Mimic Changes the World

by James David Victor

  “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.

  “Broadcast 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 arou
nd. 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.”

  THANK YOU

  Thank you so much for reading Mimic Changes the World, the seventh book in the Space Shifter Chronicles. Lots of crazy things happened in this story, didn’t they? And there is more coming. The next story is already in the works and I plan to publish it in July.

  If you enjoyed this story, it would be awesome if you left a review for me. That really helps me reach more readers because Amazon features books with lots of good reviews.

  At the end, I have included a preview of Oracle, the first book in the Dragon Oracle series. This series has a lot of similarities to the Space Shifter Chronicles and features a girl with unexplained visions and a shape shifting dragon. If you enjoy Mimic and Higgens, I really think you’ll like Davie, Bron, and the heroic characters in the Dragon Oracle series. After you read the preview, you can download the book on Amazon

  Get Oracle here: amazon.com/dp/B079KXS1SR

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  Preview: Oracle

  It turned out that we didn’t have nearly enough lemons to get us to the weekend, so after I finished cutting up enough for the day, I quickly wrote it on the whiteboard by our manager’s locked office. Once I was done, I headed back to the front, only to see that it was my break time.

  Well, that was a pleasant surprise.

  But still, I wanted to make sure my coworkers didn’t need help before I disappeared. I stuck my head out to see that there wasn’t a line, and everything seemed pretty quiet.

&n
bsp; “All clear?” I asked, our code for if it was safe to use the bathroom or go on break.

  “All clear.”

  “Thanks!”

  I ducked back inside and cut through our prep-area to the small breakroom. It wasn’t much, but there was a table and chairs, a mini-fridge, a water cooler and—of course—a coffee maker.

  I was more tired than I had any right to be, but I wasn’t going to argue with myself. I’d never been much for routine, preferring to change my schedule to fit my needs on a day to day basis, so naturally, working life tended to grind me down.

  However, if I could make my living with art, now that would be some real fulfillment. Ever since I had started to show a knack for drawing and painting, people had no problem telling me how I was going to be a starving artist and I needed to get a job that would pay the bills. I couldn’t always help but think that getting a job only for money’s sake sounded like a terrible existence, but I never said as much.

  People just didn’t understand what art did for me. It helped me focus, helped me understand the emotions going through me, and most importantly, it stopped other…very stressful things from happening.

  I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. I was wasting my break chasing my thoughts in circles again when I should just be enjoying myself. With a stern shake of my head, I crossed over to the water cooler and grabbed a bio-degradable cup.

  “So, who did you get for Secret Santa?”

  “I can’t tell you that! That ruins the whole point of Secret Santa.”

  I yelped, dropping my cup and splashing water all over the floor. But I couldn’t care less about that compared to what had caused me to jump in the first place.

  Those voices. They were clearly Stacey and Presley, part-timers that only worked weekends. Normally, that wouldn’t be that alarming, except for the fact that it was June and Presley definitely wasn’t working.