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

by James David Victor

  “Yeowch,” Eske murmured.

  “Don’t worry, there’s room for a lot worse on our way up once we have Mimi,” Fregos said, his voice low but with just enough tone to know that he was joking.

  Maybe.

  We moved forward, picking our way over the mess we had created. Smoke, rubble, and bodies laid everywhere. With all the carnage, I couldn’t help but wonder if we were the good guys after all. Sure, everyone always thought they were on the right side of things, but it was hard to keep believing so when there was so much death all around us.

  I didn’t want our legacy to be this. I didn’t want to kill. I just wanted to live, and help the mimics live. How had our path ended up so dark and awful?

  Greed. That was what happened. And the stupid coup. If it wasn’t for them, none of this would have happened, but as long as they were around, people were going to be hurt, imprisoned, abused, and killed. They had to be stopped.

  “You okay there?” Eske asked as we passed the burned and broken remains of the shield generators.

  “Yeah,” I answered quietly. “Just thinking.”

  Before she could ask me what exactly I was thinking about, we reached a large, metal box in the middle of the room with only a single door.

  “I think we’ve found her,” Gonzales said, smiling brightly. “I’ll get the door.”

  She pulled out the same disc she had used earlier and placed it on the entrance. It went through the same show, then suddenly, the door was blown off its hinges and we were in.

  There were only two things in the room, one being a console, and the other being a massive containment vessel that was about as tall as two humans and just as wide. In the center of that container was a roiling, spikey ball of blackness floating in limbo.

  “Mimi,” I whispered, hardly believing it.

  After nearly a month, it was finally her.

  Now we just had to get her out.

  12

  Reunions All Around

  I couldn’t believe it. I stared up at the constantly shifting mass that was the creature I loved. Even if she wasn’t human right now and didn’t have any discernable features beyond her constantly reforming spikes, my heart was still soaring to see her.

  “It looks like they have her in some sort of lockdown,” Gonzales remarked. “I’m not sure I want to monkey with it if I’m not certain what to do.”

  I got it. Give me just a couple of seconds and your lady love will be freed.

  “You can remote access it from where you are?”

  Sure, just hook your comm up to the output. I’ll take it from there.

  “Whatever you say.”

  Gonzales pulled it from her wrist and connected it to the console. There was a whole lot of buzzing and beeps, then finally, the liquid inside started to drain while the fields around it powered down.

  The black mass reacted instantly, shooting outwards violently. The glass—or whatever the material of the chamber was—never stood a chance, shattering and falling to the ground in a shower of materials.

  Then, finally, after everything that we had survived, everything that we had gone through, she landed on the ground in a spikey black amorphous blob.

  “Mimi!” I cried, running toward her.

  Her form didn’t react at first, still roiling without control, but I didn’t care. I fell on my knees in front of her and pressed my hand into her cold, hard flesh.

  “Thank God,” I murmured. “I missed you.”

  She let out the slowest warble I had ever heard her utter, and then her form began to slowly draw inwards, rippling and changing colors as it shaped itself into something somewhat resembling a human.

  “Hig…gens…?” she wheezed, her voice jumping through several different pitches before settling on the one she normally used.

  “Yes, it’s me,” I said, pulling her tight to me. Before I could stop it, tears were rolling down my face and sobs wracked my chest. I was just so relieved, so happy to have Mimi back in my arms again. With her, I knew that we were doing good. Because if evil could ever be a person, Mimi was the antithesis of that. She was light and kindness and a type of fortitude that I could never hope to have.

  “I…I’ve been gone a long time, haven’t I?”

  I could tell she was still quite confused, and I internally cursed the generals and all of their men for holding her so unnaturally for so long. Surely that had to have been less than ideal for her mental state.

  “About a month, but we’re being rescued now, so we gotta go. Do you think you can get up?”

  She nodded, her features almost back into place. Sure, her hair was the wrong color, she was missing some teeth, and her nose was too big, but none of that mattered. No matter what form she took, my Mimi was still my Mimi.

  And I was hers.

  “Here, let me help,” Fregos said, offering his arm. Mimi took it, and he got her to her feet in no time.

  We hobbled off, Gonzales putting her comm back on and everyone spreading out in case of attack.

  Hey, not to crash on this happy reunion, but they know you’ve got her free. Soldiers are abandoning our distracting fights and converging down the lifts toward your floor. I’m having the lower level operatives that are still alive sabotage the staircases, but I’m not sure how you’re gonna get out.

  “Well, you better think of some way, otherwise this entire mission is toast and y’all gonna lose a bunch of figureheads.”

  Crap. Alright. Gimme a second. It’s just, if there’s any sort of way to get out of here, I guarantee you that soldiers are now crowding it and chock-full of weapons.

  “Come on, there’s gotta be something.”

  “What about any building ports?” I said, something clicking in my mind.

  “Building ports?” Gonzales asked.

  “Yeah, this place is really far underground, so there had to be tunnels and areas where workers could move between levels as they fabricated them. When buildings are built upwards, they’re always taken down because they’re eyesores. But underground? You can just cover them with dirt or concrete and not really worry about it.”

  Whoever this guy is, I like him. Let me change the settings of my scanner and see what I can do.

  “Alright, we’ll keep moving forward. I get the feeling that staying still is not the best idea right now.”

  “I…I don’t understand how we got here,” Mimi murmured from beside me. “We were talking peace, their ship was too small to overtake us…”

  “Do you really not remember?”

  “…give me a minute. It’s coming back. Everything is just so fractured…and mixed together. It’s like one of those ancient Earth puzzles in your sims.”

  “I gotcha.”

  Bingo-bongo, I found it! Go back to the staircase and there should be a panel you can blast out of the wall. From there, you can take it up two floors, then hop into another one close to an emergency fire tunnel, then hopefully make a break for the bay.

  “The bay, that’s where we’re going?”

  Yeah, your ride is comin’ in hot, so try to make it in ten minutes.

  “And if we don’t?” Gonzales asked.

  Then it might just get shot out of the sky before you have a chance to get onto it and all of this will be for nothing.

  “Right. So, no pressure.”

  Nope. None at all.

  “You heard her, guys,” Gonzales said, turning to us sheepishly. “We gotta find an access port.”

  “No argument here,” Ciangi murmured, looking back at Mimi and me.

  We hurried along, tensions high. Any moment, we could be overridden by soldiers and decimated. Our freedom was hanging on a thread, and it was fraying at the middle.

  Somehow, we reached the staircase, navigating our way through the mess that we had caused, and Gonzales used her wrist-comm to find the panel we were looking for. I found myself alternating between holding my breath and panting, sure that at any moment, we would be dead.

  Except we kept survivin
g. We tumbled out of one of the tunnels into what looked like a processing room, then kept going to the next one.

  The sounds of firefights were no more. There was only the gentle thundering of hundreds and hundreds of pairs of feet as they tried to get to us. How big could this coup be? Did they have the entire military at their discretion? Or just a good chunk of it? There were so many questions I had, and I could only hope that they would be answered by the crystal chips still slung across my back.

  We made it out of the second tunnel, covered in dirt and grit and waste castoff that I didn’t even want to think about, but we made it.

  “I’m definitely going to need a shower after all of this,” Gonzales said, looking down at her comm. “This way.”

  We followed, picking up our pace as Mimi got more control of herself. I could see the massive doors of the hangar, way down the hall, over bodies and dropped weapons and the rest of the aftereffects of a gunfight.

  We were almost there! While all of the soldiers were rushing to corner us in the bottom floors, we were going to slide right out from above them!

  “Mimi!”

  We all skidded to a stop, that familiar voice filling me with a sense of dread and rage. Turning, I saw none other than Mari in the center of the hall.

  “I don’t know how you did it, and I don’t really care why,” the small girl said, advancing toward us. “But I can’t let you go back to our planet.”

  I felt Mimi pull away from me. I tried to hold onto her, but she slipped from my grasp. “Why have you done this? You’re my sister.”

  “No, I’m your underling, just like all of the other mimics who are okay with your subjugation.” She sneered, and her cute features seemed a whole lot less adorable. “Why do you get to rule over us all? You weren’t the one in slavery for generations! You got to live out your little life on that stupid little comet and you would have stayed right there, doing nothing, if the humans hadn’t stumbled across you! You’re a usurper. A pretender to the crown! You didn’t suffer like we did, you just swept in and took over!

  “So that’s why you can’t go home. At first, I was going to go right back and tell them you all had been taken, but I realized that might be a bit too suspicious. So, I hid on that ship and came all the way here.

  “I had no doubt that the humans would eventually betray me and try to come for us, but when I told all the other gullible idiots about your noble demise, they’d make you into a martyr and crush any and all humans that came our way. Then, once we were ready, we’d come and take over this stupid little planet until our species was the apex of the universe and I its queen!”

  “You did all of this for power?” Mimi cried, her voice full of frustration. “Haven’t you learned anything from these humans and how futile that is? We’re a society! We work together for everything. If you wanted to lead, you could have asked, proven yourself, and I would have been more than happy to step down!”

  “Sure, you would of,” Mari spat. “But it’s better to ask forgiveness instead of permission.” Her jaw started to extend, and her body spread outward. “So, tell me, great leader Mimi, do you forgive me before you die?”

  “You don’t have to do this, Mari. We can go home together, and you can stand trial for what you’ve done.”

  “No thanks,” she hissed, the sound almost unable to make it out of her gnarled, growing mouth. “I prefer to deal with things in the now.”

  “Very well.” Mimi looked at me with a regretful expression. “You all should probably run,” she murmured.

  “Wait, Mimi— No!”

  But she was already sprinting forward, her body exploding in a mass of spikes and limbs. I watched, in absolute awe, as the two mimics crashed into each other, their forms rippling and bucking until they were two giant creatures.

  They barely fit in the hall, and it was definitely dangerous to be anywhere near them, but I couldn’t move. I was rooted to my spot, staring in a wide-eyed wonder at the sight of the two colossi grappling before me.

  Mari, or at least I thought it was Mari, was some sort of amphibious creature with a long snout lined with incredibly sharp teeth. She had four eyes, each of them a brilliant green, and six legs. Her tail was long and as thick as a tree, with the end split into two spikes. I didn’t recall seeing anything like that on Mimi’s planet, which led me to wonder where she had picked that form up.

  Mimi, however, was the same creature that had once defended us when we were in another part of the galaxy hunting for a way back home. She was still just as terrifying as before, and she fought Mari with all she had.

  “Come on, Higgens!” Gonzales cried, grabbing my shoulder.

  But I shook her off. How could I abandon Mimi? Even though I was absolutely useless, it killed me to just leave her to fight our battle.

  Mari tackled her leader, her massive jaws closing around her neck, but Mimi managed to counter, shifting so that her head suddenly wasn’t there anymore, before a dozen or so tentacles shot out of her, forcing Mari back.

  They were a mass of colors and limbs, slamming each other into walls and ceilings. There was no way the soldiers didn’t hear them, which meant soon we’d have another entirely different problem on our hands.

  I’m reading all sorts of crazy energy signals there, so I’m sure you’re having a real party, but your ride’s coming in hot in about two minutes.

  “Higgens! Come on! Mimi will catch up in a way that you can’t!”

  But I just shrugged Gonzales off again. “I’m not going to let us be separated again,” I said firmly. “You guys get the door. Either we come together, or not at all.”

  “You’re not a shapeshifter like her! You’re just going to get in her way!”

  “I’ll be fine,” I said, looking back to the two. Mimi tackled the younger mimic again, causing them to go flying toward us. Gonzales and I dove to different sides, and I took that opportunity to look back at her.

  “Go! We’ll be there.”

  “I hope you’re right,” she said, shaking her head. “I guess you’re really always going to choose her.”

  “What did you s—”

  “Come on, guys! Let’s clear a path!”

  They ran off, dealing with the door, and I scrambled upright again. Mari and Mimi were still rolling, biting, and scratching at each other.

  While the floor certainly hadn’t been clean before, now it was slick with the blood of their respective creatures. My stomach twisted in pain watching Mimi being hurt and watching the fallout of Mari’s betrayal. When it was a mimic vs. mimic, no one won.

  Finally, Mimi had Mari pinned, her tentacles wrapped around all of the creature’s limbs. She bared her teeth and let out a mighty roar that nearly knocked me off my feet, which I hoped was some sort of offer of mercy.

  Then, just when I was sure Mari might kowtow, she wasn’t there anymore. Her form shrank so rapidly that it popped, and suddenly, a lemur was running out from under Mimi’s massive body.

  The leader of the mimics rolled, trying to catch her adversary. But the lemur lunched itself through the air, only to erupt into another massive form and slam into Mimi’s body.

  Round and round they went, twisting, turning, gnashing teeth and bloodied claws. I could see Mimi weakening, and Mari was high on her bloodlust.

  I couldn’t let my love lose, but I also wasn’t a massive alien creature. What could I do?

  Looking down, I saw I still had the same baton in my hand. Flicking it on, I tore off a piece of my prisoner jumpsuit and wrapped it around the power switch.

  If the stun baton was like any of the others I had been trained on in my basic space-life prep, holding the button for a minute would cause it to overload. It was particularly useful to miners, who would use them to escape if there was ever a cave-in.

  I felt it starting to vibrate, harder and harder, until I knew I only had seconds left. But I waited until I had a clear shot, before throwing it as hard as I could into the folds of Mari’s skin.

  It stuck for
just the briefest of moments, but that was all it needed. There was a quick pop, and the thing went off.

  While it wasn’t even close to the biggest explosion I had experienced, it was enough to knock her ever-so-slightly to the side. Mimi took full advantage, her tentacles wrapping around her opponent’s neck and throttling as hard as she could before repeatedly slamming her into the floor.

  Once.

  Twice.

  Three times.

  And then finally, there was a stillness.

  Both of their forms slowly shrank down, much differently than how they had combusted into the fight, until Mimi was standing with her hands around Mari’s neck.

  “Mommy,” Mari murmured, her blue eyes big and scared. “You wouldn’t really kill me, would you?”

  “I am not you mother.” Mimi spat, her teeth bared in a snarl that looked so alien on her features. But then, just when I was sure that I was going to watch the woman I loved murder one of her own kind, she let go. “But I’m not a killer either. Surrender. Come home, Mari. It doesn’t have to end here.”

  “Aw, come on,” she said, dropping to the ground and rolling her eyes. “Idiotic mercy like this is why you’ll never be the leader we need.”

  She surged forward, a massive spike starting to shoot out of her body. Mimi was caught by surprise, but before she could do anything besides stumble back, something sailed through the air and landed at Mari’s shifting feet.

  It only took a fraction of a second to recognize it.

  “Mimi, get down!” I said, diving for her.

  I managed to collide with her and we both hit the ground then slid, barely making it behind a chunk of debris just as the hallway erupted into a ball of fire.

  Black liquid spewed everywhere, stinging slightly as my ears rang violently. We sat there for several seconds until the air cleared, and I could see Gonzales standing several feet in front of us, Jannin’s bandolier in her hands.