by Amber Stuart
There was suddenly a surprised squeal from down the corridor where they'd come from, and everyone turned around. An elegant lady from another department appeared to have slid on something and fell very inelegantly to the floor in a messy bundle, spilling her pad and the contents of her purse. There were more whoops and exclamations as another delegation of dignitaries further down the hall seemed to fall into each other and crash to the floor.
“Well, Sullivan, give the ambassador his lotion,” Mrs. Deveaux said.
Jen had to squat down and put three different pads down on the floor to be able to find the little bottle. It seemed suspiciously light, and when she looked at it, it was missing the cap. At her feet there was a sad little puddle of something white and sticky, and on the exotic stone floor there was a thin white line of something having dripped down. It continued down the corridor where Jen had come from.
All eyes were on her as she held the now empty bottle of skin lotion out to the ambassador.
“Here you go, sir,” she said. “Umm... it may be a little lighter in content than it used to...” She could feel her cheeks burning in embarrassment.
There was more commotion all along the corridor as more people were slipping on the ambassador's leaked skin lotion and falling over, at the same time spreading the slippery goo further out. Apparently it had dripped right in the middle of the corridor where most people were walking.
Everyone was staring at Jen and the little bottle for three heartbeats until the ambassador turned his back without a word, completely ignoring the empty bottle she held out to him.
Mrs. Deveaux and the junior assistant sub-secretary sent her angry stares as they followed the ambassador into the huge meeting room.
Jen picked up the pads she had put down on the floor and at the same time dropped four water bottles, which rolled away and tripped up a high-level functionary who had been able to avoid slipping on the skin lotion. He did a strange dance trying to stay on his feet, but then he stepped on a second water bottle and fell to the floor with an angry yelp, spilling his documents and his coffee all over the floor.
Jen ran over to help him up, but then she slid in his coffee and had to grab hold of the man's jacket. He was already on his way up, but Jen's weight made him lose his balance and he fell clumsily to the floor again, right into the puddle of coffee.
“Sorry, sorry,” Jen said, “Oh no, let me help you...”
The man angrily got to his feet on his own and picked up some documents. Jen tried to help him, but only succeeded in kicking more documents into the coffee.
“Just... stay away, please,” the man seethed, and Jen backed up quickly. “Sorry, sorry...”
She felt a jab in her back, heard a yelp and turned around. It was the woman she'd seen fall over down the corridor, who had now picked herself up and had been making her way towards the meeting room until Jen had backed abruptly into her and pushed her off balance, so that she had dropped her purse again along with her pad and stylus. “Sorry, sorry,” Jen said, trying to catch the woman before she fell over. She grabbed her suit coat and tried to hold the woman up, but she was only able to get hold of the sleeve, and as the woman fell down on her butt there was a ripping sound as the sleeve came off in Jen's hand.
“Sorry! Oh, I'm so sorry...”
“Just... just... stand back,” the woman hissed, getting to her feet and gathering her things. She angrily pulled the ripped sleeve out of Jen's hand, shooting her a look that was pure lightning. Jen took a step back and narrowly avoided tripping up another group of people.
“Sullivan!” Mrs. Deveaux was standing in the door frame. “What are you doing! The ambassador needs his special water right now and the aliens will be here any second!”
“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit...” Jen hurriedly picked up her pads and two of the water bottles. The two other bottles had rolled far down the hallway. The ambassador always needed four bottles, Jen knew, even though he never drank from them. It was like a strange habit he had, as if he expected to be dropped into a desert at any moment.
She had to get the other two as well. Trying her best to keep her balance in her far too big shoes she ran after them.
A new delegation was coming towards her along the corridor, and she wanted to catch the two still rolling bottles before they got that far. She sped up, and she just about got there, but then she took a step to quickly and stepped right out of one shoe. She lost her balance and tripped badly, falling forward. She was going pretty fast, so she fell headlong onto the floor and was just about able to break her fall with her hands, sliding along the stone floor for a couple of feet, slick with the ambassador's facial lotion. When she finally came to a stop, she had her cheek right up against a pair of shoes.
She focused on them. They were very alien shoes...
Chapter 2
They were a shimmering black, dull but still shiny, completely different from any material Jen had even seen. She raised her head to look up. Yeah, those were alien robes, too. And the smell... Very spicy, like cinnamon and dry flint and something like ginger, very fresh and clean.
She scrambled to her feet and was face to face with an alien. Well, more or less – he was a good foot taller than her, and he peered down at her with a not too alien smirk on his face.
“Some said that the beautiful Earth women would fall for me, but I never thought they meant it literally,” the alien said. He had a very deep, melodious voice, and his accent was exotic and somehow very pleasant.
Jen smoothed down the front of her dress and felt a little lopsided, standing there with one foot in an ill-fitting shoe with a very high heel, while she was standing right on the floor . Her panties had dug further into her butt than ever before, but she was able to avoid trying to do anything about it. Only then did she concentrate fully on the alien.
She froze in place and the rest of the world ceased to exist, and she felt as if angels were singing. That alien... was the most magnificent being she'd ever laid eyes on. Tall and wide, with a vaguely metallic golden sheen to his skin, he had a face that was both rugged and sensitive, large blue eyes with impossibly long, black eyelashes and a wide mouth with full lips. His hair was a darker shade of gold, cut pretty short, but still obviously with a curly quality to it.
And the body... He was wearing formal robes, which left most of his torso bare. Jen had never seen that many muscles ever before, and the dark golden sheen just seemed to emphasize them. Apart from the skin and that his face was more handsome and his eyes larger than possible for any human, the alien didn't look weird at all. He just looked... enticing.
Only now did Jen notice that there were more aliens in front of her, a whole delegation, but they seemed to keep a respectful distance to the one she had almost crashed into.
That could only mean... She involuntarily took a quick step back, almost tripping again, but managing to remain more or less upright.
That was him! That was the alien ruler, Prince Tar'Shoc, the most powerful being in the galaxy, governing the vast Derigaz empire on behalf of his father, Emperor Pav'Shoc!
Jen froze again, this time overwhelmed by both his spectacular appearance and the fact that she now knew who he was. She wasn't star-struck – this was far beyond that, more like sun-struck. Or supernova-struck.
She had to remind herself that she was supposed to be a member of a diplomatic mission. She couldn't stand there and gawp like a fangirl.
“Umm...” she said. Her mind raced. What did one say to alien royals? “Yeah, so, welcome to our planet!” It was the first thing that occurred to her.
The prince inclined his head slightly, still smirking at her. “Thank you. We are sure we will enjoy our stay on your planet whenever we get there.”
Oh, yes, Jen thought, this spaceship was not actually on Earth, just in orbit around it.
“So... I guess you'll be going to the meeting? With the ambassador? I'm his assistant. Jen Sullivan. No, not his assistant, really, just... you
know, an intern,” she rambled, still overwhelmed by the whole thing. “I take care of his skin lotion? Well, I mean, I'm supposed to. But it doesn't always work out. See, I think maybe the cap came off the bottle when I ran along the corridor. So you may want to stay to the sides here? So you don't slip? Of course I don't mean to suggest that you slip easily. But, you know...”
One of the alien attendants was whispering something in the prince's ear.
“We understand,” the prince said, amused. “Being the ambassador's assistant is a very important position. You shall of course do us the honor of accompanying us to the conference. Let us be on our way.”
He started walking again, and his entourage followed at a respectful distance.
Jen quickly retrieved the shoe she had lost and stepped back into it, then tried to fall into step beside the prince. It was hard, because he had a regal, relaxed walk, whereas she had to take very short, shuffling little steps so that she didn't step out of the over-sized shoes again, like a toddler trying on her mother's heels on the living room floor.
Should she make smalltalk? “Yeah, so, umm, did you have a nice... flight? I mean, through space? Spaceflight?”
The prince glanced briefly down at her. “It was a pleasant journey.” He had the most perfectly modulated voice, deep and secure.
“Okay, great. Uh, Your... Highness,” she added quickly. She'd been at an orientation about protocol and etiquette around the very high ranking aliens, and she knew that it was appropriate to call the prince 'Your Highness'. It felt surprisingly natural to do.
What else to say? She had not been supposed to talk to the aliens at all, much less the prince, so she hadn't thought out anything.
She racked her brain. “So, like, have you been here before? I mean on Earth? No, I mean, here, in orbit, not on Earth itself. Um, Your Highness?”
Again the prince looked down, amused. “We have been... in the neighborhood. For many, many years. Only recently did we decide to make contact.”
“Yeah? Nice. We're all very glad that you did,” she said, feeling very diplomatic. “Um, as far as I know,” she added hurriedly. She didn't really know if that was true. No one knew what exactly the aliens wanted, only that they had made contact and wanted to have a meeting with a specially designated ambassador who wasn't loyal to any one nation, but who would represent the whole population of the world.
They were approaching the door to the meeting room, and attendants opened them so the prince could enter. Jen walked into the stately room beside the prince, her arms still full of bottles and pads and other paraphernalia. Everyone in the large meeting room stood up, and she suddenly saw that she had pretty much ruined the prince's grand entrance. She tried to scurry out of the way, but the prince gently grabbed her arm and held her by his side. She peered up at him, and he looked down at her, an amused look on his superhumanly beautiful face.
“His Royal Highness, Warlord, Regent and Heir Apparent of the Derigaz empire, Prince Tar'Shoc,” a functionary called out, very loudly.
There was a great conference table in the room, and the prince went over to his seat and bowed slightly to the ambassador on the other side. Then he sat down, gracefully arranging his robes around him. It was obvious that this was not his first time at a high-level conference with another species.
Jen was still standing beside him, not knowing what to do. She just wanted to get over to her own delegation, but the prince pulled out the chair beside him with one hand and nodded for her to sit down, a mischievous look on his face.
She sat down beside the prince on the alien side of the table, facing the Earth delegation. They were all looking at her with suspicious faces and knitted foreheads, as if they thought that she had been a spy for the aliens all along.
She looked back and shrugged, but they didn't change their expressions.
Whatever, she thought. For once I get to take part of the action, not just carrying the ambassador's lotion.
Chapter 3
The human female with the ample behind was both charming and disarmingly direct, the prince thought. Her pale face and womanly shape appealed to him more than the many smaller woman he'd seen since he first arrived.
He had first thought that there might have been a terrible famine that had made everyone skinny, but then he had been told that thinness was just the fashion on the planet.
He had found it funny how this exquisitely round woman had fallen headlong at his feet, but he had been impressed with her composure. Not only didn't she stutter and blush when she had seen him, she had also been able to carry on a conversation with him, such as it was. She must have great self-esteem, the prince decided.
He had decided to keep her next to him because he enjoyed both her closeness and her alien way of moving. So graceless, yet so... alluring. And he liked the way she smelled, he had to confess to himself. In fact, he liked it very much.
And there was something else, something tugging at the edge of his consciousness... She awoke something in him, something he had never felt before.
The whole conference was not important, just a way to meet the earthlings and start some sort of trade agreement and appear relatively harmless. That way, the Earthlings would be completely taken by surprise when he later attacked and conquered the whole planet, taking it as his possession and adding it to his vast empire. He already thought of it as his empire, even though his father, the emperor, was still alive.
He only had one role in this meeting, and that was to give a short speech. Then he would leave, in order to not become too familiar with the Earthlings, and so preserve their sense of mystery.
And now, he was seriously considering taking that pleasantly curvy human female with him when he left.
A deep silence descended on the room as the prince slowly stood up and looked at the Earthlings with an expression that was carefully designed to be both warm and piercing.
He had not prepared the speech. Despite his young age, he had given hundreds of them and could talk about any topic in any foreign language for hours.
“Mister Ambassador,” he began. “Let this meeting be an everlasting memory about the friendship and good will between our two peoples. And let the peaceful existence reign while both our peoples take part in the warm intercourse we all feel.”
Huh? What had he said? Intercourse? Damn, he had to concentrate.
“In that spirit, let there be free trade and children and flowers and birds...”
What? This was nonsense! Children and birds? What on Derigaz was he saying? He felt a blush spreading across his face, a very unfamilar sensation for a prince regent whose word was law.
“I mean, let there be a spirit of co-existence and roses and love and long nights in passionate embrace...”
Oh dear Derigaz. He was spewing gibberish! He felt dizzy, and sweat was starting to form on his brow. He must have been poisoned. Someone must have wanted him to make a fool of himself!
He touched his forehead in despair and glanced at his delegation beside him. They were all staring up at him, alarmed at the unusual words he was using. Damn, he was supposed to be the Prince of Steel, the unyielding warlord, and here he was, publicly uttering words that were better suited for the poems of an adolescent girl! This had to stop.
The prince steadied himself on the conference table.
“Let me emphasize that my father the emperor, his people and I, their regent, only wish for the love of a good woman and the ecstasy that can only happen between lovers in the throes of the climax that-”
This was shocking! He stared at his advisers in disbelief as the cold sweat ran down his face. He must be very, very sick. He had to cut this short and return to his suite for immediate medical attention.
“In closing, let me just say that our two worlds should see one another as the one true love, the sacred beloveds who will supply unending tenderness and deep infatuation as their souls merge for all eternity.”
He sat abruptly down,
barely able to keep his bearing and not collapse completely onto his chair. Oh good stars. That was worse than anything he had ever experienced!
He groggily leaned to his side to his chief assistant as the Earth ambassador got to his feet to reply to the royal speech.
“I must undergo a medical examination as soon as I get back to my suite,” the prince whispered hoarsely. “I'm unable to govern in this state.”
The assistant nodded and whispered “I have already arranged it, Your Highness.”
The prince looked across the wide table at the Earthling delegation. He hoped that they hadn't grasped the implications of his strange speech. But they were beaming happily at him, seeming to take his words as an affectionate assurance of friendship. That would not be a problem for his plans, of course. But still, he had not been in control of himself when he spoke. At the moment when he chose the words and spoke them, they had seemed reasonable and proper. But when he heard himself say them, just a second later, he heard how ridiculous they were.
What could cause such a shocking disruption in his thoughts and speech?
He distantly heard the human ambassador say something vapid about partnership, but he didn't care.
Suddenly he had an immensely strong urge to turn around and look at the human female next to him. He felt her presence with gigantic strength, but he was a disciplined, stubborn man. He was not someone who would follow every impulse he got without a good reason. But just a short glance couldn't hurt...
He turned around to just take a quick peek at her, but then found it impossible to turn away again. Oh good stars, she was even more wonderful than he remembered! Now she seemed to be radiating a purple light, her eyes were an even more exotic and marvelous shade of brown, her skin even paler, her lips even redder, her cheeks even rounder!
