“Are you sure it won’t hurt you?” I asked for probably the dozenth time.
But Mimic just flashed me a tired grin. “I don’t have to breathe, remember?”
“Yeah, I know, it’s just…”
She patted my face comfortingly. “You worry.”
“You gonna go in there or just make kissy faces all day?” Gonzales asked, interrupting the moment.
“Right. Of course.” Mimic pulled her hand away from my face and I instantly noticed my skin grow colder. With another quick nod, she opened the hangar door and walked in like she belonged.
She made sure to lock the door behind her, then waved enthusiastically at the soldiers disembarking from their vessels. I was relieved to see that there were only ten of them, one pilot for each fighter, and the rest from the repair ship. I had been worried about two seaters or even a sub-crew cramming themselves into the larger ship, but thankfully, that was not the case.
Mimic looked like she was saying something to the men walking toward her, but I couldn’t hear it. I could only watch as they drew closer, and closer, and closer until they were finally within our perimeter of sleep grenades.
It took everything within me to wait until the last one stepped into the boundary, but I did. I had to make sure that this part of our plan went flawlessly, otherwise it was Mimic who would be in the most danger.
“Now!”
True to Ciangi’s word, she was listening. She hit the detonator less than a moment later. The hangar bay filled with thick gas, and for several seconds, we couldn’t see a thing.
I heard a cry from inside, and all of my instincts told me to charge forward, but I couldn’t. Not if I wanted to stay conscious for a while. While I didn’t have any sort of personal experience with sleeper gas, I had seen it work very well on the crew that we had trapped in the first wave of our plan and I didn’t need to test it myself.
Besides, if I ended up asleep for hours, that meant we would have to leave a ship behind, and that would be one less ship for our coming battle.
So, I waited. And waited. I waited until it felt like every one of my nerves was standing on end and my teeth were clenched tightly.
“Gonzales, Ciangi, do either of you know how to interact with the interface enough to pump new air into the hangar bay?”
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Yes! I feel like something’s wrong!”
“Well, you’ve never really been wrong before.” I expected maybe a little bit more of an argument, but Gonzales strode right up to the many-buttoned panel beside the door, her hand hovering over the center part. I was acutely aware that for the slightest of seconds, her finger was resting over the depressurize button, which would send whoever was in there flying out into space.
But then it moved almost too quickly to know that there had ever been a pause at all, and I could hear fresh air being rushed into the room by life support. Within seconds, the gas cleared and I saw a pile of men on the floor.
Thank goodness.
But wait, where was Mimic?
It was only then that I noticed there were only eight men breathing sluggishly on the ground.
Oh no.
“Where’s Mimic?!” I cried, slamming the controls to open the door and running in.
I didn’t get an answer in a verbal sense. Instead, the reply came as a crushing force that knocked me backward and into the wall. For a moment, I couldn’t breathe, and the whole world was just the burning pain in my side. I collapsed to the ground, and when my head finally cleared enough to look down, I saw a wound already cauterizing itself on my side.
“Ow,” I wheezed.
“Higgens!”
Suddenly, one of the boxes not far from me wasn’t a box anymore, and Mimic launched herself toward whoever had shot me with their blaster. She connected with a soldier just in her peripheral vision, taking him to the ground, only to have the one remaining man stand up and take aim at her.
I wanted to do something, I really did, but I could hardly get to my feet. There was no way I could cross the room in time to stop him, so I did the only thing I could.
“Mimic!”
She turned to look at me, and I weakly pointed in the direction of the oncoming attack. But I was too slow, and I could practically feel the man as he squeezed the trigger.
But then something too bright to look at was flying through the air, and before I could quite piece together what was going on, an ionic welder on full blast slammed into the aiming soldier.
He let out a cry as his clothing quickly ignited and he dropped to the ground, rolling around to put it out. That gave Mimic enough time to finish knocking out the man she was tussling with, then run over to incapacitate the other.
The whole event couldn’t have taken longer than thirty seconds, but those were thirty seconds that I certainly never wanted to live through again. Mimic ran toward me, a look of pure horror across her features.
“Higgens! Higgens, are you alright?!”
I wheezed a bit of a chuckle and offered my hands so that she could pull me up. “I’m hurt, but it’s nothing serious.” She managed to get me to my feet and I threw my arms around her shoulders for support. “It’s already cauterizing, but I think I’m going to have a wicked scar.”
“Good. I hear your people love scars.”
“Some do.”
“You’re welcome,” Gonzales said, crossing the room quickly to grab her welder and shut it off. “And let’s hurry up. It’s only a matter of time until these guys wake up, and I have ten more minutes left on the lockdown before the crew is all released.”
“I think I’ll need a little help to my ship.”
“No problem,” Mimic said, pulling me toward the closest craft. “It’s the least I could do.”
I wanted to tell her that she had passed ‘least she could do’ long ago, but I decided to conserve my energy.
We had done it, we had secured the ships, but now we just had to live through the entire war we had stolen them for.
12
The Flight Back Home is Always Shorter
“Is everyone seeing my interface on their nav-screens?” Ciangi’s voice came through the comm of our ship.
“Um, which one is the nav-screen again?”
“Should be the largest of the interfaces to your right. About three o’clock.”
“Ah. Yeah. I think so. Is it the floating image of a fist with its middle finger raised?”
“You got it.”
“I see it as well,” Mimic chimed in.
There was a chorus of agreement from everyone else, but of course, Urdet had to have the last word. “I do not understand. This is an offensive gesture, is it not? Why would you show us this after such a harrowing experience?”
“Wait, I know this!” Pyjik interrupted before the rest of us could speak. “It’s more humor!”
“I see. How…strange.”
“Oh, honey,” Ciangi cooed. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“I do not understand. What do large bodies of ice have to do with anything?”
But Ciangi chose to fly right past that, which was good since by my estimates, we only had seven minutes before the crew was released and we had no guarantee that they wouldn’t try to stop us. “Preparing for lift off. I hope everyone has their harnesses in place. Oh, and, Gonzales, make sure you hail our main ship and the little mimics that it’s time to stop hiding and fly back home. Mission success.”
“I hope they’ll believe it more than I do right now.”
“You and me both,” the blonde agreed.
And then, we were taking off.
It seemed so strange to be in a one-man craft and yet having somebody else flying my ship. I supposed this was what Ciangi had kept herself so busy on during the four days it took us to reach the station, and then all the time we had spent waiting for backup. Programming an algorithm to remotely fly five fighters and a repair ship couldn’t have been an easy task. Thankfully, since we we
re in smaller ships, we would be able to reach Mimic’s home planet much sooner than the massive cruiser we had arrived in.
Still, we weren’t in for an easy ride. Two and a half to three days in a small fighter was cramped. While there were rations, recycled air, and even a way to eliminate waste, it was undoubtedly cramped.
But at least we had each other.
In fact, that was about all we had at the moment.
But I didn’t mind. It gave me time to think. Ever since I had met Mimic, my life had turned into a constant gamble of the worst odds you could probably come across. And yet, we kept winning. I didn’t know if it was determination, luck, or we had some sort of patron god smiling over us, but either way, I was incredibly grateful.
And that gratefulness made me think about everything that Gonzales had said to me, and the thoughts that had rushed through my mind.
When Mimic was in the hangar, and I could feel that she was in danger, I had wanted nothing more than to help her. And when I was shot, I had been relieved that it was me and not her. Surely, that was not a normal reaction. While I would put my life on the line for any one of my friends, it was different…wasn’t it?
I didn’t know. And more than ever, I wished that there was a manual for this sort of thing. But who was I to complain? Mimic was the one who had to navigate all the foibles of interacting with humans with less than two years of exposure. I had many more than that, so why was I so clueless?
It wasn’t until the last day of our journey that I realized maybe it was because I was trying to figure out all of it on my own. Almost all of my personal revelations had happened because of Mimic, so why wasn’t I consulting her on this?
I quickly direct-commed her ship, not wanting the rest of our little gang to hear me make an absolute fool of myself.
“Hey, Mimic,” I said somewhat breathlessly, sure that I was about to be the world’s biggest idiot.
“How are you? Is your wound alright? Do you need medical assistance?”
Her instant worry made me smile somewhat. It was nice to know that no matter what, I always had someone who would care about me.
“I’m fine, I promise. There are med-packs in here and I’ve been taking pain medicine as needed.” Of course, I wasn’t going to tell her that I felt weak and that even with the meds, my side throbbed relentlessly. Although it was agonizing, I knew the pain would eventually pass. I just had to survive to the other side, and I was quickly learning that I certainly had a knack for that.
“Oh, good. You were quite reckless back there, Higgens. You could have been killed.”
“And so could you.”
“Technically, we don’t know that,” Mimic said. “As far as I have researched, one of my kind has never been hit by one of your Earth blasters. For all we know, I could be immune.”
“Considering that it fires a bolt of pure energy, I doubt that.”
“That is fair.” She chuckled a moment before she continued. Goodness, I loved that laugh. It made everything in the world seem a bit brighter. “Was there something you wanted?”
“Yes, I, uh, I…” I found myself losing momentum, but I had to push myself through it. “Do you believe in love?”
“Love?”
“Yeah, ya know. Love?”
“I do not understand. Love is a human emotion; how can one believe it or not? That is like not believing in anger, or happiness.”
“Uh, that’s not quite what I mean.” I took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to best word it. “I guess what I’m trying to ask you is, uh, do you think you are capable of love.”
“Of course.” I was surprised that she answered so quickly. “I love you, after all.” My heart hitched at that, but then she kept talking. “And I love Gonzales. And Bahn. And Ciangi. And all of my brothers and sisters. I am connected to all of you and them in ways I never thought were possible.”
I had imagined this conversation many times since that night on the station, but in none of my fantasies had Mimic had such a hard time understanding what I was trying to say.
“Yeah, I think we all feel that love for each other, but that’s not what I’m talking about either.”
“Oh? I do not understand then. What do you mean?”
“I mean, uh, you know in those flicks I watch, how there’s two people who end up loving each other differently than they feel for everyone else. And it doesn’t diminish the love they have for all their friends and family. It’s just…different.”
“Ahhh,” she said, like I had suddenly started making all the sense in the world. “You mean romance.”
“Yeah, I guess I do. Do you think you could feel romantic love for someone? Ever? Or is that not a thing for mimics?”
She was quiet a long moment. And then another moment longer. And one more. My heart began to squeeze while my stomach did flips within itself. Why was I so hung up on her answer? I knew that we cared for each other very much and would go to the ends of the universe for each other. Why complicate it?
“Perhaps,” Mimic answered finally. “It is not a foreign concept to our people, just quite rare. If I were to have found—or find, rather—someone I could feel that way toward, I think it would be devastating if they were not to feel the same toward me.”
“Yeah…devastating,” I echoed, my mind whirling as I tried to decipher exactly what that meant.
“Why do you ask? Feeling strangely philosophical now that you’ve been trapped in one spot for too long?”
I laughed and took the easy escape. “Yup, that must be it.” I let it drop and took a deep breath. “I think I’m going to take a nap while I can,” I said shakily. “Goodness knows that once we hit planet-side, there won’t be a single chance to rest.”
“You are certainly correct.”
I went to turn off my comm, but Mimic began to speak just before I disconnected.
“Higgens!”
“Yes?” I asked, surprised at the urgency in her tone that clearly came across the comm.
“I’m…I’m very glad you found me. If I was given the chance to go back and change time, I wouldn’t.”
A pleasant sort of warmth filled me, and I smiled at my console. “Me too, Mimic. Me too.”
“Good. I just wanted to make sure you knew that. Good night, Higgens.”
“Good night, Mimic.”
With that, I turned the comm off and sat back in my chair, holding my wound while I thought. Sure, while Mimic hadn’t said she loved me or could love me outright, she had certainly given me something to ponder on.
But first, some rest.
13
Making the Leap
That night, my dreams were filled with Mimic. Some scenes were memories replaying themselves like a flick, some of them were entirely fabrications of my subconscious. They ranged from happy, to terrifying, to full of melancholy, but no matter what, they starred my best shapeshifter friend.
When I finally awoke, I had a clarity of mind I felt like I hadn’t had in ages. Sure, I still felt weak and feverish from my wound, but all of the questions that had been plaguing me for so long seemed to have settled.
I had made first contact. I had traveled to an unknown galaxy only to return and steal a ship from the same jerk who had killed all of Mimic’s people. I had done impossible things, and none of them could have been accomplished without Mimic. I was who I was today because of her, and it was time that I stopped being afraid of it.
The epiphany filled me with a steely sort of resolve, and suddenly, I couldn’t wait to land. I knew what I had to do, and I wanted to get it done before I chickened out.
I kept my comm off, afraid to say something that would ruin it all, and just sat patiently. Which was considerably difficult considering we had several hours left even after I woke up.
But eventually, Mimic’s planet loomed in the distance, and Ciangi’s voice crackled over the speakers of our ships.
“Alright, prepare for landing.”
I gripped the armrests on either side o
f me, my heartbeat picking up. I could feel the sweat coming on and I tried to calm myself down. The last thing I wanted was to end up moist and clammy when we touched down.
Which we did, and that seemed to go much faster than our lift-off had. I didn’t know if it was my nerves, or if I blacked out for a moment, but it seemed like one second we were just entering orbit, and the next, we were setting down just outside of Mimic’s capital like we had just flown through butter rather than the incredible turbulence that normally came from breaking a planet’s atmosphere.
As much as I normally would have sat back and admired the technology that Earth had at their disposal, I didn’t have time. I was on a mission.
I struggled out of my seat, and I might have stumbled all the way down to the ground had Gonzales not been there to catch me.
“Whoa, easy there, tiger. You in a hurry for something?”
“Yes,” I answered simply before getting to my feet and walking straight toward Mimic.
She must have heard me as I approached, because she turned to me slightly. I didn’t know what it was, but just seeing her again filled me with a sort of happiness that couldn’t quite be put into words. Once more, I held out my arms to her for a hug, and she quickly walked into my embrace.
I held her tightly, like if I let go that I would lose her again and it would take more than a year for us to find each other. I couldn’t say how long I held her, my heart beating frantically in my chest, but after a long while, I pulled away just far enough to look down at her face.
Her beautiful, kind face.
It could have been ageless, expressionless, flawless, but she chose not to make it so. I saw worry lines in her forehead and at the top of her nose. Slight bags hung under her cheeks, purple-black from her exhaustion and stress. Laugh lines that I would treasure for eternity separated her cheeks from her lips, and her smile was just as bright, even if so much had happened to weigh down the expression.
And the next thing I knew, I leaned down and pressed my lips against hers.
It was gentle at first, almost inquisitive. I was afraid that I was crossing some sort of terrible line, or that I had completely misinterpreted everything Mimic had said.
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