God's Dogs Book 2

Mafia guys are all just insecure people who want their money. They’re like little seven-year old kids when they don’t get their way. I knew guys like that growing up in New Jersey.

Ray Liotta

Anaya arrived and the team marveled at her mothering skills. She took over the care and feeding of Sparky, as she called him due to his light generated communication. The captain, by FTL link, requested a tow for the damaged ships, as well as a police presence to deal with the surviving pirates and the crew of the Lucky Chance. The Wave Rider continued to her destination after the engineering crew repaired the battle damage of the captured ships so that they had power for life support.

What they couldn’t figure out from Sparky, or find in the pirate database, was the location of the gas giant that was Sparky’s home.

Even more troubling, Anaya told them, “The pirates have more of these beings.”

They were in the crew mess, Captain John, Quinn, and Anaya. She went on, “I doubt they are all used to hijack Sangalore ships, but there would be many uses for super-telekinesis.”

“Well,” Quinn sighed, “I suppose we’ll need to visit the mercenary world.”

“Shouldn’t that be a Congress operation?” the captain wondered.

“It should, and I’ll push for it. We could hardly take on a whole planet. What bothers me is why does the Congress allows a mercenary world to exist?”

“It suits someone,” Anaya offered.

“Ship,” Quinn called. “Please connect me to Tau-14.”

“The regional ASI?” the captain queried.

Quinn smiled. “Who better to authorize an assault on a planet?”

The ship’s Class 2 A.I. reported, “I’m connected.”

“Send him our after action report.”

“Sent…. And he’s requesting a comm-link.”

The holo-image of a non-descript human in a brown ship suit appeared on the table.

“Coyote Quinn, I believe your next step is to free the gas beings from the mercenaries and return them to their home world. Is that assumption correct?”

“It is,” Quinn agreed. He learned long ago that simple and direct was the better way of talking to A.I.s, foregoing lengthy explanation.

“How would you go about doing so?” Tau-14 asked.

“My ideal scenario would be the Congress put on a show of force over their planet and demand compliance.”

“We have avoided war with the Cass for centuries.”

“Kidnapping, child slavery, piracy,” Quinn countered. “Those activities cross a moral line that demands an unequivocal response.”

“I won’t disagree. However, there are other considerations.”

“They have political connections.”

“Yes. The rationale is that their world provides a pressure relief valve. Those who cannot live by Congress rules can go there, rather than foment rebellion here.”

“Does that logic make sense to you?”

“Not in the least, Quinn, but planetary ruling councils have consistently voted for this status quo to remain.”

Anaya muttered, “They’re paying them off.”

“Of course,” Tau-14 agreed. “It’s euphemistically called insurance payments.”

“I’ll argue,” Quinn said, “that kidnapping and enslaving children would be exempt from any insurance policy in the galaxy.”

Anaya added, “Let alone torturing them to make them obey their orders.”

Tau-14 said, “I’ll alert the insurance brokers to this situation and to your argument.”

“You can also alert them that I’ll go this alone if they refuse to do the right thing.”

“I’ll get back to you,” the ASI said and disappeared.

“Go it alone?” the captain prompted.

“Ship, please connect me to Coyote central, Master Chin, if he’s available.”

Anaya chuckled. “How many Coyote teams does it take for a global invasion?”

Quinn allowed a half-smile. “We may find out.”

“I hope not,” Captain John replied.

Penglai sent six teams and their cutter class warships. Like Satya, the ships were owned by the Foreign Service and carried the latest upgrades. The teams included Wylie’s team, Jolene’s, and Rand’s, which was now led by Gautama. Quinn knew the other three team leads and personnel but not as well.

The rendezvous was the Galactic Congress regional center’s space station above the planet Jomeca IV. After Satya’s engineers transferred Sparky’s habitat to a hold in the ship, and tow barges took the captured ships to Sanga, they boosted for the rendezvous.

There were too many of them for the embassy space on the station, so the teams headed to the more spacious accommodations at the Penglai Embassy dirt-side. The others had arrived before Quinn’s team, and Singh met them at the landing pad adjacent to the embassy.

Siri Hari Singh and his original team now fell under the more comprehensive organization of a full ambassador. She supported what presence Singh carved out by wrapping her greater resources and more experienced personnel around it. She, then, built on his accomplishments, and Singh could relax somewhat, knowing he wasn’t in charge any more.

It showed in his stress-free posture as he greeted the team with a group of acolytes to help with their gear.

“Quinn,” he smiled. “Good to see you.”

“Consul Singh,” Quinn nodded his head in a shallow bow. “What’s the plan?”

“Working lunch with the ambassador and the other team leads.” His gaze shifted to the team members. “You guys can settle in and relax with the others at the cafeteria.”

The acolytes took their bags and showed the team to their quarters. Singh led Quinn to the dining hall. Anaya followed Quinn.

Ambassador Maria Suh was a petite, elderly Asian woman whose presence filled the room with warm acceptance. Anaya and Quinn entered to be greeted by the other team leads, but Anaya hurried to the ambassador.

“Maria, it’s been too long,” Anaya said as she embraced the smaller woman.

“We’ve come a long way since we were crew mates on Deep Explorer,” Maria’s clear alto voice responded. “You, the famous adventurer, and me, a full ambassador.”

“Well,” Anaya stepped back from the hug. “I hope we have developed the wisdom to deal appropriately with this situation.”

“As do I,” Maria smiled ruefully. “A new sentient species, slavers, government corruption, and our own League recommending caution and restraint.”

Anaya snorted. “We’re dealing with Coyotes. Restraint isn’t in their vocabulary.”

Maria’s smile turned from rueful to beatific innocence. “Yes.”

In the cafeteria, River was catching up with C-Sharp, as Pax and Moss swapped stories with their friends.

C-Sharp turned to River, “What’s the story? We didn’t get much of a briefing.”

River filled them in, and a small crowd gathered. Pax and Moss were also the center of other small groups as they, too, filled in the teams on the situation.

C-Sharp, her almond eyes squinting, asked, “We’re taking on a whole planet?”

“Probably just one clan,” River answered. “The Cass is a mercenary race with a clan structure. We figure it’s just one clan that has enslaved Sparky’s people.”

“And you hope the other clans will hang them out to dry.”

River shrugged. “It’s Plan A, anyway.”

Moss offered, “We may get Congress support, but Quinn’s not counting on it.”

The twenty or so Coyotes were listening now, and Pax added, “We’ve gamed this a variety of ways, but we haven’t found a strategy that doesn’t involve going in there and rescuing Sparky’s litter-mates.”

“How many are there?” someone asked.

“We’re not sure,” Moss answered. “Somewhere between four and twelve.”

“And they have super telekinesis abilities,” another observed, “that the mercs can control.”

“This op does have its challenges,” Moss said and grinned.

River said, “We think we can teach Sparky how to link with them telepathically. Anaya is working with him on that. If so, we can neutralize that threat.”

“Lots of variables,” C-Sharp concluded. “What’s your best case scenario?”

Moss replied, “Take down the clan leadership, get the location of the ships carrying the captives, and take down the ships.”

“They probably already know we’re coming,” a different voice spoke.

“We’re counting on it,” Moss said with another grin. “Quinn got hold of the Congress spy-guys he knows and asked them to have their agents on the planet monitor the clan we know enslaved Sparky.”

That produced chuckles around the room. Presently, C-Sharp said, “Let’s eat and wait to see what the ambassador can work out.”

The working lunch was finishing up, and the ambassador was summarizing the plan of action they reached consensus on. The process had been textbook perfect – a clean, lively give and take that found its way to consensus with good humor and no hurt feelings. Maria delighted in the process. Too often she was subjected to negotiations with emotionally immature men, and some women, but mostly men, who expected her to defer to their boyish charm, intimidating bluster, their obvious superiority, or to rescue them from the consequences of their ineptitude.

For all the deadly competence the Coyotes possessed, they were emotionally mature and could debate an issue with clinical detachment. Even such an emotionally charged an issue as this – child abuse. Quinn, especially, handled the back and forth with the aplomb of a seasoned diplomat. Maria was impressed, doubly so since this was her first time to meaningfully engage with Coyotes. Her unconscious bias, she realized early on, was that since they were hammers, everything else must be a nail.

She spoke, “We have a somewhat obvious sequence: First, we appeal to Tau-14 and ask him to engage the Congress to address the problem with Sparky’s litter-mates, and to do so with a sense of urgency. If that falls through, my office and resources will alert the mercenary clans of the problem and ask them to apply pressure on the clan that captured Sparky. Assuming that fails, the Coyotes will be positioning themselves to identify where the captives are, and upon my signal, they – you – will affect a rescue.”

She paused to look around the room, and Wylie, his lean face sporting a goatee, remarked, “With maximum prejudice.”

Anaya smiled as she felt the energy in the room coalesce into rock-hard resolve. She realized she did enjoy working with Coyotes. All evolved beings, in her metaphorical view, were like a horse and rider. The horse was a highly trained and well cared for ‘ego-self.’ The rider was one’s Higher Self that knew in which direction to travel. One needed both to traverse the tangled path of one’s destiny. Since Coyotes traversed the warrior’s way, the cooperation between horse and rider required a synergy an order of magnitude higher than any other path. It was both a comfort and a challenge to be a fellow traveler with them, even for a short time.

Maria stood from the table. “I will draft our request and deliver it to Tau-14 today. My staff will draft our demands for the clan leaders, identify and find out how to contact them, but we will wait for the Congress to act or decline to act. You, Coyotes, will do whatever it is you do in order to be ready should our efforts fail.”

The rest of them stood as Maria left the room.

Anaya glanced at Quinn as he let out a long sighing breath. He looked to Anaya and smiled.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Born ready,” she fired back.

Quinn chuckled as the group filed out the door and headed for their ships. Their implant A.I.s alerted the teams to meet them there.

It was Quinn’s job to contact Congress intelligence to retrieve the necessary intel so that each location where one of Sparky’s litter-mates was held – be it aboard a ship or elsewhere – so that a Coyote team could be assigned to each. Assuming there were leftover teams, those would assault the clan headquarters.

Quinn and Anaya returned to the Satya to find Barry and Ruski, the intelligence contacts, waiting in the boarding corridor. Pax, Moss, and River appeared as well.

Moss called out, “Barry, Ruski, long time no see.”

Barry answered, “Not long enough.”

Moss grinned. “I didn’t know you could do sarcasm. Have we been a bad influence?”

Ruski said, “Our superiors believe we can be a good influence on you. We don’t need another political crisis.”

“What are the chances of that?” Moss wondered, ambiguity dripping off the words.

Quinn said, “Let’s board the ship and discuss it there.”

They climbed aboard and headed for the bay where Sparky was.

After introductions, Barry asked Sparky, “What does your race call themselves?”

“The People,” Sparky replied. “We didn’t know other races existed on other worlds. We spend our lives gaining strength to descend deeper into our planet and ignore what’s beyond it. Instead, we find that each layer of our planet holds new knowledge. We gain wisdom and understanding so we can help others hasten their descent.”

Barry continued, “What of your creation myths? How do you believe you came into existence?”

“My teachers say our world was once a solid world, and the clouds kept accumulating. We evolved to meet the changes in our evolving world.”

“And, it seems,” Ruski said, “to return to the rocky world which is the core of your planet. Are there stories about anyone accomplishing that goal?”

“Not in recent memory,” Sparky said. “The theory is that it isn’t rocky anymore. The pressure, as it grew, turned it molten.”

Anaya added, “We think his knowledge, given his youth, comes from some form of genetic memory transfer. We hope it isn’t hard-wired as instinct. That would limit his learning potential. What we are hoping for now is to teach him telepathy. That power is situated on the same plateau of consciousness as telekinesis, so we have reason for our hope.”

The Guardians looked at one another, and Barry commented, “Hope isn’t a plan.”

Anaya smiled. “In my business, it’s a key ingredient to a plan’s success.”

“Speaking of plans,” Moss interjected. “Do you have the intel we need to implement ours?”

Ruski replied, “We have determined where some of the People are. The data on the tablet will unlock and give you that information when you exit the stargate.”

Moss rolled his eyes. OpSec for intelligence agencies was always on the paranoid side.