“What? Now?”
“Yeah, right now!”
The general didn’t say anything, and his stony gaze grew a little shakier.
“Aw, what’s a matter?” Gonzales hissed, her tone dripping with poison. “You worried that with all of your secrets out of the way that we won’t have a reason to keep you around? Is that what you’re scared of? That we’ll treat you how you treated us? Expendable!”
The general stared at her for a long, hard minute, then suddenly reached into the lapel of his uniform.
Avery and I lunged for him, while Mimi launched herself across the table. We tackled him, knocking him to the ground and yanking his arm from his clothing, but it was too late. He had a small metal tube, no longer than his pinky, with a single button on the end, which his thumb was already pressing.
“What is that?” Ciangi asked, her tone shooting up several octaves.
“Consider it a fail-safe,” the general spat. “You think we’d really build this whole place and not have something in place if someone caught wind?”
“Uh, guys?” Babel’s voice cut through the tension, although it certainly didn’t do anything to abate it. “I’d like to think this isn’t relevant to our situation, but an un-licensed nuclear warhead is coming your way.”
“You’re bluffing,” Gonzales said, getting in the general’s face once more. The amount of unbridled hate she exuded to him was intimidating, but I couldn’t blame her. I too held more anger toward him than anybody else I ever knew. “You just killed all your friends to ensure you’d live. Why would you blow yourself to bits?”
“I ensured my survival. If you’re going to endanger that assurance, then I’m going to make sure I take every single one of you with me.” There was a moment of silence as Gonzales just shook with anger and the rest of us stood in shock. The general decided to press his luck. “You don’t have much time, engineer. Are you sure you want to spend your last minutes looking at me?”
Wrong move.
“Alright. You wanna go out together? Then let’s make it something worthwhile.” She grabbed his lapels again, hauling him back into a chair despite his weight, and pulling a binding wire from her belt. With it, she bound him several times over.
“Lim, stand by for that password.”
“Are you kidding?” the general cried. “I’m not going to tell you anything until my safety’s guaranteed and we’re far away from here.”
“Gonzales,” Babel said uncertainly. “ETA is about five minutes on that warhead. We need to evacuate.”
“Then evacuate. Get everyone out of here and far enough away from the blast. But the general and I are staying here.”
“What!?” he cried. “Are you mad?”
Gonzales bared her teeth at him, nearly catching the red skin of his nose between her canines. “Yes, I am. Mad as hell.” She looked to us, fire in her eyes.
“Go. All of you. I’ll stay here.”
Suddenly, everything was too much for me. We’d been through a lot, but this was just ridiculous. “Are you kidding? We’re not leaving you.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if you think things have changed since we last lived together,” Ciangi said, “but there’s no way we’re abandoning you.”
Gonzales’s tone softened, and she looked at us with reddened eyes. “Guys, you don’t have to.”
“Of course we don’t,” Bahn said. “But we will remain nonetheless.”
Avery sighed and plopped into a chair. “I’m not part of your little clique, but I think I’m about to see history being made and I’m not gonna bail now.”
Gonzales let out the tiniest of chuckles, then looked back to the General. “Looks like we’re gonna have a real party, all in your honor. What’s that, four minutes now?”
“You’re bluffing,” he growled.
“Ah, ah, don’t be a copy-cat. I’ve had a good life, and I’m very tired. I don’t really have a family, I don’t have some star-crossed lover from across the galaxy, and all of my friends are here. If it all ends now, I wouldn’t complain. But what about you, General? You got any regrets?”
“Three minutes until impact.”
“Huh, looks like even if you gave us the password now, we still probably wouldn’t have time to get away. That’s a shame.”
“It’s Invictus-two-two-one-alpha! Two-two-one-alpha!”
“Aw, why, thank you, General, for being so forthcoming. You got that, Lim?”
“Got it! Getting into the system now. Give me thirty seconds and I’ll have a broadcast set up!”
“But that will be too late!” the general objected. “We’ll never make it to the hangar bay in time.”
“Oh, I know. We were never going to the hangar bay,” Gonzales answered. “For all your guys’ planning, you never did set up many precautions for assaults from below. While we’ve been having a heyday up here, our demolitions and digging crew have been tunneling under here with some stolen equipment.”
“You…you were bluffing.”
“Hardly. It will take us at least a minute to drop down the extraction point and then get the shielding up. Right now, you’ve only got two and a half left.”
“That’s not enough!”
“Oy, ya bunch of dramatic babies,” Aja’s voice burst through the comms. “I may have managed to buy you some extra time.”
“What’d you do?”
“Well, I made a sort of tractor beam a bit ago, and I managed to hook it up to your system. Right now, it’s latched onto the back of that warhead, and I recon we got two to three minutes before it overloads my system and continues toward you.”
“I just finished setting up the system!” Lim added. “You see that green button on the wall? Press that and you’ll be broadcast everywhere.”
“Perfect.” Gonzales clapped the general on the back of the chair. “Now, I give you my word that if you cooperate like the good man you might have once been, we’ll save you from the missile and let you stand trial for everything you’ve done. You got it?”
“I… Yes.”
“Good. Now, if everyone’s ready, lights, holo, and action!”
She walked forward, her fist slamming the button, and the room burst to life. This was it. The moment we had been working so hard for.
It no doubt took years for the coup to gain as much power as it did, but now it was all going to crumble with a few words.
14
Aftermath
“Citizens of Earth, I am broadcasting this as a form of my surrender,” the general grudgingly began. He looked like maybe he was thinking of stopping, but Gonzales just calmly tapped on the timer that she projected from her datalog. “Unbeknownst to most of you, there has been a hidden, secret faction of Earth Gov seeking to consolidate power and return to the olden days of the federation.
“Upon the discovery of extraterrestrial life, we moved forward to use that technology not how it was intended, but instead amassing a large military armada illegally, in the hopes of subjugating all non-human life and using it to further our goals.”
“The missile just broke loose! You’ve got two minutes max!”
“Untie me and let’s go!” the general cried. “Wasn’t that enough?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Gonzales said, crossing her arms casually. “I think the people need to know more of what y’all did wrong.”
The general stared at her, incredulous for a moment, before continuing. “We have broken many laws, and now it has come time to pay for those injustices. As the last surviving member of our leadership, I will stand trial for all we have done.
“These people behind me, you may know as the first contact crew. It is to them that you owe your gratitude, and I will be eternally indebted to them for their mercy. In the weeks to come, you will hear many incredulous, insidious stories of what we have done. All I can do is apologize and hope these people behind me can fix all of the damage we have done.”
“That’ll do. Cut the broadcast,” Gonzales ordered tersely.
“Br
oadcast has been severed.”
I reached over and grabbed Mimi’s hand. Squeezing it. I knew that this was the end for us, that we would never go home, never see all the little mimics I had learned to love. But at least we had ensured their future with humanity, and perhaps a lasting peace. And what could be better than that?
“Great,” Gonzales said. “And now that that’s all taken care of, what’s really happening with that missile?”
A jolt of shock went through me, and my head jerked in her direction.
“Extraction team confirming successful intercept. It’s now about a hundred yards outside of orbit and about to detonate in the cold vacuum of space.”
“W-what?” the general sputtered. “You tricked me?!”
“Yeah,” she said, shrugging. “Sorry about the dupe, guys. Only the second brain, extraction team, and I knew about that last part. We figured they might fire it and wanted all of your panic to be real to sell the bit.” She smiled sheepishly at the last part, however. “But…it was real nice that all of you were willing to die with me.”
Ciangi stomped forward and before anyone could react, she slapped her friend across the face. “That was cruel, and you know it!” she snapped, her tone shaking. But then she wrapped her arms around the other in a tight hug. “But we did it. Thanks to you, we did it.”
“We did. And now that the building is clear from the threat of a nuclear blast, why don’t we get the not-so-good general into custody and then go home?”
“By home, do you mean my planet?” Mimi asked.
“Uh, no. I mean our planet.”
A rush of relief flowed over all of us, and we walked out together, rolling the general along in his padded chair.
It was hard to wrap our minds around it, but an era was over. I was sure there were lots of things to do to still broker peace, and that the road ahead was by no means easy, but finally, the coup was dealt with. It was a new dawn, and we were walking into it together.
There was never a celebration quite like the one we had as we entered the ship. There were cheers and tears and triumphant chest bumps all around, but after a few moments, it cooled. That most likely had to do with the injured and dead being brought on board.
Our casualties were incredibly low considering the maelstrom we had created. Just two souls had succumbed to the blaster wounds they received in the field, and I cursed myself for never learning their names. They had sacrificed themselves for my cause, and I had treated them like anonymous plus-ones without their own histories or families.
I promised myself I would do better and memorized their names then and there. We made preparations to cremate them while we traveled to pick up the second brain crew, and then held one spectacular funeral. Of course, it was nothing compared to the lives that they had given up, but it helped.
It wasn’t until after the dead were properly mourned and respected that we returned to the black market and had the biggest hoe-down I had ever been in. There was food, dancing, drinking, and singing. People celebrating, people dreaming. Just happiness all around. There was a new hope for the future that I was pretty sure a lot of them had been without for a long time, and although I enjoyed watching them heal and build their fantasies for the new era, I couldn’t wait to get home.
It took us three days before we could finally leave, and by then there was a whole hail of things to do from the fallout of the coup. It seemed every day the tasks were mounting higher and higher, and I almost wondered if Gonzales was going to ditch us again. Especially considering the custody of the general.
A whole lot of people wanted the man dead, as in really dead, so he had to be under guard twenty-four/seven. Then there was the deal with the actual Earth Gov stepping in and wanting to team up with the rebels on their rebuilding and flushing out of the rest of the scum.
With every problem that was tackled, a new one would arise, and I gave up my hope of ever having our friend group all together like it once was. Which was fine, in a way. People grew older, finding new things and new paths. We would all still love and cherish Gonzales, but we needed to support her in a new life as an engineer turned political leader.
Surprisingly, however, she kept her word, seemingly relieved as she chose Avery to replace her, and we all boarded the warship to go home.
“I’m not gonna lie,” she murmured once the doors closed. “I think I never want to issue another order for as long as I live.”
“Uh-huh, I’ll remember that for the next time I leave my equipment in your build area and you yell at me to pick it up,” Ciangi retorted.
“Ay, come here, short-stack. Just because you look like Shirley Temple now doesn’t mean I still won’t lay the smackdown on you.”
But Ciangi just scurried off, Bahn following her quickly. Gonzales paused at the last minute and gave both Mimi and I a pointed look.
“I missed you guys,” she murmured.
“We missed you too,” I said.
For a moment, we all stood there awkwardly, but then I decided to take a gamble. Stepping forward, I offered a hug, my arms spread wide. Gonzales seemed surprised at first, then hesitant, before stepping forward and embracing me with all the strength she had.
We stood like that for a while, our hearts beating against each other, and then she pulled away. She gave us another subtle nod, then disappeared down the hall.
I turned back to Mimi, our hands finding each other’s again and our fingers interlacing. “Let’s rest, shall we?” I asked, body and soul weary.
“I would like that very much,” she said, smiling as she pulled me back to our quarters.
The two-week trip there at top speed seemed almost torturously slow, but we all took the time to reconnect. There were a lot of wounds, both emotional and physical, caused by our last jaunt, and we needed to have them out before we were thrown back into mimic planet life.
And of course, there was the announcement of our engagement to our friends.
Ciangi was beside herself, and quickly began rattling off wedding plans, while Eske just clapped softly for five solid minutes between her silent tears. Bahn nodded, and said he hoped to grow his hair to appropriate levels by the time we wed, and Gonzales… Well, Gonzales congratulated me with tears in her eyes before disappearing into her cabin for a couple of days.
Most importantly of all was Mimi. With the weight of Earth lifted from her shoulders, she seemed so much happier. She laughed with me, and watched sims with me, and we ran down the halls sometimes just for the heck of it. Finally, we were going to have a part of our life with no war. No conflict. No wondering if we would make it until tomorrow.
Sometimes, we would just lay in each other’s arms in bed for hours, watching space whip by at impossible speeds and enjoying each other’s presence. We were exactly in that position when Gonzales’s voice came over the comms.
“Hey, we’re approaching the system now. I’m going to drop out of hyper speed if you want to make it to the bridge for landing procedures.”
Mimi sat up like a shot, pulling me with her. “It’s time! We’re home! We’re finally home!”
She took off, never letting go of my hand, and I didn’t fight as she dragged me along. I loved seeing her this happy.
I loved her.
We arrived at the bridge just as we dropped out of our incredible speed, and quickly buckled ourselves in, Eske, Ciangi, and Bahn joining us shortly after.
“Y’all ready to be home?” Gonzales asked, smiling slightly.
“I am,” Mimi answered, letting out a breath. “I wonder how many children have reached maturity while we’ve been gone.”
“Yeah, it’s been a couple of months, hasn’t it?”
“Sixty-eight days.”
“Well, that sounds like sixty-seven days too long,” Bahn said. “But it’s almost over.”
“Yeah,” Gonzales agreed. “Initiating landing procedures now.”
Slowly, we began descending, the ship hull glowing red as we rushed through the atmosphere. I could
feel excitement building in my stomach, and I was going to embarrassingly hug each and every mimic I saw when I landed.
Finally, we slowed and broke through the clouds, leveling out as we prepared to land. But as our vision cleared, something was…amiss.
“Why is there so much smoke?” I asked, leaning against my harnesses as if that would allow me to see better. Was something wrong with the engine? Did we take a hit somewhere?”
“Um, I don’t know. I didn’t get any warnings from my dash.”
“It’s so thick,” Ciangi murmured. “And gray. This isn’t what smoke from a natural fire would look like.”
“That’s because it isn’t,” Bahn said, looking at his scanner. “According to this, all of that is coming from the ground.”
“…what the hell happened here?” Gonzales breathed as we finally landed in the thickest, blackest smog I’d ever seen.
“I do not know,” Mimi whispered, her face draining of all color. “But I have a terrible feeling about this.”
Mimic Saves Her People
1
What Breaks the Silence
I held my breath as Gonzales landed as quickly as she could. But as we descended, smoke—thick and noxious—cloaked our ship, making visibility zero and the forward window switch to a holo-map of our surroundings. My stomach left somewhere behind in space, I could only pray that there was just some sort of strange fire situation back at the home that we’d so carefully built.
The moment the thrusters dipped into a low hum, Mimi surged out of the room, her human form dropping as she shifted to her much quicker, spikier body. I quickly unbuckled myself and followed, nearly tumbling over when we finally did set down.
I could hear footsteps behind me, all rushing to catch up, but I didn’t wait for them. I rushed to catch up with Mimi, only to find that the walkway had already dropped, and she was nowhere to be seen.
So I ran as hard as I could toward the direction of the happy home we had built together. The smoke wasn’t nearly as thick as it was in the air, which meant that it had to have been a while since whatever had happened…happened, and a majority of it had risen upwards.
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