Cloverleaf Station: Chapter One, Part One

 Notes: HIIIIII! Let's get going on the new blog story, WOOOO! This one is Sci-Fi, Bonded universe (but new characters), and takes place close to a giant quasar on the edge of the Fringe. Yes, it's going to be super fun and I hope you enjoy it along with me! Regular updates should happen on Tuesdays. Let's DO THIS!

Title: Cloverleaf Station: Chapter One, Part One

***

Cloverleaf Station

Chapter One, Part One

 

On the outskirts of the Fringe, parsecs away from the central planets of the Federation and all of the modern amenities that the people who lived there enjoyed, floated a round, pockmarked ball the size of a generation ship. To a casual passerby—not that there were every casual passersby out so far, only miners on the hunt for the rare-mineral-rich asteroids that this corner of the galaxy was home to—it almost might have been mistaken for a moon.

If moons came in the most lurid, neon shades of green imaginable, that was.

The ball was called Cloverleaf Station, and for nine months at a stretch, it was home to anywhere from fifty to a hundred souls: a mixture of miners, scientists, and a few seasonal workers. For the next five months, it was home to exactly one man—Kieron Carr, the station master and the only person who was permitted to live there while the station’s usual stellar shield orbited out of the way, leaving Cloverleaf exposed to direct radiation from the quasar that it, and everything else out here, revolved around.

Thanks to that intense radiation, Cloverleaf Station was nearly half a mile in diameter, but had less than half of that available as livable space. Its external walls were constructed from a blend of concrete and metal alloys that were thirty feet thick. Beneath the concrete was ten-foot-deep layer of water, followed by yet more radiation-resistant plating.

By the time all of that layering was finally penetrated, the residual radiation that got through was akin to spending an Earth day out in the sun, nothing that regular Regen treatments couldn’t take care of.

Of course, it got worse when the docking bay doors had to be opened and closed all the time to get ships in and out. When the radiation from the quasar was at its peak—when the valuable debris field that had convinced the Federation to put Cloverleaf Station out here in the first place—it was simply too dangerous for anyone to work outside the safety of the station. Sitting still meant losing money, so most of the regulars took that five months to go sell what they’d mined, while scientists returned home to crunch data and write papers.

It was lonely during this time on Cloverleaf Station, but Kieron found he liked lonely, these days. If he couldn’t have the company of the one person he craved, the next best thing was no company at all. Heading into his second year alone, he was more than ready for everyone else to get the hell out.

He really would have liked for them to do it without making a fucking mess of things before they left, though.

“Mason’s Bay, Mason’s Bay, check in. Over.”

“They’re probably busy screwing each other’s brains out,” Kieron’s assistant Dave said with a snort. “The Masons are the horniest couple on this station, and that’s saying a lot.”

“Horny or not, they never miss a check in,” Kieron replied as flatly as he could. He wasn’t a huge fan of Dave, who sucked at everything that Kieron had wanted him to be good at. Seriously, how could the man burn food so bad even the kitchen’s regenerator wouldn’t take it back to reuse it? That left Dave looking after the controls and minding the comms while Kieron had to manage hosting services, exactly the opposite of the way he’d hoped it would work out.

Kieron would not be renewing Dave’s contract to work at Cloverleaf if he applied again, that much was damn sure.

“Well, I guess we just keep trying. I’m gonna go get a burger first though, you want one?”

“No.” After a second, Kieron remembered to add, “Thanks.”

“Sure, man. Sure.” Dave left, and Kieron settled in to figure out who else was out there right now.

By this time tomorrow, Cloverleaf Station would be out of the shadow of Big Momma, the enormous asteroid they usually huddled behind, whose bulk did a pretty good job of deflecting the worst of the radiation not only from the station, but also from a lot of the smaller asteroids that made this a worthwhile destination for miners. Once you went beyond the big shadow, if you didn’t have the latest version of Cloverleaf’s composite AI to help guide your ship from safe zone to safe zone, your engines would burn out real fast. Once they quit, if you were still in the hot zone, the amount of time you could expect to survive dropped precipitously.

It meant that Kieron, and Dave, had to keep meticulous notes on who was out, where they were, and what their charted course was if they wanted to have any chance of helping them when something went wrong. There were only three ships left on Cloverleaf that didn’t belong to employees, and two of them were currently docked, so at least Kieron didn’t have to worry about going after anybody else. Where had the Masons been headed?

He pulled up their flightpath, then groaned. “Dave, you fucking dumbass.” This plan was from two days ago, completely useless to him now. Sure, it was the responsibility of the ship’s crew to log a new one each time, but it was the responsibility of the station masters to nag them until they did.

He tried the com again. “Mason’s Bay, Mason’s Bay, this is Cloverleaf calling. Over.”

Nothing. Kieron broadened his bandwidth, extending his frequency detector farther into space. This close to a quasar, space was anything but quiet. The sound of the radiation came through across the radio, a constant emission of white noise, getting louder and louder as—

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!”

“Shit!” Kieron almost jumped out of his chair as the strangest signal he’d ever heard out here poured in over the radio. Good grief, t was almost like a scream. What the hell was—

The strange sound cut off as quickly as it had come in, and at the same time a new signal was suddenly audible.

“—leaf, come in Cloverleaf, this is Mason’s Bay and we—crackle—elp, over! Repeat, we crackle immediate cracklecracklecrackle.”

Oh fuck, there they were. Their signal was being bounced off something else that might move at any time, shit—he needed new angles fast. Kieron set the program to work triangulating the signal’s path while he still had the mystery object to bounce it off of. A moment later, their location came in.

They seemed to be drifting about fifty thousand kilometers away, a short hop in his ship, the Daring Do. Unfortunately, they were on path to drift straight out of the shadow of Big Momma and into the direct radiation of the quasar. Kieron estimated they had less than fifteen minutes of shade left before they started to bake. Literally.

“Dave!” he shouted, sending the route directly to his implant before he jumped out of the chair. “Get in here!”

No one replied.

“Dave!” The com should have automatically picked up his request and relayed it. If Dave had turned his implant to mute again so he could listen to music on his retro headphones, Kieron was going to murder him. He ran out into the hall and almost directly into his assistant, who had a plate stacked high with food in one hand and a tall, frosty shake of some kind in the other.

“Hey! I was just heading for—”

“Get in there,” Kieron said, hustling Dave toward the control panel and sitting him down. He took the food and drink out of the man’s hands and laid it all on the table behind them—now was not the time for another spill in the command center, the last had been bad enough. “The Masons are in bad shape. Let me out of the bay and then track me, I’m going after them.”

“But…um…”

“Track me and stand by to help!” Kieron rushed toward the docking bay before Dave could say another word.

He had only minutes to save lives, and none to waste by taking one right now.

Upcoming Stories

 Hey there darlins!

So, no new blog story here yet--that'll probably start next week. While eventually I plan to pick up in the Bonded Universe where I left off with out heroes, and to do a fourth and final book for the Train series as well, for now I'm pretty sure I'm going off the rails into a Bonded-Universe-But-New/Side-Character setup. There's going to be a space station, a spacial anomaly, a plot for revenge and a plot to be just left alone, for the love of space, leave me alone. But will our hero be left alone to pine in peace? No, no he will not.

I hope it'll be fun! Thanks for sticking with me, babes.

Rivalries: Chapter Twenty-Six, Part Two

 Notes: This is, yeah, it. The end. Holy whoa, Batman!

There might be some round-up posts for future scenarios to provide closure, but I think this is the best I can do right now. Rivalries was a challenging story, and taught me a few things (mostly about planning out subplots) but I'm glad I wrote it, and I love that you stuck with me for it. Thank you so much for reading, for commenting, and for helping keep me motivated. I love y'all.

I've got an idea for the next story, but I'm not a hundred percent sold on it yet. I'm definitely taking ideas, if you want to throw some at me in the comments ;)

Thanks again, darlins. You make this blog worthwhile for me.

Title: Rivalries: Chapter Twenty-Six, Part Two

***

Chapter Twenty Six, Part Two

 

Before Charlie, John would never have thought he was the kind of person who could do slow and steady. He was too impatient, too ready to jump into the next thing, to prepared to force it instead of letting it grow on its own. In his professional life, that was often a good thing—he tried not to push his kids too hard, but he sure as hell could push their teachers, their guardians, and the court system to give them as much support as they needed. It was one of his selling points, he thought.

But in his personal life—what little personal life he’d managed to have over the years—his need to push had led to lovers feeling rushed, or railroaded, or like they were a means to an end. Eventually it had been easier to focus on his career and let the personal stuff slip to the side, something to pick up later if he had time but not to stress over.

With Charlie, though, everything was different. John knew going in that he couldn’t rush certain things with Charlie—apart from the logistical difficulties of having one arm and the breakthrough pain Charlie sometimes suffered, he was unexpectedly…romantic. He wanted to savor, he wanted to take his time, and John wanted to give Charlie what he wanted. In this case, that meant going home, stripping slowly in the sun-striped shade of Charlie’s bedroom, lying back in bed and letting Charlie touch every inch of John’s body, turning him on and winding him up until he was gasping and trembling with need.

There was no way he could have made the blowjob last by the time Charlie put his mouth on John’s cock, but he tried. For about a minute, he tried, and then his ability to try faded away in the wake of the feel of Charlie’s warm, wet lips, his hand pumping the base of John’s cock as he sucked, the little sounds he made when the tip of John’s cock touched the back of his throat. Nobody could have lasted through that, and John was past caring to try.

He came, and the world went fuzzy with warmth and pleasure. Fatigue galloped in right on the heels of that, and he was barely aware of Charlie moving up his body, nestling between John’s thighs, and grinding until he came across John’s groin.

“Fuck, oh fuck,” Charlie groaned.

“Mmm,” John agreed. He wanted to say something else—anything else, really, wanted to be there for Charlie like he’d been there for John, but he hadn’t slept in more than twenty-four hours, and for most of that he’d been worried about going to prison for the foreseeable future. He’d been marinating in anxiety and stress, and for it to almost all be gone so suddenly was more than his brain could handle.

He fell asleep.

 

When he woke up hours later, he felt like a little bit of an idiot. He would have felt like more of an idiot if Charlie wasn’t spooned up behind him, holding him like he never wanted to let John go.

“You awake?” John whispered. If Charlie was asleep, he was going to let him stay asleep.

“No,” Charlie whispered back. “Just thinking.”

“About what?”

“You.”

John’s cheeks heated up. “Oh yeah?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Anything in particular?”

“Mostly about how much I love you.”

John knew his face was completely red at this point, but it wasn’t like Charlie could see it from behind.

“And about how much you scare me,” Charlie added, and John felt some of his elation fade away. He tried to turn around, but Charlie had a tight grip. “No, please. It’s easier for me to talk about it this way.”

“Talk about what?”

“Feelings,” Charlie said with a long sigh, and John chuckled. “Exactly, it’s ridiculous, but just—humor me, okay?”

“Okay. So.” John wriggled back a little closer, until there was no space between them. “Why do I scare you?”

“Because it’s too easy for me to picture all the ways you could leave me.” He shushed John before he could rebut the point. “And most of the ways I think up aren’t voluntary ones on your part, that’s not the point. The point is, I never thought I’d have to worry about this kind of thing. Like, ever. I always thought if anyone was going to be leaving someone else behind, it would be me doing the leaving. I’d never have to deal with the fallout because I wouldn’t be there, and that would suck, but…eh, that was what I signed up for, you know?” He pressed a kiss to the back of John’s neck. “And then I fell for you, and I realized that your life is crazy complicated, and if you being Dr. Mullins’ science bitch doesn’t catch up with you—”

“Hey!”

“—then your own vigilantism might take you away from me—”

“That was one time!”

“—or you might get run over by a bus, or killed accidentally by a student having trouble with their knack, or catch a cold that turns into pneumonia that turns into something that can’t be treated, and it fucking scares the shit out of me, John.”

John wanted to make light of this, to brush it off, but he could tell that was real fear in Charlie’s voice. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said after a moment.

“Bullshit. Who knows what would have happened if Dr. Mullins hadn’t been able to help you?”

“Exactly, who knows? It might now have been so bad, but about that.” John forced the turn this time, and stared Charlie directly in his beautiful blue eyes. “What the hell were you thinking, making a deal with her? She’s the literal devil. She’ll never let you go now, not if she can help it.”

Charlie shrugged as well as he could from on his side. “Worth it.”

“No, not worth it, you dumbass!”

“You’re here,” Charlie pointed out. “With me. In bed. You think you would be if she hadn’t come riding to the rescue? If she hadn’t pushed your court-appointed jackass aside and taken control of the situation? The colonel was prepared to do almost anything for his wife, and Principal Cross had one of those thousand-dollars-an-hour lawyers. You did everything right, but you were still fucked, do you hear me? You were fucked, and not the fun way.”

“I had you,” John pointed out.

“Yeah, and I brought in her and she brought her A-game, so clearly I made the right call.”

“But I’m worried about you,” John confessed. “I’m worried about what she might ask of you. I don’t want her to hurt you, or make you do something that will hurt others, just because of a favor she did for me.”

“It would hurt me so much more not to be with you anymore,” Charlie said, and now his eyes were wet. “It would kill me not to see you every day. And it would be bad for your students and bad for your friends, so honestly, you’re not going to convince me I did something wrong, got it? You’re just…you’re not. I’d do it again. I’d fucking sign myself up for life if it meant the difference between you free and you in prison.”

There was nothing John could say, because he honestly felt the same way. That didn’t mean he had to like it, though. “She’s a snake. She’ll fuck with you. She’ll fuck with both of us.”

“At least we’ll be together for it.”

“Yeah.” Yeah, they would. John would make sure of that.

Was it too early to propose? It was too early to propose, and he didn’t have a ring right now anyway. He’d have to get one, soon. “Are the kids okay?” He should have asked sooner, but his brain had been a little preoccupied up to now.

“They’re fine,” Charlie confirmed, and John sighed with relief. “Roland is seeing another counselor, but his foster mom says he’s doing really well. He should be back at school next week. Ari is…like a normal kid, but with a knack now. Huda is thrilled.” His voice went a little dark. “Not so thrilled that Colonel Applegate is obsessed with him now, though. That might be permanent, unfortunately, but Ari won’t get into trouble for it. Not after the extenuating circumstances are taken into effect.”

“Good.” It was as good as John could hope for. After everything, he was happy to have a little hope left in his system. “So I guess we just go through life with a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads for a while, huh?”

“Something like that.” Charlie grinned, then leaned in and kissed him. “But it’s not so bad, is it? Being stuck in legal limbo with me.”

“No,” John said, totally in earnest. “It’s the best.”

It wasn’t everything he wanted in life, but it was more than he’d really ever hoped to get. For the first time in a long time, John had a future that he was looking forward to, not just day after day of grind stretching out in front of him. It would be hard, and frightening, and probably more than a little painful, but there was love there now. Love for Charlie, love from seeing his work pay off, love for a system that had finally come down on his side, however hard it had been to get that far.

Love would be enough.

Dauntless, yay!

 Hi darlins!

Never fear, Rivalries is still coming today, but I've also got a new release out--Dauntless! Dragons, their riders, the monsters they fight and the challenges they face, all packed into 130 exciting pages--and there's going to be a sequel too, probably in January, so heads-up on that ;) The prequel, Luckless, is still free on Amazon right now, so...lots going on!

***

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09CRZXD59

Evan Luck is a dragon rider who, after years of thinking he'd never bond  with another one, now has a dragon again. His empathic connection with  the powerful silver dragon Ladon, known in his human form as Lee  Caldwell, has made them the most valuable defenders of the city of Forge  against monstrous invaders. The fact that they love each other and dote  on Lee's ten-year-old son, Jason? Those are blessings Evan never saw  coming. He knows life is good...even as he realizes that the world is  becoming more dangerous by the day.

With monsters leaving the  mountains of the Front Range to roam the plains for food and the influx  of refugees to Forge increasing by the day, Evan has his hands more than  full defending the city and training new recruits to fight. When Jason,  desperate to bond with a dragon of his own but continually refused by  the dragons of Forge, begins to lose control of himself, Evan and Lee  make plans to do the unthinkable: leave Forge to fend for itself and  take their son to Chicago, the nearest human and dragon stronghold to  their own city.

But Chicago has its own terrors to deal with, and their last hope for Jason's future might be lost before they can save it.

Rivalries: Chapter Twenty-Six, Part One

 Notes: Back to John's POV, and now we really are winding down, my darlins. I figure I'll carry this through September, then start up the next story in October. Which will be set in the Bonded universe, but only loosely connected to previous characters, since I've got a LOT of editing to do as I get ready to release those books on the world.

Title: Rivalries: Chapter Twenty-Six, Part One

***

Chapter Twenty-Six, Part One

 

Seeing Dr. Mullins appear at the door of the interrogation room was jarring in a way John didn’t anticipate. He’d been expecting his lawyer, or someone else’s lawyer, or a cop who was finally going to take him off to a cell to wait instead of the “not-quite-a-cell” room he was in right now. Heck, if he’d been indulging his wildest dreams, he might have expected Charlie, stalwart in the face of endless, grinding bureaucracy, demanding to see John before he was dragged off to prison.

But Dr. Mullins? She just made him nervous. “What are you doing here?” he asked, sitting up a little straighter.

“Delivering the good news!” she said, not bothering to close the door behind her. “As of a few minutes ago, you’re officially a free man, John. The assault charges have been dropped.”

What? How? “You mean Mrs. Patterson is awake, then?”

“No. Her husband dropped them on her behalf. I’m pretty sure it’s all part of a ploy to get the judge to go lighter on her during sentencing, but—” She winked at him. “Can’t argue with the results, right?”

Had he fallen into some kind of alternate dimension? “Sentencing? What?”

“Oh, John. You seem half asleep. Do you need caffeine? A little jolt from the old cattle prod?” She chuckled at her own joke. “Yes, her sentencing. Reckless endangerment, criminal conspiracy, child abuse—the list goes on and on!”

“But…how?”

Dr. Mullins smiled. “I happened to have some pertinent information about Linda Patterson’s research. My meeting with her lawyer, and yours, went very well for you as a result.”

“But how did you even know to come and meet with our lawyers?” John sure as hell hadn’t called her. He didn’t even have his…

Phone.

Oh, no. “You talked to Charlie?”

“I sure did.”

Oh, no. “What did you make him give you?” John demanded, surging to his feet. “What did you make him do in exchange for your help?”

“John, John.” Dr. Mullins shook her head. “Where is all this suspicion coming from, hmm? When have I ever made anyone do anything that wasn’t explicitly agreed on?”

John gritted his teeth. She had a point. He might hate her methods, but he had signed up for them. “What did Charlie agree to for your help, then?”

“Nothing too dire,” she said soothingly. “I’m not going to start inviting him into the lab, if that’s what you’re thinking. He’s figured out a very nice workaround for his little knack difficulties, but it’s not quite novel enough for me to spend time on. No, John, I’m just going to be…hmm, holding an IOU from him for the moment. Something I might redeem on a rainy day if I figure out an experiment I do want to try out on him, or if I need help with a particular recruit, or something like that.”

“That’s unethical.”

“It’s perfectly ethical,” she replied, unconcerned. “Charlie was quite firm about leaving this future favor open-ended as long as it meant I brought the hammer down on the Pattersons and Principal Cross. Which I have, quite effectively.” She rubbed her hands together. “Heavens, this is the most fun I’ve had outside of a laboratory setting for years, it seems like! There’s nothing like putting the fear of science into people.”

The longer he knew her, the more disturbing Katherine Mullins became. “Let me take on the favor for him.”

She shook her head. “No, no, that wouldn’t be fair. He made the deal, so he’s going to honor it. Besides, he made it for you! Don’t negate his work on your behalf by taking that choice away from him.”

“He didn’t make it knowing enough facts!” John insisted. “He doesn’t know what you might make him do!”

“No, he doesn’t,” Katherine said. Her expression was serene. “But then, neither do I. That’s a problem for both of us in the future. For now, he’s just going to be happy that you’re all right, John.” She smiled and clasped her hands in front of her chest in an “aww” gesture. “And so am I! Not that I couldn’t have gotten special exemptions to make use of you if you had gotten prison time, but it’s nice I won’t have to.”

John swallowed. “You could have done that?”

“I swear, it’s like no one really reads the contracts these days,” she said with a sigh. “Let’s not go there. You’ve got a very anxious lover waiting for you out in front of the building. School is cancelled for the rest of the week. Charlie’s responsibilities with Ari are officially put on hold, possibly indefinitely. Sounds like a perfect recipe for some ‘alone time’ to me!”

“Ew.” Not what he wanted to hear out of Dr. Mullins’s mouth.

“Oh, don’t be a baby.” She stepped out of the way of the path to the door. “Go and rescue your man from the panic attack he’s building up to.”

“Thanks, Dr. Strangelove,” he muttered as he brushed past her. Her laughter followed him all the way down the hall and into the lobby of the police station, where…

No one tried to stop him. No one even bothered talking to him, just let him go like he hadn’t been cooling his heels and eating bad vending machine snacks for the past twelve hours waiting for something to get resolved so he could at least know where he stood. That was a fail on the part of his court-appointed lawyer, but he’d shout at the guy later. Right now, all John wanted was Charlie.

He was easy to find, too, pacing in front of a bench right outside the front door. He looked up as soon as John exited, and the worried lines in his face gave way to joy and relief.

The lecture John had been planning in his head died a quick death as he jogged forward into his boyfriend’s embrace.

Oh god, oh fuck. The trauma and pain of yesterday felt like a million miles away, yet now that the high of both their narrow escapes was wearing off, John realized just how lucky they had both been.

“Holy shit, you could have died yesterday.” Charlie could have died—could have been killed by that stupid, arrogant son of a bitch Applegate, and this would never have happened again. He’d never have held him again, never have pressed his face against Charlie’s shoulder and inhaled, feeling like his lungs were made of knives, as tears sprang to his eyes. “You could have died. In front of all of those kids, too, oh my god.”

“You were almost thrown into jail,” Charlie replied, his voice shaky. “Katherine Mullins is the scariest person I’ve ever met, I think, and I’ve met some really fucking scary people in my time, but I’m so glad she was able to help.”

John opened his mouth to revive the lecture, then shook his head. Later. He could be scared later, he could be angry and upset later. Right now he wanted to revel in the fact that both of them were alive, and safe, and together. Finally together.

“I love you,” John said. “And I really, really want to go back to your place right now. Is that okay?”

“Yeah. Shit, hang on.” Charlie let go for a moment to wipe the corners of his eyes before grabbing John’s hand. “It’s more than okay. Let’s go.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me for being there for you,” Charlie chided gently as he turned them toward a distant parking lot. “Don’t thank me for trying to help you. Never thank me for being in love with you, that’s all your fault anyway.”

And John would never, ever take it for granted.