“…No idea what happened. I came home from practice just about an hour ago, and, well….” Phelps’ voice sounded tired. “Fire Department says it’s a gas leak, but it have you ever seen a gas leak look like this?”
The image of the teacher was replaced with closer pictures of the house, or rather what remained of it. Half of it had seemingly collapsed, and the other still standing but burned to a black crisp. The newscaster asked if he would be okay, and the video changed back to Phelps.
“I think so. I mean, it’s covered by insurance, right? It’s just stuff. I’ll be back in school tomorrow and…”
“Can you believe it?” Kyle’s father cut in over the audio from the television, and Critock turned to face him again. “Still going to work tomorrow. Good man.”
“He probably doesn’t want to be anywhere else.” Critock let out, causing Kyle’s father to assess him strangely.
“Why do you say that?”
“I, uh…” Critock didn’t know how to easily say anything at this point, lest he cause Kyle’s father to believe him to be someone else. Unfortunately, even he realized he never knew when to stop. “He spends so much time at school anyway, just getting home this late isn’t out of the ordinary for him, and he doesn’t look too broken up about it,.”
“Hm. Maybe.” Critock and the man who thought he was his father looked back at the TV as the scene changed again.
“Gas leak? Or hoax gone wrong? News at 10 has received exclusive video of what appears to be a small ship flying over downtown…” Critock certainly recognized the next video, albeit a very far away video shot with a bad phone camera and sideways from street level. But it was of the pirate’s vessel. The poor quality hid Critock, who had been clinging desperately for life at the time. The video only tracked the vessel for a few moments as it dodged through buildings, and disappeared down an alleyway. The newscaster continued. “…Eyewitnesses say the ship had flown into the city from the direction of the same school where William Phelps teaches, itself only a few blocks from his house. Eventually, the ship was identified as an unmanned drone, and safely disposed of. But some are saying that the drone was the one that destroyed William’s house.”
Critock made a scoffing noise. “Phh…Drone.”
“Eh?” Kyle’s father’s eyes moved back from the television to his son. “You’ve seen drones before. They’re all over the place nowadays. Dangerous.” He shook his head.
“Drones that size?” Critock was trapped in conversation now with someone that dare not find out the truth. It was an awkward minefield, and not one that he would typically tread lightly in. He peered around Kyle’s memory, not for anything personal this time, but just for surface information and memories he could use. Not being as important to the boy’s privacy, it was much easier to access. “Sure, you…we’ve got the small ones, but even the Government million dollar ones aren’t spaceship sized.”
Kyle’s father sat back, not expecting a conversation tonight from his son but not willing to turn one down. “What do you think they are?”
Critock stopped, about to spill everything. “I…I don’t know. Could be anything. What do you think?” Turning it around would at least buy him some time.
“Terrorists. Government isn’t going to tell us anything.”
“Terrorists? Here?” Critock was surprised at how matter of fact the older man was being.
“Of course. We’re not a small city anymore, Kyle. We’ve got attention, we’ve got an Air Force Base right outside the city, you can’t have missed the little air show we got tonight, probably to blow up whatever the hell that thing was.”
“So terrorists from…?”
Kyle’s dad stopped, surprised he even had to answer that question. “Middle East, probably. Maybe North Korea. They’ve probably got the nuke, just looking for a good place to stick it.”
Critock nodded, looking for more information and finding it slightly easier to obtain. “So, ok. Terrorists from countries without any type of air force are going to bring a ship here, blow up a science teacher’s house, buzz the city a couple times, do nothing of note with it, and then scuttle it out of town? Not to mention, we’re not exactly in the top ten cities list, with or without a base.”
“We’re the perfect target! We’re the last place anyone would suspect! If they show they can hit here, then nowhere is safe!” Kyle’s father was getting slightly red in the face, and Critock realized that there was a whole lot that Kyle wanted to say back to him. It was almost as if Kyle wanted him to say it as the information was so easy to access. What the hell, Critock thought. Let’s do one more favor for the kid.
“So what you’re saying is that you’re scared.”
“Of course I’m scared! You should be too!”
“Why?” Critock forced himself not to raise his voice, not escalating the situation with what was supposed to be a role model. “I mean, we’re supposed to be the home of the brave, right? Granted we swooped in and killed all the braves, but it’s a nice tagline, isn’t it? So we’re supposed to be the biggest and toughest. I mean, obviously we have all these guns, we certainly aren’t hiding behind them because we’re scared of a real fight. So we have all the military, all the weapons, but after all this time we’re still supposed to be hiding under our beds every time someone who believes in a very slightly different God sneezes in our direction?”
“I…”
“No, thank you! If we’re supposed to be the best country in the history of countries, which by the way good luck on that based on any metric you’d like to try, then maybe we should start acting like adults and not wet ourselves every time something out of the ordinary happens! For frak’s sake, no wonder nobody has contacted this rock!” Critock stopped there, realizing that yet again he had gone a step too far. Not being sure of Kyle’s father’s response, as he was not expecting a geopolitical discussion about this planet tonight, he braced himself for anything from screaming to crying.
“So what do you think it was?” The response was still unexpected. Much more levelheaded than he had been thinking. Critock knew only one way to defuse this. He let out a tooth-filled smile, as though the whole nigh-argument had been a joke.
“Alieeens.” He drew out the word, causing Kyle’s dad to let out a great belly laugh.
“It sounded like you were going that way! So aliens, like you said, just come down here, blow up a teacher’s place, buzz the city for kicks, and leave!”
Critock, acting as hard as he could, shrugged. “Anything’s possible.”
“If you want to talk a lot of liberal stuff, which I didn’t put in your head by the way, then you might want to come up with a better alternative than Martians coming down and cruising.”
“Liberal? I don’t know if adding a label to logic and having that be your whole argument is a good way to debate.” Critock shook his head, amazed at the continuing proof about how backward this planet was. He wished Tomkari would come down so he could bear witness. It might put him off doing any more missions.
Kyle’s father just smiled, and shook his head. “Who are you?”
Critock was shocked out of his train of thought. “Wha….What do you mean?”
“I mean, yesterday you slam out of here like you’re going to hate me forever, tonight we’re talking like we’re on CNN or something! Where’s all this coming from?” The look of concern returned to Kyle’s father’s face, and Critock turned his head back down to his rapidly cooling food. He wasn’t aware of the previous night’s difficulties, but again found the memory easy to access.
“I…I’m sorry about that.” Changing the subject and trying to help Kyle at the same time, Critock tried to put himself in the boy’s position. Failing that, he’d adlib and hope for the best. Worked so far, he thought. “Sometimes, I get angry. Yesterday was just a really bad day and I took it out on you.”
Kyle’s father nodded. “It’s ok, it happens. You’ve got a lot going on, for you and against you, but you’ve got to take control of it, y
ou can’t let it control you.” Critock couldn’t say anything back to that. It struck him as one of the more profound things he had heard, albeit a bit simple. He continued.“Do you get angry a lot?”
“Not really. In fact, I think I’m feeling better today.”
“Just making sure, we can get help.”
Surprised at the change of mood and seemingly alignment from Kyle’s father, Critock risked a joke. “For the terrorists, too?”
“Them and their virgins can go to hell or whatever, but you’re my son, I love you.”
Critock was caught off guard by a sudden blast of emotion. Whether he was hiding or sleeping, Kyle had awoken, and for an instant he almost lost control. Mentally trying to calm the boy, he was unable to respond to Kyle’s father in a quick enough amount of time, who cleared his throat.
“Well, anyway, you know if you ever need anything, I’m here. You know that, right?”
Critock still didn’t let Kyle through, but he knew exactly what the boy would say, and helped it along. “That’s just it though. You’re not here.”
The silence returned to the room. They both put their heads down and began poking at their bowls, Critock taking an opportunity to push a triumphant-feeling Kyle back down, and finding it quite easy. The elephant in the room that had been there for some time had just been exposed, and now there was no putting it back in shadow. Critock knew that Kyle wanted him to take control so that he could avoid the awkward aftermath. Well, this was one battle that the boy could fight himself. He had avoided family entanglements by tragedy and other unfortunate incidents, and he wasn’t looking to get started in this one, especially when one way or the other he wasn’t going to be part of this family in less than a day. “Can I be excused?” Critock asked silently, hoping that asking quietly would express some kind of apology.
Instead of words, Kyle’s father nodded slightly, and Critock rose from the table. He took his mostly-full bowl to the sink, cleaning it quickly, and then began to cross to the stairway, to permanently leave this conversation.
“I’m trying, Kyle.”
Critock stopped, obviously not fast enough. The voice was not of a strong father, but of a slightly broken man. Sighing, he turned around, and looked at the man, who slumped in his chair. Critock knew he had to work a little more to salvage this. “I didn’t mean…”
“It’s hard for me too, you know. Always on the road, trying to be your dad but I know, I know I’m screwing up!” He slammed a hand on the table, then stood up, his face red. Almost on autopilot he moved to the kitchen, his bowl in hand. “When your mother left…Oh, I knew it was going to be hard, but I thought it could be handled. And now, you’re smart and you’re doing well, that part of it I didn’t have much part in.” He looked out the window from the sink, not looking at anything in particular. “Please don’t hate me, Kyle. I know I work a lot, I know there’s not a lot of money to go around, and the bills, and…”
Critock knew that Kyle would, or at least should, go and hug him. Reassure him somehow. But he could not force himself to interfere in that ritual, nor could he risk letting Kyle have full control again for him to do it. But there was something he could say.
“Take control of it. Don’t let it take control of you.” With that, Critock turned and climbed the stairs as quickly as he could without making it sound like he was abandoning his father.
Kyle’s father sighed, listening to the thump thump of his son’s feet pounding up the stairs, no doubt anxious to escape this entire awkward conversation. And who could blame him? While this was the most they had talked in…well, he couldn’t remember the last time they had a conversation this long, it hadn’t turned out for the best, although it was enlightening. He crossed from the window, pulling out a non-descript bottle with brown liquid sloshing around inside of it, to the living room, crossing by a bookcase that held old pictures. There were only a few pictures of Kyle’s mother, and if that bothered him he never mentioned anything of it. There were pictures of Kyle, from age 5, to 8, a few more all the way up to his current school picture. He noted that in none of the pictures did the boy appear to be smiling, and his father sighed, moving away from the suddenly depressing pictures. Was this change just a normal teenage thing? Was there something more serious going on? And what about tonight, this sudden personality appearing that was so unlike his usual interactions.?
He sank into the living room chair, and took a drink out of the bottle. The world just doesn’t make sense anymore. He thought, and stared into the television, which had long since moved past the strange events of the evening.
The building wasn’t the tallest in the city, but it was still very high up and very secure, and as such it took the police investigators, along with two men in suits from a non-descript Federal agency and several uniformed police officers, an hour to gain access to the floor. When the doors opened, they were met with a blast of cold air coming through the broken window where the figure that had fallen from the ship, or ‘drone’ as they were commanded to refer to it in public, had come through. There was a nice trail of debris and destruction stretching from the window, through no less than five cubicles, before the source of the wreckage could be seen. The large figure, in a large dark blue metal suit that made it look more like a middle ages warrior than anything else, lay still, it’s face covered in shadow. The lead investigator on the force made a motion with his hands, and the officers scattered around the room, taking up different positions throughout.
The investigator nodded to his partner, and both advanced on the figure, guns drawn, as the two suited men stayed behind. One reached into his pocket for a moment, and revealed a flashlight, and flicked it on. The light beam moved over the scarred battle armor of the figure, before finally settling on the face, causing the investigators as well as the other officers in the room to catch their breath.
The face could almost be mistaken as a Halloween mask, but there were no seams or zippers. It was of a sickly greenish color, but with a large and extended mouth and teeth so large they could be considered tusks. They were so disgusted with the face that no one but the suited men noticed the eyes. Blood red. And open.
As the suited men exited the room quickly the same way they came in, the investigators slowly began to back up as the monstrous figure began to lift itself off the floor much more quickly than should be possible. It seemed that way to the figure itself as well, as it had a surprised look upon its face once it reached its full standing level, a full three feet above the tallest men in the room.
The investigators and the officers, almost in unison, raised their weapons, and prepared to fire.
It did not help.
23
The door closed behind Critock quietly as he pushed it, and he slumped against it, placing his head back against the wood and closed his eyes. Of all the complications he had thought he would encounter on this quest, almost nothing he had experienced today was on his list. Family complications, issues with children barely out of puberty with no idea to handle themselves, and even girl troubles. It was enough to almost make him wish for another pirate attack, at least that was something he was used to handling! There was silence around him in the room, and only the soft sound of the television news program, now onto some kind of sporting event, invaded his privacy. At least for a moment, before he opened his eyes, and saw a familiar wisp shape slide in front of him.
"And just where the hell have you been?" Critock closed his eyes, not really wanting an answer.
"You wanted me out of there so you could tend to your girlfriend, remember? I assumed you would've been back a lot sooner, unless you were checking to see if all your parts matched up."
Critock only slightly opened his eyes, giving Tomkari a look that made very clear what he thought of any inference of romanticism or worse between himself and Shanna. "Don't. The important thing is, she's on board."
"On board with what?" The wisp followed as Critock crossed the room, collapsing face first onto Kyle's bed, which was a lot
more comfortable than he thought it would be. At least something was advanced on this rock, he thought, as Tomkari continued. "We don't even know what we're doing! We've been here an entire day, and all we've done is get rid of one space pirate!"
"Probably the only pirate that's ever been on this world, don't forget. That's got to count for something." Critock's voice was muffled from the comforter on the bed, but he wasn't willing to move, amazed at how tired he felt. Marconians get fatigued just like any species, but this was something more. He tried to shake it off, and focused on Tom. "Besides, we do have a plan. We get into the school tomorrow morning."
Tomkari tried to cut him off. "TOMORROW?"
Critock pushed himself up, and spun around on the bed, sitting on the edge and facing the wisp. "Yes, tomorrow. We can't just break into the school without arousing too much suspicion, or worse. There's too much going on as it is, if Pt'ron thinks something's up, we won't find him until we're all ash."
Tomkari started flying back and forth in a pacing formation. "For the love of Kun, Critock, we're cutting this awfully close. Those missiles..."
"Those missiles will leave at around the time I'll be leaving the house tomorrow. If nothing stops them, they'll hit a little over an hour after lunch. We'll find out who he is, and where the Shards are, right before then. No other way to do it that doesn't involve scaring him off."
A sighing noise came from the wisp, who stopped moving. "An hour, huh? You're catching onto the lingo pretty well for one day on the ground."
"Something to be said for language and thought immersion." A wave of tiredness crossed across Critock, and he laid back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and the odd designs from the patterns the lights and drywall made.
Tom floated above him. "Uh, everything okay?"
"Yeah, just...tired. It's been a long day, and I don't think human bodies are cut out for this kind of constant motion. And...Had a conversation with the kid's father."
The Joining: The Saga of the Shards Book One (The Cycle of the Shards 1) Page 28
