Mimic: The Space Shifter Chronicles Boxed Set (Books 1 - 9)

by James David Victor

  “What do you mean? You’re famous back on Earth! They’re even making a flick about you.”

  “What? Since when?”

  She laughed before realizing that I was completely serious. “What? You don’t know?”

  I shook my head. “I guess I leave most of that stuff to the agent I hired to handle all PR and other media stuff. Those kind of things just exhaust me and make me feel anxious.”

  “Well, I suppose I could understand that.”

  Footsteps echoed in front of us and then Gonzales was rounding the corner. She looked from Eske to me then raised a thick eyebrow. “Careful, Miss Eske. Don’t go falling for Mister Heartbreaker here.”

  “Who, me?” I asked, swiveling my head to make sure that she wasn’t talking to anyone else.

  “Who else would I be talking about?”

  “I just… I’m gonna go to my room now. Eske, maybe you can help Gonzales out with something.”

  “Of course! I’d be happy to. Whatever you need.”

  I walked off quickly, escaping the increasingly uncomfortable conversation for a little peace and quiet.

  I heaved a sigh of relief as I entered my room and sat down on the bed. Looking back to my datalog, I decided to bring up some books on war strategy. At least I could do something productive since I wasn’t going to be completing more of my engineering degree any time soon.

  “Are you busy?”

  I looked up from the holo-screen, a few hours having passed, and I was feeling a lot less over-stimulated. “Mimic! No, I’m fine. What’s up?”

  “I just wanted to sit with you. I feel like after not seeing you for a year, we have been too busy running to really enjoy each other’s company, like the good old times, as a human might say.”

  “Most of our good old times were spent running for our life from one catastrophe to another.”

  “Fair enough,” she said, joining me on the bed as she sat cross-legged. “And yet those times felt so much less complicated.”

  “Probably because they were. The most we had to worry about was what was happening on our ship. Now we’ve got an entire planet and all of your people hanging in the balance.”

  “It is intimidating, isn’t it?” She sighed and laid down, resting her head in my lap.

  “Yeah. But hey, tell me about your planet. What have I missed? The last time I got an update from you was about three months ago, and even then, it was pretty general.”

  “Well, the younglings are growing up. It is quite difficult, and some are progressing much faster than others, but several can take human form.”

  “Seriously?” I asked in surprise. That was a long way off from when she had to teach them how to eat properly. “That’s amazing.”

  “Yes, in many ways. But also imagine it as being on a planet populated only by what you call teenagers, children, and toddlers. Often, it is more exhausting than not, and I wonder if I’m raising them wrong. I never thought about being a parental unit, and yet now I’m a guardian to an entire planet. I don’t know what deity thought me the right person to handle this, but I’m beginning to wonder if they were evil, or outright insane.”

  “Hey, if anybody could do it, it’s you.”

  She smiled weakly, reaching up to flick the tip of my nose. “You are saying that because you are my friend and you have to be supportive.”

  “Uh, excuse me, miss, but when have I ever lied to you?”

  “True, true.” Her hand dropped, and she sighed. “Sometimes I just think of rounding up everyone I can on my planet and finding a new home to go to. We could all take on human form in time, and blend into your people. Hiding in plain sight, as you would say.”

  I knew she was musing rather than planning, but I responded anyway. “Then why don’t you?”

  “Because we deserve so much more than that. If we hide, we will have no culture, no people, no history. We will be doppelgangers and pretenders, when we could be our own thriving society. Besides, what lurks in shadow will eventually be exposed, no matter how careful we were. It would only be a matter of time before we were found out, and I shudder to think of what your kind would do to us once they knew we were walking among them… No offense.”

  “None taken.” I stroked her hair, running my fingers through the white tresses. “Hey, Mimi, can I ask you a question?”

  “Yes, always.”

  “Why did you choose this form?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You don’t technically have any gender, or anything like a human body. What made you choose to be this exact body?”

  “Oh, well, I knew that I wanted to communicate with you, and that I needed to make sure you weren’t scared of me. After perusing online for long enough, I found enough information that told me what would make me nonthreatening to you.

  “Females—and most other XX chromosome combinations—are generally the smaller biological sex, so I chose that. Also, I learned that you were male, and figured I wouldn’t want to appear as another male to infringe on your territory.

  “I made my eyes large, and evenly spaced in my head, my nose is short and rounded, and my lips indicate I have higher levels of estrogen. My body type was a mix of many different women I observed who were considered sexy. However, I stayed away from the exceptionally curvaceous ones, as I didn’t want you to focus on my reproductivity, but instead feel a more sort of…paternal protection of me, I suppose.

  “And the white hair? Well, that was because I liked it. It was either that or red, but I was having difficulty replicating the MC1R gene, so I went with white.”

  “Huh. When you say it like that, it makes it sound so clinical.”

  “Well, because it was, at first. Sure, you were nice to me, and fed me, but I didn’t know how you would react to me becoming like you, and I needed to become like you to communicate what I needed.

  “But now, I quite like this form. It’s sorta my home away from home, I would say. An outfit that I like to slip into to hang out with my friends.”

  “Well, good. I’m glad to know you’re not keeping it around just to get me to protect you.” As I looked down into her eyes, I couldn’t deny the thrumming of my heart. I could feel our connections still running strong and true between us, but I couldn’t help but wonder just how much was friendship, and how much was…something else.

  “Not at all. I know you would do that no matter what form I take.”

  “That’s right.” I set my datalog to the side and leaned back against the wall. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with me as long as this heart is still beating.”

  “Good. Let’s hope that it keeps going for a very, very long time.”

  5

  The Home Tour

  “Beginning landing sequence in three…two…one!”

  I gripped the armrests of my seat, waiting for the jerking of the landing gear coming down and the throttling of the engine. But it never came. Instead, the computer announced its entire procedure until we were safely on the ground with hardly even a jostle.

  “Whoa,” I murmured as the ship came to a stop and the engines slowly wound down. “They really did upgrade the technology in our big ships.”

  “I am glad that your people found use with the information I gave them. However, I am less than pleased with who they put in charge of it,” Mimic said, her voice laced with concern.

  “You and me both,” Gonzales growled, unbuckling herself. “So, ready to take us to your people?”

  Mimic freed herself as well, and nodded. “Just keep in mind that there is only so much they could have learned in just one year. Be patient with them, please.”

  “Geez, Mimic, you make it sound like we’ll face a swarth of toddlers as soon as we step foot on your planet.”

  “Well, something like that.”

  “Hey, as long as they aren’t pooping or puking on me, I’m good,” Gonzales said, walking toward the main hatch of the ship. She stopped suddenly, and gave the alien a look over her shoulder. “They’re, uh, not g
oing to do that, right?”

  “No. Even my youngest of charges knows how to hold their bowels. If only because our species doesn’t have bowels such as you do.”

  “Alright, good. Otherwise, I would have put on a hazmat suit.”

  “No need.” Mimic drew in a deep breath before straightening her shoulders and marching forward. “This way. The coordinates I put in were for our capital, of sorts, so we will not have far of a walk at all.”

  “Well, that’s convenient,” Eske remarked.

  We filed out, the sunlight bright enough to blind us a bit at first, but we adjusted after just a few moments. I had a bit of déjà vu as I was surrounded once more by quiet forest.

  Except…it wasn’t as quiet as it had been the last time. I could hear a few warbling calls and, dare I say, chirps.

  “I thought all of the animals were dead on this planet,” I said, looking to Mimic.

  “Most are. However, I found that the alien had many in captivity in its ship that it bred for food. It turns out the minerals it had my people harvest were purely for fixing its ship, specifically its fuel system.”

  “Huh, they really did mess up this planet to get everything they needed, didn’t they?”

  “They did indeed, but we are recovering. Come, this way.”

  She strode quickly, but confidently, off into a slightly worn path in the grass. I found myself craning my head this way and that, trying to take in everything around us. It seemed the same as last time, yet so much different. Like I could feel that great change had happened, even if my eyes couldn’t observe it.

  Just like Mimic said, it didn’t take long for us to reach their ‘capital.’ Despite her calling it that, I was surprised to see a fairly flourishing township. The buildings were all shaped differently, and there didn’t seem to be any set proportions between the structures, but it was fairly solid and looked stable.

  “Wow,” Ciangi said, taking it all in. “Not bad, Mimic. Not bad at all.”

  “You built this all in a year?” Eske asked, eyes wide. I was beginning to wonder if they were just going to be stuck that way for the remainder of our time together.

  “It is hard to believe,” Bahn added. “And yet it is here.”

  “You are all very generous in your compliments,” Mimic answered with a small laugh. “Come, my accommodations are this way.”

  We followed her through makeshift streets, which looked to be made of stones that had been smoothed on top and placed into the earth with only mud to seal them. As we grew closer, I began to see more and more citizens about. Some were walking around as dog-sized, spikey things that reminded me of when Mimic had first been fed. Some were strange creatures that I had never seen before, with multiple tentacles, or jaws, or even wings.

  And some were even human, although most of them were a bit higgledy-piggledy on their features, occasionally missing an eye or having one too many noses. They also seemed to have an issue with getting hair right. It made me marvel at how quickly Mimic had picked it up when we first met.

  A shadow loomed over us and I looked up to see something very familiar, tugging at the back of my head with a persistent sort of recognition.

  “This is my home,” Mimic said, nearly pulling me from my anxious thoughts as I tried to place it. “I’m sure most of you will find it rings a bell.”

  That was when it hit me! It was the main character’s house in one of my favorite sims that Mimic and I used to watch together. My cheeks warmed, and I was flattered that she remembered. She had really meant it when she once said she wanted me to have someplace I felt comfortable when I visited her.

  She was too pure, really. I didn’t know what I had ever done to earn a friend such as her, but I was determined to save her people to make sure she could continue to be my friend for a very, very long time.

  Mimic stepped forward and opened the door for us, and I briefly realized they had no need for locks or keys on their planet. That would never fly on Earth or any colony. I hoped that her people would be able to hold onto their trust, and our presence didn’t somehow corrupt them.

  But before any of us could enter, several shapes darted out. I couldn’t keep track of them all, but I could make out a winged thing hiding on the underside of the balcony, another pressed to the wall, and several more spinning out beside us.

  “Children, children!” Mimic cried, making shooing motions toward them. “What did I tell you about crowding our visitors? You’ll have much more time to observe them.”

  The group resisted, trying to dodge around her, and I couldn’t help but laugh slightly. She really did seem like a schoolmarm dealing with an especially rowdy group of pupils.

  But Gonzales seemed to be loving it.

  “Hey, you guys understand common?” she asked, kneeling down to look one in the face. It trembled before her, giving her an innocent look with its six eyes. “My name’s Gonzales. We’re gonna be spending an awful lot of time together, so we might as well get introductions over with now.”

  It let out a warble, before a long, orangey tentacle lifted from behind its back, extending to touch the weapons engineer’s face. To her credit, she didn’t flinch, just giggled slightly at the touch.

  “It’s furry,” she mused. “I did not expect that.”

  “This is Myxis,” Mimic said, picking him up and placing him on her hip. “This is their favorite form so far, so they insist on spending all of their time in it.”

  “Is that so?” Gonzales asked, standing and holding her arms out like she wanted to take him next. Mimic looked at her uncertainly before relenting, and she handed the baby mimic over.

  Surprisingly, Myxis didn’t seem to mind. Instead, he twittered and cooed and all in all, seemed to enjoy Gonzales’s attention.

  “Huh,” Bahn remarked. “I never figured you for the caretaker type.”

  “Yeah, well, I guess a whole bunch of things have changed for me lately,” she answered blithely before walking through the open door.

  Mimic shrugged, then gestured for all of us to go in after her. We complied, and soon we were inside.

  The sound of more skittering feet told me that there were even more eyes watching us. I didn’t mind, however, as I figured we must be quite alien to them. Those who had developed enough to understand who we were stared at the saviors of their people. Those who hadn’t progressed that much only knew that we looked like their leader, but smelled and acted entirely different. All in all, I got the feeling that we would get a lot of stares.

  “Let me show you to your rooms,” Mimic said, heading toward the staircase at the back of the room. “Unfortunately, there are more of you here than I planned, so we might need to shuffle things around a bit.”

  “Oh,” Eske muttered sheepishly. “Is that my fault?”

  “Yes. However, I am glad you are here. We will need all of the help we can get, and if you are half of the maintenance worker that Higgens was, I’m sure you’ll be vital.”

  Eske saluted enthusiastically, drawing herself up to her full height. “Yes, ma’am! I will do my best.”

  We reached the top of the stairs and Mimic opened the first door. Peeking inside, I saw a pair of roughly hewn twin beds inside, with what looked like mattresses of woven reeds on the frame.

  “I apologize, as we are still struggling with textile creation, but I figured that we could fetch blankets and more modern mattresses from your ship.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it,” Ciangi said. “We’ve slept in worse. And I’m assuming that this is our room?”

  “Yes, I assumed the coin twins would not want to be separated.”

  “You assumed right. We’ll head back to the ship and grab some basic supplies to get cozy. We’re going to be here a while.”

  The two headed back down the stairs and then we were moving on to the next door. This one had a single bed, but an entire structure against one wall that I guessed was a rudimentary weapons rack.

  “And this must be my room,” Gonzales said, sidling p
ast us to look in. “Yes, that will do nicely. I guess I’ll follow the twins to grab some mattresses, clothing, and all that.”

  Then she left too, and we were onto the next room.

  It was fairly standard, but with a large bed and what I recognized as a recreation of the tinkering station in my room back on our first ship together. Once more, I felt incredibly flattered that she had gone so above and beyond, but that faded quickly as I remembered that we had a slight number problem.

  “Oh, uh, I can sleep on the floor, I’m sure.” Eske said, stepping back and wringing her hands nervously.

  “Nonsense,” Mimic said resolutely. “I have other accommodations that will suit Higgens. You are my guest, and you will take this room.”

  “Oh…okay, if you insist. I just wouldn’t want to displace anybody, ya know?”

  “Don’t worry,” I said, patting her shoulder. “You’re not.”

  She brightened up considerably and clapped her hands again. “Excellent! I will go and grab supplies as well.”

  That left just Mimic and me. I looked to her, unsure of exactly how she was planning on housing me, but trusting her nonetheless. She hadn’t let me down so far, and I doubted she would on something as simple as a room.

  “I guess you’re with me then,” she said with a shrug, leading me to the very end of the hall where there were two doors left. “The one to the right is what you call the restroom. We made it to the specifications we read in the manuals you left with us, so I hope they are in working order. Naturally, my people don’t really need them.”

  “A life without having a reliance on toilets sounds like a good one.”

  “…if you say so. Now, to the left is my, I suppose now our, room.”

  She opened the door and I stepped in, not quite sure what to expect.

  “I apologize for the lack of bed. I’ll set a couple of my helpers to make a frame today while we’re arranging things and formulating our best plan of attack. After we grab a mattress from the ship, of course.”

  That was right, Mimic didn’t need to sleep like we did, so it would make sense that she wouldn’t waste time and resources on something like a bed.