THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One

It wasn’t the first time today that William Phelps would think it, and it wouldn’t be the last. How in the hell did he get into this situation? He was going to be a college professor. He was going to touch people, and change lives! He was going to bring the magic of learning and science and education to developing minds!

He mentally spat. He bought into the cliché of teaching hook, line, and sinker. At first, he had been fine. Despite a lack of any children of his own, he fell right into the trap of caring for his students. He knew going in the problems, with the lack of pay and funding, and the fact that the parents largely either didn’t care or cared too much. Beyond it all his first few years were fantastic as he wet his feet in elementary school, where just the simple act of bringing up Mars filled kids with wonder when you started talking about the truth of the planet, not the stuff seen in movies or television. Back when the world was wonderful. He had almost changed his career plans to stay with those kids. But in today’s world, it was not a realistic career path. In this day and age, male teachers were largely looked at with untrusting eyes, as though every one of them were in the profession for unsavory reasons. Eventually the pressure was too much, and though he still needed to save up enough money to go back and finish his schooling so he might even have a chance to live his College dreams, he chose a different path in this High School. Here it seemed his spirits were going to be crushed forever.

It wasn’t that most of the kids were bad, though there were a few he wished would just disappear from the school system entirely. It was just nobody really cared about the things that he was saying. A lifetime of being taught to the test, he supposed. And then there was the make-work that the teachers had to do due to the constant understaffing. Like today, for example. For the second time this week he found himself being a glorified chaperone in the lunchroom, watching to make sure that there were no fights, nobody making out in the dark corners, and certainly no food fights. These kids were capable of things that he would have never thought of when he was their age, he thought.

At least today was a good day. Kyle Edison had finally woke up from his stupor! They had an actual conversation! Things like that anymore were so few and far between. He hoped that kid would hold on to that interest, there was nothing sadder than someone finding themselves and what they like and then drifting away from it for fear of humiliation. Maybe that fall he took, regardless of the reason for it, had knocked some sense into him. Something had to come from the constant presence of Brian Boyd and his cabal of troublemakers.

As he stood surveying the barely controlled madness, he heard a whisper in his ear. “Critock.”

He whirled, and saw nothing. What was that word…

He heard it again, this time in the other ear. He whirled around again, and saw nothing.

“Critock, it’s me, what are you doing?”

He definitely heard it that time, a light male voice from the air in front of him. “All right, I’ve had just about enough of this.” He stated to no one, to the confusion of a little freshman girl who was passing by at the wrong time. “Show yourself now, and I won’t send you to the office.” He hated turning on his stern authoritative voice, but sometimes he had to remind them who was in charge here.

There was a beat. “Ah, Sorry, forgot that your optics probably haven’t linked up with the human’s yet. One second.” Just as Critock had run up behind Phelps and frantically tried to wave him off, Tomkari adjusted his phase, and suddenly William Phelps could see exactly who was talking to him, or more accurately, what was talking to him.

He couldn’t comprehend what he was looking at, and he was startled by the wisp’s appearance so much that he jumped backwards, right into Critock.

“Oof! Mr. Phelps!” Critock emitted as he caught the teacher. Phelps looked at him, then back at the weird white comet hanging in the air.

“Please tell me you see that. Please.” Phelps was thinking he was too young for a nervous breakdown, even if he was pushing forty.

Critock feigned ignorance. “See what?”

Phelps turned around and waved his hand at what he was increasingly thinking was an apparition. “This! This white thing!”

Tomkari was getting more confused at the second. Who was this kid? Why was Critock acting like he didn’t know him? Why was the kid waving at him every time Critock turned his…Oh.

“What! How!” Tomkari didn’t think to change, just react. Phelps was just staring at him, and Critock took advantage of the confusion.

“I can see you’re busy, I’ll just see you later, I’m going outside for a couple minutes before the next period.” Tomkari was jolted out of his shock as the boy walked away, and Tomkari quickly changed phase. As quickly as the wisp had appeared to his sight, it disappeared, and Phelps jolted his head around, trying to find out what was going on, and was worried equally about his vision, his hearing, and his sanity.

Critock had jogged out to the corner of the outside courtyard. It was getting colder outside and there was only a couple other students outside, which was perfect for his purposes. He purposefully situated himself as far from anyone else as possible, and hoped that none of his ‘friends’ were concerned enough about his sudden outburst to come find him. He stood next to the wall, partially secluded from anyone looking out the window, when a voice came from behind him, far too loud for Critock’s liking.

“HOW IN THE SEVEN HELLS COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED?” Tomkari exclaimed, and Critock had to reach up and grab the soul out of the air, pulling Tomkari toward him so his voice could not be heard by anyone else.

“Would you please be quieter? You’re ruining what up into now was a perfectly executed spy mission.” The two were conversing in perfect English, Critock suddenly realized, and even with everything going on he still marveled about the unlikelihood of the situation.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Critock released the wisp, who floated in his face. “But what happened? You’re supposed to be that teacher, not this…this…”

“Kid. I’m a kid, I know. Believe me, I’m not happy about it either. Dumbass jumped in front of me as I was coming in the window, had no time to get out of the way. Now I’m stuck.” Critock kicked the brick wall he was nearest. He hadn’t realized until now just how mad he was.

Tomkari, for his part, was settling into his usual state of panic. “But…But…Critock, we’ve got about 26 hours before the Shards go active.”

“I know.”

“Those missiles are going to arrive, they’re going to kill us.”

“I know, Tomk.”

“And if you don’t get out of that body in 30 hours, you might…”

“I KNOW! I know. I get the concept.” Critock didn’t even want to think of that possibility. “Look, if I could get out of this, I could. My ship blowing up, rushing down there, the day I’ve had has taken a pretty damn big toll on me. I don’t have the energy to jump out of this body, and if the kid says conscious, then we have another problem on our hands. I am stuck in Kyle.”

“’Kyle’? That’s you?”

“Yeah. Kyle Edison. Mediocre student, not a whole lot of close friends, just that lot.” He nodded towards the window, where Jim, John, and Daniel were lost in conversation, their lunch and Kyle forgotten for the moment. He noticed that Claire was still missing.

“You’ve talked to them? For the love of…Critock, any of these people could be Pt’ron! You have to be careful!”

“You think I don’t know that? You think I haven’t been looking at every single person in there, having to guess which one is going to destroy the world in a day? I need to get back on to the original plan. And YOU need to be careful, if he spotted you in there…”

Tomkari shook. “No need to worry. I’m linked to your optics, which seem to have asserted themselves in, uh, Kyle’s body. I had to switch to that teacher’s just so he could see me. But…What if he’s Pt’ron? K’t’ak!” Critock had never heard the wisp curse. He actually didn’t think it was possible. “I could have just ruined the whole thing!”

“He’s not. Teachers are too obvious, too exposed. Pt’ron would be someone that would just be a face in the crowd. Only ones I know for sure are clean is that teacher, that table, and…” He almost said Shanna’s name, but he realized that no matter how much Kyle liked her, he couldn’t discount her as a possibility. He hadn’t seen her eyes, but she was good at something that apparently this planet still thought was limited to the domain of one particular gender, and she seemed quiet in the face of loud surroundings. Could she be Pt’ron?

“Kyle?”

It took a moment for Critock to realize that Tomkari was talking to him. “Don’t call me that.” He began to pace.

“We have to get used to it, it’s who you are now.”

“For a day, then we’re out of here, and I’m back in charge. My name is Critock.”

There was a sigh from the wisp. “Fine, suit yourself. I don’t mind going a little native, however. When in Rome, you know.”

“What’s a Rome?”

“Never mind. From now on, you can refer to me as Tom.”

Critock rolled his eyes as Tom floated proudly. “You see, I just dropped half of my first…”

“I got it, ‘Tom’. Look, and I know the excuses, but wouldn’t this just be a lot easier if you joined with Phelps?”

Tom stopped, and floated in front of Critock. “Don’t ask me to do that.”

“I’m just saying, you were worried about him having seen you, this would fix that and still give us an in to our plan…”

Tom glowed brighter, and looked directly in to Critock’s eyes. If a soul could be angry, this was it, Critock thought.

“DO NOT ASK ME TO DO THAT.” It was said sternly, but in a tone that left nothing to the imagination and no room for further discussion. Having said his piece, Tom backed off, and Critock nodded.

“Ok, dead issue. But we’re still going to stick to the plan.” He nervously checked back toward the school. It wasn’t time yet for the bell, and nobody was approaching, so they were still safe.

“Didn’t the plan require the teacher’s access?”

“Yeah, and he’s out. Even if we told him, he’d never believe us, and getting kicked out of here isn’t going to save anyone. I’ve got another idea. There’s a girl in there that’s supposedly good with Human technology.”

“A girl?!”

“Quiet. ‘Kyle’ and her apparently are friends, or at least there’s some kind of connection I can use.”

“Unless she turns out to be Pt’ron, and kills you.”

Critock shook his head. “It’s possible, but I’ll notice.” He tapped the side of his face, next to his right eye. “Optics come through, like you said. There’ll be a specific black ring in the iris of his eye. If I get close enough to her, I can see it.”

Tom nodded his form up and down, and then stopped mid move. “Wait…how close are you talking about here? You’re not going to go that native, are you?”

Critock looked at him strangely. “No. Girl’s a thousand years younger than me, and even on this planet is a bit young, don’t you think? Keep your mind focused.” He shook his head. Of all the things to think about. Now, if he did this all right, Shanna would never know anything was different, and he’d leave Kyle in a much better position, if what his friends at the table were saying was true. At the end, Kyle would be happy this had happened, he decided. His world saved, he may get the girl, and get a few fringe benefits in knowledge and self-defense besides. For the first time since he landed, he felt much better about the accidental joining.

He realized a moment after he said it that it was a mistake, as he saw a large figure approaching him out of the corner of his eye. The figure was advancing quickly and menacingly, and Critock suddenly realized that he wasn’t going to be able to ignore Kyle’s difficulties no matter how short the time it was that he was here.

Brian yelled at him, not caring who could hear. “It’s time! You can’t keep dodging me anymore, jerk!” Critock looked around, hoping there was some kind of authority figure around that would be able to put an end to this nonsense, but of course, there was never anyone around when he needed one. Figures, the one time Phelps isn’t around. He thought, as he put up his hands and tried one last time to reason with the bully. It wasn’t that he was afraid of Brian, it was that he was afraid of what he would do to him.

“Ok, look, this isn’t a good time…” Critock backed up to the wall as he spoke. He was very worried that his military training was going to kick in at the wrong time. Every other time he had been approached in this manner in the last several cycles he had responded almost automatically. So far he had been unable to resist blurting out whatever happened to be on his mind, and if that extended out to fighting, then this guy was as good as dead. Ordinarily he wouldn’t mind having to take care of an unexpected adversary. But this wasn’t war, and the child heading towards him had no bounty on his head. Just another small bully on a planet probably full of them. In Marconian society, people such as Brian would be re-educated, or at least separated for both their own protection and the general public, and geared towards pursuits that would better fit their personality. Earth, it seemed, was primitive in their treatment of troubled children as well.

Brian was not having it and was not taking any more delays. Just the fact that this punk had stood up to him, embarrassed him, and now he found out he caused two of his friends to be sent to the office? This could not stand. This was going to be a lesson to all the other idiots that bothered him, to everyone that just wouldn’t let him have his way. He was king of this school and they were going to remember it! He kept moving, and threw a punch directly at Critock’s head…

And somehow missed! His face was there until it wasn’t, and all that was left was a hard brick wall. Brian called out in pain and cradled his now scraped and bloody hand. Behind him, Critock continued to try and diffuse the situation.

“Look, next week would be just fine. Right now I’m kind of dealing with a lot of things…” He figured that either none of them would exist this time next week and thus would not have to worry about things like fighting, or he would be gone, and Kyle would retain the Marconian’s fighting skills. Another little gift that was currently unappreciated, as he couldn’t hear or detect anything from Kyle’s consciousness. He glanced around as Brian turned, noting that there was a small group starting to notice what was going on, and was surrounding them. This was exactly what he didn’t want. But…He could use this to his advantage.

Brian was seething, but laughed. “Nice dodge, next one hits your eye.” He moved forwards Critock and threw a punch, and again Critock was easily able to dodge. He noted that Kyle seemed to have good reflexes, and wondered maybe if the outcome of this fight would have been in his favor if he had never shown up.

Tom moved around, watching, hoping Critock didn’t do anything stupid, but with the amount of people that were gathering he knew there was no way he could somehow get in the way without being noticed. He realized he needed to lower his voice as well so he could give encouragement or suggestions without anyone else hearing if anything else were to happen, but that would have to wait until after this was resolved. He considered phasing through the ground to try to trip the other boy, but he wasn’t sure if he had a good enough handle on how dirt and concrete worked on this planet. It would take much more time, time he wasn’t sure that they would have, to get those kind of logistics taken care of.

Brian roared as he continued to swing, and Critock ducked, weaved, and dodged every attack. Through it all he was careful to never return the aggression, that way his survival instincts and military training would be kept at bay. He moved like a boxer, but Brian’s strikes, while powerful, were easily read and he again thought that Kyle probably wouldn’t have had too much of a problem against him. Bullies typically aren’t challenged, so as long as Kyle wouldn’t have rolled into a ball of shame, he probably could have taken him. As it was, this ‘fight’ was child’s play.

Jim and John had both joined the circle, having heard the commotion coming from outside and noting the absence of their friend and also knowing that he was due for a showdown with Brian. They stood transfixed and amazed at what Kyle was doing before their eyes. “Where the hell has he been hiding this? Guy’s like Ali out there!” John remarked, wishing for some popcorn.

“Who?” Jim drawled, wincing at Brian once again being maneuvered and tricked into striking the bricks, which he did with a yell.

“Ali! Boxer. Float like a butterfly? Sting like a bee? Though he’s not doing much stinging…”

“No idea.” Jim’s face showed he didn’t have a clue what John was talking about.

“Will Smith played him in a movie? No? Never mind.” John shook his head, sometimes he wondered why he bothered talking to people any more. They were silent for a moment watching the amazing display of dodging before being jolted out of their gaze by a female voice.

“Is that Kyle?” Shanna Lane edged in between the two of them. “What’s going on?” Similarly, she had also heard the commotion coming from outside, but none of the other girls at her table showed the slightest interest in what they referred to as “boy stuff”. As she wasn’t liking the idea of hanging out with them any longer anyway, she ran outside, noting that there was no sign of Mr. Phelps, who apparently had chosen the worst possible (or best, depending on the point of view) time to step out of the room. She, like the others, was having trouble believing her eyes.

“Yep!” Jim sounded oddly proud. “Our boy’s growing up.”

“What happened? He didn’t seem like he had any interest in a fight with Boyd yesterday.”

“Finally got tired of the dick, I guess, he was acting odd at lunch, and then blammo!” He stopped to cheer, and Shanna had to pull his arm down. “What?” He looked offended.

“It’s a good fight, but he’s going to get himself kicked out of school!” She drew in a breath. “BRIAN! STOP IT!” She had never liked the large boy, in fact even in her circle that she had to hang around with she had never known anyone that had anything nice to say about the bully, but she had seen him look at her a few times when he thought she wasn’t looking, and she thought she could use this to her advantage, even if there was no chance that she would ever go near him.

The sound of the calling voice almost stopped Critock cold, and he could feel Kyle rising up within him. A sudden feeling of wrongness that she was seeing this filled him, and…shame? He glanced at the source of the voice and saw her, the red-headed girl that his ‘friends’ were making fun of him for earlier, and who he had defended vigorously for no known reason. He found himself unable to look away for a second, which is all the time needed for Brian to finally strike a blow.

Brian’s fist caught Critock in the cheek, and the unexpected strike sent him staggering back. The bully was strong, and for all his training Critock was still in the body of a boy that didn’t do much to work out. He didn’t fall to the ground but only by a hair, and he looked up to again see Brian grinning and advancing. Oh, how I wish you were Pt’ron, he thought, as he rolled back towards the wall, his cheek stinging as he moved.

The bully’s spirits were lifted, and his confidence soared now that he had finally made contact with the quick moving sophomore. He roared at his prey, and jumped at him. As before, his moves were lumbering and this time there were no distractions. Critock quickly stepped out of the way again, moved around, and touched Brian’s back. To the onlookers, it just looked like Kyle was lightly pushing Brian against the wall, and there was no reason that the bully couldn’t just escape. To Brian, it felt like a million suns were exploding in his back, and he groaned, the pressure and pain to great to even scream.

Critock moved to Brian’s ear as he held him, and spoke loudly enough for what was now a very large crowd to hear him. “You don’t want to do this today. I’m having a very bad day. There’s almost no time left and nothing is going the way it was supposed to. Now you can walk away now and live a better life, or you can spend the rest of the time you have left in a hospital bed. Make a good choice.” His voice was still sounding like he was trying to reason with the boy, but it was quite clear between the two of him that this was a warning and a change in the status quo. No longer would Kyle be bullied, and no longer was Brian king.

He moved his hand then, and Brian fell to the ground groaning. Critock then turned and smiled, just in time to see Mr. Phelps coming towards him behind the group. Once they realized the teacher was coming, the crowd scattered as quickly as it arrived, for fear that whatever punishment was coming would also be visited upon them. As Phelps reached him, Critock quipped, “I think that went well.” There were a few guffaws from the remaining onlookers that were close enough to hear, but Phelps was not amused. He folded his arms as he appraised the boy. Just as he was about to speak, Shanna ran up to them.

“Wait! Kyle never touched him! Brian just came out of nowhere and started swinging at him and hit him!” Shanna was trying to sound like a little scared girl, very far from her usual preference, but she could usually convince teachers of almost anything as long as she sounded cute.

Phelps looked at her, knowing that Shanna was someone that stayed out of trouble as much as anyone could, and then looked back at Kyle, who up into yesterday had never been known to be in any kind of fight. “Is this true, Kyle?” He asked, hoping that the story would match up.

To his relief, Kyle didn’t add anything, just nodded. “Good. I’ll make sure he gets to the office with his buddies, you two…” He was interrupted by one last roar from the bully, who had stood up. He couldn’t believe what had happened to him. Embarrassed in front of everyone by this shrimp? This sophomore? No, this would not stand! Brian jumped up, ignoring the pain from whatever had been done to his back, and ran right at Phelps, Critock and Shanna.

Thinking quickly, Critock put his hands on the girl and the teacher and pushed them back, perhaps with a touch more force than necessary but he wanted to make sure they were clear. As they moved back from the force, he himself jumped back, marveling at his reflexes and the slowness of the bully, and watched as Brian moved past them.

Brian didn’t realize the kid could move so fast. It would be impressive if he wasn’t so angry. Too late he knew he had missed them, and he was moving too fast to slow down. His motion sent him headlong into Mrs. Smith, and the two of them collapsed together, with her screaming.

Phelps cursed as he ran over to help her, hoping that the elderly woman hadn’t broken anything. Shanna looked on in concern as she was in a class she taught, albeit a horribly boring one. Critock could see that the old woman wasn’t going to be hurt, as she had begun screaming at the slow boy that had knocked her down almost immediately. Humans aren’t really smart yet, he thought, but at least they weren’t that fragile. He walked away, wanting to get a head start towards his next class, as Computers were something that he needed if the plan was still going to work, and he knew he would have more time there to get to know Shanna better, and hopefully enlist her help without having to reveal the whole thing. He noticed Tom floating next to him, full of questions but still within earshot of others, and he just shrugged and muttered, “Welcome to Earth.”