Dukerino

Princess of the Void vol 2 ePub

Hello wonderful patrons! Now that Volume 2 is complete on scribblehub I'm posting it here as an ePub.

The usual caveats apply—this is an automated file so there could be hella formatting glitches, et cetera. But for those of you who'd prefer an offline ebook version of the story as it appears on scribblehub, here ya go.

There might be future versions of this volume with further edits and changes, if I ever end up putting my stuff up for sale.

Thank you all for your patrona...

Princess of the Void ch 48 - Take Me Home

But when they arrive on the command deck, a debriefing isn’t what awaits them.

Sykora’s brow furrows as she sees the yellow light shining over the door. They step through and suddenly there’s a muffling silence, like they’ve entered a noise-proofed room. The Princess ahems. “Why is there a dampener on in here? What is this?” She squints at the scratchy feed that her command group has pulled up on the monitor. “Are we not debriefing?”

“Majesty. We’re borrowing t...

Princess of the Void ch 47 - Bow

This is the first bit of a chapter that stretched long enough it's becoming two chapters. There's gonna be a lot of shuffling in this part, I think. Ch 48 will probably be arriving later today.

I'd also like to take a moment to let all my new members know that these are uncorrected first drafts. You can call mistakes out in the comments--I'm grateful for it!--but I post these things before proofreading them thoroughly, and there will be changes and expansions as they're posted to Scribb...

The Love Song of Jaxy & Meena pt 1 - New Girl

There are days that Ajax of the Black Pike thinks that his life couldn’t get any better. Days in the morning mess, surrounded by friends and comrades. Lifting in the bleeding-edge gym, shooting the shit with the other NCOs, the gravity field machines, the hardlight sparring targets. Standing guard outside the command deck, at a parade rest that’s become more comfortable for him than a warm bath. Gazing into the swirling firmament, thinking, this is you, Ajax. You were supposed to be a hou...

Princess of the Void ch 46 - Listening Post

Grant follows his wife—now in a form-fitting tank top and her promised itty-bitty shorts, both in scarlet—out of the lift, and along the curving ring of the hab level to the rec center. Every Taiikari they pass stops their chatter or their tasks to acknowledge her somehow. Navy marines set aside their hand carts and snap salutes. Civilians and specialists pause their gossip and consultations to issue waist-deep bows and calls of “Majesty.”

He’s already unnerved by the “sire�...

Princess of the Void ch 45 - Lesson One

Ajax’s inexpressive anticomp plate swivels up to him. “Now, sire?”

“Why not?” Grant fans himself with the lip of his shirt. “I’m warmed up.”

Ajax is still for a few seconds. “All right,” he concludes. He circles away from Grant and points at a spot on the practice room floor. “Take your mark right there. We’ll do lesson one.”

Grant stands at the indicated point and widens his stance.

“Lesson one. I’m gonna come at you. First thing you want...

Sykora in high res

Hello, merciful patrons. For your viewing pleasure today: The Princess of the Black Pike, in full res and sans book title.

I'm looking around now for an artist to do volume 2's cover. This commission was funded with your generous contributions--you have my sincere thanks for that.

BTW I think it's funny that prospective readers won't know until they crack the cover the significance of how big and pointy her horns are on it.

Princess of the Void ch 44 - Prince

Grant takes a beat to let Vora’s suggestion breathe in his mind. “We aren’t gonna pretend I’m the one running the show. Right?”

“Not the whole show, sire,” Vora says. “But as a Prince rather than a Prince Consort, you’d be the second-most powerful person on the vessel. Your words would carry weight second only to Sykora.”

“We’d be pretending, though,” Waian says. “To be clear.”

Vora nods. “It shouldn’t be difficult to fool them. The...

Princess of the Void ch 43 - Javelin

Grant releases his javelin. It flies from their balconied booth, shivers pitifully in the air and sinks shallowly into the turf, just inside the widest pale ring chalked into the scarlet grass. “It’s the spin,” he says. “I have to figure out how to make it spin.”

“It’s all in the release off the fingers, sire,” Tikani says.

“Sergeant, I can tell you’re vibrating under that visor.” Grant wipes his palms on his tunic. “Thank you for your forebearance.”

Princess of the Void ch 42 - Toothbrush

“I am going to conference with my husband now,” Sykora says, with gunmetal calm. “One moment.”

Vora can't hide the anxiety in her voice. “Yes, Majesty.”

“Grant, dove.” Sykora’s grip is claw-tight on his arm. “Would you kindly press that mute for me? You have the wingspan to reach it.”

Grant leans over to the console by their window into the firmament and pushes the red mute button.

Sykora flips onto her stomach and screams into a pillow. She throw...

Princess of the Void Ch 41 - Eqtora

“All right, gals.” Waian's voice emerges from the speakers wired to her console. She’s doing that weird metal-hand connection thing again, to better control the deck's subsystems; her fleshy body’s mouth doesn’t move. “Meet the Eqtorans.”

The holoprojector on the command deck’s table flares to light.

In the flickering holofield, a humanoid shape forms from the base up. A woman, Grant realizes, sleek and muscular. Or shaped like a woman, at least, in a way that brin...

Princess of the Void ch 40 - floor position

Smell that? That new-volume smell? Welcome to the third tale of the Taiikari empire, gang. Oooh am I excited for this volume. It's going to be a lot of fun, I hope.

You're going to notice a bit of recap here and there in this chapter. My goal there is to let people start at later volumes and not be totally lost.

Grant Hyde—Grantyde, Prince Consort of the Black Pike, as the Taiikari call him—kneels before the Princess of the Black Pike. His kneepad plants on the arena fl...

Princess of the Void ch 39 - Look Into My Eyes

Grant exhales as Sykora pushes the plunger.

“There we go,” she says. “It’s supposed to start immediately.” A teal drop beads at the tip of the empty applicator. She sets it on the nightstand.

Outside their suite’s picture window, the golden sky of Ramex has dulled to a deep burnished bronze in the evening. Pillar candles sit on the furniture and the bedside. A bubbling warm-jet bath of sabsum, ready and waiting, fills the room with its paradisiac scent. Low ambient ton...

Princess of the Void - quick opinion poll while I outline volume 3 [spoilers]

Hello folks. Here there be SPOILERS for those of you who aren’t caught up on the advance chapters.

And probably spoilers for the future of Princess of the Void as well, although it’s nothing you haven’t already guessed.

Okay so! We've got a free Grant, but he's still not content. His next big goal is in sight. He wants little blue babies.

My intention is to continue the story, and the romance between him and Sykora, through that whole biz. As in: not kids during...

Princess of the Void ch 38 - Protestation

“Crew of the Black Pike.”

Sykora stands at the command deck’s balustraded edge. Her voice booms out across the sweep-lit bridge. “Once again, we’ve been tasked with driving the Yellow Comets from above Ramex. Once again, we are en route in the Empress’s name to defend her subjects. But our remit has changed. As have our methods.”

A nearly palpable shift in the air as a hunter’s anticipation ripples through the assembled Taiikari officers. Grant feels it rising in h...

Princess of the Void ch 37 - sister

The Marquis Consort’s mind ventilates out the side of his skull in a chunky mist of red and pink.

Paxea shrieks like a banshee and leaps for Grant’s outstretched gun. Grant swings it around too slow. Her tail lashes around his arm and pinions it straight, bashing his elbow again and again into the floor and sending gray numbness into his gripping fingers. He thrashes his head to avoid her bared fangs. They slide around his Adam’s Apple and tighten. She is about to rip his throat o...

Princess of the Void ch 36 - Why

The shuttle spirals onto the carefully manicured yard before Narika’s borrowed bungalow. It’s an incautious landing that sets several small fires on the turf and cracks the concrete.

Sykora strides from the bay door before it’s even finished opening, still sheathed in her vac suit. Paxea hops from the driver’s seat and takes up position at her shoulder. Despite his much longer legs, Grant has to hurry after them.

A Taiikari man in a full-coverage anticomp visor and black t...

Princess of the Void ch 35 - Trimond West

“Countess.” Sykora buckles her pistol to her hip. “I regret I couldn’t try Tikani’s coffee. I have to go.”

Wenzai rummages on an overcrowded kitchen counter. “I figured as much.” She pulls a silvery bullet-shaped thermos from Tikani's chaotic coffee rig. “That’s why we’ve got a thermos for you.”

She holds it out to Sykora, who passes it into Grant’s hands. “Thank you, Countess,” she says. “The fortification is appreciated.”

Wenzai bows to Sy...

Big things coming 👀

Just a sketch still, and just a lil' piece of it.

But in celebration of our 300 reader milestone over on scribblehub, I thought you all might want an early sneak peek at the Princess of the Void volume 1 cover.

I wonder whose big blue thighs those are...

Princess of the Void ch 34 - Friends

“This amrita is just gorgeous.” Wenzai takes a deep sniff of her glass. “Is this a Pakkar 60?”

Paxea beams. “You know your spirits.” The Marquess has arrived late to join them for dinner.

“I do hope Thror’s on the road to recovery.” Tikani holds a hand up. “Kroie, could you pour me one?”

Their servant, a mustard-suited young man, gives a low bow and fills Tikani’s glass with viscous blue amrita. This is the first male servant Grant’s seen who’s we...

Princess of the Void ch 33 - Kids

“So how did it compare, sire?” Tikani sips his ale. “Skimmers to interceptors.”

“I think I’m staying an interceptor guy,” Grant says. “I’m too used to being able to stick to whatever orientation I want indefinitely. Gravity is a drag, no pun intended.”

They’re drinking together on a grassy bluff overlooking the Wenzai estate’s artificial cliff edge. It’s one of a few opulent homes within a repulsorcraft bubble above the rolling, sulfurous clouds of Ptolek...

Princess of the Void ch 32 - Treason

The silence stretches following Sykora’s pronouncement.

When the Baroness finally speaks, her words are tight and strained with anger. “You’re bluffing.”

“I have evidence of your treason,” Sykora says. “Treason not only to the Empire and the Empress but to me. Me, you mad bitch. Did you think I’d allow that? It will take a little time to prove, but I’m confident I will. Confident enough to accuse you. And your daughter, I’m afraid, faithful de...

Princess of the Void ch 31 - Breach

The breach pod drops from sweep with a fizzing splash of radiance that smears the firmament like pastel. Its corkscrew sail, sprouted from its prow like a unicorn horn, folds and rebounds into its bulk as it coasts on mad momentum into Viscountess Lorimare’s voidliner.

The PD membranes of both vessels splash like paperwhite pyrotechnics; the pod’s, concentrated as it was to the prow like a battering ram, stays in one piece. The liner membrane cracks like an eggshell, shattering out ...

Princess of the Void ch 30 - Dumplings

“Thank you for your patience, ladies.” Sykora strides onto the deck. Her command group rises to their feet (except for Waian, who’s texting someone). “The Prince Consort and I had an emergency we needed to address.”

“I banged my head on the door,” Grant adds.

Hyax smirks. “We can tell, Prince Consort.”

“Hellfire. Poor Grantyde.” Waian looks up from her tablet and tuts. “Looks like you have a damn acorn buried in there.”

“Apparently Maekyonit...

Princess of the Void vol 1 ePub

Hey folks!

The first volume of Princess of the Void is now finished on scribblehub, so here's an ePub version of it for your offline reading pleasure.

Usual terms apply--this was automatically converted so there might be big glitches.

Princess of the Void ch 29 - Bump

Sykora cracks the cap on an oblong water bottle from the break room’s pill-shaped fridge. “I won’t waste anyone’s time. An individual in my skybox was compelled into an attempt on the life of Azkaii Trimond. I’m now firmly convinced that the deaths within the Trimond clan are assassinations, and have been for some time. I want to know how much both of you were aware of this.”

Glowering silence from her interviewees.

“Don’t stand on ceremony, now,” Sykora says. �...

Princess of the Void ch 28 - patches

Grant slams into Thror’s chest. The gun flies wide. A bright blue flash. A piercing scream. The human bears the smaller Amadari to the ground and slams him flat onto his back. Four sets of claws dig into him, his chest and his sides, and Grant hisses in pain as Thror twists the arm pinning the gun. He loses his grip and the pistol swings upward to Thror’s throat. The man’s face is a mask of terror. He’s about to blow his own head off.

Sykora’s tail yanks and the ...

Princess of the Void vol 3 direction poll

Hey folks!

Princess of the Void volume 2 is about 2/3rds finished at this point. I reckon I'll have it done by the middle of March.

I have a few ideas for where to go with volume 3 and would love to hear from you, my wonderful patrons, about which of these early-stem ideas sound most interesting to you. This one's multiple choice so don't be afraid to mark a few.

Princess of the Void ch 27 - cloudsprint

The thunderous roar of the engines and the crowd intermingles for only a moment as the skimmers streak away across the coral sky. Then a dozen dueling soundtracks kick back in from the raucous underclass celebrations. The upper half of the skybox window has become a readout of progress and positions, with a rotating view of the skimmers as they tear through the clouds, darting around one another and the derelict industrial exo rings through which they fly.

A rippling chorus of oohs<...