The Joining: The Saga of the Shards Book One (The Cycle of the Shards 1)

by Chris Stephenson

  “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.

  16

  Critock tried to stay out of things and let the day progress as it would if he had never showed up, he really did. But he knew that idea was in jeopardy when he walked into the study hall, to find Claire sitting alone, and obviously still upset from Critock’s talk earlier in the day. If things were to proceed as they should then he realized she would have to be returned to good spirits, otherwise Kyle would have to deal with her once he was gone, and he wasn’t entirely sure if the normally sullen boy would be up to the task. From borrowed memories he sat in his seat, and whispered to Tom, noticing that the teacher that day was sitting on the opposite side of the room from most of the students and was looking through their own book and oblivious to their actions. “You’re not going to like this, but I need to talk to Claire.” He nodded towards the blonde girl with red cheeks, who sniffed almost on queue.

  Tom shook back and forth. “Didn’t you just say…”

  “I know! I know. But she’s upset because of what I said at lunch before you showed up. I need to at least try and reset things to the status quo. Right now she thinks Kyle is a bad guy. If I could smooth things over, at least she’s not going to attack him after I’m gone for something I did. That cool with you?”

  “Listen to you, using slang. We’ll make an Earth native out of you yet. Yeah, go ahead. Not like we can do anything else in here outside of setting up a fake eye exam.” Tom felt strangely proud. His partner was learning!

  Critock considered the eye exam idea for a half second before dismissing it. He stood and quickly moved over to Claire’s table, sitting down at the empty chair opposite her. When she looked up and saw him, she gave him a look that would have killed lesser men. He took the look in stride, and started immediately. “I’m not here to fight, I wanted…”

  “You wanted what?” She came back at him like she had been rehearsing what to say in her head for the last two periods. “Wanted to shame me some more? Wanted to humiliate me again in front of all our friends?”

  Critock shook his head. “Wanted to apologize.” She stopped, clearly not expecting this. Granted, before today she hadn’t expected much of anything from Kyle, other than random chats online. But here he was in front of her, continuing to speak like he never had before. “I was out of line. Obviously I like Shanna, and I still think she’s a different person than you think she is, but you have every right to your opinion and I shouldn’t have called you out like that in person. For what it’s worth, I think you would’ve been a great cheerleader.” Critock made that last bit up, not having any real knowledge of how she was, but if it made her feel better, what could it hurt?

  He thought that Claire would have said something snarky back, or that he would have at least shamed him like he shamed her, but what she did surprised him: She cried. It was soft, but tears were coming out of her eyes and she was making small whimpering noises. This was absolutely not Critock’s usual territory, and he looked around helplessly. He heard a soft muttering nearby. “One of the greatest soldiers in the universe and he can’t handle a crying girl. Here.” Tom had stealthily moved under the tables with a napkin and dropped it on the table. “I thought you were going to make her feel better?” He added, but Critock ignored him and handed her the napkin, which she took and wiped her eyes.

  “No, I would have been terrible. I didn’t really want to be in it, I just wanted to hang out with Shanna. We were friends for years growing up, and I saw her going for it, so I figured, why not? She got in, and I got kicked to the curb. And then she’s been hanging out with those plastics.” She paused to blow her nose. “They’re just so awful and she doesn’t seem to care. We haven’t talked for months. I don’t even care about cheerleading! I hate them!” She dissolved into stronger tears now as she covered her eyes, and Critock looked around to see if anyone was noticing. There were a few students glancing her way with concerned looks, but the teacher was too far away and hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. He looked at Tom, who slowly floated away.

  “Don’t look at me, this is your fight.” The wisp turned and decided to see if he could get close enough to other students to look into their eyes and detect Pt’ron himself. He realized it was almost impossible as the wisp’s vision wasn’t quite clear enough to reliably make out anything other than a colorful blob, but even a fruitless search was better than having to watch this great general make a continued fool of himself calming down a teenaged girl.

  Critock sighed. “Have you tried to talk to her?”

  “No!” Claire exclaimed. “She’s always hanging around with her friends. I couldn’t get a word in if I wanted to.”

  “Try.”

  Claire looked up. “What?”

  “Try. Part of the reason I went off at lunch was because of how she looked at that table. Not talking with anyone, absolutely miserable just sitting there. I bet she misses you no matter what she gained by getting to sit at the popular table.” He quickly sifted through what memories he could access to see what he knew about Shanna’s schedule. “She works in the office during lunch sometimes, there won’t be any plastics there. Try.”

  She looked at him strangely. “Thank you. I will. I think….I think I needed what you told me. Wish it hadn’t been so public, but…”

  “Well, it was that or online, and it’s too easy to just ignore that kind of thing online.” Critock didn’t know where those words came from. He didn’t even know what ‘online’ was. He made sure he had control, and continued. “Now if we can just work on your entertainment choices, and get you and John to stop arguing, we’ll be on the right track.” Might as well cover everything.

  She was finally smiling again. “Don’t push your luck, geek.” Critock smiled back, and took the opportunity to look her in the eyes as best as he can. Pretty blue eyes, but he was too far away to see if she had any extra rings of color. He got up quickly before she could think that he was trying to start something, and headed back to his seat. He flopped down and exhaled a large breath as Tom came back over to him.

  “How’s your luck with the ladies going?”

  “Surprisingly well. I should retire here.” Critock joked, keeping his mouth movements to a minimum. “Also, we have as-of-now officially removed two people from consideration as Pt’ron. Only a couple thousand to go.”

  “Well good, at this rate we’ll have saved the world in a cycle. Plenty of time. Did you end up stealing this one’s heart too?”

  Critock just gave him a look. “No. Got her back to being friends with Kyle. And stop it. It’s not Shanna’s heart I’m interested in.” Even though there was no re
al face to Tom, Critock could feel the look that he was giving him. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

  “The way this day is going, I just have to make sure. What’s the plan now?”

  Critock sat back in the chair. “Right now? Relax.”

  “Relax? How many times do I have to remind you we’re in a little bit of a time crunch.” Tom said, nervously.

  Critock sighed, and put his head down on the desk, speaking silently so as to not be overheard by anyone else who would think it strange that Kyle was talking to himself. “You’re not wrong, but outside of going up to everyone and asking politely to look in their eyes, I don’t think we’re going to advance the cause. We can’t do anything productive with the computer system until Shanna shows up, and that’s not going to be until later on. The yearbook…” He tapped it. “…Is useless. In absence of a better plan, we take a breath.” The Five knows we needed it, he thought. He hadn’t had a day this eventful in a hundred cycles. The reward was worth all the risk, he kept saying to himself. Tom let out an exasperated sigh and floated off, and Critock put his head back and closed his eyes. He was very tired, understandable considering what had happened today, and thanked whoever was listening that the teacher overseeing this group didn’t seem to care if anyone was doing what they were supposed to, as long as they were quiet about it. Just a few minutes to recuperate was all he needed, this human body seemed to tire much easier than his Marconian counterpart, granted the exercise regimen and age varied greatly. He felt himself slipping away…