Touring with the Alien
Novelette 11,819 words Recommended by 9 award/anthology sources
Months after mysterious aliens scattered their spacecraft across North America, no one has a clue what they want. Avery knows what one of them wants, though: it wants a tour.
Content warnings 3
animal-harmdeathdeath-of-a-loved-one
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.