The Joining: The Cycle of the Shards Book One

6: Marconia

The empty blackness was still and quiet, despite trillions of lives in colonized planetoids and moons mere light years away. The only thing present in this portion of space was a small blinking beacon that sent off a signal letting any passing travelers know the status of the tear. The beacon blinked off and on once every five Earth-seconds or so when it was quiet, like now. Suddenly it started going faster, four seconds, three, until soon it was just a solid light. Small electric streaks began flowing over a straight line up and down, the length of the invisible tear in space, and suddenly a bright blue light erupted out of the streaks, and when it dissipated, there was no sign of the tear, and the beacon had reverted to one blink every five seconds. The only difference was now a TK421 Supernova hopper in the color of peeling brown was present. It was stationary for a second, then its engines converted to free space mode, and it began to move.

Inside the craft, Critock yawned, passing his fingers over the screens quickly, setting a course for a place he once considered home. He wondered what madness was now driving him back here. Money, he realized, it could only be money. The only cruel mistress he had left. There was an answering yawn from behind him, and he had to restrain his first instinct of spinning around and attacking as he remembered he was not alone on the vessel. Tomkari slowly floated towards him, before settling at head level where the untouched co-pilot seat was. Critock smirked. "You know, you can be anywhere. You don't have to sit down any more."

"I know, but it's nice to remember the old comforts once in a while. Flight going okay?"

"If the money's there when we land, flight will have been just fine." Critock wasn't about to let him forget.

"The money, and the Qua'roti. That's the plan." They silently watched the screen together before Tomkari spoke up again. "I wanted to thank you."

"Thank me? What for?" Critock began setting the final approach vector for Marconia Prime.

"You call me a soul. Nobody ever calls me a soul outside of the Qua'roti."

"Well, that's what you are, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean anything to most people I come across. It's always 'comet' this or 'spit' that. It gets tiring."

"They're just afraid that you're gonna take their body for a joyride." A particular quirk of the Marconian soul physiology was that their consciousness could override another's for a short time by absorbing itself into their body, forcing the body's own self into a secondary state. That was the theory, anyway. Critock could only think of a few times that a joining had went well for both parties, and even then the consciousness could only remain for a short while, lest the occupying soul completely take over the body, and push the original mind to a more-or-less permanent dormant state.

Tomkari seemed offended and scoffed at the notion. "I've never heard of a soul that tried that. It's part of our oath with the Qua'roti that we never attempt a joining. We are true to our own selves, not the body masks we choose to wear. And I'm certainly not interested in taking anyone's body away from them."