Mimic Betrayed (Space Shifter Chronicles Book 6) Read online

  What I wouldn’t have given to stay in that hazy fantasy, just living, breathing, being. But like everything else in our lives, it only lasted long enough for us to miss it as it broke.

  “Leader Higgens! Leader Mimi!”

  We paused mid-step, the trance between us breaking, and I looked to the pen area to see Mari running toward us, waving her arms.

  “Leader Higgens! Leader Mimi!”

  “Yes, we’re here,” I said, reluctantly letting Mimi go. “Do you need something?”

  She reached us and nodded emphatically. She didn’t need to catch her breath like a human did, so her words just came spilling out.

  “An Earth ship has appeared on the radar!”

  “Wait, what?” Mimi dropped my hands and started toward Mari. It was only just then that I realized the small, adorable mimic had chosen a name that was almost identical to her leader. …was that on purpose? Also, geez, I really let stuff fly over my head sometimes.

  “It’s not a war vessel, just a simple envoy ship. Max crew of twelve at the most. It’s still too far for us to get a good scan, but we don’t detect any sort of nuclear payload!”

  Mimi looked at me with a slightly guilty expression. “It never ends, does it?”

  “Looks like it,” I said, grabbing her hand and running back to the defense hub.

  4

  A Doubtful Ceasefire

  I arrived at the lab huffing and puffing, although Mari and Mimi were perfectly fine. When we burst into the main cannon-room, Ciangi, Bahn, Harunya, and Eske were already there, looking up at the radar-holo with a range of intense expressions.

  I wasn’t sure why we still called it radar considering that type of technology was long outdated, and our sensors used electro-something-or-other, but that was neither here nor there. What was here was a ship from Earth.

  “Have they made any aggressive moves?” Mimi asked, sliding into place beside Ciangi.

  “No. And they’ve stopped moving just on the edge of our cannon range.”

  “Huh.”

  “What do you think they want?” I asked, my heart in my throat.

  “Unfortunately, I got my master’s in medicine, not fortune telling,” Harunya murmured, her eyes locked on the holo.

  “I don’t know if this is the appropriate time for sarcasm…” Eske said, worrying at her lip with her teeth.

  “It’s always the time for sarcasm,” Ciangi retorted. “Especially in times of stress. And having an Earth spaceship hanging just out of our orbit is making me very stressed.”

  “What’s our protocol?” Mimi asked, reining the conversation in. “We haven’t come up with a standard procedure because we thought we had at least a year until they even started to amass forces to come here.”

  “Well…” I said slowly. “They’re not attacking us. They’re not scanning us. What if we just…wait?”

  Bahn shook his head. “I don’t know if that’s a great idea. What if they’re setting up to do something catastrophic?”

  “Could they do that without it setting off our sensors?”

  “Unlikely, but not impossible.”

  “I just think going on the offensive and blasting them out of the sky would be inherently wrong. What if it’s a truce?” I argued.

  “You really think that they’re going to try to set up a truce?”

  “They’re hailing us now!” Ciangi said. “They say they want a truce.”

  “…you did that on purpose,” Bahn accused.

  “Nah, look at the comm feed. They’re talking peace and they’re talking loud.”

  “Huh,” I muttered, rubbing my chin. “I don’t know if I like that I was right. This does seem somewhat trappish.”

  “Then let’s treat it like a trap,” Mimi said. “We’ll go in our warship, weapons primed, and have their peace talks. But, if they try anything unscrupulous, we make them regret ever coming to my home.”

  There was a murmur of agreement and she stated, “Don’t activate the planet shielding. Let’s keep that in our back pocket for now since they’re not on the assault.”

  That was right. Earth didn’t know that we had used the alien ship’s engines to create shielding to protect us from almost any space-assault. Thanks to everyone’s hard work, we had managed to expand the shield for many miles. That way, heaven forbid should some sort of total-planet assault happen, we would have enough flora and fauna available to repopulate. Assuming we survived, of course. But that was what I generally assumed nowadays. We had a pretty good track record, after all.

  Minus the whole Gonzales losing an eye, Eske losing her goggles for three months, and my missing fingers.

  “Who’s all going to go then?” Ciangi asked, reaching behind her to hold Harunya’s hand.

  “Obviously, I am out,” the doctor said. “I don’t want to risk leaving orbit and re-entry now that I’m nearing the halfway point of my pregnancy.”

  “Fair enough,” Bahn said. “But I think we should otherwise all go. Show them a united front.”

  “But what if it is a trap and they do somehow manage to trick us?”

  “Then we have Gonzales, whenever she returns, as well as all of the lieutenants,” Mimi said, rubbing her chin. She had picked that habit up from Bahn, I had noticed, and it was quite cute on her. “I agree with making a statement. If Earth wants to try to start something, they’re going to have to say it to us as a united front.”

  “Alright then,” I said, taking a deep breath to catch up with everything that had happened. “Is this where we get prepped and suit up?”

  “Yes,” Mimi said, scattering us all with a nod. “Let’s do that now. I want us all on the ship in fifteen minutes.”

  “You don’t have to tell me twice!” Eske said, taking off as only Eske could.

  Mimi and I exchanged a look. I could feel that we were on the cusp of something important, but I hoped that it was as good as how it was presenting itself.

  I guessed we would have to wait and see. I’d tell myself to cross my fingers, but I could only do that on one hand now.

  “You’d think for these being military-grade flexi-armor, it’d be a little more comfortable,” Ciangi groused as Mimi sat at the controls, starting up the warship. Even after all this time, it was strange to see someone other than Gonzales there, and I wished she was back. I felt like what little friendship we had was slipping away, and that thought made me sick to my stomach.

  “It’s armor,” Eske said, already buckled in. “That’s basically the opposite of comfort. Just be grateful that these are designed to dispel blaster force and other light-spectrum-based assaults.”

  “But not kinetic assaults.” Ciangi continued to pout. “So, if someone has a sword, we’re SOL.”

  “Yeah, but who do you know that actually brings a sword to battle nowadays?”

  “Um, I’m pretty sure a good chunk of the mimics when the fight came down to the ground. Although some of them were swords made out of their literal bodies.”

  “Fair enough. But I don’t think Earth Gov or the coup people are gonna be goin’ old school on us. If anything, they’ll have a bunch of newer, fancier gadgets that they invented just to destroy us.”

  “You always look on the bright side, don’t you?” I asked, buckling myself in.

  But Eske just shrugged and flashed me a bright smile. “I am being positive. I worked for these guys long enough to know that their scientists were basically running off caffeine and euphoria for the past year since Miss Mimi dropped the biggest advancement since the wheel right in their lap. It’s kinda amazing what creative minds can do when given the proper tools.”

  “Let’s just hope those tools don’t end up being used on us.”

  “Taking off now,” Mimi said, interrupting the conversation. “Please buckle yourselves in. Ciangi, can you let the other ship know that we are approaching for a parley. Inform them that we are fully armed and ready to engage should they force our hand, but we would prefer for things to remain peaceable.”
>
  “Yes, ma’am. Gimme thirty seconds.”

  “Good. Taking off now.”

  It had been so long since I had been in the ship that I actually jumped in my restraints. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice, and soon we were taking off into the air. The rumble of the engines that had once been so familiar to me was now foreboding, like they were taking me back to a life that I had left behind.

  As much as I sometimes complained about day-to-day routine being boring compared to our high-flying days when we had first escaped Giomatti, I was quickly realizing that I didn’t want to get back into the action. I liked knowing I would see tomorrow. I liked that there was no one chasing or trying to kill me.

  Why did I have the feeling that was going away?

  Suddenly, there was a booming sound and I nearly jumped out of my skin. “What the heck was that?”

  Mimi sat bolt upright in her chair, her gaze unfocused as she listened intently. I couldn’t be certain, but I thought I saw her ears growing outwards slightly, something I had learned she liked to do when she was trying to pick up more info.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” she snapped suddenly, striding past us. “Someone take the helm!”

  “Uh, I guess that’s me,” I said, unbuckling and sliding into the chair she’d vacated. While I was definitely wondering what had set her off, I was much more interested in making sure that we got out of orbit safely.

  I went through the steps that I had learned in our six months of peace. It turned out that if you could fly a fighter in the middle of a giant space battle, you could pretty much fly anything. Granted, I still wasn’t an ace pilot or anything, but I could get any of our ships into space.

  We went through the familiar rattling, reverberating, and otherwise havin’ a real party, then we shot into space. Once I plotted a course for an appropriate distance from the Earth ship, I unbuckled and decided to check on what Mimi was doing.

  I didn’t get very far. I was maybe just to Eske’s seat when Mimi came stalking in, her hand firmly gripping Mari’s collar.

  “You are not supposed to be here,” she snapped, looking quite perturbed at the smaller shapeshifter.

  “Sooorrrry!” Mari whined, looking quite contrite. “I just wanted to come along! This could be history and I didn’t want to miss it like I missed so much else!”

  “That does not matter. You could have been hurt or put our entire mission in jeopardy!”

  “Mimi,” I said softly, approaching the two of them. “Can you really blame her?”

  I didn’t want to say it out loud, but it was clear that Mari worshipped the ground that Mimi walked on. She’d even named herself after her fearless leader. A possible treaty between the mimics and Earth could be happening; I wouldn’t want to miss that either.

  “I… I guess I understand.” She looked back to her underling with a firm but loving expression on her face. “But you and I are going to have a serious talk about protocol when we get back, and there are going to be consequences.”

  “I understand…” the younger mimic murmured, looking at the ground.

  “Good. Now go sit down and stay there. Do not say anything, alright?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” A broad grin spread across her face and she scampered into a chair near Eske.

  “We’re in range to directly hail via holo-chat,” Ciangi said.

  Mimi took a deep breath, then went to stand at the helm where the holo-projector would scan her in order for her to appear on the other ship and vice versa. “Go ahead and hail them.”

  Ciangi did so, and there were a few moments of tense silence as we all waited, the pressure of the moment and what it meant quite apparent.

  Finally, there was a reply back, and it played over the comm system.

  “We are ready to receive your communication.”

  That was it. Succinct. Forthright. My mind turned it over, trying to hear if there was any malice within the words, but there just wasn’t enough there for me to guess. Not that I was very good at discerning emotions anyways.

  Mimi gave a nod to Ciangi, and there was a slight buzz. She was broadcasting. A few moments later, we received theirs, and a holographic form came into being in front of the helm.

  It was of a military person, that much was for certain, and judging by everything they had pinned to their chest and shoulders, they were quite a big deal. Their face was stern, hard-lined, and decidedly unhappy. It certainly helped that they were flanked by two fully armed soldiers, guns clearly evident.

  “What is your purpose in coming here?” Mimi asked flatly. I had to admire her on how much she had learned about human tone and how to control it, because at this point, I was pretty sure that she was better at it than me.

  “I presume that you are the leader of the discovered lifeforms,” the stern-faced one said, their tone just as grating as I guessed it would be. “The first contact called Mimi?”

  “That I am. And who do I have the…” She paused. “…pleasure of speaking to?”

  “Commander Jensen Diylok. I have been sent to see if, after our somewhat shaky start, there is a chance we could overcome our slights and try again.”

  “Shaky start?” Mimi echoed. “You mean as in going back on our treaty, stealing the technology I gifted you, and illegally imprisoning my allies who also happen to be your citizens?”

  “We apologize for the actions of a few renegades that helped contribute to you stealing Earth Gov property, causing excessive damage, endangering the welfare of our planet, other acts of treason, and kidnapping a citizen.”

  “Kidnapping a citizen?” What the heck did they mean by that? We hadn’t kidnapped anyone.

  “The worker that you abducted from our facility who was working on the ship.”

  “Oh! That’s me!” Eske said, standing up and stepping into the holo-projector reading field. “I’m not kidnapped! I’m very happy with this arrangement and how it turned out.”

  Mimic shook her head slightly and gestured for Eske to sit down. “They don’t care if you’re willing or not. They’re leveraging your presence to have more negotiating power.” The custodian sat down, and Mimi’s voice hardened as she looked back to the hologram in front of us. “And that’s what this is, right? A negotiation?”

  “It could be. That mostly depends on you.”

  “I disagree. I think this largely rests in your hands.” My eyes flicked from her to the holo-commander and back again. “Before we discuss anything remotely resembling peace, or a treaty, I want to know why you’re here.”

  “I think the reason we’re here has already been discussed—”

  “No. You say you’re here for a treaty, but why. Earth Gov and even the coup taking place would never give up their grudge against us unless there was a greater threat. I believe there’s an old human adage, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’

  “So, what I want to know is, what’s brought you here? What are you so afraid of?”

  The commander’s expression soured, but he surprised me by answering. I supposed I didn’t have the best impression of a lot of Earth’s high-ranking military members. “Earth recognizes that the acts of a few interlopers have lost us an alliance that could benefit us quite greatly. So, we would prefer to extend the olive branch before we need something, rather than waiting until the last moment.”

  “I see. And what are you hoping you might get out of such an alliance? More technology? More samples of my DNA? I may not know much about humans, but I do know that your governments are rarely willing to give more than they get.”

  “Perhaps this conversation would be more productive if we did not assume each other’s motivations.”

  “I’m not assuming,” Mimi countered, her voice like steel. “I’m asking you directly. Although I understand the human tendency to beat around the bush, I believe the term goes, I personally do not couch my words.”

  “I can see that. We are interested in benefiting both our cultures in any way that we might need.”

&nb
sp; The two continued to talk back and forth but I was distracted from the stressful conversation by Mari’s shuffling next to me.

  “What are you doing?” I whispered, not wanting to interrupt the obviously very important conversation happening in front of us.

  “Just a little uncomfortable,” she said, wiggling further and pulling her bag into her lap. “I still haven’t really gotten the hang of sitting down. It bends the spine funny.”

  I chuckled very lightly at that, again trying not to get picked up by the holo-scanner. “I don’t think your outfit is helping. That’s new, right?”

  She smiled at me, her cherubic cheeks making her eyes close. “I made it out of some of the rubber insulation in the recreational deck. Did you know that they used a special type of rubber that was synthesized with an artificial polymer to make it that much more resistant to electricity and other isolatable forces?” I just blinked at her, surprised by the info dump. “Isn’t it cute?”

  “You’ve learned how to make garments already?” That was something most of the mimics struggled with, and I knew several of them just shifted their bodies to have the illusion of a bodysuit or unitard on.

  “Of course,” she answered blithely. “I had to make sure I was prepared for this moment. It would be silly to spend four months in planning just to be tripped up by a little outfit mishap.”

  “Planning? What do you mean?” Was this some sort of mimic thing that I didn’t understand?

  But she just reached into her bag and pulled out a tube-like thing with a couple wires sticking out of it. “You’re fun, Higgens. Out of anyone, I think I’ll miss you the most.”

  “Wait, what—” Instead of answering my question, she just pressed a button and dropped the thing to the floor. I tried to catch it, but I was hardly even out of my seat when it felt like my whole body caught fire.

  I tried to scream as I toppled to the ground, but I couldn’t get the muscles of my throat to work. I couldn’t even breathe. My whole entire body was tensed so hard that I was sure I was going to implode on myself in a crumpled ball.