“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.”
28
It turned out that Critock didn't have to walk very far at all to get to his next class, as it was Science with Mr. Phelps. While the clock continued to tick down until the time that Pt'ron would reveal himself and the Shards would wake from their dormancy, Critock took a respite from the constant worrying about the limited amount of time they had left. After everything that had just happened, compounded on the events that had led them to this point, he deemed it prudent to force himself to relax. Certainly he owed it to Shanna to trust her and her plan to get them into the office. Even there, there wouldn't be a lot of time left to find Pt'ron after they matched him in Principal Tompkins' system, but it w
ould give them a good starting point.
Tom, however, had deteriorated throughout the day and now was almost in a full panic mode. As Critock entered Phelps' room as though he hadn't just been in there only minutes before, he realized that Tom wasn't going to be content to just sit near him and watch the extremely outdated lecture and quizzes. Instead, he quietly announced to his Marconian partner that he was going to start searching for the Shards in spaces only a wisp could get to, in case Pt'ron's plan involved a quick change. Critock knew that Pt'ron wouldn't let his guard down for a second to change into a wisp, and it was unlikely that Tom would find anything. However, preferring to suffer through the class in silence rather than a pestering soul in his ear, he just waved a hand and sent Tom away, with a promise to return before the lunch period had begun.
Critock continued to his seat, the first time today that he could rely on his own familiarity with surroundings instead of spending an almost awkward amount of time searching for which seat was his, trying to find the correct information in Kyle's mind before he attracted too much attention. The events yesterday upon his arrival were seared into his memory, and he simply walked to his seat and sat down just like every day that had gone by. He didn't retrieve any books, not knowing for sure exactly what to pull out. He simply folded his hands and waited.
Phelps, having returned from the loud rally, looked like he had been running a marathon. His clothes were slightly disheveled, and his face, which had already been showing the signs of age, had the appearance of extreme fatigue. Critock was hit with a sudden blast of guilt when he realized his teacher's appearance and likely general mood was a direct result of his incompetence by not killing the pirate the first time their paths had crossed, and of his unwanted arrival in Kyle himself. Not seeing any way he could reassure or apologize to the older teacher without giving himself away, he remained sitting silent at his desk, hoping for the second and final bell to ring so the class would begin, and both Phelps and Critock could move their thoughts to other endeavors.
Critock was relieved to see, as the time moved closer to the bell and the final students shuffled in, that Brian's two partners seemed to have been suspended along with the bully. Their seats were empty, and there was no sign of anyone else preparing to enter the room. The bell rang out it's shrill toll that informed the late arriving students throughout the school that it was too late for them and their fate was sealed, and then all was quiet in the classroom, with all eyes at the near-middle-aged teacher, his head down as he leaned against the wall near his desk. Whether they had seen it on the news first hand, or had heard a slightly embellished version from a friend or classmate, Everyone in the room knew what had happened, or at least what the media had reported had happened, anyway. It was going on that in the first period class that he taught, Phelps had not said a word, just handed out worksheets and went back to his desk, staring out the window. Everyone was uncharacteristically silent as they waited with concern for their teachers wellbeing.
It was another full two minutes before Phelps said anything, but when he did it wasn't what they had expected. "Show of hands, how many people in this class believe in aliens?"
Critock tried to keep the surprise off of his face as he raised his hand truthfully, though his belief was based on first hand knowledge. He did allow a small smile on his face at the roughly half of the class that did not believe in what was sitting right next to them.
Phelps continued. "Lot more skeptics than there used to be. I blame the internet, you know. Unlimited knowledge at your fingertips makes the impossible even more impossible. But you're probably right to be skeptical, after all we've never seen any of them with our own eyes, and today more than ever we have ways to capture what we're seeing, between cameras strapped to your head and cameras on phones."
He let a small, sad smirk show on his face. "However, I've never seen a gas leak leave precision shots in a house before, striking the best parts of a house to hit to have it collapse."
A boy from the back of the room spoke, and Critock swung around to look at him. Remembering his face from the pictures he had already seen, he was immediately able to discount the boy as a Pt'ron possibility, but his words could attract undue attention to himself just the same. "So, you're saying that you think aliens destroyed your house?"
Phelps pointed at the boy. "It's a crazy thought. Certainly not something I'd put into writing or pursue openly, lest I get thrown in the crazy house and fired. But I do admit it is more likely than a very selective gas explosion."
"So why bring it up if you're not going to go looking for them?" Another voice from a girl in the front of the class. "Aren't you afraid we're going to think that you're crazy?"
Phelps chuckled. "I would have thought that particular ship sailed after the first day of the school year. No, because even I don't fully believe that's what happened. Could have been something from the Government drones, could have been a rogue agent of some type. I'll likely never know for sure, but the good news is since the official word is that it was a gas leak, and that is covered by my insurance. So at least I don't have to look for a place to live."
Critock raised his hand, and Phelps nodded towards him. "So you're not crazy, and that's great, but honestly, how are you doing?" He may not have been able to stop this from happening to the teacher, but Critock could at least show some empathy, and try to sway the conversation away from aliens on Earth before Pt'ron caught wind of it.
Phelps was slightly taken aback. He had been receiving outpourings of offers to help replace the house and help out, but Kyle Edison wasn't exactly someone that he was expecting anything from. It looked like whatever that had happened to him yesterday was continuing, and that wasn't something that he was going to discourage. "Yes, yes, thank you, Kyle. And thank you everyone for your kind words and help. I did end up losing a lot of things, but in the end, they're just things. The house will be replaced eventually, and I won't be out anything.
"But I didn't want to talk about what happened to me really. I'm not sure what I would put on the test in that case. But I wanted to talk about aliens today, as the 'attack' reopened my eyes somewhat."
Critock whispered to himself. "Why today?"
"Space is big. We all know that right?" Phelps was walking back and forth in front of the dry-erase board on the left side of the room. "The Universe is immense and possibly unending. We, are here." He picked up a black marker and placed a small dot in the center of the otherwise empty white board. "This is the Milky Way, our wonderful home galaxy. The remainder of this board represents the rest of the universe."
Critock, not able to help it at all, let out an involuntarily scoffing noise, which Phelps picked up on, as he knew that the boy wouldn't be able to resist a topic like this.
"Do you have something to say, Kyle?"
Critock sighed and nodded. "Didn't mean for it to come out mean, but that's not to scale at all. The universe is impossible. It doesn't match up to any kind of scale or measurement. There just is the universe, a sea of endless black. If there is an end to it I don't think Earth has ever come close to detecting it. I don't think any species has."
“Any…species. So you’re pretty much all in on the existence of extra-terrestrials?” Mr. Phelps sat halfway on his desk, folding his arms.
“Well…Yeah!” Critock answered without betraying the irony of him having to answer a question like that. “Sure, life showing up on Earth is a miracle. But again, space is big. If Earth being in the right distance from the sun and having the right things happen to it during the millions of years of evolution that got…us….to this point is a million-to-one shot, then there’s a trillion Earths out there, each coming about a different way.
A hand went up from across the room, and the ‘boy’, a red-haired sixteen-year-old who apparently needed to learn to shave, was called upon. “Don’t most religions say that Earth is the only place? That it was made specifically for us? That’s why I don’t believe in aliens. Why would God create this place as per
fect as he did but also other beings?”
Phelps rubbed a hand across his face. “I don’t want a religious argument in here, guys.” Just after he said that, Critock replied to the question.
“Well, you know, I don’t speak for ‘God’ or anything, but for the sake of argument, God exists, everything that happened in the bible did happen and wasn’t just a fever dream of under-educated sheep herders. Earth is millions of years old. The seven days as described in the bible had to be that long. And a lot of that was downtime, I would think. Assuming the ultimate power in the universe still had to obey physics, there was a lot of carefully putting things into position but there would have to have been a lot of waiting for things to naturally fall where they were supposed to, the fish to grow legs and figure out that land isn’t too bad, and so forth. So why wouldn’t he have been able to fill that time with putting things in motion elsewhere? Who’s to say that humans weren’t the first draft but instead the latest experiment? There you go, there’s your loophole, I know religious people love loopholes.” He took the time to wink to a girl In the corner who suddenly flushed red.
His debater was not deterred. “But the bible doesn’t say anything about that, why would it leave that out?”
Critock shook his head, and continued to speak calmly, even if there was a small undercurrent of snark flowing beneath his words. While he wasn’t familiar with this particular planet’s chosen religions or books, he had been around enough of them on different planets to know roughly how they worked. Kyle seemed to be helping as well, with points that he had been thinking about bubbling up to the surface. “Don’t know if you’ve been outside in the last few thousand years, but there’s an awful lot that the bible doesn’t say anything about. Why would it be our business? Bible doesn’t say anything about dinosaurs, but there’s no doubt they were there. Why would anything outside this planet’s human religious experience be covered in a book specifically put together to convince you that this way is the only way and everyone else can suck it.”
The Joining: The Saga of the Shards Book One (The Cycle of the Shards 1) Page 34