Earth Fathers, chapter 20 (Patreon)

Max walked into the pool room, trying to ignore the sudden distance between himself and Rick. Rick followed several steps behind, and until this moment, Max had not realized how he had grown used to having Rick hovering at his elbow all the time, even after the offspring were born. Sure, there was a period where they spent almost no time together because they were taking shifts with Xander. At most one of them had sat at the edge of the pool and talked. 

But when Xander had gotten large enough to push them away and swim on his own, they had fallen back into their old patterns. When Max had given up on translations for the day, he would get in the pool with the kids and Rick would show up shortly after.

The minute Max saw Kohei spinning in circles, the tightness in his chest eased. He stripped off his shirt as he walked towards the pool. “Hey kids, looking good,” he called out.

Three translator voices using three different pitches all cried out. “Max!”

Max slipped out of his pants so that he could get in the water, but James was already out and reaching for him. “Max Father, I told them. I told them how you…” At that point, the computer failed and all Max heard was whale song. He really needed to spend some time with the translation matrix trying to define the more violent end of the universe. Maybe the work would distract him from the guilt of exposing James to that sort of brutality. 

James curled his tentacles around Max's wrist. Xander slapped the water with his long tentacles and Kohei abandoned his pirouettes. When Max waded into the water, the offspring crowded near. Max turned around to look at Rick who still kept a certain distance, although he was inching closer.

“Rick Father,” Xander called. He ran his tentacles across Max’s arm before he swam for this father.

Rick quickly entered the water and pulled Xander close.

“Your father's work is very valuable. Now I know I have to keep him safe,” Max said. He could only hope that time would help Rick get more comfortable with the idea that Max was a fighter. Everything Max had done was to protect the family, so it felt unfair that his actions had put an emotional distance between them.

James let go of Max and swam over to his father where he curled his tentacles around his father's. “I help. I protect Rick Father and Xander Sibling and Kohei Sibling.”

“You were much help,” Rick said as he curled his tentacles around his son. Kohei had glommed onto Max's left hand, but now he launched himself towards his father. Max smiled as he watched them all crowd around their father. The offspring were not the most social children in all creation, so it felt nice to see them so connected to their father. After a second, Xander's tentacles escaped the general mass and started reaching for Max.

Half afraid that Rick would retreat from him, Max moved closer. Xander stretched until he could wrap tentacles around Max’s arm. Then Xander pulled with significantly more strength than Max had realized the little one possessed. The next thing Max knew, he was engulfed by tentacles as Xander drew him closer. It felt good. 

And cold.

“Query. Did someone drop the temperature on the pool?” Max asked.

Rick answered. “Invaders wanted conservation of energy to recharge their ship.”

The children shifted and Max was pulled closer until pressed up against Rick's warm central head. “You do have the heat turned up, though, right? Query?”

“I do,” Rick agreed. He slowly raised a tentacle as if expecting Max to flee. Eventually he wrapped it around Max's waist. 

The children had claimed Max's left hand and his entire arm was wrapped in tentacles, but he reached around with his right to embrace Rick. When he touched something slick, the fold of skin warned him that he had just touched Rick’s eyeball. “I'm sorry,” Max blurted.

“Query. What do you regret?” Rick tried withdrawing his tentacle, but Kohei wrapped his own tentacles around it, holding Rick in place.

“I regret touching your eye,” Max said. “I apologize for touching your eye.”

The eye closest to Max dilated. “Eyes are to be touched.”

“Seriously?” A full body shudder ran through Max.

No one answered him, but given that Max had not properly marked the question he wasn't surprised. He tried again. “Clarify. Human eyes are not for touching. Query. Can I touch the eyes of the people?” One of these days Max was going to find out what Rick’s people called themselves other than “the people.” 

“Understood. I will not touch your eyes,” Rick said. “You may touch my eyes with comfort.” Rick tightened his tentacle around Max’s waist again.

And there they were, right back to the amazingly alien and slightly bizarre conversations they'd had before invaders had decided to attack the ship. Max leaned into Rick's head and shivered. Rick might be a wonderful hot water bottle, but Max's limbs were still slowly losing feeling.

“Are the offspring safe in such cold water?”

“I am cold, cold. Kohei warm. Kohei keep me warm,” Xander said with a “hnng-hnng” noise added onto the end.

“I warm too.” James crawled over Max’s shoulder, lifting himself out of the water to perch on Max’s head.

“James is warm on land,” Xander complained.

“I am warm enough for Xander,” Kohei said, and that seemed to end the escalations. Max smiled. It sounded so much like him and Petey fighting over the Halloween candy that it was hard to believe he was on an alien ship. At least the offspring were all the same age. Max had been so much older than his brother that he should have been a little less greedy with the mini-chocolate bars.

“I think I am too cold to stay in the water,” Max said. He shivered. While he should swim to shore, he hated leaving the little island of warm he had found. But if he didn’t, his toes were going to freeze off. He had enough problems with potential kidney bruising, so he didn’t need to add frostbite. Max started to pull away from the family puppy pile.

James stayed on his head for a few seconds before he slid off, but when Max kicked his legs to swim toward the edge of the pool, Rick hung on. Max had to swim with just his feet because Rick held so tightly all the way to firm ground, and then Rick slowly released. “Query. Option. You may choose new living section,” Rick said.

Max stopped at the edge of the water and turned to look at him. That had come out of nowhere. “Query. Why would I want a new room?” Max asked. He had finally learned to use all the latches and knobs in the room he had. Even though Rick had been quick to offer his help with any of the equipment, Max’s pride had prevented him from taking too much of Rick’s time. Trial and error had allowed him to figure most of the features out, although Rick had to help Max with the use of bathroom.

“Come.” Rick headed for the door at warp speed.

Max blew out a breath. Clearly Rick was excited about something.

“Rick Father warmed Max Father,” Xander said. Max grabbed the thin fabric that passed for a towel around this place. 

“I was not dangerously cold,” Max said, “Not unless I had stayed in the water much longer. Query. Do you need more warmth?” Max was uncomfortable leaving Xander in such cold water.

“Kohei is warm,” Xander said. “Air is warm.”

Max assumed that meant Xander could now get out of the water. “James, help with warmth,” Max said.

James hit the surface of the water with a tentacle. “Xander be warm!” he said loudly as Max was putting his pants on. Max didn’t know whether the clever little git was avoiding making a promise to help keep his brother warm or if that was his poorly worded vow. Max would come back and check on them soon, but he had to trust that Xander could speak up if he needed more help.

Grabbing his shirt off the chair as he passed, Max followed Rick out the pool room door closest to the control room.

The corridor was empty, but Max turned right. His instincts were still sharp because he found Rick halfway to the control room. 

“Hurry, hurry,” Rick said before he headed for the lift. Max broke into a trot. Rick’s excitement was infectious because Max found himself smiling as he crowded onto the lift with Rick’s oversized head. They only went up one level and then the lift opened onto the corridor right outside the control room.

Rick placed a tentacle at Max’s back and urged him forward. Max frowned, but he followed Rick’s tacit suggestion and touched the control to open the door. Back when he’d been exploring the ship, he’d found this door locked every time. Now it opened easily. Max raised an eyebrow and headed into the control room.

“Go, go go,” Rick said. He was slowly spinning, which reminded Max of Kohei and his pirouettes. Max followed the gentle pushes to a door on the other side. Now they were in a part of the ship that Max had only seen on the computer diagram that James had displayed. None of the access shafts led to this part of the ship, or at least none of the ones large enough for a human did. And as far as Max could tell, the only access to this part of the ship came through the command room.

The second they entered the new area, Max could immediately tell the difference. The corridors were wider, the floor softer. 

Instead of the simple grayish white collar that dominated the lower ship, this part of the ship had colors—blues and greens and grays that swirled together in a way that made Max think of water. Even the lights overhead flickered and wavered in a way that reminded him of sunlight as it filtered through the lake water when he was a child and would swim under the surface. Max ran his hand across the wall.

“Query. Color preference?” Rick asked.

“I preferred this. It's beautiful,” Max said.

Rick shimmied. “I chose designs I fabricated colors and lights.”

“You created a feeling like water with no water. It is very impressive.” Max meant it. This part of the ship had a soul in a way that the rest of the ship didn’t. The lower decks were functional, not beautiful. Rick gave a quarter turn and then continued down the hallway, but he kept his largest eyes on Max. 

Max ran his hand along the wall. There was a slight texture differences between the metallic gray and the shimmery blue and the soft green. Rick had chosen different materials rather than simply applying a color on a single material. It truly was stunning. 

They entered the lift, and a large red jellyfish creature was decorated the upper corner. Max touched one of the long tendrils that hung down from the bell-shaped body. They were far thinner than Rick's or even the children tentacles, and the body appeared far too insubstantial to hold anything approaching a brain. “Query. Is this from your home world?”

“Yes.”

“It looks like a jellyfish from my world.”

Rick touched the figure with a single tentacle before saying, “They are most dangerous.”

“So are jellyfish,” Max said. It was strange to think that two planets were light years apart and had dominant species as different as him and Rick could have such similar animal life. 

Then again, maybe all inhabited planets had some version of a jellyfish. Certainly tentacles were more common than limbs, so it made sense that jellyfish would be more common than a horse. Max wondered what these people would think of a horse… or giraffe. Having a little tiny head so far away from the body would have to look strange to beings that had, for the most part, developed a head and body structure that was weirdly joined. Max figured they probably thought he looked pretty funny with a weird sticklike neck separating the two.

Rick stopped near a metallic teal ripple and touched the pad to open the door. “Option. You sleep here.”

Rick moved to one side and Max walked into the room that he been offered. It was substantially larger and the walls had sections that stuck out oddly. It was almost like someone had hung cabinets only they forgot to add doors.

Max walked to the far wall where the bed had been in his own quarters. It had the same sorts of abstract swirls, only greens and yellows interrupted the shades of blue. It reminded Max a little of pictures of Earth from space. “It’s beautiful.” 

“Explore,” Rick said. Maybe Max was developing a vivid imagination, but he swore Rick sounded proud. He should be. He had an incredible ship. Max felt for seam that would lower the Murphy bed structure. It took him a second because the seam was up higher than he'd expected, right underneath the cabinets. Max triggered the latch and then stepped back as the sleeping platform took over the space. The room was larger, but the bed was close to a queen-size, so with the bed down there was still a lack of open space. 

“Emergency supplies,” Rick said, and he reached around Max to point toward the area underneath the cabinets. Max sat on the bed and the surface yielded like the most expensive mattress in creation. He’d had a hookup with one of those thousand dollar mattresses once, and this thing made that bed seem like a Wal-mart fold up bed.

When Max looked up into the underside of the “cabinets,” he saw mechanical controls and gauges covering the surface. Max reached up, hoping that if he was about to hit an emergency fire suppression system or something that Rick would stop him. His fingers hit glass or a cool plastic of some sort before he could touch any of the controls.

“In emergency cover withdraws,” Rick said. He climbed on the bed next to Max. When Max looked at Rick, he spotted a number of deep storage cubbyholes. Max didn't own anything besides one spare pair of pants, but he could have fit his entire wardrobe from back home into it. He was definitely getting the feeling that these quarters were intended for either officers or family members.

“This is a nice room,” Max said. Something in his soul warmed at the idea that Rick wanted him to live in the private half of the ship. “Thank you.”

Rick gave another one of those all-tentacle shimmies that meant he was really happy, Max would never say it to Rick's face, but it reminded Max just a little bit of the way his family dog would get excited when people came home. Snoopy had often given that same full body shimmy at the door. Max ran his hand along Rick's tentacle. It quickly curled up and curled around Max’s wrist.

“You can stay here weeks three,” Rick said.

Max was about to correct the word order, his brain on automatic, only the meaning of the words registered, and he swallowed his words. The easy joy of a few seconds ago suddenly developed a darker edge. It was like someone had turned on the dum-da-da background music and clouds had covered the sun. Metaphorically anyway.

“Query why would I only stay here three weeks?” Max tried to pull his hand away, but Rick had a good hold on his wrist.

“Max desires return to earth.”

Max was speechless. He had to clear his throat before he could get words out. “Query. What are you saying?”

Rick leaned closer. “Clarify. Max desires to return to Earth.”

“Rick, I know what I want. I'm asking why you say I'm only going to be here three weeks.” Max’s heart pounded at the idea being dropped at some alien port of call. Of course he should find another job and start earning money. He had an obligation to return to Earth and to the Air Force. There were even rules about it. And sure, the surrogate job was over, but he hadn’t expected Rick to leave him.  He wasn't sure how they had gone from being part of the family and getting invited into the inner sanctum to getting his ass dropped off at some space station because the job was over.

Rick uncurled his tentacle from around Max's wrist. “Ship reaches the Earth planet in three weeks.”

The bottom fell out of Max’s world. “What? This ship? Query. Will this ship be at Earth in three weeks?”

“Yes.”

Max froze. His brain adjusts stopped working. For months now, all he had thought about was how he was going to learn to function in the universe and earn enough credits to be able to get back home. He’d damn near cried out of homesickness, and he had never been one of those guys—one that talked about home the way Forest Gump’s buddy talked about shrimp. Nope. Not him.  But now that he was faced with the prospect of getting home in three weeks, he didn't know how he felt. He knew he didn't feel particularly good. Home. His brain didn’t process the word.

“I take Max home,” Rick said, and the bastard actually sounded proud of himself. 

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