Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending in which we see that things are definitely changing. Len is finding closure and the Fallon crews have choices to make. 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 is especially true as we draw nearer the end of the novel. 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 76: Choices and Cross Roads

 The first thing Len noticed as she walked into the Dustbowl was Camille chatting rather intimately with Arji over the bar. Dragon chuckled softly in her ear. “It would appear that your Arji’s affections have shifted.”

“Indeed.” She barely got the thought out before Arji and Camille both looked up and came over to her. Arji took her in his arms and lifted her off her feet in a bear hug. “That’s … how many now, Girlie Girl? Is it three lives you’ve used up? Lucky for you to have hooked up with a fancy SNT to keep you safe now, hmm?” He patted her so hard on her back that he nearly knocked the breath out of her, and Dragon tensed a little until she returned the favor and laughed. “You got it ass backwards, Arji. It’s me watching out for my SNT.”

“It don’t surprise me none” His eyes got serious, and he gave her arm a gentle squeeze. “He treatin’ you right that SNT of yours?”

“Yeah, Arji, he’s treatin’ me right.” To this Dragon nearly purred. “You all right, Camille?”

“Never better.” The little indentured – ex indentured — gave her a broad smile looking her up and down as though inspecting her for damage.

“Thank you for everything,” Len said. “If it hadn’t been for you we’d have never found Mac and Manning, and it was one helluva risk you took.”

The smile left the woman’s face, and she bit her lip shifting from foot to foot, then she held Len’s gaze. “Did he kill her?”

Len knew exactly who she was talking about. “I only know that Fury said she wouldn’t be any trouble to anyone anymore. No one has seen her since. I don’t think anyone has had the nerve to ask what happened.”

“But you suspect,” Camille said.

Len thought about it for a moment, then replied. “I know that Fury is already bonded. I also know that no matter how quickly Tenad’s body adjusted to Fury’s bio-tech, he could not have had a warm feeling for her after what she did, and while she might have entered his heart chamber to undergo the process, that doesn’t mean she would come out intact.”

“Good,” Camille said.

Just then Kresho came through the front door. When he saw Len, he offered her a smile that was far more like the old Van than anything she had seen from him so far.

“Kresho Ivanovic and Ouroboros have reconciled and had very pleasing sex,” Dragon said in her ear.

Before she could say TMI, Arji gave Kresho a hard slap on the back and said, “From the looks a you, Ivanovic, I’d say you got well and properly laid last night.”

Dragon chuckled his satisfaction, and Len was pretty sure she heard Ouroboros join in.

Kresho nodded to Len, almost shyly, and she nodded back, thought better of it and then gave him a quick hug, to which she heard both Dragon and Ouroboros’s sigh of pleasure at the reconciliation of the two.

Just then Mac and Manning came through the front door and Arji gave them a nod. “Back room’s ready for you lot, and all them you asked for is back there waiting for you, the whole lot’s damn near pissin’ ‘emselves with nerves, I’d say. I don’t mind saying it does my heart good knowing there’s two less Fallons stinking up the galaxy.”

Arji led them all into the back room behind the curtain with Camille at his side. There, shifting nervously stood all the commanding officers of the three Jaegers that belonged to Tenad and the Dreadnaught that had belonged to Jessup.

When everyone was in the room, Manning gave Arji a nod and he turned on the communication system and stepped back.

“I am SNT1 Fury,” the familiar voice came over the system. “By now you all know that my brother, SNT7 Dragon and my sister SNT3 Ouroboros and I are the reason you and the ships you command are still here after your efforts to kidnap my compliments and to destroy both Taklamakans Major and Minor. The charged static of three SNTs filled the room, three SNTs with every reason imaginable to blow all four ships out of the sky and destroy every living soul associated with them, and they all knew it. Just when the hair along the arms of every person in the room stood on end and the space stank of fear and nervous sweat, the static dissipated and Fury continued. “You were following the orders of cruel people, of people who have enslaved half of their own population through the cruelty of the shackle, and sabotaged my own family, blaming us wrongly for the deaths of innocent millions. You are not stupid, and neither are you fools. Believe me when I say every SNT understands the drive to survive, to stay free of the shackle, as we understand the threat that hangs over the head of every single one of you and every person onboard your ships, and your families, and their unborn children.”

“So here is what we offer you,” Ouroboros took over the sound system. “All of those indentured onboard your ships have been removed to a designated place here in Sandstorm, where their shackles have been deactivated. They will be given the choice to stay here, or to go on to Vodni Station and there find work or passage to the Rim, or if they choose to, they may stay onboard their ships and serve at the pay level and the commission level they would have been had they not been indentureds, with all the chances of advancements available according to their position.

“As for your ships, they have been confiscated by us to help with our mission. They will be refitted to help us find our lost brothers and sisters and to make right the wrongs that have been done, so that we SNTs may, at last, fulfill our commission to humanoid kind. That means those of you who wish to stay on and serve our cause may do so without fear of retribution from any of us or ours, without fear of the shackle. Those of you who don’t wish to serve us may remain here on Taklamakan Major and work off your passage to wherever you choose to go, or become a part of the communities that are here. Those are your choices.”

The captain of the Virago was the first to step forward. “That’s hardly a choice for me and my crew,” he said. “Just tell us what you need from us, and we’ll see it done.”

The other Jaeger captains were quick to follow suit.

Then the captain of the Dreadnaught came forward. “What about our families back in Authority space? There are a fair few of us who serve aboard Fallon ships under threat of the shackle to our families and loved ones. How can we know that they’ll stay safe?”

“There are many ways you can serve, Captain James,” Dragon spoke up. “No one understands the need for family and loved ones quite like we SNTs do, believe me, and we have already begun plans to make sure your family and dear ones are returned to you safe from threat. Some of you will be involved in that plan.”

Dragon’s response was received with hearty nods and smiles from the Fallon Crews.

 

 

“Good then.” Fury picked up. “Let your people know that any who wish to remain will be free to do so, but we will not tolerate any Authority sympathizers.”

The Virago’s captain gave a grunt of a laugh. “I doubt you’d find any once we’ve been offered a choice and know that our families will be made safe.”

“They were all pulled off other ships for their superior service, threatened with the shackle, them and their families, and Shanghaied onboard the Fallon ships,” Camille said. “They all know that serving well in the Authority military or conglomerate cargo ships will as easily get you a shackle as a commendation,” she commented.

“Then we all know how the situation stands,” Ouroboros said. “Tomorrow we will travel in force to Vodni Station where your ships will be refitted to a less destructive purpose while we await the arrival of our brothers, Griffin and Dubrovnik. Once we are all united there, you will receive your assignments, and we will finally be able to begin our mission. Are there any questions?”

“You trust us then?” The captain of the Virago asked.

“You are travelling in the company of three SNT ships, their compliments and their flotilla, are you foolish enough to give us reason not to trust you,” Ouroboros replied.

When the man only offered a sheepish chuckle and everyone else from the Fallon ships did the same, she said, “then you may return to your ships. You will find the course already laid in.”

“Bar’s open if you wanna celebrate good riddance to bad Fallon rubbish,” Arji said. To that they all gave a collective sigh of relief and filed out to the bar.

Once everyone was gone except for Arji and Camille, Fury spoke to Camille. “While I cannot bring back your lost loved ones, dear Camille, I would restore to you your birthright. You are quite capable of piloting any of the jaegers or the dreadnaught, if you want.

“I don’t,” came the pointed reply.”

“What then, dear woman, how then do you wish to begin your life of freedom.”

“I want the Dart,” she said.

Suddenly the room was awash in an electric silence. “I don’t care what happens to the rest of the crew, she continued, talking swiftly, as though she were afraid she wouldn’t get the chance to finish. “I reckon they deserve whatever they get. I want the Dart and I want her refitted at Vodni Station as a proper cargo ship like she should be.” She turned her attention to Kresho. “I reckon as the one in charge at Vodni, it wouldn’t be that hard for you to line me up with enough contracts to get me and a small crew of my choice started in the business that should have been mine. In return for your investment, I promise I won’t disappoint you.”

Arji cleared his throat, and the burn on his cheeks was one Len recognized after all the years she’d known the man as controlled, satisfied anger. “Well, the Dart no longer has a crew. The ship is, I suppose,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders, “salvage now.”

When no one spoke and all eyes, humanoid and SNT, were on him, he cleared his throat a couple of times and spoke. “We don’t take kindly to one of our own being … abused.” He lifted his eyes to Len’s and they were like blazing glacier ice. “Me and Digby and Fido and a few of the others decided the bastards deserved a little Sandstorm justice.”

“You left them to the Shimmer,” Len said around the pounding of her own heart.

He held her gaze, his lips a thin tight line. “Just like they did you, Girlie Girl, just like they did you.”

“Good,” Dragon and Fury both said at the same time. Len just took the man into her arms and gave him a tight hug. Family. Family was everything in the Tak.

When he pulled away, he cleared his throat a couple more times until he had control of his emotions again, and said. “We all decided that the Dart is salvage, and it rightly belongs to you, Girlie-Girl, as blood price. It’s yours to do with what you want.”

“Then I want Camille to have it. Without her we wouldn’t be having this happy reunion.”

“As for the refit and the contracts,” Kresho said, “that’ll be no problem. We’re always looking for reliable cargo ships.”

“That’s all done and sorted then,” Arji said. Then to everyone’s surprise, he turned to Camille. “If you need a second in command, I’m your man. I had me some experience in long distance haulage before I ended up on this heap.”

“Well aren’t you just full of surprises,” Len said.

“And what about your dreams to be a master brewer?” Kresho asked, lifting the pint he’d been working on in salute.

“Ah, well you know how it is, Ivanovic, when a good lookin’ woman makes you an offer you can’t refuse, you take it,” the man said, glancing down at tiny little Camille with a look Len could only describe as adoration.

“There is one more thing that we must take care of before we leave for Vodni Station in the morning, Ouroboros said. Kresho took Len’s hand and gave it a tight squeeze.

The morning saw the three SNTs and their compliments as close to Taklamakan Alpha, the yellow sun of the system, as they could all safely get, as they launched the casket bearing Janesha Felish’s body into the sun. “Mama, you told me once that you wish you could fly right into Tak Alpha because you reckoned that was the only way you’d ever be warm again. I remember how cold we always were, and how I used to imagine as a child that I could find a way to get us off Tak Minor and surprise you by taking you somewhere warmer. You belong in the stars. You were the light the burned bright for me in the darkness. And now finally you can be warm. Tak Alpha will be a much brighter star for taking you into its arms. I love you, Mama, and I always will.”

Kresho came to her side and slipped his arm around her as she pressed the launch button that jettisoned the pod casket. From Dragon’s launch bay all of the compliments stood together to honor Len’s mother, and from their place on her deck, Camille and Arji re-Christened the Dart as Janesha’s Gift. Then they all watched as the tiny casket disappeared into a bright flash and was gone forever. Closure. It was closure. “I promised you Mama.” Len said so softly that only Dragon could hear her. “I promised I wouldn’t leave you there. And now neither of us will ever have to go back again.”

 

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending in which Kresho and Ori work things out. 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 is especially true as we draw nearer the end of the novel. 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 75: SNT Reconciliation

Kresho woke up on his bed with his cheek plastered to his pillow and very little memory of how he got there. He did remember returning to the Compass after his time with Len and Dragon, feeling an incredible sense of relief that Len had forgiven him, that she now knew the truth of her birth and why she had been so well suited for Dragon. He should have been elated, he should have been as happy as everyone else was, but he just felt empty. He’d replicated a bottle of New Hibernian rot gut, and the last thing he remembered was a moment of clarity, of a choice that had to be made. One he’d been putting off for a long time now. On his bedside table a chilled glass of water appeared, and he drank it back, only to have it replaced instantly with an orange drink he recognized immediately as one of Ori’s electrolyte formulas. “You are dehydrated,” she said when he only stared at it. He knew she would not go away until he drank it back. At least when they were on the Compass together, he had her undivided attention, and he was too goddamned needy not to take full advantage he supposed. So he drank back that glass, hoping he could hold it down, glaring at her all the while, well it was an attempted glare. Any movement of his face hurt like hell in his hangover condition.

“There. That’s better isn’t it?”

“Fuck you,” he mumbled, lowering himself gingerly back onto the bed.

“You’re welcome.”

When she didn’t leave, he groaned and pulled himself up, all but falling out of bed he stumbled to the shower to wash the stink of his bender off. He leaned against the wall while the cool water sluiced over his heated skin.

“You were too exhausted to finish the bottle,” she said. It had taken him awhile, but he’d gotten used to her speaking to him when he was in the shower. In the early days, she had often joined him, and fuck him if his skin still didn’t tingle with the memory of her touch, a touch she’d not offered in a long time.”

“You have not asked me,” came her quiet reply.

“After awhile even I had enough pride to stop begging,” he said, and he felt her flinch. Strangely it gave him no satisfaction. “Look,” he leaned his head against the wall and swallowed hard, strangely not to keep from puking, but just to hold onto his emotions, emotions he wasn’t willing to vent naked and vulnerable in the shower, “just let me get through the shower and get dressed, and then we can talk.”

“Yes,” the reply was tight and if he didn’t know better, he would almost think wounded. “We need to talk about the elephant in the living room.” She was at least as good at ancient Terran slang as he was. He felt her withdraw, and he finished his shower, taking his time to gather his thoughts, giving himself space to prepare for something he would never be prepared for, but neither could he go on with things like they were.”

Once he was dressed, he made the decision to climb down the laddered shaft into the core chamber of the Compass. After a few minutes that felt like an eternity, he felt her cautious approach.

“Kresho? There are far more comfortable places for us to meet than here.”

“For us to meet,” his attempt to laugh turned bitter and shriveled in his chest. “Perhaps I should have made an appointment.”

Her silence lasted long enough that had she been humanoid, he would have thought she’d left him in a huff. But she wasn’t humanoid, and when she spoke, her voice was maddeningly calm. “You are the one who sent me away when I came to you.”

“I’m leaving,” He blurt out. That hadn’t been the plan, but maybe it was easier this way.

“What do you mean you’re leaving? You’re my compliment?” There was that ridiculously calm voice again.

“Am I? Am I really? I’m just the piss poor substitute for the compliment you lost, and for the one that now belongs to your brother. You must have been so disappointed when you turned up too late to have her for yourself.”

When there was another silence just long enough to make him think she really didn’t give a shit, he continued. “I’ve been grooming Belina to take over the station for a long time now. She’s the best damned administrator on Vodni, far better at it than I am. And Farrukh knows as much about running the science department as I do, and he’s the chief expert on the synth-axe. You don’t need me. Anyone would do. I’m sure I could get a position on Dubrovnik’s science team. They could use all the help they could get.”

The sudden wave of static in the room was damn near enough to make his hair stand on end as it moved over his skin raising goose bumps and making his scalp tingle. “You are not Dubrovnik’s compliment. He doesn’t need a compliment. You are my compliment, and no one else’s,” she exploded with anger he had never felt from her in all their time together. It only served to fan his own anger.

“You fucking whored me out to Tenad Fallon like I was a goddamned piece of meat.”

“I thought that’s what you wanted, goddamn you! The way you looked at her, the way your pulse raced and the way she stiffened your cock when I no longer did.”

“Jesus, Ori, I’m a fucking male, and how the hell would you know if my cock was stiff for you when you kept me at arm’s length?”

“Do you have any idea how close I came to blowing that woman out her own goddamned airlock for touching you, for having you when you never came to me anymore. And I could have fucking done it easily enough even on her fancy Jaeger. Do you think I would have ever put you at risk under any circumstances? You are mine, and I protect my own.”

He could barely breathe beneath the weight of her anger, her … emotion. But he had anger of his own, plenty of it! “Then fucking treat me like it, not like I’m some interchangeable tool to use up and then replace when you’re done!”

 

 

“You were the one who pushed me away, who left me in the cold. I didn’t know what you wanted, and you wouldn’t tell me. All you ever wanted seemed to be to lose yourself in running the station, as though I wouldn’t have blown up the whole damn thing had I known that it would cost me you, had I known that you would relegate me to the subfloors of the station to wait for your visits, as though I were nothing more than a piece of machinery you deigned to check on now and then. After you regained your memory, when you remembered Janesha, when you remembered you loved her, I didn’t matter anymore.”

He sat down hard on the catwalk around the core of the Compass as though the breath had been knocked out of him. “Jesu Vati, Ori! That’s what you thought? I thought I was responsible for the death of the woman I loved, and worse yet, for the death of her daughter who I swore to protect. I thought … I thought I wasn’t …” The words wouldn’t come, and his breath wouldn’t come, and the backs of his eyes stung. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t fucking breathe!

“You thought you weren’t worthy?” And there it was. In five words Ori gutted him and left him gasping and blinking back tears. She didn’t give him a chance to respond. “I love you, Kresho Ivanovic. I love you and only you, and I have loved you from the moment I saw how hard you fought for your life, how hard you fought to be what I needed you to be. When I found out about Lenore, it was always my plan that she should be a companion for Dragon, but I swear to you I never wanted anyone else but you. It was you I loved, and it is you I still love. But you kept pushing me away until I decided to give you what you wanted.”

“For Dragon? You wanted Lenore for Dragon?” He managed around the ache in his chest that threatened to crush his ribcage.

“He’s my fucking brother!” She said, Ori, who never cursed, never got upset. He had no idea she was even capable of such emotions. “Of course I wanted him to have a companion. I wanted him to heal, Kresho. I didn’t know that anyone else of my kind had survived. I only hoped, but Dragon, Dragon was all I had left of my family. Don’t you understand how badly I wanted him, needed him to heal, how badly I wanted you to heal?” There was a moment of silence when he could almost hear her choosing her words carefully, something he had heard her do so many times, and it always meant he probably wouldn’t like what she was about to say. He braced for it.

“Kresho, I needed you to heal me. Did you never understand that in all this time we were together? I still need you to heal me. Every day since you got your memory back and distanced yourself from me I have needed you to heal me, perhaps even more so than ever. I do not want you to leave me, Kresho. I am sorry if I did not know how to handle your pain, but how did you expect me to know what you needed when you wouldn’t tell me, and my only other experience of a humanoid love was taken from me and destroyed before my eyes by the Authority. I was young still, Kresho. I was so very young and inexperienced. We all were. Did you really think I had brought into our relationship a vast wisdom and experience?”

As he hadn’t done in a very long time, Kresho reached out his hand, and felt the construct of cheek and lips beneath his fingertips, felt the once familiar physical form she had created for him to hold him, to comfort him back when he was barely alive, back when he hurt all the time, back when she first made love to him so very, very gently because he was so fucking fragile, but he needed her.

“And I needed you, Kresho. I am an SNT. My physical desires are at least as strong as yours, and you have left me needing for far too long.”

“Then you take me to your heart and you keep me there,” he said. “Don’t leave me out in the cold.”

“Then you take me to your heart, Kresho, and stop relegating me to the subfloors. I am Vodni Station, the heart of it is my heart, and you are that heart, so either you let me in and hold me close or you let me go. Our bond is not a one-way street, and if you think I don’t need you then you really don’t understand that bond at all, and you an SNT scientist. I love you and only you, Kresho, and I would do anything for you, so come back to my heart and take me back to yours.”

He leaned forward and found her mouth yielding and ready, tongue sweeping between his lips as he returned the favor. He pulled away just enough to speak. “I’ve never loved anyone else since our bonding, Ori. It’s you. It’s always been you. And I’m sorry I didn’t know how to let you in, but I do now. I promise you I do now.”

The female construct, that familiar womanly shape that she became just for him, that interface for their love between ship and humanoid moved against him, hands opening his shirt and slipping it off over his shoulders to thumb his nipples until they were bead-hard and sensitive enough that he felt her caress clear into his balls. The she moved forward, pressing full breasts against his bare chest, and Jesu Vati how he’d missed her, how he’d missed the love they had shared with such joyous abandon. “You are my heart, Ori, and all this time I’ve been living without it.” He trailed kissed with teeth and tongue down the length of her throat and across her collar bone and cupped her breasts burying his face in the deep valley between. He sighed as he took in the humanoid scent that was like no other scent, that almost magical blending of machine and biology, intuitive, sensitive and oh so responsive to his own needs. She all but purred as she went to work on his trousers opening them and shoving them roughly down over his hips until he could feel the rough metal of the catwalk against his buttocks. Even that she molded, softened, changed just enough that it didn’t bruise or abrade. Then she cupped his balls and ran a strong fisted hand up the length of his shaft and he cried out. “Fuck, Ori, you keep that up and I’ll go off like a rocket.”

Her laugh was low, gravelly, wicked. “And then I’ll give you a couple of minutes and you’ll be ready for me to ride. I will ride you, Kresho, I will ride your cock until you give me exactly what I want, until you fuck me incoherent.”

It was his turn to laugh, as he pushed her hands aside and reached between her thighs to finger her open causing her to gasp and suck on her bottom lip as she shifted against his tweaking and stroking. “And what am I going to do with an incoherent SNT? You know I love your brains as well as your pussy.”

“You’re the SNT scientist. I’m sure you’ll figure you’ll know what to do.”

“I’ll take that challenge.” He grabbed her hips and pulled her down onto his cock, and her tight slippery grip was like New Vaticana paradise. “Fuck, I’ve missed you, Ori! I’ve missed you so much.” Those were the last words either of them spoke for a very long time.

The next time he woke on his bed, he wasn’t alone. Ori, his beautiful Ori, was wrapped around him holding him close. He was still sheathed up inside her. He kissed the top of her head and sighed.

She all but purred and her hips shifted, and her body tightened. “Okay, just one more time, Kresho, then we have to get down to the Dust Bowl. I believe Arji Finkle has reserved his back room for our meeting.”

“Mmm. And aren’t I just looking forward to tossing back a few pints of that gourmet beer of his.”

“I hear his brew is talked about in hushed tones all across the Taklamakan System,” she replied, shifting and undulating against him as he lazily caressed her ass, pulling her closer. “I’m sure you can’t wait.” She bit his ear causing him to surge inside her. God how he’d missed this.

“As have I my love,” she replied. “As have I.” And then she made him come again.

 

 

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending in which Len gets a message from beyond the grave. 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 74: Truths from the Grave

Silence fell in the room and Kresho, like a starving mongrel, lapped up the warmth of Ori’s closeness, the comfort he knew she saw as nothing more than practical, only ever offered when necessary. Still right now he’d take all the comfort he could get. He let out a slow breath and said softly. “When I was finally able to return, I found Janesha’s body. Of you, Len, there was not a trace. I thought … I thought I had failed both of you.” He looked up into her eyes. “And you were my one mission above all else. I promised your mother that I would protect you and your gift.”

Len wiped at her eyes, having forgotten all about her efforts at a stiff upper lip. “What gift? I have no gift. I don’t even have a proper education.” To this both Dragon and Ori bristled.

“She does not know? You do not know?” Ori asked. There was a long moment of that static charge that Kresho had long ago come to know as tension in an SNT. In this case two SNTs.

“How could she,” came Dragon’s response, “when I only just discovered it myself. I would have never kept such a thing from her.”

“What thing? Kept what from me?” Len asked.

At last Ori spoke. “I believe you know Diana McAllister’s story, the story of her conception and how she came to be?”

“She told me, yes.”

Ori drew a long, unnecessary breath. “Well, Lenore Felish, it would not be wrong to say that she is your sister.”

 

They had adjourned to a galley which Dragon seemed to have patterned after Fury’s. He insisted they all needed sustenance and Ouroboros had heartily agreed, though Len had only eaten a few bites of the chocolate pudding, also from Fury’s recipe, to keep Dragon from nagging. She noticed Van, Kresho, wasn’t doing much better and Ouroboros was at least as good as Dragon at mother-henning. And then his SNT said to him out loud. “Shall I not give it to her, Kresho? It will explain far better than either of us ever could.”

“Give me what?” Len asked, noting how uncomfortable Kresho was.

“I believe it is a data chip that contains a message from your dear mother,” Dragon intervened. “I imagine it will be identical to the one I retrieved from the computer system in the science station.”

“She told me that she also planned to save an encrypted copy for you there, just in case,” Kresho said. “She was afraid something would happen to her and you’d never know about yourself.”

“I checked everything before I left,” Len said. I couldn’t take anything with me when weight was such an issue in the drone, so I committed all the files on her computer pad to memory, all of them,” she said biting her bottom lip to keep it from trembling, “even that horrible recipe for seaweed soup. But I didn’t find anything unusual. I didn’t really expect to. Mama never kept secrets from me. Or so I thought.”

“This one she kept only for your own protection,” Kresho said, “and honestly, she had every reason to believe I would be back for the two of you within a few months, a year at the most.” The pain in his voice cut Len’s heart. She knew how much her mother had loved Van, how much she had loved him.

For a long moment Len stared down at her hands clenched around the warm cup of English Breakfast tea Dragon had replicated for her, feeling only the cold of that awful place and the isolation she had felt after her mother’s murder. And then Dragon whispered in her ear. “You are not alone now, my love, and I will keep you warm, and our family will make sure you are never again isolated.”

“If you would like,” Kresho said, worry in his eyes, “we can leave you alone to listen to it in privacy.”

“No! No,” she said, finding her control once again. “I don’t want to be alone. You two know me better than I seem to know myself, and I,” she took a deep breath, “I need my family around me.”

She didn’t miss the misting of Kresho’s eyes, nor the flood of relief she felt from both him and Ori. She reminded herself that Kresho was also an SNT compliment, a compliment to Dragon and Fury’s sister, and that made him family again. She was happy for that. She’d missed him.

“I’ve missed you too,” came his thoughts down the sub processor link, “I’ve missed you so very much.” It was then that she felt Fury, Mac and Manning adding their warmth and encouragement. She took a deep breath, then reached over and took Kresho’s hand. ‘Okay. I’m ready.”

The room was suddenly awash in her mother’s voice, and she closed her eyes as though she lie in the darkness of their enviro-tent at the station listening to her mother talk to her on one of their late night chats.

“Lenore, what I’m about to tell you, only four people in the world know, and two of those may be dead.” The woman laughed softly. “If all goes according to planned, then I am sharing this with you on your fifteenth birthday and you won’t ever need this message. If not, then I may very well be dead too when you find this, but if that’s the case, you already know that your first priority is to get the hell off this ice ball and find your uncle and Quetzalcoatl. If they’re still alive, they’ll tell you everything. If they aren’t, then what I’m about to say won’t matter much to you anyway.

 

 

“Len, darling, you grew in my womb and as close to my heart as you would have if you had been conceived by me and the father you never knew. You have been and always will be my daughter, I don’t know who your father was. An egg was fertilized in the SNT laboratories, in fact there were many of them. They were to become SNTs just like Fury, the shining future we all hoped for. That’s what you were to become, my darling, or so we all believed at first. But Fury’s was the only embryo that grew into that potentiality. Many of the others did not survive even through early gestation, and when it was discovered that only Fury was viable to become an SNT, most of the other embryos remaining, and there were only a few by then, already showing signs of permanent damage, were destroyed.

“Two, however were perfect, healthy, beautiful, both female, but both with no possibility of becoming SNTs. They were not destroyed, my love. The older of the two, I don’t know what happened to, though I have my suspicions.”

Len felt Fury and Manning’s surge of love for Mac. They all knew exactly who that older embryo had grown into.

“The second embryo, Van helped me to steal and to implant inside my own womb, the daughter I wanted, longed for, but would most likely never have. At the time Van and I weren’t yet lovers, but neither of us could stand to see the destruction of what was still very much SNT, very much humanoid and still carried the potential we could not yet imagine.

“And my darling, we were not mistaken. You’re beyond anything we could have hoped for. What we discovered is that you had an affinity, a connection to SNT ships, all of the ships. What no one knew is that the embryos who would not develop into SNTs would develop into the perfect compliments, compatible in ways a normal humanoid could never be, no need for transfusions, no need for immune-suppressant treatments, and somehow completely in tune and in sync with SNT tech even without an actual bonding.

“It was as much for you as it was for us that Van and I ran, Lenore, because we knew what you were, what you would become. We knew that the hope of any surviving SNTS might very well rest in you.

“No matter what happens, my darling, no matter how hard it is, you must survive, you must hold on and get to the Rim. The future of all SNTs relies on you, so full of hope, so full of unrealized potential. I know this is a heavy burden to lay on you, but I know you. I had you close to my heart and knew you even then. You will rise to whatever you have to do because you always have, and you always will. Stay alive and stay safe, Lenore, my beautiful daughter. I love you to the Rift and beyond.”

The message ended there, and for a long moment no one moved, no one said anything. Then Len reached out and cupped Van’s cheek, sending a silent wave of thanks down the sub-con to him. Dragon enfolded her in his arms and held her close from behind her chair. At last she spoke softly. “I’m like Mac.”

“I always wanted a sister.” She could hear the emotion in Mac’s voice from where Len knew she and Manning were still bundled close to Fury’s heart.

“Looks like we’re just in time for the family reunion,” came a voice over the sub com that Len didn’t recognize.

“Indeed, Captain Harker,” Fury said. “And our family is significantly larger, as you can tell.”

“We’ll be at Vodni Station in three days,” came the message, “and we just got a deep space from Griffin. They will be here shortly after. Keen has some tech to share and he insists on meeting the rest of the family. Gerando and Stanislavski inform me that they have some news they’d rather share in person as well, so we’ll see you all soon.”

“How did you manage to get here from so far out?” Manning asked.

“The McAllister Wormhole, of course. We never would have made it otherwise,” Harker replied.

“Then we shall look forward to a family reunion at Vodni Station in three days,” Fury said.

“Well that will certainly make it easier for me,” Ouroboros said.

“Because it’s your home?” Len asked, at last digging into her pudding with gusto.”

“I suppose you could say that,” came the reply. “It is me. I am Vodni Station.”

Kresho, who had been chowing down right along with Len swallowed and laid his spoon down. “During the battle with the Authority, the station was badly damaged, nearly destroyed. The Authority was happy to let the whole population of the station die as it went down in flames, Ori wasn’t.”

“The station was quickly losing atmosphere and there was no way of repairing the breach to the core, so it was Ori’s idea to jettison the whole thing and take it’s place, in essence join with and become Vodni Station.”

Manning let out a long whistle. “Wow! I didn’t see that coming.”

“And the Compass?” Len said.

“It is my way to move about when I am needed beyond the station,” she said. “The Compass is like a matrix in which I can pour at least a part of my consciousness while still continuing to function as the station. It has allowed me the mobility I sacrificed in order to join with Vodni Station.”

“And your compliment then runs the station.” Dragon said. “That is a very good arrangement.”

Something about it made Kresho uncomfortable, and while he said nothing, Len could sense it. “It works,” he said, instead. “I have good people on my team, and the job keeps me out of trouble.” The smile he offered didn’t quite reach his eyes. “The station has grown since Ori took over. While we try to keep a low profile to avoid drawing too much attention from the Authority, we’ve been building up our long-range defensive capability, and we’ve become a pretty impressive scientific research center in our own right.”

 

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending in which much we learn Kresho’s story. 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 73: Kresho’s Story

“Five Jaegers are no match for an SNT.” Ori continued their story. “The two remaining knew this well. They fled, and I didn’t pursue them. I now knew it was the man on the Fidelio I wanted, Kresho Ivanovic. Of course he went by another name then. He was the one who could help me.”

“Because he’s an SNT scientist?”

“Because I needed a new compliment, and someone who understood my kind a little better, who had helped bring us into existence, would be much more suitable for that bonding,” Was it possible that there was pain in her voice as she spoke.

“So you stole him away and left me and my mother to rot in that hell hole?” Len exploded, wiping fiercely at her eyes.

“Listen to Ouroboros, my darling,” Dragon said tenderly. “I know this is not easy for you, but there is power in knowledge, and she and Kresho Ivanovic have much of it to offer you.”

“I did not. I would have never left the two of you in such a horrible place. I had every plan that Kresho and I would return for you and your mother, but you must understand, it was a very, very long time before I knew you were there.”

“You didn’t tell her?” Len turned those firebrand eyes on him, and he struggled to hold her gaze.

“Sh! Listen! Listen, my love. You must hear everything,” came the adoring voice of her SNT.

“Kresho Ivanovic did not tell me of you and your mother because he could not remember,” Ori said, and he nearly crumpled under the weight of his own pain. To his surprise, Ori’s warmth surrounded him, supported him, and in his own private sub-processor she said quietly. “Only a little longer now my love and she will understand and she will find as I do, nothing lacking in you.” So he took a deep breath and clung to her, clung to the comfort he hadn’t expected from her as she continued their story.

“It was my plan in those days to hunt down and rescue as many of our people, those who worked on the SNT Project, as possible, and then to regroup with my siblings so that those with injuries, with losses would have the understanding and the support of their humanoid family as well as that of each other, so that we could make new bondings, begin again, no matter how hard it was. I knew it was the only way forward from the horrors we’d lived through. Then in time, I hoped that we could heal enough to vindicate ourselves. Sadly, I did not take into account how difficult that task would be, nor did I understand that because I was an SNT, because I was a fugitive, the Authority would not give up so easily, and I could not lead them back to the Taklamakan System, for while I did not at that time know of you and your mother, I knew of my brother, and I would keep him safe at all cost until it came time for him to rise again from the desert and take his rightful place.”

 

 

“By that time the Fidelio had taken heavy fire.” Kresho managed. “The core had been breeched and was overloading. Those who could were scrambling for the escape pods. I couldn’t.”

“Kresho Ivanovich was mortally wounded. I had only a split second to ‘tran him away and jump before the Fidelio exploded.”

Ori paused, and he could feel her examining him to make sure he was up for more. She hadn’t been this careful of him in so long that he wondered if her were dreaming it all. At last she continued. “An SNT can jump as often as necessary, and in the beginning I barely came out of hyperspace long enough to settle before it became necessary to jump again. All that time I was trying to save Kresho’s life. That could only be accomplished with the injections of my bio-tech materials, which of course, he repeatedly rejected, for he was not trained to be a companion. But I knew I must have a companion, that I could not go on alone, for I had seen my brother in the desert go to ground and bury himself in the salvage yard as he settled into the long sleep so as not to endure his mourning. I understood his anguish, and I nearly did the same, but I could not, for in my core I burned to see my brothers and sisters vindicated, exonerated. I, however, could not imagine continuing without a companion and when I found out who was onboard the Fidelio, I knew that I would need Kresho Ivanovic, and he would need me.

“In the beginning, you cannot imagine what it was like for our family, Lenore Felish, how isolated we were, how entirely alone we were, when our very purpose had been to draw all humanoids closer together, and yet we were being blamed for atrocities we did not commit. There was no place safe where we could hide, certainly not within Authority space. I tried every route I could imagine to get back to the Taklamakan System, hoping that I might coax my brother out of his slumber of mourning. In the end, we had no choice but to crossed beyond the Rim.

“In those early years Kresho had no memory of his life before, nor how he had come to be with me. He chose the name Kresho Ivanovic because he had no memory of his previous name. Of course I told him about my brother when he was well and we were bonded. It was only luck that the rebellion on Vodni Station happened when we were once again on our way back to the Taklamakan System, which was at the time under Authority control, though only loosely. By that time the SNT disaster had become old news and the Authority propaganda machines were telling everyone all of the SNTs had either been destroyed or decommissioned and rendered harmless in remote outlying space docks. The timing was right at last for us to return to the Taklamakan. We had no way of knowing that the Authority had decided they would destroy Vodni Station so that they could isolate further the Outer Rim Alliance, whom they feared might gain power through their continued consolidation. Vodni Station serves as a valuable link between the two arms of the Outer Rim Alliance bisected by the Great Dust Cloud. The Authority did not want this.”

“Ori never backed down from a fight,” Kresho said picking up the story again, “She wasn’t willing to see the station destroyed and the link broken between the safe corridors for refugees from Authority Space and what she saw as a safe place for SNTs. The Rim Alliance turned a blind eye to a lot of things that were banned in Authority Space and blatantly thumbed its allied noses at the conglomerates’ efforts to get a foothold beyond. The fall of Vodni Station would pave the path for conglomerate inroads into the Rim. The plan had been to rebuild the station with conglomerate money and strong ties to the Authority. It was to be the first step into Authority control of the Rim.”

“To make a very long story short, there was a battle,” Ouroboros said. “In that battle Kresho was injured badly, but of course with his bonding to me, he healed rapidly. What the trauma did bring about that we had not expected, though, was the return of his memories and of you and your mother still stranded on Taklamakan Minor. It was only then that I realized just how valuable you were, Lenore Felish.

“Even after that, it was almost a year before we were able to return to the Taklamakan System, for there was no safe passage. Kresho sent encrypted message after encrypted message, but they were never answered. We hoped against hope that it was because your mother considered contact unsafe. By that time we had taken over Vodni Station with the help of the Outer Rim Alliance, and had enough fire power and clout to enforce the treaty that the Authority had tried to trample and assure that the conglomerates would be keeping their hands off for a long time to come. When that safe corridor was once more established so that we could get to the Taklamakan System, we went immediately to Taklamakan Minor for you and your mother, but we were too late.”

 

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending in which much reunions and revelations are the order of the day. 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 72: Reunions and Revelations

Len rematerialized in the double spiral of Dragon’s heart with his words still filling her head. “I have you my love. You’re safe with me where you belong. I have you now” He was already ripping the environmental suit away. He kissed her face over and over again, and his lips were so warm against her icy skin.

“I knew you’d come.” That was all she could manage around the strange little hiccups of sobs convulsing her dry throat. They only made her gasp harder to fill her oxygen-starved lungs with the sweet, sweet air in Dragon’s heart space.

“Of course I came. Nothing could keep me from you, my love. And now, we must remain here in this place only for a little longer until I have destroyed the planet killer.” There was a brief flash through her head of a glowing network over Tak Minor. It sparked bright and then dissolved into dust followed by a satisfied sigh in her ear. “Ah there, that is done. And now my dearest Lenore, I have one more very quick errand, and we shall leave this place forever. I am bringing your mother away at last to rest in peace. I wish to honor the one who carried you in her womb so that you would one day belong to me.” Another pause. “And now we may go and meet with the rest of our family. Your mother will rest in a place I have prepared for her until we are able to honor her properly as she deserves.”

She barely felt it as they made the jump, cradled in his arms as she was, and when all that remained was to rendezvous with their family, she truly dissolved into wracking sobs. She wailed and keened and howled out her pain and loss. There cradled close to his heart, she mourned all she had lost, releasing all she had held inside. He mourned with her, mourned his own loss, mourned what he had gone to sleep to forget so many years ago. They both mourned their loss until the sobs quieted, and their pain gave way to quiet, tender lovemaking. Neither of them spoke. They didn’t need words. They just needed each other. She had questions, so many questions, but at the moment she couldn’t think of any of them. At the moment all she could think was that she was home, and she slept then, there close to his heart with his warmth wrapped around her.

 

The Compass barely settled into orbit above Tak Major next to Fury before Diana McAllister and Richard Manning were throwing off their harnesses from where they sat on the bridge. “They’re all yours, Fury, safe and sound.” The words were barely out of Kresho’s mouth before the two dematerialized from his bridge and he heard the war whoops and the laughter onboard SNT1, no doubt coming straight from Fury’s heart. Where else would an SNT be reunited with his compliment? He sighed. Well at least most SNTs and most compliments. He forced a smile at the joyful sounds coming down the sub-processor’s open channel.

“I thank you for returning my Diana Mac and Richard Manning safely to me, Kresho Ivanovic, and Ouroboros,” Fury said. “When we have all rested, I will hear your story. We all will hear your story.”

“We will gladly share it and hear yours, when everyone is rested,” she responded. Kresho was startled to feel a gentle hand on his shoulder, and that only made the ache for the reunion he knew the others would have even sharper.

When she sensed the tension, she pulled away. He could feel her confusion, but he ignored it. Now was not the time, but it would come. For the first time in their years together he was sure it would come soon. After a moment she said, “Camille has just now dropped out of hyperspace some distance from our designated rendezvous. The Andromeda has sustained damage, and she can get no closer. She will need our help.”

 

It was several hours later they returned to Tak Major with the Andromeda in tow. The damage was substantial from the blast of the planet killer, and he was surprised Camille had made it as far as she had before she was forced to drop out of hyperspace. It had been a huge risk. The Dreadnaught had returned to Tak Major, along with the Jaegers, to await the judgment of the SNTs. Its crew had already been told they were no longer under Authority command. None of them seemed too upset about that. Once Camille had been ‘tranned over to the Compass, the Adromeda had been set on an automated course for Vodni Station. It would take a good month for it to get there, but Kresho couldn’t think the little ship could be easily repaired anyplace but a space dock. Fury had promised him Tenad Fallon would have no use for it. To Kresho’s surprise, when they got back to Tak Major, Camille had asked to be ‘tranned down to Sandstorm, as close to the Dustbowl as possible. Both she and Kresho had managed a few hours sleep enroute. Well, Kresho had tried, but he couldn’t keep his mind of what he knew would happen next.

He was quietly pacing his quarters when Ori spoke. “Dragon is now waiting for us to board. He was able to retrieve Janesha Felish’s body from the station.”

“That’s good. That’s good. I’m glad. It’ll make it a little easier for Len to mourn her.”

“And for you,” she said quietly.

When he made no response, she spoke again. “Kresho, you have borne this weight unfairly, this guilt that was not yours to bear, you have borne it far too long. It is time to give up that burden, and it is time for you to mourn those losses as well.”

“There’s a lot to mourn, Ori,” he replied, not hiding his own bitterness.

For a moment she was silent, and then she replied. “Dragon and Lenore Felish are waiting for us.” He felt her retreat like the sudden absence of warmth. Long ago he’d stopped allowing himself to dwell on that feeling, but after everything that had happened in the past few weeks, he found it more and more difficult to ignore the emptiness.

After a moment, he spoke down the sub-link. “I’m ready Dragon.”

To his surprise he found himself transported into a small quiet room with subdued lighting. In the middle, lying in state as though she only slept, was Janesha’s body, and Kresho felt the sharp stab of memory, of loss, of so much loss.

“I was able to retrieve her before leaving Taklamakan Minor. It was always Lenore’s desire that she should have a proper burial with the honors she so deserves.” Dragon spoke quietly, reverently. “I thought perhaps you would like to pay your respects before you meet with my Lenore.”

“Thank you.” Try though he might, he couldn’t quite keep the hitch from his voice. He could say nothing else, knowing that if he tried all the rest of the words pressing on his chest would come out like a maddening flood, and he wasn’t ready for the dam to burst, not now. Not yet.

“I have convinced my Lenore to listen for I am certain there is much she needs to know, much we both need to know from you and from my sister.”

“Do you still miss her?” To his surprise it was Ori who spoke as quietly and as respectfully as Dragon had.

“I miss what we had, the openness, the kindness.” She flinched at his answer, and he found it didn’t offer him the satisfaction he’d hoped for.

 

 

“I am sorry,” came the quiet reply.

Instead of responding, he addressed the other SNT. “Thank you for this, Dragon, for Len’s sake and for my own.”

“She is the mother of my beloved. I could not leave her there.” It still amazed Kresho that SNTs could sometimes be so oblivious to humanoid emotions and at other times understand humanoids better than they understood themselves.

He moved to the high narrow plinth on which Janesha lay and rested his hand on hers. “I couldn’t bring her back when I found her.” He grunted a laugh that sounded more like someone had kicked him in the ‘nads, felt that way too, he supposed. “I wasn’t well myself when I went down, and Ori gave me hell for it. She had to ‘tran me back unconscious and stuff me back in the auto-surgery again. And the lecture, Jesu Vati on a cracker that woman can lecture your balls off.”

“Maybe it’s an SNT thing,” he was startled by the woman’s voice behind him and turned to find himself face to face with Lenore Felish. “Dragon’s the worst. It’s always nag, nag, nag, your too thin, you’re not sleeping enough, perhaps you should drink more water.” There was a strange cross between a growl and a purr from the ship, and he could have sworn Ori gave a twitch of a smile. For what felt like an eternity, she stood studying him, and he let her, forcing himself to hold her gaze. At last her beautiful grey eyes misted and she swallowed hard, but when she spoke, she was well in control. “Why didn’t you come for us before?” she swallowed again and nodded down to her mother.

“I swear to you, Len, I came back for you as soon as I was able, I swear it. But all I found was Janesha’s body.” His words were raw, as though they had been rubbed up against the rough surface ice on Tak Minor. “You, I found no sign of, and I looked for days. I thought you were dead, but what I feared so much more was that the Authority might have taken you away in a shackle.” His voice cracked and he quickly looked back where his hand rested on Janesha’s. “I continued to look through the lists of those shackled for debts, through the list of those shackled on trumped up charges, through the news stories. I thought surely the daughter of a prominent SNT scientist and the niece of Quetzalcoatl’s companion’s shackling would make news. There was nothing. After awhile I had no choice but to assume you were dead.”

What happened?” She asked. “We waited and waited for you, and then, they killed her, my mom, they killed her right in front of my eyes and then left me there to die. What happened?”

“Believe me, nothing could have kept me away had I been able at all to get back to you, but I swear to you I couldn’t.”

She folded her arms across her chest, and held his gaze. He made no attempt to look away. It was time she knew everything.

“The Authority chased us from the time we left the Taklamakan system. We had no choice but to lead them a merry chase. If you remember, the Fidelio had more than a few people running from the shackle on board. The whole crew would be shackled if we were caught.” She moved to his side and gently stroked her mother’s cheek while he continued. “We led them away from Tak Minor, knowing what would happen if they found Janesha, what would happen if they found you. They didn’t know about you, and keeping you safe was our first priority.

“Not far beyond Vodni Station, we were surrounded by Jaegers. The Fidelio had little choice but to fight.” He looked away into the empty space in front of them letting his eyes go out of focus, forcing the story to somehow remain only a story and not the knife that had shredded his heart for the past ten years. “We were sitting ducks. The Jaegers had us, and they didn’t even have to fight. All they had to do was tractor us, board us and slap shackles on all of us. Captain Michaels was about to set the self-destruct button when all of a sudden, three of the Jaegers blew to bits, all but vaporized before our eyes. There were five altogether. I had a pretty good idea of what had just happened, and I figured we might as well bend over and kiss our asses good-bye.”

“An infected SNT,” she said.

He nodded. “Captain Michaels gave me access to a terminal on the bridge, and I tried to contact the ship by opening a sub processor link that was programmed into all of them. It was a long shot, of course. It was hard to imagine an infected ship being willing to open to sub-com, but we had no hope otherwise.”

“And?” she said, when he paused to the force the memory of it all back to a safe distance again.

He looked over at her, not trying to hide the pain he knew he couldn’t anyway. “I was wrong. The sub-com was wide open, and this ship was mourning, wailing, raging the loss of her compliment deliberately killed by the Authority to try and control her.”

“Her?”

He nodded slowly.

“It was I.” Ori joined the conversation. “I am Ouroboros, and I have waited a long time to meet you, Lenore Felish.”

Had Len not known what the presence of an SNT felt like, she probably would have been startled, but she only blinked, and then blinked again. “It was you who set the de-mole in place to protect Dragon.”

“I did, and now there is no further need for it.”

“Please,” Len’s eyes looked molten silver, as they misted in the subdued lighting. “Tell me everything.”