Nanny for the Alien Lord by Tammy Walsh

Tauas

I hate interstellar travel.

The “stellar” hangover as they called it felt worse than any I had ever had before.

I could barely even open my eyes without a sharp stinging pain striking me in the back of the head.

But the company needed me to oversee the launch of the new service bots and there was simply no way around that except via hyperspace.

The nurse gave me a shot in the arm, which did little to improve my mood.

Then she helped me onto my feet as I stumbled toward the shower.

The shower didn’t spray water but a special compound that eased the effects of distant travel.

I groaned loudly and let the nutrients soak into my skin.

How other travelers managed to survive without these features, I would never know.

Telling Elken I would be away for a few days had been harder than I thought.

There hadn’t been a single day where I hadn’t laid eyes on her.

Now, I had to satisfy myself with holograms and videos of her.

Desperate to hear her voice, I checked the clock on the wall to see if I could squeeze in a quick call but it was already two in the morning back home.

I dried myself off, got dressed, and joined the nurse in the main room.

I looked out the window as the planet came into view.

Earth.

So, this was where she was from.

I’d seen many documentaries on the planet known as Earth over the past few weeks.

It looked like a truly wondrous place.

Of course, I might have been a little biased in my affection for this planet.

The humans had polluted the atmosphere, but not as badly as many other developing alien civilizations.

There was still plenty of time for them to develop technology that would clean the air, water, and restore the planet to its original nature.

The ship plummeted through the atmosphere and sat down.

The nurse was quick to usher me toward the exit.

I followed her down the gangway and noticed the sagging and drooping bloodshot eyes of the other passengers.

Without the treatment I’d received, I would look even less lively than they did.

I thanked the nurse, who motioned for me to head down the hatch door that whirred open.

I stepped into the cool but pleasant wind of the spaceport.

A thin wiry man with a bad combover and thick glasses was on hand to welcome me.

I recognized him as the president of Phoenix University.

He extended a hand to me, and I shook it, my hand swamping his.

He hissed through his teeth and quickly retracted his hand.

All the guides said to shake as firmly as possible as it was a sign of respect.

His grip wasn’t anywhere near as strong as mine, and I wondered if he was disrespecting me in some way.

By the way his face was crumpled up in pain, his fingers bent and crooked, I suspected my education on the subject wasn’t as rounded as it could have been.

“Please… follow me,” he groaned.

He was slow, and it was all I could do not to overtake him and stride ahead.

I waited patiently, following on his heels.

He opened the back door of a chauffeur-driven car with tinted windows.

I climbed inside and had to be careful how I moved my head in case my horns poked holes in the ceiling.

We had to constantly stop and start—nothing like the shuttlecraft we drove back home.

But it was nice, in a way, to look outside and see the living world and me passing through it.

“Everything has been set up to your specifications,” the University President said.

I nodded.

“Good. I knew I could rely on you.”

The President wrung his hands.

“If I may, sir, can I ask why you chose to host the service bot launch ceremony at the University of Phoenix? It’s a fine facility but… lacks the respectability of other campuses in the nation.”

I looked at him evenly.

Dare I tell him the truth?

No.

I didn’t want to get Belle into trouble.

Not that any of this was her fault or even her decision.

“I like the sound of its name. Phoenix.”

The President smiled and nodded.

“It is an old and ancient name, going back thousands of years,” the President said.

I tuned him out as he began to recite its history.

I gazed out of the window, imagining Belle striding along the sidewalk, hurrying to one of her lectures.

It made me smile to think of her.

And angry that I’d been so foolish to come all this way just to see her.

Not without announcing my intentions first.

If Belle decided not to see me, I might have left Elken alone for no good reason.

She would likely be buried elbow deep in her books and not even notice I was there.

The thought had occurred to me to pay her a visit in her studio apartment, but I decided against it.

I had crossed half the galaxy to see her.

It was only fair to give her the choice of whether or not to come see me.

I would leave the remaining few miles up to her if she wished to see me again.

I very much hoped she would.

We pulled up to a large outdoor hangar.

Parked cars lined either side of the street.

The traffic was worse now and humans armed with flashing cameras snapped photos of our arriving limousine.

I was surprised to find a large crowd had gathered for the unveiling.

At the front stood a large stage with steps leading up one side.

It was cloaked in red with the sigil of Choer Robotics across the back.

Arranged on the stage were a series of shapes, a sheet draped over each.

It had taken some work to have the Intergalactic Trade Council agree to my suggestions in allowing me to reduce the capability of my products so I could sell to less-developed planetary systems.

To make it less conspicuous, I targeted a dozen Earth-level planets in case someone got it into their heads to investigate the real reason for my decision.

My company stood to make little from this business decision—and might end up actually costing us money in the long run once transport costs had been factored in.

But I didn’t care.

I needed to do this.

I built this company from the ground up and I had never used it for a single personal purpose before.

Except this one time.

The limousine pulled to a stop and a human in a sharp uniform was there to open the door for me and salute as if I were some kind of general.

I saluted back to him to the best of my ability.

The cameras flashed, the bolts so bright they were blinding.

I waved a hand and the crowd roared with excitement.

I ascended the steps onto the stage.

Earth was such a small and undeveloped planet that few business leaders considered it worthy for a personal visit.

To be fair, I wouldn’t have either if it wasn’t for Belle.

I took a seat on the stage as the University President approached the lectern.

He introduced me, my business, and my intention with my products.

As if the people didn’t already know.

Once the introductions were done, I took to the stage and pulled out my notes.

I stood at the lectern and must have been quite a fearsome sight to human eyes.

They’d met aliens before, of course, but never had much interaction with them.

Mostly, we hired humans as employees.

Standing there now before a fifty-thousand strong crowd, I realized the true significance of my visit there.

They thought I was extending them a lifeline and welcoming them into the embrace of the intergalactic business circle.

Perhaps, with time, that might be the case.

I shuffled my cards and peered out at the crowd.

I had hoped to scan their faces and find the one pair of eyes I wished to be looking at me.

But there were too many of them.

I couldn’t hope to see her out there.

I wondered if she had even bothered to show up.

I bent over my notes, and the moment I took my eyes from the crowd, I started, and glanced back at my audience.

My heart stopped.

Sweat broke across my brow.

If it wasn’t for the flutter of the wind through her hair I would have said time ceased to exist.

There she was, standing in the front row.

As lovely as ever, if a little tired around the eyes.

I smiled at her but she didn’t reflect it back.

Her expression was unreadable, her arms folded beneath her breasts, her head cocked to one side in an expression of curiosity.

I snapped back to reality, finding myself standing at the head of so many aliens.

And for the next ten minutes, I stumbled through my speech.

At the climaxof my speech, I threw an arm at the covered lumps I shared the stage with.

The sheets were whipped off, revealing the scaled-back service bots I’d had designed specifically for this moment.

The crowd oo’d and ah’d and snapped photos.

My attention was focused entirely on Belle, who still hadn’t moved a muscle.

She looked at me and I looked at her.

I wondered what thoughts were running through her mind at that moment.

Was she glad to see me?

Did she want to see me?

“Let’s hear it for Tauas Choer!” the President said, leading the applause.

I turned back to the front row but found Belle was gone.

I took the President by the arm and whispered in his ear:

“I have a friend who might come see me. She’s a human female called Belle. Can you ensure she gets past security in case she arrives?”

The President nodded and immediately crossed to the entrance to speak with the security officer on duty.

I was ushered backstage into a small back room where professors and academics attacked me with their various questions: from complex engineering to philosophical debates on robot technology and their place in their society.

I met them with polite but distracted conversation, my attention elsewhere.

Specifically, on the single entrance door.

Each time it opened, the security guard checked for the proper clearance before letting the guest in.

My hopes sank.

It wasn’t her.

My scheduled flight was in an hour’s time and I had promised myself when I began this journey that I would not allow myself to push beyond it.

Otherwise, I feared the lengths I might go.

Seeing her was one thing.

Now, I wanted to speak with her.

And after talking to her, I would want to touch her.

After that…

It was a slippery slope with no end in sight.

I couldn’t let myself succumb to it.

Elken needed me.

I found myself cornered by a middle-aged lady with shoulder-length grey hair.

She wittered on about geography, using terms and phrases I had no concept of.

But I nodded along, my eyes fixed firmly on that door.

It opened again, and once more my hopes rose…

And then crashed when the President stepped inside the room.

He reached back and took someone by the hand.

Belle.

He was leading Belle inside.

The wittering grey-haired lady’s voice faded.

Then her pinched expression and piggy eyes disappeared too.

Then the room’s entire inhabitants winked out of existence.

They might have been swollen up by the universe itself.

And I was moving forward, drifting toward her not under my own steam but something else.

I wasn’t aware of what the other guests were saying as I sailed past.

I neither acknowledged their comments nor made eye contact with them.

Nothing mattered.

Except reaching her.

My intention had been for her to cover the remaining distance but it was me that crossed the room.

She saw me coming, and her eyes latched onto mine like unbreakable tractor beams.

“Is this the lady you were referring to?” the President said.

“Yes,” I said, not taking my eyes from hers. “Yes, this is her.”

My God, she was beautiful.

Somehow, she’d grown even more beautiful over the time we’d been apart.

The President looked between us, noticed something was occurring that he was not privy to, and dismissed himself from our presence.

Now it was just the two of us.

I took her in.

She wore a plain peach blouse with a knee-length skirt.

Her hair hung about her shoulders, dark as the deepest reaches of space and time.

Her shoes were not the heeled high-fashion creations her sister had designed but mass-produced pumps that gave her an extra couple of inches.

She still hadn’t managed to bring those gorgeous eyes of hers to mine.

She focused her attention on my lips, nose, cheeks, chin.

There was so much to say…

Then why couldn’t I think of any of it?

The words had been right there, on the tip of my tongue a thousand times when I practiced what I would say…

Now my lips lacked the ability to move, to speak, to say something—anything!

Instead, we stood in silence.