Copyright � 2017 Fairfield Publishing

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the author.

This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.

1

Digging Up the Future

�Higgens! Clean up on the base deck!�

I jolted forward, nearly shocked out of my skin by the ship�s intercom. A sizzle from below my hands pulled me the other way, and I realized my little gizmo-project had set itself alight with my gap in attention.

�Dammit.� I groaned, grabbing my well-used extinguisher and blasting the creation until it stopped it�s popping and cracking.

�Higgens! Do you read?�

�Yeah! I read! What�s the mess?� I asked.

�Why do you need to know? Just get down there!�

I gave myself a few seconds while I mentally retorted with the sarcastic comeback I wanted to say, before saying what I knew I should say. �I need to know what equipment to bring, unless you want me to haul down about a ton of different bits n� bobs. Is it a fuel spill? Post-fire recovery? Crew got sick? Injured? Bio-hazard��

�Alright! Alright! There was a slight rupture in the base of one of the drills and a mess of grit and debris got in.�

�Righto. Space contamination and debris clearing it is.�

�Whatever. Just get down there. We�re supposed to start drilling again in a couple of hours and I�m not missing out on any bonuses because of this.�

�Yes, sir. Of course, sir.�

If this were any other job, I would not tolerate that kind of condescension. But this was the opportunity of a lifetime, and I wasn�t about to risk being kicked off at the next station because I ticked off one of the senior engineers that ran this place. The pay was triple anything I had been paid at any other job and I got to travel to remote parts of the galaxy where I would never have a chance to go otherwise. As an added bonus, the crew didn�t seem to care if I picked up interesting things that came through the junk stream, which I was turning into my own little creations that I could sell at our next stop.

I hummed to myself as I gathered up my things and headed down. The best thing about my new gig was that we were working on a massive, government-contracted mining vessel with a skeleton crew. I could go days without seeing another human being and it did wonders for the anxiety that always pooled in my stomach when I was forced into professional, polite conversations.

It took about ten minutes to get down into the maintenance underbelly that housed the base of the drills, and the subsequent tubes where all their churned-up debris was funneled through to the sorter. Sure enough, one of the tubes had ruptured, spraying a wall with grit, goop, and who knew what else.

One of the sensors on my cart beeped yellow so I glanced at the display.

�Space radiation levels slightly elevated,� I said to myself. �Might as well play it safe.�

Digging through my supplies, I found my anti-rad field and placed it onto my chest. Once it adhered to my jumpsuit, it was just a press of the button and then I was safe from any of those cancerous sorts of mutations that liked to happen when space messed with one�s insides.

�Let�s get this party started then,� I mused, turning on my music in the earpiece implanted just under my ear. Standard fare for all government and government contracted employees.

A lot of people didn�t like cleaning, or repairing, but I did. It was like one of my virtual games, but with real world consequences. I set about patching the tube first. I could flush it once it was repaired and clean the rest of the room while that was going on.

It was a fairly long, drawn out process, and by the time it was all finished, I was covered in dirt and sweat. I took a last look around the metal covered room, which now had a great sparkle to it if I do say so myself, and gave a nod of satisfaction before trundling back to my room.

�Tube repaired and flushed, and the cleanup is finished. I�m on my way to dump the debris and muck now.�

�Took you long enough. You�d think you wouldn�t mind putting a rush on it considering how much we�re paying you.�

�Apologies, Sir. I just like to be thorough and leave it better than when I arrived.�

�Yeah, whatever. Just be quicker on the next one.�

Maybe if you took care of your ship more there wouldn�t be so many �next ones�.

I shook that thought out of my head. I didn�t have time to be negative. It was a waste of both energy and brainpower. I turned my music up and continued to the disposal room, daydreaming of my next little project.

It was easy to slip into a daydream, and I was only paying half attention as I pushed my cart through the ship. Making sure to put on my thick protective gloves, I reached into the waste chamber and started picking out bits to toss in.

A sheet of buckled metal, some jelly-like liquid, it was all very ho-hum until I felt something pinch my arm.

�Ow!� I jerked and looked into my cart, expecting to see a sharp piece of shrapnel or bit of warped equipment. Instead, I saw something hanging onto my wrist.

I screamed, and reached an octave I didn�t know I was capable of hitting. I reared back, whipping my hand about like a complete maniac. There might have been sensible words coming out of my mouth, but I had no idea what they were. I just knew I needed whatever the heck was touching me to let go!

And boy indeed did it let go. Like a black and shiny little missile, the thing went sailing into the far wall where it smacked into the aged, metal surface then slid down to the chemical-disposal shelf.

I finally stopped screaming and somehow had the wherewithal to grab a piece of junk that could work as a weapon. I brought it up, totally ready to go toe to toe with the strange thing that attacked me.

Except� it wasn�t attacking me. If anything, it was cowering, hurt and shivering on the shelf. Despite everything my brain was warning me, I slowly lowered the pipe in my hand. �I�m sorry, you scared me. You alright there, little guy?�

The thing stopped shaking, and turned to look at me. Or at least that�s what I was assuming it was doing. It didn�t have any eyes that I could discern, and yet I had the distinct impression that it was indeed seeing me.

It was a strange critter, all angles and harsh, onyx spikes. It didn�t seem to have legs so much as it would grow random bits to move itself about, then they would shrink back into itself.

I lowered my arms completely and took a cautious step toward it. �Hey, I�m all about the non-violence, so if you�re not going to eat my brains, I don�t see why I can�t help you out.�

The little thing let out a trill and it was possibly the most adorable sound I had ever heard. I instantly thought of a basket full of puppies. Its color rolled from black to grey, to a dark green and it cautiously scuttled forward to the edge of the shelf.

It was the moment of truth. I reached out, trying to quell the anxiety pooling in my stomach, and held out my hand right in front of the little alien. It stood there for several long, painful seconds before taking a cautious step forward onto the top of my hand. When I continued to cooperate, it gingerly climbed closer and closer, until it was perched on my shoulder.

�Well,� I murmured to myself, my head trying to wrap about everything that had just happened. �I guess I always wanted a pet.�

2

Shifting Paradigm

I stared at the little creature intently, noting its movements and habits. As soon as I had arrived in my room, it had scurried off of my shoulder and under my standard-issue cot. And then into my shoes. And then out of my shoes and into my own personal scrap bin. I had never thought that I would have to alien-proof my quarters, but I was beginning to think it might be necessary.

�Higgens!� Dang it, I had still forgotten to turn my comm down. It was obnoxiously loud in my tiny space and my new guest let out a squeal of panic. �Gonzales has some expired blaster cores that need to be disposed of. We just found the case that was lost on the load up. Some idiot labeled it as stims! Can you believe that?�

�Have them meet me at the lift on their floor. I�ll make sure to have the proper containment unit.�

�Yeah, yeah. I�ll deliver the message. Be there in ten.�

At first it had been strange to me that I only corresponded with the head of crew, Francis Giomatti. Now, I was grateful for it. The thought of having all twenty members of the crew bothering me with every little thing that went wrong�and probably wasn�t even in my job description�made my stomach twist.

�Alright, so I gotta go, but I�ll be right back in less than half an ho-� I trailed off as I realized I couldn�t see my new alien friend anywhere. �Um, hello? Little fella?� I walked toward my worktable, looking everywhere for the obsidian guy.

Worry started to prick at me but that quickly disappeared when I realized something had changed on my desk.

�Since when do I have two water bottles?� I murmured to myself, reaching for one.

Only that same water bottle exploded into a dark goop in my hand only to solidify into the alien.

I screamed again�I really needed to stop doing that before I blew a vocal cord�but this time I managed not to throw my friend into a wall. �D-d-did you just�?�

The thing wiggled, sticking two of its spikes up like little waving arms, and turning a gradient of grey and deep blue.

�Y-you can shapeshift?� I said breathlessly, my mind thoroughly rocked. �You�re like uh� uh, mimic!�

It trilled, then crawled up my hand once more to sit on my shoulder. �I�m sorry, lad, but you�ve got to stay here.�

I went to pick him up, but he scurried into my open collar and curled up along the neckline of my work tank underneath. �You know what, that�ll work. If you can hear me, just stay in there.�

It trilled again and I grabbed my power source containment case then headed out. I had to admit, my heart had never pounded so hard on my way to a simple energy-disposal pick up, but I was pretty sure I didn�t want my crewmates to know that I had picked up a bit of a straggler. I knew the regulations well enough, so that meant spacing of an unknown danger, and I didn�t want my new sidekick to be hurtled out into the void of space when we were just getting to know each other.

There was also that thing about it being a species I had never heard of and just learning that it could shapeshift. Which I was pretty sure was impossible.

The lift doors opened and my heart spiked when I saw Gonzales standing there, half a dozen blaster coils in her hands. She was an impossibly tall woman, and had these dark eyes that just seemed to look through everything. From what little I knew, she was a mix of Mexican and Polynesian, which apparently explained her impressive height of six foot six. Granted, I knew almost nothing about earth culture considering I had been born on a colony and lived on ships and stations my entire life.

�Oh, hello there!� She said, professionally pleasant.

�Hi! I hear you have some cores for me?�

�Indeed, I do!� She said, beaming and handing them over. I went about putting them into the case, only to feel my little hitchhiker pull against my shirt. Quickly I pressed it flat with my hand and let out a pathetic cough to cover the noise.

�You okay there?�

�Fine! Everything is fine!� I chirped, hastily finishing up with the cores and holding the case flat to my chest. �I�ll make sure these are taken care of!�

With that I turned right on my heel and rushed back into the elevator. My mimic friend was going crazy, tickling at my collar and trying to crawl directly out of the front of my shirt.

�Relax, buddy. We just gotta get to my room.�

It didn�t listen -granted it probably didn�t understand me. It wasn�t like everyone in space automatically spoke English. By the time I reached my room I was a bit of a mess, and I set the container down and finally freed the mimic from within my shirt.

�Geeze, little dude, what is your problem?�

It practically erupted from me and ran over to the case, which it jumped up and down on several times.

�What? You want to see the cores? I guess, if you�re that enthusiastic about it.� Leave it to me to travel all of space to find some sort of strange, shapeshifting alien who was some sort of blaster core aficionado. With a shrug, I opened up the slotted, anti-rad case.

Everything seemed to happen at once. The mimic jumped down it, spreading itself flat in a matter of seconds. It glowed vibrantly for a moment, before suddenly expanding into a bubbling, boiling heap.

Once more I found myself leaping backward in horror. Had I just killed my friend? What if it was the last of its species? Was I a murderer?!

I didn�t get a direct answer, but the bubbling stopped, and my friend reassembled itself, chirping quite happily.

�.and about a foot bigger than it was before.

�Oh my�� I murmured, once again finding myself in utter shock by this strange creature. �You just,� I took a breath. �You just ate my blaster cores!�

It chirped again, grey and light pink rippling through its body. It had just gone from palm sized to small dog in seconds, but it seemed nonplussed by the transition.

�Well, I guess that�s one way to dispose of them safely.�

I sat down on my cot, the whole day catching up to me. In just a few hours I had made a new friend that just so happened to be an unidentified species, found out it could shape shift, and devoured things that had nuclear energy in them which would then result in a rapid growth spurt.

The mimic� actually, that wasn�t a half bad name for it. Mimic.

Anyway, Mimic didn�t seem to pick up on my anxiety and nestled up to my side, trilling with a spacy, fragmented sound that reminded me so much of a cat�s purr. And I couldn�t help but think if our first day was this hectic, that day two was going to be one heck of a wringer.

3

All You Can Eat Buffet

I woke up expecting to have company in my bed in the form of a little shapeshifting alien, but instead came to with an odd gap between my arms. I sat up like a shot, my eyes scanning my room for my new friend.

When I didn�t see him anywhere, I started to panic. That lasted for about a minute before I reminded myself that Mimic could shapeshift and looking for it in its black and spiky form was probably a waste of time.

�Hello?� I called instead.

There was a chirp beside my bed and a pillow that had dropped to the floor surged and buckled, warping inward on itself until my friend was sitting there.

�Hiding as a pillow, were you?� I asked matter of factly. As much as I was tempted to baby talk the cute little thing, how could I be certain that it wasn�t intelligent? Sure, it didn�t look like it� or act like it, but I preferred not to assume. Plus, if anyone overheard me, I could always pretend that I was talking to myself. Harder to do if I was using all that goo-goo-gaa-gaa talk my mother favored when speaking to anyone�or anything�under two feet tall.

It trilled at me once more before scuttling to my junk bin. In less than a blink, it jumped up onto my desk and then dove straight in.

�Hey!� I yelped, stumbling out of bed and rushing over to the bin. �I don�t have any energy cores in there, but I would really appreciate it if you didn�t jostle things around. I spent a lot of time collecting those pieces.�

Two black spikes poked up, waiting there for a moment as if it was debating, before it clambered out. I could be mistaken, but it seemed like it had grown a slight bit overnight. It was still a small dog sized, but a very fluffy small dog.

It chirped at me again as it stepped onto my desk. I assumed it was looking up at me, although that was hard to tell since it had no face. �What�s up friend? Do you need something?�

It didn�t react, because of course it didn�t understand me, but I had been hoping that it might.

�Alright, well I have to make my rounds to the recyclers and make sure everything�s in tip-top shape. You stay here, okay?�

Again, it didn�t move so I shrugged and started to gather up my things. Like usual I assembled my cart, but added my welder to my belt, along with several other miscellaneous things. One never could be too prepared after all, right?

When I was finally ready I headed to my door only to have Mimic follow after me.

�No,� I said, holding up my hand. �You have to stay here.� It took a few steps back then settled down into what I assumed was a sitting position. �Alright, very good. I�ll be back in a jiffy, I promise.�

I stepped out and quickly closed the door in front of me, heaving a sigh of relief that it hadn�t tried to squirrel out.

I turned to go, pushing my cart in front of me, only to hear some sort of scuffling behind me. Looking back to my door, I saw a thin, burnt piece of metal sliding out from the minute gap at the bottom. I watched, a little amazed, a little horrified, as the long strip worked itself through until it was all the way out in the hall. From there, it popped right back into my shapeshifting friend.

�You can�t be out here!� I hissed, looking around to make sure we weren�t in view of one of the ship�s many monitors. Thankfully, as a mining ship, there weren�t a lot of security precautions along the crew quarters, and even less so on my lower floor.

It made a sound at me then clambered into my cart before shifting into my compressor rifle.

I debated for the briefest of seconds about fighting with it, but I was quickly beginning to realize that restricting where a shapeshifter could and could not go was a lost cause. �Alright then. I guess we�re making the rounds together.�

An agreeable hiccup came from my bag so I shrugged and hit the start button for the hover mechanism. Without any further ado, we were on our way.

My first task was checking the environment filters. I�d never had a problem with them so far, knock on organic matter, and I was hoping to keep it that way.

I was on edge the entire time, sure that the miners were going to come flocking down in droves to arrest me for contaminating the ship with an unapproved lifeform. I knew that I really should report it. After all, a creature with the ability to change its shape on a whim would be a huge deal to the scientific community.

Humans had been expanding their colonies for a over a century, and while we had found signs of life in the form of long extinct bacteria, all in all we were still very much alone in the universe, as far as we knew.

I also supposed I should be more freaked out about the revelation that there was other life out there, but I had always assumed there would be. I just never thought I would be the one to discover it.

�Higgens!� I nearly jumped out of my skin.

�Yes?� I squeaked, hitting the button on my comm-watch.

�Ciangi just reported that there�s a weak spot on the venting in the engine output system. Said she�d like you to reinforce and patch it, just to be safe.�

�Sure, I�ll get right on that.� I clicked off then looked to the camouflaged alien on my cart. �We�re going up to where there�s going to be more crew, so promise me you�ll behave?�

It said nothing, which I supposed was a good thing, and I headed for the elevator.

Normally there wouldn�t be many people skulking around the engine output system, but Ciangi and Bahn, both galactic engine experts, liked to do an inspection every single morning. That meant they were always finding things to improve, but I would gladly take some busy work over critical engine failure any day.

They were an interesting pair. From what I had gathered, they became friends in college where they began working on a new propulsion system for space travel. Apparently, whatever they did was some impressive stuff, because they were snatched up, as a pair, by the largest research conglomerate in existence.

They had worked together ever since, sometimes mockingly being dubbed the �coin twins�. I hadn�t understood that particular moniker at first, but it had been Ciangi herself that explained it. She was short and blond, with curls as tight as a screw that made a halo about her head, and stacked every way from Sunday. Meanwhile, Bahn was golden-brown with pin-straight, black hair that he kept pulled back into a ponytail, an almost skeletal build, and a hyper critical gaze that could melt the toughest of alloys. Two different sides of the same coin. I still didn�t quite understand, but at least I knew.

I never would have put that together myself, but I guessed I was just terrible at observing things about people. Their faces all tended to blend together, so I mostly went by the sound of their voice. Those were as varied as the stars in the sky, and I always appreciated that.

We entered the doors quietly, my every nerve on edge, and Ciangi was standing just inside.

�Hey there, Higgens. You made it up here fast.�

�Oh you know, just trying to be efficient.�

�You alright there? You�re sweating.�

Crap, I was terrible at masking how I felt. I was� I was� What was this called? Some sort of ancient earth term, right? Ah, yes. Telegraphing. �Uh, I was doing some early morning cardio. You know, keepin� in shape and all that.�

She shrugged. �I�ve never been much for working out. Bahn is over at the vent in question, taking some readings. Just under the coolant generators.�

�Gotcha.� I gave her a nod and kept on pushing my cart. Normally, I liked hanging around Bahn and Ciangi; they treated me much nicer than most people. Usually staff liked to act like I was either not there at all, or some sort of inconvenience. But normally I wasn�t smuggling a new alien life around a government contracted mining vessel.

I found Bahn right where Ciangi said he would be�they always had the uncanny ability to do that�and gave a little wave.

�Hey, I hear you�ve got something that needs some reinforcin�?�

The engineer looked at me before his hand pointed upward. Always a man of few words, that Bahn.

�Righto. I�ll hop on that.�

Of course, I didn�t literally hop on it, but I did put a good bit of hustle into my step. The longer I was down here, the greater the chance that something could go wrong.

I would say it took me about ten minutes to do as I was asked, using both my welder and a little insta-hard sealant that I always kept stocked on my belt. The stuff was fantastic. It could even repair a cracked hull for a short time, given a large enough supply.

I returned to my cart, whistling a bit as I slung my bag into it, only to cut off the tune abruptly.

Where had the other bag�aka Mimic�gone?

�Uh, hey Bahn, you got anything else you need done?�

�No. That should be good.�

�Um, I�m just gonna take a look around.�

�That�s not necessary.�

�No such thing as being too careful! I�ll be back in a jiffy!� I rushed away, my heart going a mile a minute. Why hadn�t I put a leash on Mimic, or something? Not that a leash would work against a shapeshifter, but I supposed it was the thought that counts.

�Mimic,� I hissed, ducking under some tubing. �Mimic!�

I heard a chittering and looked up to see a flash of black spike retreating over one of the refinery tanks. �Dammit, how did you get all the way up there?�

I looked around to see how I would shimmy up. I spotted a ladder leading up to the mid-level catwalks and rushed toward it, climbing as quickly as I could in my jumpsuit. Once I was up on the landing, I could see Mimic making a beeline for the radiation dampener.

�Oh no�� If anything happened to the radiation dampener, that could cause a radiation leak, and a radiation leak could cause a whole lot of radiation sickness. �That�s bad.�

I ran down the catwalk, hoping I wasn�t making too much noise. I caught up with it and jumped over to the gangway that lead to the radiation dampener. There was a walkway to take, but it was far too slow.

I stuck the landing then looked around, but the little critter was fast. I couldn�t spot it anywhere! Panic was setting in, making my forehead break out in a cold sweat. Had I just doomed the entire ship by releasing some sort of malevolent alien creature in the bowels of our ship? How could I be so stupid?

I heard a crumpling sound and dashed toward it, praying as I ran. I arrived at the edge of the dampener just in time to see a long, thin piece of cording force its way into one of the welding divots.

�No!� I groaned, rushing forward and trying to catch the tail end. But it was too late, the last of it slipped in and I could only watch as Mimic popped into its natural form and trundled toward the radiation core.

My stomach dropped out of my feet and I pressed myself to the dampener. I felt like I was watching my death happen in slow motion� probably because I was watching my death happen in slow motion. How was this gonna go? Was it going to blow up the entire ship in revenge for destroying its home? Squeeze its way through the other side of the radiation core and into the actual lightyear drive, sending us hurtling out of control through the subspace streams? The possibilities were practically countless, each one more gruesome than the last.

Mimic reached the center of the blinding, shielded mass and my eyes flicked to the readout panel. But instead of seeing an energy spike, or some other form of alert, I saw the radiation output go down.

I blinked, rubbed my eyes, then looked again. Sure enough, the meter was going lower and lower and lower. Which was great. Ships had long since moved away from their nuclear-powered engines, moving onto anti-matter propulsion. However, the process most often used generated massive amounts of radiation. Naturally something needed to be done about all that hazardous material being generated, hence the radiation core that gathered the harmful rays and stored them for use as discharges and weapon blasts. Overloading the core was always an issue, leading to emergency dumping procedures, so the quickly dropping reading was a good thing.

Granted, we didn�t want it to get too low. Having no nuclear energy meant no back-up weapon�s system and wasn�t exactly the best set up for traveling through uncharted space. I watched as the reading dove and dove until finally it was about to drop to dangerous levels.

�Hey, Mimic,� I called, knocking in the dampener. �You need to stop now.� I pressed my face against the barrier, trying to see what was happening within the semi-translucent material. I couldn�t be sure, but I was fairly certain it stopped.

It made a happy chittering sound and began walking back toward me. As it approached, I realized that my little companion was not so little anymore. The closer it got, the bigger and bigger it grew, until it was now in the large dog/tiny pony territory.

�Oh geeze, Mimic.� I groaned. �Why do I get the feeling that this is a very bad thing?�

�What�s going on here?�

I whipped around, letting out another startled screech, to see Ciangi standing at the foot of the ladder, eyeing me curiously. �W-what do you m-mean?� I sputtered.

�I got an alert of low radiation. You notice anything?�

I looked behind me and instead of seeing my ever-growing friend, there wasn�t anything at all. �Uh� no. I spied the reading on my walk around and thought it was super odd but I don�t really know what that means.�

�Normally it means a radiation leak.� She held up some sort of device that made several beeping sounds before a steady ring. �But I�m not detecting anything. Huh.� She hit a button on her own comm. �Bahn, have you been testing your radiation scrubber?�

�No. I�m still in prototype phase.�

�Huh.� The blond woman pulled at one of her curls, her eyes narrowing as she regarded the entire set up. �Do you mind clearing out? This is important and I want to run some tests.�

�Uh, y-yeah. Sure. I will clear out and go about my maintenance duties, like a good worker is supposed to. That�s me.�

��okay?�

I rushed back to my cart, feeling like the world was crashing around me. Somehow, someway, I had to find a way to find a shapeshifting alien who was loose on the ship without alerting anyone else in the entire crew.

This day was not going how I had envisioned it at all.

4

Friends in Unusual Places

I spent hours scouring the ship for any sign of Mimic. The hardest part was pretending that I was cleaning the entire time so I wouldn�t arouse any suspicion. I was sure at any moment the alarms would sound and the ship would be on high alert.

When I finally returned to my room, close to ten hours later, I was exhausted both physically and emotionally. I was sure that I had doomed the entire crew to their untimely deaths, and I was composing my confession over and over in my head. I could only hope that they would have mercy on me because I was just a stupid janitor when I was court-martialed. Could a civilian be court-martialed? I wasn�t really sure.

I slid my ID to open my door, only to have something massive and black rush at me. Once more I yelped and jumped backward before my brain was able to recognize my missing companion.

�Mimic!� I cried, recovering enough to shove it back into my room and slam the door behind us. �Do you know how long I�ve been searching for you?�

It trilled and shook what I thought might be its backside at me. If I didn�t know better, I would think that it was wagging its tail at me. Except for that part where it didn�t have a tail. It trilled at me again then jumped up and down several times before nudging at my thighs. It was insane how much bigger it was now that it had eaten again, which made me wonder what else it would need to chow down on and exactly how big it was going to get.

I collapsed on my bed, letting out a long sigh. What was I going to do?

Mimic seemed to pick up on my frustration and jumped onto my bed next to me. It weighed quite a bit more than last time, causing me to bounce up several inches. I flailed a bit, and I felt a spike slice across my hand.

�Ow!� I hissed, pulling my hand to me. I saw there was a slight, almost papercut-like slice on the back of my hand. �Whoops.� I remarked, wiping it on my jumpsuit.

Mimic let out a panicked warble and froze, multiple spikes shooting out from its surface.

�Whoa, calm down there fella,� I urged before laughing slightly. �I�m fine. I promise.� For being a faceless, featureless, multi-angled creature, it sure was cute.

I settled myself and Mimic scooted onto my lap, almost purring. The sound relaxed me and I soon found my eyelids growing heavy. It was so funny that after all the stress throughout the day, and utter certainty that I had just ruined my life, it melted away in the presence of my new friend. I guess that�s what I had been missing for so long.

Logically, I knew it was a bit strange for me to be so attached to something I had only known for about two days, but I couldn�t help it. I felt like the alien was depending on me, and it was really nice to matter.

As if reading my mind, it let out a warbling coo and retracted all of its spiky limbs. I smiled, and rested my face against its hard, cool skin. Curled together, we drifted off to sleep.

I slept better than I had in ages, and when I finally drifted to consciousness, I felt great. I was still curled on my side, and I felt the warmth of Mimic pressed against me.

I stretched, then curled my arms back around the alien. Except� they were much softer and squishier than Mimic was supposed to be.

�Did you shift into a pillow again?� I mumbled, rubbing the crust from my eyes before opening them.

It took me a minute for my vision to clear as I sat up, and I yawned egregiously loud. I heard a trill and went to pat the angled, multi-faceted back of my friend.

But instead of solid surface, I felt soft, smooth skin.

�What the hell?!�

I finally came to fully and looked down beside me to see there wasn�t an inky shapeshifter. Instead there was a fully grown, fully nude woman.

I screamed again. I should probably stop doing that. I sat there, frozen for a moment, before hurriedly slapping a hand over my eyes. �Sorry!�

I heard another trill and felt something move toward me. Peeking between my fingers, I saw the woman had sat up as well, and her face was just an inch or so away from mine.

I snapped my fingers back in place. Sure, I enjoyed watching naked people on the net every now and then, but this seemed very intrusive.

I felt very warm, smooth hands grab my wrists gently then pull them away. I dropped them, and came face to face with the unknown woman.

She was small, but there was a decided squareness to her features. Her hair was white and short, while her eyes were depthless black. Her face drew even closer, and when she was less than a breath away, she let out a low trill.

�Mimic?� I gasped, completely shocked.

She made the same noise again and I felt a strange mix of excitement and horror. �You shifted into a human? You can do that?�

She didn�t answer, instead rolling off the bed and standing. I slammed my hands over my eyes again, only to hear her rummage around. I heard things clattering to the floor, and then fabric rustling and then a zipper being closed. I risked another look to see that she had dressed herself in one of my jumpsuits. It was much too big on her, but I couldn�t care less.

�How did you�� I murmured. �You� you knew to get dressed.�

Such a simple gesture, and yet it meant so much. Yes, Mimic was a shapeshifter with some sort of consciousness, but I had assumed it was animalistic in nature. Like a dog, or horse. However, the fact that she knew that she needed to wear clothing as I did, and had watched me enough to know where I kept my clothes and how to put them on, meant that she most likely was a fully realized, self-aware entity.

�You�re sentient!� I blurted, the words barely getting out of my mouth.

She tilted her head, her mouth moving as if she was speaking, but no sound came out. I supposed I couldn�t be surprised about that, considering it was ridiculous to expect her to know English.

�This is crazy! Do you know what this means?� More mouth moving, but no sound. �I mean, you probably do. Man, I wish we could talk to each other. Are you a genius? Are you smart enough to make me seem like an ant? Are you like a child? A very primitive form? Who knows! Not me, that�s for sure.�

I felt my excitement bubbling up, tripling down on itself so hard that I had to start pacing. I was prattling on, not even sure if I was speaking words anymore, but when I turned Mimic was no longer standing in the center of my room.

Instead, she was sitting at my desk, messing about with my data-log and my net interface. �Whoa, what are you doing there?� I took a step toward her carefully. I did need to acknowledge the fact that I could potentially be enabling a blood-thirsty creature that needed knowledge to wipe out my own kind. But� that just didn�t seem like something Mimic would do. She could have killed me a dozen times over now. Heck, she probably could have blown up the whole ship. But she hadn�t, and that meant I needed to trust it.

�You want to learn something?� I asked.

She stared at me blankly and it was quite unnerving. Slowly, I did an exaggerated blink, and she copied me.

�Good, remember to do that every so often.� I added, sidling up next to her. Bending down, I poked at the net portal and called up the video conglomerate that I favored. �How about a linguistics tutorial?�

I handed my data-log to her and she clutched it greedily, pulling it to her face. Her dark eyes gobbled up what the screen was saying and I had the distinct feeling that I was watching something brilliant happen.

Now that she was distracted and I had calmed down, I had a chance to look at her. Really look at her. And I found I was utterly enraptured.

Although her face was inherently angular, leaning toward unnatural, there was a symmetrical kind of beauty to it. Her eyes darted all around my data-log as she observed, and her full lips mouthed gibberish.

I was watching, lost in thought, when suddenly the same face I was admiring grew slack, then began to shift and mold itself. I leaned back in simultaneous horror and fascination, as the girl disappeared and an exact copy of the video teacher was sitting in my room.

�Dude,� I breathed. What else could I say.

That seemed to catch her attention, and she set the data-log down. �D�ud.� She repeated.

My eyes went wide. �You catch on fast. You�ve been in this form for less than a few hours.�

�Catch.� She parroted again before picking up the data-log and returning to the video.

�That�s great! At this rate, you�re gonna pick up Common Northern Hemisphere in a day or two!�

�Higgens!�

�Crap!� I yelped, jumping up. Mimic didn�t budge, however, completely enraptured with the video series. �Yes?� I asked, hitting the comm after I had a moment to breathe.

�We�re about to hit a new comet stream we need to sort. I want you to double check the drill bits to make sure everything�s ready to go.�

�Yessir. I�ll get on that in a jiffy.�

�Whatever. Just have it done before eleven clicks.�

�Right.�

I looked up from my comm to see Mimic was still staring at her screen. �I have to go now, but I�ll be back in a bit. You just stay here, okay?�

She didn�t say anything, so I figured that was my cue to go. Assembling my cart again, I went out into the hall then shut the door behind me. I waited a few moments, just to see if she was going to follow me, but nothing happened.

Well, that had worked out much better than I ever could have hoped.

Cautiously optimistic, I made my way to the lift and back to the place where this had all started. I couldn�t help but wonder if we were about to repeat history and I was going to meet a new best friend.

I smiled to myself, before a depressing sort of realization befell me. Mimic had only gotten into the ship because we had destroyed her home. Literally drilled it into tiny pieces and then sorted it into different channels to be stored, used or discarded. Had any of her friends survived? Had they been flung into space to drift forever? Shredded into microscopic and very dead pieces? The thought was terrifying, and made me look at the situation in a whole new light.

Was my shapeshifting friend a refugee from a massacre my people had caused? Had we committed genocide on her people? These were questions that I didn�t like thinking about, but I had to.

Smile now fully shifted to a frown, I reached my destination and got busy running all the tests I needed to. Structural analysis, double checking the previous patch I had made the first time the tube blew, space radiation and electromagnetic readings, the works really.

It took me a solid hour to finish, and when I finally did I was excited to go back to my room and see what exactly Mimic had learned. Hitting my comm, I steadied my voice. �Finished here. Everything is good to go.�

�Great. We�re due to start mining tomorrow.�

�Cool.� I went to click off before thinking better of it. �Uh, hey. Have we scanned these asteroids for any signs of life?�

�Signs of life? Are you kidding me?�

�Y-yeah. What if there�s some sort of harmful bacteria or mutated fungus we�re bringing in? Doesn�t it seem like we should be carefully testing each of these celestial bodies before crushing them up and reducing them to their raw materials?�

�That just might be the most idiotic thing I�ve ever heard, Higgens, and I�ve been a government contracted employee for ten years. From the moment we mine a single thing, it never integrates with the interior of our ship. We suck it up into those hermetically sealed tubes, then send it to the sorter, and so on and so on. All of it is entirely contained.�

�Except for when there�s accidents.� I countered. �Like the last time I was here.�

�Yeah, occasionally things go south. But you�re fine, right? If there ever is an emergency like that�which there never will be because we�re in space�we�ll deal with it.� A frustrated sound boomed through the technology. �Gods, Higgens, I don�t have time for this. Waste any more time and I�ll dock it out of your pay.�

The comm clicked off and I couldn�t help but roll my eyes. What a twat.

Abruptly I was very done with humans in general. Packing up my cart, I headed back to my room. I was so fired up over how my boss had spoken to me that I almost forgot that I had left a sentient alien that could take on any form in my bedroom.

That certainly put some pep in my step, and I rushed the remaining way to my room.

I slid my card in the door and punched in my code. It seemed to take ages for the pneumatic doors to slide open and I quickly shimmied inside.

I was greeted by an empty room and terror seized me. Then, as the doors slid closed, something emerged from my scrap-box. I almost screamed again, but managed to catch myself just as the formless blob solidified into the Mimic�s human form.

�Oh my God,� I gasped, clutching at my chest. �You gotta be more careful or I�m going to die of an apoplexy.�

�Die, verb form of the noun Death, meaning the action or act of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism.� She said, voice strangely musical with intonations in all the wrong areas. �Apoplexy: unconsciousness or incapacity resulting from a cerebral hemorrhage or stroke.�

My jaw would have dropped if I wasn�t so thoroughly amused by the incredibly serious expression on her face as she rattled off definitions. �Yes, those are all correct. Did you learn those on the net today?�

�Learn, to gain or acquire knowledge of or skill in by study, experience or being taught.�

�Yup, that�s right too. But you know there�s more to a conversation than definitions.�

�Definition: a statement of the exact meaning of a word, es-�

�Right. I got it. We�ll work on that.�

I walked over to my bed and managed to plop down, gesturing for her to sit in the chair. She looked from me, to the chair, then back before tilting her head. Right, she probably wouldn�t understand almost any physical prompts or slang.

All my doubts about her potentially not being sentient were pretty much out of the window. In just a few hours she had taught herself how to read and obviously had been very busy digesting the entire contents of some dictionary or another. Actually, in our current situation, I was definitely the dumbass. I couldn�t help but wonder if the little being had been trying to talk to me since I had found it, or if shapeshifting a human�s brain was what gave it its intellect. Perhaps that was a little self-centered to think, but this was the first alien known to man. I had no idea what made her tick, tock or shift.

�So, let�s start with the basics. What is your name?�

�Name?� She repeated. �A word or set of words by which-�

�No,� I said quickly, cutting her off. �No more of those straight definitions. If I wanted to read a dictionary, I would. I mean,� I tried to think of the best way to phrase it. �Who are you?�

For the first time her face took on an expression that wasn�t a mirror of my own. �Who� am I?�

�Yes! Do you have a name? What do your friends or family call you?�

�Friends�� She repeated slowly. I waited patiently. The poor alien had obviously spent so much of the afternoon submerging herself in learning that I didn�t mind being put on pause while she searched for an answer. �Family�� More pause, and her eyes slid over the room as if they were searching for something to help her communicate what she wanted to say. ��are dead.�

That wasn�t where I was hoping the conversation was going.

�This�beast killed them.�

Now it was my turn to parrot things back. �Beast? Y-you mean the ship?�

�Ship: a vessel larger than a boat for transporting people or goods by sea. This is� a vessel? Not a beast that has eaten both you and I?�

Oh no. I could understand exactly how she had come to that conclusion, but I was about to give her a rude awakening. �No. It�s a mechanical ship, and we travel through space and mine valuable minerals from asteroids, comets and small moons.�

�Mine: used to refer to a thing or things belonging to or associated with the speaker.�

�No, not that one.�

�Mine: an excavation in the earth for extracting coal and other minerals.� Her eyes went wide as she finished her statement. �But I saw its teeth!�

�No, you saw the drill bit as it churned up the asteroid that you were living on.�

Silence again, and she almost seemed frozen in her spot while her brain churned. �You killed my family?�

Crap. Here was the moment I was dreading. �I didn�t personally, no. And the crew didn�t mean to! There�s not supposed to be life in space, so they didn�t think they were hurting anyone. Or anything.�

�S-space?�

Yeah, you know that thing outside of your asteroid?�

�As�teroid?�

I was surprised that she didn�t go into another long string of definitions. �Yeah, your home. That�s what we call it.�

�I� I see.� She went quiet again, but I didn�t rush the conversation. I was guessing her day had just gone from full of excitement and potential to decidedly awful. �So I am� alone?�

�Well, I�m here for you.�

�But my home� it is no more?�

��no.� I finished lamely.

�So, all this work I have done to find a form and speak to you, learning your language and speech, just to find out I will never be able to return home again?�

Geeze, this was not something they taught me how to deal with in custodial and maintenance training. �I�m so, so sorry. But there has to be other asteroids with aliens like you, right? I can help you find them!�

A soft, barely there smile turned up the corner of her mouth. Had she learned that online or was that an instinctive reaction? Either way, it made me feel better to see a glimmer of hope in her countenance. �You would� help me?�

�Of course! It�s the least I could do.�

�But why? Your ship killed us all.�

�Oh, whoa, nonono. This isn�t my ship.� I objected hastily. �I�m just a glorified janitor with a handful of repair responsibilities. Mostly I handle a lot of disposal and clean up.�

�Janitor: a person employed as a caretaker of a building; a custodian. I do not understand. What is an employee?�

�Someone who works for another person for money.�

�What is money?�

Goodness, was this what it was like being a new parent? I was already feeling exhausted and we�d been talking for less than ten minutes. �In my culture, people don�t exchange items for other items anymore. Instead, we work for promissory notes that we can then trade in for the things we need.�

�That� doesn�t make sense.�

�I suppose to you, it wouldn�t. Asteroid life is probably a lot different from Earth�s.�

�Earth? Is that your home?�

�Yes.�

�And it is mined as well for the resources?�

�Yeah, actually. Only the richest of the rich live there now on carefully maintained oases. The rest of us live on colonies of varying levels of squalor or space-bound vessels doing work for the government.�

�I see.� She murmured slowly. �I believe I read about this. It is called distribution of wealth, yes?�

�Yeah, actually! Very good.�

�I couldn�t comprehend it as I was reading. It seemed so strange that some of you would be allowed to have whatever they needed to survive while others could not have enough. But now that I know your people do not even care for its own, it is easy to understand how they could so readily destroy others.�

�I�d like to contest that opinion, but given our history, I can�t really. But I am serious that I want to help. I feel absolutely terrible for what happened to you, and it�s my responsibility to get you back to your people safely.�

�How can we do that?�

�I, uh� I�m not exactly sure. I�ll have to ask around without arousing suspicion.�

�And you can do that?�

I shrugged, giving her my best �I-can-do-it� grin that I could muster. �I guess we won�t know until I try.�

�I see. Thank you�� she paused again, her face going blank. �You asked me a question when you first entered the room. I did not understand it, but now I do, and I will ask it of you. What are you called?�

�Oh! You can call me Higgens! And what about you? Do you have a name?� That was a stupid question! This girl was a sentient being who had a family and home, and definite concept of what life and death was. Of course, she had a name.

�Yes,� she answered with a nod. �It is-� A sound came out of her mouth that was nowhere near human. It was somewhere between one of her adorable trills that she had made when I first found her, a bleet, and a high pitched static that made me want to kick myself in the teeth if I were that flexible.

�I uh, I don�t think I can pronounce that.�

She nodded. �Yes, human noise-fronds are much different from my own species. But you have been using a specific chirp at me since we met. I suppose that will do as well as any other.�

�What, you mean Mimic?�

�Mimic: A person skilled in imitating the voice, mannerism or movements of others in an entertaining way.� Now her face split into a beautiful, genuine grin. �You find me entertaining?�

�Y-yeah, of course. You�re a fun little bean.�

�Bean? That is a-�

�Nickname!� I quickly interrupted. �And that�s exactly what you need. Your name is Mimic, but how about I call you� Mimi. It�s a bit more personal.�

�Myself-myself. Mimi. Yes, it is always good for a shapeshifter to remind themselves that no matter their form, they are always themselves. Thank you, Higgens, you are truly a good�� she paused, no doubt searching for the correct word again. �alien friend.�

�We�re called humans, actually.�

�Ah, yes. I remember that. Human.� She offered her hand and another beaming smile. �I saw this on the net of which you speak. This is how two allies agree upon a course of action, correct?�

�Correct,� I answered with a smile. �Here�s to getting you home.�

5

Scan This

I groaned as my alarm went off. Despite having a full night�s sleep, my dreams had been a wild ride, leaving me feeling exhausted before the day even started. Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes to see a large, black puddle on my floor.

�Mimi?� I questioned.

The onyx pool began to bubble, then solidified until her female form was laying on the ground, looking perfectly groomed, rested and ready to go.

�Greetings, Higgens. Are you ready to begin the operation to return me to my home?�

�Yes indeed,� I said, forcing myself to my feet. It also probably didn�t help that I had slept in my uniform. Perhaps a hot shower would do me some good.

But that could wait until after I made all of this right. We had hurt someone, whether intentionally or not, and I needed to make up for it.

�Alright, can you tell me what today�s part of the plan is?� I quizzed her.

�Yes. I will stay here and learn more of your culture while you go and question members of the crew on how one might be able to find my kin.�

�Very good, and what are we not going to do?�

Her eyes flicked to me from where she had seated herself at my desk. �I am unsure, but I believe this is an example of something called �patronizing�. I am not an idiot, Higgens. I know that revealing myself to the species who destroyed my home without a second thought and has no prior track record with dealing with alien life�as well as a terrible history of how they treat their own people�Is a terrible idea.�

�Oh. Right, sorry. I just worry, ya know. Especially with the whole dampening chamber thing you pulled.�

�I was starving, and knew I needed enough energy to be able to expand my form into one similar to your species. Communication was worth the risk.�

�Of course. And obviously it worked out for you. I�m going to go ahead and step out before I put my foot any further in my mouth.�

�Is that something humans can do?� Her hands went to her hips. �These seem much too solidly connected for that.�

�It�s an expression. Why don�t you look up what those are? Alright, awesome, I�ll see you later now. Bye!�

I rushed out, cheeks flushing a bit pink. Gosh, I was awkward with conversation. It figured that Mimi was going to learn her first impressions of human interaction from someone who barely understood it. I hope I didn�t socially cripple her for life.

Then again, if I was returning her to her own people, that wouldn�t matter much. It would have been nice to daydream about how whatever I taught her would affect her species� view of us, but I didn�t have the time. I was on a mission, after all.

I could hear the tell-tale hum of the drills through the wall. It was the sound of active mining, which meant that the coin twins weren�t going to be in the engine bay, instead they would most likely be at the bridge or the engineering center where they would monitor the ship�s readings.

I headed to the lift, rehearsing lines in my head. I had to play this smooth. Anything too weird and I might arouse suspicion.

Too bad acting subtly was not one of my strong suits.

I chewed on my lip as I left the elevator and walked out onto the engineering center. I had to hope they would be there because there was no chance I was going up onto the bridge. The only times I went there was once a month or so when some sort of mess needed to be cleaned.

�Oh, Higgens, what brings you here?� Gonzales said, standing up from the console they had been leaning on.

�Uh, nothing.� I blurted nervously. �I just wanted to talk. I get lonely from time to time, ya know.�

�Really, you�re capable of human emotion?� she joked� I think. �What a surprise.�

�Be nice to him.� I looked over to see Ciangi come around from a machine, her data-log in hand as she recorded the dozens of readings around her. �He�s the one that makes sure we�re not submerged in three tons of organic waste.�

�Come on, I know the cook has been charged with a hundred counts of attempted poisoning, but I didn�t think it was that bad.�

�You�re hilarious.� The blond retorted. �I am always amazed at how often you manage to squeeze jokes about fecal matter into grown up conversation.�

The darker skinned woman shrugged. �It�s a talent, I guess.�

�That is not the word I would use to describe it, but alright.� Her gaze moved to me with an expression that was part amused and part condescending. �Can I help you, Higgens?�

�Uh yeah. I just, uh, had a bit of a question that I wanted to pick your brains with.�

�Sounds better than staring at these readings. You know, sometimes I swear I can hear my brain rotting from disuse.�

�Perhaps all the toilet humor is its way of cleansing itself.�

Gonzales laughed and it was a long, happy sound. �Maybe! All that shit�s gotta get out somehow. So anyways, what�s your question?�

�Well, I couldn�t help but have a thought after one of the tubes blew last time. I was running standard cleaning procedure with my organic scrubber and micro-organism cleanser and I began to wonder why. There�s not supposed to be anything alive in space, right? The radiation itself would kill pretty much anything that could have possibly existed on it.�

�Yes, that�s the prevailing theory.�

�Yeah, but what if there was something alive on there, something strong enough to survive space radiation, and it managed to get onto our ship in another accident?� I licked my lips nervously. �Shouldn�t we be testing everything we drill for any signs of life before we go tearing it up again.�

�Didn�t I hear you arguing with Giomatti over this?�

�Uh� maybe?�

�Really? What�s with the sudden obsession with the possibilities of life in the cold, dark, unforgiving void of space?�

I laughed nervously, rubbing the back of my head. �I guess one too many horror-flix on the net. But still, it�s not a bad idea, right? We�re exploring sectors where no one has ever been! We crush rocks and moons that have never come in contact with the human race before! What if we�re destroying a microscopic species that could end up being a cure for some insane disease, or the answer to genetically modifying our crops in our colonies to survive in harsher climates? The payout would have to be ridiculous. I�m just trying to think of our future!�

�What, do you mean you don�t want to be a janitorial engineer forever?�

I gave Gonzales a look. �Look, all I want is you science-y folks to tell me if it�s a worthwhile idea or not.�

Ciangi was the one who answered first. �Technically it is a valid point. Although we are completely separated from the materials we bring on, we do run the risk that someway, somehow, something living could get into our stores and possibly have devastating effects were there to be some sort of leak to occur�such as the one you cleaned up. But the chances of that are astronomical and testing each and every ounce of material that we bring on would be incredibly expensive.�

�Really? We couldn�t make some sort of scanner or something and periodically send it through the tubes?�

Both of the engineer�s eyes widened. �Actually,� The blond murmured. �That�s not an entirely terrible idea. Impossible to implement at this point, but a patent of that��

�Don�t even think about it.�

This time I managed not to jump or squeak as Bahn slid out from one of the consoles, ionic welder in hand. You think I would have realized where one coin twin was, the other was sure to follow.

�or be hiding there the entire time for a lovely little jumpscare. Perfect.

�What, I wasn�t thinking anything!� Ciangi exclaimed innocently.

�You�re telling me you weren�t just contemplating buying off Higgens for a small sum then developing his idea yourself to massive amounts of profit?�

The smaller woman blushed, her round cheeks puffing out. �Okay, maybe. But can you blame me?� Her bright eyes looked back at me a bit guiltily. �I would have given you like, a hundred thousand credits. I�m not a complete jerk.�

�I-it�s fine.� I stammered. �So there�s basically nothing to be done about it?�

�Not as of right now.�

�Alright, well here�s to hoping that we don�t get overrun by space zombies.�

�You read way too many retro-horror comics, you know that?�

�In your opinion.� I countered somewhat sourly. Now that there was no way to scan the rocks coming in through the tubes, I wasn�t quite sure what step to take next.

�Hey, coin-twins!� A voice boomed over their comms loud enough for me to hear it. �I just got a reading for a massive deposit of Eurodyne on a nearby asteroid cluster! Pull back the drills and get ready to relocate a half-click over.�

The comm clicked off and the room shared a collective eyeroll. �Does he have a volume that isn�t full blast and grating?� Gonzales grumbled.

But I was caught up in what he had said rather than how he had said it. �How did he know that?�

Ciangi raised her eyebrow. �Do you not know how our actual scanning system works?�

�We have a scanning system?� I asked sheepishly.

�Yeah, how else do you think we decide which systems to mine?�

�Um� whatever�s in our path?�

Gonzales laughed outright and Bahn cleared his throat, finally standing from where he had been lying under the console. �No. We do have a scanner in the bridge. Headquarters sends us a message of whatever ore or material they want us to focus on next, then Giomatti places a sample of whatever they want in our scanner. From there it detects any large deposits of said whatever and we go there.�

�Oh�� I murmured, the wheels in my head slowly turning. �So, whatever you put in there, it�ll tell you if there�s anything like it nearby?�

�Yes, that about sums it up.�

�So, if you put like� human flesh into it, it would tell you if there were any other humans around?�

�Haha, no. I�m afraid it doesn�t work like that. But it would tell you where deposits were of all the different materials that are in human tissue. So iron, calcium, carbon, depending on what kind of sample you�re using. If you wanted to specifically find only humans, I suppose you could narrow the scanner to search for exact percentages of certain elements in relation to each other, but that would be incredibly tedious to plot out all those algorithms. That would take weeks to figure out.�

�Really? Why�s that? It seems like the kind of thing that you could plug and chug with some buttons.�

Now it was Ciangi who gave a short laugh. �Not even close. You would have to not only create an algorithm for every single element in the sample, but an algorithm for every element in relation to every other element.�

�That�s� confusing.�

�You�re not kidding.�

I set my mouth in a firm line. It might be impossible, but I was pretty sure I knew what we had to do to get Mimi back to her people. �Since we�re getting ready to go to a new area, I�m going to go do a checklist run to make sure everything�s still alright. I�ll catch y�all later.�

�Later, Higgens.� Gonzales said with a little salute. �This was fun. You should come hang with us normal folk every now and then.�

�Haha, yeah, totally.� I agreed nervously before backing out of the door and walking quickly to the elevator. As the doors slid closed, I tried to order my thoughts so I could communicate to Mimi effectively.

The lift doors opened and I quickly shuffled out. As fast as I could, I opened my door, slid in, then watched it shut behind me.

�I need files of your staff.�

I yelped, breaking my streak of not sounding like a complete and total coward. I just hated loud noises, was that so wrong?! �What?�

�Your staff records,� Mimi continued. She wasn�t wearing the jumpsuit I had given her anymore, instead being dressed head to toe in an outfit entirely compiled of black fabric. It was definitely some sort of covert ops get up, but I couldn�t help but wonder if she was able to shift clothing, or that was just an extension of her skin. Either way, it was mildly unsettling. �I need them.�

�Why?�

�If I want to take anyone�s form, I need to know everything I can about them. Medical records, physiological records, personality profiles.� She gestured to the data-log in her lap. �I have been reading since you left and have learned much.�

�Um� what exactly were you reading?�

�Everything.� She replied flatly. �I�ve never had such a wealth of knowledge at my fingertips. Anything you could possibly want to know is contained within the thing you call the net.�

�Yeah, I guess it�s easy to take it for granted. I�ll, uh, see if I can get you those files, but I�ll be honest that I have absolutely no idea how.�

�They are not publicly available?�

�Far from it.� I gave a little bit of a shrug, feeling just a wee bit useless. �That�s actually some pretty confidential stuff. You usually have to have a much higher rank than I do for that kind of clearance.�

She nodded. �Understood. I remember seeing something about being able to infiltrate networks that do not belong to you. Perhaps I shall research that.�

�Yeah, perhaps.�

�But you have returned from your mission, I assume that you have an update?�

�Oh! Right. Apparently, we can�t scan what�s coming in to see if it�s got lifeforms like you. But what we can do is load a sample of you into the scanners we do have and it�ll show us any similar groupings within a few clicks.�

�That is wonderful!� She exclaimed, clapping gleefully. Or at least I assumed she was clapping. In reality, she was just slapping her thighs in rapid succession. It was somewhat tantalizing watching the pale flesh jiggle, but also felt slightly pervy. I quickly looked to the ceiling as another question came to mind.

�So, uh, do you have a reason why you picked that form?�

�Yes. After I fed from what I learned was your radiation dampener, I took the liberty of traveling through much of the venting of your ship. I ended up in what I believe is your �med bay� where your medic was working on something. I watched her for several hours to try to understand her mannerisms and physique. I was hopelessly confused until she cut herself on something she was working on. As she left her station to take care of it, I used the opportunity to absorb her biological matter.�

�Absorb�her�matter?�

She nodded dutifully. �This ability you call �shifting� is a natural defense mechanism for my people against the often-changing radiation levels and environmental conditions of space. Taking on your form was proving to be endlessly complicated, so I needed a bit of a� how do you say it? Boost, I suppose.�

�I see. I guess that makes sense. I remember reading once that humans were very squishy machines being propelled through the world by thousands of small explosions.�

�That seems like a fairly apt assessment.� She ran a hand through her hair, and although the action seemed more performative than natural, it was still quite endearing.

It was strange, the dichotomy of Mimi�s existence before me. Clearly, she was massively intelligent, almost impossibly so, but there were so many things she didn�t understand at all. Like war, or human greed, or what a high five was. She had lost all of her family in the gnashing teeth of our drills, but she hadn�t spared them much more than a frown. Did her people even cry? Did they �die� as we did? It was all so complicated. I didn�t know what was a matter of course for her and what was completely alien.

�So, about that whole scanner thing,� I said, getting back on track. �It turns out we�re going to need a sample of your true form, and a whole lot of math.�

�Math, how so?�

�Well, in order to find more of you and not just random deposits of whatever it is you�re made of, we need to figure out the percentages of all the elements in you and write a whole bunch of algorithms for it.�

�I see.� She murmured. �Actually, I do not see at all. I will have to do quite a bit of research to comprehend what you mean.�

�Right, well we can�t research on an empty stomach. Why don�t I go grab us some food?�

�I do not have a stomach,� She replied. �But if you need to sustain yourself, please do so. You are my only friend now, Higgens, and I wish you to be healthy.�

�Thanks, that uh, that means a lot.�

�It is but the truth. I know you could have destroyed me when we first met. I was wounded and starving. And yet you didn�t. I will forever be grateful for that.�

�It�s nothing, really. I hope the same would be done for me.�

The conversation fell into a natural lull and I stood to go grab some more rations. We certainly had a lot to do, but for some reason I felt confident. For the first time in my life, I was doing something truly important.

I just didn�t want to mess it up.

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.

7

Imitation is the Finest Form of Flattery

I thought I had known fear when those whirling teeth had bitten into my home. But that terror was nothing compared to the body-paralyzing fear I felt now.

They had me in some sort of hermetically sealed room, without a crack or single pore I could shift and force myself through. They were going to take me to their home, just as I had feared ever since I learned the truth of my situation.

I had read much in my studies, and too often the cruelty of man was proven again and again. They killed each other with abandon, from hacking off limbs, to burning at the stake, to suffocation with noxious gasses. If they had such disregard for each other, how could they ever care for one such as I?

Life was so different in this form. So, complicated and layered. Things that had never mattered before now were incredibly important. I had urges and instincts I never understood. Perhaps that was the price one paid for morphing into such a different, sentient lifeform.

I could hear my friend yelling at the man who shot me through his wrist speaker. He was angry. I had never heard him speak so lividly. Was� was he that way for me?

No.

He couldn�t be.

We had just met. I was a strange alien who didn�t understand anything about his culture. Who asked him questions about love that made him uncomfortable, and spent hours sitting silently while I tried to find some way home.

�Cheer up there, buttercup. You�re going to be an absolute Rockstar back home.�

�Buttercup,� I repeated. It soothed me to rattle off the words I knew. They were completely alien to me, and yet I knew what they were. It was always a strange sensation, and one I never grew tired of. �A herbaceous plant with bright yellow cup-shaped flowers, common in grassland and as a garde-�

The older man slammed his hand against the barrier. �Enough of that! You�re there to look cute, not rattle off like a computer.� He smiled at me but the expression was so unlike Higgens. How was that possible? Was that a human thing? �Come on now, why don�t you do your thing.�

�Do� my thing?�

�Yeah. Make your form go all watery then be someone.� His eyes widened and he looked quite excited. �Why not take a crack as me?�

�You� you want me to take your form?�

�Yeah. That�d be grand.�

�I need your DNA.�

�What?�

�Humans are incredibly complex creatures. I cannot just shift into you on sight. I either need to read your full medical work up, or have a touch of DNA.�

�You think I am some sort of idiot?� He snarled, face going red. I hadn�t known that humans could change color to convey emotion. How� unattractive.

�I do not know enough about you to come to any sort of conclusion about your intelligence.�

He snarled and said several words that I did not understand the meaning of. Maybe something about fecal matter and structures used to hold back water?

However, I was distracted in the middle of his rant by one of the panels on the wall wiggling slightly. My mind automatically went through all the possible options it could be and whether it would be dangerous to me or not.

Then, the small square of metal came loose, only to be caught just before it hit the floor by Higgens!

He had come for me!

His kind eyes moved from me to the man who was trapping me. He needed to close his distance.

Right! A distraction.

�Wait!� I blurted, holding both hands up in what I hoped was a normal-human gesture. �Let me show you what forms I can take!�

That seemed to cool the man and his pallor began to return to normal. �By all means, entertain me.�

I closed my eyes to concentrate. I had no idea how humans managed to focus with their color intensive vision. Instead of finding things by heat emissions or vibration, they seemed highly dependent on their strange, mirrored view of the world.

It took several moments, but I felt my body relax, melting into a listless sort of slumber as I melted down to the floor. I was sure it no doubt looked horrifying to them, but it was completely painless. Even a bit of a relief to not have to hold a form so alien to my own.

But I couldn�t stay that way for long. I called up the image of Higgens in my head. The strong set of his jaw. The kind way his hazel eyes would regard me. The way his thin, long fingers would work at one task or another.

I felt the change sweep over me and then it was done. When I opened my eyes again, I was looking at my captor on a much more eye to eye level.

�I�ll be. That�s uncanny, I tell you. Who else can you��

He never finished that sentence, because Higgens came up behind him, bringing a metal rod down on the older man�s head. I let out a shocked shout, but my rescuer pressed his fingers to his lip. What was that supposed to mean?

Oh! Probably to be quiet.

I complied and Higgens crossed over to some sort of panel. He pressed a few buttons and the shielding that was holding me in a small square pen dropped.

Not for the first time since I arrived, I was flooded with emotions. These systems that were still so new to me overwhelmed the logic of my mind, and the next thing I knew, I was rushing forward to throw my arms around Higgens.

Something was leaking from my eyes, but I didn�t care.

He had come for me.

My friend had come for me.

What more could I ask?

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.

THANK YOU

Thank you so much for reading Mimic and the Space Engineer, the first book in the ESS Space Marines series. I am so excited you took the chance to read it and I really hope you liked it. If you could leave a review for me, that would be awesome because it helps me tell others about my books.

If you want to be the first to hear about new releases and special offers, be sure to sign up our Science Fiction Newsletter. We have several fun things planned that will only be available to newsletter subscribers and can�t wait to share those with you too. To start with, you will get a free short story from the Niakrim War series. It tells the story of Cyrus Jones, one of the main characters in the series, and how he came to be part cyborg. All the information is on the next page.

I have also included a preview of Discovery which is the first book in the Niakrim War series. After you read the preview, you can download the book on Amazon.

Get Discovery here: amazon.com/dp/B071NJBNH4

Thanks again. I hope you like what I�ve written!

Sign up for our Science Fiction Newsletter

and get a FREE short story

Preview: Discovery

Space is so boring!

This was certainly not what Violet had expected space travel to be like. She had dreamed of this since the first time she looked up at the stars in the sky, but none of those dreams had included endless days of nothingness. The only excitement she had experienced during the first days of the journey was when an occasional piece of space debris penetrated the warp field forcing the pilot to take evasive action. Even those potentially deadly encounters were brushed aside, as if they were no more bothersome than a fly buzzing around the room, by the Krim Sprinter's legendary pilot, Cyrus Jones, who was as much machine as man.

The captain had assured her that the Krim Sprinter was the fastest ship in the fleet, which made it the fastest ship in the known universe, when he reluctantly brought her on board the week before. The problem with space travel was the incomprehensible distances between planets. Even at three hundred times the speed of light, the travel time to Proxima was listed as seven days. The captain had assured her that they would be there in five. When she asked what they would do on the Proxima outpost for two days while they waited for the rest of the crew to arrive, Captain Mitch Cooper had just smiled and walked away.

After four days of watching countless specks of light stream past in a blur, Violet wished her childhood dream had involved something less monotonous...like being an accountant. She was wondering if it was possible to actually die of boredom when the ship violently lurched, throwing her from her chair. She froze in the air momentarily as the warp drive was forcibly shut down, dropping the ship back into real time, before being slammed into the navigation console. Everything went black.

When she came to, the ship�s bridge was in total chaos. Warning sirens were going off. Red lights were flashing. Captain Cooper was rushing from station to station, assessing damage and muttering to himself. She had a pretty good idea of what he was saying.

"What the hell just happened, Cyrus?"

"We were hit by a photon torpedo, Captain," he answered calmly as he stared at the seemingly empty space in front of the ship.

"That's impossible!"

"Yet here we are."

Captain Cooper looked ready to explode. Instead, he took a calming breath as he ran both hands through his grey hair. "Did you drop us out of warp before we tore the ship apart?"

"Of course," Cyrus replied without taking his eyes off the still empty space in front of the ship. "Belzaire's not gonna be happy, though. There's no telling how much of the warp system we tore up shutting it down that quickly."

Violet had pulled herself to her feet and was using the navigation console to steady herself. "So what just happened?"

"Somehow, we were hit by a photon torpedo while traveling at warp three," the captain muttered.

"How is that possible?"

"It's not."

The captain raised his hand to head off further questions. "We'll talk later. Can you find your way to engineering?"

"I think so."

"Get down there and help Belzaire. There's bound to be damage of some sort."

She was leaving the bridge when Cyrus quietly said, "There's something out there, Captain."

"Where?"

"Right in front of us."

"What is it?"

"I don't know," Cyrus answered. "I can't see it."

"If you can't see anything, how the hell do know something's there?"

Cyrus just shrugged.

The captain pointed at Violet. "Get to engineering. Tell Belzaire to get that warp drive back online."

"I'll do what I can."

The last thing Violet heard as she headed to engineering with a renewed sense of urgency was Captain Cooper telling Cyrus to put everything they had into the shields. All their lives might depend on it.

As Violet rushed into the warp room, she was confronted with a scene straight out of her nightmares. Glowing green warp fluid squirted everywhere. Steam leaks sprouted like geysers. Blinking red and yellow beacons were the only discernible source of light. When a huge man with deep red skin and jet black hair rounded the corner screaming curses, she thought, just for a moment, that she had been transported to Hell and was facing the devil himself.

"What are you doing here?" the large, angry man growled through gritted teeth.

"I...I...I'm here to help," she managed. "Captain said to help you get the warp system back online."

"Oh," he said with a sudden smile. "Glad to have you. I'm Belzaire. Come with me. We've got a lot of work to do."

Belzaire turned and walked straight into the chaos, not even bothering to avoid the steam blasts or leaking warp fluid. Violet followed tentatively, doing her best to avoid both. When she caught up to him, he was in the process of sliding a very heavy looking cabinet to the side, revealing a trapdoor in the floor.

"What's in there?"

"Warp fluid," he replied nonchalantly.

Before Violet could ask why the warp fluid was stored behind a hidden trapdoor, Belzaire pulled the door open to reveal a deep chamber with hundreds of clear cylinders full of glowing green fluid. There was easily ten times the legal limit of warp fluid in there.

Belzaire answered her unasked question with a mischievous smile and started pulling out cylinders. "We lost almost two hundred liters before I got the system shut down," he said. "I'll fix the leaks while you refill the system."

"Two hundred liters is more than a ship this size needs for the entire system," Violet sputtered, finally coming to terms with what she was seeing. "Not to mention twice the legal limit of reserves allowed on a ship like this."

"I've made some modifications," was all he said while he continued to pull out more cylinders of the precious liquid.

When he had retrieved twenty-five cylinders, Belzaire stood up and looked at Violet, who was staring at him with wide eyes, trying to comprehend what was going on. "Now, look," he said firmly. "If the captain sent you down here to help, something is seriously wrong. We need to get this ship back up and running. You deserve an explanation, but now is not the time."

Sensing the gravity of the situation, if not the cause, Violet nodded slowly. "What do you need me to do?"

Belzaire smiled reassuringly and pointed across the warp room to the half-empty tank of warp fluid. "We need to refill the reservoir. Can you do that while I fix the leaks?"

"I think so."

"Good. Just put a cylinder on the fill pad and hit the green button."

Those were the only instructions he gave before turning away and heading to a pipe leaking warp fluid on the far wall. Violet looked around the room briefly, wondering what she had gotten herself into, then started transporting the cylinders to the reservoir.

It took far longer than she had anticipated because she was constantly stepping over debris and around puddles of warp fluid, which she learned the hard way were very slippery. By the time the last cylinder had been sucked into the tank, Belzaire had finished repairing the leaks and was gathering the empty cylinders and putting them back in the hidden compartment. When she attempted to ask about them, Belzaire simply said, "Later," and closed the trap door and slid the cabinet back into place.

With the compartment of warp fluid again hidden, Belzaire turned to Violet and smiled warmly. "Thank you for your help," he said. "You should head back to the bridge. If something goes wrong, that's the best place to be."

She wanted so say something, ask questions, or try to figure out what exactly was going on. Instead, Violet simply said, "Okay," and headed out of the warp room, back to the bridge.

As soon as she turned to leave, Belzaire hurried to the control console and pushed the intercom button for the bridge. "Captain, we've got the system ready to power back up. We should be ready for warp travel in about five minutes, but we won't have full capacity until I can do a more thorough repair."

"Got it," came the captain�s disembodied reply. "Call me when you're ready."

Back on the bridge, Violet sat in the chair she had previously been thrown from, looking out into space. She was trying to piece together everything she had seen. Did the captain know there was enough illegal warp fluid hidden on his ship to get everyone on the ship executed? She thought it was likely that he did. And what did Belzaire mean by modifications? Nobody knew how warp travel really worked, it just did. Making modifications to something you didn't understand, and could kill you, was crazy. But then again, much of what she had seen and heard since coming aboard the Krim Sprinter was a bit bizarre.

The captain's voice brought her back to the apparently tense situation. "Is it still there, whatever it is?"

"Yes, it is, Captain."

"And you still don't know what it is?"

"Nope."

Violet expected the captain to be angry, but he simply nodded, seeming to accept that there was something invisible, and possibly dangerous, just outside. Yep, things were definitely a bit crazy aboard the Krim Sprinter.

"Captain, the warp system is online and ready to go," the intercom suddenly blared. "Tell Cyrus to keep it to warp one, one point five max. But preferably warp one."

"You heard him, Cyrus. Warp speed one point eight."

Cyrus looked at him with a disapproving glare, but simply asked, "Where to, Captain?"

"Anywhere but here."

A moment later, Cyrus reported, "We're ready when you are, Captain."

"Drop the shields and engage the warp field as fast as your robotic arm possibly can," the captain said as he leaned forward in his chair, staring intently at the still empty space in front of the ship. "Three, two, one, go."

Everything happened so fast; Violet could barely comprehend what she was seeing. She could hear the click of the shields dropping and feel time freeze momentarily as the warp field formed and the ship jumped into warp speed. And in the same instant, she saw three photon blasts appear out of nowhere, heading straight for them. She squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed the chair, bracing for an impact that never came. When she managed to pry her eyes open, all she could see was the emptiness of space streaking past.

Maybe space wasn't going to be so boring after all.

Read the rest of the story here:

amazon.com/dp/B071NJBNH4