Again, there was those few moments where I was sure that we weren’t doing anything at all, but on the third or fourth pass, the beam began to flicker once more.
“I’m getting a drop in the energy readings!” Ciangi sounded once again through our comms. “Keep going!”
So we did. I could feel the pride and triumph swell in my chest each time we pinwheeled and fired again. The flickering was increasing, and the illumination around us began to fade.
Then, with almost no warning, the cannon detached and started to fall toward the planet.
It had only been five minutes max since we had started our assault, yet it was over. We all cheered, in various languages, and I couldn’t help but be amazed at what we had done.
But apparently, Ciangi wasn’t content to sit back and celebrate. “Gonzales, we have separation! Go, go, go!”
It was only then that I realized that our weapons engineer had been entirely absent from the fray. I looked to the moon, perplexed, just in time to see her come shooting toward us much too fast to be safe.
But she didn’t slow. Instead, she turned the entire ship to the side. For a moment, I had no idea what she was doing, but then the hangar bay doors opened and she slowed down just enough to catch the falling cannon in the middle of its descent.
Gonzales let out a loud whoop. “I’ve got the payload! Getting ready for landing.”
“Not so fast,” Ciangi countered, and her tone was grim enough to let me know that our rejoicing had been a bit premature. “I’m getting readings from the mothership?”
“What kind of readings?” Mimic asked.
“Lots of ‘em. Lots and lots and lots of ‘em. You all need to get out of there, now! Gonzales, provide cover for the smaller ships!”
“Yes, ma’am! Tactical retreat it is. Get out of here, guys.”
“What about you?” I asked.
I could almost hear her wry smile through the comm. “Don’t worry. I’ll hold off the newcomers and dodge any alt-fire this big baddie may dish out. You just get planet-side.”
Something about leaving a friend behind didn’t sit right with me, and I opened my mouth to object. But before I could think of what I actually wanted to say, nearly three dozen large fighters came zooming around the edge of the massive ship and opened fire on us.
“Get out of here! Now!”
I hit the controls so hard that I knew I was going to have bruises from my restraints in the morning. Abruptly, what had been dark, quiet space was embroiled in a deluge of rapid-fire, green beams of energy.
“Queueing up evasive maneuvers now, all of you hold on!”
I didn’t reply to Ciangi, because there wasn’t much to say. All my focus went into flying downwards while trying to dodge the incoming hits that flashed across my nav screens.
But Gonzales, however, seemed to have plenty to say. “You want to play hard? Fine, we’ll play hard. Let’s see where exactly those open plates lead up to, shall we?”
I couldn’t risk craning my neck to see what was going on behind me, so I had to content myself with the readings on my display. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the two large blips were that shot out from our battle cruiser to make its way up into where the cannon had been.
The resulting explosion was pretty amazing, and the resulting debris storm swallowed a good chunk of the oncoming fighters. But before we could issue a single cheer, another cloud of them came from the other side of the ship.
What was left of the original group surrounded Gonzales, firing on her shields with everything they had. She did an excellent job of returning fire with the seven or so artillery cannons on the flanks of her ship, but she was thoroughly occupied.
It looked like that cover thing wasn’t going to happen after all.
Once more, we were enveloped in a haze of radioactive green. Shots flew past me like hail, and I did my best to avoid what I could, but my shielding took way more hits than I would like to admit.
We were so close to planet-side. If we could just get into the atmosphere, the beam guns of our enemy fighters wouldn’t work, and we would be safe for all of a minute. I didn’t quite understand the explanation, but Ciangi had said it was something about the high-energy output of the lasers that would cause spontaneous combustion when introduced to the various compounds in the atmosphere…or something like that. I still had a lot to learn. Assuming I lived long enough to learn anything.
“Sister, I’m taking hits! I can’t get out of their line of sight!” one of the mimics yelled.
“Fildsik! Hold on.”
This time, I did look over my shoulder, and I saw that two ships had managed to flank one of our own while another came up behind them. That was…not good.
Before I could think of a single solution, or rescue, another one of our ships peeled away from our rapidly fleeing formation and rounded on the horde chasing after us.
Mimic.
“My shields are at zero! One more hit and I’ll—”
The mimic never got their last word out. One moment, their ship was there, showering sparks as the enemy completely unloaded on them. The next, there was an explosion of metal pieces and fire.
“No!” Mimic cried, the anguish in her voice apparent through the comms. “Fildsik, hold on!”
“Mimic, what are you going to do?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, only a shout of her absolute fury sounded through my headset as she rushed the group of three.
She managed to get the jump on them, and in the blink of an eye, one was gone. But that left her with two, as well as the rest behind them, and I could see even from where she was that she was losing her human form, expanding to fill her entire cabin with her black spikiness.
Oh.
I knew exactly what she was trying to do, and it was absolutely suicidal. Like hell I was going to let her do it on her own.
Gripping my controls, I raced forward. I knew better than to try to stop her, so the only thing I could do was help her. I focused on the leader of the little formation, swooping in and laying down covering fire, just as the canopy of Mimic’s ship lifted and all of the pressurized cabin air rushed off into the vacuum of space.
She was crazy, that was for sure. And I said as much as I barrel-rolled between two of the oncoming ships before turning and laying down more suppressive fire.
“Mimic, Higgens! What are you doing?!” Boy, Ciangi wasn’t happy with us. Not that I blamed her. If I was in her position, I would be furious. And terrified. “I know you guys are new to this space fighting thing, but that is not a retreat!”
“Mimic’s not going to leave one of her own to die in space, and I’m not going to leave her.”
“This is idiocy! It’s war, Higgens. People die. And if the two of you don’t get your butts down here, you’ll die, and all these little fledglings will be without their leader.”
“Then you better think of some way to make sure we don’t die, because she’s expanding out of her cabin now.”
“Expan— Huh— What now?”
“Oh, you know,” I answered nonchalantly while I pinwheeled again, firing even more rounds. I didn’t know when Ciangi had taken the target lock off my weapons system, but I was certainly grateful. “Increasing her mass and stretching it out so she can reach into space and get the other mimic that was jettisoned upon their ship’s explosion.”
“Oh, is that all!?”
“Relax, Ciangi,” Gonzales’s voice cut in and I felt my ship vibrate as she shot over me. “I’ll make sure the two heroes get home safe.”
“Yeah, of course you will. Just make sure you get here too. That cannon is how we’re going to make them sorry they ever chose to avenge their jerk of a friend.”
“Yeah, yeah. Higgens, keep laying down walls of fire. I’m going to play a little game of roundup. Mimi, if you can hear me, get your little sibling into your ship ASAP, because we’ve got maybe three minutes before we’re outnumbered.”
“How do you know that?”
“My ship’s sensors are better than yours. I can see about fifty new heat signatures flaring to life.”
“Oh.”
“‘Oh’ is right. Now, as soon as your lover is all safe, I need you guys to book it out of here. No more heroics. Well, at least not until we land.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“You always do.” Despite the compliment, there was a tinge of sadness to her tone, and then her line went quiet. I could barely see what she was doing over the intense wall of red fire I was laying down, but occasionally, I would catch a glimpse of her firing away at the second chunk of ships, or suddenly changing directions and catching a couple in the fiery output of her engines. It was brilliant, it truly was, and I guessed that the weapons expert had been uncharacteristically humble about her piloting experience during our adventures.
“Come on, Mimic,” I groaned, looking out my window at her. She was still stretching out, for a tiny, black mass that I could hardly make out against the deep void of space. Of course, she couldn’t hear me, but that didn’t make my plea any less urgent.
I should have known better than to take my eyes off the fight for so long. I heard the sharp whine of an alarm, then suddenly my entire fighter jerked to the side.
My whole world was suddenly flashing red lights and smoke, with a dozen or so warnings firing along my dash. I had taken a hit, and a critical one at that. Another one and, well, I wouldn’t have a whole lot to worry about.
“Higgens!” Ciangi’s voice cut through the chaos loud and clear. “I’m getting all sorts of alerts. Please tell me that I’m having a system malfunction.”
“No,” I said, breathing slowly as I righted my ship and went back to laying down line after line of fire to keep the approaching ships at bay from Mimic’s sitting fighter. “You are not.”
“Crap. Get out of there now! We can’t afford to lose you and you’re hemorrhaging fuel like nobody’s business.”
“No.”
“No?! What do you mean, no?”
“If I leave, Mimic is a sitting duck. Gonzales can only do so much. I stay here until she is back in her fighter and ready to go.”
“That’s it. I’m overriding your controls.”
“Wait, what? You can’t!” Cold terror ran through me. I couldn’t leave Mimic behind! She carried the entire world on her shoulders, literally, and all of her little brothers and sisters depended on her for everything. She needed someone who would look out for her.
“Ciangi! Stop!” To my surprise, it was Gonzales’s cool voice that cut through the ringing alarms. “He’s made his decision and you need to respect that, no matter how boneheaded it—”
“Higgens, dive!”
I didn’t even take a second to see what the blonde was warning me about. Instead, I just slammed my controls down and plummeted out of the way of a particularly large beam.
“Whoa!” I cried. “Do they have some sort of secondary fire?”
“No, that would be the new wave of ships. If Mimic doesn’t get in soon…”
She trailed off and I rounded back to fire at the ships now converging on the shapeshifter’s open ship. I felt like the whole battle was rocketing between slap-dash firefighting and inter-group arguing, making it hard to concentrate. And I needed to concentrate now more than ever.
Three alerts sounded to my right, and I flew backward in a wide circle, managing to spin so I met them head-on. But before I should move my hand over to my firing array, my weapons all discharged in a glorious blaze.
“What was that?” I asked, eyes wide.
“Me,” Ciangi answered. “If you have to be a moron hero, then you can be the heroic pilot and I’ll just shoot people.”
“Sounds good to me.”
With weapons off my mind, I threw all my focus into making sure I didn’t get shot again. It actually worked pretty well, with me lilting to one side or the other, dipping downwards or spiraling upwards just enough to not get blasted out of space. Of course, I knew that the coin twins’ algorithm was doing plenty of the work, but I could take a little credit for the impressive dodging.
I should have known better than to get too cocky. For a moment, it was easy to forget that there was a massive spaceship above us and fifty more ships rocketing our way. That the odds were stacked against us and most likely all of our attempts were futile. But then, all of that came flooding back in an instant.
I shot at one of the fighters, hitting a vital point in its side. The combustion was nearly immediate, and it went spinning off to the side.
On a collision course for Mimic.
“No!”
She had finally reached her sibling, and was slowly pulling it back into her ship, but she wouldn’t have enough time. The spinning, flaming ship would make direct contact with her vessel, and I didn’t need a full engineering degree to know that it would send both her and her sibling spiraling off into space in a fiery inferno.
“Mimic!” I yanked at the controls, surging toward her location. I heard angry queries from both Gonzales and Ciangi, but I paid them no mind. I knew what I had to do.
Ciangi opened fire on the tumbling vessel, but it wasn’t enough. The hunk of metal seemed dead set on colliding with my friend. I couldn’t allow that.
“Higgens, you are not doing what I think you’re doing, are you?” Ciangi’s voice was small, and I could hear her hovering over the system that could take control over my ship.
“Like you said, this world needs its leader, and I’ve got to make sure she gets home safe.”
“Higgens, please don’t.” It was a request. Not an order. Not a demand. All of it took place in only a few seconds, but I couldn’t help but smile softly.
“It’s been fun, guys. I couldn’t have met a better group of people.”
“Wait,” Gonzales’s voice cut in. “I was firing a volley of explosive rounds. What’s going on? Why are you on a collision cour— Higgens! Don’t you dare!”
I didn’t answer, but there wasn’t any time. Ciangi did her best, pouring all of my systems’ extra power into the forward guns, and while they did rip off chunks of the craft, it was still on course. And Mimic, completely oblivious to what was going on around her—or at least I assumed so—was only halfway into her craft.
But that was alright. I had made up my mind and I was content. Taking a deep breath, I thought back to all the amazing experiences I’d had since that fateful night on the mining ship.
Meeting Mimic. Feeding her for the first time. Her sneaking into the engine room. Stealing a ship with the help of Ciangi and the coin twins. Ending up on the other side of the universe, then coming back and stealing the whole mining vessel.
We had a good run. I pictured Mimic’s face, smiling and red-cheeked after our kiss. She truly was beautiful, no matter what form she took.
“I love you,” I whispered, not caring if she couldn’t quite hear me.
And then my ship collided with the burning enemy vessel and my whole world was on fire.
9
The Story’s Not Over
Space was much quieter than I expected. After watching so many horror sims, and then training videos to get my outer-ship maintenance certification, I had expected it to be like the cold, gnashing mouth of some endlessly hungry monster.
Instead, it was almost…peaceful.
I could sense that it was cold, much colder than I could possibly survive, but it hardly registered as I was thrown into space along with my pilot-seat. I saw things around me fade as my vision iced over. The brilliant red of Gonzales’s battle cruiser, the hyper-green of the enemy ships, the almost purple velvet of deep space. It all stretched out as time slowed down, and I felt myself sink into the cold, dark recesses of my mind.
But something stopped me. I was floating, the last bit of my hold on reality slipped away, and then I hit something hard.
I couldn’t see, I could hardly move, but I did feel a hard cocoon around me, and suddenly, I was less cold. A lot less cold.
&n
bsp; But with the lack of cold came a rush of feeling, and I was suddenly very aware of how much pain I was in. I couldn’t see a thing, but I didn’t need vision to know that I was most definitely injured.
I tried to cry out, but there was still no air. Now that I wasn’t peacefully drifting off as a human popsicle, my body began to seize for oxygen, and my lungs felt like they were just as on fire as my craft had been.
I was going to die, and it wasn’t going to be the pretty, heroic exit that I had imagined. I was going to choke and gasp and cough while the blood vessels in my face burst and the—
Suddenly, the darkness broke, and oxygen flooded into me. My lungs made a sort of sucking sound, and the next thing I knew, I was puking.
“—getting you out of there!”
“No argument.”
I could hear voices, but I couldn’t place them. It was like my brain was about ten seconds behind the rest of the world and I couldn’t figure out what was going on.
The blackness was gone, but I still couldn’t quite see. It was like everything had a thick, gauzy film over it, and moving my eyes hurt worse than anything else. I was aware that several parts of my body were throbbing in protest, but none of that seemed to matter more than my eyes.
“He’s not responsive. Is there any sort of first aid supplies in this thing?”
“Oh, good to have you back, Mimic. Maybe next time, you can come up with a plan instead of ejecting yourself into space and almost getting Higgens killed.”
“Noted, Gonzales. I’ll make sure to think with a clearer head the next time we’re embroiled in a massive space battle. The important thing is I have both of them and you have the cannon that you decided to tell none of us about.”
I could hear the clear irritation in Ciangi’s voice as she buzzed through the comm. “You two can snipe at each other after you land. You’ve got about sixty ships on your tail and there’s only so much dodging I can do.”
“We’ll make it,” Gonzales said with a grunt. “I’m too stubborn to die up here before I get to use the biggest gun I’ve ever seen.”
Mimic Goes to War Page 6