Mimic Betrayed

by James David Victor

  “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 is the apex of the universe and I am 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. And if you wanted to lead, you could have asked, proven yourself, and I would be 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.

  But 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.

  Mimi and I stood, my legs shaking, and I turned to see that there was no sign of Mari anywhere. Just the thick, vis
cous black liquid covering everything.

  Despite everything that was happening, the three of us stood there for a second. For the first time in known history, someone had seen a mimic being violently killed.

  And we had been the ones to do it.

  13

  Declarations

  “So…” Gonzales said slowly, as if trying to think of what could possibly be appropriate to say after Mimi had watched the death of someone she had raised over the past year. “Anyone wanna get on a stolen warship?”

  “Wait, you brought ours back from the planet?”

  “No, actually,” she answered slowly, her eyes still locked on the black goop everywhere. “They abandoned it right above the planet, they were so worried about their little kidnapping going wrong. I’m talking about an entirely new warship.” She looked down at her comm. “And we’ve got about one minute to catch it before it risks hovering long enough to be shot down.”

  “Come on, Mimi,” I said, gently pulling at her. “Let’s go.”

  “…I never wanted to kill her…” she murmured, her face pale. “I wanted to bring her home.”

  “I know, I know.” I wrapped my fingers through hers. “But we have to go now. The mimics need you.”

  She nodded, and just like I said we would, we ran out together.

  We passed through the doors that the rest of the people opened while I was with Mimi, into a hangar bay that wasn’t quite as big as the one we had first escaped through, but still impressive, with rows and rows of fighters.

  “They really are gearing up for war, aren’t they?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Gonzales said. “But our ride will take care of that.”

  The ceiling was abruptly blasted away, and I looked up to see a massive warship hovering in the gap. Like something out of a sim, it slowly descended, extending a rampway as it did.

  We ran up, the whole thing feeling a bit surreal, and once we were in, it hurriedly shut behind us.

  Hey, guys, you wanna join us up in the cabin? We’re about to have a little pyrotechnics show here.

  Gonzales heaved a sigh and looked to us. “No rest for the wicked, right? Come on, our last big run for a bit.”

  “Sure,” Ciangi said. “I don’t want to miss any fireworks.”

  So, we all ran, unsure of where we were going besides following the blips on Gonzales’s comm, but it led us right to a lift. We piled in, and Gonzales pressed the button.

  “Did that just happen?” Bahn asked. “And are we really here right now? Riding in an elevator like life is normal?”

  “Oh, life is far from normal,” Gonzales said. “But we’re about to get a little bit of payback to make up for some of the pain these folks have caused.”

  The doors opened, and we stepped onto the bridge. It was bigger and sparklier than the one we had, although clearly made with the same style in mind.

  There were a whole lot of people there too. There was large woman in the communication seat, her bright red hair pulled into buns atop her head. There was a taller, lanky man at navigation, another man in the captain’s seat, and four other people sitting in the chairs.

  “Almost done rotating the ship,” the lanky man said.

  “Thanks, Castellanos,” Gonzales said, hopping into a seat and strapping herself in. “I’ll do the introductions later. For now, I believe we were promised some boom-booms?”

  “Indeed you were,” the man in the captain’s seat said. “Everyone should buckle up, because we have about ten seconds before we have to take off.”

  We all rushed to do so, and by the time we did, the front of the ship was looking into the bay. Rows upon rows of ships all stood there, gleaming in their newness. I barely had time for my mind to comprehend the size of it all before three charges shot out of the front of our ship and suddenly, everything was ablaze.

  Oh.

  “Good work, everyone,” Gonzales said, letting out a whoop. “Now get us out of here!”

  Just like she ordered, the ship backed up, then shot up into the sky. And as we navigated through the atmosphere, Earth’s defenses trying to keep up with us but ultimately outrun, I realized something.

  We couldn’t just run away to our planet anymore. We couldn’t play house and rebuild our civilization. There was no more running, and there was no more waiting. We had to go on the offensive.

  We had to bring down the coup.

  THANK YOU

  Thank you so much for reading Mimic Betrayed, the sixth book in the Space Shifter Chronicles. Did you see the betrayal coming? Keep an eye out for the next story and find out what happens next. It should be ready in late April or early May :)

  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.

  “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 splashi
ng 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.

  Oh, and the fact that neither of them were in the room.

  “Aw, come on. Don’t be a stick in the mud. I mean, unless you got me, in which case, I don’t wanna know. But I’m pretty sure Shelly has me because she’s asked me what my favorite color is about ten times in the past month.”

  “Fine. I got Davie. I’m not artsy, but I got her this mini-pastel set that my sister never used. Apparently, the thing is, like, fifty bucks.”

  I let out a long groan and threw my cup away. I knew exactly when this conversation happened—it was at our last Christmas party when Presley had given me such an expensive gift. I remembered it because I had cried so hard that I’d gotten a headache and had to leave a bit earlier than everybody else.

  But I couldn’t have possibly overheard this conversation, which meant it wasn’t a memory. But if it wasn’t a memory, that could only mean…

  “No,” I pleaded to no one in particular. “No, no, no, no, no.” Had I forgotten to take my medicine this morning? I didn’t think so. It was as routine as brushing my teeth was.

  I crossed over to my bag and dug around for my emergency supplies. Sure enough, I found the small pillbox there and quickly poured out the two meds I needed.

  I wasn’t willing to risk more water talk, so I just swallowed them dry. As I did, I felt a calm wash over me.