THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One

Critock had a brief impulse to kiss the ground when he finally crawled inside the dark empty classroom, and he was joined quickly after by Shanna, who was currently brushing off her uniform from the dust that had accumulated on it from rubbing her back across the wall. He stuffed the thought away, pointing to the small desktop computer that sat on Phelps’ desk.

“Let’s get that thing going.” He crossed the room to the classroom door, and after looking at the handle for a moment, clicked the lock of it. Shanna moved immediately to the computer, pressing the power button to start the bootup process. He looked at her expectantly as he moved back towards her. “It up yet?”

“Hold on, these things take time. Please wouldn’t hurt either.” She watched the screen as Critock came around the desk to join her.

“Please hurry this thing up. Time is something we don’t have a lot of.”

“’This thing’ is at least two generations behind what current software is. It’s been in place for longer than I’ve been in school. Probably cause they didn’t pass the tax thing last year. We’re being held together with duct tape as it is.”

Critock put his hands behind his head in exasperation as he walked away from the computer, pacing with frustration. “Stone knives and bearskins, I swear to Kon. This place is run by barbarians.” He walked down to a desk, and then turned around, placing his hands on the rough wood. “I mean, how do you people learn in an environment like this? ‘Passing the tax thing’? You have to beg for money to pay for the most basic of education? It thought your planet left the dark ages.”

Shanna shook her head as the computer screen finally changed from black writing to a blue background, which didn’t mean it was fully booted but at least there was some progress being made. “Don’t look at me, I’m just stuck here. Who’s Kon anyway?”

“What?”

“Kon. Name you keep mentioning. Your sword, ‘I swear to…’, who is he? I thought you didn’t have a God?”

Critock sighed, not wanting to waste any time. It wasn’t the conversation that he didn’t like, he actually found it easy to talk to Shanna about Marconian culture. It was more the invisible ticking clock in the background towards their annihilation. “Not exactly a God, he was one of the Five. The warrior one, defended the great shard, but ended up destroying it and creating this universe. My sword is allegedly what he used to do it.”

“Do you believe that?” The computer beeped, and a picture appeared on the screen, along with a bar at the bottom. It was still loading everything in but the end was in sight.

Critock shrugged. “It is a nice sword, one of a kind, and no idea how it was made. Even Marconian technology isn’t that advanced. But it is just a sword. Nothing about it really sings to me about it surviving the destruction of a universe and the creation of this one.”

Shanna didn’t take her eyes off the screen. “Yeah, but I’d bet the Shards don’t look like anything special either.” She experimentally moved the mouse around, and was satisfied to see the cursor arrow move around the screen. “Okay, we’re in, let me get into the files.” Critock let out a breath as she stared intently, searching through a series of folders to find the one special one that she was looking for. A minute passed and Critock folded his arms impatiently.

“Are they there?”

“One secccond….” Clicking a non-descript folder that just was listed as ‘Q’, Shanna’s eyes widened as the screen was suddenly filled with image files, each with a name attached to it in alphabetical order. “Got it. We’re in.” She quickly clicked the first one listed, an Aaron Ackerman, and the screen suddenly changed to show the portly freshman. Critock came around the table and looked at the screen, and she clicked a plus button a couple times, zooming in on the face of the student, specifically his eyes. “This good?”

He peered closer over her shoulder. “Perfect. And he’s not him.”

“Then you take control. Little arrow next to his picture goes to the next one. Click clickclick. Simple.”

Critock nodded as Shanna slid out of the teacher’s chair, allowing Critock to settle in, instantly clicking to the next student. It only took a couple of seconds for him to look exactly where he needed to, and then dismiss them as a possibility. He was elated, though his mind was singularly focused on the pictures. Finally, something was working! He clicked to the next, calling out to Shanna, who had sat down on the floor, her back against the desk. “We have enough time?”

“Just keep clicking like you’ve never clicked before and we’ll make it. Probably.”

Critock sighed as he stared. Time passed. As he became used to the system and the look of the students and how the eyes appeared on the screen, he managed to take the time it took to completely eliminate each student as a candidate from five seconds to less than one. The room was silent except for the sound of the clicking mouse. After about fifteen minutes of the imposing silence, in which Critock had progressed to the ’R’s, Shanna spoke.

“Cri-tock?”

“Yeah?” The clicking did not cease.

“What would happen if you didn’t leave?”

Critock almost stopped clicking, but he regained control quickly. “What?”

Shanna turned around, pulling herself up by the edge of the desk, being careful not to knock any of Mr. Phelps’ knick knacks out of place. “I mean what if you stayed on Earth with us?”

“Uh…” He stopped to take a closer look at the eye of the current student. Satisfied that there was nothing there to see, he kept going. “I mean, what happens to Kyle? What do you mean exactly?”

“Ok.” Shanna leaned over the desk. “We win. Bad guy dead, Shards destroyed, Happy ending. But you decide to stay here.”

Critock didn’t have any idea where this was coming from. “Uh, why would I decide to do that? We won. My part of this is over. Did what you wanted to do, finished what I started. I told you what would happen if I stayed in Kyle’s body. I’m not willing to wipe him out.”

“I didn’t mean that!” There was a brief pause as Critock continued to click. “You don’t have to stay in his body though, do you? You can jump to someone else, maybe someone that’s in a coma or something, and…”

Critock stopped clicking and leveled a stern gaze at her. “And why would I do that? I don’t belong here, I have a home to get back to.”

“Don’t stop.” She said, and he suddenly remembered the primary goal of the day and returned to his task. “Because we need you here. What happens after you leave and the next alien comes down wanting to invade us or cause a problem?”

Click clickclick. “You’ve made it the entire history of your planet with only one alien contact, and that was my fault. Why are you so sure there’s going to be more?”

Shanna came around to face him. “Because now we’re on the map. Before now nobody ever heard of Earth according to you. The only reason your buddy there is here is because of you. But now, to hear you talk about it, the entire universe is waiting to hear what happens, whether we should be destroyed or not.”

Critock sighed. “Shanna, once Pt’ron and the Shards are gone, I highly doubt anyone’s ever going to hear of Earth ever again. It’s a small village on the way to nowhere special that accidentally got stumbled upon. Once we’re gone, nobody will ever mention it.” He glanced at Shanna, and could see that she remained unsure, and continued. “Look, once I get back up there, I’ll make sure Earth gets put into a protected status. Considering your world didn’t have any choice but to get drug into this, it’s not fair to expose you to any harm. If any ‘aliens’ approach your world, we’ll turn them around. How’s that?”

“If you catch them.”

Critock rolled his eyes and spun from the computer to face her. “Shanna, the universe is not the wild west. Nobody’s going to come down here looking for revenge on a species that isn’t much more advanced than the animals in a zoo. Especially since they’ll know that I was the one that did it.” He spun back around before she could answer. “Would you blame an anthill if a wasp stings you nearby?”

She shook her head and kept looking at him with a challenging stare. “No, but I might get mad enough to accidentally step on it.”

He glanced at the names that he was clicking through, and noticed the proximity of the end of the alphabet. “I’m starting to get a little worried here.”

She squinted and looked at the screen. “Why?”

“Because I think I’m almost done, but there’s no Pt’ron.”

“Are you sure? You couldn’t have missed him, could you?”

Critock scoffed. “I’m not stupid, Shanna, there’s no way I could have.” He clicked again, and was met with a small error that informed him what he was starting to dread. There were no more students to click through. If Pt’ron was here, he apparently wasn’t hiding amongst the children. “He wasn’t here. He isn’t here!” He stood up, feeling completely hopeless, and pounded the desk.

“Calm down!” Shanna reached out and put a hand on Critock’s shoulder. “There has to be something we’re missing.” Critock did appreciate her saying “we” instead of “you’re”, and it helped him take a breath.

“If you want to take a look at that, be my guest. How much time do we have left?” Critock walked back from the computer, looking out at the window.

“Not long. Assemblies usually empty out right before the bell.” Shanna stared at the screen, trying to look for something that she would have missed. She backed out from the pictures and scanned through the list of names. “Damn.” She exclaimed after a moment.

“No kidding damn. I’ve got some curses worked up too that will break your neck if you try them.”

“No, I mean we missed something. You’re…I mean Kyle isn’t on here.”

“What? Let me see.” He turned around and huddled around the monitor with Shanna, their heads almost touching.

“You see…” She pointed at the screen. “No Kyle Edison. And no Daniel, no Claire, no Brian, and a few other people that I know of. And no teachers.”

Critock rubbed his face, the beginnings of a headache forming due to the sudden changes in mood. “Authority figures. Has Claire ever gotten in trouble with the school?”

Shanna nodded. “Last year she got a lot of detentions and a in-school suspension for not doing homework. She got that fixed thanks to her brother, but…”

Critock just stared at the screen. “That’s what it is then. Phelps has access to all the pictures of everyone except people that are trouble-makers. Kyle was probably part of this list too up until the other day. So who’s got the list of everyone else?”

Shanna sighed. “Tompkins.”

“The principal?” Critock stood straight up, and started pacing around the room. “Okay, I’ll get the sword. We need to get in there now.”

Shanna came around the desk and intercepted his path. “You can’t do that! They’ll have to try and stop you, and then…”

Critock was tired, tired of the delays, tired of everything that had gotten in his way to prevent him from completing his task. “Look,” He hissed at Shanna. “I’ve played it your way for long enough. Your entire planet is going to die unless I get that picture. Do you understand? Do you have any concept of that?”

“Just give me some time, Cri-Tok!” Critock was starting to find the way she pronounced his name less endearing with every repletion and every stall.

“We’re OUT of time!” Critock exploded at her in his own voice, which left her shaking, and it was that exact moment when Tom flew in, phasing through the glass pane on the door.

“Guys! We have to go!” The wisp was frantic, either not noticing or not caring that he had interrupted the argument. “Phelps is coming! He snuck out the back early!”

Critock, his eyes focused and angry, turned. “Ok, I can take care of him so he’ll be out…”

“No!” Shanna yelled, snapping Critock out of his planning. She turned to Tom. “Is there time to get out the door?”

He curved the head-end of his form back and forth. “No, he’s probably just entering the hall now.”

“Fine.” She responded, grabbing hold of Critock’s arm and pulled his surprised form to the back of the room. “Back out the window, Martian!”

He turned and looked at her directly. “Shanna, no, it doesn’t matter if we get caught now…”

“You begged for my help, and you’re getting it.” She yanked, and again it caught him off guard, sending him towards the bookshelves that served as makeshift steps to the window in all the rooms. “Go!”

Critock looked at the door, looked at Tom, and then began to move out of the window. He figured there’d be less chance of an advance alarm if Phelps was still unaware of what was going on, and better to keep some kind of good reputation with Shanna, for Kyle’s sake. Having went out once already, he was much quicker this time, and within a few seconds had crawled completely out of the window, and plastered himself against the wall. Tom followed, hovering beside him as he moved quickly out of the way.

“What did I miss now?” The wisp said, mournfully.

“Principal has the picture of Pt’ron, we’re going to have to go directly to him to get it.”

Shanna started to crawl out, a bit slower and more hesitant than Critock had been the second time but still faster than the initial exit. Tom moved closer to her in case she needed any assistance, as he continued speaking to his partner. “Direct assault?”

“Yeah.” Shanna was out now, and in the process of standing up next to the window. “Disable anyone in the way, get in, Shanna, you’ll still have to get into the computer.” Critock started to move over next to her as well.

“I said no! I work in the office, remember? I’m there at lunch, and Tompkins always leaves for a few minutes to walk the lunchroom.” Shanna wavered a bit as she braced against the wall, and accidentally looked down. Seeing the ground one story below made her rethink her glance immediately, though she was glad she had as she caught the window ledge, still open, out of the corner of her eye. Being as careful as she could, she raised one leg up on the ridge, and pressed down. It refused to move, and she could hear a door slowly creak open from inside. “Just give me till lunchtime, we’ll go in together, and nobody gets hurt. Okay?” She forced her foot down harder on the ridge, and it slid shut. However it did so much quicker than Shanna was thinking, and her balance was completely lost. Seeing her begin to pitch over, Critock thought quickly, taking his right hand off the wall just for a moment and grasping her hand just in time as she completely left the ledge, falling and beginning to scream. He summoned all of his strength and Kyle’s as well to both keep his grip on her hand and not fall off the ledge himself. He bent at the knees and swung her around.

“TOM! GRAB HER OTHER HAND!” She had stopped screaming but she still had a look of absolute fright on her face as he swung her over. He didn’t have quite enough power to swing her back up on the ledge himself.

Tom, having been caught off guard by her initial fall, flew down and fit himself into Shanna’s palm. “Close your hand! It’s okay, I’m stronger than I look!” Without the ability to question him further, she closed around him, and put some of her weight to him. To her surprise, he wasn’t wrong, and she felt like she was holding on to something steady that was also lifting her up. “I’ve got her, Critock!” He called out.

Critock continued to swing her, and with the added help from Tom, started to get her higher without risking his own falling. After a few moments in which Shanna went fully from right to left two times, they finally succeeded in swinging her up and back on the ledge, her feet landing and Tom moving out of her fist to her middle back, pushing her up until she was fully against the wall, her arms outstretched, Critock having switched and holding her left hand. She was breathing very heavy, her eyes wide and panicked, and Critock shuffled closer to her as Tom kept her from falling off by holding her back up.

“Shanna! Shanna, look at me. Look at my eyes. See the ring.” Her panicked gaze steadied and focused on Critock’s eyes. “That ring is me, Shanna. The rest is Kyle, and Tom’s holding you up. We’ve all got you, you’re not alone.” Shanna blinked, and nodded. “You’re right, we’re all going to go in together to Tompkins’ office, and we’ll get those pictures. And then we’ll get Pt’ron. You’re going to save the world, Shanna. We can’t do it without you, so we need you to get back inside. Can you do that?” There was a scared tear rolling down her face, but she ignored it and nodded again, and with Tom still holding her back to help her balance, she began to shuffle towards the window, this time taking the lead as she had done before the first time they had come out.

When she reached the window, Critock thought it was a miracle that Phelps hadn’t come out to see what all the commotion was, but it was probably because he had just gotten back into the room and wasn’t close enough to the window to hear anything. The glass seemed solid. Shanna cautiously bent down slowly, and with Tom assisting, successfully crawling back through the window. Releasing a breath that he didn’t even know he was holding, Critock followed as quickly as he dared, finally completing this mission, albeit a failed one.

The room was still empty, he was relieved to see, but he knew it wouldn’t remain that way for long. Shanna stood still, testing the ground, obviously still not recovered from her near fall. He moved to her, and she jumped as he placed an arm around her as Tom went ahead to check the door. The wisp nodded, and he guided her out of the classroom completely, just in time for the first bell to ring. As it trilled it’s sharp bellow, Critock moved with Shanna down the hall to the bathrooms, and stood with her outside them, already hearing the yells and screams of their fellow students.

He moved around and placed his arms on her shoulders. “Are you going to be okay?”

She took a deep breath and finally answered. “Yeah, it’s just…It’s just I was scared I was going to fall, and then after, it’s like all the fear I was holding back about you and the missiles and the Shards and everything just is all happening at once. I’m scared, Cri-tok.”

It again was nice to hear that name from her lips. “We’re going to get through this, Shanna. We’re going to meet right here after next period, then we’re going into that office together. Me and you.” There was a sharp coughing noise from nearby. “And our little buddy here. Okay?”

She nodded, and then suddenly enveloped Critock in a tight hug which he did not find unpleasant. She whispered in his ear. “Thank you.” She released him before he could react, and then looked at Tom. She first went to shake hands automatically, but then both realized that it would look like she was shaking thin air. Instead, she just smiled at him. “Thank you.” He flew up and down in a nodding way, and then she turned and walked away, both Critock and Tom watching her leave.

“She going to be okay, Critock?” Tom asked, a tad nervously.

Critock nodded as he watched. “I hope so.”