31. Zaels (Part 2) Operational Background

Zing Tao warriors trained in the ways of peace as well as the ways of war. An elite group within the Blue Onyx special section, their methods and ways were neither well known nor fully appreciated. For instance, Hynerian Peace Flowers were a direct result of Zing Tao cultivation, the weaving together of beauty and science with the unseen thread of peace educated by compassion and instructed by love. No one outside Zing Tao monasteries could explain how they were created or how they worked. Results, however, spoke for themselves.

The tragedy of Zael presented Papa with his first experience in the field upon ordination within the elite branch. They say the first cut is always the deepest, and from the number of times he liked to tell the story, Zael and his experience there seemed forever branded in his memory.

Zael was part of a distant subsystem of planets that were fairly off the beaten path. Not a lot of activity and really no reason for anyone to venture in that direction. Zael did have one feature that made it valuable, namely the creatures that populated the area and named for the very subsystem they called home. Zaels live in and around Zael, yet whenever anyone spoke of Zael, the reference surely referred to the creatures and not the system.

Zaels possessed perhaps the most unique physiology known to Hynerians. Each Zael had dual coloring and each color performed multiple unique functions. The purple part of the organism sustained life in outer space, while the green segment maintained the organism on any of the planets within the subsystem. How this could be remained a mystery.

Hynerians knew of no other creature whose primary habitat was planetary while also able, completely unaided, to live and thrive equally well in the vacuum of space. Herein lay their value. Hynerian scientists had hoped to learn how this was possible, how a creature could literally have two totally different biological systems, yet still function as a single entity. Zing Tao warriors, in particular, were fascinated with the philosophical implications implied in dualism manifesting as oneness. A kinship formed between the two and they were the first to volunteer when trouble was realized.

Zaels were also unique in that there was no such thing as male and female Zaels. Each creature contained both sexual functions. Since they experienced no internal conflict between their dual sexual natures, the creatures tended to reproduce at a prodigious rate. We might have called them the rabbits of the universe. Wherever there was one Zael, there was sure to be hundreds of baby Zaels.

There in lay the trouble. The more the Zaels reproduced the more resources they consumed. Only a matter of time before their numbers constituted a threat to other species within the subsystem. Reports of war had worked their way from Hynerian scientific outposts to Hyneria, but such reports were all too common place and no one took them too seriously.

Problem was, Zaels were peaceful creatures with little means to defend themselves. Once neighboring Javalinas lauched their attack, slaughter was the only word to describe the wholesale destruction. By the time the seriousness of the situation became clear, only Zing Tao warriors stood a chance of stopping the carnage. Papa Kyra’s unit was the first to arrive on the scene and what he saw forever stood as a milestone between his innocence and the rest of his life.