Mimic's Last Stand

by James David Victor

  It was strange, watching her walk back and forth was a lot like watching a mirror when I was in one of my moods. I knew I often needed time to calm down and get my mind right, so I just let her stalk about until finally she looked at me with an expression that was half-wry, half-pained. How did she do that? Emotions were often so difficult to communicate and there she was with two of them on at the same time.

  “Did you ever know that I was in love with you?”

  Wait.

  What?

  I stared at her, knowing my eyes were huge and unblinking, causing her to let out a much drier chuckle.

  “I thought as much.” She let out a sigh and plopped onto a pile of broken barrier posts. “You never had a clue.”

  “But you didn’t—” I sputtered, feeling like someone had just put an ionic wand into my brain. “You never— When did you—” Nothing seemed to make it out intact as my mind spun in about a million different directions.

  Gonzales was in love with me?

  That was impossible. She was a beautiful, impossibly strong, impossibly smart weapons engineer who I had personally seen shoot down many a hopeful suitor back on the mining ship. She was the woman that looked terror in the face and told it to take a hike, then stole its gun and rewired all of it to her own liking. She was lightning in human form and one of my only friends.

  “Easy there, bucko. Don’t hyperventilate. I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve had to deal with someone having a crush on you.” She glanced to me and seemed to think differently after seeing my expression. “Oh. Or is it?”

  I nodded, and she shook her head, laughing once more and still just as acerbic. “Oy. Trust me to fall in love with possibly the only guy I knew who would never get it.” She squinted at me, as if thinking, but my mind was still trying to fit puzzle pieces together that just didn’t seem to be possible.

  “I didn’t mean to, ya know. When I first met you, I thought you were one of those weird, creepy guys who didn’t know how to act in front of women but would secretly go home and plot how to dismember them.” That shook me out of my feedback loop of thought and I shot her a mildly offended expression. Did I really come off that way?

  “Sorry,” Gonzales murmured, blushing a bit. “But after coming up where I did and then going through everything I needed to become a weapons engineer, I’d learned it was better to think the worst of people and have them correct you over time rather than give someone your trust who doesn’t deserve it.

  “Besides, I definitely learned that you weren’t like that at all. You were sweet. And funny. You were awkward, of course, and sometimes you didn’t get my jokes, but I could overlook that.

  “And then, of all the people in the known universe, you were the one to make first contact. When I found that out, and when I saw that you stood up to our butt of a captain, I realized there might be a bit more to you than meets the eye. I remember standing there with the coin twins, deciding what we were going to do, and I realized that you just might be a real friend. Something I’d only had three of in my whole life up until that point.”

  Now I was the one pacing, listening to her spin her story with a nostalgic, wistful sort of tone. The rational part of my mind was telling me that her explaining what happened was probably cathartic for her. Maybe it was giving her a resolution that she had been seeking for a while. But it was actively shifting my entire world view, making me look back at my old memories in a new light. How much else had I missed? Had I led her on? Had I been cruel?

  Now that I thought about it, everyone else seemed to have known. Suddenly all the strange things that people had been saying to me made sense, and I didn’t like that at all.

  “You took me on adventures that finally made me feel something. All my life, I’d had this craving to do great things, important things, and I had never measured up. But with you, we did everything from discover other planet systems, to new life, to help Mimi discover her entire people.

  “But that whole time, you never once became conceited, or even seemed to realize just how amazing everything you did was. Sure, you changed a bit, you grew, but you were always the kind, caring guy who just wanted everyone to be safe and happy.

  “And that was right about when I realized that I may have had feelings for you, and that you were definitely starry-eyed for an alien and only her. I didn’t know if it was because the two of you got each other in a way I never would, or if it was because she could be whatever you wanted her to be, or if she just had the luck of realizing exactly what a catch you were before I did, but for whatever reason, I tried to shove those feelings down, down, down until not even my dreams could pull them up.”

  The hints of pain in her voice made me look at her and finally stop pacing. “I’m sorry,” I murmured. Ugh, how could I have been such a fool?

  “You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn’t do anything wrong. That would have made the whole thing easier.” She leaned her chin in her hand and looked me over. “Even when we were on Earth, completely separated from Mimi, I could tell how unhappy you were. And honestly, that stung me. So, I traveled more than you guys, signed onto more gigs, until eventually I caught onto some things I shouldn’t have and we all know how that story goes.”

  Ah yes, she was taken by the coup three months before us. It still made my stomach twist to think about everything that she had endured at their hands. At Lazer’s hands.

  “I only held on all that time because of sheer stubbornness. I wasn’t going to let some ass with a weird fixation on me destroy all the surviving I had done up to that point. But towards the end, it was hard. I wondered why you guys hadn’t come for me. I feared that you’d forgotten me.”

  I felt a pang of guilt at that. We had gone a terribly long time without figuring out what was going on and that she had been taken. In fact, if we hadn’t been taken ourselves, I wondered if we ever would have noticed. The thought was crushing and certainly didn’t make me feel like someone deserving of love and affection.

  “But then you guys were there, and you fought so hard to stop him.” She closed her eyes, and it was almost as if I could see the memory replaying over her head. “Your cell was right across from mine, so I remember you trying to push through that barrier, slamming into it with all your might like your sheer willpower was going to break it down. You screamed for me, you tried to draw his attention away, even though you knew he was going to hurt you—badly. When I was being hurt, it was like nothing in the world mattered to you.”

  I wanted to tell her that was because it didn’t. She was my friend that I loved very dearly and seeing anyone I loved hurt was the worst torture I had ever endured. But I knew that this wasn’t my time to speak. It was hers. And the least I could do was listen until she was fully done.

  “And afterwards, when my nightmares were the worst, you would hold me. You would be the one to listen and tell me it was alright. But there wasn’t any pity in any of it. You didn’t look at me with those sappy, sympathetic gazes that everyone else had. You just treated it sort of matter of fact. Like I had broken my arm and just needed a splint, and this was to be expected. It was…refreshing, to be honest. And I’ll always appreciate that.

  “But I think that was right about when I hoped that maybe there could be something for you and me. How could you look at me the way you did and truly not feel any of the feelings I had? I started to get a bit jealous of alien-face. Maybe even resent her a little. What did she have that I didn’t?”

  Gonzales snorted at that. “Obviously I wasn’t thinking clearly. That woman is practically a god in inky flesh, and I’m just a girl from the slums with trust issues.

  “So yeah, when you two confessed your love to each other and I realized there was never going to be room for me, ever, I needed space. So I left. Even when I came back, looking at you hurt me. Sometimes, looking at you still hurts me.”

  She sighed and stood up, wiping her hands on her pants. “So, I figure it’s time to finally give all of that up. I know that
friendship is all we’ll ever have because Mimi and you seem to be utterly made for each other. But still…”

  She took a step towards me, her tanned hands reaching up until they were gripping my lapels. Her fingers traced along them a moment, her breath shaking, and all I could do was look at her curiously.

  “Or at least my mind knows that. But my heart? My heart keeps right on wondering.” She stood on tiptoes and I could feel her breath upon my face. I knew that if I objected, she would immediately stop, but I didn’t.

  And then her lips were on mine.

  It was an uncertain kiss, with little pressure and a whole lot of questions, but I didn’t object to it. I knew what this was. It was an answer to a question that she needed the resolution to.

  Just as soon as it had begun, it stopped, and she dropped back down onto the soles of her feet. “Huh. Well, that answers a lot, doesn’t it?” Gonzales sighed and stepped back. “Thank you for giving me that closure. If you don’t mind, I’m going to take a walk now. I’ll see you…in a day or two.”

  “…see you,” I murmured weakly, giving her a little wave.

  She walked off deeper into the forest and all I could do was watch her, still in a bit of shock from everything that had happened. One day, when I had the time, I would sit down and actually analyze everything that had gone on between us with fresh eyes.

  But for now, I supposed there was a lot of work to do.

  Heaving a sigh, I went back to work on our main base of operations. At least there I mostly knew what I was doing, and I would be a bit of a wrench monkey for all the engineers. Goodness knew preparing for battle against a giant alien armada seemed a whole lot easier than explaining to Mimi why I had let my friend kiss me.

  …maybe there was a thing or two that Mimi didn’t need to know.

  6

  Tick Tock Goes the Ancient Clock

  “I’m just saying that if we reconfigure your energy source like the alien ship’s that you’ll have twice as much power and strength for the shield without risking any sort of overload. And if there even is an overload, apparently you have an entire army of little alien creatures who are happy to eat it and then grow into super-powered weapons.”

  “About that,” Urdet said wearily. Since we had last been taken by humans it seemed the most government-minded of the advanced mimics had done quite a lot of growing. While he was the same age physically, he seemed to understand human manner much more and didn’t question every other thing that came out of one of their mouths.

  “We’re not sure that is a great idea. We have been monitoring our vitals as best we can, and it seems that those of us who ingested the spill-off radiation and forced rapid growth actually have certain cellular microtears that those who did not ingest do not have. The more run-off that’s been absorbed has resulted in more of these tears along with a slightly increased rate of cellular degradation.”

  I jolted at that instantly. It had been a full month since both the revolutionaries and the government had started working with us on our planetary defenses and even more had arrived since. Two ships from the government and a smaller mining ship from the other side of our merry trio. But the real gain was in people. There were a little over a thousand of us now, all building and learning together with the fifteen thousand or so mimics that were left. It was a strange and very intense crash course in assimilation, but for the most part, we got along.

  Although that might have just been because we didn’t have time to get into fights or waste a single drop of energy on conflict. Everything was either training, building, repairing, or scrapping. If someone had an idea that would add an iota of defense, it was usually put into action. Just the organization of it all was intense, and the strategists dedicated most of their time to keeping the base team, the troop team, the space team, and the pilot teams all rotating efficiently.

  It would have been easier if everyone could have stayed in one spot or everyone could move in the same pattern, but it didn’t work that way. The core team of engineers would stay planet-side in the base, but a chunk was being added to two-man fighters or the warships to perform in-battle repairs—a harrowing and deadly job. They split their time between repairing and rebuilding and learning every single in and out of the ship they were assigned to.

  Then the rest of the engineers were up in space, integrating the defenses we were hoping would narrow down the Harvester numbers. They needed longer up there to get anything accomplished, but then they too had to come down to Earth and work on the ships that they would be assigned to.

  The soldiers were much the same, busy learning how to fight with mimics and use their unique anatomy to their advantage, building barricades, and teaching how to properly use the munitions they brought to everyone else. Their weapons were far more advanced than anything we had used before and I was glad for the several lessons I had.

  So on and so forth it went, and yet somehow we were running like a well-oiled machine. The fact that we had repaired our central hub enough to re-erect the cannon that we stole, and its corresponding shield, was a great accomplishment.

  But all of those warm and fuzzy feelings of getting things done faded as Urdet’s words sank over my brain.

  “Are you saying that the mimics who’ve absorbed radiation are sick?” I asked, voice sounding strange in my own ears.

  That couldn’t be possible.

  Mimi would tell me that.

  Wouldn’t she?

  She wouldn’t keep that from me…

  “No, of course not,” Urdet said. “I am merely stating that we have observed a trend that has caused a concerning reaction in us. We do not yet know the consequences of said damage and we also are not stating that we wouldn’t do it again. I am just merely proposing that we do not count on our ability to absorb great amounts of energy as a matter of course.”

  “Right…” I murmured, my world spinning.

  Mimi was damaged.

  How many times had she absorbed radiation run-off? More than I could even remember. That was the whole thing that allowed her to become sentient and shift into a human form. But was it gained too quickly? And what did that mean for her? What did that mean for us? I had her alien DNA grafted to my body.

  “Uh…Higgens?” Ciangi whispered, grabbing my hand in and hauling it into her lap.

  Surprised, I looked over to her to see that my skin was starting to ripple and buck. Goodness, that hadn’t happened in quite a while. Breathing through my nose, I forced myself to calm down.

  “Alright,” the same engineer said that had spoken before. “Point taken. We need to make sure the output dampener and reservoir chamber are capable of handling the load. Fine. I still think this is the best way to wo—”

  A loud alarm went off, and the engineer let out a cry.

  “Now what?” she snapped, looking at the holoscreen booting up behind us. A few moments later, we could see the face of one of the military leaders looking anxiously at us.

  “What’s going on?” another engineer asked, clearly much calmer than the first woman who was speaking. “Did someone lock themselves in the officers’ head?”

  “Officers’ head?” Urdet whispered questioningly, flicking through his datapad as if he was looking for notes. “Is this slang for a mental illness?”

  “It means toilet,” Gonzales said, snickering slightly from where she was draped over her chair. I risked a glance in her direction and she just gave me a wink which made me blush furiously.

  Goodness, I was going to need to get over that if I ever wanted things to be normal between us again. If they ever could be. It was very strange to know that someone like her had ever loved someone like me. I didn’t know if I was lucky or if they were just unlucky that amazing people like them had feelings for me.

  “No. I’m sending you a report now. The sensors on the alien ship went off up here, and I think you’d like to know what they saw.”

  Instantly whatever levity or relaxation there had been in the mood of the room vanished
and it was almost as if we were all holding our breath at once. The holo projector finished booting up, then we were looking at a fairly simplistic map of the entire system we were in.

  And we weren’t alone.

  Slowly, agonizingly slowly, a red blip started to slide in at the top of the holo-field. I didn’t need to read the analytical data flashing along the bottom to know exactly what it was.

  A Harvester ship.

  My throat caught as it fully emerged from where it came from and onto our screen. But still…one ship wasn’t that bad. I could guess by the size of its representation that it was probably bigger and more weapon-capable than the ship that we had stolen from them, but not by too much. Still…after we had been such a thorn in their side, it didn’t seem likely that the aliens would just send a single ship to deal with us.

  Just as I thought that, the tips of two more ships appeared behind them, lengthening and lengthening until they too were fully visible.

  And then three more ships behind that.

  Then four more behind that.

  On and on it went until there was a full triangle formation of Harvester mega warships coming to wipe us out.

  “Well,” Gonzales murmured after a long and breathless pause from all of us. “It seems like our alien friends are ready to have a real party.”

  That seemed to break the tension, and suddenly everyone was talking at once.

  “Defense is clearly our greatest priority right now.”

  “We don’t have the capabilities of taking on an armada that huge!”

  “Each one of their ships is like three of ours, and we only have eleven!”

  “I don’t know how, but we need to make some bigger guns.”

  But all of that furor simmered down as the door open and someone coolly cleared their throats.