“What, you don’t think my plan will work?”
“No, I have the greatest of faiths in you. I just do not trust our luck.”
“I dunno, we made it to the end of the universe and back without too much trouble. I would say our luck is pretty amazing.”
“Yes, but perhaps we have used up too much of it.” She shucked the last of her enviro-suit to the side. “Come. We have a genius plan to enact.”
I allowed myself a dry laugh before following her out. Together, we found the right maintenance tunnel and crawled in. Speed was of the essence. If my estimate was right, the crew that had been sent to board us was reaching the entrance hatch of the ship. From there, it would take them about a minute to walk to the bridge, and then five maximum to weld through the thick, fireproof doors that were currently enclosing the room that we were supposed to be in.
If our plan didn’t finish before then, the jig was up.
Which was troubling considering everything hinged on Giomatti assuming we were never going to be a problem again and hadn’t bothered to seal off the same hatch that let me sneak onto the bridge when I had rescued Mimic the first time.
I didn’t try to think about it as we crawled along. He was an arrogant man, and had seen us escape into certain death. There was no way he would have the foresight to take precautions to make sure that we couldn’t pull the same move twice.
We reached the junction in question and sure enough, there was nothing there.
“You were right, he didn’t fix it.”
“Hold on,” I warned. “This could be a trap.”
“It could. But we won’t know until we try.”
“Fair enough.”
And so, we kept crawling forward, going as quietly as possible until we were just on the other side of the hatch. I could hear him talking emphatically about what he was going to do to us, which meant he probably wasn’t alone.
“Let me handle this,” Mimic said, squeezing past me to press herself against the panel. “You might want to scoot back a bit.”
I did, and she began to shift almost immediately. Her form began to melt, expanding down the very narrow maintenance tunnel until there barely was enough room for me.
Then she struck with full force, bursting from the door with a virulence that I couldn’t hope to match. I heard blaster fire, screams, and a shout for the alarms, and then sudden quiet.
“You can come out now. It’s safe.”
Carefully, I crawled out of the tunnel and took inventory of the bridge. There were three men, including Giomatti, all unconscious and looking quite battered.
“They are alive,” Mimic said calmly, crossing to the console.
“That’s good to know.”
“Can you hold Giomatti up for me? It will be easier with such a close example.”
I did as she asked, supporting the short, portly man. In a gross display of moving flesh, Mimic’s features began to rearrange until she was an exact replica of what had to be the most unpleasant boss I had ever had.
“Make sure you’re out of view,” she said in a perfect match of Giomatti’s voice. “Hopefully, Clairbella and Due will sound the alarm at any moment.”
“Who the hell is that?”
She looked at me blankly, which was a disturbing look coming from my ex-boss’s face. “You have been on a ship with them over a week. They are the siblings that do not share features.”
“Oh, you mean the coin twins?”
“Ah yes, I believe that is what you call them.”
Before I could go into a long explanation about given names, figurative twins, or anything else, an ear-splitting alarm cut through the air. I resisted the urge to clap my hands over my ears and dragged Giomatti’s body out of the way of the holo-reader while Mimi walked over to stand in front of it.
With the ease of someone who had been doing it for years, she activated the machine and soon was projecting Giomatti’s face through the entire ship.
“Attention crew, I have received an alert from the engine room that our ship has been compromised from previous interference by the traitors. We’re going to have to evacuate to the ships currently apprehending them. Everyone get to the escape pods; the readings are giving us less than three minutes.”
Just as I predicted, pandemonium erupted on the ship. Mimic didn’t seem to pay it much attention, however, and was already shifting to a new, beefier form.
“I’ll take these guys to an escape pod,” she said, piling them onto what had previously been a meal cart. “You get the ship ready.” She paused at the door and sent me a smile. “And be safe, of course.”
“I’ll try my best.”
She disappeared through the door and I ran to the console. We were down to the last few minutes we had before our cover was blown. Once more, I was sweating those proverbial bullets as my stomach went through multiple aerial maneuvers.
“How’s it going up there?” I nearly jumped out of my skin as a coin twin’s voice crackled through our personal coms. “I’m guessing you heard we did our part.”
“Mimic is taking a trip to the escape pods. She’ll tell us when the last one has exited and we’ll make our jump.”
“You know we only have about a minute at most before they get into our old bridge and know that something’s up.”
“I’m aware.”
Then, thankfully, Mimic’s voice came over the comm. “It is done. I just sent them off to our old ship’s coordinates.
“Then what are you waiting for? Punch it, broom-boy.”
“Brooms haven’t been used in general maintenance work in several centuries,” I corrected, pressing the buttons like I had been taught, engaging the engines and gripping the flight controls. “I’ll give you a whole history on it when this is all over. But for now…” I slammed on the accelerator controls and we shot forward at an impossible speed. “I would recommend holding on.”
I couldn’t resist a whoop as we leapt forward into space. We had done it! Against all odds, we had hijacked one of the biggest mining vessels and were now rocketing through space.
I kept all of my concentration on flying until a gentle hand patted my shoulder. I jumped, before realizing it was Gonzales coming to take over.
“You are amazing,” she said, sliding into my seat as soon as I stood.
“Thanks.” I looked to the door to see Mimic standing there, back in her typical human form. “We did it,” I said quietly, almost unbelieving as I saw her looking both refreshed and triumphant.
“You did it,” she said, walking forward to take my hand. “I thought finding other sentient life was amazing, but it turns out that pales in comparison to finding you. You have done so many impossible, amazing things.” We both turned to look out of the nav-window, eyeing the beauty and terror that was space. “And you will continue to do even more amazing things.” She squeezed my hand. “If anyone will get me home, it’s you.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
“Of course. I believe in you, Higgens. And that’s what friends are for.”
Part II
The Journey Home
Waking Up Lonely
I woke up in my own bed in what felt like the first time in forever.
In reality, it had been just under a week, but what a terribly long and draining week it had been. Between jumping through wormholes, planet hopping and the like, I was sure that I would never see my little home away from home again.
And yet…here I was.
I looked to my empty bed then the empty floor, sighing when I realized that Mimic was nowhere to be seen.
She must be out eating again.
Ever since they were sure that they were in the clear, she had been exiting the ship every few hours to gorge herself on whatever it was she actually ate.
I couldn’t blame her, though. After what we had been through, it was completely apparent that she had been at starvation’s doorstep. If I was her, I would do much of the same.