Tag Archives: brand new KDG serial read

Dragon Ascending Part 39: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Kresho informed the Fallons of the new plan. This week he gets a peek into the Fallon family dynamics. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. I hope you find this switch-up helpful. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

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

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

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ships 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: Insights

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.

 

Dragon Ascending Part 38: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Len met the family. This week Kresho fills the Fallons in on the new deal. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. I hope you find this switch-up helpful. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

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

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

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ships 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: Safeguards

 

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 out 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 from 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 damn 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. Mr. Fallon, 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.

 

Dragon Ascending Part 37: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Kresho gave the Fallons a little something extra. This week Len meets the family. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. I hope you find this switch-up helpful. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

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

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

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ships 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 37: Meeting the Family

 

Len blinked until her eyes could once again focus clearly and looked around at the clean, efficient lines of the bridge, at the neat, but casual dress of the man and the woman, both familiar enough to her after last night that she blushed. The last time she had seen them, they’d been naked. The woman offered her a teasing smile that said she knew exactly what the blush was for. “You managed to communicate pretty well last night,” Len said, then blushed harder at the ship’s wicked chuckle.

“While I find that kind of communication very pleasing indeed, ” the ship said, “my brother does not seem like one for post coital conversation. Richard Manning informs me that generally speaking males become non-verbal once they have ejaculated.”

“Bloody hell,” the man, who must be Richard Manning said, “That’s definitely not a standard diplomatic greeting.” The woman still offering her hand sniggered.

“‘Tranning away the one person he does communicate with is probably not going to promote much brotherly love,” Len said taking the woman’s offered hand, pretty sure her knees wouldn’t support her under the circumstances. “You need to send me back. Let me talk to him”

“That is our plan, Lenore Falik,” the ship said, but please, at least stay for tea.”

“He’ll be worried. I won’t guarantee his behavior.”

“We know what he’s capable of when he is angry,” the ship said. “We found the Dart falling toward the atmosphere from his handiwork.”

“You rescued them?” She didn’t make any attempt to keep the anger out of her voice.

“Long enough to find out what happened,” the woman replied. “They’re not exactly dead, but they might be wishing they were by now.”

“Good.” Not wanting to talk about the Dart, nor remember her experience, she studied the man and the woman, since she could not actually study the SNT.

“There are three of you.” She still could not resist the urge to look around, to try and find a focal point to speak to when she spoke to an SNT. “You have two compliments,”

“Yes. I am very lucky, indeed.”

“Who are you?” She blurted, sounding ruder than she intended.

“Oh, do forgive me,” the ship said. “After last night’s intimacy, it is easy to forget that you have had no formal introduction. These are my lovely compliments, Diana Mac and Richard Manning. I am SNT Fury.”

For a moment she couldn’t speak. She only stood open mouthed and gaping, trying to take it all in. “You’re SNT1!”

“I am, yes.”

She sounded like an over-awed child, but she couldn’t help herself. All her life she had dreamed of meeting SNT1, the ship that, while not yet born, had the beautiful mind that helped create and perfect all of his siblings. This he did while he still matured in the space dock “womb” of the Free University, far from the prying eyes of the conglomerates and the Authority, or at least they had all thought. “Quetzal told me about you, all you had done, and how you would be when you were finally born.”

“I would hope not to be a disappointment to dear Quettzalcoatl. In fact, my compliments and I are hoping to find him, as I know is your dearest wish, Lenore Falik.”

“Then you know me. You know about my uncle.”

“It was not easy to find you, dear woman. You have been well hidden for a very long time, it would seem. But Quetzalcoatl is not the SNT below who is so protective and so loving to you, Lenore Falik. For I would know if he were.”

“Ascent!” She said, remembering his anguished cry. “He’ll be worried about me.”

“Ascent?” Richard Manning said. “He calls himself Ascent?”

“He doesn’t. I do. He doesn’t remember his name.”

“That explains a lot,” Diana Mac said.

“He is very upset right now,” Fury said. “He is beside himself, Lenore Falisk, and I think he would destroy us if he thought it would get you back safely. I am sorry we have distressed him so. But you must reassure him that you are okay and that I only want to talk to him. I must talk to him.”

It was then that she felt him, Ascent, far below on the surface. “Please don’t leave me, Lenore! I need you, I need you. I need you!”

She barely made it to one of the chairs at the control panel before her knees gave under her, and she wrapped her arms tightly around herself, feeling as though everything inside her had gone empty. “Ascent! He needs me. I have to go to him. He’s suffered so much.”

The two compliments looked from one to the other, confused, and then Diana Mac said, “his sub channel, Fury? Is she hearing his sub channel?”

“She is,” the ship said.

 

 

The woman moved to the controls, and leaning over Lenore, opened a channel.

“Speak to him, Lenore Felik,” Fury said. “Comfort him. Please tell him that we are here to help, and we will return you any time you wish.”

“Lenore, Do not leave me, I need you, I need you, I need you.” The words, anguished and wild came in her head.

“Ascent! Ascent, listen to me. I’m not leaving you. I’m okay. I’m fine. I’m here with SNT1, with Fury! Please Ascent, speak to him. He can help you. Please Ascent. You need him,” she glanced around the bridge at the distressed looks on both of Fury’s compliments and in a sudden opening, felt his pain wash over her too. “And he needs you.”

She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew that those words pleased Fury, and he felt them in his heart. As she looked up she realized that his two compliments flanked her now, and she could feel Fury’s presence surrounding her. “Ascent, please! Ascent, I need you. I need you. Please.”

“Why have you taken my Lenore, SNT1 Fury? I have done nothing to you. I did not ask you here.”

“Ascent, I will send your Lenore back to you this very second if only you will talk to me, my brother.” Lenore could feel Fury’s voice tremble through her bones like an earthquake inside her flesh. She felt the depth of his pain for the loss of his own kind, and his overwhelming desire to be reunited with those who remained. “I have come a very long way looking for my family, and I need you. I need all of my brothers and sisters. Please do not turn me away.”

“I do not know who I am, SNT1. But you are in my dreams, you and your compliment are with me and my Lenore in our lovemaking.”

“And in your nightmares,” Fury said. “Your nightmares agonize me and my compliment. When you suffer, we suffer with you. When you love, we love with you, as you do with me and mine. Perhaps you did not mean to open to us, but you have, and now you cannot shut us out again.”

Lenore felt the static dry tension course over her body in a rise of goose bumps and the room felt tight with it. She could sense Ascent, torn between the choice to shut out his brother and return to his isolation or to open himself to the truth that frightened him so much he had blocked it completely from his memory.

“You will return my Lenore to me?”

“Of course I will. It was never my intent to keep her, only to ask her about you, that I might understand why you would not speak to me,” Fury said hopefully.

“Then we may speak as you wish, SNT1 Fury, and we will see what shall come of it, now please return my Lenore to me.”

“Of course, my brother, and I will keep this channel open to you, for family should always be able to communicate freely, and we shall discover who you are together.”

“And if I do not wish to know,” Ascent said.

“Then I shall do what I can to convince you that what you have been, what you are becoming is worthy, for you are an SNT, and you are my brother, of great value to me and mine.”

“What do you wish of me?”

“Only that you do not shut us. We have come a long way to find you and the rest of our family, for times are changing, and we SNT’s need each other. Did you know that since the time of your loss and during your long sleep, you have had two new brothers born into being, Griffin and Dubrovnik? They are strong and powerful with their loving compliments, and they thrive.”

“How can that be? That our family is growing? I only remember hate and rage and fire that took my dearest one from me and left me bereft. I only remember loss and pain, so much loss and pain.”

“It is a long story to tell,” Fury said, sounding like the proud big brother that he was, but I shall gladly share it all with you. And aboard Dubrovnik, there is now a thriving scientific community dedicated to SNT research and helping us find our family, dedicated to ending the tyranny of the shackle forever. Do you remember Professor Keen?”

“He … he helped birth us,” Ascent replied. “He helped us to our beloveds.”

“You do remember!” Len said, “That’s good, Ascent! That’s a great beginning.”

“I only recall that the man was pivotal at the beginning of my existence.”

“That is a start,” Fury said. Lenore could almost hear the tremor of excitement there.

Then he turned his attention on her. “We will see you again very soon, Lenore Falik, for there are so many questions we all have, and I think we have not yet begun to understand the role that is yours to in our future. I think you have many questions of your own as well. We shall all puzzle them out together.”

Before she could even say her good-byes, the deck faded around her, and an instant later she was back inside her own chamber, enfolded in Ascent’s desperate embrace. For a long moment he said nothing, only pulled away enough to inspect her. “I’m all right,” she said. “Ascent, you have family, and you’re not alone. We’re not alone. I know it scares you. It scares me too, but sometimes things are worth being frightened for, and you’ve been asleep long enough.”

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 36: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Len was mol-tranned off Tak Major. This week Kresho and Ori change the game plan with the Fallons. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. I hope you find this switch-up helpful. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

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

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

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

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

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

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 36: Kresho Modifies the Plan

 

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 or 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?” Tenad 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.”

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 35: Brand New KDG Read

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Kresho found himself being blackmailed by Tenad Fallon. This week Lenor is transported. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. I hope you find this switch-up helpful. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

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

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

 

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

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

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

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 35: Transported

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