by Zara Zenia
Alien Aladdin
A Sci-Fi Alien Fairy Tale Romance
Zara Zenia
Illustrated by
Natasha Snow
Edited by
Elizabeth A Lance
Copyright © 2019 by Zara Zenia
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Natasha Snow Designs
Edited by Elizabeth A Lance
Proofread by Cheryl Maddox
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the authors’ imagination.
Contents
VIP Reader Club
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
About Zara Zenia
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Chapter 1
Akrawn
“Your Grace,” said Sendrin. “I need your approval for some items for tonight’s party.”
I sighed as I stared at the inky waters of the San Francisco Bay shimmering with young moonlight. It was a sight that even after four years I couldn’t get used to. Like everything else on this cursed planet, even the very sky was bereft of interest.
“Isn’t it late to come to me with this?” I said. Irritation marked my voice, but with good reason. This “party” was due to start in less than two hours, and Sendrin, who was usually an excellent aide, knew better than to bring up problems at this late hour.
He bowed his head, no doubt to hide his shame. “I am most sorry, your Highness,” he said. “The vendor was unusually late in notifying me in the change of menu. If it were not so late, I would dismiss his services, but—”
“What are the costs?” I said tiredly to my aide. These parties grew more tiresome even as they grew more frequent. My father expected, no, demanded, that my brothers and I find wives among the women of this backward planet. The parties were the vehicles to accomplish that, but they did nothing for me. There was no woman this planet offered who enticed me.
“It is an additional ten thousand as I believed you’d wish the higher end items to project your generosity of spirit and magnificence in—”
“For the Goddesses sake, Sendrin, get to it.”
“The caterer assured me that medallions of Mountain Elk with raspberry and white truffle vinaigrette—”
I held up my hand. “Stop. What is a ‘truffle’?”
Sendrin touched his wristband which brought up a holographic display.
“It is a fungus, your Grace.”
“A fungus? Like that damnable toe fungus I got my first month here?” I am shocked and incredulous at the same time.
Sendrin shook his head. “No, your Grace. That fungus was not edible.”
“It ate at me well enough,” I snarled.
“It is not the same thing, your Grace. This fungus grows as what the Earthers call a mush-room.”
“A mush-room?” I scoffed. This Earth language was damned strange, and the juxtaposition between the dulcet tones of Trilyn and Earth English jarred me. I should be used to it after four years on Earth, but I am not.
“This fungus grows under the ground by the roots of trees.”
I quirked a disbelieving eyebrow at him. “In the dirt?”
“Yes, your Grace.”
“At the roots of trees?” I said.
“Yes, your Grace. They do not grow to the same quality in hydroponics, even with the advanced technology we shared with the Earthers, so—”
I held up my hand again. This conversation grew worse by the second.
“At the party, you will point out to me these Elk medallions with raspberry truffle vinaigrette so that I might avoid them. I cannot imagine that ingesting any form of fungus can be good for anyone.”
“Yes, your Grace. And the caterer suggested a Blue Fin tuna sushi to replace—”
“Sushi? Isn’t that raw fish?”
“Yes, your Grace.”
I shuddered. “If that is what the humans like, pay for it, though I doubt the workers in the mines in my territory would appreciate me spending their hard labor on fungus and raw fish.”
“Yes, your Grace.”
“And fire that caterer and find one who will not milk the royal accounts.”
Sendrin sighed. “Your Grace. May I remind you that we have replaced every caterer we have thus far hired? The list of replacements is growing thin.”
“There is an entire world of caterers on this planet, Sendrin, and with the site-to-site transport technology we gave Earth, we can get them to San Francisco.”
Sendrin’s mouth formed a disapproving line, but I am the lord here, not him, no matter how much he tries to manage me. “Yes, your Grace. It may cost more.”
“Sendrin, I’m warning you.”
“And speaking of warnings, your father expects a call from you today, and you are overdue.”
What do the Earthers say? Fuck me?
“I will attend to the matter in my own time.”
“Yes, your Grace.”
“Then go. We wouldn’t want our human guests to go without their fungus and raw fish.”
“One other thing, my lord. A package arrived for you today. The security scanners found it safe. I left it on your desk.”
“Thank you, Sendrin.”
Sendrin stood there, steadfastly waiting, and I huffed.
“Dismissed.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
I only had two hours to prepare for the tedious affair, and then I thought over the timing of Sendrin’s request.
He had almost made it out the door, but I stopped him with a word.
“Sendrin.”
He halted and slowly turned toward me.
“Yes, your Grace?”
“You already authorized these expenditures before you discussed them with me, didn’t you?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Go,” I snapped with a wave of my hand. I must find another assistant.
Sendrin bowed and exited quietly and gracefully just as all courtiers of the Trilyn court did. I must not get too upset with Sendrin. My father appointed him as my aide-de-camp, and he does do an excellent job of managing my affairs. It’s just that of late, I’ve felt more uncomfortable around him and I can’t put my finger on the reason.
I loved watching the three moons of my planet rise and dance in the heavens but here, only one pitiful moon rose. On my world, we once believed those three moons were goddesses, and one chose his wife by the moon in ascendance on the day of your birth. We no longer thought of our satellites as goddesses, but they still represented the feminine, even more so since we long for women. Our recent sad history saw the destruction of the female half of our species due to a deadly virus.
Many who survived suffered horrible afflictions which included physical weakness and an inability to bring a pregnancy to term. So if our three sky goddesses couldn’t protect our women, how could one puny moon protect all of Earth’s women?
My wrist phone rang, and I listened as my AI answered.
“Tell that rat brother of mine to pick up the phone!” announced my youngest brother.
“I’ll take it,” I said to the AI. Unlike Earthers, I didn’t name my AI. It was an indulgence to give a personal name to a piece of technology even if it acted intelligently. It wasn’t sentient, despite what the humans thought.
“Rawklix, tell me you are coming tonight.”
“No can do, big bro. I’m hosting a soiree tonight. I found fascinating ladies in a local bar.”
“Soiree?”
“It’s a French word.”
“That’s an Earth language, correct? Rawklix, bad enough you speak English without your AI’s assistance, but now you seek to learn more of their vile languages?”
Rawklix rolled his eyes. “Yes. It is fun. Just think, there are over six thousand languages on this planet to learn.” His eyes shone with the joy of exploration and foolishly, a little stab of jealousy that he found happiness here shook me. And it seems he could not shut up.
“But this language is handy. The Earthers call it the language of love. Women go crazy when you speak it to them.”
Must Rawklix fill my day with inanities? “French? Do all Earth women speak this French?”
“Of course not,” he scoffed. “It’s not what you say. It’s how you say it to them. You whisper the words low in their ear. They swoon in your arms. You should try it. It’s fun.”
I scoffed.
Rawklix continued with his juvenile nonsense. “And if you do, then you might get to experience what they call ‘French kissing’. You should not miss that.”
I scratched my head because I was sure Rawklix was making a joke at my expense, but I could not see it.
“I told Father that sending you here in your tween years was a mistake.”
“And you could not stop me. I was at my majority.”
“Here, on this planet, you do not reach your majority until twenty-one. Anyone under the age of twenty-five isn’t cognitively mature enough to understand all the consequences of their actions.”
“So they mature at a different rate,” he said dismissively. “And until their middle twenties, they can party as much as they like without suffering societal disapproval. You are wasting valuable party years, brother, and you should enjoy as many of them as possible until you find your genetic match.”
“Pah! You are as bad as our father is. I doubt very much that I will find my wife on this planet.” This planet with one puny moon. “Besides, Father has Gardax and Amy to produce his heir and should be happy with that.”
“That is not the point of all of us being here and you know it. If Trilyn’s seven princes can find wives, then we give hope to our people that they can too. It is your duty to find a wife.”
“You have been talking to Father,” I accused. “What? None of my other brothers dare to remind me of ‘my duty’?”
Rawklix grimaced, confirming my suspicions.
I continued my tirade with a fresh firmness in my convictions. “I like my single life, but if you want to marry, go ahead.”
“No way. I’m having way too much fun at my young age for marriage.”
Now I rolled my eyes. Rawklix enjoyed the women here on Earth who seemed to like sex very much, or at least that was what my brother said.
“Is that what you are wearing tonight?” he said, quirking an eyebrow.
I looked at my clothes. They were traditional Trilyn dress for royalty; a tunic and slacks of sishan silk.
“Is there something wrong with my clothes?”
“They make you appear a wuss.”
His words carried disapproval even if I didn’t understand the reference. “What is a wuss?”
“An unmanly man.”
“The most expensive fabric in the galaxy makes me unmanly? Rawklix, you are joking with me.”
He shook his head with vehemence.
“No. See what I’m wearing?”
I did. He wore a black short-sleeve shirt that clung to every muscle, and a pair of faded black pants.
“You look like a dock worker.”
“No. I’m dressed casually. This is a tee shirt and jeans, standard clothing for men of all social status and nearly all occasions except for weddings, anniversaries and job interviews. Now, if you want to dress it up, you wear a jacket, like this.” He slung on an Earth-style jacket which was a horror in clashing colors and patterns.
“This is by a designer called Versace. It is a sign of money and great status to wear one.”
“To my eye, it looks like a carnival tent,” I said sarcastically.
“It is rather young in style for you,” he said snidely. “But there are a great variety of jackets, and I’m sure that at least one will appeal to your refined tastes.”
“You should ditch those girls and climb into the flyer and get over here to impress the women coming here tonight with your clothing style.”
“Which would defeat the reason for the gathering tonight. Are you holding it at your place?”
“Yes. We are boating the invited women from the city across the bay. It is a romantic trip.”
Rawklix shook his head. “Twenty women on one boat is not romantic. It is an invitation to mayhem. Do you not understand that each of them hopes to catch your attention and therefore consider each other rivals?”
No. It had not occurred to me. I’d given the matter as little thought as possible since I had no interest in tonight’s proceeding.
“You understand,” continued Rawklix, “that to these Earth women, we are exceedingly handsome given that the heavier gravity of our planet gives us the physique of what they consider gods. Add to that our status and wealth—”
“Please, Rawklix. My baby brother need not lecture me on the reasons Earth women like us. We are what they call ‘catches’. We are princes, born to rule and even among our women we are desirable. If we found any women left among our own that could bear us our heirs, we’d marry them. But we can’t. So we are here, in the butt end of the galaxy, looking to mate with one of the few hundred thousand that can bear our children. We are a cursed people, Rawklix. There is no succor on our world and very little on this one. There is only the slimmest of hopes that we can find an Earth woman compatible with our genetic makeup to bear our children.”
“Whoa, big brother, what has made you so sour?”
“Because it is so damned mechanical,” I snarled. “Where is the Trilyn heart in any of this? Where is the calling of one to another, the answering vibration of soul to soul with the one we’ll love forever? We rely on a machine to seek our genetic matches, and even that has failed us. It’s impossible anyway. No machine can do what our hearts can.”
“Ah,” said Rawklix. “I understand now. You are heartsick. You yearn for your soul mate.”
“I am not heartsick,” I groused.
“You could fool me. You are grumpy.”
“I am not,” I growled.
“And reclusive.”
“Staying in my home is not reclusive. I have important work to complete, and my labs and computers are here.”
“With AI’s, you can take your work anywhere. You are not honest with yourself, brother. You are heartsick. And you are avoiding the cure to your problem by not taking Father’s directive to heart.”
“Why did I call you?”
The impertinent teen rolled his eyes again. “I called you. Those are symptoms, you know—distractibility and forgetfulness.”
“Goodbye,” I said abruptly and clicked off the call. The only reason brothers existed were to annoy you. Father would have done better to have left off this whole mate finding business with our eldest brother Gardax and called it a success. At least he found his soul mate amo
ng the Earth women.
Heartsick. Heartsick?
It was an affliction that once ran through our literature and art more than in actuality. Heartsickness fueled stories of grand quests and great loves which illuminated the soul of our people. However, we did not experience it on a wide scale until this current generation, when many of our men suffered the loss of their wives. It was my duty to provide hope to my people. Why then did I rebel so much against this? Maybe it was as Rawklix suggested. I was lonely for what I did not have, and each new failure rankled.
My wrist phone rang again.
“Answer,” I said, and regret it, I did.
The buxom blonde who shimmered before me dressed to impress. And with what Earthers described as a 38DDD chest, she was a sight-full. The low-cut blouse she wore made her ‘assets’ more apparent, but they no longer enticed me. Betrayal always dampened desire.
“Countess,” I said.
“Why so formal, Akrawn? We are friends, aren’t we?”
“I am still your prince, and anyone can walk in here.”
“Sendrin? Please, he’s seen us in bed together.”
I closed my eyes for a minute.
“What do you want, Bella?”
“Well,” she sighed, “as long as you won’t share my bed, I’d like you to examine the specs for the new pheromone analyzer. I think you’ll find that I’ve improved the processing unit.”
Bella didn’t know I had figured out that she sabotaged the “old” pheromone analyzer to give inaccurate results, frustrating my brothers searches for wives. Thus, I maintained the fiction of my friendship with her while keeping my distance so I might find out if her act of destruction was part of a greater conspiracy. Though our father did not think so, my brothers and I agreed that a virus that destroyed our ability to reproduce was far too virulent and convenient to be natural. When I broke off our relationship, I told her that I wanted to concentrate on my search as she had no hope of becoming my wife. While Bella lived through the viral infection, it destroyed her ability to bear children. While I sympathized with her pain at this, she could no longer be a candidate as my spouse. Not that I wanted that. She did not capture my heart. Maybe things had worked out for the best. There were plenty of Trilyn men who’d desire Bella anyway because she was beautiful, smart, and had her little duchy on one of the finger islands off the main continent.