Earth Husbands are Odd (Earth Fathers #2) - Lyn Gala Page 0,4

sound like bubbles, which was usually a good sign. Maybe he would have time to help James with the work. “Many testing of many parts.”

“True.”

Rick glided toward the main computer. “I am testing of navigation computer. I have no tentacles unburdened with tasks.”

“That’s fair.” Max sat on the stool that had appeared in the room after he had started visiting. “I told him to ask Xander to check his work.”

“Kohei must should work more math.” Rick was right. However, Rick never voiced his opinions to the boys, and Max wasn’t going to get involved in this case. Kohei was far more interested in physical tasks, and Max didn’t want to force the kids to do something they hated. His father had tried to get him involved in business, and that had not ended well. Max wondered how they were handling the violence that had followed the Nish invasion of Earth space. Luckily, the United States was faring better than some areas. They had more suicide pacts in fringe churches than rioting.

Max’s message had done less to calm those waters than he had hoped.

He’d told Earth they were safe, and the evening news proceeded to obsess over how unsafe they all were. And the irony was that the rest of the universe was unlikely to ever wander into Earth territory again. It was too far out—and on an arm of the galaxy that the aliens didn’t care about. Earth was in the older half of the Milky Way and space-faring species had decamped and headed for the half of the galaxy that was still forming new stars. When humans finally got to space, they were going to find much of their part of the galaxy was devoid of heavy metals because it had already been mined out.

The computers reported that the engines were running. “Where are we going?” Max asked.

“I require compensation for supplies necessary to running of our ship.” Rick had repeated that phrase often enough in the last week that Max was getting suspicious. Usually Rick was quick to share information, and the improved translation matrix meant they should be able to discuss navigation.

“Clarify require.”

“Require. Develop need for lacking resource.” Rick kept his main eye focused on the computer. He sucked at lying, even lying by omission.

“So, we’re out of money?” Max translated.

“Query. Clarify ‘out.’”

“Out. Clarification. Supplies have been depleted. We are devoid of money. All remaining supplies are outside of our control.”

Rick hesitated long enough to suggest Max was not going to like his answer. “Out is hyperbole. We are limited in resources,” Rick said. “Critical alloys depleted. Fuel restricted.”

That sounded more dire than Max had expected. He put James’s model to one side. “Can I do something to assist with gathering resources?” After all, Max had used a number of those alloys to fabricate weapons and armor to counter the known attack strategies of the most violent of the aliens he’d read about in the database. If the Hunters or Nish or even the Pajekh chose to attack, Max had his countermeasures ready.

Rick’s tentacles curled. “I don’t want you to earn compensation. I can earn compensation without....” The sentence ended with a series of belches. It had been a while since that had happened.

“Translation matrix failure,” Max said.

Rick’s tentacles twitched and curled again, so this issue was seriously upsetting him. “Max possible not risk life as warrior.”

“Oh.” Max blew out a breath as he realized what Rick feared. “I don’t have to take a job fighting.”

Instead of reassuring Rick, that made his tentacles curl up tighter.

Max had clearly misinterpreted that bit of word soup. “Rick, what do you not want?”

“Translation matrix failure. Negative contradiction with desire.”

That was still annoying. “Query. What do you fear?”

Rick was silent for so long that Max wondered if he didn’t understand or if Max had crossed some cultural line. The question seemed simple enough to understand. Rick inched closer and said, “Irrational dislike Max surrogate for not-Rick.” Rick’s tentacles curled tighter. “Irrational. Rational, Max earns compensation the way Max chooses.”

Max held out his hand and waited until Rick wrapped a tentacle around his wrist. The tiny tentacles along the underside tangled with Max’s fingers. “Clarification. Irrational dislike of relationship with others is jealousy. You are jealous. I would be jealous if you chose another to be surrogate of future offspring.”

The tiny finger tentacles undulated. “Others do not father like Max.”

“I take that as a compliment,” Max said. “Not that I’m ready to have more children now,” he added quickly. When it came