Mimic and the Space Engineer

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?