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

by Chris Stephenson

  Tomkari had been trying to catch up to the ship for its entire flight but there was a limit to how fast a wisp could fly. Despite having left Shanna behind with the intent to reach Critock to help him fight the pirate, only now did he make it to the ship, after nearly losing sight of it several times as he as well moved through the city streets. He arrived inside to see Critock angrily pounding a fist at the controls. Glancing quickly at the state of the ship, Tomkari announced his arrival. “What did I miss?”

  “WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?” Critock responded, exasperated.

  “You told me to…”

  “Never mind, never mind.” He saw a control he hadn’t tried yet, and quickly moved his hand in a spinning motion against the console. A loud alarm sounded, grating to the ear, and he turned it quickly off. “Is the girl okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah, took off home.” The wisp flew towards the co-pilot controls, or at least to what was left of them. “This looks like it was hit by a…”

  “Disintegrator, yeah, bastard didn’t give much truck to the conventions. See anything to get this thing working on your side?”

  “There’s nothing left on this side! I think there might be an escape pack…”

  “I can’t just dump this thing in the middle of the city! We need to get clear before we can ditch it.”

  “You might not have a choice, Critock!” Tomkari looked around frantically. “Wait, this is a Verunian.”

  “Don’t think the make of the ship is going to do much for us!” The ship was about halfway down to the city, and down below even the most oblivious of passersby could not miss the smoking wreck that was plummeting toward them.

  “Verunians are old. Like predate-sensory-feedback old. They’re cheap so pirates like them. One sec.” Tom dove between Critock’s legs, who scooted back awkwardly as the wisp moved under the console.

  “What are you doing?”

  “This.” With the word, a new panel slid out from the main console, just barely missing Critock’s legs. There was a slight whooshing noise as a joystick expanded from the center, and a few lights and buttons began to glow different neon colors. “Old ships mean old controls. Can you fly stick?”

  Critock smirked, relieved at an answer to imminent death having been presented. “Had to learn back at the academy. ‘Bout three thousand years ago.”

  Tom moved back to the co-pilot station. “Surely you’ve tried since theeEEENNN!” The Wisp was plastered on the headrest as Critock pulled back on the stick, depressing a manual button as he did so. The ship suddenly and violently ceased its dive toward the street, twisting and turning almost straight up. It creaked and groaned at the sudden forces that were being pressed upon it as Tom whimpered, yet at the same time Critock whooped out loud. Now this was flying! The ship did a victory barrel roll as it moved up and out of the city, and back towards the surrounding suburb.

  Tomkari slowly moved away from the headrest, shaking at the aerial maneuvers that had taken them from crashing back to flight. He noticed Critock breathing heavy. “Nice….Nice flying.” Still recovering, The wisp couldn’t get the words out.

  “Thanks…These bodies aren’t cut out for this. I almost blacked out.” Critock shook his head back and forth, trying to clear his vision from his watering eyes. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Now that we’re not crashing in the next second.” A few beats passed as they both internally thanked their various beliefs for their continued existence. “What’s next?”

  Critock looked down out of the hard tempered windows next to him. “We set this thing down somewhere secure. Hopefully no one important finds it until…” He was suddenly cut off by two very loud and extremely close rushing sounds heading straight for them. The pair glanced back at the front screens just in time to see two grey vaguely arrow-like ships moving towards and then with a sudden loud roaring moved past them.

  There was a loud blast of hissing and static from an unseen speaker and then a voice began to speak in English, which startled Critock for a second. “ATTENTION UNIDENTIFIED SHIP. IDENTIFY YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY AND FORM UP ALONG OUR WING, WE WILL DIRECT YOU TO THE CLOSEST MILITARY BASE.” The voice was stern, and left absolutely no question that they were to do exactly as commanded lest dire consequences ensue.

  The voice repeated itself, and Critock sighed. He did not have time for this. He turned to Tomkari. “You mentioned something about an escape hatch?”

  “Oh, now you want it.”

  “Now we’re not diving into the middle of a city. Think it’ll still work?” Even as he asked, he was tapping controls that were still even slightly functional. The timing had to be perfect.

  “Yeah, its not connected to the overall jelly, but it’s under this slab you just dropped here. You’re setting the self-destruct?”

  “They can’t recover anything, they don’t know it’s alien. They don’t know it’s alien, they don’t shut down the city, and the school is still open tomorrow.” He tapped a final control, and alien numbering appeared on the flickering main screen counting down. Critock jumped out of the chair and headed back to the middle of the vessel, reaching and quickly lifting with a grunt the metal slab that had fallen during the desperate flight. Successfully pushing the slab clear, the pair were rewarded with the sight of a very old-style wheel, which Tom attached himself to and began to spin. After a beat, Critock added what little strength he had left and completed the rotation. The panel popped open, revealing a small rounded enclosed area, sounded by a loose white fabric. With no time to lose, Critock jumped down into the hole, glancing up at the wisp. “You coming?”

  “I’ll fly out. You have ten seconds. See you in a bit.” Critock nodded as he closed the panel at the top, hearing the satisfying pressure sealing pop. He closed his eyes as he clutched the release lever, before quickly opening them again.

  “Wait, what the hell’s a second?”

  Lieutenant Anderson had already had a long day by the time they had gotten the emergency call to intercept this strange craft, which was at the time buzzing various locations throughout the city, starting at a high school and then moving eastward. Even now, approaching it after doing the initial flyby, he had no idea what it was. Too big to be a drone, but unlike any aircraft he had ever seen before. He sighed, doubting heavily that this was anything related to terrorism or an attack, since this city wasn’t exactly going to be top of the list of anyone’s lists. He gestured to his fellow pilot, forming nearly next to each other, preparing to escort whatever this was, and he depressed the communications switch.

  “AGAIN, ATTENTION UNIDENTIFIED AIRCRAFT, IDENTIFY YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY. WE WILL OPEN FI-“

  Just as he had mentioned his threat, sudden orange and blue flames began to erupt from the sides of the craft, and then not even a second later the strange vessel exploded with a blast much larger and brighter than a ship of that size should have been capable for. After shielding their eyes for an instant out of instinct, both pilots looked back in amazement as every trace of the ship had completely disappeared, with no trace of debris remaining. Anderson glanced over at the other pilot, and tapped the communicator switch again.

  “You want to report this…Or should I?”

  Shanna Ewing didn't know any of the details from her vantage point sitting on the hill, her arms hugging her legs to her as she had watched the ship, Kyle still on top of it as far as she knew, disappear into the city. From there she only caught fleeting glimpses of the craft between the buildings far in the distance, until she saw it, a small speck, flying gradually higher and higher into the sky. Smoke began emanating from the craft, and then it began to sink back into the city. She thought she saw something fall out of it, could it have been a person? Could it have been Kyle? But then it leveled off and headed out of the city, back towards her. She took that as a good sign, that Kyle or whoever it was had triumphed and was now winging their way back to her. Maybe that little spirit thing helped? Maybe she was passed out somehow and she was imagining all of this? A multitude of though
ts went through her head, all the way up until the roar of the jet planes rushed over her head and towards the craft, the bright flash of light in the sky that made her shield her eyes. When she uncovered them, she saw...Nothing. The two jets that had so suddenly appeared were there...But the ship that Kyle had clung to along with his sword had completely disappeared. And Kyle with it.

  She was a strong girl. She had been called a tomboy, one of the guys, a lot of things throughout her life. But in this instant all she thought about was that Kyle had just died. That he would no longer be in hers or anyone's life any longer. That she would never get the chance...She lowered her face to her knees and started sobbing. The jets turned around, and she scarcely heard their loud distinctive sounds move past her and fade away into the distance.

  For a minute all was quiet. The fabric of her clothing was leaving an uncomfortable imprint on her face, and she lifted her head up, still crying, still holding her legs to her. As she looked up into the last vestiges of sunset that splayed over the land, and the yellows and reds that came with it, she saw a lone figure walking towards her, but still at a distance. Even though fairly far away, she could make out his general shape, his stride, his brown hair.

  She launched herself up and ran as fast as her legs could carry her down the hill, tears changing from grief to immense relief as she forced herself towards the slowly advancing figure. A full two minutes later, she launched herself forwards, and it was all Critock could do to remain upright as the sobbing teenager embraced him. He hesitated a moment, but his softer side won out, as he carefully returned the embrace, keeping his hands at shoulder level.

  In-between gasps, she was able to get out a sentence. "Please, please tell me what's going on."

  He sighed, his entire body aching, as was his mind as he realized that she had seen the whole thing and had thought him and Kyle dead. Of all the people on this planet, he realized that she could be trusted, and at this point, he needed fresh eyes on what was happening, something that Tomkari just could not provide.

  "I'll tell you." He breathed. "I'll tell you everything."

  21

  To any average onlooker that would have happened upon them, unlikely as that would have been due to the seclusion of the hill rising above the small field with patches of trees, the pair appeared to be an average couple of teenagers, staring up into the sky on a romantic evening and watching the stars and constellations that appeared in the newly night sky. Of course, the circumstances were quite different for the two of them, as they sat awkwardly next to each other.

  Critock sighed as he scanned the night. Tomkari, as expected, was vehemently against spending precious time with Shanna at all, let alone having an in depth conversation about exactly what was going on and who they really were. But he relented as Critock had explained, in hushed but direct tones, that a teenage girl who was going to be at the same place as the rest of them tomorrow and was needed for the latest iteration of the plan was understandably very disturbed and confused about what she had just witnessed. The only way that this was going to work was to make sure that she was going to stay on their side, and there was no better way to accomplish that than with a nice quiet conversation. Communication could break down any barrier, even in a glorified First Contact situation. He shook his head. If the governments of Earth could see them now, the designated representative being a teenage girl, the only one now that could help save their planet and planets beyond. Ridiculous.

  If Kyle had anything to say about him hanging out with Shanna, he wasn't making it known. After the insanity of the flight, and subsequent narrowly evaded destruction, Kyle had gone very silent, almost as if he was in shock. If he hadn't been so focused on the task at hand, he would have worried about the boy's consciousness. Right now, though, making sure the girl wasn't going to run away screaming was the top priority.

  Shanna, for her part, had lost count of the number of questions that she had for Kyle…Critock…Whoever. Who was he? Where did he come from? What was going to happen to Earth now that he had arrived? What was going to happen to Kyle? Realizing that she was probably the first person on Earth to ever have the chance to ask an alien whatever she wanted left her tongue-tied, which was compounded by the fact that the alien was in the form of someone she liked. For the first time she was alone with him on the hill where they were guaranteed that no one would bother them, and she was completely unable to take advantage of the situation. So she sighed and tempered down the feelings from her body that steadfastly refused to acknowledge that this wasn’t Kyle at all. She looked up at the stars along with her alien friend, and as she moved her head up she caught his eyes in the corner of her sight. She could just barely see the tint of color that differentiated yesterday from today in his pupils, and by the look in his eyes she realized exactly what he was looking for, and knew the perfect question to ask.

  "Which one is yours?"

  Critock was startled from his stargazing at the sudden voice. "Hm?"

  "Your home. Up there. Which star is yours?"

  "Oh." He chuckled. "None of them, actually. Marconia is too far away to see with the naked eye from Earth. Hell, I doubt you could see it with most of your telescopes." He was silent with thought for a moment, then pointed eastward, at a black portion of the sky. "But, it's in that general direction. Roughly, give or take a few trillion miles."

  Her eyes squinted. "How did you get from trillions of miles away to here? Mr. Phelps said that warp drive was a myth."

  "And he'd be right, I suppose, I don't know what warp drive is, but there's no way to get a ship moving that fast. At least no one's ever found one. Marconians have been around longer than any other race in the Universe that we've found, and we've never seen anything better than what we've got."

  "What do you have?"

  Critock tried to put it into words that she would understand, and fumbled around for a moment when he realized he was having difficulty finding words that he understood. "Well it's....It's complicated. Our ships kind of tear a hole in subspace and dip...underneath the universe? Into a sub-universe? Look, I never got into the technology side of things..."

  She turned and stared accusingly at him. "You expect me to believe you're from another planet when you can't tell me about how you got here?"

  He turned as well, meeting her gaze. "Look, I was a soldier. It was never important enough to me to know exactly how a ship worked, only that it did and it got me where I was going." He looked around, finally spotting an automobile below them and off in the distance. "Can you tell me all about how one of those things work?"

  She turned away from him. "Fine, I get it." They sat in silence again for a few beats. "You were a soldier?"

  "General Critock of the Grand Marconian Navy, Seretto Fleet." He held up a hand as she turned, a look of slight astonishment upon her face. "Don't get too worked up over the title, it's mostly honorary. I got lucky in a lot of fights. I had a famous face, and friends that..." He stopped, and even if she was only human Shanna knew better than to pursue any questions down that line.

  "Well, it sounds impressive at least. You had to do something right, or they wouldn't have let you keep it."

  "Wellll...." He sighed. "They didn't. I'm a civilian."

  "Oh!" She shook her head quickly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything..."

  Critock put his head down, staring at the blades of grass illuminated by the lights from the city and the stars above. It wasn't a topic he really wanted to get into, but maybe it would be good to get this off his chest. “A long time ago, I had a friend. He was like a brother, which considering the family I have…” He stopped for a moment, collecting himself, before he continued. “He was…difficult, but he was by my side through the wars.

  “And he betrayed me. Us, all of us. The entire empire, the fleet…Her.”

  “Your wife?”

  “Intended. My Sha’tri. Bakkara.” He looked up, and stared into the distance. “She was beautiful, you know? Kind but fierce. She was a hell of a warrior.
All three of us fought alongside each other in the war for a hundred cycles. And it was a lie. Pt’ron was on the other side the whole. Damn. Time!” Critock pounded a fist into the ground. “Feeding information, running their war on our side for who knows how long. They called it brainwashing and whatever but he knew what he was doing. He had to, didn’t he?” There was silence for a moment and Shanna felt like she should say something, but Critock continued. “There was one more mission. We were all together, and he struck. We all crashed together. She…She died because of him. And he had the audacity to blame me.

  “We fought. Ohhh…we fought. And chased each other. Eventually I trapped him somewhere no one would ever be able to recover him. I couldn’t kill him though. I hated him too much for him to die. I wanted him to suffer as much as I did. For letting him live, I got drummed out of the military. Hell, I should’ve been sent to the mines, but the all holy Qua’roti bailed me out.”

  Shanna didn’t understand half of the terms he was throwing out, but was still fascinated by the story all the same. “…And he came here.”

  “Right. Last place anyone would think to look for him. Backwater planet of the universe. Uneducated populace and no reason anyone would want to come here.” He was about to continue when he glanced over and saw the offended look on her face.

  “…Uneducated? Really?”