Mimic and the Space Engineer

8

Unlikely Allies

I stood there, frozen to the spot as Mimi pressed my own body to me. It would have been a whole lot more awkward if I couldn’t feel the gratitude rolling off of my friend in waves.

“Where’d you learn to do this?” I asked, returning her hug with all the comfort I had within me.

“On the net.” Slowly she shifted back into the form I knew. We shared a tender smile and I gently raised a hand to wipe her tears away.

She leaned her face into my palm, and I had never been so tempted to kiss someone in my entire life.

And then the alarms went off.

“What is that?” She cried, clapping her hands over her ears.

“Crap! They must have been linked to Giomatti’s vital signs. Come on, we gotta go!”

I grabbed her wrist and took off, sprinting out of the door before it was sealed in lock-down. If the ship was remotely set up according to protocol, I had three minutes to get us off of the ship and to safety.

“Where are we going?” I heard Mimi cry as I dragged her along. I was pretty sure that she had never run in this form, so I was sure she wasn’t having the best time, but I couldn’t let her slow down.

“There are escape shuttles for the crew in case of emergency. If I can get one, we can get out of here before he wakes up or anyone else tries to take you back.”

“What of the others who were with him? They also had the blasters, as I believe you call him.”

“That was probably his security, Masis and Umbusala. We definitely do not want to run into them.”

“But if these alarms are going off, aren’t the escape routes the first thing they will check?”

“Let’s hope not.”

We sprinted all out, my heart beating out of my chest all the way down the hall. We turned this way, then that, bursting through doors. Not for the first time, I found myself grateful we ran on a skeleton crew.

And then it was there. The door leading to the hangar bay. Of course, it was on the same level of the bridge, considering essential personnel were that much less expendable than us peons.

“There it is! That’s the door!”

I could see that the panel was still lit up blue, which meant it was still accessible. We had seconds, at most.

Rushing through it, I slammed in the code. As soon as the slightest of cracks opened, I forced my way through, yanking Mimi with me.

Only to come face to face with Gonzales’ gun.

“So, this is why you were asking all those questions.” She murmured, eyeing the shifter behind me.

“You have to understand.” I said, completely breathless as I held up my hands in a symbol of surrender. “She just wants to go home. She doesn’t deserve to be locked up in some lab on earth, lightyears away from anyone like her.”

The woman stood there, impassive. “And you really think you can do this on your own?”

“He is not alone!” Mimi said resolutely. “He has me.”

“And you got yourself captured.” With a roll of her eyes, the engineer dropped her gun and offered her hand. “Come on. You’re going to need me if you want to get one of these hunk of junks outta here.”

“Wait, you’re helping me?”

“Of course. You found alien life. If you think I’m going to be on the wrong side of history for that, you’d dead wrong. Now come on, we’ve been prepping for this ever since your girlie got captured a couple of hours ago.”

“We?” I echoed.

She didn’t answer and I followed her up the gangway of a ship. It was all a little surreal as we rushed toward the cockpit, the door closing behind us.

We were getting away!

We were escaping!

As elated as I was, I stopped short when I realized we were not alone in the cockpit. Ciangi and Bahn already were seated in the copilot and navigator seats, strapped in.

“You guys are coming to?” I asked, voice cracking.

“Yeah. I gotta pick your head more about that scanner idea. Can’t do that if you’re dead.”

“And if you think I’m passing up on the opportunity to study a willing subject that also just so happens to be a shapeshifter, you’re more insane than the earth government is going to try to make you seem in their smear campaign.”

“Enough explanations,” Gonzales said, jumping into the pilot’s seat. “Everyone strap in, I’m about to punch us through the hangar hatch.”

“Um, aren’t you supposed to open it?”

“Yeah, normally. But normally we aren’t on lockdown.”

“Right. Well go ahead then.”

“Thanks for the permission. I don’t know what I would have done without it. Hold on everyone. Either we’re gonna break through, or blow up in a fiery ball of death.”

Ciangi let out a light laugh. “Sounds like college all over again.”

I clenched the seat as the engines of the escape vessel kicked into gear, but I felt small, cool fingers brush at my wrist. Looking down, I realized that Mimi was trying to hold my hand.

I let go of the armrest of my chair and wrapped my fingers through hers. Our gazes locked, and I watched her face as we hurtled forward.

Time seemed to suspend itself for a moment, her hair floating around her head lazily, her eyes regarding me with an admiration that no one else had ever had for me before. In that moment, I knew I cared for her in a way that I had never quite felt for anyone else in my short life.

“Brace yourself for impact!”

Alarms were going off everywhere and the ship’s systems were delivering repeat warnings that a crash was imminent. The cacophony was intense, but nothing could disrupt the connection between us.

And then we hit the hangar wall.

My whole body jolted and it felt like my skeleton left my body. My teeth rattled, my head ached and my stomach did about a million jerks that made me want to lose my lunch. Sparks flew. The other engineers screamed. The ship’s computer was going crazy.

Then, just as suddenly as the wild ride had happened, we broke through. The dark, endless void of space stretched out beyond our forward-facing cockpit window.

No one said anything for a moment, then a loud whoop issued from Gonzales. “That’s right! We made it baby!”

Buckles came undone, and the next thing I knew, Mimi was in my lap, arms wrapped around me as she hugged me with all her might. Which was nothing to sneeze at I might add.

“Don’t worry, Mimi. We’re going to get you home,” I whispered to her.

She pulled away from me. “It will be a long journey. And dangerous. Your people will come after you, you know.”

“Then let them.” I said, feeling more confidence than I had in my entire life. “With all of us here, there’s no way they can stop us.”

And I meant it.

This was just the beginning of the journey, but I was in it for the long haul.

Like they used to say on earth, for better or for worse, I was sticking by her side.