I walked past all the buildings, some of them built European style, some of them mimicking Japanese structures, some Greek, and even some that were completely their own. The coin twins and I had made sure that the mimics had access to all sorts of architectural information, and it was interesting to see who made what due to their personal aesthetic. And to discover who even had personal aesthetics.
That was a whole matter all its own. The mimics were just beginning to find out who they were and what they liked, which resulted in a whole lot of experimentation. Although I was bad with names, I recalled there was Mig, who preferred to have one giant eye in the center of her forehead rather than two, and Goshi, who ran around as a multicolored horse that occasionally spoke Common. Thankfully, they were the most out-there, considering that mimics could literally take on multiple forms and manipulate them how they pleased the more experienced they got, but it took some getting used to.
I reached the circle, which was more toward the center of town but slightly away from the buildings. It was a large area of compacted dirt, with dozens of roughly-made benches. There were a handful of tables scattered about, but not enough for everyone to use them.
We were in the process of building a school, but it wasn’t as high on the docket as an infirmary, nursery or the like. Although none of us were really clear on how the mimic reproduction thing worked, there were enough fully-grown adults running around now, so that meant babies were pretty much an eventuality.
Ugh. I wasn’t completely thrilled about adding more to our number considering that we were still figuring so many things out, but we wanted to be prepared. Granted, our nursery was mostly outfitted with ways to document what happened and take samples considering that none of us knew beans about their reproduction and it wasn’t like there were any textbooks on the subject.
“Hey, guys,” I said to the group sitting there. While there was plenty of work for the mimics to do, all of us had set the rule that each of them needed at least four hours a day where they weren’t trying to help with construction or any other project. It seemed that some of their habits died hard, and relentlessly toiling down to the bone was one of them.
“Hullo, Leader Higgens,” they chorused. Well, most of them chorused. Even after six months, human speech wasn’t easy for all of them. After observing the growth of hundreds of mimics, we had all definitely learned that their transitions came at different paces.
“Hello,” I answered back, gently correcting their speech. The ‘Leader Higgens’ thing wasn’t my idea, but it was what they had taken to calling all of us humans, Mimi, and some of her lieutenants. “You guys in the mood to learn today?”
They nodded eagerly, filing onto the benches. There was only about twenty of them, but that was more than enough.
“So, what do you want to learn about today? There’s basic math, some Earth history, more Earth customs, language… You all tell me.”
There was a general murmuring amongst the students. Considering there was more than ten of them, it was doubtful that at least one of them hadn’t attended one of my previous talks, but usually the group was very good at agreeing.
“How about math?” one of them said after the group seemed to come to a consensus.
“Math it is,” I said, pulling the holo-projector from the cabinet we kept at the edge of the circle. Once that was all set up, I got to work. It may not have been as cool as the weapons system the twins were making, or the martial arts that Eske taught, or the everything that Mimi did, but considering we were building an entire civilization from the ground up, even the smaller things mattered.
2
Progress is a Journey
I finished the lesson and the group of mimics wandered their separate ways, some of them going to get food while others were just making space for the next group. That was one thing I would miss if the population got bigger. Currently, there was an intense sense of community in our little corner of the universe, with everyone working together to support each other and thrive. As with all civilizations, the bigger we got, the more that would go away.
“Hey there, Leader Higgens! I figured I’d see you here!”
I turned from putting away the projector, making sure it was neat for the next person who used it—which was probably going to be me—to see Mari standing a few feet away from me.
Mari was an…interesting mimic to say the least. One of the little ones that had suddenly become an adult after the absorption of the gun’s runoff, she had styled herself off of one of the sparkling, super cutesy girls from the comic holos that Eske was so partial to.
She had large, bubblegum pink hair that she wore in pigtails, and a heart-shaped face with a light dusting of freckles. Her eyes were large and sparkling blue, surrounded by long lashes and complemented by her button nose.
The mimic chose a form that was as short as Ciangi, and styled to be youthful in appearance, making her look like a perpetual child.
It was quite the confusing conundrum, because in a literal sense, she was a child, only having been an adult for six months, but in another sense, she wasn’t a child at all. She had been alive for about a thousand years, had consumed enough energy to be fully mature, and seemed like she might be able to give Mimi a run for her money on sheer intellect. It was difficult to wrap my head around, so in general, I tried to avoid her.
Which was difficult because she had taken to following either Mimi or I whenever she could.
“Hey, Mari,” I said, smiling. “What are you up to?”
“I was with Leader Mimi while she was looking over the defense grid with Leaders Ciangi and Bahn, but she said she’d like to see you, so she asked me to come fetch you.”
“Why not just use our comms?” I asked. Bahn had gone through a lot of trouble of making rudimentary, handheld scanners for everyone to use. They all connected to the same grid, allowing communication throughout our entire little city, and thankfully, the new mimics seemed to know not to use it unless they needed it. I suppose it helped that we had three different channels.
“She did. She said you weren’t answering.”
I looked down to my wrist, concerned that something had malfunctioned in my much more complicated scanner, only for me to see my arm was blank.
“Huh, I must have forgotten it back at home.”
“I figured as much!” Mari said, batting her eyes at me. “So, I stopped by there first and grabbed it.”
“You went into my room?” I asked cautiously. Maybe it was because of what happened on the ship when Mimi was first discovered by Giomatti, but I was very uncomfortable with someone entering my quarters without permission.
“Technically, they are Leader Mimi’s vents just as much as yours,” she answered matter-of-factly. “But no, I found it in the kitchen.”
“Ah, I must have left it there when I was getting food.” She reached into her bag and pulled out my scanner, gently tossing it over to me. “Thank you, by the way,” I said
“No problems, Leader Higgens! Whatever I can do to help!”
Wow. She was really happy all the time. I had the feeling that she could give Eske a run for her money on impressive optimism.
“It is appreciated.” I said, sliding the mechanism on and booting it up. I had gone without it on Earth, but ever since Bahn had recreated one for me styled after the kind we had used when first confronting the alien that used to enslave Mimi’s people, I wore it every day. It was very unusual for me to forget it, but I guessed my mind had been particularly occupied this morning.
Once it was going, I hit the channel that just us ‘leaders’ used. “Hey, Mimi,” I said, pressing the button to communicate. “You called?”
“Oh, hello there,” she answered, sounding pleasantly surprised. “I was worried.”
“Sorry about that. I must have been distracted this morning, I accidentally left it behind.”
“I am relieved! If you could, would you meet me at the defense hub?”
“Sure, I’ll be there in
a jiffy.”
“See you soon. Give Mari my thanks. I assume she is the one that found you.”
“You are correct,” I said with a small laugh. “I’ll see you soon.”
I ended the connection and looked to the angelic little mimic waiting for me. “Mimi says thank you.”
“I heard,” she said, holding out her hand. “Let’s go.”
I looked to her offered palm, feeling far more awkward than I should for something so simple. “If it’s alright with you, I’d rather not.”
“Oh, right,” she said, nodding knowingly. “I remember being told you don’t like being touched except by a few people.”
“That is correct,” I said, heading past her. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course not! I’ve been reading up about human psychology, and it’s interesting how neuro-divergent your species is! Mimics more or less all seem to work pretty similarly, but humans…not so much.”
“Don’t be so sure of that,” I said, smirking slightly. “Your species is still figuring itself out after years of slavery and forced starvation.”
“True.” She skipped along beside me, easily keeping pace. She looked like one of those poster children for an ad campaign and it was a bit…disconcerting.
Thankfully, we reached the defense hub—which was just the fancy name we now gave the crashed alien ship—without any sort of incidents or emergencies. Not that we had a lot of those, but every now and then, there was a fire or some sort of structure collapse. Mari never stopped skipping, her high-pitched, childlike voice chattering away without respite.
Thankfully, she knew to stop the hopping around when we finally reached the massive ship, lest we startle one of the twins or their acolytes as they worked on something important.
While I was still continuing to help them with basic engineering tasks, much of my education had been put on hold so I could teach the mimics that were interested in that field of science. Once they passed my level of understanding, which generally only took them about a month, they moved on to learning from and helping the twins directly.
Sometimes I was a little jealous that they were able to learn so fast, absorbing pages and pages of information in just a couple of hours, but I tried to fight it. After all, I wasn’t the one who had been a slave anywhere from a century to a millennium, so my pride could take a backseat on this.
“Hey there!” Ciangi said, looking up as soon as I was in. “Long time no see.”
“Only because you never leave the lab here,” I shot back, laughing as I approached her.
“Aw, come on,” she retorted. “I get out of here…sometimes.”
“I can attest that is definitely not the case,” Harunya said, coming up from behind Ciangi and handing her a steaming mug of something. “The last time you came home to your room was two weeks ago.”
“Two weeks ago? Really?” The blonde sipped her tea slowly. “Huh, I must smell then.”
Harunya ruffled her hand through the smaller of the Coin Twin’s hair. “That I can also confirm. Tonight, you will shower.”
“Yeah, yeah, if I get up the security grid to where it needs to be.”
“No. No ifs.”
“Uh-huh, whatever you say.” She gave Mari and I a wink over her mug that Harunya couldn’t see. “So, how are the twins?”
For a moment, I was confused, but then the tall, golden-skinned woman rubbed her rounded belly and I remembered that she was pregnant. It didn’t seem like a thing I would forget, but considering she was only just beginning to show, I was pretty sure that it just hadn’t clicked in my mind yet.
“Fine, as far as the scanner in the medical bay says.”
“Good to know.” The blonde’s attention turned back to us. “Anyways, I know you’re here for Mimi, so you should head out. She’s by the gun bay with Bahn.”
“Alright then. You two be good now.”
“Never have and won’t start now.”
We shared a short laugh and I headed into the area where the new generation of mimics had burst into adulthood. We’d made a ton of modifications and had improved both the integration of the massive, stolen cannon as well as its runoff. While we did have an entire species of mimics to absorb any nuclear overloads, we still weren’t really sure of the health ramifications of such rapid forced growth. Sure, Mimi and the others were doing fine so far, but Mimi wasn’t even two years into being her fully grown self.
“Hey there,” I said, seeing her halfway in one of the maintenance hatches of the console.
She quickly pushed herself out and looked at me with a brilliant smile. “Hey there, glad to see you in one piece.”
“In case you’ve forgotten, we don’t really live like that anymore. No rapid hunts for food, or running for our lives, or any of that normal fun stuff we used to do.”
“You never know,” she taunted, coming forward and giving me a hug. “And we’re all aware that it’s only a matter of time before Earth decides to deal with us.”
“Huh, you really know how to make a guy feel secure,” I joked, returning her hug. I could feel much of my tension easing at her touch. Not that I was super wound up, but teaching always took a bit of a toll on me.
“We’re a new civilization that’s already made enemies with two separate, technologically advanced worlds. We don’t get to feel secure.” She seemed to think better of her words as she stepped back. “But, even if we don’t feel secure, that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. So…”
“Yes?” I supplied when she trailed off.
“So, I want to go on a date.”
“A date?” I echoed like a silly parrot.
“Yes, a date. I read about it on the net that dates are special events that two people in a relationship do together, whether that relationship is platonic or romantic. Most popular are seeing special holos together, meals out in nature, and sleepovers. I thought, as a celebration of our six-month anniversary of peace, I believe they’re called, we might do one such activity.”
I smiled outright at that, quite amused. It wasn’t often I got to see the fearless Mimi look nervous or uncertain. “You already spend the night every night.”
She pushed her lips up in a pout that was just downright adorable. “You know what I mean.”
I laughed lightly. “Of course, I’d love to go on a date with you, and happy six-month anniversary.” I felt a small rush of nerves. “I, um, didn’t get you anything. I’m sorry.” Geez, I was terrible at this. I never even thought about an anniversary being a thing. Considering our time with each other had been full of imprisonment, war, and a whole lot of running for our lives, I didn’t know how long we had kinda been a thing or not.
“When did you want to do this?”
“Well,” she said, taking my hand. “How about now?”
“Now?” I asked. “As in right now? Today?”
“Yes. Now as in today. As in right now. I hid all of the food at Pyjik’s place. I was able to get your favorites from the synthesizer menu on your ship and I woke up early today to make sure I could get them all done before Bahn showed me his progress here.”
“Wow. You really are something, you know that?” I said, pulling her into a hug again.
“Can I come?” Mari asked, nearly inserting herself between the two of us and looking up with bright, sparkling eyes.
“Actually,” Bahn said, saving the day before either of us had to break her poor little heart. “I think it’s gonna be a bit lonely here. Would you mind hanging out with me while I run some tests on the defense grid?”
“Okay…” she said with a bit of a sigh.
“Speaking of the grid…” I said, turning to the taller of the twins. His long, long black hair had grown even more, nearly reaching his behind. It made my own ponytail look miniscule in comparison. I supposed I could cut my hair, but I never really learned how, and I felt like I was cooler with long hair anyways. Whenever I was stressed, it gave me something to tug at, and the texture was a nice distraction against m
y fingertips when I was feeling overwhelmed. “How is that going?”
“No!” Mimi said, forceful enough for us to know that she meant business but not so much that she startled any of us. “Date. Now.”
“Alright, alright,” I said, raising my hands in surrender. “I’ll swing by tomorrow for an update.”
“Make sure you do,” Bahn said with a laugh. “We’ve really made some great progress here.”
“I’m sure you have,” I said with a nod, but then Mimi had my hand and was pulling me out of the ship.
I didn’t resist, of course, following along more than a little amused. I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen her so excited about something so benign. Usually her shoulders were heavy with all the responsibility that came with leading an entire civilization. Her world had long since become about worrying over supplies, structure, and progress. I liked seeing her having a little frivolous fun.
We reached Pyjik’s house without being stopped a dozen times, which was probably a first for us. The main lieutenants from the first war had all created houses in separate sectors of our little community, that way someone was always close by if help was needed.
It was funny how different each of their places were. As different as the mimics themselves.
Pyjik’s was a fairly standard log cabin, where she lived with three or so juvenile mimics. Astaroth, who lived all the way in the forest sector, had a massive treehouse that spanned at least seven different towering arbors, which nearly a dozen adult and juvenile mimics went in and out of.
Mimic: The Space Shifter Chronicles Boxed Set (Books 1 - 9) Page 42