God's Dogs Book 2

The poetry of heroism appeals irresistibly to those who don’t go to a war, and even more so to those whom the war is making enormously wealthy.

Louis Ferdinand Celine

The Norumans retained more reptilian features in their evolution. They had rounded, bullet-shaped heads, scales across their chests and on the front of the legs. Their four-fingered hands were also scaly and large. Their armor consisted of strapped on leg pieces, torso pieces, and arm pieces, rather than one-piece. The armor also sported different colors to identify rank.

River hadn’t left too many high-ranking soldiers alive, and it took Quinn and Moss a while to find the ranking members of the two companies who were left. It happened to be the equivalent of buck sergeants. They marched those two forward to meet with the Guardians, while Pax and River collected weapons and piled them between the two groups of soldiers.

The Guardians were not happy and berated the sergeants for the stupidity of their leaders. The sergeants, of course, had nothing to say about that.

“I have the authority,” Barry concluded, “to kill all of you. Attacking a heritage site includes the death penalty. What can you tell me that would encourage leniency?”

The two sergeants looked at each other, and one of them nodded to the other. He spoke in a raspy voice, “The Dityanese are supposed to support us with a mortar barrage when we send the signal. You killed the ones who were supposed to send the signal.”

Quinn demanded, “Where is the mortar crew?”

“To our rear and aligned for the space between our companies.”

Quinn turned away to link with Pax and River. “We’ve got a mortar crew on the plateau. Take care of them, and I need a couple of captives.”

“On it,” they responded and streaked up the plateau face.

Pax reached out with his senses, searching for life signatures in the qi-field. When he got a read on them, he accelerated to full speed, which in his armor was around forty miles an hour.

When he reached the group, he catapulted himself into the air, pivoting around to land squarely in one mortar pit. In his peripheral vision, he saw River do the same within the other pit. They slashed the soldiers nearby with their edged weapons and overturned the mortar tubes.

“Drop to your knees, arms up, or die,” Pax ordered.

Looking around at the sudden violence were four other soldiers, two by each pit, and one soldier by a truck. All of them looked nervously at one another until Pax shouted, “Now!”

They assembled all the prisoners by the fire-pit. Lights glowed from poles strategically arranged around the seating area. The hundred or so residents of the grotto, returned now from their tree stands, sat on the rows of benches to observe what would happen next.

The prisoners sat on the ground near the fire-pit, their hands cuffed behind their backs. Besides the five Dityanese, there were twenty-six Norumans. The Guardians sat on a front row bench, content to see what the unpredictable humans would do next.

Moss addressed the bound soldiers that were two or three deep around the fire pit. “Well, my vote was to just shoot all of you. You are already under a death sentence for attacking this place, because doing so makes you terrorists. My argument was that you probably knew that and volunteered anyway. So, not only terrorists but stupid as well.”

A few of them yelled at Moss about duty to their country or race.

“You’re stupid because you bought the nonsense your governments were selling. You’re stupid because in buying it, you claimed the dark and abandoned the light.”

More of them clamored at Moss, trying to drown out his words.

“You make my point,” he laughed without humor. “You chose evil and now defend that choice. You ought to be put down like rabid dogs.”

They quieted down with that threat but still muttered among themselves.

“But my colleagues voted my option down,” Moss informed them with a dramatic heavy sigh. “They want to give you the chance to repudiate the dark and claim the light.”

Now the soldiers fell silent.

“You have befriended demons by making your home in the dark, but they aren’t really your friends. Instead, they control you. They feed on your energy. They prompt you to greater acts of evil, and – surprise, surprise – we know how to control demons.”

The soldiers looked to each other, finally registering some anxiety.

“So. What we’re going to do – against my better judgment – is give you the opportunity to claim the light. You will have to defeat your demons to do so, and how you defeat them is by claiming the light within you, that same light that shines within all of the Creator’s children. Fail to do that and you die.”

The murmuring began again among the soldiers. Finally, one brave soul called out, “But we’re prisoners of war.”

“Nope. You’re terrorists awaiting execution.”

Moss waited for any other comments. Hearing none, he said, “Quinn will lead us in a ritual, and, because he’s a powerful shaman, he will call forth your demons and have them attack you. My bet is you will all die rather horribly. It’s why I voted for just shooting you – less painful that way.

“Anyway, that’s your fate. Any questions? I didn’t think so. Well, good luck with your demons.”

Moss faded to the background and Quinn moved forward to speak, “All of you are terrorists. All of you are guilty of war crimes. All of you, Dityanese and Noruman, are representative of a sickness you share. I offer you a cure for that sickness.”

Quinn pointed to the dark fire-pit. Sacred fires were allowed to just extinguish themselves. Therefore, there were banked coals still smoldering in the ashes. Quinn spoke to the spirit of the fire, and it sprang to life – a single strong flame shot up from the ashes. Moss ambled over and placed kindling from a nearby pile in a teepee over the flame. Then he continued to feed the flame larger chunks of wood until a cozy fire was happily burning in the fire-pit.

The grotto residents murmured among themselves in the background as Quinn continued. He raised his hands and faced the east. “Great Spirit of Light, come to me out of the East with the power of the rising sun. Let there be light in my words, let there be light on the path that I walk.”

He turned ninety degrees to his right and spoke, “Great Spirit of Creation, send me the warm and soothing winds from the South. As you give to all the earth your warm moving wind, give to me your power, so that I may grow close to you in warmth. Man did not create the web of life, he is but a strand in it. Whatever man does to the web, he does to himself.”

He turned another ninety degrees and spoke, “Great Life-Giving Spirit, I face the West, the direction of sundown. Let me remember everyday that the moment will come when my sun will go down. Never let me forget that I must fade into you, so that when it is my time to meet you, I can come with glory.”

He turned a final time and spoke, “Great Spirit of Love, come to me with the power of the North. Make me courageous when the cold wind falls upon me. Give me strength and endurance for everything that is harsh, everything that hurts, everything that makes me squint. Let me move through life ready to take what comes.”

One of the residents retrieved a drum and began a slow, quiet drumming. Quinn faced the captives and said, “We are in sacred space now. We will call in your demons so that you may face them and defeat them. Your sickness is a sickness of the soul. Know that the light and love of the Creator is your only hope.”

The Coyotes spread out to encircle the prisoners and stepped into a wuji stance – feet shoulder-width apart, knees unlocked, hands at their sides. Then they brought their hands together, middle fingers touching, and lifted them up, inverting their hands over their heads to push up against the sky. Then they let their hands slowly descend to their sides. They performed the qi-gong exercise of ‘lifting up heaven’ twice more. Then Quinn called in the demons that possessed these soldiers, “Demons, agents of the Great Mystery, enter this sacred circle and offer these soldiers the chance to reclaim the Light.”

The grotto residents, at least the more spiritually mature of them, saw the demons rush in from all sides to assault the soldiers. They also saw the Coyotes hold sacred space like an arena within which the soldiers could fight the personal battle for their own souls.

Eight of the Norumans immediately fell to their sides, bleeding at the mouth. They shivered into death spasms. Two of the Dityanese quickly followed suit. The rest convulsed, cried out to their gods in supplication, and some overcame their fear to grasp at the light each possessed within them. Others couldn’t and died. In the end, eighteen Norumans and three Kityanese soldiers sat, breathing in ragged gasps as they tried to maintain their centers. The rest were dead, sprawled around the fire-pit, their bodies smoking, blood leaking from every orifice.

Quinn spoke again, “Thank you, brother demons for your service to the Creator. You may go. We release you.”

Again, the more spiritually mature saw the demons retreat into the darkness. As they retreated, the fire in the fire-pit seemed to glow brighter; the lighting from the pole lamps seems to gain luminescence.

The Coyotes freed the living prisoners from the handcuffs, and Quinn told them, “Return to your commands. Tell them what happened here tonight. The demons will do as we ask. We will release them to pursue both species if this war persists. You have a ten-day, and then the hounds of hell are coming for you.”

One of the Noruman sergeants stood on shaky legs and said, “I will need transport.”

Quinn glanced at the Guardians. One of whom nodded and spoke into his communicator.

The sergeant went on, “My inner light has tried to light my way, but I found it necessary to go against what I knew was right.”

“We are creatures of both dark and light,” Pax told him. “We embody both, but you must eventually choose which you serve.”

“The demons?”

“In our world, they are known as ‘adversaries,’” Pax said. “They provide us with the challenge of evil, yet they are not evil in and of themselves. They serve the Creator by assisting sentient beings in finding which path they will follow – the light or the dark.”

The other former prisoners listened to this exchange, nodding their heads, and Pax drifted off to let them be about their business. He heard the sergeant whisper, “Thank you,” as he left. Pax smiled at that. The sergeant was a quick study if he figured out gratitude was one of the key elements in a spiritually guided life.

The soldiers headed to the shuttle parking lot with one of the Guardians. The other approached the team.

“I’m not really sure what happened, Quinn,” Barry began, “but we could follow most of it. Is it true what you said? You’ll release demons on both home worlds?”

Quinn started laughing, and the team joined in. Quinn regained his composure and replied, “They’re already there, Barry. All I did was bring awareness to a pre-existing fact.”

“They’re already there?”

River helped out. “The demon of distraction is one I have trouble with.”

Slowly Barry started nodding his head. Then he said, “I see.” Then he started in with his scratchy laughter. Abruptly, though, he caught himself and asked, “But what about this?” He gestured to the dead soldiers before the fire-pit.

Moss answered, “We had help with that.”

River explained again, “Their demons gained substance. The planet’s Mother goddess gave us access to the spirits of nature. They personified the demons those soldiers already struggled with.”

“You couldn’t do the same on each planet?”

“No,” Quinn said. “Nature spirits don’t like cities.”

Moss chuckled again. The others joined him. Barry shook his head and left to help Ruski with prisoner transport.

Telaxon approached after the Guardian left. He was tentative in his approach and Quinn waved him forward.

“I haven’t seen a display of such power before,” he said. “In some of our legends, there are tales of power, but nothing like this.”

“With power comes responsibility,” Quinn told him. “Our training is long and arduous so that we do not abuse power.”

“Our Mother helped you,” Telaxon went on. “I heard you say that. She lent you the little people, the forest helpers. She will help us as well?”

“Of course,” Quinn returned. “You already know how to walk in two worlds. Teach it as a birthright for each of her children. If you do not, we have a diagnosis for that unhealthy state: Nature Deficit Disorder.”

“Yes,” Telaxon muttered. “We have held it as a prize rather than a right. We must change our training curricula.”

Quinn nodded once more and turned to the team. They headed out to resume their stations in the forest. This battle might not be over yet.

As dawn arrived, they met as a group and performed the bardo ceremony. They traveled to the bardo realm and guided those they killed through that difficult after-life passage.

Seven peaceful days later, a shuttle landed and the same duo of politicians with their guards exited the shuttle.

Telaxon met them with Quinn at his side. The rest of the team was still deployed. One Guardian was with them; the other accompanied Quinn.

Brontius strode up and got right in Telaxon’s face. “What have you done?”

“Protected the grotto.”

Brontius frowned and accused, “The lieutenant of the mortar detachment called a press conference and told them what happened. You have made life very difficult for me.”

Quinn snorted at that, and Brontius turned to gaze at him.

Quinn, wishing Moss was here to take down another pompous politician, said to him, “You brought this on yourself, minister. Don’t go blaming Telaxon for doing his job.”

“What’s this about demons?” Brontius demanded.

“At a guess, I’d say yours is the demon of self-importance.”

“You are supposed to unleash demons across the planet in three days. How is that possible?”

“I’ll guess we’ll wait and see. Of course, the other option is to end this grudge match with the Norumans.”

“We can’t do that! Our economy depends on it.”

Telaxon spoke again, “Read the research on war economies, minister. I did my thesis on just that topic many years ago. To summarize: Permanent war fatally degrades the free society. It turns culture into propaganda. It corrupts education, the media, and any principles of personal independence, let alone our society’s morality. And it totally wrecks the economy by siphoning off the state’s discretionary funds from worthy projects that benefit the people to war materiel which benefits no one but war profiteers.”

“We need to keep ourselves safe,” Brontius rebutted. “Security is something that benefits the entire planet.”

“Yes. That is a reason for the military,” Telaxon said. “But trade, tourism, and other activities that create inter-dependencies among different peoples have historically shown a better basis for security.”

“This isn’t over,” Brontius muttered in a menacing tone and turned to leave.

They watched him go, and Quinn turned to Telaxon to say, “You have an advanced education.”

“Yes. They say scientists end up as mystics if they continue to pursue their questions. I found that to be true.”

Then they headed back. Ruski fell in beside Quinn and said, “We have similar reports from Noruma, Quinn. The central government there is dealing with a group pushing for a no-confidence vote on their government.”

“It’s happening pretty fast.”

“Well, both these cultures implant their citizens with dumb A.I.s. The recordings the soldiers have shown to their command structure, and the leaks to the media have given credibility to what you claimed you could do.”

Quinn grinned a wry grin. “I suppose we’re headed for another diplomatic crisis.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me in the least.”

A day before the ten-day deadline expired, a mediator was called in by both planets to try to put an end to the war between Ditya and Noruma, which had gone on in one form or another for two centuries.

Satya’s shuttle arrived to pick up the team and the Guardians a few days later. Telaxon asked them for help in devising a curriculum for bringing people to a connection to the Nature realm of existence, and that caused a two-day delay.

They left on the shuttle with the grotto residents first bowing to them and then waving enthusiastically as they departed.

Captain John Twin Bears met them in the shuttle bay. He was a tall strongly built man with a Roman nose and carried a command presence that filled his ship.

“Welcome back,” he smiled at them. “I put in a sub-space call for Eladon to come get us. From the side chatter, it looks like you stirred up another hornet's nest.”

“It was me this time,” Quinn grinned at him. “Can’t blame it on River or Moss.”

Pax, the only true innocent in the group, put in, “Yeah, but we were all involved. It was kind of fun calling in all those nature spirits.”

“Nature spirits?” Captain John queried.

“We borrowed from your culture,” Quinn said. “Called in the four directions. Set a sacred circle. Asked the planet’s goddess for help, and she sent us her nature spirits to represent the soldiers' personal demons.”

“Wish I’d been there,” the captain said. “I haven’t been to a sacred ceremony in a while. They can be rather invigorating.”

“Not the word I’d use,” Moss smiled. “They personified the personal demons of the soldiers we captured. A bunch of them died.”

The overhead speaker came to life, “Captain, Eladon’s ship has arrived. He would like to speak to you.”

“Thanks, Ship,” the captain said and hurried off.

The trip back to the space station was uneventful, and they arrived to dock there without incident. The team and the Guardians left as the station workers began restocking and refueling Satya.

The Guardians led them to the same conference room. It looked like the same people were waiting for them. Quinn wondered if the station’s population included delegations from local worlds.

His implant A.I., Shiva answered the thought. [This arm of the station houses a thousand beings. Some are support. Some are Congress staff. Some are from the senior worlds in the patronage hierarchy, including their SpecOps people. The ones seated here are in the latter group. I queried the station A.I. about them when we were here before, in case you became interested.]

[Thanks. I guess I should be interested.]

[The elf-like beings are called Silvertonae, and they are strategists, architects, and similar professions. They are highly sought after for their creative building practices. The other group, the lanky ones, are Durani. A phlegmatic people that live in a highly structured society. They excel at engineering. The class distribution of the two here is equivalent to high ranking civil servants.]

[Well, that fits my impression of them from before. Thanks, again.]

“Welcome back,” one of the elf-like beings said. “You showed a creative solution to a rather sticky problem. We are impressed.”

Leander, one of the lanky beings, didn’t agree. “You have introduced a paranoid virus into two worlds. Why should we not charge you with the crime of inducing panic on both those worlds?”

Moss responded, “Anyone who understands the Nature realm of existence would know what you’re saying is nonsense.”

The elves chittered at that but didn’t say anything.

The Sentic commander spoke, “And for those who do not possess a detailed understanding of that realm, how would you reassure them?”

River answered, “This is the second time we have acted on behalf of the local planetary Mother deity. What’s to explain? She will keep the balance on her world, one way or another. You can’t, with impunity, ignore the forces of Nature. They will be heard.”

“You have acted on behalf of this deity,” Leander drawled, “or so you claim. Did she authorize your slaughter of prisoners? Did she countenance your threat to unleash demons planet-wide? I think not. That is not the benign deity we come to think of when we revere Mother Nature.”

The elf-being snorted at that and retorted, “They were already under a death sentence. The Coyotes gave them a chance at redemption, Leander. And any planetary deity brings forth life and demands death. They are hardly benign.”

“What about threatening demons to descend on a whole planet?”

“Calm yourself. Even with translation error, it is obvious what the Coyotes did was bring awareness to each person’s personal demons: hate, anger, envy, and the whole list we’ve all discovered.” The elf paused to bow to Quinn and continued, “It was a stroke of genius the way he magnified the threat to, hopefully, awaken the population of both planets to the habits and patterns they needed to change.”

The Sentic commander spoke to the Guardians, “Did you find anything to criticize with the behavior of the Coyote team?”

Barry answered, “No, commander. While we couldn’t follow all that was going on, the grotto devotees could. They thought it was a great joke played on the unaware. They agree with the words of minister Tsong-trang and hoped it would wake people up.”

“We need to study this more,” Leander grumped.

“Until then,” the commander said, “you are released back to Penglai, Coyote Quinn, with our thanks for your performance.”

Quinn rose as did the others, and they marched out the door.