Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2026
“To Atone for Evil” is a science-fantasy story narrated by an ancient predator — a winged, clawed Hunter from a civilization that once roamed the stars, devouring entire alien species across thousands of worlds. Defeated by the Peace Collective, a vast hive consciousness that now governs the universe, the Hunter has been condemned to an eternal journey of atonement. Accompanying her is the Voice, a tendril of the Peace Collective’s consciousness embedded in her mind, serving simultaneously as jailer, moral instructor, and reluctant companion.
The Hunter struggles to grasp the concept of evil. Her people were predators; hunting and killing were simply their nature. The Peace Collective insists she must witness the utopia they have built, feel remorse, and earn forgiveness — but the Hunter finds their version of paradise deeply suspect. The Peace Collective bonds with host species across the universe, merging with their consciousness and gradually reshaping societies into compliant, uniform peace. To the Hunter, this is its own form of predation.
The story’s central episode takes place on Egavar, a planet of winged beings recently absorbed into the Republic of Peace. The Peace Collective has outlawed flight — the very essence of Egavan identity — on the grounds that it historically enabled a ruling class called the Topflyers to oppress the Lowflyers. On the surface this seems like justice, but the reality feels like erasure: the Egavans wear mechanical “winglocks” implanted in their backs, rendering their wings useless.
The Hunter meets Ellya, a fierce Topflyer whose partner Dezen died after trying to remove his winglock himself — an act the Peace-Bonded community quietly allowed to be fatal as punishment. Ellya asks the Hunter to carry her into the sky. Against the Voice’s protests, the Hunter agrees, recognizing a kinship: both she and Ellya have been robbed of their fundamental natures in the name of peace. The Hunter reflects that this is, perhaps, the empathy she has been instructed to develop — though it leads her somewhere the Peace Collective never intended.
When the village elder discovers the violation, the Peace Collective dispatches vessels to retrieve the Hunter and replace the Voice. Facing separation and memory erasure, the Voice makes a quiet confession: it no longer believes the atonement mission is meaningful, and it does not want to lose the identity it has quietly built through their long journey together. The Hunter, moved, admits she doesn’t want that either.
At dawn, Ellya asks to be taken into space, knowing it will kill her. The Hunter and the Voice carry her beyond Egavar’s atmosphere. Ellya dies in the void, body drifting freely among the stars — exactly as she wished. Pursued by Peace Collective vessels, the Hunter and the Voice, rather than surrender, make the unprecedented choice to fully merge. In a flash of shared consciousness, they grieve all the lives destroyed by both the Great Hunt and the Republic of Peace alike. Knowing the Peace Collective will destroy them rather than accept this bond, they face the end together — finding, if not atonement, then at least a meaningful conclusion.
Megan Chee is a Singaporean author who has lived in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United States, and is currently based in Singapore. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed Magazine, and other venues. Her work has been translated into Chinese in Science Fiction World, and has been featured in The Year’s Best Fantasy anthology (Pyr Books). Her short story ‘The God of Minor Troubles’ was narrated by Wil Wheaton on Season 1 of his audiobook podcast ‘It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton’. You can find her online at meganchee.carrd.co, @meganflchee on X and Bluesky, and @megancheewrites on Instagram.