felt Ascents’s arm around her as surely as physically as she had in the darkness. “You are very distressed, Lenore. Your heart rate is too fast and your respiration is too shallow. Please do not dwell on what has been. The past we cannot change, or surely we would have done so and prevented ourselves all that we have suffered. You are safe beyond the Authority’s reach here. Please do not trouble yourself.”

She had told him nothing of their fleeing the Authority, but his database would have supplied all he would need to know. Gently he settled her onto the bed where she curled onto her side and shivered. Ascent formed a part of himself to embrace her in a spoon position, an embrace that was comforting, not solicitous. When she was sure she wasn’t going to bawl like a baby, she said quietly, “I try not to think about it, but then I died again and memories, they come back.”

“I understand. I also do not want memories to resurface. The past is never a place to revisit if one can avoid it, I think.”

For a moment she lay taking in his comfort. And then she gathered her courage and spoke. “Is that why you couldn’t remember how to save me?”

There was a long pause, and she was almost certain she could feel the body he had created to comfort her stiffen. At last he let out a very convincing breath and said, “it was. I would have, in that moment, given anything to recover the data that could have so easily healed you. Instead I had to resort to a much more risky, much more invasive, procedure of bringing you back.”

Could she hear distress in his voice? “It doesn’t matter, Ascent. The end result is the same and anyway, I was in no condition to know the difference.”

She snuggled down closer to the warmth he generated and closed her eyes. In the darkness of her own head, it was very easy to imagine him completely humanoid, comforting her, embracing her, caring for her. And she was happy to stay in that place for the moment. There had been very few comforting embraces since her mother’s death. She knew that Arji was willing, but she also knew that he wanted more than to offer her comfort, and that was something she couldn’t give him, so she’d always been careful not to give him reason to hope for more, even in those moments when she would have loved a little human comfort.

A large hand brushed the hair away from her face, and she moved her cheek into the touch, finding herself terribly close to tears again. He sensed her longing and continued to gently stroke her cheek and neck. For another long moment she simply lay there breathing deeply until she was more in control. “And what you did to bring me back also the reason I healed so quickly?”

His hand stilled, and again she felt the tightness in the flesh he had created. “Ascent?”

“It was not unexpected, though I had no way of knowing how quickly your body would adjust to the extreme measures and our incompatibility. Certainly I did not expect your recovery to be so rapid. It should not have been possible.”

She turned toward him and rose up on one elbow to look down at what seemed only an empty space next to her, but she knew it wasn’t. “Ascent, what exactly did you do to me.”

“I performed the only procedure I knew to do. I gave you my blood, and you did not reject it, although I do not understand why. You have not been prepared for my blood. You should have needed repeated doses of immunosuppressants in order that your body would adjust to the presence of my genetic material and stop rejecting my blood. Had your body rejected it, then you still would not be fully recovered.”

Ascent was an SNT!