Max walked into the pool room with his stomach churning. He spotted Rick in the water. He had taken his hat off, something he didn't do unless he feared getting in a splash war. Before Max had introduced him to the concept of horseplay, Rick had always floated upright with his weird fisherman's type hat in place. Right now he was floating so low in the water that only a few of his eyes were visible above the surface.
Max spotted the rest of his clothing in the corner, but he ignored it for the moment. He edged closer to the water, stopping when he was ankle-deep. “Rick?”
Calling Rick's name caused three or four of his tentacles to flail and splash. Rick rotated, and Max spotted the first child. He was the size of a football but beige with a few streaks and spots of mint green. All the gray had vanished. He spun in mad little circles, and his tentacles waved faster and faster until his head resembled a top. Max was guessing that was Kohei. Either that or Rick had two insanely athletic gymnasts for children.
“Query. How are the offspring?” Max left the question generic so if Rick chose to avoid talking about the third child he could.
Rick floated toward him. “Offspring One,” he said as he touched the whirling dervish of a baby octopus. He paused with his tentacles curled up under his body before resuming his wild athletics. He was going to be a handful. “Healthy and absorbing nutrients quickly,” Rick said. A tentacle pointed toward a water filtration island. “Offspring Two healthy and absorbing nutrients quickly.”
Max looked, and the second offspring had climbed halfway up the water purification pipe using his walking tentacle, which was only slightly less stubby than his other tentacles. This one had less green and more beige and white. While Max watched, he slipped, falling back into the water with a splash. Max took a step closer, half afraid the child had gotten hurt, but the little one pulled his smaller tentacles up tight against the underside of his body and swam away to explore the far end of the pool.
“Good.” Max nodded and did not ask after the third child. His heart ached at the thought of that tiny creature swimming madly in his brother’s birth sac. He had been so full of life. Max’s eyes stung, and he brushed the back of his hand across them. “Good. I'm glad they're healthy. And I was right, they're cute.”
Rick came into the shallows and braced his walking tentacle on the bottom before he tilted his body. Two of his tentacles parted to show a palm-sized octopus tucked up against the place where tentacles joined the bottom of his body. “Offspring Three is small.”
Max's legs turned to jelly, and he couldn't support his own weight. He sat down so fast that water splashed up around him and Rick slid backwards into deeper waters. “Oh, thank God. He’s alive.” A few tears slipped free, and Max scooped water up and splashed his face. “Query. Is he healthy?” He was so damn small.
“He is growing.” Rick pulled his son away from the bulk of his body and into the shallow water before uncurling his tentacle. The little one swam vigorously, all of his tentacles contracting in unison like a jellyfish.
“That's good, right?” Max asked.
Rick kept his tentacle near the child the whole time, and after a few minutes, those tiny stubs of tentacles started to slow. Rick wrapped his limb around the child and pulled it close again. “Must stay warm to stay healthy, but must move to gain nutrients to stay healthy.”
Max watched Kohei. He had slowed and was now swimming in circles. Most of his tentacles were tucked up close to his belly. Immediately Max spotted the problem. The smallest child was so small that he couldn't move without kicking all of his tentacles, which meant there was a lot of exposed skin to get cold. “But if you stay with him, he'll grow, right? Query?”
Rick paused. “Yes.” The news sounded good, but Rick's tentacles were far too squiggly for him to be happy. Max narrowed his eyes and studied Rick. He was sluggish. The pool currents shoved him from side to side, and a few of his eyes seemed dull.
“Query. How long was I asleep?”
“Clarification. Not sleep. Hormone to relax hosts is produced by offspring. My offspring waited too long. I regret.”
That sounded like redirection. “Fine. Query. How long was I passed out cold from baby hormones?” Max suspected most of that wouldn't translate, but Rick already knew what he was asking.
Again, Rick hesitated to answer. “Sixteen hours.”
Fuck. That explained why Max had felt groggy and dizzy when he’d gotten up.
“Have you been down here with the offspring the whole time?” Max asked.
“Yes.”
“Query.” This time Max paused, not sure how to ask this. However, he couldn’t walk away before knowing the answer. “Query. How long can you continue to shelter the offspring?” Whatever life cycle Rick's people had, they were not aquatic as adults. Never once had Max walked in to find Rick already in the pool. Clearly, the pool was something Rick associated with offspring and surrogates, not something he enjoyed for himself. And when Max had first walked in, Rick had been startled. That was the sort of reaction Max expected from someone who was exhausted.
“Many hours yet. He may still swim.” Rick's tentacles turned into curly fries.
Max heart raced. The offspring would survive if his father could forgo eating or sleeping until he grew large enough to swim on his own. That wasn't likely. However, Max wasn't about to let him die. He stood and waded deeper into the water. “Show me what I can do to help him,” he demanded.
Rick rotated to consider Max out of a new set of eyes, and then rotated again and considered him out of the large one that he normally used. “I can continue several hours.”
“I know you can. But I think that little one needs more than several hours to grow self-sufficient. Query. Am I wrong?”
Rick didn't answer.
“We need to work together and take turns,” Max said firmly. “I finished eating and sleeping, so I can handle several hours before I will need to pee and get more food. If you sleep now, you'll be able to take over and give me a break later.”
“Query. You would care for offspring?”
If a human had asked that, Max would have been insulted. He still felt a hard knot of disappointment that Rick thought so little of him, but he knew Rick didn’t understand him. “Of course I will care for offspring. I wouldn't let any child die, ever. I would risk my life for any child. But that child came out of me. I've already been protecting him, and I will not stop protecting him until I know he is safe.” Max closed the distance so he stood right beside Rick. “Besides, it's not like I'm offering to give up anything other than some sleep and some time sitting at a computer database trying to teach your damn ship how to speak English. Query. How can I help?”
