The Joining: The Cycle of the Shards Book One

30: Plan Part One

Critock had a brief impulse to kiss the ground when he finally crawled inside the dark empty classroom, and he was joined quickly after by Shanna, who was currently brushing off her uniform from the dust that had accumulated on it from rubbing her back across the wall. He stuffed the thought away, pointing to the small desktop computer that sat on Phelps' desk.

"Let's get that thing going." He crossed the room to the classroom door, and after looking at the handle for a moment, clicked the lock of it. Shanna moved immediately to the computer, pressing the power button to start the bootup process. He looked at her expectantly as he moved back towards her. "It up yet?"

"Hold on, these things take time. Please wouldn't hurt either." She watched the screen as Critock came around the desk to join her.

"Please hurry this thing up. Time is something we don't have a lot of."

"'This thing' is at least two generations behind what current software is. It's been in place for longer than I've been in school. Probably cause they didn't pass the tax thing last year. We're being held together with duct tape as it is."

Critock put his hands behind his head in exasperation as he walked away from the computer, pacing with frustration. "Stone knives and bearskins, I swear to Kon. This place is run by barbarians." He walked down to a desk, and then turned around, placing his hands on the rough wood. "I mean, how do you people learn in an environment like this? 'Passing the tax thing'? You have to beg for money to pay for the most basic of education? It thought your planet left the dark ages."

Shanna shook her head as the computer screen finally changed from black writing to a blue background, which didn't mean it was fully booted but at least there was some progress being made. "Don't look at me, I'm just stuck here. Who's Kon anyway?"

"What?"

"Kon. Name you keep mentioning. Your sword, 'I swear to...', who is he? I thought you didn't have a God?"

Critock sighed, not wanting to waste any time. It wasn't the conversation that he didn't like, he actually found it easy to talk to Shanna about Marconian culture. It was more the invisible ticking clock in the background towards their annihilation. "Not exactly a God, he was one of the Five. The warrior one, defended the great shard, but ended up destroying it and creating this universe. My sword is allegedly what he used to do it."

"Do you believe that?" The computer beeped, and a picture appeared on the screen, along with a bar at the bottom. It was still loading everything in but the end was in sight.

Critock shrugged. "It is a nice sword, one of a kind, and no idea how it was made. Even Marconian technology isn't that advanced. But it is just a sword. Nothing about it really sings to me about it surviving the destruction of a universe and the creation of this one."

Shanna didn't take her eyes off the screen. "Yeah, but I'd bet the Shards don't look like anything special either." She experimentally moved the mouse around, and was satisfied to see the cursor arrow move around the screen. "Okay, we're in, let me get into the files." Critock let out a breath as she stared intently, searching through a series of folders to find the one special one that she was looking for. A minute passed and Critock folded his arms impatiently.

"Are they there?"

"One secccond...." Clicking a non-descript folder that just was listed as 'Q', Shanna's eyes widened as the screen was suddenly filled with image files, each with a name attached to it in alphabetical order. "Got it. We're in." She quickly clicked the first one listed, an Aaron Ackerman, and the screen suddenly changed to show the portly freshman. Critock came around the table and looked at the screen, and she clicked a plus button a couple times, zooming in on the face of the student, specifically his eyes. "This good?"