THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One

Critock could not believe how well that went. Other than the initial problem of being stuck in the wrong body in the first place, everything that looked like it could derail the mission was instead enhancing it. Friends didn’t notice anything, the bully was defeated with only positive things coming from it, the girl of Kyle’s dreams was more than eager to help with a plan that she knew nothing about, and Kyle himself wasn’t fighting any more, seemingly satisfied that his life was on the upswing thanks to the unwelcome intruder. He moved down the hall quickly, happy that at last something was going well, even if Tom had not stopped complaining since they left Shanna’s presence with a happy wave.

“What are you doing?” Tom was beside himself with worry. To him, everything they had done since they had arrived on Earth was just treading water. Sure, they had gotten a yearbook and was able to salvage some semblance of the original plan, but between taking out that large boy and linking up with the girl, it seemed that Critock had lost all interest in saving Marconia let alone this world, and instead was concentrating on reliving a youth he never had. He knew he had been sent to assist but he wasn’t willing to keep helping a boy, he was here for the Empire’s continued existence!

Critock shook his head, speaking softly and hoping no one would think he was talking to himself. He’d rather come clean as being an alien than having left this world with everyone thinking Kyle was crazy, if somehow he came out of this unscathed. “I’m trying to get the plan taken care of while not screwing up this kid’s life. It’s not his fault he tripped, it’s that bully’s friends.”

Tom barrel rolled in annoyance. “Would you listen to yourself? Making excuses? You can’t put one boy in front of the entire Empire, Critock. He might be a great kid, hell they’re all good kids and apparently not galactic traitorous mass murderers, bully for them. But we can’t worry about getting Kyle dates, when there are better ways we can go about this…”

Critock stopped, grabbed Tom out of the air, and pulled him around. There was an unlocked locker cracked half open, left vacant by a student that had switched to another school, and Critock took advantage of it. He opened the locker and shoved Tom inside and put his face in so no one would notice him talking, only another kid looking deep in his locker for something. He was not loud but he was firm. “Like what, Tom? What great ideas do you have? Waiting till tonight and hoping we can break into the school and somehow figure out their computer systems when I needed Shanna’s help just to turn the damn thing on? Setting the place on fire and hoping it takes the Shards with it? Hell, lets go back to the original plan of just wiping out the school with a rocket and hope that the Qua’roti still exists to extract us!” He stopped, and glanced around, but no one seemed to take notice. He turned back to Tom. “Look, I don’t know what I’m doing. This is uncharted territory for me, hell it probably would be for most of the Marconian military. Like it or not, we’re locked in. So we’re going to do this, and because you had to come drag me from one side of the universe to the other, you’re going to have to trust me when I say this is the best way to make sure we find the Shards, stop Pt’ron, and get us off this rock so you can go back being nervous in the inner sanctum and I can finally go back to what I was always supposed to be doing, helping my planet!”

Tom was silent, letting Critock finish, before he finally got a chance to answer. “What if you’re wrong?”

“Then when Pt’ron does reveal himself, we fight him. We distract him so he doesn’t get a chance to stop the missiles, and we probably die. So please, please, come up with a better idea than what I’ve got so far, because I know this is a bad plan, but it’s all I’ve got.” Critock turned around and put his back to the lockers, laying his head back against the upper compartment. Tom floated out as he closed his eyes. “I’m not used to this, Tomk. Not like I used to be. Critock from a couple thousand cycles ago would have swept in here and made a spectacle, and we’d be done by now. What happened to me?”

“You stopped being a patriot, and started being a man.” Tom said, and Critock opened his eyes and looked at him. “I have read up on you, you know. You had a crusade you were on. It’s why you got in the military in the first place. And when you got in slowly you forgot why you were doing it and instead you started fighting someone else’s war. Made buddies with a bad guy, lost your intended, and in the end the only thing that kept you from the Cobalt mines is Qua’roti Alpha felt sorry for what they did to you. I did my homework, Critock, I know where you’ve been and what you’ve been through.”

The bell rang in the distance, and Critock took no notice. “You don’t know what I’ve been through.”

Tom wasn’t phased. “Abandoned by everyone you ever knew, you started fighting for yourself. Even now you’ve got a chance to go back to the way you used to be. You fought for a good cause in the wars, but you weren’t always a good guy. Here? Here you’ve got a chance to get back everything you lost. Your rank, your soldiers, and you save the entire Marconian empire in the process. All you have to do is fight for someone else again, do what the Alpha says one more time. And what are you doing? You’re fighting for yourself still. Trying to be the good guy, setting up the kid to be great and making it so you can leave here a hero.

“But we can’t be heroes here, Critock. We have to do our job and get out. We don’t belong here. It’s a long shot if Kyle is even gonna remember what happened to him after we’re gone. So stop worrying about him and start worrying about what we’re here to do. It stinks, I know, but I’m not willing to die and lose the Empire along with us just because you feel bad about one stupid mistake that you couldn’t do anything to stop. “ Tom finished, and Critock was stunned for a quick moment before he realized he still had to keep up appearances, and mentally located and started moving to the gym as he replied.

“You’d make a hell of a military officer, you sure you’re in the right Corps?”

“Sorry…Been working on that all period while you were mooning over legs in there.” Critock sighed but let it pass.

“I’m…not sure what I am any more, Tom. I was a soldier, I was a bounty hunter. Am I a good guy? Am I bad? All I know is I don’t want to screw anyone else’s life up as badly as I’ve apparently screwed up mine. I want to get out of here. To do that, I’ll do whatever I have to.”

“Well, I don’t like it so far, but I’m still with you. Just try and keep in mind that the more you leave me alone, the more speeches I have to give, ok?”

“Agreed.” All in all, Tom wasn’t that bad of a wisp. Little panicky, and he might have known what had happened by reading the records but he didn’t live his life, he didn’t feel the losses he had and experienced the wars first hand. He could not possibly know what he had been through and what he was feeling now. He wanted back what he lost. He could not get back his lost love by any stretch, but he could get back his honor. He would be a general again. He would command troops and fight battles and all of Marconia would eventually sing his praises where right now they would curse them. He would leave this planet better than he found it and that would be part of the legend. He would not let Kyle stand in his way, but he wasn’t going to hurt his chances in life either. He looked up as he approached the gymnasium. Tomkari meant well, but he wasn’t experienced in going on missions and fighting for his life. Critock was, and he would do anything in his power to accomplish this. And speaking of power…

“Uh, Tom…Where’s my sword?”

“What sword?” It wasn’t Tom’s voice that answered, and Critock spun around, instinct taking over as Tom moved behind him. He relaxed slightly when he saw the source of the voice: Daniel was running up to them, similarly cutting it close to running late, though for very different reasons. He apparently had only heard the tail end of the conversation, which was fortunate.

“Uh…” Critock thought quickly, and perhaps heartened by the line of thought where Kyle was being helped, a film image popped into his head with accompanying dialogue. “Just remembering a movie. “Where is my sword, where is the horse and rider, so on.”

“Uh huh.” Daniel nodded, already having lost interest. “C’mon, lets get in there, Claire told me that Reynolds is on a warpath today.”

When they entered the gym, they could see that Claire had been correct. Mr. Nathan Reynolds was in a very bad mood, as it seemed he always was. Critock thought about how many educators in this school seemed to either perpetually be mad at something or just did not care for the actual act of teaching, and wondered if it was just an anecdotal problem or something more widespread, but he had no time to dwell on it as he followed Daniel to open seats on the gym floor.

As it turned out, they weren’t sitting long. The gruff teacher who seemed to go through every day with a permanent scowl was not in the mood to do anything as far as teaching, but Physical Education typically wasn’t a class where that sort of thing happened on a regular basis. Daniel had crossed his fingers for Dodgeball, which wasn’t done as much any more due to fear of lawsuits, which caused Critock to roll his eyes, even though he had no idea what dodgeball was other than the literal translation of the name. Instead, today was tennis, a sport that Critock actually took to quickly due to it’s close resemblance to several other sports he had seen on different planets including Marconia. Hitting something back and forth seemed to be the universal pastime, he thought, as he struck the ball with his racquet.

Tom was having the time of his life and was leaving Critock mostly alone with Daniel, as he was trying to match the speed of the ball as it traveled back and forth. Critock thought that he probably didn’t get much of a childhood with the Qua’roti and considering the stress of everything that they had gone through, both here on Earth and also with the trip here, he could use some fun before they got back to it. He still wondered where the Sword of Kon was but he knew how much reverence Tom had for it so he wasn’t concerned.

He hit the ball back as hard as he could, and his aim was true, hitting out of bounds against Daniel, who called back “Nice hit!” before retrieving the ball. He still hadn’t had a chance to check his eyes to see if his tennis partner could also be his nemesis, but he wasn’t worried as he had already eliminated him at lunch. He was comfortable that the odds of Pt’ron being anyone that Kyle was close to were so low that he wasn’t going to go out of his way to stare into anyone else’s eyes. He really didn’t need any more people talking about him.

“I know you’ve probably heard it before but…” Daniel paused to hit the ball back at Critock. “Great job with Brian today!”

Critock squared himself, and lobbed the ball back. “I’m getting tired of hearing about it, honestly. Hasn’t anyone else at this school ever had a fight?”

Daniel easily came up and struck the ball, forcing Critock back to return the shot. “Yeah, me, years ago though. I’m not giving them enough to talk about any more, so they need a new hero!” As Critock played, he got images of Daniel from the past. Apparently he and Kyle had been friends since practically preschool, but had drifted apart as they hit the eighth grade. Daniel had went through a growth spurt and an emotional period at the same time, and had led him to somehow get involved with stealing and a small amount of bullying of his own, though never in Kyle’s direction. He came very close to being held back in school but managed to make it to summer, and when he reached high school, he immediately reconnected with Kyle and had cleaned up his act, even being trusted to work alongside Shanna in the principal’s office this year, and becoming Claire’s boyfriend. Seeing memories of her sparked Critock to wonder what happened to her. “Hey, how’s Claire?”

“Oh.” He hit the ball a little off of where he was intending, and it spiraled into another game. They paused as they waited for it to be thrown back to them. “She’s okay. You really did a number on her.”

“Sorry. Just kind of hit me the wrong way. Shanna didn’t do anything to her.”

Daniel got the ball back, bounced it a couple times, and served it. “Hey, man, it’s between you and her. She fights her own battles. Honestly, she probably needed it. She’s had a chip on her shoulder about that cheerleading thing since she got shot down.”

“I heard about that. Must be rough to get kicked out of the one thing that you think you’re good at.” The two volleyed back and forth in silence until Daniel spoke up again.

“So what’s going on with you today? Did you eat your Wheaties? I don’t think I’ve heard so many people talk about one person since Martin Neal fell off the balcony.”

“Started working on a new project. Put things in a new perspective. And got really tired of Brian.” It was mostly the same excuse that he had used with Shanna and he figured if he was vague enough that Daniel wouldn’t push. He couldn’t help but compare today to Daniel’s situation. “You must’ve had a day like that where you woke up and wanted things to be different.”

Daniel was quiet as he hit the ball back. He finally answered after a moment. “Well, you can’t keep doing the same things day after day and expect different things to happen, right? Yeah, woke up, didn’t want to become a bully like Brian, and just chose who I wanted to be.”

“Seems like it’s working out for you.” Critock grunted as he hit the ball.

“Just gotta be careful.” He returned the ball with a strong hit. “You do make enemies this way.”

“I think I can handle myself.”

“Oh ho! Big man all of a sudden cause he dodged the slowest guy in school. I’d clap but I’m busy kicking your butt.” Daniel struck the ball and it just barely stayed in bounds as it hit the line. Critock cursed internally, and went to retrieve it. “Big guy has friends. Your particular buddy has a pack of fellow idiots that’ll practically die for him. Heard you ran afoul of them in Phelps’ class. You learn real quick that you need to travel in groups after that. I’ve been dodging him for the last year, but he’ll get his.”

“Phelps said he’d get kicked out of school.” Having got the ball, Critock served it up, but it ended up more of a lob as he was still getting used to Earth’s gravity.

“Heh, and if my aunt had balls she’d be my uncle. Would hurt the school’s numbers too much to have any more expelled. I would imagine we’ll see him again sooner or later.”

“So if they can’t kick him, how is he going to ‘get his’?”

“Every bully is the same. Sooner or later they come across someone who won’t take any more of them. He ran into that today but you were smart enough not to try and take him down in full view of every teacher. You embarrassed him but didn’t finish the job, so he’ll probably leave you alone in public. He’s going to take out his aggressions on others. Eventually, people will learn from your fine example, and fight back. Whether it’s you or someone else, he’s going to pick at someone with no one else around and that person is going to take him to the cleaners. His days are numbered.” Daniel smiled at the thought of Brian being taken down, and the two went quiet as they played.

For the first time Critock wondered about the consequences of his arrival beyond just Kyle’s future life. He hadn’t given much thought to how Brian would react after his humiliation, just that Kyle’s life was now that much better. That could now create a wave of happenings that he could not foresee all around him. He thought about Shanna. Was she meant for someone or something else? Changing Kyle in such a way could cause the two of them to have a relationship but was that a right thing to do? And how could his actions trickle down to effect the rest of the students, and indeed changed the future of Earth itself? They were troubling, troubling thoughts, and he dwelled on them just long enough to miss the ball sailing past him.

“Wake up!” Daniel laughed, just as the bell rang to release them from their ‘education’. He passed by Critock, clapping him on the shoulder, and moved towards the exit and the next class. After a moment, Critock followed, being joined by Tom who was still moving quickly, racing around him in a circle.

“That was GREAT! Man, I should do that more often. We need more sports like that back home. Maybe I’ll talk to Alpha…” He stopped when he realized Critock didn’t appear to be listening to him, and instead was just blankly walking ahead, lost in thought. “Critock? Um…Kyle?”

“I’m here, Tom. Still in control. It’s just…I think you might have been right. Trying to fix things to make it right for Kyle is just going to cause more problems.”

Tom sighed. “It’s fine, you’ve had a pretty rough day and it can’t be easy dealing with that kid inside your head. Just keep focused. You’re not a good guy, you’re not a bad guy, you’re just a guy doing a job, and when it’s all over, you’re a General again, and Kyle, the girl, the bully, and Earth can all take care of itself.”

“As long as they don’t blow themselves up in the process.” Critock muttered as they moved towards their next class.