but Max’s blood was near boiling point. The assholes had segregated Rick’s people. They wouldn’t allow him to land on their planet because they were convinced that Rick’s people were ugly. Max was reconsidering his position on shooting these assholes. Unfortunately, Rick was too forgiving. And now Rick wanted to take them back into a universe full of polonium-headed poop faces.
“Never mind.” Max pulled Rick closer and caught as many of his tentacles as he could in a hug. The rest of the universe might be judgmental and insane, but Max would make up for it by giving Rick the cuddles he loved.
Chapter Two
A new day brought a new opportunity for family drama. Max was assaulted as he came out of the secured door to the upper levels. “Max Father, I made new adjustment!” James waved a plastic part in the air.
“What is that a new version of?” Max reached for the model. According to Rick, the children were all precocious. He speculated it was because he had added too many nutrients to the gestation pool, but Max had another theory. Maybe Rick’s people underestimated the value of parenting, but Max didn’t. He knelt in front of James and turned the model in his hands. While all the children had grown, James was half his father’s size. Ironically, Xander was only a few inches shy of Rick, but he still had an unusual lean look while James and Kohei were still cute and round. While only months old, they acted like teenagers, so Max tried to avoid using words like “cute” around them.
James ran a tentacle tip over the plastic model. “I applied your theory on focus of weapon,” he said. “New mechanics provides control over intensity of directionality.”
“Wow! You did?” He stuffed down a little bit of hurt that James hadn’t waited for him when it was their shared project. He understood being excited, and James did lack patience. “Have you tested it?”
James’s tentacles sagged. “My replicator only makes plastic prototype. Max Father, make alloy version, query?” James curled his manipulative little tentacles around Max’s wrist.
“If either Rick Father or Xander check your numbers, I’ll run a copy for testing,” Max said. He didn’t have the skills required to check the math. Hell, he wouldn’t have made a plastic copy without running the design past someone.
“Rick Father never looks.” James was definitely whining now.
“Rick Father is busy. You ask Xander to look at your numbers and if Rick Father is available, I will show him. Put the schematics on the computer.”
James’s tentacles squiggled and curled, but Max stood. He would not be emotionally blackmailed by a six-month-old. Much. “I hope it works out. I would love to carry a weapon we designed together,” Max said.
All James’s tentacles twitched and stretched. “I’m talking at Xander!” Sadly, James was probably using that “at” accurately. Xander was best at languages, but James talked more. A lot more.
Max chuckled. Xander should check the numbers because Rick had been busy. His navigational program went far beyond Max’s simple ability to understand math, but he did understand it would make travel safer and cheaper. How it did that was a little less clear. After all, Max had only gone through advanced calculus and differential equations for his engineering degree. In the wider universe, that gave him a toddler-level math expertise.
It bothered Max that James focused so much of his greater mathematical genius toward weapons. That pirate attack had changed him.
The door to the computer room was closed, so Max activated the light and settled in to wait. Sometimes Rick was too busy to notice things like doors or invading pirates. However, Max hadn’t even pulled up his latest computer program on his tablet before the door slid open. Rick’s tentacles were at half-curly fry, but when he saw Max, they all stretched out.
“Max.” Rick curled tentacles around Max’s wrist and pulled him into the room. The door closed behind him, and Rick began his turning ritual. He glided around Max, touching bare skin—an ankle here, an elbow there. In humans, touch created oxytocin, and Rick’s circling probably did something biological because he loved doing it. Max turned in a slow circle the opposite direction until they were face to very large eye again.
Then Rick slid one of his smallest tentacles across Max’s lips. A shiver went down Max’s spine. Rick then leaned his head into Max’s chest. “I incorrectly assumed James aggravation.”
Max smiled. “He does want to test out a new weapon part.”
Rick made a