THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One
Chapter 24

The insistent buzzing of the alarm clock both stirred Critock awake and scared Tomkari who, while not asleep, had settled into a dormant state after several hours with no change in the boy’s body. The wisp flew straight up in the air, almost hitting the ceiling, as Critock slowly sat up, his eyes slowly scanning the room as though assessing everything he saw. He turned his head towards the source of the alarm, a small square box flashing the time, and flipped a switch at the top, silencing it. He turned his head back to replace Tomkari right in front of his face, startling him slightly.

“Gah!” Critock recoiled from the sudden appearance.

“Is that you?” Tomkari peered closer at the boy’s eyes, searching for the telltale strip of black.

Critock waved him off, forcing the wisp to back off. “Yeah, yeah, I’m awake. Yes, it’s me, Tomk. It’s Critock.”

The wisp made a sound not unlike an exhaling of breath. “Oh, thank the Qua’roti. I thought the kid took control.”

“Please. I’m stronger than that. We had a nice talk, let him know that I’ll be leaving later today. He’s cool with it.”

“’Cool with it?’ Are you sure he didn’t do something to you?” Tomkari peered closer again as Critock swung the body that now felt more like his own around, placing his feet on the floor.

“He actually did the opposite. He’s backed off completely, Tom. I’ve got full access. I can tell you about everything in this room, everything in the house. I even dreamed.”

“What’s a ‘dream’?” Tomkari caught the shortening of his name again. While he had suggested it earlier as a way to get accustomed to the planet, he found it a little unsettling coming from his partner’s mouth.

“I know! I’ve never heard of it either.” Critock stood up unsteadily, noting the fatigue still in his body. “Apparently when humans rest, their brains pull up things that happened to them in the past? It wasn’t pleasant.”

“That’s…I’d probably sleep more often if I could do that. Wait, how did we not know that?” Tomkari followed as Critock grabbed a few items of clothing from his closet and dresser and began to leave the room.

“I didn’t know anything about Earth, you’re supposed to be the expert.” He opened the door, noting a loud snoring coming from a room down the hall. Apparently Richard had the day off today, and well deserved. Critock left Kyle’s room, and moved towards the bathroom.

“I know general makeup of the planet. Basic animal and species stuff, nobody’s ever heard of something like this before! This is huge! Actual ways to experience your own past! Can you imagine what the Empire could do with this?”

Critock crossed into the bathroom. “Yeah, unfortunately.” He began to close the door, and Tomkari tried to rush forward before it shut.

“Where are you going?”

Critock put up a hand. “It’s going to be a big day, I’m taking a shower. Lets give the kid some kind of privacy, okay? This is going to be awkward enough.” The door closed in front of Tom, who was left to float in the hall.

“Okay! I’ll just wait here! The world only ends in a few hours!” He flew back to Kyle’s room, muttering things about wasting time.

The missiles stood tall, shining their silver reflections from the two moons currently present in the Marconian sky. Qua’roti Alpha stood, grimacing, as he looked at the time left until the Shards woke from their dormant state for roughly the thousandth time since Critock and Tomkari took off. To this point there had been no further contact from either of the pair, and he feared the worst, especially after a routine security search had taken place a few kliks after their departure, and had uncovered coded messages being sent back and forth to an unknown location. That was all it took for the military queue to double their presence, and all engineers that hadn’t already gone off shift for the evening were currently going through intense screenings.

The security presence also came with an unpleasant individual, a Parkik named Tkim Opra, with a pig-like face and a very bad disposition. The type of man with too much rank and not enough decency. Alpha decided that, despite his typical demeanor to all of the children of the Universe, he simply could not like this Parkik, if not for what he was, but for what he represented.

“We should fire the missiles now.” The Parkik snarled. Alpha wasn’t sure if he meant to do that with every word he said, not being familiar with the particularities of his species. It did not imply a friendly tone, however.

“We could. However they wouldn’t be able to target the precise location of the Shards until they become active, and that is half a rotation away. So the missiles will fruitlessly orbit the planet, which does have orbital weapons technology of it’s own. They will attack the missiles, preemptively destroying them, and then the Earth will be bathed in fire. You have just started the end of the Empire.”

The Parkik made a scoffing noise, which sounded not unlike a snort. “Hardly. Whatever rebellion that would commence from the annihilation of this insignificant population would be put down quickly. Not only do we guarantee the destruction of the Shards, we further the cause of the Marconian Empire! To be honest, Quaroti Alpha, I doubt your allegiance sometimes.”

The Qua’roti turned and started walking slowly towards the missiles. “My allegiance is not to any race or empire, Tkim Opra. The Qua’roti merely listen to the universe, to see where we may be led, and to hear the will of the Shards. If you would have your way, we would enter once again into unending war.”

Opra was forced to follow, snarling all the while. “If I had my way, Alpha, we wouldn’t be sending missiles, we’d be sending soldiers. Invade the planet and take the Shards by force. The Shards are Marconian property by right. The traitor stole that right from us...”

Alpha spun around. “And now the ‘traitor’ will make his recompense. If he had not done what he had, we may still be in that horrible war. I am sorry, Tkim, even after all this time you either can not or will not understand what the consequences will be by following your course of action.”

The Parkik drew himself up, his height a full foot on the smaller Alpha, who stood his ground just the same. “Do not think to challenge my authority. The Military Corps will fully control this Government in a matter of cycles. How much influence do you think the Qua’roti will command then?”

Alpha kept Opra’s gaze, and spoke sternly. “The will of the people will be heard, and I will obey. But until the day comes when I will be forced to bend my knee, it is the jurisdiction of the Qua’roti on all matters involving the Shards. It is us that graciously invited you and your military family into our homes. It was only after the Corps arrived when we received notice of a traitor here in the great halls!”

“Are you accusing my soldiers of treason! When you sent the greatest traitor in Marconian history on a glorified field trip!”

“I am merely stating fact, dear Tkim. Now, we can continue to argue, but the decisions have been made. These missiles will launch soon, but we will give Critock and Tomkari as much time as possible to complete their task. It is because of that the missiles will actually arrive after the Shards have awoken.” Alpha turned again, forcing the Parkik again to follow him.

“After?! Alpha, if the enemy holds those shards...”

“If both Shards are fully active then you know there is just as much chance that Pt’ron would be able to sense the missiles and destroy them, or worse, send them back at us. Due to the circumstances and risk to the empire, we are forced to give our inside men the most time as possible. If the worst happens, Critock and Tomkari will undoubtedly act as a distraction to Pt’ron. It is possible that one missile will strike destroying both Shards, and the other would be unneeded.”

Tkim was forced to nod. “And one missile could be passed off as an misfire that got caught in the wrong orbit. Two, however...”

Qua’roti Alpha had reached the closest missile and ran his fingers over the cold metal. “And that is where I must agree with your methods, Commander. A war over the destruction of the planet Earth would be preferable to letting the Shards loose on the Universe and beginning a Third Shard War. However...” He let out a soft smile at Opra. “Neither war would be preferable, so while we must plan for the worst case scenario, I fully expect that your ‘traitor’ will be contacting us soon with pieces of Shard in his hand.”

“We will see, won’t we?” Opra looked up at the missiles, their red tinge and the way they rose to a sharp point made him think of the great Control Shards themselves. “The clock is ticking, Alpha.”

Qua’roti Alpha sadly nodded, and remained quiet, not wanting to agree with the snarling Parkik any more than he had to. But he had to accept the truth. If the Shards were awake, and Pt’ron were able to use them, then the civil war that the Marconians would enter into for a hundred cycles would be far preferable than the Apocalypse that awaited them at his hands. He sighed, moved away from the pig-faced commander, and looked at his clock again. So much time gone, and so little left.

It was fifteen minutes later when a fully dressed Critock opened the door from the bathroom and emerged into the hall, startling Tomkari who was flying back and forth between the bedroom and the bath. “What the hell was taking so long?” The wisp remarked loudly as Critock briskly walked past him.

“Showering in the dark is not something I’m used to.” Critock said quickly as he glanced around the room, freely scanning Kyle’s mind to see if there was anything he needed for the day ahead, at least the part of the day that he would be here, anyway.

“In the dark? Why?” Tom moved into the room, watching Critock warily.

“Trying to give the kid a sense of privacy. I’ve had to take everything else from him.” He realized he had left Kyle’s backpack downstairs, and with it everything that was needed school wise. In addition, that was where he had stashed the Sword of Kon, though he knew he would have to transfer that into a locker once he arrived, lest some kind of unlikely search or unknowing passerby catch a glimpse and think it was a much more mundane weapon than what it actually was.

Tom shook unbelievably, not liking the turn that this had taken. “Privacy? Critock, the world ends in about six hours! Maybe you and the kid need to get your priorities straight!” As though he had not heard, Critock moved past the wisp and glanced towards Kyle’s father’s room. Satisfied that the snoring coming from the room was both continuous and genuine, he began softly walking downstairs.

Tomkari, as always, was undeterred, floating down behind his partner. “So today, we don’t have time for any fixing of lives, no solving the problems of the children of Earth, okay? There are two, count them, two missiles that are going to lift off from Marconia any time now. They hit us, none of their sad little love affairs matter anymore, got it?”

Critock stopped at the landing. “Why wouldn’t they still destroy Earth if just one Shard still is active?”

Tomkari thought he was going to get whiplash from the abrupt change of subject. “Huh?”

“Something Kyle had thought about and I caught it. It’s a good point, Pt’ron with one Shard is just as dangerous as two, but if we destroy one of them, one of the missiles will stop. What’s the idea behind that?” Critock started moving again as though he never stopped, forcing Tomkari to catch back up while answering.

“Couple of reasons, actually. There’s some advanced software in the missiles that is slaved to the signal on the Shards. If the signal shuts down, so does the missile. It’ll self-destruct harmlessly without igniting the payload. There’s enough classifications of Shard out there that if he’s got two going, Pt’ron’s probably going to have something real bad, but if it’s just one, there’s a far better chance it’s going to be something less problematic, like a prophecy shard or something like that.”

Critock nodded, letting Kyle’s morning routine take control as he crossed into the kitchen, and began retrieving a bowl. “Also, Pt’ron is going to have both Shards on him when they activate, so if we’ve got one of them, we’re probably close to the other.”

“Or close enough that the second missile is about to hit, we can distract him.”

Critock nodded, opening a cabinet and pulling out a box with some kind of fruit-colored rings and a cartoon Ape on it. “What’s the yield on one missile?”

“It’s not nuclear, if that’s what you mean. You’re not going to want to be within a few hundred feet, gonna make a nice crater and a hell of a shockwave by itself. But other than that, Earth won’t be too scarred. We’re not going to let one of these things hit, are we?” Tomkari bobbed in front of Critock as he added milk alongside a spoonful of sugar. “Also, what the hell are you eating?”

“A. Not if I can help it, but I’d like to know everything that could happen. B. No idea, but it’s colorful, isn’t it? Maybe color equals flavor? It says fruit.” Critock reached into the large bowl, and grabbed one of the rings. Holding it up as though evaluating it, he shrugged and popped it into his mouth. He crunched once, and made a grimace. “Not fruit. Sugar.”

“You added sugar!”

Critock looked at the spoon that had held a large helping of white particles. “Force of...habit…”

“Habit? You’ve never done that before! Critock, you have to…”

“I KNOW!” He yelled that a lot louder than he had intended to, and paused for a moment to see if he could hear waking noises from the floor above. After a moment, he relaxed when all he could hear was the continuing soft snores from Richard’s room. He continued, almost whispering this time. “I know, Tom. I was following his routine, his instincts. This is what he does every morning. Now the key today is to blend in. Pt’ron is going to be on high alert and anything out of the ordinary could send him running for the hills before we know which one of these kids he is. Shanna’s going to get us to a system, we’ll replace him, and we’ll be done by lunchtime.” He glanced at the bowl, and while he felt the slight grumbling from his stomach, he knew that he couldn’t cough down even another bite of the sugar and milk combination. Looking quickly, he went into a cabinet, and found a couple of fruit and granola bars. “These will do.” He tore the wrapper off of one, and took a bite. Nodding at the taste, he left the bowl on the counter and went to grab the backpack. He hefted it and it’s contents over one shoulder, glancing at the clock as he did so. Getting an early start today would be helpful, he decided. “C’mon.”

“What are we doing when we get there?” Tomkari floated next to him as they headed towards the door.

“Finding Shanna. Up until then and after then, we play it by ear.” Critock opened the door, and moved outside.

After a moment, Tomkari followed, but not without making one more remark. “That’s just great, Critock! You know I don’t have any ears!” Moving quickly, he caught up to the Marconian, and the two moved into the sunrise and towards the school silently, their thoughts overtaking them as they both realized they were walking towards their destinies.