Assistant for the Alien Prince by Tammy Walsh

Jessica

I gave up Earth…for this?

A slice of wind swirled a miniature tornado that stung my face.

I shut my eyes against it and almost dropped my suitcase.

I waved a hand to dispel the worst of it and only succeeded in breathing in a deep lungful of it.

I bent over double in a coughing fit.

I’d been on Cev for less than ten minutes and already it was trying to kill me!

Cev was a backward and dangerous place not known for its hospitality.

Its native alien species, the Ev’vat, were just as notorious.

They were a battle-hardened warrior race.

They were two feet taller than the average human and an extra foot across their shoulders, making them a physically formidable and dangerous force.

Now, I found myself amongst them.

What had I been thinking, coming to a planet like this?

Oh yeah, I hadn’t been thinking.

I’d been desperate.

No human in their right mind would come here otherwise.

I clutched my jacket close and peered across the desolate parking lot.

A huddle of dented shuttlecraft sat in the center, lovingly restored by what had to be their young owners, who stood in a group, laughing and boisterously telling each other jokes.

I took comfort in the fact they seemed far too interested in each other to give me much attention.

Someone from the palace was meant to meet me here.

But where?

I spied a small clutch of buildings on the other side of the parking lot and decided it must be the rendezvous point.

I felt the weight of my suitcase and crossed the parking lot, ensuring to give the gang a wide berth and pretend like I wasn’t intimidated by them.

The gang’s howls of laughter grew first louder and then quieter, a couple of the rowdier gang members turning their heads in my direction as I hustled across the wide-open expanse of the parking lot.

They fell silent then, and although I wanted to look over at them, to ensure they weren’t paying me any attention, I got the distinct impression they were eying me.

Closely.

My skin crawled at the thought and I quickened my pace and put my head down.

I’m not here, I thought. I’m not here and you can’t see me.

I’m alone in this parking lot.

They’re not looking at me.

One of their number made a comment I couldn’t hear and the others snickered.

I peered at them out the corner of my eye and noticed details I couldn’t identify at the station’s exit.

Each of their horns sported notches, viciously hacked at by blades.

Each notch must have signified something—number of drag races won? girls they’d been with?—and I suddenly felt sick as another suggestion popped into my head.

Death count?

The shacks ahead didn’t seem to be getting any closer.

If anything, they seemed to be stretching further away!

Just keep going, I told myself.

Don’t think about how much further you have to go.

Focus on covering the next yard, and the next, and the next, and pretty soon I’ll be where I need to go.

The same gang member who made the earlier comment howled and it made me jump.

It rose and curled like the coyotes back home.

Or maybe it was meant as a wolf whistle on this planet.

The translator chip in my arm was silent on the topic and offered no suggestions.

“Can I help you with that?” the gang member said as he jogged over.

His left eye was dark and swollen, puckered like he’d recently been in a fight.

He didn’t pull back or shy away, embarrassed for it to be on display the way it was.

Instead, he seemed to take pride in wearing it.

His clothes were disheveled as if he’d slept rough, and the rings in his nose shone brightly and were attached to a chain that linked one nostril with the tip of his cracked horn.

He wore a smile as shallow and unassuming as a river’s calm surface, but if you knew where to look, you could see the dangerous powerful pull of the undercurrent and you would be a fool if you crept too close.

“Did you hear me?” he said. “Let me help you with your suitcase.”

I wished I could ignore him.

I wished he would just go away.

The shacks were still two hundred yards away and I didn’t slow my pace as I hustled over toward them.

“No, thank you,” I said.

He blocked my way and extended a hand toward my luggage.

“It looks heavy. Come on. Let me take it for you.”

I shifted to move around him but he blocked me again.

“No, thank you. I can manage.”

“Don’t be like that. A pretty female like you shouldn’t be out here on her own. You’re human, right?”

He leered at me and pursed his lips.

I shivered, revolted.

“Come on,” he said. “I have a shuttle. I’ll give you a lift. Where are you headed?”

He bent down to grab my case again but I swung it out of his reach.

I came in contact with something standing behind me and jolted back when I realized it was one of his gang buddies.

And it wasn’t just him.

They were all gathering around, forming a wall of sheer impenetrable muscle.

I was suddenly reminded of Tina’s words of sage advice when I returned home and told her about the job I’d accepted.

“Take a stun gun with you.”

I’d rolled my eyes as if she were the idiot.

“I won’t need a stun gun. The palace guards will be there to pick me up from the station.”

“You never know with these backward places,” Tina’d said. “At least take a sick stick.”

Sick sticks were rods you jabbed at someone, producing a convulsion and making them spill their guts while you made a hasty getaway.

I turned my nose up at the idea and shook my head.

“That will really help me ingratiate with the Ev’vat.”

My sister said flippantly, although now it appeared very sage advice:

“That’s why you should take some form of protection. To prevent yourself from becoming too ingratiated with them.”

I snorted and laughed at the time.

Well, I certainly wasn’t laughing now.

I took a step back.

“S-Someone’s here to meet me,” I said, loathing how weak my voice sounded. “They’ll be here any minute.”

It was bad enough having just stepped off an intergalactic flight, never mind having to deal with this kind of problem the moment I arrived.

The gang leader’s eyes narrowed and his body hunched over as if preparing to charge me like an angered bull.

For the second time since arriving on this planet, I wondered why I’d insisted on coming to the most dangerous place in the galaxy.

Why had I passed up the other, more attractive and safer offers from the employment agency?

Why had I opted to come and work here of all places?

Because I needed the money.

The other contracts didn’t pay nearly so much.

I chose to work here because I had no other choice.

It was this or lose the house.

And now I stood the risk of being gang-raped for my trouble.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m going to be late.”

I turned to find a gap in the ring that materialized around us but found none.

I wasn’t going to escape from here.

I wasn’t going to get free.

His buddies’ eyes glinted in the late morning sunlight, bright and full of malice.

These kinds of things don’t happen in the daytime,I told myself. They happen at night.

I peered between the narrow cracks through the wall of muscle, looking for someone—anyone!—who might help me.

There had to be security guards somewhere.

But the area was empty.

A single file of shuttlecraft flew lazily overhead and entered the multi-story parking lot.

Too far away to offer much help, not that they would lift so much as a finger even if they could.

I peered back in the direction of the station.

Maybe if I hurried, I could get back inside to relative safety...

But the gang covered my escape on that side too.

There was no way back.

The gang leader glared down at me, nostrils flaring.

“You ought to come with us,” he growled. “It’s not safe out here.”

He grabbed me by the forearm and gripped tightly.

“Come quietly and we’ll be nicer to you. You’ll be respectful and appreciate our kindness. And when we’re done with you, if you please us, we’ll drop you off wherever you like. How does that sound?”

He reached up and stroked my cheek.

I didn’t think I’d ever been so scared my entire life.

I was frozen stiff, terrified beyond all measure.

Suddenly, my sister’s words came back to haunt me:

“Take a stun gun with you.”

Why hadn’t I listened to her?

Why hadn’t I packed one just in case?

The gang leader smirked and his gang chuckled along with him.

“Come along now. There’s no need for any trouble.”

“Oh, really? Looks like you’re causing plenty of trouble to me.”

It was a new voice, one deeper and more mature than the gang leader’s.

The entire gang turned to see who spoke.

I couldn’t make him out, save for his horns that curled taller and, to my eyes, more sinister than the gang members’.

The horns swayed and moved in my direction.

The gang members didn’t move to step out of the way so the figure simply barged through them, shouldering them aside like they were nothing more than flies.

The gang growled and muttered words my translator couldn’t decipher.

When he finally made it to the center ring, he turned and faced the gang leader.

He had a sharp look about him.

His hair was long, allowed to grow out, and tickled his shoulders, sparkling silver-green in the morning light.

He wore a uniform similar to the dress shirts a soldier might wear back home, although the design was clearly foreign.

It was bright red, the color of freshly spilled blood.

But what most held my attention were his eyes that twinkled purple in a face of blue and dark tattooed skin.

His attention was focused like laser beams on the gang leader.

“What’s going on here?” he said in a deep voice that was nonetheless a thousand times more threatening than anything the gang leader could manage.

He had the air of a circling wolf.

“What’s it got to do with you?” the gang leader said.

He did a poor job of covering his fear and overplayed his hesitancy with brash confidence.

The stranger smiled but it did not touch his eyes.

He turned so the three of us made a triangle.

“I’ll tell you what it’s got to do with me, chum. It’s my job to collect this lady and take her to the palace.”

The gang leader blinked at the word “palace” and his gang members shared nervous looks.

“The palace?” the gang leader said, unable to disguise his surprise. “What does the palace want with her?”

I ground my teeth.

Why wouldn’t the palace want me? I almost spat, but the fear from earlier still hadn’t fully left my system.

“That is none of your concern,” the stranger said flatly. “Know the prince has business with her and you’re not to stand in his way.”

He turned his head toward me but didn’t remove his eyes from the leader.

He reached down and took my suitcase from me.

His hands were so large they could barely fit through the handle.

Unlike the gang leader, I felt compelled to obey him and allowed him to take it from me.

The stranger turned to leave and I hastened to stand at his shoulder.

It seemed just about the safest way to get out of that particular tight spot.

The gang leader blocked our way, summoning what small reserves of courage he still had available.

His gang responded to their leader’s movement and reached for items hidden about their person.

Weapons.

So many weapons against just the two of us.

“The prince doesn’t scare us,” the gang leader spat. “He’ll be lucky if he even becomes the king.”

The stranger just stared ahead and seemed calm and relaxed, nothing like the terror rising in me that moment.

“Are you sure you wish to do this?” he said. “If so, you’d better finish me off otherwise I will not stop until I have all your heads on spikes.”

His tone wasn’t angry or overly aggressive.

He simply spoke as if it were a matter of fact.

These things were going to happen if the leader didn’t step down.

Hesitant glances from the gang members, but I saw no back down on the leader’s face.

He spat.

“Like I said. We’re not afraid of the prince.”

The stranger straightened up, his muscles turning impossibly hard.

“So be it.”

The gang leader struck first but it didn’t land.

Quick as a flash, the stranger swung my suitcase around and struck the leader full in the face.

I heard a solid crack and he stumbled back, clutching his broken nose.

But the stranger wasn’t finished yet.

He spun around, whirling the suitcase at head height.

He said “Down” and I obediently obeyed him.

A good thing too, as the suitcase whipped right where my face had been a moment ago, and cracked more gang members across the head.

They stumbled back from the attack, momentarily thrown.

I knew it wouldn’t take long for them to recover, so I curled my legs to sprint, but the stranger had no intention of running.

His hand snapped out and seized the chain that linked the gang leader’s nostril to his horn and yanked on it firmly.

The gang leader squealed and immediately dropped his weapon—some kind of phaser.

The stranger twisted the chain and yanked the leader down onto his knees.

“Call off your dogs,” the stranger spat.

He gave the leader less than a second to comply.

When he didn’t respond fast enough for the stranger’s liking, he tightened his grip on the chain and one of the rings in his nostril snapped free and blood gushed down his chin.

The leader squealed louder.

I could barely stand to watch and clutched my hands over my stomach, feeling sick.

“Well?” the stranger said, glaring into the leader’s wide fearful eyes. “Do you want me to remove the whole set?”

The leader finally shouted:

“Back! Get back!”

His gang did as he ordered but kept wary eyes on the stranger.

“Pick up his phaser, please,” the stranger said.

I didn’t realize he was talking to me until he said the word “please.”

I was too frozen in shock to obey his command.

He glanced at me, and it was the first time his eyes locked on mine.

I heard something.

Not a click but a solid thunk like the steel plates of a safe locking into place.

My knees felt weak and I felt on the verge of collapsing more now than I had when confronted by the gang leader.

The stranger softened his tone the second time he spoke to me:

“The phaser. Please pick it up.”

With my arms shaking and my body shuddering, I did as he asked.

He extended a hand and took it from me.

“Thank you.”

Then he turned to the gang leader.

“Now, how about an apology for the lady?”

The leader twisted up his face as if he’d swallowed an unripe melon.

The muscles in the stranger’s arms flexed so firmly I thought his skin was about to explode.

“I’m sorry!” the leader squealed. “I’m sorry! I’m really, really sorry!”

The stranger cocked an eyebrow at me.

“He’s sorry but do you think he’s sorry enough?”

Maybe it was a little sadistic, but I could have chuckled.

The knowledge his raving gang still stood around us with weapons ready to use at a moment’s notice made me choke it back.

“Yes. I think he is. Let’s get out of here!”

“Are you sure? He might just be saying it to save his little rings.”

“Yes!” I said. “I’m sure! Let’s go!”

The stranger nodded but still didn’t release the chain.

“Come with us, boy,” he said, clucking out the corner of his mouth as if speaking to a dog or a horse.

The leader struggled onto his feet as the stranger led him through the gang, which opened much easier than it had the first time around.

On the other side was what appeared to be a palace shuttlecraft.

It was painted the same crimson red as the stranger’s uniform and inlaid with gold lettering.

“You know, it never ceases to amaze me,” the stranger said as we crossed toward the vehicle. “The younger generation has completely forgotten our way. Our ancestors never would have treated a female from any culture with such disrespect. Neither would they wear such ridiculous decorations that leave them vulnerable to attack. I hope this will serve as a sobering lesson for you.”

He opened the shuttlecraft door and nodded for me to enter.

I did, grateful to be inside and safe.

The stranger leaned in close to the gang leader and spoke in a voice so soft I almost couldn’t hear it.

“I want you to think carefully about what you do in future. If I hear you so much as sneeze in a way a female finds insulting, you will be hounded to the ends of Cev. And do you know how I know this will happen?”

He leaned over and whispered in the leader’s ear.

I didn’t hear what he said but by the leader’s wide eyes and gaping mouth, it couldn’t have been anything pleasant.

“Nod if you understand.”

The leader nodded aggressively, his fear almost tangible.

“Good,” the stranger said. “Now take your asshole friends and get the hell out of here.”

He released his grip on the leader’s chain and swung the suitcase, as well as himself, into the back of the shuttlecraft alongside me.

He took a moment and sighed before telling the driver to take us to the palace.

Then he turned toward me and said, “Sorry I was late. I promise I’ll never be late ever again.”

And not for the first time, I wished I hadn’t taken up this stupid job!