Mimic and the Journey Home

Some Semblance of a Plan

“First thing first, we need to wait here until the coast is clear, and slip right back through the wormhole so we can get you some food.”

“Well, what were you feeding her when she was in your care? You were hiding her on the ship for a while, right?”

“Just a couple of weeks from start to finish.”

“And what did she eat then?”

“I am sitting right here. You can direct your questions about my care toward me.”

“Alright then. Alien, what did you eat?”

“Mimic,” she corrected. “And several different things, ranging from several recycled blaster cores to the nuclear energy created by your system.”

“Wait, you were that weird energy dip?”

“Yes. What I was able to absorb there allowed me the energy to take on a form similar to yours.”

“Similar to? You look pretty human to me.”

“There are a few unfortunate flaws in your anatomy that I edited out. Namely the redundant organs and excretory system.”

“Oh, uh, that’s good to know. I guess,” Gonzales said. “So, um, I’m sure we could find some sort of energy for you to—”

“Apologies, but that is not what I require now. Those meals were to expand my mass to the point where I could shift into the larger form I wanted. Now I need actual sustenance. The minerals and other compounds that allow me to be, well, me.”

“And what exactly are those?”

“I do not know what you call them. Merely that they were plentiful in my home. Perhaps if you had some scrap left from what you destroyed, that could sustain me until we’re able to return home.”

“Unfortunately, anything we smashed up was sucked into the tubes and into the processers or recyclers.”

“So, what you’re saying,” I said slowly, realization dawning on me slowly, “is that there’s nothing for Mimi to eat until we get her home.”

“Um, yeah. I’m afraid so.”

“Might I point out,” Bahn said slowly, “that if she starves to death, it would make our entire risking of our lives rescue mission an exercise in futility.”

“We’re not going to let you die,” I assured, holding her hands once more. “We’ll get you back home in a few hours and find a nice, uh, comet for you to munch on.”

“There might just be one hang-up in that plan.”

I couldn’t help but sigh in aggravation. My nerves were stretched thin as it was and I certainly wasn’t feeling up to more friendly back and forth. “What is it?”

“It seems going through a wormhole was pretty hard on our engine. As in…we might have burnt out the crystals that give it power.”

“Then use the reserve fuel.”

“Burned through that too.”

“Nuclear energy?”

“This is a simple transport craft. There’s no nuclear back up or dampener. Right now, we’re stuck on impulse and that’s not going to get us home any time in the next billion years or allow us to survive the shake-up of going into the wormhole.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” I groaned, head in my hands. “So we’re stuck out here?”

“Stuck? I wouldn’t say stuck,” Ciangi said softly. “You’ve got three of the brightest engineers in our generation. I’m sure we can whip something up?”

“With what materials?” Bahn questioned. It wasn’t an aggressive objection, but a practical one. “We have only the basics here, and they won’t be enough.”

“The scanner works, right? Let’s check the celestial objects around us to see if they’ve got anything we can synthesize into the crystals that we need.”

I let out a breath, feeling the panic that was tight in my chest begin to relax slightly. We had a plan. That was good. If we had a plan, that meant we had hope and that we were moving forward.

“I’ll go through the rest of the ship and see what I can scrounge up.” My hand went to my belt. “Thankfully, I brought several of my tools along when I went to rescue Mimic, so I’ll make any repairs if I come across something that needs repairin’.”

“I will accompany you,” Mimic said, standing as well.

“Alright, everyone break to your respective tasks at hand and we will meet up later at the food processor.” She paused and squinted at the console. “Uh, this ship has a food processor, right?”

“Yes, they’re standard issue.”

“Whew. Good. I’d hate to have to end up eating each other for sustenance,” Gonzales laughed

“You wouldn’t do that,” Ciangi countered with a snort.

“Oh yeah?” Gonzales said with a wry smirk. “Glad you’re so sure because I’m not. You coin twins have some lovely legs there.”

Now it was a hair past awkward even for me. “Alright, Mimi and I are gonna go now. Later.”

“Later.”

I rushed out, even though my knees were still shaking a bit from the adrenaline dropoff, and didn’t stop until we were well away from the cabin.

I leaned against the wall, breathing hard and letting myself collapse into a pile on the floor.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah…” I answered after a couple of very deep breaths. “It’s just all catching up to me at once.”

“That was a very stressful string of events, wasn’t it?” Mimic said, patting my head in a borderline mechanical way. I appreciated the gesture, however. I knew she was still learning much about intrapersonal interaction. “But come, let us take care of the task at hand.”

I allowed her to pull me up, which she did with surprising ease, and then we were off again.

Sure, the situation wasn’t the best, but I needed to have faith in my friends who had been willing to risk their lives to save us. They hadn’t failed us then and they certainly wouldn’t fail us now.

I would just have to do my best by them.

I guessed that about three more hours passed before the five of us joined each other at the food processor, each punching in different codes for the meal we wanted. Except for Mimi, of course, who just looked at our plates with a vague sort of disinterest.

The ship turned out to be even smaller than I had expected. Containing only two floors and no elevator, it was definitely meant for short crews on short trips. All of the sleeping quarters were bunk style, and arranged on either side of the engine room with the communal bathroom at the very back. The top floor, where the cabin was, also had the cafeteria, the weapons room, and a mini-medbay.

“So, what’s the verdict?”

“It’s not just the engine crystals that were burnt out, but somehow we overloaded the safety failsafe and fried about a quarter of the capacitors. I found enough materials to make a sort of bypass around the fried ones, but nothing for the crystals themselves.”

“I mean, we expected that,” Gonzales said, biting into her burger with relish. “But good work on the capacitors. Ciangi? I’m guessing you two spent most of the past three hours together?”

“Actually, I was checking the circuitry and outputs. I think if we cut life support to all but the most necessary rooms when we make the jump, it will give us just enough leeway so we don’t fry ourselves into crispy little bits. I’ve got to do some rewiring and preprogramming to make sure that doesn’t put the ship into lockdown, but I could do it in the next day or so.”

“Fantastic. And you, Higgens?”

“I found a few buckled parts of the hull and managed to reinforce them. Thankfully, there wasn’t much damage to the infrastructure. I took the time to refill all of the coolant vats that deal with fire damage and set the shielding mechanism to recharge for the next few hours.”

“Alright, great. Great. We’re all on the right track.” She took another bite then swallowed, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “So, the scanners are still going, but preliminary results are pretty encouraging. A moon about an hour or two away from here has a fairly large deposit of one of the compounds we need to synthesize the crystals.”

“What about lifeforms?”

“I dunno, man. I can only do one thing at a time on this janky ol’ pile of scrap.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t insult our only chance at surviving the wormhole jump back home.”

“Why? You think the ship is going to hear me and get all offended?”

“Who knows? We have a shapeshifting alien in our crew and hyper-jumped to an unknown part of space. Skepticism is out the window at this point.”

“Can’t argue with that logic.” Another bite, another swallow, and then she was leaning back to the machine and punching in another code. For a moment, I was distracted from the stressful situation at hand to be impressed by her voracious appetite. “Gimme another two hours or so on the scanners and we’ll plot a course to all the stops we need to make. I recommend everyone getting what rest they can. It’s going to be a very long couple of days. You gonna make it, Shifty?”

“It’s Mimic.”

“Right. I’ll take that as a yes.” She nodded before digging into her next burger. “Good meeting, team. I say we finish up here and then we’ll meet at the cabin later.”

I finally took a bite of the thick pasta I had requested. Thankfully, it was still warm and delicious, a tiny slice of comfort.

And I needed all the comfort I could get.