Wings of Retribution (76 page)

Athenais sat down amidst the hooks, still staring out at the sunset beyond the ship.  She did not even flinch as a Warrior handcuffed her hand to the spine of the anchor.  Just her hand, Juno had patiently explained, so that she could fully experience the futility of trying to free herself.  After all, it was so much more depressing to be able to thrash against the anchor for the next seven millennia.  Being lashed to it without
any
wriggle-room, Juno had gone on, would get boring.

Another stepped in and gave her a long look, his brown eyes holding hers for a moment too long before he began winding rope around her body.  Regret, then?  At least
somebody
knew the kind of Karmic horseshit this was heaping on themselves. 
What goes around comes around, Juno.
  The woman was going to get hers.  In
spades
.

As she felt the rope tighten around her stomach, Athenais started thinking of her many different families, on many different planets.  Eventually, they all had died, and she’d returned again to the stars.  The stars were always constant.  Never changing, always right where she needed them to be—

Her attention snapped back to the moment when Juno slapped her.

“Don’t think I’m letting you zone out,” Juno said, squatting beside her, face on level with Athenais’s.  “After everything you’ve done, I’m not dropping you in until I see fear in your eyes.”

Like a sick child torturing a puppy,
Athenais realized.
  Are
all
of us this messed up? 
She glanced at the sunset again.  She decided maybe, but in different ways.  Marceau killed colonists for power and experimented on children.  Angus had established himself as the most feared planetary dictator in the Quads, happily taking in the rest of the Utopia’s rejects.  Rabbit had lain relatively low, but he also had that weird duality going on between reclusive monk and ruthless criminal overlord.  And, for her own part, while Athenais certainly had no desires to rule a planet of misled morons in the guise of a patron deity, she had probably killed, all-told, several billion people, if her wartime pursuits with the rebels were taken into account.  After all, Utopian carriers held a
lot
of people, not just the hundreds of thousands of fighters that couldn’t be allowed to leave dock in a war-zone.  Between her seven thousand years of bombing-runs, piracy, and sabotage, Athenais wouldn’t be surprised if she had ended a planet or two worth of lives.  It had come to the point where killing no longer bothered her.  Did that make her like the rest of them?

“We can take all the time you need for this to ‘sink in,’ so to speak,” Juno said, grinning smugly at her own pun.  When Athenais didn’t react, Dr. Berg’s smile faded a bit and her eyes darkened.  “Or perhaps we should let you dangle in the water an hour or two before cutting you loose?  Perhaps you need a taste of what’s to come, to really get into the spirit of things?”

I hate her,
Athenais realized.  Until now, only her father had earned that cherished place in her brain.  Not even Angus, when he’d been removing body-parts, had won her hatred.  Yet this woman, with her cruelty, her conceit, her vain self-importance…  It was triggering all the right buttons in her, sending that overwhelming surge of loathing up through her system, like a nasty oil eating at her heart.  The fact that Juno had had complete control over an entire planet for millennia left Athenais with at sick feeling in her stomach.

“If you’re waiting for something, you might as well take us back,” Athenais said.  “Otherwise, we’re gonna be here a long time.”

Juno was silent a moment, staring into her eyes. 

The Warrior finished tying the knots—well out of reach of her one free hand—and gave a slight tug to make sure they were secure.  Athenais felt her gut twinge again before she hid it.

But Juno had caught it.  The woman smiled slowly, lips curving in malignant glee.  “No, it’s there.  You’re
terrified
.”

Thoughts of cold, crushing blackness flashed through Athenais’s mind and she looked away.

Juno stood up and ruffled her hair.  “There we go.  All right!  Get this thing moving!  I want it overboard in thirty seconds!”  She lowered her voice and glanced at Athenais.  “Before my friend, here, has a chance to find that little box she keeps stuffing herself into.  Right, Athenais?”  Her brow crinkled with a slight frown.  “Then again, I suppose you spacer-types might use a canister to compartmentalize, instead.”  Sneering with delight, Juno said, “You’ll probably get better use out of it, anyway.  Canisters are better under pressure.”  She patted Athenais’s head.  “Lots and lots of pressure.”

Athenais closed her eyes as the crane began to hoist, jerking the anchor under her.  The crane groaned as it took the anchor’s weight, then Athenais was swinging above the deck, at eye level with Juno.  Then she was being hoisted higher, lifted over the gunwales of the ship. 

Athenais glanced down, watching the deck of the ship swing out from under her.  Her heart began to pound in her chest and she gripped the anchor to keep her hands from shaking.

“Enjoy your vacation to Hell,” Juno said, her eyes soaking it up like a malicious child.

Athenais looked straight at her.  “
Deep
space, Juno.  I’ll pack a few extra cores, just for you.”

Juno frowned.  “Cut it loose.”

Athenais reflexively sucked in a breath.  In the next instant, she was falling.  She hit the water with such force that she was torn from her seat and upended, being dragged downward by her wrist. 

…torn from her
seat?
  The ropes had given way?

Ragnar!
Athenais thought, stunned.

But water was whipping around her body, filling her ears with a liquid roar and thrashing her back and forth like a ribbon in the wind.  Frantically, she jerked on the handcuff, twisting at it despite the fact she knew the metal rings were solid.  She could feel the pressure increasing as the anchor pulled her under.  Already, her ears were screaming, threatening to burst.  The cuff remained securely in place.

Athenais closed her eyes and stopped struggling.  She was moving too fast to get her feet on the anchor and she was using up her air.  Ridiculous, she knew, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to suck in a lungful of water and end it quickly.  Already, the pressure was intense.  She felt her ears pop and strain, the water grow colder. 

Something slammed into her in the darkness.  The force of it jerked her to the side, nearly tearing her arm from its socket.  Spikes of pain lanced through her leg, startling her into releasing the rest of her precious air in a scream.  Something was attached to her ankle, piercing her skin with sharp teeth.

Not being able to
see
made it worse.  Athenais kicked out, trying to get the thing off of her.  Whatever it was grabbed her other leg in an equally painful grip and began pulling itself toward her main body.  She felt the teeth release her calf and take hold again in her thigh. 

Athenais’s lungs were beginning to pulverize her ribcage with the need for air.  Water was rushing into her ears, pushed inside from the enormous pressure around her.

Whatever it was didn’t have the decency to eat her.  Instead, it dragged itself down her body, successively biting and pulling, biting and pulling.  When it reached her shoulder, it latched onto the arm attached to the anchor.

Inwardly, in an oxygen-starved haze, Athenais laughed.  The stupid beast didn’t even have the brains to let go of her.  Like a fish brought to the surface because it wouldn’t let go of the bobber, this unfortunate little predator was going to share her fate.

And then the thing bit down hard enough to crush bones.

Athenais sucked cold water into her lungs in an attempt to scream.  As she struggled, the thing started shaking, tearing muscles and tendons loose.  Then she was free, the water coming to a rushing halt around her.  She felt warm blood flooding from her arm into the ocean around her, felt the blood-heated water hit her face, but forgot that when the beast used its grip on her missing arm to drag her toward the surface.

“I’m sorry about your arm, human.  I didn’t have time to save more of it.  We were getting too deep.”

Despite the fact they were under the water, Athenais heard the voice as clear as if she were on dry land.  A rush of giddy relief washed over her.  It was Taal! 

As she was losing consciousness, Athenais thought,
Maybe I’ll take him into space, after all.

Juno was watching the last corner of the sun disappear beneath the waves when she saw the splash behind them.  Squinting, she shielded her eyes with her hand and peered at the orange, dusk-tinted sea.  Then she lowered her hand, cold fury building in her stomach.

“Stop the ship,” she said.  “Someone get me a rifle.”

As the sailors furled the sails, a Warrior obediently handed her his gun.  Juno brought it up, sighted, and fired.

The ocean exploded in a froth of red.

“Turn us around,” Juno said, handing the gun back to the Warrior.

By the Warlit Sky...

Athenais woke on the deck of a ship.  Her shoulder had stopped bleeding and the beginning of a new arm was already beginning to form.

“How’d you do it?” Juno said.

“Do what?”  Athenais pushed herself up with one hand, her heart sinking. 
Where was Taal?
 

“Floaters.  You made friends with floaters.  Who the hell makes friends with
floaters
?!  They
hate
humans!  They have
never helped humans
!”  Juno actually stomped her foot as she screamed the last, shoving her fists against her sides in impotent, infantile rage.  Athenais thought it was funny. 

Smiling, she said, “I just promised to take him to the stars.”

Juno stared.  Then she burst out laughing.  “And he
believed
you?!  A pirate?”

Athenais prickled.  “I gave him my word.” 

“
So
?” Juno sneered.  “Surely a mind-reader would’ve known that you were never planning on taking him anywhere.”