Alien Architect Needs a Nanny (Alien Nanny Agency 1)

Emilia

After a quiet drive home, Emilia and Mimi parked the gadabout in the garage and got out.

The service droid headed over briskly, as if it thought it could work some sort of magic on the poor thing to make it like the others.

“Come on, Mimi,” Emilia said. “Let’s look for a nice plot of land for our garden.”

Mimi obligingly took her hand, and when Emilia squeezed it, that earned her a little smile.

Both of them had been quiet on the way home. Emilia didn’t like the idea that Dyrk didn’t have friends at school, and it seemed to prey on Mimi’s good nature, too.

She knew it was important, but she wasn’t sure what she could do about it as his caregiver. She would have to consult the manual tonight to see if there was any advice in it about encouraging children to build friendships.

When they reached the rear lawn, they looked out over the flowers and the hedge maze together.

“This area seems like it’s already being tended,” Emilia said, keeping her opinion about how it was being tended to herself. “What do you think about trying something in one of the side yards?”

“Oh,” Mimi said, her eyes lighting up.

The little hand loosed from Emilia’s and Mimi took off around the side of the house.

Emilia smiled and jogged after her, not wanting to lose sight of the little girl. She caught up when she reached a stretch of grass exactly on the side of the house.

“You can see this from Dyrk’s window,” Mimi sang out happily.

Emilia glanced up.

Sure enough, there was the bank of three windows at the back of Dyrk’s room. If they planted a garden here, he would be able to see from his desk chair if he turned around.

“Mimi, that is an excellent idea,” Emilia praised her.

Mimi smiled so widely Emilia thought she might strain a face muscle.

“Now let’s consider the sunlight,” Emilia said, lifting her bracelet and programming in the things she had in mind for their garden.

Though it was a little more shaded than she would have liked, between the two suns, it seemed that this square of land would get at least six hours of sunlight.

“Does it work?” Mimi asked, craning to see the bracelet.

“We need at least six hours of sunlight for our garden to grow well,” Emilia told her, crouching so that Mimi could see better. “But it doesn’t matter which sun is providing the light. Can you help me figure it out?”

“That’s Romulon,” Mimi said proudly, pointing to the larger sun on the hologram.

“Yes, you’re right,” Emilia said. “Do you know the name of the other one?”

“The little one is Remon,” Mimi said.

“Excellent,” Emilia praised her. “So, it looks like we have approximately four hours of sunlight from Romulon here.”

“We need two more,” Mimi whispered excitedly.

Emilia let her touch the other floating sun on the hologram.

“Two and a half,” Mimi said. “That’s enough!”

“That is enough,” Emilia agreed. “But barely. Some days it will rain, and if there are too many of them it could make it harder for the plants to grow.”

“We can’t put them here?” Mimi asked sadly.