Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending in which our heroes race to the rescue before it’s too late. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. This one is particularly long in order not to break the flow of events. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

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

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

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

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

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

 

Dragon Ascending Part 70: Into Safety

“I will not lose my Lenore!” Dragon’s bellow was nearly deafening, filled with rage. “It is your fault she is back here! All your fault! Ouroboros, you are my sister! How could you put my compliment at risk when you know what is like to lose a beloved? You know what it is like!”

“I will explain, but not right now,” Ori yelled to be heard. “You don’t understand, and–”

“We don’t have time for this right now,” Kresho shouted into the roar. “We have to find her now!”

“Hey! Hey! Shut the fuck up all of you and listen to me,” came Camille’s normally soft voice suddenly full of command and urgency. “The top of Mount Orion isn’t under the dampening field. We discovered when we flew over. That’s where she’s at, climbing to get out. If she can reach a high enough –”

The roar of the launch blocked out all sound and tossed the compass as though it were a scrap of paper caught in a strong wind. It took everything both Kresho and Ori could do to right the ship, all the while yelling down the sub-processor, “Camille! Camille, are you all right?” The Andromeda would have literally been blown away by the blast. When the atmosphere settled around them again, a single rocket, launched from the Dreadnaught.

“They launched early!” Came Camille’s breathless voice in the sub processer. “The motherfuckers launched early!”

 

Two days before the drone arrived, with no triaxe cells to keep it running, the generator began to run down, and in the final twenty-four hours, Len was forced to remain in the environmental suit overnight even inside the station. It would be depleted by the time she could get the drone reprogrammed to Tak Major. In order to have enough fuel to make the trip to Sandstorm, everything in the drone had to be off-loaded. That would drain the suit’s life support systems even faster. Even with her working through the daylight hours in her normal bad weather gear, she would still deplete her suite. Her mother’s, which was fully charged, she would need for the trip to Tak Major, and only that with the help of the Juliet drug.

When the drone arrived on the landing pad right on schedule, Len nearly cried with relief, taking time only to open several survival bars and eat them while she began unloading. The last two days there had been only thin soup made from some dried seaweed shoved to the back of the storage room. It was vile, but warm, and it filled her stomach, even if only barely.

At first, she unloaded only enough space so that she could slip inside to reprogram the guidance system. That was the critical path; that was what she needed to be fresh and focused for. The rest was grunt work. She didn’t need to see the schematics nor the calculations for the journey to Sandstorm. Those she had committed to memory long ago and gone over and over in her head every night like a mantra to fill the loneliness.

When the internal computer had been reprogrammed with the emergency landing details for Sandstorm landing pad, she reprogrammed the speed. She programmed it for as fast as a Mayfly 7 could go, dangerously fast for the distance, but any slower and she would be dead before she got there. After that she went about the frantic task of unloading, not bothering to dolly everything into the station. Up until now every little item aboard a drone was precious and carefully sorted and inventoried. It was sometimes two days before the hatch was sealed and the launch sequence set for the drone’s return journey. Now it was only dead weight, and she couldn’t survive another night in the station. She hurried through the task shoving emergency rations bars into her mouth to give her the energy she needed to keep on schedule. The way she saw it, she would either eat again when she arrived on Tak Major, or not at all. She was okay with that. If she didn’t take this chance, she would be dead anyway.

Once she was finished, and the landing pad was all but buried in the tossed bundles and boxes that would have been treasures such a short time ago, she went one last time to the ice cave to say her final good-by to her mother. “I’m on my way, Mama. I promise I’ll be back. You just lie here and rest. It won’t be long.” Once again, she touched the frozen cheek, then she left.

In the freezing, dark station, she carefully donned her mother’s environmental suit, going through all the safety checks her mother had taught her, that they had gone through together a thousand times, always checking each other’s suit too just in case. The Juliet drug was already inserted into the internal first aid system, carefully replacing the broad-spectrum emergency cocktail that every suit was equipped with. In an emergency the suit internals were programmed to inject the cocktail directly into the vein, but this suit she had reprogrammed to inject the Juliet drug at just the right time when hypoxia had reached just the right level and the suit still had the power for the task. If it failed, she would die. The odds were not in her favor, but they were the best odds she would get on this ice ball, so she left the station and climbed into the drone. Once she was safely strapped in where cargo would have normally been, she started the launch sequence, with just enough time to escape the atmosphere before the winds picked up again.

 

 

The next thing she remembered was Arji breaking her ribs in his efforts to revive her and cursing at her not to die as she gasped in her first incredibly painful, incredibly delicious breath of air. And there was heat, more heat than she had ever felt in her life.

But she wasn’t hot now. She was so cold, so cold, and there was so far left to go. So very far. She must have lost consciousness for a moment from the lack of oxygen. She came back to herself sitting on her ass in the middle of a snowdrift.

“Len, honey. Get up. You have to get up. You’re almost there. You’re almost home. You have to keep moving.” The hand that reached out to her was bare and feminine. She looked up to find her mother standing over her dressed in only her under-thermals, her hair loose and barely lifting on a breeze, and yet the wind hadn’t calmed. If anything it was worse. “Come on, sweetheart. You’re not finished yet. Your whole life is ahead of you, and it’ll be a wonderful life. Get up.” She smiled down at her. “Dragon is coming for you, for both of us, don’t worry. Please don’t worry. Get up, my beautiful girl.”

She took the offered hand and clung to it as she shoved up to her feet. “I’m sorry mama. I’m so sorry,” she gasped the words out loud, in spite of not being able to spare the oxygen. And then she sobbed.”

“My darling girl, you have nothing to be sorry for. You’ve done everything right and so very much more. I am so proud of you. Now get up, hurry. Dragon is waiting.”

Suddenly the sky lit up with a network so bright that sunshield lowered itself into position in the visor of her helmet. She figured she must be hallucinating. She’d never seen anything like that before. She should turn up the oxygen a bit she supposed because hallucinations weren’t a good sign, but there was not enough to turn up any way. “I love you mama,” she said to no one there. And then she heard it. Loud and clear, she heard it.

“I love you, I need you, I am here, my Lenore. I have come.” For a second, the world flashed bright and then vanished and then she vanished with it.

 

They all watched helplessly as the rocket raced away toward the planetoid and exploded in low orbit bursting into a blinding net, multiplying and spreading to surround the whole surface of Tak Minor. They had seconds before the net would go critical, flash bright and implode onto the planetoid. The implosion would then continue right on through to the planetoid’s core, collapsing the whole of Tak Minor in on itself. Kresho hammered an impotent fist against the control panel seeing the flash through a red mist of rage and pain. Ori’s own pain dwarfed his own. Camille sobbed openly. “We have failed her! We have failed our Lenore,” Ori sounded almost as though she sobbed as well.

But then something happened. There was another flash of light, a sharp point that slipped through the net like a needle, and it was impossible to see what happened next, it was far too bright for humanoid eyes. Even with his eyes closed, the flash across the dark inside of Kresho’s eyelids was blinding. He cried out and threw his arm over his face, bracing for the aftershock. He waited, holding his breath, but nothing happened. When he ventured a peek, it was as though everything froze as it was. The planet-killer’s lethal net was still in place, the ships hadn’t been tossed. Nothing moved at all. But something was missing. Someone.

“Dragon? Where’s Dragon?” Kresho said when he could manage to speak again. Oh God, to lose an SNT as well as a compliment and the little girl he’d thought of as a daughter was more than he could bear.

Into the silence, Ori replied, “my brother is below the net.” The words were barely spoken before the planet-killer’s net sparked once as though someone had set fireworks off all across its surface. Then it grew duller and duller before it simply crumbled and drifted away like so much space dust revealing beneath an iridescent dome around the curve of the whole planetoid not unlike a giant soap bubble. It caught the twinkle of the distant sun only for a moment then vanished and Dragon rose brighter than the sun from above Mount Orion. For another moment there was stunned silence and then the ship said, “I have her. I have my Lenore. She is safe.”

For a long time no one spoke. The relief on both smaller ships felt like a living thing wrapping itself around them and holding them just for a second. And then Fury’s voice came through sub space. “Taklamakan Major is safe.”

“And Tenad Fallon?” Ori asked.

“She is about to be neutralized.”

“You’re going to kill her?” Camille’s voice down the sub processor link sounded viciously pleased.

It was Ori who responded. “Much worse than that, Camille Ingraham. He is going to give her what she wants.”

Before the discussion could go further, Fury said. “Please hurry home with my beloveds.”

“We’ll be there in a flash,” Ori said. Kresho could almost hear a smile in her voice.

 

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week Mac and Manning realized just how bad their situation really was. This week help comes from unexpected sources, but will it arrive on time? As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. This one is particularly long in order not to break the flow of events. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

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

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

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

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

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

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 67: The Dragon Ascends

“Are you the reason our compliments are all at risk?” Fury all but roared.

“I’m the reason you have discovered Dragon, it is you, SNT 7, isn’t it? I knew one of my siblings was sleeping beneath the sand, but you I would not have expected. Never mind, we can catch up on old times later, and I will explain everything. Right now what has to be done will take all three of us and –.”

“Kresho, she’d better have a plan and it had better happen fast,” Came Gerd’s voice over the com. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but the Dreadnaught left for Tak Minor like a bat out of Vati hell. ETA, best case scenario, six hours.”

Just then a low murmur came through the sub processor, not much more than a static buzz, but in response Dragon groaned down the link, a groan that became more a howl of agony and pain. It grew and grew until it filled the space inside the Compass and still grew until Kresho was certain his eardrums would burst. No! It was more like his whole soul would explode, and then Dragon said. MY LENORE IS DOWN THERE! I WILL NOT LOSE HER!”

The whole desert trembled and rocked below and the de-mole perimeter sparked so that the entire, enormous, outline of it was visible from orbit. And just like that, it exploded in a burst of color and light that made the sun seem only a dim shadow. Kresho shielded his eyes and when he dared to open them just a slit, the desert collapsed into a sinkhole of sand, wrecks of ships and water-collection systems, robotic lifts and derelict building materials erupted like the volcanoes on Diga Vulcanus, exploding outward and outward and outward in waves until, at last, a shape began to immerge, at first coated in the rust colored dust of the desert and then, as though immerging from the amniotic dust from the womb of the planetoid, its skin heated nearly molten before the glow died away into the sheen of burnished alloy. It rose and rose and rose from the gaping abyss up and up into the sky. It was slightly bigger than a falcon class harrier, but shaped like nothing Kresho had ever seen before, as though it has spread bio-metallic roots beneath the surface in search for precious water, but as it ascended, its shape changed and morphed as it gained altitude. Roots shrank away, streamline wings spread outward, the ship elongated into a shape not unlike a falcon with wings drawn back preparing to plunge into a stoop only just visible against the glare of the sun.

“Wait!” Fury said, sensing, as they all did, that Dragon was about to jump to hyperspace. “We need a plan. And almost faster than thought, the idea was in all of their heads, though Kresho wasn’t sure which one of them had sent it. It didn’t matter. He shivered at the thought of the power of three sentient ships thinking as one.

The Compass was the fastest and stealthiest of the three ships. While it had been enhanced by SNT tech and benefitted from Ori’s efforts, it was not in and of itself an SNT. It was just a way for Ori to transport a part of her consciousness when it was far less easy for the core of her, her heart to move at anything close to speed. Without another thought Kresho jumped, heading for Tak Minor, the last message from both of the ships was, “Bring back our Beloveds.”

This would not be a pleasant encounter, but that mattered far less than that he could complete his mission. “Don’t worry,” Ori’s voice was soft inside his head, choosing to communicate through the sub processor now that it had been opened after so many years, “we will not fail in our mission, Kresho. There are three of us now, and long-range sensors on Vodni Station have detected our baby brothers both heading this way at speed. Once we are together, we will no longer be able to keep our presence, or mission quiet.”

“Maybe it’s time for the Authority and The Rim Alliance to know,” he replied.

“Yes. Yes it is time, and it’s time for us to begin to right the wrongs that have been done to us, to the inhabitants of Authority space.” She sighed deeply. Kresho felt her satisfaction, and her anticipation to begin what they’d both worked secretly toward for what felt like an eternity. Then she added, as though she read his thoughts, which she probably did. She often did when it suited her. “Len will forgive you, you know, for in the end there is nothing to forgive.”

He grunted. “If she doesn’t kill me first.”

“She will not.” She spoke with confidence he didn’t feel. While of course she probably wouldn’t actually kill him, would she understand? Would she forgive him when he explained?

“She has been a sojourner too long,” Ori said. “It will be good to have her back where she belongs.”

He studied her for a moment. He didn’t know why he always thought of it that way. Of course he couldn’t see her, and she, for the most part, kept her mannerisms and emotions completely hidden from him. He envied Diana McAllister and Richard Manning, and now Len, that openness with their SNT companions. That had never been Ori’s way.  He wondered if either of the other SNTs had any idea just how volatile the situations was, Tenad Fallon’s craziness aside.

 

 

Ori had suffered nearly as much as he had at Len’s loss, and she had mourned with him. And then to discover after all of this time that she was alive, that she had survived against all odds was nothing less than a miracle, and Ori was beside herself. He was pretty sure her emotions were as strong as his were. He could feel anticipation, a certain kind of tension he’d not felt in her in a very long time, not since they battled together to keep him alive. And now, now his own emotions frightened him almost as much as hers did. He seldom felt her temper, but when he did, it felt as though he were being ripped apart, it felt like he felt when the Fidelio was attacked, when he was certain he would die and wished like hell he could just get it over with. But this, this was worse. He couldn’t tell from his own emotions if he was mirroring hers, or if he was simply afraid for Len. Possibly he was afraid for himself, afraid of the uncertainty that now lay before him after all this time, all their efforts, and then believing for so long Len was dead. Surely even Ori, in all of her layers of plans upon plans and schemes upon schemes, could not have foreseen this. Surely she had to know that Len was Dragon’s now, that she’d found a true home with him. Christ, he didn’t want to think about what would happen if she ignored that fact. “You can’t have her now, you know?” The words were out before he could stop them, along with the sharp clench of pain below his breastbone he always felt when he thought about Len and how Ori had sought her out, used him to do so, along with the fear of what might happen now, now that she didn’t need him anymore.

This time it was not her anger he felt, rather a stillness, the kind of stillness you feel when someone inhales and then holds their breath. The fine hair on his arms rose from the tension he felt around him, the sudden closeness, a sharp sense of pain followed by a sudden withdrawal that left him breathless, and chilled. And then the feeling passed and she said, “Tenad Fallon is awake.”

 

“All right, everything is prepped and double checked,” Len said, checking the propulsion systems of the cryo-tubes one last time. “They’re not much, but they’ll get you into orbit. This trip, you don’t want to go any farther than that. Camille will pick you up. I’ve modified the homing beacons so that only a ship with SNT tech can pick it up. She smiled down at them where they both lay in the pods ready for the cocktail of drugs that would put them to sleep before the deep freeze set in. “I wouldn’t have known how to do this back before I bonded with Dragon, but it seems pretty straight forward now.”

When they couldn’t get the coms to work at the pick-up site, it had been all they could manage to get Manning back to the station. There were a couple of times when Len thought she’d have to come back for them one at a time. Even Mac was weakened and was feeling the lack of the connection to the tether. She had gotten them both under warming blankets and made them a thin high protein soup her mother had made for them back in the day, back when rations were sparse, and they needed the warmth and the calories. They’d had to help Manning with his. She’d scarfed a couple of energy bars she’d brought with her, knowing she’d need the calories far more than they did for what still lay ahead of her, wishing like hell she’d not had to expend so much energy on the wasted trip to the pick-up site and then helping Manning get back. Even fresh from her bonding as she was, it wouldn’t be easy.

“What about you?” Manning managed, already struggling not to slur his words. “Are you sure you can make it to the top of that mountain? You said it was damn near impossible.”

“Not for me, it isn’t. I’ve recharged my suit by cannibalizing my old one and the last of the power form the Tri-axe cell since we won’t be needing it. Besides, I don’t have to make it back. I only have to make it to the top, or maybe not even that far, to wherever the dampening field leaves off. Besides,” she added with a little shrug, “I’ve done it before, and made it back safely.”

Mac let out a slow whistle. “Color me impressed.” Her own words were beginning to slur as well.

“Anyway,” Len said looking down at the settings on the pods one last time. “I have Dragon’s blood in me now. I’m tougher than I was.” She hoped. She couldn’t be sure that was true. She didn’t know how the whole thing worked, how much of Dragon’s strength would be with her without the tether, but she wasn’t about to tell them that. Besides there were only two pods no matter what, and she had options they didn’t, neither of them could have made it in their condition, even if they had the knowledge and skill needed to survive on this ice cube. “I can control your lift-off remotely, so as soon as I’m clear of the launch zone, I’ll release the clamps and enable the sequence.” She gave them her best reassuring smile. “Now, nighty-night. When you wake up Camille will take us all home to our Beloveds. Damn, it felt good to be able to say that, and there was nothing she wanted more right now than for them all to be in the arms of their partners again. “Have a nice rest and I’ll see you soon.”

“Len.” Mac blinked up at her, through drowsy eyes. Manning was already asleep. “Stay safe. We’ll see you soon.”

Len gave her a nod and a smile, then pulled the cryo-pods shut and checked the seals. When she was sure they were both well asleep, she clipped the remote control onto her mag belt, donned her helmet, and headed out into the blizzard, taking a quick look around the main station before she left. Just one more time, Mama and then I’ll be back for you and we’ll never have to come back to this horrible place again. She thought it all but said nothing out loud. The truth of the matter was that she would need every smidgeon of power and oxygen if she were to complete this ascent, but there was no other way. And she would get back to Dragon. He would not be bereft again. “I love you, I need you, I love you, I need you.” Her steps synced with the mantra she sent down the sub processor hoping against hope that Dragon could hear, hoping that he could at least feel it. When she was at a safe distance, she launched the cryo-pods and watched them shoot into the dusky sky. And after that, there was nothing but following the suit telemetry and adjusting her pacing and breathing for the long ascent through the blizzard.

 

 

 

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week, with little choice, Len returned to Tak Minor. This week Mac and Manning realize just how bad their situation really is. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. This one is particularly long in order not to break the flow of events. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

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

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

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

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

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

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 66: Worst Than We Thought

Kresho, if you would listen to me –”

“Don’t fucking talk to me, Ori,” he cut her off. “You got us into this mess and now innocent people are at risk. Fury’s compliments, for fuck sake! Fury’s compliments and for what?”

“You know for what. Innocent people are always at risk, Kresho and … compliments die. That will always be the case as long as the Authority is in control.”

“You think I don’t know that?” He snapped. “I figured it out a long time ago, Ori, the hard way, remember?”

“And you think I don’t know that?” She startled him out of his anger, shocked that she actually sounded angry at him! “So did I, in case you’ve forgotten.”

How the hell did she always manage to make him feel bad?

She continued. “If you want this shit storm to end then you’ve got to trust me, trust I know what I’m doing.”

“And Len and Camille and Arji and all the others, Gert, Dyrg, they’re all expendable.”

She offered a heavy sigh that surprised him.  She actually sounded tired. “We’re all expendable, Kresho, and if we want this to end, we have to be willing to do what we don’t really want to do.”

“Don’t fucking lecture me, Ori. I know the speech. Hell I could quote it back to you verbatim.”

He did something he hadn’t done in a very long time, let his thoughts flowed down the sub processor, and just like that all the connections clicked into position and Ori sighed as though a flood of relief had just eased great pain, a sigh that was in tandem with his own. “Fury, we need to talk now.”

“What do you want Kresho Ivanovic,” came the response almost before he had finished the thought.

“Listen to me very carefully, both planetoids are booby trapped and if the dampening field is breached, as it already has been, Tenad Fallon has given orders for the Virago and the Dreadnaught to move into position. They’re both equipped with planet killers, and we have at best guess twenty-four hours to stop them or get our people off.”

The silence that coursed through the sub processor felt colder than the air on Tak Minor. But the response was not from Fury.

“You are the man who left my Lenore on Taklamakan Minor to die.” It was not a question, and it was definitely not Fury.

“Who are you bonded to, Kresho Ivanovic?” Fury asked, not giving him a chance to defend himself against the charges laid at his door. “Is your SNT still infected with the virus that they would bond with you and orchestrate such a thing as this?”

Kresho’s laugh was nearly hysterical. “Granted I question her sanity at times but not as often as I question my own. “

“Gentlemen, enough! We do not have time for this!” Ori’s voice boomed down the sub processor into the stunned silence that followed.

And then the voice, which Kresho assumed came from the SNT in the Sea of Death said, “SNT 3? Ouroboros?”

 

“Well that was nearly embarrassing.” Manning forced a laugh through chattering teeth as Mac steadied the warm cup of tea he’d nearly lost control of in his trembling hands.

“Drink, or I’ll dump the whole damn thing right on that package you’re so fond of.” She said, hoping that she sounded a little less worried than she felt.

“Mac, that threat has no teeth when I know for a fact you’re as fond of that package as I am.”

“Then shut up and drink. I don’t want it frozen off either.”

He offered her a wicked smile. “There are better ways of warming it up, you know.”

“Are you kidding?” She replied. “The way you’re shivering, that’s a good way to get it bitten, and besides you could never hit the hole like you are now.”

“If you helped me though, it’d be almost like a vibrator, think about it, Mac this could be good for both of us.” He actually managed to reach around and pat her ass.

“Drink you damn tea, Manning and then if you’re up for a game of bury the sausage, I’ll help you find the hole.” God, she wished that he actually felt up for a little sex. She felt like shit, and she could only imagine how he felt. He sipped the tea with some effort, but she held the cup until he’d taken several good sized drinks, then he lay back in the bedding exhausted closing his eyes and drifting into a fitful sleep.

She studied him while his eyes were closed, knowing how grumpy it made him when she was mother-henning him. But she didn’t care, not now. There was no way in fuck she was going to lose him if she had to shoot him full of sedatives and drag his ass to the cryo-pod. His lips were tinged blue and he’d lost weight. She could tell, just like Fury could have told if he were there. She felt the ache of his absence so badly low in her center that it nearly doubled her over. The tether had held secure for way longer than it would have before they had all bonded. But in the sub-freezing temperatures, on rations that were barely enough calories for normal maintenance let alone on an ice planet, it wasn’t surprising that eventually the tether began to fray.

“Don’t look at me like that, Mac,” he said without opening his eyes. “It’s embarrassing enough anyway.”

“I’ll look at you any way I want, Manning. You should know that by now.”

“I hate it, you seeing me this way.”

 

 

“It’s just your delicate little male ego,” she said. “Hell, you’ve seen me puking my guts and blubbering like a baby. You can’t really believe it’ll make me or Fury think any less of you? I know for a fact he’s seen you worse.”

He smiled, still not opening his eyes. “You’re probably right. It’s probably just my fragile male ego.” Then his face was wracked with pain that she knew wasn’t physical. “I bawled like a baby when Fury told me what he’d had to do. He was so afraid I would be angry, that I wouldn’t forgive him, when there was nothing to forgive. I loved him by then, and I couldn’t believe that he’d cared enough to save my sorry ass.”

“You know he’ll find us, he, and those crazy brothers of his. They’ll find us. We just have to hang on.” She nodded to the back room. “And we have a way to do it.”

His arm shot out from under the covers with surprising speed, and he grabbed her hand in a white-knuckled grip. “Not without you, Mac. Do you understand me? Not without you. I know enough about ice planets to know that you would never make it up to the top of that mountain and back in the environmental suit we’ve been left with, and it’s been here ten years. We don’t know how safe it is. And trust me, even if it was safe and fully charged, you’ve got no experience of this kind of weather. Hell, you nearly froze the little while we were on Pandora Base. Please Mac, please trust me. Promise me. Promise me that you’ll come with me, and I’ll go into the pod right now, right this minute if I know you’ll be in the one right next to me. Fury will come for us. We both know it. Promise me Mac. Promise me.”

Her shoulders slumped and she fought back a sob. He was right. She knew he was right. Fury would come, or he would find a way to send someone else, but he would get them back to him safe and no worse for the wear. “All right. All right. Then let me make you one more cup of tea to warm your ass and we’ll go into the deep freeze together. I’ve checked out the freezers. They’re both fully functional. Those things are built to last almost indefinitely anyway. We’ll just go to sleep in this shithole and then wake up in Fury’s warm embrace, right exactly where we both belong.”

She managed to get another half cup of tea down him before he pushed the cup away. “I’m ready. Let’s do it now while I still can hogtie you if you try to renege on your promise.”

She glared at him. “It was a promise, Manning. My hands were in front of me. No crossed fingers and my toes are too damn numb from cold to cross anyway. Trust me,” she said, helping him to his feet, “I know when I’m out of my element. All I want to do is go to sleep and wake up with Fury and you all snuggled down in our bed.” She couldn’t help it, with the last word, she bit back a little sob.

Manning, though he was leaning heavily on her, pulled her into his arms and held her against his chest. He smelled of the cold, of suffering, of the tea he had just drank, but underneath all that, he smelled of the man she had loved long before she’d realized it. His fingers curled in her hair, and he kissed her upturned face. He offered her that wicked chuckle that she loved so much and whispered against her ear. “I have a feeling when that happens, none of us is gonna want to get out of that bed for, oh, at least a week.” He shrugged. “Make that two. Now come on, let’s check out our new rooms at the Ritz. I hear the beds are a bit chilly.”

They were just turning toward the storage room where the cryo-pods were when the pressure door all but exploded open and a phantom appeared clad in an environmental suit and engulfed in the mist between the doors, silent, looking from one of them to the other.

With more male bravado than strength, Manning shoved Mac behind him and growled, “Who the hell are you?” And then he all but toppled back on top of her.

The helmet came off and clattered to the ground, and Len rushed toward them, helping Mac support Manning. “How bad is it?” Those were the first words out of her mouth as they eased Manning back into one of the control room chairs.

“The tether held a lot longer than we could have hoped for,” Mac answered, knowing that each breath was becoming harder and harder for Manning. But it’s just too damn cold and the generator isn’t going to last us much longer. Did Ascent bring you?” She asked.

Len shook her head. “He’ll come as soon as he can. He’s Dragon by the way.” The pride in her voice made it clear to Mac that they had bonded.

“Didn’t see that coming,” Manning managed.

“Look, we can’t ‘tran from in here, something in the way the station is designed, and it’s also double shielded. Get dressed and as soon as we’re outside at the ‘tran site, Camille will ‘tran us up.”

“Camille?” Mac said.

“Long story. One we don’t have time for just yet.” Hurry now.”

They managed to force a cup of warm soup down Manning’s gullet to warm him and give him enough energy to suit up, but even then, they both had to do most of the work of getting him into the bad weather gear. “It’s not far, the ‘tran site,” Len said, sensing Mac’s worry.

“No worries. If we have to we’ll drag his ass,” she replied. To which he offered a feeble raised middle finger, which she slapped a heavy glove over.

 

When the outer door slid open and they stepped out into the blizzard that was the best weather Tak Minor had to offer, Len was glad the ‘tran site wasn’t far. She had forgotten how cold it was, how horrible. It had never seemed so bad when she and her mother were there together. Sadly, most of those good memories had been swallowed up in the horror of the last three months of survival after her mother’s murder. She wasn’t worried about herself, she could handle it, besides she had the environmental suit, as much as anything for the internal telemetry, otherwise she’d never be able to find the drop site with the lack of visibility. It was Manning who worried her. He’d nearly doubled over from the impact of the storm when the outer door had slid open. With more grit and courage than strength, he forced himself upright and leaned into the wind. There was no speaking. There was not enough energy to waste on words, and while Manning was in bad shape, Mac wasn’t a whole lot better. Len recognized too well the effects of the horrible cold and a starvation diet. They needed heat and food and rest. Knowing that, she forced a hard pace, and when Manning stumbled, she shoved in under his arm and with Mac on the other side they kept going. They had to keep going. As for her, well she couldn’t get off this deep freeze fast enough. The wind howled, and she ignored the heavy weight of the man leaning hard against her and forced a pace that made her heart hammer, but well within acceptable parameters, the telemetry told her. They were almost to the site when just like that the telemetry went offline. The suites own telemetry worked just fine monitoring her vitals, giving oxygen levels, location in relation to the station, but everything from the Andromeda simply went blank.

She tapped the com several times. “Camille? Camille, can you hear me? Camille, we’re ready to ‘tran.” But she knew there was no use. Camille was not responding. Panic rose in her throat. She wanted to scream, she wanted to run away. She couldn’t stay here. She had to get out of here. She had to get off this freezer. She couldn’t be trapped here again. She couldn’t fail Mac and Manning. She couldn’t fail Fury, and dear god, she couldn’t bare what this would do to Dragon. But he wouldn’t give up. He’d come for her. He’d come for them all. He would. Oh god, she had to get out of here!

It was Mac squeezing her shoulder that pulled her back to herself. “What is it? What’s wrong?” Mac yelled into the wind; a sound Len barely heard.

Len stood very still, struggling to ignore the black spots now filling her vision. It was only panic. She had beat this world before when she’d been totally alone. Well, she wasn’t now. She wasn’t alone, and she would never be again. “Dragon, I love you, and I need you. I need you, I need you,” she chanted down the sub processor that no longer worked, but somehow it made her feel better. She took a deep breath and motioned them around and headed back toward the station. They couldn’t stand out here waiting. She would be okay, but Manning and Mac would not. Manning was already too far out of it to notice. Len leaned close to Mac and spoke into her external speaker. “We’ve lost contact. We can’t wait out here.”

Mac only nodded as they both shoved in still closer to Manning, and they all three turned back toward the shelter of the station. All the while in her head, down the subspace processor, Len repeated the mantra, “Dragon, I need you, I love you, I need you.” No, she was no longer alone.

 

Happy Friday everyone! Time for another episode of Dragon Ascending.  Last week, just when things looked dire, help came from a surprising place. This week, with little choice, Len returns to Tak Minor. As I mentioned, I am now attempting to post episodes at lengths that will be better suited for the flow of the story and enhance your reading pleasure. Some will be slightly shorter, some will be longer. This one is particularly long in order not to break the flow of events. I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, the sequel to Piloting Fury, as much as I’m enjoying sharing it with you. As always, I love it when you share my work with your reading friends, so feel free. In the meantime, enjoy!

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

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

 

Dragon Ascending: Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

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

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

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 65: Homecoming

They dropped out of subspace and slid into orbit around Tak Minor without a hitch. Camille really was a good pilot.

“I’m putting us into the lowest safe orbit I can. It’ll make ‘tranning you all three back easier, and Woah!” Suddenly she was fiddling with the controls, as the ship bucked in the high winds, only for a few moments and then it stopped. “Is that the highest point on the planetoid,” she asked pointing out the telemetry.”

“That’s Mount Orion, yes. It’s not that high, but it’s… woah!” Len repeated her words. “It’s not under the dampening field.” Then she added, “there’d be no need for it to be there since it can only be accessed in an environmental suit,  and even that’s pushing it if you have to make it there and back.”

“Plus it would take a lot of unnecessary energy to place the whole mountain in the dampening field,” Camille said. “I’m sure Tenad would have made sure that Fury’s compliments didn’t have the equipment to make that trip and back just to get a signal out.”

“Even if they did, they’d die,” Lenore said. “That’s what happened to the previous resident. He made an ill-advised research trip up the mountain and was lost in a freak storm. We never found his body,” she added. “But then we never looked. Sounds harsh, I know, but supplies were limited and a trip for nothing more than reclaiming the dead was not considered an acceptable risk.” She made no effort to hide the bitterness in her voice. Nor the determination. When this was all over, she would most definitely bring her mother away, give her a proper burial.

“I thought Taklamakan Major was a horrible place,” Camille said with a shiver.

“At least there are regular ships to Tak Major. You can get off if you can manage a berth on one of them. And pay for it.”

“Fuck,” Camille said under her breath. She asked no questions. An indentured would have had that desire to question punished out of them early in their servitude.

“How long have you been indentured?” Len asked.

“Six years. When my father’s ship had to drop a load of cargo it was carrying on special commission for the Andromeda Conglomerate, the ship was confiscated and we were all taken into servitude for the debt. My mother died trying to get me to safety. My father died of exposure his first winter in the tri-axe mines.

“You must hate her, Tenad Fallon.”

“Revenge is a dish best served cold,” she responded. “And mine is colder than this planetoid could possibly get.”

“That’s why I was on Tak Minor,” Len thought of her own dead mother and the sacrifices she had made, “to keep from becoming an indentured. I know what Diana McAllister went through, being indentured to a Fallon. Your revenge can’t be cold enough to suit me.”

 

 

Camille glanced over at Len, then back at the telemetry, maneuvering them out of the chop and into a smoother orbit. “Oh, Tenad wasn’t like her father. She never punished me. She didn’t need to after her people killed my mother and made me watch. One threat was all it took. No, with me, she was endlessly patient. But then she saw me the same way she saw her PD or her med-bot. We were all just devices that could be replaced if we didn’t work properly.” She shivered. “I saw things, cleaned up things, watched her do things, and I had to act like none of it bothered me, like I was nothing more than a service bot. I saw what she did to indentureds who she thought betrayed her.” This time she didn’t look at Len, but the lines of her jaw hardened, and her shoulders tensed. “I cleaned up what was left when she was done with them. And every time, every single time, I vowed I would make her pay for my family, for all of those who didn’t manage to escape beneath her radar. She wants this badly. I’ve never known her to want anything this badly, and I will do anything in my power to see that she doesn’t get it, to help take her down.”

She didn’t speak again until they were nearly over the transport spot. “You’d best get ready. It won’t be long now.”

Carefully, methodically, just like her mother had taught her, Len donned the environmental suit, making every check, then making it again. It kept her mind from wandering where it shouldn’t go, to all that had happened the last time she was on Tak Minor. In her head, she could make out the faint reassurances that Dragon made, a constant chatter that she held close, knowing, as she did, that once Camille ‘tranned her down, they would be out of contact, and she would for the first time become aware of the tether that bound them. That made her think about Manning, she worked more urgently. Was he okay? Was Fury and Professor Keen right that because of the bonding with Mac, his tether would be lengthened. If not, then she could very well find him in very bad shape.

Had they found her mother where she lay in her frozen tomb? Did they know that unless she could get them off the planetoid that horrible place would be their tomb too? She didn’t doubt for a minute that Tenad Fallon, if she could bond effectively with Fury, would never bring them back to him, and if she kept them alive, it would be just barely. She seriously doubted if the woman understood that their deaths would mean her death and the death of every single person onboard her ships and her brother’s, and who knew what other revenge a mourning SNT would wreak on the Authority. Certainly nothing they didn’t deserve. And she hoped whatever happened, however this ended, that revenge would fall on Kresho Ivanovic’s head too.

“We’re over the sight,” came Camille’s voice on her com. All your systems are tracking normally on the monitor. Just give the word.”

“Give me a second,” she replied, this time unable to keep her voice completely steady.

“You all right?” Camille asked.

“I’m fine,” she said after a deep breath. I just need to-”

“Just tell me when you’re ready,” Camille interrupted gently.

She took a couple more deep breaths, forced back the memories of this place and focused instead on the SNT waiting for the return of his loved ones, on the SNT waiting for her to return to him. “Dragon, I love you. And I’ll see you soon,” she sent her thoughts down the subspace.

“And I love you, dearest, dearest Lenore. I will welcome you home soon.”

She felt Fury’s tacit presence and felt his anxiety for his compliment. “I’ll bring Mac and Manning back safely, Fury,” she said.

Then she spoke into her com. “I’m ready to ‘tran, Camille. See you soon.”

“Transport beginning,” came the voice on the other end of the com.

There was a brief second when she felt as though Dragon had poured all his love for her through the sub processor and straight to her heart. The sudden fullness of it calmed her, centered her, and focused her as the airlock faded and disappeared and the tether snapped and vanished and she came back to herself in the endless blizzard of Tak Minor, both foreign now after so long away, but at the same time way too familiar.