THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One

The bathroom door opened, and Critock almost stumbled out, still getting used to the novelty of using the boy’s body, and also the somewhat higher gravity of Earth as opposed to most of the planets he had been to. Ever since the last statement for Critock to remove himself from Kyle’s body, the boy was completely quiet, having withdrawn his consciousness completely from anywhere Critock could mentally access. However, potentially as a last form of rebellion, there were some parts of his mind he could not reach. Certain memories, perhaps fantasies, that could not be seen. Probably out of shame, or privacy, Critock didn’t know, and honestly at this point did not care. He didn’t need any of that, and if the boy was going to be sullen and bitter over this, he can go ahead and sit in the back of the brain for the rest of the time this was going on. He had enough to deal with right now. First and foremost, accessing the memory of exactly how to get back to the classroom he had fled from. It took him a moment, being unaware of the architecture of the human mind and where certain memories were stored, but after a couple of near wrong turns, he was able to navigate back to where he had started from, where he heard his original target, Mr. Phelps, speaking through the door.

He stopped as he heard the muffled voice of the teacher. This wasn’t his style. He was much more the type to run in, shoot the problem in the head or wherever their brains were located, and leave. Quick and easy. Subterfuge was not something he was comfortable with, especially within a species he knew nothing about, as well as being a student! How was he supposed to pretend to learn information that was eons behind what he had already learned years before he was of the age these kids are! And that was hundreds of years ago! He didn’t think he even had the capacity to pretend he was on their level, he could probably no more do that than pretend he was a baby! Hell, Marconian children had knowledge streamed to them from birth in order to have the best possible start, what would a Human baby even be! He stopped himself, took deep breaths, and looked up. The best thing he could do now is just go back to his training. Absorb knowledge as best he can from Kyle’s thoughts and memories and from the students around him, and use that. If these kids thought something was off, at least they wouldn’t suspect his true identity. The only one that he would be concerned about is Pt’ron, but even he, being acclimated to this planet for so long, would probably not suspect him. He knew his target well enough, at least he used to, to know that once in place for a while he would feel safe and secure in his deception. And this has been hundreds of years of deception. It would not totally surprise Critock if Pt’ron had gone native and almost completely forgot who he was. Satisfied and feeling more confident, Critock opened the door to the classroom.

The first impression that Critock had of the room was not positive. Desks cluttered everywhere, and way too many of them. Over twenty people in the room, most of which obviously not paying any attention to the instructor. Those that were trying to pay attention were also writing down points, dividing their attention between that and a course book that was also supposed to be followed. How was anyone supposed to teach using these arcane methods? How was anyone supposed to pay attention with three or four things to look at once? He shook his head as he entered the room. Madness. What did impress him, at least, was the model of the galaxy that was suspended over the room on wires. The scale was mostly correct, at least from the brief moments he had glanced over the galactic map on his now-destroyed hopper, and it gave him a small amount of hope. Most planets in the age that Earth was in didn’t think much to the boundaries outside their little world, focusing instead on their narrow religions and wars that failed to take into account the limited lifespan of their world and what could be out there in the infinite void. He referenced Kyle’s memory to navigate to his seat, and failed to notice that since he had entered the room that Phelps had stopped teaching, and the room had become eerily silent. He settled in the uncomfortable chair, shifting a couple times to find the most comfortable position, and only then glanced around the room, realizing that every eye was on him, looking at him with a mixture of concern and curiosity. He had a sudden memory of how it must have looked when he ran out of the room, bleeding and barely coherent, and now coming back in like nothing had happened. He didn’t know how to react.

“Kyle, are you okay?” Mr. Phelps asked, peering over his glasses.

“Yeah?” It wasn’t intended to be a question but his mastery of Kyle’s voice had not been completed as of yet.

“I can give you a pass down to the nurse if you like, that looked like a nasty fall.” He glanced towards two empty seats, which Critock could remember were the ones that had tripped Kyle in the first place. It was their fault that Critock was in the position he was in the first place, and he hoped that he could find a way for either he or Kyle, or somehow both of them, to make them pay for the danger they just put both their worlds in.

Realizing that the teacher was looking for an answer, he quickly shook his head, which luckily seemed to be something that was in common with Marconians as an answer in the negative. “No, no, everything’s fine. All good.” He smiled at Mr. Phelps, though due to the muscles involved looked awkward.

“O…k…” Phelps looked at the boy strangely, and then turned around to continue teaching. He had enough to do right now than to continue focusing on Kyle, he had rid himself of the culprits that had sent him out of the room in the first place, having made sure they were down at the office. He needed to finish today’s lesson plan before the bell rang. He addressed the class in whole, his voice louder and commanding. “All right, now that we know everyone’s alive, we can finish up today with Jupiter.” He pointed towards the largest of the nine orbs hanging in the room. Critock looked at the orb along with the rest of the class, and found it startlingly familiar. “Largest planet in the solar system, made of gas. Nasty place. Known for…Anyone?”

With a start, Critock realized where he had seen the planet before. He couldn’t stop himself from blurting out “The storm.”

Phelps stopped, and looked at Kyle, surprised again. He couldn’t remember the last time the boy had actually spoken out in class. Of all things, could this be the topic that finally got him interested? He continued.

“Yes! The great, red spot. Named after the Roman God, Jupiter is large enough to swallow the rest of the planets whole a couple times over. Now, how far from earth do you think it is?”

Critock couldn’t stop himself. He had just made the trip a few hours earlier, after all, and was surprised how easy Kyle’s brain made the conversion into Earth’s distances. “About 500 million miles or so. At least today. Not that bad. Quick trip.” He stopped when he realized how much he had said.

Phelps stopped, and then laughed, and there were also a few chuckles around the room. Critock stole a glance around quickly, trying to catch anyone that was giving away too much with their response. If Pt’ron was in this room, however, he wasn’t overly showing it by any obvious way. Disappointing, though starting a fight right here right now was not the ideal outcome, so he’d still have to find another way than to wait for some sort of unearthly reaction.

For Phelps, however, this was almost a revelation. He lived for one of his students suddenly showing he had an interest in what he was talking about. He couldn’t stop now. “Well, a quick trip if you had a warp drive or hyper drive or something like that. But how else would you get there? What’s the quickest way that you can think of, shoot some ideas off me.”

Critock looked around. Wasn’t there anyone else he could ask? “I’m not a scientist.”

The rest of the class had faded away, Phelps wasn’t letting this moment wane. “Doesn’t matter, humor me, how would you get to Jupiter? Use your imagination, I know you’ve got one somewhere!”

Critock sighed. Fine, guy wanted ideas? Sneak peek of the future coming up. “Ok, fine. If you don’t care about how much time it takes? Solar sail. Strap on one of those, hope for a good Solar wind, it’ll probably take you a few years, but you’ll get there. If you’ve got access to an unstable wormhole in the area, that’s an option, but it’s risky. You’re likely to get ripped apart by the forces going in, or make a wrong calculation and get thrown a few million light years in the wrong direction. Forgot about black holes, you’re just as likely to get into a completely different universe. Not fun. Warp drives and Hyper drives? Kids stuff, doesn’t work. Tears in space. Shortcut through subspace. Quickest way to get you where you’re going.” He stopped, again realizing that he said too much. The rest of the room was quiet, looking at him strangely. Still nobody looking the way that Pt’ron would, and nobody looking at him as oddly as Mr. Phelps was.

Phelps opened his mouth just as the bell started to ring. Critock was confused for a moment until the memories reminded him what the bell was for, and it was time to leave to eat. He slowly stood up, hoping that his unnecessary outburst wasn’t going to go to the wrong ears, at least not until he was in a better position to do something about it. “Kyle, hang on a moment.” It took him a moment of movement, but Critock realized that Phelps was talking to him. He stopped and turned around.

“Sorry about that, I don’t know my own imagination sometimes.” Critock tried to walk back his explanation, though every one of the options that he presented were feasible, if not the most reliable.

Phelps shook it off. “Where did that come from? You’ve been so quiet, I had thought you had no interest in space from the way you acted.”

Critock sighed. “Believe me, space is foremost on my mind.” He didn’t want to waste time here, alone with the one person he knew for a fact was not a threat, or his goal. “Can I, uh, go? I’m a bit hungry.” Critock lied, eating Earth food was not something he was looking forward to, and considered fasting for the duration.

“Oh! Yes, of course, just keep that imagination Kyle. With the way the world is, you need it!” Critock nodded slowly, and backed up, then turned and moved out of the room, leaving a beaming teacher in his wake. Critock shook his head. Sometimes it was so easy to impress people. He slowly moved, getting his bearings and still trying to get used to accessing the memories of an unfamiliar mind, and realized he was getting near to a mass of students, all conglomerating to move through the halls together. Most of them seemed to be going in the same direction he was heading, towards the lunchroom, while others were navigating the sea of people to reach their respective lockers or classrooms. Critock’s fight-or-flight response was going into overdrive as he realized that likely one of the people around him could very well be his target. Pt’ron was here! His mind seemed to scream at him, and he knew it wasn’t Kyle trying to edge past his consciousness this time. He’s right here! He could be anyone! He tried to suppress his urges to lash out, or run to a better vantage point. He was safe. Nobody knew he had come here. Pt’ron was unaware. Even if he was right in front of him, his enemy would never know he was here for him.

Almost as if on queue, Critock found his slow path blocked by a big, bulky boy, who glowered down at him with a snarl. “It’s lunchtime, jerk.” Brian Boyd looked at Kyle, to his eyes the same boy that had been annoying him for some time.

Critock was already annoyed at the situation, but now he had to hold himself back. Who the hell was this now? He didn’t even want to expend the energy to try and seek out this idiot in Kyle’s memories. But he didn’t want to cause an incident either. He just nodded, confirming the asinine statement. “Yes, yes it is.”

Brian was getting increasingly mad. How dare this kid brush him off? Critock attempted to step out of the way, but the bully, not understanding at all the changing of the status quo, blocked his path. “Look, I know you think you’ve started to grow a pair, but you need to remember how things work. But I’m cool, I’ll tell you what. Double your usual payment for the next week or so, and we’ll forget this ever happened.” Brian smiled, having decided that profit was better than the pleasure of giving this kid a lesson.

Critock had no idea what was happening. He had been out of the classroom for what, two minutes, and already being accosted by a pitiful excuse of what this planet called a bully? The earlier compulsion to reveal himself to the world rose within him, but this time he was able to suppress it. Causing an act of violence to a child, even one that was acting the way this one was, would cause too much attention too early. A sudden idea occurred to him, and instead of answering immediately, Critock just stared Brian directly in his eyes, looking closely with a stern look. Brian, of course, didn’t know how to take this.

“What are you doing? Stop that? Ew!” Brian moved back quickly, blinking. Was this a challenge?

Critock stood unmoving. The best way to handle people like this is to take them head on. Of course, he realized, he had the advantage even if the bully didn’t see it, having eons of military training and experience. If he wanted to use his abilities to their full effect, this guy was a dead man walking, even if he wasn’t Pt’ron. He also knew that bullies like him weren’t used to being challenged. So he waited to see what the response would be.

Brian took a breath. He would not let this jerk ruin his day. So he wasn’t going to get paid anymore. That’s okay. There were other people he could get money from. Right now this guy had everything he had coming to him, and it was all past due.

Critock saw the bully’s stance change, and he knew a punch was coming. He prepared himself to redirect the strike and the energy of the boy, and planned a response of his own. He could hear Kyle’s voice yelling in his ear from far away. “Stop!” But he didn’t have time to investigate just who this guy was or what the repercussions could be from an altercation. He was here in this impossible situation, with the fate of the Empire to deal with, and he wasn’t about to let some primitive child challenge him.

Before anything could happen, they both heard a voice, startling them out of their planning. “Hey! You want to fight, you do it outside of school!” Both looked and saw a elderly female teacher looking at them, trying in vain to control the traffic of the hundreds of students that were filling the halls. They looked at her, and then back to each other, and Brian smiled at Critock’s glaring face.

“Saved again, jerk. Watch your back.” Whistling an unrecognized tune, Brian moved away from him, merging with the students going the opposite direction. Critock looked at the teacher, who had already began marching towards a couple that were getting a bit too friendly with each other, and took a breath before walking again. The anger within him was subsiding, and he took a moment to actually take stock. He was letting his rage take control of him. All the injustice and all the unfairness that had led him to becoming a bounty hunter had fueled him through his career, and now he was carrying that over into the current task, multiplied by the situation he now found himself in. He listened, and Kyle was quiet again, and he began walking in the direction of the lunchroom again, this time looking up memories of this bully and seeing how he could better handle him should they cross paths again.

“Oh….Oh.” Critock muttered to himself as he entered the lunchroom, almost pushed along with the mass of students. So Kyle and this Brian had a history. Nothing about what Critock saw in memories made him want to take care of the bully any less, and not for the first time felt sorry for Kyle. He was sure there was some kind of traumatic experience or shattered home life that was causing the bully to act the way he did, but there was no excuse for his actions. His constant pattern had to end, and maybe he would feel better about invading Kyle’s life the way he did if he could do something to make it better after he left. Granted, if the boy retained any of Critock’s training, he supposed that he would be able to take care of pretty much any situation no matter how big the bully, or army for that matter. He got the idea to stand in the queue after observing the students, and awkwardly took a tray. Instead of just putting his tray on the rack and sliding it along allowing the lunch servers to just drop the mostly unidentifiable glops, he held out the tray almost to their faces.

“No, no honey, slide it along.” He had thought he was helping them, but he felt slightly embarrassed when he noticed the other students looking at him strangely. Sheepishly he put the tray back along the grooves, and slid it along.

“What was that?” A tall boy sidled up along side him as they went through the line. He had done so smoothly, and even though he had jumped in front of someone else the other student just looked at his smile and chose not to say anything.

“Uh, nothing. Thought it might be easier for them.” Critock glanced at the boy, unable to get a good look at his eyes.

“They’ve got a system, look at them.” The other boy was right, every one of the lunch workers were doing their job almost as an assembly line. He needed to observe situations more before he threw himself into them. Primitive cultures tend to get upset when anything changes their way of doing things, Critock reminded himself, and continued to move as a white lump of what was labeled as mashed potatoes was added to the tray. He racked his memories, and chanced upon the boy that was talking to him. Known him for years, had a brief bout of pubescent rebellion, but other than that, this ‘Daniel’ seemed all right. He mentally put him on the low priority list, though he would still find a way to check him just like everyone else. He knew that at this point Pt’ron could very well think he’s just like any other student.

“You’re right. If it works for them.” Critock effected a shrug, and the pair moved on.

“So, you’ve been pretty antisocial lately, just hanging out outside.” Daniel just let the statement hang in the air, giving Critock an opportunity to answer. Critock himself was lost, not sure what Kyle had done before he had shown up and had been trying desperately to give the kid his privacy, but he supposed if he had to pretend to be him for a day a few light prods into his recent history would be okay.

A beat passed as Critock glanced through. “It’s been nice, just enjoying the weather. I don’t mind sitting by myself once in a while. Helps me find myself.” In more ways than one, Critock thought, as he wouldn’t mind a moment alone to get his bearings straight.

Unfortunately, it seemed Daniel had no intention of letting that happen. “Seems like all you found out there was Brian, and that asshole’s on the warpath today. Sit down with us! Safety in numbers!” Critock thought for a moment, and realized it would probably look very strange if he isolated himself. And he may need assistance in his task, even if it was unwitting. He nodded at his ‘friend’.

“Good point. Stronger together than apart. Good military strategy.” They reached the checkout, and Critock fished in his pockets. He realized that he had no idea what money was in this world as he pulled out some bills with unfamiliar slogans and faces on it. He glanced at the cash register, hoped that math was a constant across the universe, and was relieved when he was given money back. The lunch lady was looking at him strangely, but she smiled anyway and wished him a good day. Daniel followed, completing the transaction much more smoothly, and continued talking all the way.

“Since when do you talk about the military? We’re two years away from having to worry about that. Unless you want to lump in with ROTC and no thank you. Waving the flag around and tossing around guns, not for me. Myself…” He paused to take a bite out of a peach, today’s fruit choice. “I’m gonna play it by ear.”

Critock played along as he followed him to their seating area, beginning to get more used to accessing Kyle’s memories to get information about the world around him without prodding too deeply into Kyle’s own life. “No college? No career?” He noted the teacher Phelps in his peripheral vision, glancing around the room, and he made a point not to attract his attention. Last thing he needed was to let anything else slip about the way the universe actually worked.

“Never knew you to be one to worry about the future either. Big world out there, plenty of things to worry about. Why pigeonhole ourselves now? We’ve got forever.” Critock nodded. For a non-forward thinking species such as this, he supposed this point of view made sense. Whereas for most Marconians, they were placed into programs and teachings according to their aptitude. While they were allowed the freedom to opt out and pursue other courses of study, most didn’t. Much more organized than this freeform approach to education, Critock thought. It didn’t make much sense to him to just throw every possibility of education at these kids and hope something stuck with them.

Daniel led them to the usual table that their friends sat at, thinking nothing was amiss, but for Critock, other than the flashes of stolen memories, he had never met any of these people before. Daniel sat down next to a blonde girl in a tie-dye shirt and ripped jeans, who Critock was able to pick out as Claire. Next to them to the right in the circle was Blonde haired Jim, speaking with a southern twang, who rolled his eyes as Claire climbed into the lap of her boyfriend. Not wanting to stare, Critock glanced around the rest of the table. Across from the overly cuddly pair he saw John, staring daggers at Daniel and Claire, as she stuck out her tongue at him and went back to gossiping about something mundane. And then next to John was an empty chair, and Critock sighed, knowing that instead of getting started with planning saving this world and a hundred more, he was going to have to engage in conversation with the children. He sat down slowly, still not used to the uncomfortable seating that was provided, and listened to the ongoing prattle.

“I’m just saying, Jim, there’s nothing wrong with the show! It’s funny, it makes you think…” Claire was talking about an entertainment program, Critock could figure that much out. What exactly it was, or what it was about, he couldn’t figure out. Looking at Kyle’s brain was no help whatsoever. It wasn’t like he could use his own personal knowledge, most entertainment in the Empire was done by essentially plugging your brain into a simulation and just living in some other world for a while. Just being a passive observer and watching was still done of course, that would never go away entirely, for the most part Critock hadn’t taken part in anything like that in a thousand years! He sat quietly as Jim answered.

“How? How does it make you think? It’s a bunch of idiots on an island!”

Claire countered. “It’s a forest this year!”

“Island, forest…Fast food restaurant, wherever!” John put his head on the table when Jim mentioned the restaurant. “It’s all scripted, none of it’s real or reality, you’re wasting your time.”

“It’s fun! And it’s real. Just because you can’t get on the show. I know you’d rather have us watch your cartoons.”

“THEY’RE NOT CARTOONS! They’re more grown up than that.” Jim never seemed to know a losing battle when he was fighting one.

Critock could not have been less interested in this conversation if he tried, and of course just by thinking that it caused John to mutter, his head still down. “I don’t care, Daniel doesn’t care, Kyle, do you care?”

Critock gave a stone face. “I do not care.”

“You see? Nobody cares. Can we please move on? Don’t you guys argue enough at home?”

Jim scoffed. “I would be happy to leave it at home but somebody has to bring it with her everywhere she goes!” He paused to fake wretch, along with John, when she turned to Daniel for a kiss that was far deeper than it should have been.

“Don’t they have rules about this sort of thing?” Critock muttered to himself, and was unfortunately overheard, as he hadn’t quite mastered Kyle’s volume control. Daniel just smiled.

“Oh come on, Kyle, if you had someone you’d be making the rest of us sick, and you know it!” Daniel smirked, knowing his friend. “We don’t have much time here, might as well take advantage of it.”

You don’t know how true that could be. Critock thought, as he finished mentally removing all of his ‘friends’ from serious consideration as Pt’ron possibilities despite not being able to see their eyes. He couldn’t imagine that even after all this time had passed that his enemy would have had the ability to go this native. Wasting time talking about inane things light years behind where the Marconian Empire had progressed to, displaying displays of affection out in front of everyone without a care in the world, and just generally…being children. Whoever Kyle was, he at least didn’t make a point of forming friendships with mass murdering warlords. Responding to Daniel, he just smirked. “If I had someone, I doubt I’d be sitting here right now.”

There was a resounding response of fake-offense from the group. John’s jaw dropped. “Ouch. Why would you want to just spend all of your time alone with a girl when you can bring her over here, introduce her to us! Impress her with your knowledge of fine ladies and gentlemen.”

Jim fake burped, and there was a round of laughter. “I think the problem with Mr. Edison here,” He drawled as Critock had to quickly remember that was his last name, “Is that he’s already got his eye on a girl, and she knows us, and probably wants to keep her all for himself.”

“Who?” Daniel added in. “You can’t mean…”

“Well, who else has he been mooning over for the last year?” The southern accent was getting less soothing to Critock, and he really didn’t like being the center of attention, lest he accidentally let something slip that gave away the truth about what was going on, or at least that he was not actually who he said he was.

“Can we just drop it? Can’t we just talk about…” Critock stretched for the name of the program that they had been talking about. He failed. “The show?”

“You don’t even know the name of it! Stop trying to change the subject! You’re talking about Shanna, aren’t you?” Daniel finished, her name he had said a bit too loudly and everyone looked across the lunchroom to her and see if she had heard. Critock followed their eyes and could make out a red headed girl, and he could at least admit that she was attractive in a high-school sort of way, today due to the chilly weather wearing a green sweater and jeans. He could feel from somewhere deep in his mind Kyle trying to force his head to swivel back around. He chuckled as he mentally reassured the rightful inhabitant of his body that he had no interest in her. But he also was caught in a trap that if they knew that Kyle was interested, then he had to act the part.

For Shanna’s part, she was oblivious to any discussions that were happening about her. In fact, she wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation around her either. The endless prattling of these bubble head plastics were annoying her and she was currently immersing herself in dark thoughts about each and every one of the assorted group of cheerleaders and other hangers-on when one of them called to her. Stacey, maybe? Probably spelled with an I with one of those little hearts over it?

“Look! Those weirdoes are looking at us!” She glanced in their direction, but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

Critock attempted to deflect the accusation. “Come on guys, I’m not going after her, that would be crazy.”

“You’re right, she’s out of your league. I mean look at her! It’s not even a game day but I can’t stop seeing her in the outfit!” John seemed to lose himself in thought before seeing Claire glare at him.

“You’re a pervert.” She sniffed.

“I can neither confirm nor deny.” He stated, then pretended to find his lunch very interesting as Claire continued to speak.

“Kyle, he’s not wrong. Why do you want to mess with someone like that? Look at her. Look at the people she hangs around with Look at the way she acts!” Claire was as animated on this subject as she was talking about her favorite entertainment program, and Critock wondered if she ever didn’t have a strong opinion about anything.

Jim shook his head. “Way she acts when? She’s always been nice to us, and yesterday even after Kyle here decided to take on the biggest jackass in the school, she still hung out with him. You should have seen her in Computer period. She finished that assignment in record time while still non-stop talking with us. You think she’s a plastic? Just because she’s a cheerleader?”

“Well…If the skirt fits...” Claire started.

“And Oh God, can she wear it.” John finished, and there was a mixture of guffaws and groans.

“You know what I mean! You can tell a person by the type of people they hang around with! And look at them!” She gestured towards Shanna and the people she was sitting with, and from all appearances, everyone at that table was the same type of person, at least from looks. All of them, save Shanna, were various shades of blonde, and all of them either appeared to be cheerleaders or were of that body type and apparent personality. Critock did recognize something that Claire was missing. She wasn’t really talking to them. All of them seemed to be loudly talking about subjects even more inane than a television program, and gesturing wildly, but Shanna was sitting quietly, eating her lunch in small bites and only barely communicating with the others. She had a distinct look of wanting to be anywhere else than where she was, which is a look Critock could relate to all too well right now. He was struck also by something Jim had said. “Jim, you said computer period?” He interrupted Claire’s latest tirade, that had John putting his hands over his ears to try and block out the stream.

His mouth was full of the unidentified meat product that the lunch workers had shoveled out, but he tried to answer, though the southern drawl and the food made him difficult to understand. “Yeah, you were there, you’ve gotta remember.” He swallowed. “Was really cool, you don’t see too many girls that can put in code and keep a conversation going.”

“That’s sexist!” Claire tried to get her control of the conversation back.

“Phh. Can you code? How many of those blonde bimbos can do that? No, she’s pretty special Kyle. I’d make a move, before someone else does. Hell, before John does, the way he’s been checking out the skirts.”

John turned red. “I’d never jump in line like that. Bros before….” He glanced at Claire, who seemed to be visually daring him to finish his sentence. He did anyway, but in a very different manner than he first seemed to intend. “Friends. Pretty, pretty friends.” He then found new energy in devouring his remaining lunch.

Critock turned back around and looked at Shanna, and was surprised when he saw her looking right at him. Rather than nervously turning around quickly upon being caught, she held his gaze and smiled. He would swear that he had no control of his face but soon he found himself in a smile too, and he tried to regain control. It seemed at times that Kyle still could jump to the forefront, something he would have to work on. Only one of them could be in control if they were both going to get through this.

“Coding, computers, whatever. You can’t trust anyone that hangs around those sort of people.” Claire took a bite of her peach and sounded triumphant, until Critock turned to her quickly.

“You’re discriminating.”

“Huh?” She stopped, momentarily confused, and not used to quiet Kyle of all people accusing her.

“Well, specie…I mean racism or sexism really doesn’t work here, but you’re discriminating against someone by the company they’re around. How do you know her? Do you know who she is? Why she’s there? I mean, compared to the rest of them, she looks like she’s pretty miserable.” While he was talking, he was accessing, with some difficulty, Kyle’s memories of Shanna. To his relief, there was no time that he could locate where she was acting the way that Claire was accusing her of. “Look, she’s pretty and a cheerleader, we get that, it makes her a target, but come on. If someone was down on you based on the company you keep, well look at us.” He waved around the table. “We’re not popular, we’re not very good at anything.” Jim was about to protest before Critock kept going. “We don’t stand out, hell I think we’d all rather disappear. But we’re pretty happy with ourselves, aren’t we? We’re happy with most of our lives. We sit here every day and have fun and yell about stupid things. But look at her. Can you tell me one minute when she’s acted that way with your plastic people? I mean, it’s probably cause you want to be where she’s sitting and you’re stuck with us, and we’re sorry for that, but don’t take it out on someone that’s got nothing to do with that.”

The entire table was speechless as Critock finished, and Claire’s face was red. It was no secret to the rest of them that Claire had tried out for cheerleading and failed, and it was a silent mutual agreement to never bring it up, yet Kyle had just blurted it out for everyone to hear. The remarkable thing to the table was it wasn’t done in an angry fashion, and even though it ended up defending the girl it didn’t sound like that saving Shanna from her wrath was the intent. It was just a matter-of-fact take down of Claire’s point that she wasn’t prepared to dispute, and it came from someone who they were lucky to get two sentences out of in an average lunch period.

Finally, Jim let out a “Damn.” Critock was as shocked as any of them. Where had that come from? He had just meant to quiet her down, but images kept coming up and ideas springing to life as he spoke and he quickly found he couldn’t stop. He figured that Kyle would have some repression to him, but he certainly wasn’t expecting that. He watched, feeling slightly guilty, as Claire slowly stood up, obviously struggling not to cry, turned, and then ran out of the lunchroom in the direction of the closest girl’s bathroom.

The others looked at him, and John felt he had to diffuse the moment. He raised his hand. “Ooh! Ooh! Roast me next!”

There was slight chuckling but mostly silence as nobody knew quite how to react. Critock mentally cursed himself where the guttural language couldn’t hurt his human throat. He was a General! He had fought wars! What was he doing getting involved in this young nonsense! He worried that the hormones and age was affecting him in a negative manner, and he just wanted to get back to figuring out a plan to find Pt’ron, and get out of this horrible situation. Maybe Shanna could help…He could use someone good with computers if he could salvage some semblance of the plan.

It was at that moment that he realized, due to the stress of what had happened, that he had forgotten about something very important. Or actually: someone. Through the open door to the courtyard he saw a small wisp floating through the air, zooming around from one side to the next, before finally slowly floating inside, and then speeding up, making a beeline towards…

“Oh no.”

“What?” John looked at him, not understanding why Kyle was upset now after he just did the most epic takedown he had ever seen. He should be dropping a mike or spiking a football or something!

“Uh, nothing. I’ll see you guys later.” Critock stood up and started to run and try to intercept Tomkari before he could get to his destination, the man that was originally supposed to be joined with:

Mr. Phelps.