Wings of Retribution Read Free

had morphed and evolved over the years, cycling through all the possible variants until it had settled firmly on ‘good friends,’ and it was that stability that kept Athenais sane.
    Too much had changed over the last seven thousand years.  Things crumbled, people died, stars imploded.  Only beer, sex, and Rabbit remained the same.
    “Naw,” Giggles finally said, “But Rabbit ain’t gonna like it.”
    “What are you talking about?”  Athenais said.  “Rabbit loves to see me drunk.  It’s the only way he can win at dice.”  She waited as Giggles reluctantly scanned her credit coin, then grabbed the three tankards of beer he slid under the glass.
    “Sit down, fellahs,” Athenais suggested as she went back to her table.  She set the tankards down on the stained wooden table and returned to her seat.  “What brings you to T-9?”
    She caught the quick flicker of their eyes, as well as the leader’s slight nod.  She pretended not to notice.
    “We’re looking to join the Utopia,” the biggest one said as he sat beside her.  Half of his face was smothered in a thick brown beard and his spacer outfit creaked from the strain his huge muscles were putting on it.  Despite the roughness of his dress, however, he was clean and did not carry the overpowering stench of most males who worked in space.  Not even his breath was very offensive.  “I’m Morgan.  The guy missing a digit is Paul and the skinny one’s Stuart.”
    ‘Skinny,’ in this case, was relative.  As the three of them took seats at her table, Athenais gave them a quick perusal.  Whereas the yellow-eye looked like something belonging in an Erriatian Death Squad, the smallest of the three resembled some sort of fishing bird.  He had a hooked nose attached to a perfectly spherical head.  Combined with his long neck and lean frame, he looked a lot like a stork on steroids.  Though he was easily bigger than any other man in the room other than his two companions, he didn’t look like he belonged with the three colonists.  He seemed somewhat out of place.  Like an observer in someone else’s show.
    Athenais shoved their beers at them.  “Even if you were dumb enough to steal a Utopian vessel and joyride off-planet, you’re not that stupid.  Colonists can’t join the Utopia.  You three can get executed just for being here.”
    “Oh yes.”  The big, bearded man beside her gave a rumbling chuckle. 
    Of the three of them, Athenais was most intrigued by the man with the stark yellow eyes.  She couldn’t shake the feeling she knew him from somewhere, but she’d never forget eyes like that.  And, though was easy for Utopis to change their eye color, colonists usually did not have that luxury.
    “Stealing a ship was necessary,” Paul said.  “It was the only way to get free.”
    “So you are colonists.  Walking around the Utopia.  In broad daylight.”  Athenais was impressed.  “You three have some brass balls, I’ll give you that.  What colony you from?”
    “Penoi,” the bearded man told her. 
    Athenais glanced from one to the other, trying to decide if he was serious.  She had been born on Millennium, Penoi’s tropical moon.  Though she’d never visited Penoi, she had seen its deep blue and green landscape every time she went out of doors in her childhood.  What surprised her was that her father was the Overseer of Penoi and he had not let a colonist escape in over seven thousand years at his post.
    She glanced at the yellow-eye.  “And you?”
    “Paul’s different,” the storkish one muttered into his beer.  Beside her, Morgan stiffened, then covered it up by running a hand through his beard.
    Athenais lifted a brow at the leader.  “Different how?”
    “What he means is—” Morgan began.
    “What he means is this,” Paul said, holding up the hand that was missing his pinkie finger.  He set it down on the table between them, shielding it from the rest of the tavern with his beer.  Both Morgan