Xander was reading about Einstein’s accomplishments. “Isn’t there anything else you could read about?” Max did not want to hear all the reasons why Einstein was the greatest thing since chocolate.
“I want to know weakness of my parent’s non-parent.”
“That doesn’t seem to be a list of weaknesses.” If anything, it was a list of terrifying accomplishments. Max had already known that he had created the satellites that disrupted local navigation for anyone who didn’t have the right passcodes, but he had also improved planetary communications, created a weather prediction model to help the cities prepare for massive storms with 150 mile an hour winds that whipped off the ocean and he’d reprogrammed the auto driving system used by the nearest city. He was a complete asshole and ugly as sin, but he was damn smart.
And convinced his people could not survive without him. Max couldn’t forget about that.
It was a level of narcissism that Max could not wrap his head around.
“Weakness of thinking,” Xander clarified. “James would find weakness of internal organs and Kohei spends many hours hitting targets and pretending to find weakness of tentacles and eyes, but I seek weakness of thinking.”
Max rolled his eyes. Apparently all three of his children were violent, or at least they had violent fantasies involving their grandfather. “Without being able to unlock the doors, any weakness is useless.”
“Weakness of eyes or tentacles or internal organs would be useless,” Xander agreed, “but weakness of thinking is valuable weakness.” He sang as he used a short tentacle to scroll to a description of the educational videos used by Einstein in his youth. Apparently it was popular to purchase the educational videos that had shaped the greatest minds of the Hidden ones.
“Did you watch any of these videos?” Max asked.
Xander blew a raspberry. “James watches most. Kohei a few. I have not watched any. Now that I know the non-parent of my parent was shaped by these, I will avoid.”
“You shouldn’t avoid valuable information because an asshole watched it first.”
“If I watch, I will smell asshole shit for days,” Xander said.
Max had questionable parenting skills, that’s for sure. “So, what have you learned?”
“He is far more afraid of losing his legacy than any other danger. The threats of my brothers will only make him lock more doors.”
It worried Max that all three of his kids seemed to be taking the weight of the world on their non-existent shoulders. It was bad enough that Rick was emotionally gutting himself to the point that Max struggled to be in the same room with him. He loved his husband, but the constant self-hatred and Rick’s unwillingness to listen to Max was making this an even more unpleasant stay.
“You won’t find a way through those locked doors by studying his life.”
“I can find weakness which will make him think his legacy will be extruded from his asshole nature if he does not respect us.”
Max wished Xander were not so fond of calling people assholes, although in this case, the asshole fit. “Don’t blame yourself when you can’t find anything. Your father and I are doing our best to find a solution.” At least they were on those rare days when Rick wasn’t lost to self-pity. Max got it. He did. When he had first joined Rick’s ship, he had done the self-pity thing way more than he wanted to admit, even to himself. But it made planning escapes more difficult.
Xander did a quarter turn. Then a half turn in the opposite direction and then a quarter turn back again.
“What?” Max asked.
“I am cognitively mature,” Xander said.
“I know. You’re not a human, and Hidden ones mature faster.”
“You speak of my parent as being responsible for our escape.”
Max opened his mouth before closing it. He sighed. “Sometimes I forget. I still remember you being small enough to fit in my hand.” Max held out a cupped hand. “I held you in one hand and waved you through the water and prayed that you would keep breathing.”
“I prefer avoidance of stories of weakness,” Xander said.
Max cleared his throat to avoid laughing. “I hate it when my parents tell baby stories, too. I suppose that’s universal. I’m sorry for not respecting you as an adult.”
Xander did another series of turns.
“I’m sorry,” Max repeated. “It’s a normal human thing. When you meet my parents, you’ll see. They’ll tell you all the embarrassing stories of my childhood. It’s like a human rule. Parents embarrass their children.” Max took a few steps back and leaned against the window sill. He wished he could open the window for some fresh air, but every window had the same complex lock that Rick couldn’t override.
Xander blew a raspberry. “I will seek every weapon of psychology. When I sign contract to leave, I will threaten to reveal truth of my parent’s birth. Einstein will never allow truth to be revealed.”
“But you would be exiled.”
