Wings of Retribution (22 page)

Now
there’s
a kid who’s got soul,
Athenais thought. 
Too bad she’s got as much brainpower as a chimpanzee.
  Sighing, “She got me into this mess by spilling my secrets.  I don’t take people on
Beetle
that can’t keep secrets.”

Pete flushed.  “Guess that marks me off the list, then.”

The thought that the no-name kid with the droopy face and hand tremor could replace Fairy was laughable, but Athenais owed him for telling her about the
suzait
.  For that, she resisted the urge to laugh in his face.  “No,” she said, “I’m talking about people keeping
my
secrets.  The little twit went and overheard my conversation with Ragnar, so she ran off to tell Smallfoot.  She’s lucky I don’t dump her in space.”

Pete glanced at Athenais.  “She stayed with you, didn’t she?”

“She was stupid.”

“She’s loyal.  You can’t buy something like that.”

“Yes you can,” Athenais snorted.

He raised an eyebrow.  “Until someone with a bigger wad comes along.”

“
I’ve
got the biggest wad.”

“For now.”

“Listen, kid, I’m one of the five oldest critters in the known galaxy.  I’ve got my stashes, okay?”

“What about that Rabbit fellah?” the redhead asked.  “The way he just went onto the first ship at dock and bought the power core from its captain, no questions asked, kinda made me feel like the guy is made of money.”

Irritated, Athenais said, “So she had a brief episode of guilt.  She still almost got us all killed.”

“But you can bet she won’t make the same mistake twice.”  He grinned and tapped his ear.  “Learning’s a bitch.”

Athenais narrowed her eyes at him.  “Who the hell are you to take her side?  You don’t even know her, and you’re already acting like you’re part of my crew!”

Pete shrugged and went back to his screen.

“Rabbit hired you, didn’t he?”  She cursed and slammed her fist into the console.  “I
knew
that romantic little twit was up to something.  Never has had the heart to kill what needs killing.”

Pete snorted.  “They brought me along ‘cause Stuart wouldn’t let Rabbit kill me like he wanted.”

The room fell silent again.

“So you really had a
suzait
in your head?”

Pete shrugged.  “Only for a day.  Kind of like watching a vid.”

Athenais shuddered.  “It’s horrible.”

Pete gave her a surprised look.  “You, too?”

“Prolly why the meddling little twerp didn’t tell me about the worm.”

“Oh?”

“Long time ago,” Athenais winced, remembering.  “Before S.O. really got in gear and started wiping them out.  One of my buyers turned on me.  Sold me to a
suzait
colony.  Lived with that bastard for nineteen years before a head injury shocked him long enough for me to blow him away.”

Pete raised an eyebrow and she watched his gaze trail over her skull, obviously trying to locate the exit wound.  “Uh…  Sounds painful.”

“It was.”

Clearing his throat, Pete said, “
Suzait colony
?  Sounds a little…disturbing.”

Athenais snorted.  “Tell me about it.”  She sighed, making a slight course adjustment.  “There were a bunch, long time ago.  Right after Marceau signed the One Species charter and the S.O. killed off the
harra
.  Turns out, humans are just as good a host as a goddamn spidery lookin’ thing.”

“
Harra
?” Pete said, his slurry tongue stumbling around the foreign word.

Athenais shrugged.  “Critters the
suzait
used before humans.  Almost exclusively, I might add.  Then when the S.O. started wiping ‘em all out, the worms decided humans looked tasty, after all, and then we had a war on our hands.  Almost lost it, too.  Hell, haven’t really won it yet, either.  There were colonies all over the four quadrants, and even more in the Black.  No way they coulda gotten them all.”  She glanced at Pete, then at the doorway where she had last seen the parasite.  “As evidenced.”

Pete gave her an odd look.  “Just how old
are
you?”

“A little over seven.”

He blinked.  “Hundred?”

“Thousand.”

Pete stared at her.  He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

“Cap’in, you just about bashed my head in on that last run.  What’s chasin’ us?”

Goat was standing in the doorway, holding his matted scalp.  The smell was already filling the control room, making Pete flinch.  Athenais was used to it by now, so she ignored it.

“Just avoiding debris.  The rest of them awake yet?”

Goat groaned.  “The other three ain’t got any tolerance for the green.  Who’s that?”  He frowned at Pete and dragged a hand across his face.

“Came in with Rabbit,” Athenais said, grateful to see her navigator.  “Come take his spot.  He’s been needing to use the regen room.”

Goat stumbled over to the controls and Pete released them reluctantly, giving Goat an apprehensive glance as he sat down.

Pete hovered behind Goat’s seat for several minutes before the weeder turned on him and said, “Git.  Go do your business and leave me to mine.”

Pete gave them a confused look.  “You’ll just let me go?  By myself?  Who’s gonna make sure I don’t steal a gun and take over the ship?”

“Speaking of that,” Athenais said, twisting to gesture at the hall, “I got another pistol in my room, under my bed.  First door on the right.  If you could grab it for me on the way back, that’d be great.”

As the baffled-looking corporal turned to go, Goat added, “And if you see Squirrel, tell her to get in here and fix the wiring.  It’s as cold as a witch’s tit in here.”

“That’s the tanga-weed,” Athenais said.

Goat shrugged.

“Which one’s Squirrel?” Pete asked.

“The one wearing half a set of overalls,” Goat said. 

“Okay,” Pete said.  Hesitating at the door, he stepped into the hall and disappeared.

“
Overalls
?” Athenais demanded, glancing at her friend.

“You think that’s funny, she and Dune swapped some stuff, somewhere along the line.  He ended up wearing a boa.”

Athenais groaned.  “The pink one.”

Goat swiveled to look at her, surprise in his face.  “How’d you know?”

Athenais resisted the urge to imprint the front of her face into her console.  Before she could help herself, she said, “Just hope Fairy doesn’t have access to a camera, or those two’ll never hear the end of it.”  Then, realizing what she’d said, Athenais went silent.

After a moment, Goat offered, “Annoying twit kinda became part of the family, din’ she?  Shame ta cut ‘er loose.”

Athenais’s brow furrowed and she scowled at her debris grid.

“Gotta admit, Cap,” he continued gingerly.  “If she’d had it out for us, she’da just turned us in to the Utopis herself.”

Athenais grunted.  “Leave it alone.  I’ve decided.”

Goat shrugged and focused on the grid.

Squirrel came in to the command room several minutes later.  She looked more than a little stoned, her normally well-styled hair tussled and frizzy.  She was, indeed, wearing
half
a pair of overalls.  The top half.  Apparently, Dune’s outfit had been too short for Squirrel, so they’d made a few modifications.  With a knife, by the looks of it.  For bottoms, she was wearing a pair of men’s underwear and grease-stained boots that were much too big for her.

“Hey, there’s a guy on the ship who told me you needed some wiring done.”  She peered at Goat and Athenais.  “Am I dead already?”

“Nope.”

She glanced down at her garb and her delicate brow crinkled in a frown.  “Dreaming?”

“You wish,” Athenais laughed.

Squirrel pinched the overly-huge chest of the filthy overalls between thumb and forefinger and lifted it away from her breasts for inspection.  “Oh gods,” she muttered, dropping it.  Slapping a hand to the side of her head, she gapsed, “He’s got my watersilk gown!” 

Squirrel had already half-turned back to the hallway when Athenais said, “Fix that rat’s-nest first.  Someone could electrocute themselves.”

“But Captain—” Squirrel began.

“Perils of tanga-weed,” Athenais said. 

“Besides, it’s probably already covered in engine oil,” Goat added.  “Dune spent some time tinkering with his buggy after you passed out.”

“That was a ten-thousand-credit dress!” Squirrel groaned, clearly wanting to rush back to the engine room to save it.

“Fix the wiring first,” Athenais said.

Muttering, Squirrel turned to the wiring panel that she had ripped out to set up com.  She pulled up a chair and went to work unraveling the mess. 

Halfway into it, she said between a mouthful of wires, “You know, Captain, Fairy meant well.”

“Enough about Fairy,” Athenais snarled.  “She’ll be getting off my ship just as soon as we get to Terra-9, and I’ll be finding someone to replace her.”

Squirrel finished her work in silence, then stood up and headed back to the common room.

Ten minutes later, Fairy stumbled into the control room, weaving.  “We’re dead, aren’t we?” she moaned.

“Take the stick,” Athenais ordered.  “Goat will fill you in.  I’m gonna go find out what the hell is taking Pete so long.”

“Pete?  Is he dead, too?”

Athenais peered at Dallas to make sure the little twit wasn’t still stoned, then stood up, leaving the controls unmanned.  Fairy yelped and hurried to the pilot’s seat, buckling herself in and taking up the stick with religious zeal. 

No matter what quadrant they were in, Fairy seemed perpetually ready for a twelve-hour dogfight.  Athenais watched her, amused, then caught herself and stalked from the room, irritated. 
Can’t keep her.  Too dangerous.

She found Pete down in the engine room, poring over Dune’s racing catalogues.  Both he and the mechanic looked up sheepishly when she came in.  A greasy blue dress hung neatly over a buggy frame.  Dune wore fresh overalls.

“Heya, Cap,” Dune said nervously, catching her glance at the gown.  “I, uh, was gonna give that back to Squirrel.  She, uh, left it down here…”

Athenais frowned.  “Wow, she must be gaining weight, wouldn’t you say??  That whole seam’s blown out, there.”  She reached down and touched the ragged threads.  Holding it up for Dune to see, Athenais gave him a shocked look and said, “Poor girl.  She’s
so
sensitive about her weight, too.  Keeps
such
a good figure.  Guess she’s starting to loosen up a bit in her older years, eh?”

Dune blushed crimson.  Rubbing the back of his neck with a grease-blackened hand, he said, “Uh, yeah.  Guess so.”

“Oh, and look, she left her boa, too!” Athenais cried, picking up the fluffy pink scarf from where it had been hidden behind a crate of engine parts.  “Oh man, she got grease
all over
it.  Almost like she was changing out a hydraulics system.”