Nanny For The Alien General by Athena Storm
Gurtal
No shit, there I was on one of the most dangerous planets in Trident Alliance space, bored out of my mind.
Teranus is too small, too distant, and too hostile for colonization or even resource mining. Its chief exports are venomous wildlife and death. There are these nasty critters as long as your arm with gigantic stingers who also happen to be insanely aggressive. One of the little bastards got me on the butt once. Didn’t sit down for a week.
With all of that going on, you’d think there would be plenty to keep me occupied, but you’d be wrong. You see, Teranus is really only good for one thing, and that’s keeping VIPs safe and sound from assassination attempts or from being lured into working for the enemy Ataxia Coalition.
So I’ve been on glorified babysitting duty for the last year, watching over Zerberu the genius while he comes up with starship propulsion systems and other goodies. Once he made this really neat exo suit, and I’ve been badgering him to build one in my size but so far, nothing.
Not that I dislike Zerberu. Not at all. He’s a little bit of a nebbish, but treats all of us Vakutan guards well. I like the way that he never talks down to the rest of us, even though he has such a big brain. The problem I have with my assignment has nothing to do with him.
It has nothing to do with his wife, Vera, either. Vera is a human, but don’t hold that against her. She’s a graduate from the hard knocks school of life, and doesn’t have a formal education, but trust me, she’s just as sharp as Zerberu, maybe even sharper. Vera’s a great gal, so great you sometimes forget she’s a squishy human.
The real problem I have with this assignment is that anyone could do it. It takes no special skill to stand around and hold a weapon, or oversee your client’s itinerary, especially when they never go out like Zerberu. My biggest issue is making sure Vera doesn’t lure him outside the protective electrified fence for a little of the special dance. While sometimes that seems like a full time job, it still isn’t a way for me to distinguish myself.
My brother was a hero, a real dyed in the wool Alliance recruitment story. He’s dead now, slain in action but he saved thousands of lives with his sacrifice. Imagine trying to live up to a martyr in your own family.
Viktyl was the good son. The favorite son. My father still dotes on him even though he’s dead. You know the Viktyl space station just on the edge of the Vorlon system? Guess who campaigned to change its name to its current iteration?
Meanwhile, I got shipped off to Teranus to stand around with my thumb up my ass. Not only is it almost impossible to live up to Viktyl’s image, I’m never even going to get the chance while I’m stationed here. I tried to get my father to transfer me to Titanus Vox, which has become something of a hot spot in the war between the Alliance and the Coalition, but those pleas fell on deaf ears. I’ve given it a lot of thought and the best I can come up with is that either my father doesn’t want to lose another son to the war, or he just doesn’t think I’m capable of handling more than this.
Today I’m walking the perimeter fence, ostensibly checking the voltage with a meter, but I’m not even looking at it. I’m supposed to do this three times per day, and log it every time, and it’s as tedious as it sounds. There are so many failsafes and alarms that if even a fraction of the fence went down we’d known about it immediately. This is just busywork meant to keep us guards out of trouble, or the tavern in the tiny town which has sprung up around the space port, which amounts to the same thing.
When I spot Vera coming across the yard in a blue and yellow print dress, I smile and wave at her. We meet in the middle of the yard, right next to the ornate gazebo where she and Zerberu have loud sex at all hours of the night.
“Hey there, short stuff. How’s it happening?”
Vera chuckles and smiles up at me.
“The human expression is ‘what’s happening,’ Gurtal. Am I interrupting anything important.”
“That’s a hell no from me. How can I be of assistance?”
Vera chews on the foreknuckle of her index finger and can’t meet my gaze. Now I’m worried, because almost nothing can get to Vera.
“Hey, talk to me. If you don’t tell me what’s wrong, how can I fix it?”
Vera sighs and purses her lips, then turns to leave.
“Never mind. I can’t ask you to do this.”
My hand reaches out and gently clenches her shoulder.
“Vera, you know me. You know you can talk to me and I won’t blab it all over this teeny tiny little shitstain of a planet. What’s eating you, and how can I help?”
She smiles at me and gestures toward the gazebo. I enter reluctantly, because I don’t want to sit down somewhere where the two of them have been getting it on. She sits in a wicker seat, but I remain standing for that reason.
“Gurtal, how much do you know about how I got here?”
“You switched places with a certified Companion before cryo sleep. You came here, where she was supposed to, and from what I heard she got sent to the prison planet of Jurtik.”
Vera rubs her eyes with the heels of her hands. Suddenly I notice that she has dark circles under them, and I believe she hasn’t been getting much sleep.
“That’s about the gist of it. Gurtal, do you think I’m a bad person?”
I shift from foot to foot, unsure of how to answer. Questions like that always make me nervous.
“I think you’re a person who came from a hard luck background, and you’ve done the best you can to survive.”
Her face flashes with anger, but it leaves quickly enough.
“That’s not the answer I want, but it might be the one I deserve. Gurtal, I swear, when I made the switch I thought for sure they’d figure out they had the wrong person at Jurtik and set her free. Instead, it looks like she’s disappeared.”
“Disappeared? How do you disappear from prison? Don’t they keep track.”
Vera shakes her mane of dark silken hair.
“Not on Jurtik they don’t. The whole planet is a free for all. The inmates are released, and after that they’re on their own. No head counts, no supplies, no food, nothing.”
She hangs her head between her hands and groans.
“She’s probably dead.”
“You don’t know that, Vera.”
“She’s a beautiful woman, or at least I assume she is, on a planet full of hostile convicts with no rule of law to protect her. What do you think is happening, or has already happened?”
Damn. I try to come up with something reassuring to say, but I got nothing. The best I can do is—
“You don’t know that for certain. She might be as clever and resourceful as you.”
Vera rolls her eyes to the ceiling. She does that with Zerberu a lot, but this is my first time on the receiving end of it.
“Do you know how those Companions are brought up? Most of them are adopted at infancy, or very early childhood. They don’t have parents, they have tutors and instructors whose only goal is to make them into a companion for a rich man. I doubt desert survival or hand to hand combat were among the courses offered. Plus, they’re really sheltered, not meant to interact with normal folks like us.”
“Ha. We’re not normal folks, Vera.”
She flashes me a smile.
“No, I suppose we’re not. And neither is she.” Vera bites her lower lip and seems to struggle internally. “Gurtal, what I’m about to ask you is something I have no right to even suggest. You should feel free to refuse. Shit, part of me hopes you refuse.”
A light goes on in the back of my mind.
“You want me to talk to Dad and see if he can pull some strings, and find out what happened to her?”
“No. That wouldn’t bother me so much, and besides Zerberu’s friend Ryco has already done as much. No, the only way to find out for sure what happened to this poor woman is to get boots on the ground, so to speak.”
My heart beats faster. Yes, oh yes, finally.
“And you want those boots to be covering my feet in particular.”
Vera nods, too overcome to speak.
“Well, count me in.”
“Really?” Her eyes light up like a super nova. “Are you sure? It won’t be an official Alliance mission, so you won’t have their support. In fact, they can’t even know about it.”
“Sounds good to me. I’d never get the old man to sign off on something this crazy anyway.”
“Gurtal, this is going to be dangerous. I’m serious.”
“Vera, I know I’m pretty laid back, as you humans would say, but I am a Vakutan. Danger is our middle name.”
She laughs, but her eyes still seem troubled.
“You don’t have middle names. Are you sure you’re really okay with this?”
“Absolutely. I’ve been itching for an assignment with meat. If it comes from you rather than the Alliance, who am I to complain?”
Relief spreads over her fine features, and she seems to deflate in her chair.
“Thank you so much. I can never repay you, but you’ll find quite a substantial bonus in your account tomorrow.”
“I’m not doing this for the money.”
“I know, but it’s the least that I can do. We’ll also set you up with an expense account, since you’ll have to hire a non-Alliance military ship, not to mention a pilot.”
An expense account? I’m starting to feel like a crack secret agent.
“When do I leave?”
“Immediately.”
So long boredom, hello adventure… and more importantly, a chance to prove my quality to my father.
