That was one vote for a psychopathic child. “Maybe we can avoid killing your grandfather,” Max suggested.
Rick lifted himself from the floor and stiffened his tentacles. “I reject designation of Einstein as parent. He is not my parent; therefore, he is not the grandparent of my offspring. He is ofno relation.” Some of the guilt gave way to stiff-tentacled anger, which was good.
“I am one hundred percent in favor of going no contact. A thousand percent. A million percent, even. I have never been so in favor of cutting someone off and taking away the title of parent. However, until we can get out of Einstein’s house, cutting him off may be problematic.”
“Much with the problems,” Xander muttered.
“I will multiply problems and return them to the nonparent of my parents,” Kohei offered.
Max had always thought of Hidden ones as being rather nonviolent. He admired their position that running away from a problem was often the best way to avoid escalating it. However, he suspected he had corrupted his children a little bit. Either that or being attacked by pirates when they were so young had created a few glitches in their nonviolent worldview.
Or Hidden ones were hunters by nature and he had underestimated their prey drive. Or all three.
“We know Einstein is unlikely to let Rick leave because he sees Rick as his... um... legacy.” Max had struggled to find the right word to end that sentence. How did you describe a delusion so intense that a person had sex with themselves to create their own cloned offspring because they thought that they were God's gift to the universe? That was a level of arrogance that went beyond anything Max had ever seen, even in bad television villains from the 70s and 80s. “So, let's work on getting the kids out of here. Once they are out, they can go to Dee for help and identify some officials that might intervene.” Max didn’t suggest police because he still didn’t understand the law enforcement structure on the planet.
“Not possible,” Kohei said. “Einstein discussed requirement of contract.” All three kids got curlier and Rick’s anger made him stiffen even more. That phrase had some significance beyond asimple contract. Max had broken plenty of contracts. If people were stupid enough to make contract with an 18-year-old kid whose brain hadn’t fully developed, they deserved to have that kid default on the payments.
“Okay, and what does that mean? Exactly?” Max asked.
Unsurprisingly, it was Xander who answered. “Contract is agreement with another party to certain behaviors in response to compensation.”
“So like a human contract?” Again, we were back to Max being happy to break a contract or tell his children to break one. And he wouldn’t feel the niggle of guilt like when he’d had his first car repoed for non-payment.
“Except for penalties,” Xander said. “I will take contract, and I will break it to inform Dee.”
“No!” Rick screamed with such volume that Max's head seemed to vibrate. Rick surged forward and caught Xander in his tentacles, wrapping them around their youngest child so that Xander couldn't do more than wiggle his tentacle tips. Rick had never been an overly demonstrative parent, and watching him cling to Xander with such desperation made bile rise in Max’s throat.
“What is the penalty for breaking a contract?” Max asked.
“Exile,” Kohei said, his voice soft and flat. “If Xander breaks contract, then no Hidden one may speak with him or contact him or do business with him or look on him. And if any does, then those Hidden ones are exiled. If large enough group chooses to contact one in exile, then group is driven away into the dangerous sea where islands exist for exiles.”
Shit. This was more serious than Max had feared. Funny, Max had thought Hidden ones were awesome. Better than humans. Enlightened even. It turned out they were the same sort of shitty as humans, and he couldn’t even hire a lawyer to wade through the shit for him.
“I like Unbalanced ones best,” Kohei said. “I should take exile and leave for world of Max Father.”
Rick trumpeted his displeasure and two tentacles darted out to grab Kohei and pull him in so that Kohei and Xander were smushed together in their father’s tentacles. It looked a little like an earth octopus trying to strangle prey. Max turned away, and James was drifting toward the far corner of the room.
“We will not act without thinking this through. We have days or weeks to poke the security and find weaknesses before we should discuss anything that would have permanent consequences.”
“Yes, listen Max Father,” Xander said, his voice muffled because Rick was hugging him so tightly that his mouth, which was on the underside of his head, was probably getting squeezed.
Max wrapped his arms as far around the tangled mass of tentacles as he could reach and rested his head against Rick’s. “We’ll figure it out,” he promised softly. “We will.” He had no idea how they would, but he would never give up on his family.
“And I can build weapon from discarded plastics and shoot evil not-grandfather,” James insisted.
Max wasn’t sure that was the best solution, but Max was impressed with his son’s tenacity.
Chapter Seventeen
Max haunted Xander’s lab. The few times Max had tried wandering the corridors on his own, Einstein seemed to always find him. He would ghost behind Max. Watching. His scarred and amputated tentacles twitching every time Max walked too near him.
If Rick was Einstein’s legacy–his twisted and narcissistic gift to his people–then Max was the weird in-law that he didn’t want. Given that Einstein was holding them hostage, it was an uncomfortable situation for Max.
He suspected that his father-in-law might have already killed him, only the children were one cranky word away from full revolt. James’ joke about fabricating a weapon felt less like a joke when he kept talking about the concussive force tolerances of various extruded plastics.
It made family dinner awkward.
Max peered over Xander’s tentacles. None of the computers would activate for him–one more piece of passive aggressive in-law shittiness. So looking over someone else’s shoulder was the only entertainment to be had. Well, he could have sex with his husband, but being locked in a house with a cranky in-law did terrible things to his sex drive. And any time he tried to hang out and read over Rick’s shoulder, Rick insisted on apologizing for choosing to drive them here, for being genetically related to Einstein, for bringing them to the planet. He was on the verge of apologizing for breathing, and their marriage needed a little breathing room.
