Earth Husbands are Odd (Earth Fathers #2) - Lyn Gala Page 0,34
against the metal decking. The plates were solid instead of the grating he had grown used to on their ship. “Are you the trader I met yesterday?”
Neck gills fluttered. “Would it be customary to offer welcome to my ship?” She crossed her freakish forearms across her chest.
“A greeting of some sort is usual for humans. Good morning.”
Carrington uncrossed her arms. “What an interesting expression.” Her voice sounded curious, so the business translator was on. Max wondered if she had it hooked to her ship’s main computer or if her wrist communicator had a connection. It would be awesome to have a system that always worked on their ship. Sometimes after sex Rick got very chatty, but if he didn’t remember to put his communicator back on, Max missed most of the words. After Max had bashed his wrist communicator against the headboard once, he’d banned his translator from bed. They couldn’t afford to replace it too often. Carrington continued. “If you do not like someone, do you recommend they have a less than good morning?”
“Sometimes,” Max admitted. “Most of the time, we ignore them, or we say good morning anyway to avoid conflict.”
“Avoidance of conflict is a positive social trait. I am gratified to hear humans possess such a behavioral imperative.” She studied Xander, and Max’s temper frayed. Maybe she hadn’t meant to imply that his love for Xander was a less gratifying behavior imperative, but Max was a hair breadth away from unloading all his frustrations on her, and he had a lot since his conversation on the boardwalk.
“Humans also have a behavior imperative to protect their children,” Max warned.
She made a clicking noise. “I have no difficulty accepting your fondness for the asymmetrical ones.”
That felt too similar to calling Rick’s people ugly, but at least it was a factual version of an insult. Max chose to ignore it and focus on the job. “So what concerns you about your defenses?”
“Many things,” she said vaguely. “What convinced you to work with Bundy? He is a questionable choice of partner to broker compensation for your efforts.”
“I thought you traded with him,” Max said. He had expected Carrington to fish for information, but naively he’d thought she would be more subtle. Instead, she was approaching the topic of Max’s motives with all the grace of a drunk elephant.
“I trade. I do not trust.” Carrington turned and headed farther into the ship. “Come. Leave the equipment here, and it will be left unmolested.”
That was an interesting verb. Xander was already locking the wheels. Max waited so Xander could come with them. He wasn’t going to leave his son in the middle of hostile territory, that was for sure. Max only followed Carrington once he made sure Xander was coming. “I don’t trust either him or you.”
“A wise choice,” Carrington said without turning. The light was shifting toward more green tones and getting darker. “Do you avoid any answer to my question by intent or accident of verbal ordering?”
Max had wanted to avoid the question of his relationship with Bundy since it wasn’t exactly legitimate, but nothing communicated guilt faster than evasion. As someone who was guilty, Max would’ve liked to avoid the appearance of it. “I chose him because he had tried to get a license to trade on the Hidden World. He was turned down.”
“So his lack of trustworthiness from the perspective of the Ugly Ones led you to trust. An interesting logic.”
Max reined in his aggravation. “I assumed if he would trade with the Hidden People that he would trade with me. After all, I understand the government computers listed me as a moron.”
Carrington turned. “Humanity in general. No doubt they did not judge you personally.”
“Considering that the universe has almost no experience with humans, I assume that judgement is based largely on the observations of me when I was suffering from panic and confusion,” Max said. Thinking back to his time on the police ship, he was man enough to admit that he’d been a whiny, panicked, annoying baby. “My people assumed aliens existed somewhere, but I did not expect a ship of aliens to take me off my planet.”
Sure, there were people who assumed exactly that, but generally they didn’t pass the psych eval to become an Air Force pilot.
“So you trusted Bundy’s lack of judgment when seeking trading partners. That does have merit. I notice the translator has assigned the verbalism ‘Bundy’ to the trader, but the computer offers no translation of such mouth noises.”
Since Carrington hadn’t