“Probably,” Gonzales admitted, taking the instrument and lighting it up. “But I think I just need to break in somewhere.”
I didn’t need to argue with that reasoning. “By all means, weld away.”
“Thank you, I will.”
Ciangi stepped away, giving Gonzales room to kneel down and press the torch to the metal. Sparks flew up, illuminating our forms and the rest of the mimics as they proceeded to clamber down from all of us.
Except for Mimic, of course. She stayed tightly curled against my back, all of her spikes pointed outward. I appreciated the contact, to be honest. Although I put on a brave face, my knees were still a bit weak and my heart was still pounding from how close to death I had been. Sure, we’d had tough scrapes before, but nothing like what I had just survived.
The time that it took for Gonzales to finish allowed me to get over most of the shock, and I bent to help her pry the square hatch open with some of our magnetic clamps. Within a few seconds, we moved it to the side and were looking down into a dark, unoccupied room of the station.
“We did it,” Eske breathed. “We actually did it.”
Gonzales shut off the welder and waited for it to cool before answering. “You’d think that the disbelief you’re feeling right now would fade after you do enough impossible things, but nope… I would say that it’s still there.”
“Yup, still there for me,” I agreed.
“Me too.”
I was just about to ask who should go in first when Mimic finally detached from me and skittered right in, dropping into the darkness below. I sent a surprised look to my female companions and gave them a shrug, which they returned in kind.
“Might as well follow,” I said before doing just that.
It was a longer drop than I thought it would be, and I landed hard. I was thankful I had my nav-boots, otherwise I might have sprained or broken an ankle right then and there.
“Hey, Mimic?” I hissed, ducking down in case we weren’t as alone as I had thought.
“I’m right here. Turn on your suit light. It seems to have gone out during the explosion.”
“Oh, right.”
I did as she said and, sure enough, the room illuminated partially. It was a storage area, just as we had hoped, but there was so much dust covering everything that it looked like no one had been there in years.
“Dude,” Ciangi said, landing beside me. “What’s up with this place? Did they turn off the environment filters or something?”
“They must have,” Gonzales said once she touched down. “Otherwise there wouldn’t be nearly so much schmutz all over everything.”
“Schmutz?” That was Urdet, of course. Looking at the mimics, I saw that they all had taken their human forms again. “What is this?”
“It’s slang for dirt,” Mimic answered before holding her hand out to us. “Maintenance jumpers please.”
We all knelt down to pull them and the rest of the supplies from our packs. It took a couple of minutes to explain to the younglings how to put them on, and I realized that they had never experienced zippers before.
Sure, they all had some semblance of clothing back on their planet. A mix of pelts from animals and fabric salvaged from goodness knows where. I had the feeling that Mimic only clothed them for our sensibilities, as the mimics were always nude in their natural forms. Made me wonder just how silly our need to cover ourselves twenty-four seven was. Not that I was going to toss my skivvies to the wind, but it was something to think about.
“Alright, weapons all tucked away?” Gonzales asked.
“Yup.”
“Roger.”
“Who is Roge—” Urdet started to ask.
“Colloquialism,” Mimic murmured. “Less questions for now.”
“Of course,” he replied.
“Good. Now, Ciangi, please tell me that you’ve been running a scan on whatever that thing was Bahn gave you.”
“Do you mean…the scanner?”
Gonzales clicked her tongue and I saw her eyes narrow as she removed the helmet of her enviro-suit. “I know it’s base functionality is a scanner, Blondie. But considering it’s Bahn’s creation, it probably can cure cancer and flip your pancakes too. So, I wouldn’t put it past him to give it some sort of silly, multi-syllable name that everyone will eventually shorten into an acronym because humans are inherently lazy. Now, are you scanning on the thing or not?”
“Touchy, touchy,” Ciangi said, smiling and not taking Gonzales’s jibes personally. “And yeah, I’m scanning alright. Should be done by the time we all get de-suited.”
I took that as my cue to get out of my space outfit then carefully pack it into its protective bag within my pack. Perhaps it seemed a little redundant to have a bag within a bag, but I didn’t want it to somehow get accidentally punctured while I was toting it around. That would be a surprise that I certainly would not appreciate.
The faintest of beeps told us that the machine was done just as I started to stand. Before I could comment on the good timing, Ciangi was rattling off the readings.
“There only appear to be seven lifeforms on this entire station. Two are resting in crew quarters, one is in what I assume is the cafeteria, three are in what looks like a research area, and one is in the lavatory.”
“Alright, that’s not bad. Should we split up? I feel like going after them all one by one could be too risky, and we can’t have them calling a ship-wide alert before we’re ready.”
“Don’t you mean a station-wide alert?” Urdet corrected flatly.
I only gave them a patient look before my gaze returned to Gonzales and Mimic, waiting for them to answer my query.
“I think…split up,” the weapons engineer answered slowly.
“I agree,” Mimic said with a nod. “Too large of a group is difficult enough to travel with quietly, and we risk one of them noticing what is going on and alerting the others, making our task that much more difficult.”
Ciangi was the last to speak up. “As crazy as it sounds, I think I’m on board with this splitting up idea. And once we do contain a worker, we can each have a mimic with us imitate them. I think that’s our best bet.”
“Then it’s decided.” I nodded, feeling determination rise within me again. “Mimic, you and I will go for the group of three in the research lab. That will be the most difficult. Ciangi, Meridyna, and Pyjik, you go in the lavatory. Gonzales and Urdet, you go to the two in the crew quarters, then Eske and Astaroth, you get the one in the cafeteria. Remember, we want them unconscious, not hurt.”
“Righto.”
“Heard!”
“Yeah, yeah. We’re all aware of the plan.” Gonzales’s tone was gruff, but before any of us could rebut with our usual sarcasm, she strode forward and threw her arms around me in a hug. “You be careful now, okay?”
“I don’t understand,” Urdet said, clearly forgetting Mimic’s request for quiet. “Why is she attacking him?”
I suddenly remembered how Urdet didn’t join in the last time the mimics started a hug-fest. This must have been why. “It’s not an attack,” I answered, letting the woman hold me as long as she wanted. “Remember? This is called a hug. And it’s a way to show comfort, or camaraderie, or things like that.”
“It’s just nice,” Gonzales said, parting from me before turning to the others. “Alright, everybody, bring it on in.”
Urdet looked at the others uncertainly, but Ciangi, Eske, and Mimic didn’t hesitate. Soon, there was a full-on group hug going on that seemed oddly discordant with our mission, but I didn’t mind. The world was a cruel place, so I wasn’t about to object to a sliver of happiness in all of it.
After a few minutes, we were finally ready to move on and split along our various paths. We clung to the walls, each of us going slowly so we remained quiet. If this was an up-to-date facility, we wouldn’t stand a chance to sneak around. But thankfully, no one really expected some sort of infiltration of such an outer rim research station, so their security system w
asn’t exactly up to code.
Mimic and I pressed on, putting more and more distance between us and the rest of the crew. Part of me wanted to look back and worry over them, but I knew we had to keep our attention on our own mission.
We crept through the ship on the path that our wrist scanners showed us. We needed to hit the elevator first, take that up, then sneak through two hallways before we would finally reach the research center. What we would do then…well, I wasn’t privy to that information.
I held my breath the entire time, and it wasn’t until my head was swimming when we reached the lift that I realized I probably shouldn’t do that. I focused on my breathing for several achingly long moments and by the time the slow lift arrived, I was fine.
“Just like old times,” Mimic said, giving me a wan smile.
“Well, not just like them, but there is a certain quality of déjà vu.”
She held out her hand, and I wrapped my fingers through hers.
It was funny, so much of my life had been spent without a good friend. Without somebody I could trust and look to when I needed support. Someone who I knew would always be there for me and I would always be there for them, not out of any sense of obligation, but just because we cared about each other so thoroughly.
Now that I had someone like that, I didn’t think I could go back to my solitary existence of tinkering projects, cleaning, and watching flicks on the net. Even if it meant putting my life at risk, even if it meant dying, I wouldn’t ever let go of what we had.
We reached the last of the hallways we would have to navigate, and once more, we reverted to our sneaky progression. I wasn’t exactly sure how silent we actually were, but it certainly helped me feel stealthier.
It wasn’t until we were almost to the research center that I realized I had no idea how we were going to take on a group of three people—of unknown skill—without any of them having the chance to hit the alarms. The sleeper-grenades we had with us would work in smaller scenarios, but it didn’t seem likely that the gas in them would be able to take out an entire trio before someone alerted the rest of the station, and then the situation would be out of our hands.
At first, I hadn’t understood what the big deal would be if someone raised the alarm. That was what we were going to do ourselves, weren’t we?
But then Gonzales explained that if those stationed on the vessel hit the wrong code, they could stop any ships from coming at all, which would ruin our entire plan. So, while it wasn’t a one hundred percent, automatic mission ruin, it wasn’t something any of us wanted to risk.
“How are we going to take care of these guys?” I whispered to Mimic.
“I figure we make a bit of a noise, just enough to catch their attention, and they’ll send someone to investigate. We hit them with a sleeper salve, then I’ll take their form and go in. From there, I should be able to incapacitate them.”
“You make it sound so easy,” I said with a slight laugh.
“Hopefully, it will be.”
It was so nice to hear Mimic’s voice, even if it was in a stressful situation. “What kind of noise should we make?”
“Nothing too unusual, then they might send several of them out. Maybe just a very particularly metallic clank?”
I shrugged. “Sure. I’m not exactly an expert on the perfect sort of distraction noise.”
“Neither am I.”
We were close enough to the entrance that we had to cease talking, and our communication was reduced to gestures. Mimic pulled out an injector from my pack that was already loaded with the sleeper salve, tucking it into one of the pockets of her jumpsuit before creeping forward. She made it almost to the door before she looked back and gave me a nod.
I took that as my cue and clanked my scanner against the wall before dragging it slowly. It made a slight sound, noticeable but not exactly threatening.
But it seemed to be enough. I heard the low rumble of speech, then the hydraulics of the door as they began to hiss open. Quickly, I ducked into a gap behind a doorframe, but I did see Mimic change into a bench just before I was out of sight.
I wanted to watch the events as they unfolded, but I couldn’t risk being seen. So, I waited patiently, listening as the scene played out.
Footsteps echoed through the hall, coming closer and closer to me. I could hear whoever it was breathing and for a moment I was sure that they were going to find me, but then there was a quick hiss and a pop, a muffled gasp, then silence.
“You can come out,” Mimic said, peeking her head around the frame to where I was. “Everything went according to plan.”
“We’re lucky then,” I said, stepping out into the hall to see a man crumpled on the ground. “That could have gone about a million different ways with none of them being good.”
“True, but we should be grateful for the little things. Now come, help me undress him.”
“Excuse me?” I asked, giving her a double-take.
“I may not be human, but I am fairly sure that they might notice their companion had a sudden wardrobe change mere minutes after leaving?”
“Oh, right. Of course. That makes sense,” I said, rushing to help her.
We needed to hurry because every second that we lingered was another second where someone could suddenly walk in and see what we were doing. And frankly, I didn’t really want to explain why we were pulling the green jumpsuit off a fully-grown man that we had knocked out.
But we managed to get it off and then it was Mimic’s turn to peel out of her jumpsuit. I turned around automatically, even though I realized it was a bit of a non-issue considering she was wearing clothes under it. It just seemed to be the polite thing to do.
After all, I would be lying if I said that Mimic wasn’t beautiful. She had specifically made her form to be appealing to me. But as of late, I seemed more hyper-aware of her attractiveness, as if it was a constant hum always playing in the background. Nothing as important as her kindness, or fearlessness, but noticeable nonetheless.
And the same thing that made me notice her attractiveness also made it seem all the more inappropriate to watch her disrobe. It was one thing to lay beside each other at night, fully clothed and with a blanket between us, but another entirely to watch her peel her clothes off so that she could slip into a disguise.
“How do I look?”
The voice that addressed me was not the one I was used to, and I turned in concern. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I still was to see a duplicate of the man on the floor, smiling at me with far too large teeth.
I jumped back, but managed to stop myself from crying out just in time.
“You did a good job,” I whispered when I calmed down enough to know that my voice would come out at the proper volume. “Creepy, but a good job.”
“It is a bit strange to see me as another human, isn’t it? I haven’t taken this kind of form since…Giomatti, I think.”
“Yup. I’m pretty sure you’re right.”
“Strange, that almost feels like another lifetime ago, and that I was a different person.”
“I think we all are,” I said.
She nodded. “Fair enough. Now, for the hard part.”
“Hasn’t everything up to this point been the hard part?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Now for the harder part.” She took a deep breath which looked entirely odd in the body that wasn’t hers. “Wish me luck.”
“Luck.”
And then she was walking back in the direction the man had came from until she disappeared from my view entirely.
I heard muffled voices once again, and they sounded slightly puzzled, and then a single shout. I tensed, sure things were about to go down, but just like before, it grew incredibly quiet until the door hissed open once more.
“We’re good,” Mimic said, peeking her head out in her original form.
“Huh, that was surprisingly easy,” I said, entering the room and looking around.
“Speak for yourself,” she
said with a soft punch to my arm. “For a moment, I was sure one of them was going to get away.” She pointed to a hatch that was open in the floor. “I don’t know where that leads, but I’m willing to bet that it’s winding and easy to lose a person in.”
“I don’t doubt you.” I walked over to it and closed the hatch, locking the mechanism that held it in place. Once I was sure that was set, I stood and looked over her handiwork. Sure enough, there were two workers laying unconscious on the floor. They didn’t look bruised or otherwise battered, so I assumed that she had pulled some extra sleeper salvo from my pack when I wasn’t paying attention.
“What about the others?” I asked.
“Well, we can’t ping them, or else we might give away their location.”
“No, but now that we are safe, we can turn our comms back on and let them ping us when they’ve finished their work.”
Mimic nodded before going into the hall, returning a few seconds later with the first man over her shoulder. “Good idea. And in the meantime, will you help me bind these folks? I’m fairly certain Ciangi packed cuffs in each of your supply bags.”
“Yeah, she did.”
We busied ourselves with making sure the three of them were secure. We didn’t speak much, but that was because we didn’t need to. Sure, we had been successful so far, but there was no telling what would happen with part two of our little party.
It wasn’t more than a few minutes later when our comms buzzed. “Ayooo, guess who got their target!”
“Good job, Eske!”
“What’s the word on what we’re supposed to do next?” she asked.
“We can’t make any moves until everyone chimes in that they’re done, so just sit tight and put the restriction cuffs on the guy. Once we get the all clear, we’ll take them all to the quarters where we can eventually do a lockdown that will keep them contained while we work the rest of our plan.”
“Uh, okie. I’ll find the thingies and wait.”
“Good idea. See ya in a bit.”
Her comm clicked off and then all we could do was be patient.
Thankfully, it couldn’t have been more than ten minutes before Ciangi and Gonzales both called in, stating they had completed their own little spy missions. Once it was confirmed and all of our comms were back on, we agreed to meet in the living quarters.
Mimic: The Space Shifter Chronicles Boxed Set (Books 1 - 9) Page 30