Gods Dogs, Book 3

In a sense, a cyborg has no origin story in the Western sense – a ‘final’ irony since the cyborg is also the awful apocalyptic telos of the ‘West’s’ escalating dominations of abstract individuation, an ultimate self untied at last from all dependency, a man in space.

Donna J. Haraway

Elder Patonon Sembal was anything but happy, and they kept him separate from the others aboard the destroyer. For the team, though, it was odd that this conflict ended with a whimper rather than a bang. The androids didn’t share that perspective. It was over, and they were looking forward to building a peace.

The troop ships arrived at the penal world. The soldiers and their families were processed and transported to the ground. This world, which the elite now inhabited, along with their followers, and their families, would spend the rest of their lives here. They would also be responsible for making their little colony viable – working the land, building the houses, and so on. It was a giant step down from what they knew. Furthermore, they would not be allowed off the planet. They could receive visitors, but what those visitors could bring, or send by mail, was restricted. Luxury items, firearms, and so on were on the proscribed list.

There were three small towns, set up by the colonization division of each of the three biological empires, and the Baston, Chert, and Doval families began their new lives there. Roads connected the three towns, and there was a central market, hospital, and schools equidistant from each town. They rest of the infrastructure was up to the prisoners.

Elder Sembal, on the other hand, returned to the Accords station and stood trial for war crimes. Once convicted, he was sentenced to the fortress Anjevin was jailed in on the Chert homeworld.

The conference proceeded at a sedate pace, and a modest agreement was signed by all five empires, and cosigned by the Congress and the League. It was primarily a free trade agreement with non-binding recommendations about equal rights and other equalitarian policies.

With that agreement in hand, the Milky Way delegation headed home.

Months later, the Coyote team made it back to Penglai. They fell into the comfort of the monastic routine, and that lasted six weeks.

Master Lu called the team to his office then, and he was glad to see them rested and eager when they strolled in.

He directed them to the alcove and sat.

“For your information,” he began, “Jian completed her empath training as well as hacker training. She was assigned to Wylie’s team as a supernumerary. Now, though, Wylie is retiring, as is Rose.”

“Rose is their empath,” Pax pointed out. “Will Jian take her place?”

“Yes, and the new team lead is Rob from Jolene’s team. Their supernumerary, Nina, will replace Rob.”

“That’s a good mix,” Quinn said. “Rob has a sound tactical mind.”

Moss asked, “Why is this relevant?”

Lu smiled briefly. “We have a situation that requires three teams. On paper, your teams look to be the best fit. I want to know if you agree.”

“I agree,” River piped up.

Moss chuckled and nodded his head. Pax and Quinn smiled.

“Then we will proceed,” Lu said with an answering smile. “Three worlds in the former Empire of Man are in trouble. Former members of the empire are attempting to take over those worlds. The marshals were asked to intervene, as the League charter allows. The empire group is violating the charter. The leaders are under indictment and subject to arrest. However, the populations on the three worlds are intimidated, and the marshals have not been able to bring the leaders into custody.”

“How big an operation is it?” Moss asked.

“That is unclear. The marshals suspect it’s not large, but add in the coerced citizens, and there is a substantial number on each world.”

“So, it’s a cut-the-head-off-the-snake operation,” Moss concluded.

“That’s how the marshals see it,” Lu said. “We’re not so sure. League intelligence suspects collusion with some in the legitimate government of those worlds.”

“The plot thickens,” Moss said and sat back in his chair.

“It does, in the sense that your allies may betray you.”

Quinn spoke up, “I assume each of our teams will deploy to one of those worlds.”

“That’s where this requires a creative strategy. All three will deploy to one world, but two will do so in secret. The other one will go in to aid the marshals in capturing the leaders, but that team will also be the bait to flush out the government traitors.”

Quinn thought about this for a moment and said, “That will work once, but it won’t work twice or a third time.”

“No,” Lu said. “We’ll need to come up with something else for the other two planets. That’s where your creativity will come into play. What would work on the other two planets?”

Pax said, “There are multiple ways we could disguise what we are doing.”

Quinn agreed. “Off the top of my head, we could use the marshals to close the trap on the first world. Our involvement wouldn’t be noticed.”

“We considered that, but we will let you determine what’s best once you get there.”

Lu rose to fetch a data cube. “Here are your orders and all the information we have so far. Satya will pick you up tomorrow. You’ll meet the other two teams and the marshals at the space station above one of those worlds.”

“How long a trip?” River asked.

“Three weeks.”

Over the course of the three-week trip, they reviewed the data on the cube, which included what the marshals knew of the insurgency.

In the training room aboard Satya, they compared notes.

“This has a different feel to it than our other operations against the empire,” Pax began. “There is a harsher quality.”

“Evil shamans, torture,” Moss rejoined. “They were pretty harsh before.”

“Yeah, but it was sneakier, more seductive and less blatant,” Pax answered.

“Maybe,” Moss allowed. “What’s the tactical relevance?”

“My guess is there will be fewer layers of misdirection and more brute force.”

Quinn added, “There is something off. Jolene and Rob are already on-site. We’ll see what they think when we get there tomorrow.”

Satya dropped into normal space and boosted for the inner planets of the Hapsburg system. It held a G-2 star, rocky inner planets, gas giants further out, and two asteroid fields. Hapsburg IV was the main inhabited planet, and the League space station was above it. The locals called their planet Domicile. It was a cool planet with glaciers, evergreen forests, tundra, and steppes.

The cities were mostly in the equatorial zone, or on the coasts of the two major oceans. Exotic wood products were the main export from the planet, but a robust space mining industry overshadowed the planet-based industry.

As such, the local artisans had the leisure to produce furniture that were works of art.

The Satya docked at the station and the other two teams greeted them as they disembarked. After the back-slapping, Jolene and Rob escorted Quinn to the marshal’s office.

Senior Marshal William McIntire met them and introduced the resident marshal. His office was bureaucratic plain – a bolted down desk and chairs lining the front wall. Behind the desk were cabinets for storage. Above the cabinets was the marshal’s seal. It was a stylized six-pointed star in a blue oval. Across the star was a blue stripe with ‘League of Worlds’ emblazoned in white. Below that was a gold-lettered ‘Marshal.’

“Jim,” McIntire said as they entered. “These are the three team leads for the Coyote teams: Quinn, Jolene, and Rob.”

“Jim Warren,” the marshal said as he stood. “I’m not in agreement that we needed to call in a Coyote team, much less three.” Then he smiled slightly. “Just so you know.”

Jim Warren was a lanky man with a ruddy face and short brown hair. Hard creases in his long, pale face gave the impression he had seen it all.

“Noted,” Quinn answered. “How much resentment trickled down to your team?”

“None, I hope, but no one likes being benched.”

“Then, you’ll be happy to know, our initial plan is to set you up to make the arrests. We need our involvement to be as confidential as possible.”

“That will help,” Warren said as he sat. “What’s your plan?”

“Locate them and set up a raid. Leak it to the government so they can tell the bad guys. We will follow the information trail as well as act as bait for the trap. When they attack, you can come in and save us.”

“Sounds sketchy.”

“There are lots of moving parts,” Quinn agreed. “One team will track the leaders. Another will track the government connections. The bait team will deal with their soldiers.”

“How will all that work?”

Quinn smiled. “I don’t know yet.”

“Well,” Warren snorted. “Keep me in the loop.”

They left the chilly office, and McIntire led them to his office down the hall. It was smaller and even less comfortable.

“It’s temporary,” he said as he waved an arm around to indicate his office. “I’m coordinating the operation on all three worlds. The local marshals aren’t happy with me either.”

“It was you who asked for us,” Jolene surmised.

“Yes,” he said and half-sat on his desk. “There’s something off about all this.”

“We noticed,” Quinn said. “What is it?”

McIntire grimaced. “We have information, unconfirmed reports actually, that there are cyborg soldiers.”

Rob started. “Really?”

McIntire nodded.

Rob went on, “There was a rumor during the war that they were creating cyborgs to counter the Coyote teams.”

“I remember that,” Jolene said.

“I don’t,” Quinn countered.

“We were further out on the rim,” Jolene said. “Sort of where we are now.”

Quinn asked, “Have you seen any?”

“No, but we have lost squads of soldiers where we shouldn’t have.”

Quinn nodded and said, “That’s why you called us in.”

“Primarily, yes. If we need to take on cyborgs, we will need the help.”

“Marshal Warren doesn’t buy it,” Jolene asked. “Does he?”

“Not enough to value the threat.”

“What threat?” Rob pushed.

“Armor, strength, speed, coordinated attacks – the list goes on,” McIntire replied. “If they solved the integration problems the League couldn’t solve, then one cyborg is the equivalent of a marine heavy weapons squad.”

“That’s disconcerting,” Quinn said with a low chuckle. “Any idea on how many there are?”

“No. I think that is your first priority.”

“Okay,” Jolene said with a sigh and sat in a chair by the wall. “We send in our hackers and empaths for intelligence gathering. Have you got locations we can start with?”

On Rob’s team, Jian and Christi were the empath and hacker. On Jolene’s, it was Sonny and Eli. Pax and River filled out the recon detail.

They dropped to the planet on a passenger shuttle. Dressed in generic spacer-on-leave clothes over their combat skin-suits, they also wore parkas and hats against the cold. Each couple would head to a different part of the city, which was a sprawling affair on both sides of a broad river.

Once they reached the terminal, each pair caught cabs to their targets.

A few minutes later, Jian contacted them on tac-net, “When I connected to the local net, a tracking program tried to slide in. My A.I. and I are tearing it apart now. Assume they know we’re here.”

“Her A.I. is sentient now?” River queried Pax, also on tac-net.

“Yeah. It’s become the final step in the training process.”

“Well, my guess is the tracking program seeks out League EM signatures,” River said. “I doubt they – whoever ‘they’ are – knows specifically who is coming.”

“How sophisticated could a cyborg be?” Pax wondered after a bit.

“I don’t know. The League abandoned the research. Too many issues with integrating machine and biological processes. Cloning replacement body parts was easier.”

With that, they observed the city outside the cab. The larger buildings sported what Moss called ‘neo-fascist classical’ architecture. Large design features meant to make the individual feel small. The newer buildings were more aesthetically diverse with spires and fluted columns.

Their destination was at the edge of the city where rolling hills met the flat plain fronting the river. A small suburb nestled in the hills, and there was a hotel for tourists who come to explore the forest beyond.

It took the better part of an hour to get to the hotel, which was through a small town and at the end of a two-lane road.

They checked into the hotel, a four-story, well-kept structure of wood and plascrete. Once in their top floor room, River and her A.I., Becky, began hacking the hotel’s system. Pax headed out to meet the locals to see what he could pick up.

Pax explored the various shops on the ground floor. The shops extended out the back of the hotel to surround a large open area of walkways and gardens. The shops sold souvenirs, trips into the forest, but there were also cafes and bars sporting different themes.

He twigged on one of the adventure shops and questioned the clerk on the different trips available.

Using the map of trails and destinations, he prodded the clerk, “This looks like a two-day trip to a mountain lake. Is there a cabin there?”

The clerk, a toothy smile the main feature in his square, white face, answered, “Yes. It’s a lovely place with fishing available. And there’s a boat at the cabin.”

“How about here?” Pax asked pointing to another location on the map.

The clerk continued to smile. “That area is under renovation. It won’t be available until next season. But here,” he continued and pointed to an adjacent spot, “is an area comparable to what you’re looking at.”

“Yes. I see, and it looks to be an easier hike. Do you use horses?”

Pax caught the clerk’s nervousness when he directed Pax away from the one location, and that was good enough for now.

He concluded his browsing a few minutes later and left the shop. His next stop was a bar with a few patrons. He sat at the bar and ordered a cheeseburger and salad with a local microbrew.

The bartender was a blonde woman with a quick smile, and she moved like a professional – no wasted motion and engaging without being intrusive.

When she was free, she cleaned the area around Pax and asked, “Up here for holiday?”

“Yes. We’ve got a week’s leave. Then it’s back to space in a cramped free trader.”

“Yeah, you have a spacer’s look to you. What’s it like up there?”

“It’s like living in a big family.”

She snorted. “I came up here to get away from my family.”

Pax grinned. “We have to work at keeping our family healthy.”

“I would like to see how you do that,” she grinned back.

Pax went on, “It’s not hard when you follow the protocols the League gave us. How about here? Is this better than where you came from?”

Her mood darkened, but she quickly caught herself. The grin disappeared, but she answered, “It’s not bad. The pay is good.”

Then she drifted away to serve another patron. Pax leisurely ate his lunch and monitored the swirling emotions in the room.

Eventually, a sharp-edged feeling came through the door. Pax glanced at the mirror behind the bar to see a bull of a man in a tight T-shirt and pants. He wore no coat against the cold. His angular face was topped with close-cut black hair. He clomped up to the bar two spaces over from Pax and demanded, “A beer, Jenny.”

“Yes, sir,” the blonde answered and pulled the tap to fill a mug. She placed it in front of the bull on a square counter.

He turned to lean his back to the bar and inspected the dozen or so patrons at the tables.

“Pretty good for mid-week,” he announced.

Jenny, who hadn’t moved, agreed, “Yes, sir. We’re getting more spacers on leave.”

“I know that.”

“Yes, sir. Can I get you anything else?”

“Nah. I’m good. Run along.”

Jenny ambled away to wash glasses. Pax could feel her wanting to run out the door, but her emotional control held and she showed no fear.

The bull finally focused on Pax. “You’re a spacer.”

“Yep. Just got here.”

The man was curious rather than suspicious. Pax figured River’s assessment of the tracking program was accurate. They tracked League EM signatures, but didn’t know there were Coyotes on planet.

“I used to travel the black,” the man said. “Too claustrophobic for me.”

“It is cramped,” Pax agreed.

“What’s your business?”

“Cargo crew on a free trader.”

“You’re the muscle.”

“Grav-carts are the muscle,” Pax replied.

“No. I mean, you repel boarders and do ship security.”

“Not many pirates these days.”

“You don’t look like much of a fighter.”

“Looks can be deceiving.”

The bull laughed. “That’s true enough.”

Then he chugged down his beer and stood upright. “You have a nice stay.”

“Thanks,” Pax said as he finished his lunch.

Once the bull exited, Jenny took his plate. She told Pax, “Getting him interested in you isn’t healthy.”

“Thanks for the tip, but I’ve dealt with bullies like him before.”

Jenny eyed him with a frown. “Maybe so, but he’s not like other bullies.”

“Oh? What makes him different?”

“The group he’s with,” she answered and hurried off.

Pax smiled and triggered his tac-net. “River, I think we’ve found the right place.”

River sent, “I agree. There’s a whole separate system the hotel powers. The cables are buried and run northeast about ten miles. There’s enough energy to run a small town.”

“I know where it is,” Pax answered. “We should visit there tonight.”

“Okay. I got your download from Max. I’ll send it all to Satya.”

Pax returned to the room, and the two of them caught some sleep. Before midnight, they left the hotel and headed for the location Pax recorded from the map, and Max, his embedded A.I., sent to River.

The temperature was above freezing, and the sky was clear. Three small moons chased each other across the sky, but that provided little illumination. They hustled through the woods to a drop location where one of Satya’s stealth shuttles cached supplies.

They quickly donned light armor, handguns, and snapped rifles onto their backs. Then they headed to the location Pax found and River confirmed.

They covered the ten miles in five hours, and edged into a pocket-like valley surrounded by steep mountains.

“I’m picking up sensors on the obvious trail to the buildings down there,” River announced.

“We’ve got a path this way,” Pax said. “It will be technical in spots.”

River scanned the nearby slope and agreed. There were good anchor points and they could repel easily to the valley floor.

Once in the valley, which was a mile across and five miles long, they pushed into the occupied area: five rustic buildings that sat near an alpine lake. The larger two buildings looked to be barracks that could hold fifty or more each. The other three were smaller, and one had antennas sprouting on the roof.

“Too open,” Pax assessed. “We’ll stay in the trees, at least for today.”

River released small recon drones and then hurried off to set up a hide high in an evergreen tree. Pax moved to the other side of the enclave and set up his own hide.

Dawn came a few hours later, and the camp began buzzing with activity.

“I’ve got drones attached to the antennas,” River reported. “Activity has picked up. It’s all encrypted, of course.”

“The soldiers are leaving the barracks for morning formation,” Pax said. “They are moving funny, and their IR signature is off. I think we’ve found the cyborgs. Looks like there are about 75 of them and another 25 trainers or command staff.”

“I see them,” River replied. “Check out the guy coming your way from the main building. I can’t get a facial.”

“Yeah. He’s one of the leaders,” Pax said after a moment when he checked facial recognition.

“Okay. I’ll send all this to Satya.”

She sent the information to a comm booster higher in the tree. It sent the information by laser whisker to a comm-drone in orbit, which relayed it to Satya. The ship informed Quinn, and he took the report to McIntire.

The senior marshal looked at it and said, “At least 75 cyborgs, a secure communication network, an intact command structure, and an easy to defend location.”

“We could drop a rod on them,” Quinn offered.

“It may come to that,” McIntire said, “but we need access to their entire organizational structure.”

“It will be a tough nut to crack, William.”

“What do you suggest?”

“We have to neutralize the cyborg threat. If they are out of the camp, you can hot-drop on the camp and get what you need.”

“How will you get them out of the camp?”

Quinn smiled. “We will get them to chase us.”