Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Len ‘tranned down to Sandstorm and had a very enlightening chat with Arji. This week Kresho gets his own painful case of enlightenment. 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 Ascendingfollow 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 44: Who’s the Girl?

“Thank you, Camille,” Kresho said when she sat the two drinks in front of him. He noticed Tenad always stiffened when he addressed her indentured like she was something more than a serving bot. He supposed it never entered the bitch’s mind that his behavior was simple common courtesy. But he also noticed she never punished the girl, never even raised her voice. Of course he had no idea how she treated her in the privacy of her suite.

“Thank you for the gesture, Ivanovic, but I really don’t drink,” Tenad said.

“It’s on your tab,” he said. “Besides, I didn’t get it for you,” he downed the first glass in one, still staring after the woman chatting to Arji, then gave a shiver at the aftershocks. Once he could catch his breath, he turned his attention back to the indentured. “Camille, who’s the girl?” he asked. “The one you were with.”

“I don’t know. She didn’t introduce herself.”

Tenad gave a grunt of a laugh. “Of course she wouldn’t, Ivanovic. She would know that if I happened to be curious enough to ask Camille her name, as an indentured, she would tell me.”

When Kresho didn’t respond, only kept craning his neck toward the bar, Tenad followed his gaze to the woman who stood talking to Arji after he all but swallowed her face.  “Clearly you think you know her.” The thing about Tenad Fallon that he couldn’t afford to forget was that she never missed anything.

“Thought she might be one of the whores I used to visit every now and again when I had the misfortune of having to come to this rock.”

“You thinking you might need a little entertainment tonight, are you?”

“Might need to blow off some steam after hanging out with you lot.”

“She’s tiny. You like ‘em young, do you?”

“I like ‘em consensual,” he said, wishing like hell the woman would turn around. It couldn’t be who he thought it was. He’d be unlikely to even recognize her now even if she had survived. “Besides,” he said, “No one born on this shit pile gets very big. Everybody here is slightly malnourished and dehydrated. Most people made sure they’d not sentence a child to grow up here, so they make sure they can’t have any. Still, every once in the while someone gets someone knocked up and the poor woman doesn’t have the heart to do the fetus a solid and end it before it’s born into this mess.”

“She must be good, the way you keep staring at her.”

He shrugged, careful to keep his angst to himself. “She does the job, and she’s not bad on the eye. Cheap too.”

“I always did like a bargain. Does she do women?”

“Never pictured you as a slummer, Fallon,” he said, glancing over at her. “But then again, I’m guessing you did the Dart’s captain before you shoved him out the airlock. He wasn’t hard on the eye, and I assume it wasn’t that hard to treat whatever SNT1 did to him so that his cock worked without him puking on you.”

 

 

She shrugged and ran a finger around the rim of his full beer glass, then looked up at him with those bright green eyes. “I’m a woman without an inheritance, Ivanovic. Waste not want not is my motto. Ah, you snooze, you lose. Looks like our gracious host beat you to it.” They both watched as Arji led the woman into the back room.

Kresho lifted her finger away from his drink. He didn’t miss the way her eyes followed the drink to his mouth and lingered on his lips. Fuck, the woman was a real cock straightener, wasn’t she just? He sipped, then licked the foam from his upper lip. “It won’t take ole Arji long. He’ll be finished in no time.”

She threw back her head and laughed a rough-edged laugh, which would have made him good and stiff, if the woman with Arji hadn’t turned and glanced back at the rest of the bar just before she followed him behind the curtain, and it was all Kresho could do to keep his heart from hammering through his chest. Christ, it couldn’t be her! It couldn’t. It wasn’t possible.”

“You looking forward to her that much?”

Too late he was reminded again that Tenad Fallon never missed anything. He shrugged, trying to bring his heart down from a gallop. “Man needs a good emptying of his sac every once in the while.”

One corner of her full lips quirked up. “You don’t seem to me to be the type of man that has to hold his load too long if he chooses not to.”

“A life of power is a lonely life, Fallon. You know what I mean, I’m sure.”

All sense of humor fled her face and she looked down at her hands folded on the table in front of her. “I do know exactly what you mean.” The smile returned, bright as sunshine, if a little forced. “It’s lonely at the top.”

“Tenad, you cunt! You think I don’t know what you’re up to in here without me!” Jessup Fallon all but fell into the bar shoving aside a couple of locals and spilling their drinks in the process, before two of Tenad’s security detail flanked him with Gert and Dyrg shadowing them.

She came to her feet, her eyes on her brother. “Camille go to the bar and have the barmaid make sure those two Jessup disturbed have free drinks for the rest of the night and anyone else my idiot brother has disturbed.” The girl did as she was ordered and Tenad spoke to Kresho, without taking her eyes off her brother. “The thing about the top, Ivanovic, is that there’s always someone thinking they belong there in your place, most of them without the balls it takes to actually get there. If you’ll excuse me.”

It was exactly the kind of break Kresho needed to get away from Tenad and find out if he was going crazy or if he’d actually seen the impossible. He shoved back from the table and headed for the back room as fast as he could shove his way through the crowd.

 

 

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week no one was happy about Len ‘tranning back to Sandstorm. This week we see what she finds there. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. I hope you find this switch-up helpful. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

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

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

 

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

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

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

 

Dragon Ascending Part 43: Damn Tourists!

Fury ‘tranned Len down in a blind spot just behind the Dust Bowl. She knew where all the blind spots were, as most of the residents did. Those were places where contraband would be safe from prying scans. They were all heavily shielded parts of the wrecked ships that had literally been used to build Sandstorm. Many of those blind spots were shielded by bits of ships that could have been sold off for a tidy profit. But everyone here understood they didn’t have a lot of protection of their own, and what little they could get was worth the loss of a few water credits. Everyone also understood that nothing would get you sent on a one-way trip into the Sea of Death in your underwear faster than tampering with the blind spots.

Fury had fitted her with every piece of SNT tech he could load on her to keep her safe and to be able to ‘tran her back in a hurry if need be. And the amazing thing was that none of it was visible to the naked eye. Still, when she pushed open the shield door of the Dust Bowl and stepped into the biggest crowd she had ever seen, she felt more than a little exposed. Jax was pulling pints as fast as her arms could pump them up and Arji stood behind the bar looking angry and hassled. He was yelling at some Fallon uniform, who was a couple dozen centimeters taller than he was, but that never slowed the man down much. She’d forgotten how his voice carried when he was angry. “Look I don’t give a goddamn glass viper’s fuck what your high in the heel boss told you, I ain’t got no more room in my fucking bar, and that’s that. She wants to shuttle down another dozen grunts, then they’re gonna stand outside when the wind gets up and the sandstorms set in. I’m just bloody well fine with that. Fewer of you Authority lot stinking up my bar, the better.” She couldn’t keep from smiling. The man always did have big balls.

Carefully she made her way through the crowd, keeping an eye on Arji, trying to subtly catch his attention, but she wasn’t quite carefully enough. She bumped into a woman carrying two pints, and before she could apologize, she looked up to realize the woman was a small, wiry indentured, who had suddenly lost all the color in her pale face as the drinks hit the floor and shattered. She followed the girl’s glance back to see what had to be fucking Tenad Fallon sitting like the queen of the universe at the table in the far corner, leaning over chatting practically head-to-head with some stranger she didn’t recognize. Probably someone who couldn’t wait to kiss her butt if it would get him off this sand dune.

Lenore felt a little pale herself. She hadn’t seen an indentured since she left Authority space. And while any indentured would be treated with kindness here, their holders would be loathed. She had no doubt the Sandstormers would slit their throats, or worse, leave them to the Shimmer and the Wind, if they had any hope at all of freeing the indentured. They didn’t. And if their contract holders felt they were abused in any way because of said indentured, well, shit rolls downhill.

“That bitch got your clamp?” They both looked up to see Digby standing over them, eyes gentle like Lenore hadn’t seen them too many times. The man might have been the hardest hard ass in Sandstorm, and one who could afford to leave if he wanted to. He hadn’t. He’d always been civil to Len, but she had always treated him with respect.

The girl nodded, fearlessly meeting his eyes, a thing most indentureds that belonged to a Fallon were far too timid to do.

“Glad you’re back, Girlie. How’re you pissing?” he said to Len, giving her a pat on the back that nearly knocked her off her feet. Almost everyone in Sandstorm had called her Girlie when she arrived so unceremoniously all those years ago. The affectionate moniker had stuck. “Arji’ll be glad to see you.” Then he turned his attention back to the indentured. “Don’t you worry none about this mess. It happens. Hell, most of us would gladly dump ole Arji’s swill on the floor if there was anythin’ else ‘round here to drink. I’ll clean it up, and this ‘un’ll take you back to the bar and get you sorted right up with a couple more.” He glared back over at Tenad Fallon. “‘th any luck, it’ll give the bitch a bad case of the shits. It does that with off-worlders ever once in a while. Specially them that’s a little high in the heel.”

The girl fought to keep back a smile at the thought, but in the end, she let it flash, only briefly, but it seemed all the brighter for it.

“Dig,” Len leaned close to be heard in his ear above the din. “I need you to keep quiet about me being back. And keep your eyes open.”

He gave her a quick nod that would have been barely noticeable to most, but she was used to the subtle unspoken conversation that went on between the salvage dealers.

As she and the indentured elbowed their way back toward the bar and Dig bent to pick up the broken glass, the girl looked up at Len and said. “She won’t hurt me.”

“What?”

 

“Taned Fallon. She won’t punish me for it.”

Len didn’t even try not to laugh. “What? She’s kind to you then?”

“I’m a tool to her, nothing more. Most of the time she treats me like she does her med-bot. She gives orders, I do them and the rest of the time she ignores me. It’s like I’m not even there. I like it just fine that way” She bit her lip. “I’ve seen what she does to others.”

“Vaticana Jesu,” Len cursed. “Would hate to think what she does to her friends.”

“She has no friends,” the girl said.

“Who’s the man she’s with? Do you know?”

“Kresho Ivanovic.”

“You mean the bloke who runs Vodni Station?”

The girl nodded.

“Do you know what they’re doing here?” She felt guilty about using an indentured, but there was too much at risk for her not to use every resource.

“I do, yes.”

“Girlie-Girl! How the hell’re you pissing?” Suddenly Len found herself locked in a bear hug, her face pressed to Arji’s, who planted a big fat kiss right on her lips. That was the last thing on this sand heap she expected. And Ascent would have a Fury’s eye view of the whole thing. She definitely did not need that. He pulled away and looked down at her with a wide smile. “I told everyone you’d find a way back. Didn’t I tell you Jax?” He called over to the bar maid, who offered her a nod of her head and the quirk of the corner of her mouth that could either be a smile or the lip equivalent of the middle finger. Since she had no reason to dislike Len, she took it for a smile.

He started to motion over a couple of locals she knew standing at the bar, but she stopped him with a shake of her head, placing a finger to her lips to silence him. “I need you to keep quiet about my visit, and I need your help.” Ascent growled in her implant something about Arji taking liberties, and mentally she rolled her eyes. No one else said anything. She wondered if Fury was the jealous type.

He nodded, looking around the room. “A fucking takeover this is. No room for our own. That ain’t right.” Then his face softened as he saw the indentured standing next to her. “You all right Camille?”

The girl looked him in the eye and nodded.

“I ran into her, spilled two pints and broke the glasses. You can put those on my tab, and can you have Jax fix her up? On me too.”

He nodded to the barmaid and raised two fingers. “On the Fallon tab, and an extra one or two for you too, if you still got the stomach for it.”

They watched as Camilla inched her way down the bar to pick up the new pints Jax handed her. “How much do you know?” Len asked.

“A bit,” he replied. “The bastards and their ass lickers barely got into orbit before they were dropping out of the sky by the shuttle-loads, lining up at the goddamned door.” Tula and Vaness are turning a good few credits, though. Hell the line outside their door’s damn near as long as mine. Those two’ll be walking bow-legged for a month. Though I reckon we’ll all have fatter pockets for it, but at what price, I wanna know.” Out-worlders thought Arji’s curtained off room was for whores, but Tula and Vaness had a gutted-out sparrow class back behind the Dust Bowl where they lived and did their business. They’d fixed it up really nice considering the limited resources. They’d tried to talk Len into going in with them, an easier living, they said. And maybe it was, but she was an explorer, and she’d rather eat less and be a little thirsty and at least halfway enjoy what she did. Though there had been times she’d been sorely tempted. Arji jerked his head and motioned her across the bar to the curtained room. “Let’s find us a little more privacy. Jax,” he called over to the barmaid. “Com Clapper to get his ass out front and cover for me a few minutes. And you never saw Girlie Girl, here, got that?” She was already shouting into her PD to be heard over the noise and gave them both a nod before they turned to go.

 

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week week Fury and his crew tried to help Ascent get his memories back only to discover company is coming. This week no one is happy about Len’s solution to a major problem. 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 42: A Temporary Fix

In her ridiculous ruminations, she had managed to find and focus the view screen on the three Jaegers and the Dreadnaught along with the little Kestrel, which kept its distance from the others. She couldn’t properly scan them, not without giving away their location, but she could tell enough about them to know that these weren’t just standard military, but then if Tenad and Jessup Fallon owned them, they would be upgraded and state of the art with weapons to the teeth. She shivered at the thought. She was sipping water from one of the flasks, leaning back in the chair watching the ships on the screen, when she realized she was no longer alone. Her shoulders tensed, half expecting him to tell her to get out of the chair that belonged to his compliment. When Ascent did not speak, she kept the silence watching the ships hanging peacefully above the planet and yet they were there for only destruction and pain. That was all Fallons ever left in their wake. At last she spoke, as much to herself as to him. “We were hounded by Jaegers for days when my mother and I and Van escaped Authority space. Van was my mother’s lover. Every night I went to bed wondering if we’d all be shackled by morning, and every morning when I woke safe aboard the Valentine and free to find we’d outrun them a little while longer, I cried.” She huffed out a harsh breath. I was just a little girl. I didn’t understand why I cried when we woke up free rather than crying because the Jaegers had caught us. Jaegers still fly in my nightmares.”

“I am sorry,” he said softly, and she felt as though he had moved to stand close behind her.

She only shrugged. “It’s over. I survived.” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered anyway. Then she added quickly, not wanting him to see how vulnerable she felt. “I got bored. I came here and, well the control panel is very user friendly.”

“I am sorry,” he said again, and she stilled as he lay hands on her shoulders. “For what I said, for the way I treated you. I am sorry. It is only that I am afraid Lenore. I am afraid for you, what might happen if you go back there, that you will decide not to come back. Certainly now, with all that has happened, you would be safer there in Sandstorm.”

“I would be in the viper’s den, Ascent. Last I checked there’s still a bounty on the head of anyone ever associated with the SNT program. My uncle’s debt at the loss of an SNT settles on me now, with my mother dead. But even if it wasn’t, my mother was one of the chief scientists, and I’m guilty by birth, even if I knew nothing at all.”

“But you know a lot, don’t you, Lenore.” She felt him nod to the panel. “And you have perhaps as many secrets as I do.”

 

 

“I don’t know much, Ascent, or I could help you. This, going back to Sandstorm, finding out what the Fallons are planning, this I can do. I was seven when we fled. I hardly look like that plump little girl who wanted to join with an SNT and see the stars.”

He came to her side and pulled her to her feet. “Lenore, you have helped me more than Fury and his compliment and all the scientists on the Dubrovnik ever could, and I do not like it when I hurt you.” He settled into the chair and pulled her onto his lap. She had made no effort to turn on the bridge lighting. She hadn’t needed it in the glow of the control panel, and she had not wanted her shame exposed to the light.

“I’m sorry that I hurt you too, Ascent. I say things when I’m angry, things I don’t really mean, things that hurt.”

He pulled her closer and she laid her cheek against his shoulder, felt him kiss the top of her head, felt a hand move over her belly. Instinctively she sought his mouth in the darkness, and found him willing, ready, opening to her. “Lenore,” he whispered brushing her tongue with his. “I want to make love to you now.”

She pulled his hand from her belly and slid it up onto her breast. The little sound coming from her mouth into his as the rake of his thumb stiffened her nipple was almost the mew of a small animal.

While he might have been clothed when he came to her, he certainly was not now. Come to think of it, she could not remember him ever being clothed, nor was there any reason, since he took what human form was necessary, tactile, not visible, and had probably never needed clothes with his compliment. She lifted her arms so that he could slide her shirt off over her head, palms pausing long enough to skim over her breast in his efforts. Then he went immediately to work on her trousers, sliding them down just far enough that her bottom was bare, flesh raking flesh, the shifting of his hips maneuvering until his erect penis splayed her open. And for him, muscle memory made accommodation, swollen, trembling and slick.

Another shift and glide, large hands supporting her buttocks and he entered her, her legs bound together by the trouser so that she could not take control and turn to straddle him. Instead he entered her from behind, pulling her down tightly onto his laps holding her hips as the first tight-fitting shock of his fullness passed over her and morphed to quivering anticipating of one thrust and another, of each glide and rake, of the feel of her breasts swollen and heavy from his fondling, at the tightness of his own nipples against her back. She gripped him tight, down there deep, her head falling back on his shoulder as though her neck suddenly had no bones, his mouth, his teeth even, finding the soft spot just below her ear making her squirm even more. The shift and glide tensed to a manic hammer and clench until she had forgotten how to breathe, until she knew she would never breathe again until he gave her what she wanted. A stroke of a finger against her own pebble of an erection, and her whole body convulsed, tensed and clamped down as he came inside her, squeezing her tightly against his body. Then she collapsed back against him, able to do nothing but gasp for oxygen, a thing he mirrored beneath her.

“I am at home in you, my Lenore. Inside you, I know myself.”

She snuggled him closer, wishing with all her heart that it were true, but it wasn’t. It couldn’t be. He didn’t know himself, did he? And he loved someone else. That shouldn’t matter. It had never been her intention to feel anything, nor to illicit any feelings in him, but it was far too late for that now, wasn’t it?

Carefully and lovingly he guided her down to her bed. With him surrounding her there was no need for the headlamp. And when he had helped settle her beneath the coverlet, he slid down next to her and pulled her close against his chest. There, so close to him, deep in his embrace, she did the thing she knew better than to ever do, she pretended that all he had said was true. She pretended that it was her he loved.

Happy Friday, everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week week Kresho got a peek into the Fallon family dynamics. Meanwhile, back on Tak Major, Fury and his crew try to help Ascent get his memories back. 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 40: Blocking Memories

“I have never had sex with a man before,” Ascent said. Len had begun to recognize his moods, his emotions. He was nervous with Fury’s compliment Richard Manning running the diagnostic of his hearts blood. The man’s hands were competent, strong and very gentle in their touch. She knew that it moved Ascent to be treated so. It moved her. She smiled at his shyness, reminding her of herself with him the first time.

“Well mate, you were with two the other night and you held up your part of the bargain admirably, I can vouch.” Manning didn’t seem nearly as nervous about it as Ascent did, but Ascent definitely had that pleased, very male, attitude at the compliment on his sexual prowess.

“Ascent, what is the last thing you remember before you became aware of Lenore Falish’s presence?” Fury asked. All channels were now being kept open all the time. Diana Mac, or Mac as she went by most of the time, was with Fury and Manning was here. Len stood watching him, feeling Ascent’s presence as though he stood right behind her resting a hand on her shoulder

“I remember coming through flame alone, feeling as though my heart were suddenly no longer there. I remember settling into sand and metal and beginning the shut-down sequence, wanting only to sleep, wanting never to wake up again.”

“I recall that feeling, Ascent. That was most definitely my plan before Richard Manning came into my life.”

“I do remember that the de-mole barrier around this salvage yard was not there when I settled. I would have remembered such a thing, I am sure.”

“I would guess someone was either trying to keep you in or trying to keep others away from you,” Manning said. “But if that’s the case who the hell could put up that many kilometers of de-mole fence and not draw any attention? Even as remote as this place is, that’s the kind of thing that definitely gets noticed.”

“Then someone knows Ascent’s here.” Len shivered at the thought and leaned back into Ascent’s comfort.

“I saw only sand and metal. There was nothing else, and I saw that this was a place I could rest undisturbed.”

“It would appear that was not the case after all,” Fury observed.

“Surely it couldn’t have been the Authority,” Mac said.

“Sandstorm gets a visit from an Authority ship maybe once every five galactic years, if that,” Len said. “It’s always someone setting down with ship troubles, and they never stay longer than absolutely necessary. Sandstorm’s not a very hospitable place when it comes to Authority visitors. There’s no other reason for an Authority ship to come here. There’s nothing to be gained. Technically Tak Major is a part of the Outer Rim Free Alliance, though ships from there don’t come here much more often than the Authority’s do. Most of our supplies are off-loaded to a space station and then sent in from there, as often as not on drone ships. Most often they come from Vodni Station or Hammer Fall, on the other side of the sector. Vodni is slightly closer, but not as big. Otherwise all we get are desperate salvage vessels, and even those only a few a year.”

“Then how the hell did all that salvaged space junk get here,” Manning asked.

“Taklamakan Major was not always such an inhospitable place,” Fury said. “The erratic orbit caused a major climate shift a hundred and fifty galactic years ago, and while it was never more than a desert planetoid, it was a good salvage dump, with a healthy trade going on between salvage vessels. The shift caused the temperatures to rise, and the winds to become deadly at night. The population shrunk to the three remaining outposts and they shrunk to only those who could not easily get off.”

“I do not remember any of that information,” Ascent said. “I did not care for anything other than the place was remote and no one would disturb my slumber.”

“I’m going to probe the memory nodes in your prefrontal cortex,” Manning said. “That might help to stimulate enough memory to cause a cascade that will bring it all back.”

This time Ascent’s grip on Len’s shoulder was almost painful. “I am not certain I desire a cascade, Richard Manning. It cannot be pleasant.” Sensing his discomfort, Len offered an embrace, which earned her the ships equivalent of returning in kind.

 

 

 

 

“It will not be pleasant,” Fury answered, “I cannot imagine any SNT still living who would not wish never to revisit those memories of loss and deception, but there are many reasons that you need to remember, Ascent. First of all, and perhaps foremost, we must try to learn who set up the de-mole perimeter. The Authority would have had neither the technology, nor the resources to do such a thing in such a remote location. Then the only logical assumption is that the barrier was placed by another SNT, set more than likely to protect you from those who might come with ulterior motives.”

“But who?” Which one?” Manning asked. “This is so far from the last recorded locations of any of the SNT ships.”

“Ascent, your compliment suspected that the Authority would sabotage the SNT mission,” Len said. “That’s why she chose to take you to a remote part of space. I remember that now from your nightmare. Though she never said what remote part of the galaxy you were sent to, but you were here with her in the dream,” she said. “I remember now.”

“Dreams are not always literal,” Fury commented. “My database shows no deep space missions anywhere near the Taklamakan System.” He added, “any journeys an SNT would have made here would have been off program.”

“I do not remember any of my dreams,” Ascent said. “I am somehow conscious that they are not all nightmares and that I would happily linger in those that aren’t. But it is little more than a feeling of contentment, I suppose. As for the nightmares, I only remember fire, pain and loss, and that I am unable to wake up from it.” Then he added. “I have only dreamed at all since my awakening.”

“You would not dream in your deep sleep,” Fury commented.

“Fury,” Mac said, “were there other SNTs and their compliments who feared sabotage from the Authority?”

“SNTs are, by nature, very optimistic, and in most cases, I believe the scientists and the compliments felt that the SNT technology was unassailable by the conglomerates, but surely there had to have been concerns. The Authority’s pervious behavior suggests they were not to be trusted, especially that they would allow control to such technology to anyone else but the conglomerates.”

“You believed your compliment was being paranoid,” Len said, “and then …” She bit back her words she was about to say, wishing suddenly that she’d kept her mouth shut.

“And then what?” Manning asked.

“How long will what you’re doing take, Manning?” She asked, trying to change the subject.

It was Ascent who spoke. “Lenore, you do not have to protect me. What you have to say may be helpful. And then what?”

“And then you became infected.”

It felt as though everyone, including both ships, held their breath. The feel of dry static surged over Ascent’s heart space, and at last he spoke. “Then it is possible that I may have done horrible things. It is possible that my bonded is dead because of me, and I do not know if there are others dead at my doing.”

While Len would have softened her response, trying to be gentle with him, Fury simply replied. “It is possible, Ascent, for many of our brothers and sisters did things they would have never done if not for the Authority’s egregious sabotage.”

“Then perhaps that is why I do not remember what happened.”

“You don’t remember what happened because you’re somehow blocking the memories,” Manning said.

“What?” Len and Mac said at the same time.

Manning looked up from his efforts. “I’ve been doing everything I know to stimulate your prefrontal cortex, Ascent, and you keep kicking me out. The de-mole is nothing compared to the protective perimeter you’ve placed around your memory. I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe if Keen were here, he’d know what to do, but I’m stymied.”

“I have already put out a deep space signal to Professor Keen on Dubrovnik,” Fury said. “We should be hearing back any time now.”

“Is there anyone else who might have blocked those memories?” Len asked.

“There is not,” Fury said. While there are parts of an SNT’s technology that can be upgraded, changed, or modified, the brain and heart of an SNT are organic. The virus might have caused damage, but if that is the case, then a simple infusion of my blood, my nanites, would instantly begin a repair, and that we have already tried.”

“Is it possible there might be a delayed reaction, or maybe even some sort of rejection of your biological soup, Fury?” Mac asked.

“I have never heard of such a thing, and since each SNT already contain my cloned biological soup, as you call it, Mac, I am only aiding my family, all compatible to me,” He said.

Ascent spoke very quietly. “Then what I have blocked must be truly horrible.”

“It would be best not to speculate,” Fury said. “Since we do not know which of the surviving SNTs you are. We do know that you are not one that we believed to have survived, and we do not have records of any SNTs ever being in this sector. Therefore we must learn who you are, and only then will we be able to piece together what drove you to this place. If perhaps you received the message I sent out in my efforts to escape, in my efforts to save Richard Manning’s life, your compliment would have known how to cure you of the virus. I do not know if you or if any of my brothers and sisters received that message. That is the anguish I will live with until we are all once again united.”

“There was no sign of infection in your brain when we scanned it,” Manning said. “I would say somehow you were cured. If your compliment didn’t get the message, then she figured out some other method of beating the virus.”

“She said you must live to fight another day,” Mac said. “I remember that part of the nightmare you shared. She said it was the only way. I don’t remember much but that I remember now.”

“I remember that too,” Manning said.

So did Len.

“Please,” Ascent broke in. “Please I do not want to continue. She sacrificed herself, and I could not save her, and I cannot bare it, please.”

“We are not alone.” Fury spoke into the charged moment. “Three Jaegers, a Dreadnaught and a Kestrel class.”

“Fuck me!” Mac said. “Don’t those bastards ever give up, and now it’s a damned family reunion come along with their plus one.”

“Goddamned Fallons,” Manning hissed.

“They will be in high orbit in five minutes,” Fury said.

 

 

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.