Our nose began to tip forward and for a split-second, I was sure we were about to fall to our deaths. But then, something shifted, and all the air below us seemed to balance out the ship. Then, against all odds, we were ascending. In a wide angle at first, then slowing becoming more and more steeply until we were practically vertical.
Atmospheric exit in ten seconds.
I assumed this was normally when Gonzales would have some sort of snarky quip for the computer, but the gravitational force of it all was keeping all our jaws locked tight.
More rattling, more shaking, and yet Mimic held onto me tightly. My back popped several times, and my feet lifted from the ground, but she never wavered for a second.
And then, out of nowhere, we settled and my teeth stopped vibrating out of my skull. I blinked blearily, and Mimic slowly disentangled herself from me, panting slightly.
“That was difficult,” she murmured breathlessly.
“I bet. But thank you.”
“Any time,” she said, shooting me a weak smile. “But now I am very hungry.”
“Sorry about that.” I felt guilty. How much energy had she expended in saving our sorry hides?
“Wow,” Gonzales said, unbuckling herself and slowly getting to her feet before discarding her enviro-suit. “I’m beginning to think that I might be pretty amazing.”
“You know what?” Ciangi said, following her example. “I’m inclined to agree.”
The dark-skinned woman gave the blonde a wink before getting right back to business.
“Alright, you twins go work on the wormhole jumper while Higgens and I are going to try to set up a workspace for you.”
“Me?” I asked, suddenly paying acute attention to the conversation.
“You see anyone else around here who can be an ionic-wrench monkey?”
“Well, no, but—”
“Then come on, buddy boy. I’ve got the autopilot set for our next location and we don’t have a second to waste.”
She threw an arm around me and led me out. I took one last glance over my shoulder at Mimic, but she just waved weakly from her chair. She was trusting all of us to save her life, and that quelled whatever trepidation was in my middle.
After all, we had one material down, but there were three more to go.
Old Dog, New Tricks
“Pass me the spectral reader.”
I looked at the vast array of tools in front of me then identified the right one and handed it to Gonzales from where she was under one of the medbay consoles.
A day had passed since we had scrambled onto the ship in our frantic escape, and the coin twins were still busy fabricating the contraption we needed to jump through the wormhole again. Meanwhile, Gonzales and myself bounced between setting up other equipment for them or repairing damages to the engines and crystal modules as Bahn pointed them out.
At first, I had thought I would be completely useless, merely a mobile shelf for the brain-trust, but Gonzales seemed determined to have me be useful. We had spent the first hour with her simply explaining the name of tools and then quizzing me on them. From then, whenever she asked me to hand her one, she would either explain its purpose and why she was using it or ask me what it was used for if it was something she had already explained to me.
I was aware I was being educated, but it seemed natural and purposeful, which suited my mind just right. I knew she used the ionic welder to seal tears within any sort of metal component. The silicon injector was used for covering gaps in wiring or fixing tears in protective casing and buttons. The ionic wrench was used to magnetically remove sealed bolts or other fasteners with a chromium component. The list went on and on and on.
It reminded me of all the training I had to do when I was first interested in facilities. I had enjoyed it then, and it was all coming back to me.
Maybe I wasn’t as dense as I had been led to believe.
Perhaps that was a little audacious to think after just under twenty-four hours of assisting the obviously gifted Gonzales, but she never spoke to me as if I was an idiot or wasting her time. It made me feel good. Less like a useless janitor being hounded by someone over the comm at all hours.
“Thanks. Next, I’ll take the—”
Attention: Orbit at destination will be reached in one hour.
“Looks like that’s our cue,” she said, sliding out from underneath and flashing me a bright smile. “You ready for another outing?”
“Not particularly,” I answered honestly, thinking back to that furred monster and shuddering.
“Aw, relax!” she said, clapping my shoulder. “I’m sure this one will go much better. Now let’s hop into our enviro-suits and see what this chunk of the universe has waiting for us!”
It did not go better.
Granted, it didn’t seem to go worse either, but our second outing was definitely just as stressful.
But this time, instead of giant alien monsters looking to make a snack of us, there were tiny little goo monsters that dissolved inorganic things on contact. We found that out because one landed on Bahn’s scanner and it quickly melted in his grasp.
From that point, there had been more running, more screaming, and frantically scanning the area for the minerals we needed followed by a mad dash back to the ship. Mimic handled herself beautifully considering we found nothing for her to eat, but I was beginning to worry about her. Her once adorably full, pixie-like face was growing gaunt, and I often caught bits of her warping and fading in the corner of my vision.
But she never complained. Not once. Not even when we visited the third planet that happened to be completely covered in something similar to water and we were almost swallowed by a giant beast. Not even when I rolled over at night and saw her reverted to her black form, only considerably smaller and shaking from hunger.
Her bravery, her refusal to show weakness, made me that much more resolved to get us home and get whatever it was she considered food in her belly. She deserved the best, and that determination helped me through our fourth and final destination, which happened to pass without incident.
We had boarded the ship more than a little perplexed at how easy the mission had been. After too many hair-raising adventures, we were used to a little more adversity.
However, we didn’t let that surprise faze us for long, and quickly got busy with the final preparations for our jump.
Except…that wasn’t working out so well either.
“Gosh diggity darn it!” Ciangi snapped as something crackled and she yanked her hand back from a port she was trying to repair.
“Really?” Gonzales said, tossing the blonde engineer a med-kit. “That’s your idea of a curse?”
“Well, pardon me for not wanting to use foul language. There are young minds present.”
“What? Like who?”
“Mimic is only a few weeks old at this point,” Bahn said quietly. “You wouldn’t swear around a baby, would you?”
“I especially swear around babies. They don’t understand and they have an affinity for puking on my clothes.”
“If it makes you feel better,” Mimic said from the corner of the room where she was curled in a pop-out chair. “I’ve read much worse on what you call the ‘net’.”
“See? I’m not corrupting any innocents here.”
“Well, in any case,” Ciangi said, returning to her work. “I’ll stick to my creative expletives, thank you very much.
“You’re welcome.”
“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes but continued to concentrate on her work. “Give me that mini-field generator please.” I passed her the tools she needed then returned to my station where I could run to any of the three in just a few short steps.
“Crap!” This time it was Bahn who was reeling back from his post, a small, blue fire bursting into being on the crystal adaptor he was working on.