“Yes, you are right that humans are clever,” Max explained.
Rick’s tentacles twitched. “Max is clever. Humans are disturbing.”
Yeah, they had watched too many transmissions from Earth, but on the bright side, Rick had finally gotten to seeStar Wars. He still loved Darth Vader, but had developed an unhealthy affection for Jar Jar. Max pulled up pictures of aliens he had seen on the military ship. He started with a tall alien with a huge upper lip and too many nostrils. Rick immediately offered a name, which the computer translated as “People.”
“How do they describe themselves?” Max prompted.
“Unknown.”
Max had learned that for Rick, that might mean he didn’t know, but it could also mean he didn’t have first-hand knowledge. “Query. Does anyone know?”
“Others’ people say they were sure of aloneness and distressed at finding spaceships passing planet because they called themselves the chosen ones. They no longer believe in chosenness.”
“Yeah, well ‘Chosen’ sounds like a good species name. So, when you’re talking about your own species, what do you call yourself?”
The computer offered the ever-helpful translation, “The people from the planet of the people.” Max smothered a curse. Before he could ask, Rick said, “Others’ peoples call us as Uglies. We describe ourselves as ones who hide. Our planet is hidden.”
“The Hidden People. That sounds like a proper name,” Max said. It was sure as hell better than calling Rick’s people the Uglies, especially since they weren’t ugly. Once Max had gotten used to tentacles in general, it wasn’t so strange to have a creature more tentacle than head, and the colors were beautiful. He loved Rick’s streaks of beige through minty green and his orangey-red tentacle tips. He loved Kohei’s streaks and spots and James’s white patches, and he loved Xander’s red tentacle tips, which his brothers envied. “Who owned the port where we first met?”
“Every peoples. I cannot land ship on planet owned by one peoples.”
Max spun around so fast he jerked on a couple of tentacles and dragged Rick closer. “What?”
“Clarify. Area requiring clarification?” Rick was so damn calm, but Max’s blood was near boiling point. The assholes had segregated Rick’s people. They wouldn’t allow him to land on their planet because they were convinced that Rick’s people were ugly. Max was reconsidering his position on shooting these assholes. Unfortunately, Rick was too forgiving. And now Rick wanted to take them back into a universe full of polonium-headed poop faces.
“Never mind.” Max pulled Rick closer and caught as many of his tentacles as he could in a hug. The rest of the universe might be judgmental and insane, but Max would make up for it by giving Rick the cuddles he loved.
Chapter Two
Anew day brought anew opportunity for family drama. Max was assaulted as he came out of the secured door to the upper levels. “Max Father, I made new adjustment!” James waved a plastic part in the air.
“What is that a new version of?” Max reached for the model. According to Rick, the children were all precocious. He speculated it was because he had added too many nutrients to the gestation pool, but Max had another theory. Maybe Rick’s people underestimated the value of parenting, but Max didn’t. He knelt in front of James and turned the model in his hands. While all the children had grown, James was half his father’s size. Ironically, Xander was only a few inches shy of Rick, but he still had an unusual lean look while James and Kohei were still cute and round. While only months old, they acted like teenagers, so Max tried to avoid using words like “cute” around them.
James ran a tentacle tip over the plastic model. “I applied your theory on focus of weapon,” he said. “New mechanics provides control over intensity of directionality.”
“Wow! You did?” He stuffed down a little bit of hurt that James hadn’t waited for him when it was their shared project. He understood being excited, and James did lack patience. “Have you tested it?”
