Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: PEACE (12/02/21)
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TITLE: Wat Wounds | Previous Challenge Entry
By Art Westefeld
12/09/21 -
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Myron Burowski from Qlag.
My church plant is going reasonably well. I've started to train one of the Deacons to be the pastor, but sometimes an outside perspective is needed for ministry.
Kurn, the Deacon I referred to above, called me on the inter-office comm and asked me to come to his office. I wondered what he needed help with.
When I opened the door, I saw another Qlag sitting in front of Kurn. He introduced her as Rosul. I vaguely remembered him mentioning a woman by that name before. I think she was his mate who left him when he turned his life over to Christ.
I was correct, as it turned out. She had come to our little church for answers about what she had done in the recent war against Tsab.
She was concerned about having destroyed a shipful of Tsab fighters. It was unusual for a Qlag to question killing, as they are a predatory race.
She said, addressing both of us, "I killed hundreds of people. As a soldier, I shouldn't worry about it, but I realized that there were dames and sires aboard, and that my skills as a weapons officer meant that their families would be without them."
Earth hadn't had any wars in centuries, but I recognized the symptoms of post traumatic stress. My counseling skills are weak in this area, but I had to try to help this woman to find peace, perhaps even try to present the Gospel to her at the same time.
I asked, “Were you directly in danger from the fighters? Would your inaction have led to your own or others' death?”
She gave me a haughty look as she replied, “No, their weapons are too weak to harm us. I fired because I was ordered to.”
I knew that relating Earth’s history and the truism about ‘just following orders’ wasn’t going to help, so I inquired, “What was the ship going to do to Qlag?”
The bitterness in her voice scared me. “They were returning to their base with wounded. I pressed a button and suddenly more than three-hundred people were dead at my hands.”
Her self-loathing upset me, because I became worried about her harming herself. I tried to introduce the Gospel in what was likely a vain hope to comfort her. "You know, if you give your life to Jesus, He will forgive your guilt for killing.”
For the first time Rosul looked me in the eye. It was like being looked at by a fierce lioness. She continued angrily, “Like Kurn did? Tell me, has he told you about what he did in the war?”
I wanted to tell her that this wasn’t about Kurn, but I let her continue, hoping letting her get it off her chest might help her find peace. I responded, “No, he didn’t.”
Kurn finally spoke up. “What I did wasn’t right, but I didn’t kill anyone.”
“What did you do?” I asked spontaneously.
Kurn, in a manner that seemed quite human, looked away. “I managed to sneak on to Tsab and … do something to their computer networks.”
“So?” I prompted.
“Their ship’s guidance comes from the planetary computers. Maybe if I hadn’t been so good at my mission, Rosul wouldn’t have come across them.”
I groaned inwardly. Now I had to help two people find peace for what they had done. It occured to me that I didn’t know what the war was about, so I inquired, hoping that I might help these Qlag resolve their pain.
Kurn answered, “Tsab needed rannian crystals, and they couldn’t reach an agreement with our government to buy them, so they started to attack mining vessels for them.”
A side note: Rannian crystals helped the Qlag achieve clean energy centuries ago. I’m guessing that the Tsab did too.
“Kurn," I said, “You know you’re forgiven in Christ? He’s the Prince of Peace.”
He growled back, “I’ve prayed daily about it.”
"But, you've accepted Christ, so you should have His peace in your heart. Also, "the devil goes forth like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.""
Kurn shot me a sardonic look and growled, “Specist.” To Rosul he explained, “We look like a Terran animal called a lion to the humans.”
Rosul gave me a feline grin and said, “I will think about it. You have given me more hope than the High Priest gave me from our gods, Rok and Aram.”
*******
1 Peter 5;8
Roman 5: 1-2
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A small piece of feedback. I would refrain from “side notes” it detracts from the narrative. Maybe weaving it into the dialog (if you feel it’s important to the story) would be a better approach.