Rick pressed into the corner. “My parent created abomination.”
Max knew his husband needed kind understanding, but he was having a few unkind thoughts about how annoying this whole conversation was. Dee might have a point about marriage not being ideal. “How can a person create an abomination?” Max knew it couldn’t be a human concept, not like being a bastard or something. Given that marriage was impossibly rare in their culture and usually only happened to old Hidden ones who no longer felt the need to go exploring, they didn’t care about marriage or legitimacy or anything like that.
Rick shivered. “My parent was both parent and parent.”
Max blinked. “That did not translate at all.”
“My parent.” Rick stopped and wiggled himself around so that different eyes were watching Max, studying him as though expecting to see the first signs of revulsion. “Humans have mother and father and different ways to contribute geneticmaterial. And mother may have surrogate who does not contribute genetic material but who carries the child.”
“Yes,” Max agreed when the length of the pause suggested that Rick wanted some interaction here.
“Hidden ones have parent and parent who contribute genetic material differently. Then the parent forms the egg and finds a surrogate.”
This was the first indication Max had that Hidden ones had differentiated sexes. “Okay, I followed that.”
“Parent of Rick is both parent and parent,” Rick wailed in horror.
The pieces clicked in Max's mind. Rick's father had inseminated his egg with his own sperm. Hidden ones were hermaphroditic. That would technically make Rick a clone because it should mean he had the same genetics as his parent. But that was a big problem. Hidden ones worshiped all things unique and asymmetrical. “Oh,” Max whispered.
“I am abomination.” Rick’s misery was so thick it made the room heavy.
Max scooted closer to his husband, wrapping his arms around as many tentacle balls as he could reach. “Your parent tried to make a clone of himself.”
Rick wasn’t moving to embrace Max or push him away. “Query. Clarify clone.”
“Two individuals genetically identical,” Max answered. “My people can only create clones in a laboratory, and we don't do it with people because we believe individuals should not be born in a lab, but there is no shame attached to cloning.”
Rick was silent for long minutes before he said, “Parent limited what I learned. He demanded I learn what he knows.” Rick’s bellows were so loud that they made Max feel as if his bones were rattling.
“Your parent is an asshole,” Max said. “And I think what he did is an abomination, but my Rick husband is still sweet and smart and wonderful.”
“I am not. I am him.”
“You are not him,” Max said fiercely. “You are my husband. He is my idiot father-in-law, and humans have a long cultural tradition of complaining about in-laws. Wait. Is your parent the one called Great Thinker?”
“Yes. They misattribute his achievements and possessions to me. But my achievement is navigation program. My achievement is not navigation disruption shield. I am not him. I will not claim his accomplishments.”
“Of course not, and you don't have to,” Max said.
“He says greatness of his name equivalent to greatness my name. I stole ship and stole away his greatness. I do not want to be my parent.”
“You aren’t him,” Max tightened his hug. “He doesn’t have a human husband, or three incredibly annoying and different children. But right now, those three children are with your abomination of a parent. Get yourself together, uncurl your tentacles, and let's go save our children from their abomination of a grandfather.”
Max scooted back off the bed and held his hand out to Rick, waiting until Rick could uncurl a single tentacle long enough to clasp it.
Chapter Fourteen
Max stood at the ship's exit, his stomach in knots as he thought about what his idiot father-in-law might be saying to their children.Great Thinker.That's what Hidden ones called the asshole. Hidden ones were stupid. Maybe Rick’s father thought he was god's gift to all octopus, someone so valuable that breaking all the taboos made sense because the universe could not do without an individual with their genetics. He followed the rule that brilliant people had a streak of stupidity. Most of the time, when Max called someone Einstein, he wasn't saying it in a good tone.
Dee was a few feet away, studying him. “That’s not a pleasant expression on your face. Are you sure you're not planning to shoot someone?”
Max glared at her, and she held both hands up in surrender. “Just sayin.”
“And here I thoughtmotherfuckerwas the worst insult you could throw at a person. Apparently, Hidden ones haveselffucker.”
“You lost the in-law lottery, that's for sure.” Her voice turned serious. “Are the kids okay?”
Max restrained himself from growling. “If they aren't, the risk of me shooting someone goes up drastically.”
