Chapter One
Max’s whole family–his tentacly husband and the three children he had been surrogate for–were crowded into the roundish, octogonish control room, which was rare enough. The kids annoyed Rick so much that he often didn’t want the boys near his work, but this was a special occasion.
Even Dee, the only other human on the ship, had slipped into the room, although she hovered near the back wall.
James got so excited he blew a whale song before shouting, “I see Hidden Planet. I see Hidden Planet.” Born on the ship, this was the boys’ first chance to see where their species came from.
The rest of them could see the planet as well as James, but Max draped an arm around his excitable middle child.
“You speak obvious,” Xander said dismissively. The sophisticated business translator was better at communicating tone now, which was not good with the two younger siblings. Max had lived in bliss before the improved translator revealed the brothers got along about as well as Max and his little brother Petey–which was to say not well.
“It’s a beautiful planet,” Max said, hoping to soothe any ruffled tentacles.
Rick’s walking tentacle was stiff and several of his smaller tentacles had curled into curly fries of distress. Max extricated himself from James and moved to Rick’s side. When he’d first met his husband, he’d jokingly nicknamed him “Rick” after “Rick and Morty” because of his loud, beltchy voice. However,now that they had the business communication facilitator, he realized Rick was soft spoken. Well, for a Hidden one, anyway.
“Are you okay?” Max whispered.
“I am physically unharmed.” Rick pulled away. “I must prepare transmission for transmitting.” His walking tentacle was so stiff he jerked and lurched his way to the computer.
Kohei watched his father, slowly rotating until he stared out of his largest eye.
“It is a gorgeous planet,” Dee agreed. She stood to one side, careful not to intrude in the small knot of family gathered around the screens. At least Max hoped it was respect and not prejudice that made her stand there.
On the viewscreen, the Hidden Planet slowly rotated, blues and greens streaked with clouds. Part of the planet was shadowed, and necklaces of sparkling lights spun through the darkness. Hidden ones were born in water, but they lived their adult lives on land. It meant they built their cities only on the coasts and shallows of the great oceans. Where the sun shone, long trails of white wisps like cotton candy streamed across the sky.
Unlike Earth, no part of the world was stained brown with pollution. None of the clouds were gray with particulates. It was paradise.
“What is Rick transmitting?” Dee asked.
“The Hidden ones don’t handle change well, so they’re going to be confused and stressed when the other species treat them differently.” When Max and Rick had registered their marriage, Rick earned the right to bypass the economic sanctions on his people by having Max sell his programs.
But a more important change had slipped past them. Just like the judge had designated humans as Unbalanced ones due to Max’s tiny anger management problem and habit of stomping on the tentacles of anyone who annoyed him, the judge had putan asterisk on the name Ugly ones. The official records now said ‘Hidden ones’ was the more accurate and less biased term, replacing ‘Ugly ones’ as a legal term.
While a name change didn’t equal getting economic sanctions lifted or forcing the rest of the universe to accept the Hidden ones, it had made other traders less... well... butt-facey. Before the name change, Max had stomped a lot of tentacles because of generally shitty attitudes, and since that day, he’d been fifty percent less likely to “accidentally” bring his boot down on someone’s reproductive tentacle.
He had read anatomy texts to know how to make aliens regret calling his husband and children names; he knew which tentacles handled reproduction in at least a dozen species. A surprising number were vulnerable to boots, but given the universe had a lack of bipedal lifeforms, that shouldn’t be a surprise. And when aliens had a more protected reproductive system, Max still had elbows.
“Rick is sending them information on humans and the court case so they know why some of the traders are less prejudiced,” Max explained.
“Traders recognize Rick Father and Max Father are excellent partners for trade,” Kohei said, always quick to share compliments. Given Rick’s talents with navigational programs and the work Max and James had done to improve alien weapons, he was right.
Without taking his focus off the screens, Rick said, “Money talks. It’s their money, and they need it now.” Rick was addicted to quoting commercials. It had officially become the one part of Rick that annoyed Max. Badly.
“So, are we going to Earth after we send the message?” Dee asked. She had a husband waiting for her, versus Max who would have to convince the Air Force to accept that he had committed to his Hidden one husband. He was supposed tobelong to the Air Force for at least one more year. Given the news reports had shown widespread rioting on Earth after aliens had a high-speed ship chase through Earth space, he suspected the military wouldn’t be approving early separations.
“No!” James belched. “I want to see Hidden World. Hidden World waters are my birthright.”
Birthright? Max had no idea what he had been watching to learn that word.
Kohei spoke up, the translator’s tone firm. “Rick Father is busy. Max Father needs to return to planet of kidnapping. Max Father’s friend Dee must return to husband.”
“I want the waters,” James repeated.
“Swimming without machine waters would be fun,” Xander added. He was not be as adventurous as James, but he was curious about his father’s planet. He might have said more, but he avoided agreeing with James. Ever.
“We could...” Max trailed off when Rick’s tentacles curled tighter. Max sometimes verbally poked around Rick’s family, but Rick would fall back into general lectures about Hidden one culture. They didn’t believe parents should control or even guide children. The young were born with all their logic circuits closed, and effective parents provided information and financial support until they could be independent.
In the distant past, that had meant Hidden ones’ children had followed their parents, learning to hunt and build homes in the shallows by watching them. In the modern age, it meant parents constructed protected pools with elaborate view screens and holographic projectors so children could learn about their world. Of course, their children had also watched the Earth shows they had captured from the tiny satellite Rick had dropped close to the planet.
