Mimic and the Space Engineer

6

Pillow Talk

Several days passed and they were surreal ones at that. I spent almost all of my time in my room with Mimi, who spent almost every moment studiously researching things across the net.

She read at a speed that I wouldn’t have believed was possible if I hadn’t seen it myself. She would pull up an article then scroll down to the bottom before I could even blink, then move right onto the next subject. And I might have thought she wasn’t actually retaining any of the information, but she would shoot new theorems and equations at me periodically as she learned.

However, the one thing I’d noticed by the second day was that she had issues understanding almost anything about culture, money or material possessions. She was constantly asking me to clarify little things here and there, and honestly it made me feel a bit better.

Was that shallow of me? To need to be wanted by the poor, helpless alien that I was supposed to be saving? Did I have a hero complex and I just never realized it? It was hard to say. I just knew that when I looked at her furrowed brow as she absorbed whatever it was she needed to know, I wanted her to be happy. She had earned at least that much.

“What is love making?”

I nearly choked on my water, startled by the sudden transition. The last thing I knew she was studying physics. How had this even come up?

Well, I respected her enough to give her an answer, even if it made me a bit uncomfortable. “Uh, geeze. You see, when two people of consenting ages like each other very, very much, they sometimes engage in various activities meant to give each other pleasure.”

“Pleasure? Wait, yes. I read about this. Certain actions release dopamine or other mood-boosting drugs into your brain which results in a slight euphoria. That sounds nice.”

“It, uh, can be. Yeah.”

“Then we should do that sometime.”

More water came spewing out of my nose. I really should just set my cup down. “Uh, I, uh… I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

She turned to me, finally setting the data-log down for the first time in over a day. “Why is that?”

“Well, for a lot of people, love making is supposed to be for someone special.”

“But you are special to me. You are my only friend.”

“Hah, uh, you have a point there.” I scrambled to think of something. It would be so easy to take advantage of her naiveite, but I couldn’t think of anything more unappetizing. “But you also have to be careful because sometimes it can make a baby.” I didn’t know if our systems were compatible enough to do that, but it certainly wasn’t worth the risk.

“Wait. I thought the word for your reproductive process was ‘sex’.”

“Uh, yeah. Well it is. Sex and love making are the same thing.”

Her eyebrows did that furrowing thing it did when she was confused. “Your means of creating progeny is the same as your way of bonding with friends?”

“Yes.”

“That does not seem correct.”

I shrugged. “It is what it is.”

“No wonder you humans are so volatile. I can’t imagine the kind of chemical soup caused by affection being mixed with the primitive need to survive that is in all of us.”

“You’re saying your people don’t make love or reproduce?”

“Of course, we do, but they’re completely separate acts. Giving birth, as you call it, requires finding and digesting massive amounts of energy. Making love is two of us devolving into our most basic form then merging together into one entity for a short while. Some say it is the most… intimate of connection possible.”

“Some say? So you haven’t done it yourself?”

“No. And have you?”

“Yes,” I answered after a brief pause. I figured I might as well be honest. “A while ago, when I was younger. She was my first girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend. This is a word for partner?”

“Yes.”

“I see. And you cared for this woman very much?”

“Yes. I did.”

“And what happened?”

Geeze, I did not predict that this conversation was going to be headed down bitter nostalgia lane. “Oh you know, it was pretty stereotypical. She was ambitious and went to a great college to study marine extinction, and I went to a vocational colony school for facilities work. We tried to make it work, but eventually we just had to… let go.”

“And this is something humans do? Let go of each other over great distances?”

“Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Honestly, the physical distance doesn’t matter nearly as much as the distance between futures. She outgrew me, plain and simple. Her star was shining brightly, and my star… well it was burnt out before I was born.”

She was frowning now. “I see.” Without another word, she turned back to the desk, data-log in hand. I didn’t know what she meant by that, but I didn’t want to ask. In fact, I needed a bit of time to myself to deal with the unpleasant feelings I thought I had long since locked down.

“Hey, I’ll be back in a bit. You be good, alright?”

“Absolutely. I haven’t yet learned how to be bad.”

I smiled wanly then let myself out.

The ship was oddly quiet as I spent a couple of hours just walking around. Although the peace was nice, it didn’t set well with me. I couldn’t help but feel like something was off.

After the unsettling sensation didn’t abate, I shrugged and headed back to my room. I was sure that Mimi would have come up with some new brilliant plan to use the scanner and was looking forward to it—even if I would only understand about half the words she said. In less than a week, her grasp on the English language far exceeded mine.

But, as I climbed up a ladder onto my floor, I noticed my door was already wide open.

“No!” I cried, rushing forward.

Heart in my throat, I saw that my room had been ransacked, my scrap bin dumped over and everything upturned. Now that I was closer, I could see that blaster fire marked the wall.

No! No, no, no! How had they found her?!

I bolted to the elevator, sliding my card in the reader, but it flashed red.

“Higgens!”

My comm crackled to life and for the first time I was absolutely livid.

“What?!” I snapped.

“Oh, so the gutter-worm grew a spine finally.” Frances’ voice was even more condescending than usual, and it made we want to dropkick him and all his descendants. “You’ve been acting so dodgy lately that I thought a visit down to your quarters was necessary. Imagine how perplexed we were to find you in your room when your comm and card-reader were clearly two floors lower?”

“What did you do to her?”

“Oh, a her, is it?” He laughed and the sound set my teeth on edge. “I have to admit, Higgens, I didn’t know you had it in you. Who’da thought that out of all the people in the universe, it was you who would make first contact. What a disappointment, right?”

I slammed my fist against the elevator, taking my rage out on the door that was barring me from helping my friend.

“Let her go! We destroyed her home. She just wants to get back to her people.”

“I don’t care if she wants to be a freaking unicorn. Do you have any idea the type of credits we will get? What kind of advancement we’ll have as a species with this kind of morphing technology? I could retire tomorrow!”

“Don’t do this! She’s a sentient being, not some shiny rock you can buy and sell like a diamond.”

“Please. She makes diamonds look like chump change. Don’t worry, Higgens. I’m not a cruel man. You’re not in danger, you’re just confined to your floor. I’ll make sure you get a bit of a finder’s fee. I’m just generous like that.”

My comm clicked off and I let out the longest stream of curses I had ever uttered. How could this have happened? I had been so careful!

I sank to the ground, head in my hands. This was the one thing I had ever had to do that mattered, and I had messed it up. I was the exact failure I had always known I was. That everyone always said I was.

I was nothing.

“No.” I growled.

This wasn’t going to be it. I wasn’t going to just leave Mimi in the clutches of a jerk who didn’t even see her as a living being. I was going to rescue her and get her off this ship if it was the last thing I did.

Newly strengthened, I ran back to my room. I gathered all the supplies I needed and strapped them to my body. Once I was sure I had everything, I went back to the same ladder I had shimmied up just moments before.

If I remembered correctly, there was a vent that had been welded shut just after I came on board. With the right solvent, I could get right through the blocked off entrance and make my way to the upper levels.

But first, I had to make sure they couldn’t find me. For the first time since I had arrived, I set my card and my comm on my desk.

Frances wanted to dance? Well I could dance. And I always stepped on toes when I did.