Earth Father, chapter 18 (Patreon)

Max stood outside the door to Rick’s control center office and took a deep breath. He was fairly sure he had pulled a muscle climbing the ladder back out of the service shaft after he’d killed the last two aliens. Much more of this and he was going to be ready for a hospital bed. Hell, he probably needed one now, but he couldn’t afford to show the extent of his injuries. James was just around the corner, and he was ready to take the fight to the alien leader. That would happen over Max’s dead body.

Max raised his weapon before nodding. Around the corner, James opened the door controls he had hacked. Max rushed the room, identifying the enemy quickly. He was too damn close to Rick, and Max fired immediately. If the asshole took refuge behind Rick, the situation could get out of hand too damn fast.

The invader had been moving toward Rick, but the energy blast missed him, going between him and Rick, and the alien leader leaped backward.

“Max!” Rick shouted. Hopefully none of the blast had hit him, but Max didn’t have time to worry about Rick. He kept his weapon focused on the enemy leader while staying back far enough to keep clear of those powerful leg tentacles. Max’s stomach still ached from the kick he’d taken from the first asshole he’d killed. The invader stood against the computer console with his short tentacles all pulled up under his body.

“Take your weapon and put it on the floor,” Max said. “Carefully. If I even suspect you are trying to use it, I will splatter your guts across the wall.”

The invader tilted his head and looked at Max with those huge eyes. “Query. Confused.”

Max took a deep breath. He was running out of energy, but he needed to secure the scene and get information about any reinforcements before he crashed. His arms throbbed and his head hurt so much that he kept getting black dots in his vision. “Gun. Floor. Now.”

That must have translated because the invader took the weapon out and bent all four of his tentacles so he could touch the floor and place the weapon on it.

Max tapped the floor with his foot. “Gun. Here. Now.”

The invader pushed the weapon with his small tentacles and then stood. “No harm,” the invader said. Max wasn’t sure if that was a request for mercy or some claim that he hadn’t harmed the family. Considering that his men had tried to take an action that would have killed Xander and Kohei, Max didn’t feel charitable either way.

“Rick, are you alright?” Max asked, but he kept his gaze on the enemy.

“Yes. I am healthy. There’s danger. Other aliens are out there.”

“How many?” Max asked. He had no more than asked when a chorus of whale-song blasted the air as James hurried into the room.

James sang at his father for a couple of minutes, and Rick hurried to the computer panel. His tentacles flew across the controls faster than Max could watch, even if he tried. However, Max had more pressing concern, like not passing out when he was holding a prisoner at gunpoint.

“Max, other aliens are not on sensors. Possibility. They left,” Rick said. James sang to his father again, and this time the computer translated enough words for Max to understand that James was giving him a detailed description of events from the time Max had come to get James in the pool room. Max still hated that he had seen aliens two and three die, but at least he had been around the corner when Max had splattered the guts of aliens four and five all over the storage hold and corridor. At some point they were going to have to get down there and clean up a sizable mess blocking the main doors.

Max asked, “Are there more invaders coming?”

Instead of answering, Rick asked, “Query. Method killing first. He weapon. Max no weapon.” Rick’s words were choppier than they had been in months. 

Once Rick got a question in his head, he tended to focus on it to the point of obsession, so Max just answered, “Maintenance hook and internal organs.”

The alien commander’s eyes grew larger. Good. Maybe the asshole would reconsider his life choices before attacking anyone else’s ships and threatening their offspring.

“Rick, I need to know if more of his people are going to rush in here. Where is their ship? James couldn’t access external sensors.”

“Query. You killed five enemy with one maintenance hook?” Rick was really stuck on that part of the story.

“I killed two enemies with two maintenance hooks. I shot the other three.” Max raised the weapon since he knew “shot” was not going to translate. Still, something got through because RIck’s tentacles all quivered and curled up. “Rick,” Max said with a sigh, “Focus on the problem. Do we have more enemy coming?”

Rick turned back to the computer and ran his tentacles over the controls. “Enemy ship. Two life forms.”

Two. Max figured that would be a pilot and copilot or perhaps a navigator. But with only two people left on the ship, the five enemy Max had killed represented the entire boarding party. Max narrowed his eyes at the pyramid shaped commander. “So that leaves you. I don’t like to kill, but I don’t feel safe letting you walk away if you’re going to come back for revenge. Rick, any thoughts?”

There was no answer.

Max sighed. Either the translator had large gaps when it came to modern warfare or Rick was still stuck on the idea of Max killing. Or both. Both was pretty damn likely.  “Rick, query. What should we do with this enemy? Is he safe to release?”

Rick shuffled closer. “Clarify. Safe for whom? Release is most safe for…” The translator lost the last wailing noise, but Max got the idea.

“Conditional,” Max said. “I allow enemy to leave. He returns and harms you, me or the offspring. Query. Conditional true or false?”

“False,” the enemy alien immediately said, and his small tentacles twitched. None of these aliens had a poker face, or rather poker tentacles.

“Rick, query, is he telling the truth?” Max needed some sort of information on the enemy, but so far, Rick wasn’t cooperating.

“I am unsure.” Rick sounded miserable about that admission.

Max took a step back and raised the weapon.

“I no threat. I leave. My ship leave. We leave. No threat,” the enemy rushed to say. Max hesitated. With only three people left on the ship, their changes of staging another incursion were low, but Max didn’t know whether their ship could take Rick’s down.

“Rick, is their ship dangerous?”

“I. Translation matrix failed.”

Max gritted his teeth in frustration. “James, is the enemy ship dangerous?”

James was so small that he couldn’t reach the controls, but he did head for the computer panel. That seemed to knock a little common sense into his father. Rick touched the screen. “Query. Define parameters of dangerous.”

“Clarification. Able to damage our ship. Query. Conditional. Enemy ship leaves, it uses weapons on our ship.”

“No!” the invader said, his voice high and even more chittery than normal. “No fire. We leave. No danger.”

“The enemy ship is too small for significant battle-fighting,” Rick said. He seemed to have finally found his voice and the ability to speak in coherent sentences. “Enemy ship is small for attacks without being seen.”

“They’re raiders who ambush ships,” Max said. That suggested they would flee if permitted. At least if they were humans, that’s what they would do, but cold fear filled Max’s chest because he could be misreading this situation. If he let the leader leave, he might go and find a whole battalion of space ships to attack them.

“Query,” Max asked, “will enemy return? Will enemy bring back larger ships?”

“No!” the invader shouted, his tone so high that it hit that nails-on-a-chalkboard note that made shivers go up Max’s spine. Either that or shock was starting to set in and his body temperature was dropping. That was possible. With second degree burn blisters all over his arms and bruises on his bruises, his body wanted to shut down in the worst possible way. Stubbornness was the only force keeping him on his feet.

Max raised his weapon a fraction of an inch. “I can’t let you threaten the children.”

The invader’s smaller tentacles slowly relaxed. Max wondered if it was an intentional gesture, like a human showing his empty hands to make himself look less threatening. “Query. Children?”

“Offspring,” Max clarified. “Humans will not allow their offspring to come to harm. Humans will kill for offspring.”

The invader made a show out of looking at James before he looked back toward Max. “Offspring not human.”

Max felt his cold pragmatism give way to hot fury. “I am their father! I am their surrogate father. They grew in me. I’ve taught them. I’ve cared for them. They are mine. And I will kill for them.” A half-hysterical laugh slipped free, and now Max knew he was going into shock. “Fuck, I would have let you steal whatever information you wanted and stayed with the children, but when you threatened to kill them, I took a hook and disemboweled your people. I would die for the offspring, and I would certainly kill for them.”

The invader’s tentacles curled back up, and he half turned away so Max could only see one eye.

“If you don’t get off this ship right now, I will cut three of your legs off and force you to drag your body through this ship with your one remaining leg. Do not touch a human’s offspring!” Max stepped to one side to clear the way for the invader to leave. The alien twitched without moving. “Go!” Max screamed.

For an awkward, pyramid-shaped alien with a leg under what passed for a face, the alien could really move. He dashed for the door.

When the weapon started to shake in Max’s trembling hand, he lowered it and took his finger off the trigger. “Rick, tell me right now if he’s dangerous and I need to go kill him.”

“No,” Rick said. A few of his tentacles uncurled. “No. Can secure door from here. Can watch from here.”

“Query. Watch? Show me.” Max would feel a lot better if he could see that asshole get off the ship. When he walked over to the display, James “sat” on the floor and reached up with his leg tentacle. Max pulled him up and let him latch onto Max’s neck. 

The computer displayed raw data in alien script. “He is leaving,” Rick said.

“Clarify. You can monitor from here. To watch requires a picture of what is happening, like the teaching computer downstairs.” Max said.

“Understood. Monitor,” Rick repeated. “I can monitor from here. He is leaving. Quickly.”

Max snorted. He didn’t doubt the asshole was booking it. “I think I need to sit down,” Max said. He wanted to get to the couch, but his legs were so unstable that he ended up dropping to the floor. He landed with a thud hard enough to make his teeth clack together.

“Max!” James said. Rick immediately curled his walking tentacle so he was at eye level with Max.

“Query. What is wrong.”

Max laughed, and even he could tell there was a touch of hysteria in his voice. Okay, more than a touch. He pulled at James’s tentacle. “Get James to the water.”

“No,” James immediately said. “Max damaged.”

Rick slowly reached out and touched Max’s arm. Max hissed in pain as a blister burst, sending clear fluid running over his skin. As he’d expected, the burns had gotten a lot worse, and in the crease of his elbows, the skin had broken. Small trails of dried blood ran up his arms. That had happened when he’d been climbing the ladder to get out of the access shaft.

Max should have crossed the storage area and used the door, but the mass of body parts and fluids left behind by aliens four and five had made him avoid the area. He didn’t know if he could get sick from contact with too much alien viscera, but wading through it had seemed unsanitary if not downright dangerous, especially with his skin damaged. He was going to be more susceptible to infection for a while.

“Query. Size and… of damage.”

Max mentally filled in the gap left by the translator as “seriousness” or maybe “nature.” He closed his eyes before the black dots swimming in his vision made him more nauseated. “Skin is largest organ. The burn…” the burn was fucking serious. The lower half of both arms was blistered and painful, and the swelling had only started. It would get worse. And then there was the pain low in his abdomen where that asshole had kicked him. Max didn’t regret killing that one, not even a little.

“I’m damaged. I need to rest. I need to drink water.” The thought of putting anything into his stomach made it roil. Now that the adrenaline was fading, Max felt every injury. He carefully set the weapon to one side without ever opening his eyes.

James sang, and out of the entire belchy, low melody, the only words that came through were “fix,” “father” and “Max.”

Max opened his eyes and gasped as James’s face was millimeters from his nose. That little jolt gave Max the energy to reach for the wall. “I think I need to go to the medical facility,” Max said. He doubted Rick had much that could help, not when all they could do for Xander was hold him and pray. But hopefully the medical room would be sterile. The largest danger now would be infection. 

When Max started to push himself to his feet, his right knee failed. He would have faceplanted, only Rick caught him with a dozen tentacles, at least three of which curled around Max’s arms. Max cried out in pain, and Rick loosened his hold. However, he didn’t let go. He caught Max around the waist and pulled Max’s back tight up against his head, and then he started moving fast.

Max’s legs dangled inches above the ground, and he felt a little like a puppy that had peed on the floor and whose owner had grabbed it under the elbows before rushing it outside, the whole time holding it out in front. However, compared to something like a fireman’s hold, he was almost not in pain. The tentacles around his bruised middle didn’t feel great, but at least Rick wasn’t touching his arms.

“Wait. James?” Max looked around. James had vanished, and Max didn’t want Rick to accidentally step on the little guy. However, Rick rushing him out into the corridor too fast for Max to see where he went. “You have to get James to water,” Max reminded Rick. The grunting noise he got back wasn’t exactly comforting, but Rick loved his offspring. Max assumed he wouldn’t do something stupid like forgetting to put them back in the water. “Oh, Xander and Kohei are in the filter room. They need help getting back up to the pool.”

Rick continued to ignore him, and Max could only sigh. He certainly wasn’t strong enough to fight his way free of Rick’s tentacles, that’s for sure. So he just had to go along for the ride. They turned a corner and headed down the corridor that led to the medical room. At least they weren’t taking the hallway where Max had left two of the bodies. Max had gotten good at seeing the silver lining.

Chapter 19: https://www.patreon.com/posts/earth-fathers-19-23961630 

Chapter 20: https://www.patreon.com/posts/earth-fathers-20-24034384 

Chapter 21:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/earth-fathers-21-24119410 

Chapter 22: https://www.patreon.com/posts/earth-fathers-22-24165545 

Chapter 23: https://www.patreon.com/posts/earth-fathers-23-24253737 

Epilogue: https://www.patreon.com/posts/earth-fathers-24266071