Assistant for the Alien Prince by Tammy Walsh

Jessica

Zai hackedthrough the jungle with more aggression than strictly necessary, but with what had to be running through his mind right now, I supposed it was strictly necessary to him.

I gave him a wide berth and watched the undergrowth that seemed to writhe more than the effect of Zai’s hacking necessitated.

I was quickly coming to understand just how dangerous alien planets were when you were left out in the elements and had nothing to keep you safe but your knowledge of the area.

As I had none, I let Zai take point.

“What are we doing here again?” I said.

Although I said the word “again” I hadn’t asked him this question before.

“This is where I do my best thinking,” he said.

I took a closer look at our surroundings.

A pink-flecked lizard with one leg shot his enormous tongue at me before zipping back into the undergrowth.

“What kind of thinking can do you here that you can’t do anywhere else?” I asked in all seriousness.

Zai hacked at a particularly thorny—and threatening—bush before he answered.

“The kind that matters.”

It took another twenty minutes of constant pruning before we made it through the worst of the dense foliage.

We came to a path that wound through the thin undergrowth and my nerves relaxed a little—someone had to pass through this part of the jungle often enough to create these trails.

I took some comfort in that.

The jungle came to a stop at the edge of a clearing that contained a single small house and a large barn on its adjacent side.

It was a plain two-story building with a roof of blood-red thatch and blemishless white walls.

If it’d been located in a farming state back home, I wouldn’t have even given it a second glance but it looked odd with its placement in the jungle clearing.

I glanced at Zai hesitantly before he crossed the open space toward the farmhouse.

A small green figure—an alien race I recognized but couldn’t put a name to—emerged from the farmhouse and called out to someone on the other side of the barn who I couldn’t see.

When she saw Zai, she froze mid-sentence.

Her mouth fell open and she stumbled a step.

Then she threw back her head and wailed in an undulating warbling sound.

I couldn’t tell if it meant she was excited or it was a war cry.

Or both.

Before I could make up my mind, she bolted toward us.

Zai repeated the warble back at her and ran to meet her.

They crashed and their hands explored each other’s bodies.

The little green creature was slim, with large yellow eyes and cute black freckles on her cheeks.

They rubbed their noses in some form of greeting before she took his face in her hands and kissed him on the lips.

Startled, I hung back, not sure I wanted to interrupt.

And even more unsure how I should react to this scene.

The female gibbered something excitedly.

“I never thought I’d see you again! Especially not so soon after you left!”

I sized her up and figured she was too small for Zai.

Besides, I sniffed, she wasn’t his type.

And what made me such an expert on what kind of girl Zai liked?

Because he’d chosen me.

Then again, he’d chosen many girls over the years—including the Ev’vat floozy who claimed him as the father of her child.

I was as different to the floozy as she was to this little green creature.

Zai noticed I was standing to one side and hastily turned to wave a hand to introduce us.

“Ram, this is Jessica. Jessica, this is Ram.”

Ram tore her eyes from Zai long enough to run her eyes over me, but I noticed her hands remained planted firmly on his broad chest.

I tried not to stare at where she touched him but couldn’t peel my eyes away.

“Jessica?” Ram said, smiling distantly. “It warms my heart to meet you.”

The pleasure’s all yours, bitch.

But I put on a good show.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” I said.

“Ram is the eldest child of Bal,” Zai said.

Bal…

Why did that ring a bell?

“They took me in when my shuttle crash-landed after the pirate attack,” Zai said.

I blinked rapidly as he came out with the information.

The farmer Bal.

The crash landing.

The pirates…

It was all part of the story we made up to explain where he’d been the past four years.

We’d made it all up… and yet here he was.

On this alien farm.

With this alien girl.

The farm doors burst open and the same warbling cry rang up from an older pair of throats and one so young his warbling was almost inaudible.

Not only was the Bal family real, but they were also standing right before me.