“Right. I’ll try to grab her attention.”
“Good. And I would hurry.”
I knew that calling out to her wouldn’t do any good. It wasn’t like sound traveled through space very well and my older series of enviro-suit didn’t exactly have a speaker system built into it.
So, I tried waving emphatically, moving my arms about my head like a maniac. When that didn’t work, I decided to take a leap of faith, as it were.
It was impossible to take a running jump with the magnetic boots, but I did my best. With all the effort I could muster, I launched myself into space.
“Mimi!”
My shapeshifter of a friend jerked up, and I swore she was looking at me. The next thing I knew, she was bounding across the rocks until I was caught between her tines, then I was quickly shuttled right back to the airlock.
Mimic shifted back into the form that I had come to know, but much brighter-eyed and blushing. She slammed the button to close the door and re-initiated the pressurization of the cabin.
“What’s going on?” she snapped as soon as there was enough atmosphere in the room to carry her voice to me.
“Giomatti’s here,” I answered, finally taking off my enviro-suit’s helmet. “But I think I might have a bit of a plan.” I looked down at my hands where I was holding the cherry-red piece of equipment. “I probably shouldn’t have taken this off.”
I had never really understood the phrase ‘sweating bullets’ before. They were solid, metal projectiles used by ancient Earth to maim and murder. That didn’t seem to have anything to do with sweating.
However, as I looked at all the displays, buttons, bits and bobs in front of me, I suddenly realized exactly what it meant. I was definitely in a cold sweat, my heart pounding a mile a minute while I rehearsed the steps of my plan again and again in my head.
It was crazy. Impossible, really. Yet I believed in it, and that was why I was sitting in the bridge of our little stolen ship, waiting for the message that I knew Giomatti couldn’t resist sending.
It came as soon as he was within range, his face showing up as the holo-display activated. It wasn’t pleasant seeing his visage again, even if it was slightly purpled from when I had given him what he had coming. His brows were furrowed with the rage that he was so comfortable with and I could practically feel his spittle as the holographic versions of it tried to spray into the room.
“Well, well, well, and you thought you were so clever that you could just steal government property and get away through one of the most dangerous sectors of space without any damage.”
He was speaking, of course, about the readings his ship was getting about ours. Environmental power was at a minimum, only thrusters were engaged and there were no real engine capabilities. Granted, he didn’t know that all of that was intentional, but I wanted to keep it that way.
“What’s that? Too much of a coward to show your face. I suppose that’s the best I can expect from a janitor and three idiots who somehow went through finer education without learning what the word treachery means.”
I responded quickly, pressing a couple of buttons and punching in an input code. Looking down at one of my screens, I could see the image that we were relaying to them. Gonzales was sitting in the pilot’s chair, as usual, and everyone else was seated towards the back.
“We surrender,” Gonzales said, sounding utterly defeated. “We’re out of food, we’re out of supplies, we’re out of power. You get it? You win. Now come board us and take your prisoner. We just ask that our trials be quick.”
“And what’s to prevent me from blasting you to bits the moment you’re in custody?”
“Look, we can blow up the ship now and take your precious, shapeshifting paycheck down with us. Or, you can be a decent human being for once and take us into custody so you can go down in history books as the amazing man who discovered new life. We’ll even back you up with some story about how you found her and we were jealous of your payday or something. You’ll be so much more credible with some good ole bad guys in your story.”
“Fine. Prepare for boarding.”
I cut off our video feed and got up, quickly running back to the airlock. Slamming the button, I let it suck me out into space just like it had done to Mimic an hour earlier.
I floated listlessly for a moment, and it was peaceful in the utter quiet of the void, but then I realized I had a job to do and I engaged the thruster pack Bahn had Ciangi rigged for me, flying behind the largest asteroid that we had left in Mimic’s belt.
I killed my speed once I reached the shelter and was instantly greeted by my four companions.
“Good job,” Ciangi whispered through our comms. “Still don’t know why you insisted on being the one to stay behind and play the video, but not bad.”
“Because,” I answered slowly, peeking out from behind the other side of the rock, “if something were to go awry, you three could still get Mimic to her people. I’m expendable.”
“I don’t really agree with that,” Bahn said. “But I sense that this is not the time to address that. According to my sensors, the ship is approaching.”
“Alright, engage thrusters but make sure to keep your speed natural. We want to guide this rock to where we need it, not obviously scoot it into their sensor range.”
We all shared a nod, then we were moving forward.
My heart was pounding in my ears as we pushed, our thrusters propelling us forward. It was slow, but it was a natural movement, and one we needed for cover to get close enough to Giomatti’s ship. If we tried to fly for it outright, we would be picked off one by one with blaster bolts. Ergo, our rocky disguise.
I watched as Giomatti’s ship approached ours, locking on with a short-range tractor beam and sending out several ships not too different from our own stolen one. They converged on it, then I saw little dots beginning to do their own spacewalk to try and board our vessel.
“Alright, kick it into overdrive now. I’m sure they’re distracted.”
We all punched our thrusters to full speed and rocketed forward. We said nothing as we quickly approached Giomatti’s ship until we were finally close enough to ditch our cover.
“Now!” I ordered.
As one, we all pushed ourselves upward, and for a moment, we were completely unattached to anything, just free-floating through space with only our momentum to propel us.
But then we collided with the side of the ship, and I gripped one of the handholds before pulling myself to a maintenance hatch. With bated breath, I punched a code to the door. If Giomatti was smart, he would have deactivated each and every code I had been given for taking care of the ship.
But, as the door beeped then popped open, I realized that Giomatti wasn’t very smart at all.
“Everyone in,” I ordered. “We’re almost to the end of all this.”
“From your word to God’s mouth,” Gonzales murmured, diving in and catching the ladder into a pressurizing room.
A few minutes later, we were all inside and I closed the hatch, which allowed us to bring the atmosphere back into the room.
“So, everyone ready for their next parts?”
Ciangi nodded emphatically, her curls bouncing around her head now that she was freed from her enviro-suit helmet. “Bahn and I will go set up the countdown, you and Mimic handle the broadcast and Giomatti. Gonzales will arrange the escape pod.”
“You know when you say it like that, it sounds so easy,” the weapons engineer said with a smirk. “But in case I never see any of you again, it’s been great.” She gave a little bow then shimmied down the opening in the floor that lead to what had once been my floor. The coin twins gave Mimic and I a reassuring pat before exiting as well.
“You ready?” I asked.
“Yes. I’m quite anxious to get this over with before it backfires.”