Earth Fathers Are Weird (Earth Fathers #1) - Lyn Gala Page 0,52
knew he was in trouble the minute James’s tentacles curled. “No. I go with Max. Max not alone.”
“I move faster alone. I don't have to worry about hitting you or you holding too tight,” Max explained.
“I hold loosely. I go with Max.” Despite his words, he tightened his leg tentacle.
“I move more quickly if I'm not worrying about you. I need you safe. Wait here.” Max touched a guest room on the opposite side of the ship from the storage space where the two remaining aliens were standing guard. It wasn't the best solution in the world since Max still didn't know how the aliens had gotten onto the ship or whether they had reinforcements ready to board. He was flying in the dark, and unlike when he literally flew in the dark with his fighter jet, he didn't have any instruments or an onboard computer feeding him the data he needed to avoid slamming into the side of a mountain.
“No.”
Max closed his eyes. His best shot at killing quickly and without risking any more physical damage to himself required a frontal assault. If he threw small chunks of broken decking into the storage room, maybe even threw it hard enough to hit the door, they would open the door. After all, these invaders had an issue with their curiosity outstripping their tactical good sense.
If Max waited three or four minutes to give the guards time to get into the storage area, he could then open his door and attack. It wasn't a surefire plan, but it was better than his plan for taking out the previous two aliens had been.
James’s stubborn streak showed up. “I go with.”
“I fight better alone.” Guilt gnawed on Max when James’s tentacles turned into little curly fries that reminded Max of how upset Rick had been when they thought they might lose Xander.
“I want you safe. I protect you. I can't put you in danger.”
“I am cognitively mature.”
“I wouldn’t care if you were at the end of your lifespan. I would still want to protect you.”
James hesitated before asking, “Query. Reason.”
Max could've offered any number of explanations. He was trained to defend civilians. He had a bias toward protecting the young. It was a rather unreasonable bias in this part of the universe, but he wasn't ready to let go of his human tendency to shield younger members of sentient races.
But in the end, there was only one reason that mattered. He tangled his fingers with James’s tentacles. Xander had always loved the gesture, but James and Kohei were so full of energy that they rarely sat still long enough to embrace Max's hand. But this time James reached out with as many tentacles as he could fit around Max's fingers.
“I gave birth to you. You grew in my body. That makes me your father. It makes me responsible for seeing that you are safe and happy. I will kill every bastard on this ship before I will let them touch you. But I can't do something that puts you in danger. I need you safe.”
James tightened his tentacles around Max's hand. “Max goes into more danger.”
James wasn't stupid, and Max wasn't going to lie to him. “Yes. I'm going to try to get these two guards to enter the storage area, then I'm going to open this door and fire on them.” Max touched the screen to show where he planned on carrying out his attack.
The access passage he would need to use was a vertical shaft with no intersections anywhere close to that deck. If Max had to flee, if the aliens got to that door fast enough, Max would have nowhere to hide. That access shaft was so long that Max had never found the bottom before abandoning his explorations.
“Danger,” James said with a little burping noise added at the end.
Maybe it was some sad and lonely piece of his psychology needing to feel loved, but Max imagined that James was distraught. “Yes. That's why you need to stay here.”
James pulled his tentacles away from the screen. He tightened his hold on Max's hand before he spoke. “Conditional. If Max is hurt, invaders come for me and brothers and other father.”
Bands of fear tightened around Max's chest so much so that he couldn't speak, but he did nod.
James touched the corridor door next to the one where the invaders were guarding. “I need me here. I wait for Max. Conditional. Max fails. I protect. I am cognitively mature.”