ever had any other creature in his life. He wanted to stand in front of a judge and promise “until death do us part.” Ironically, he wanted a white picket fence and a little house, even though they lived on a spaceship with three kids who would not want to live on Earth.
But Max was too tired to sort all his feelings. He would settle for having Rick in his life forever. That was all he needed.
Chapter Fifteen
Kohei came into the room, moving fast enough that Max abandoned the computer model of Tribes armor he was designing. Carrington’s lead warrior now understood the value of having weapons caches on board, and he needed to strike while the purse strings were open and the Tribes people were thinking about invasions and the need to stockpile a few supplies. “Max Father, a human wants to come into the ship.” He blasted the words loudly enough that he sounded like James.
For a second, Max could only stare. “What?” he asked.
Kohei rotated a quarter turn. “Query to clarify.”
Max stood. “Query. Did you say a human? Are you sure?”
Kohei blew raspberries. “I know species of father mine. Is human. Two boned leg tentacles with unbalanced walk. Small head very far off body. Two boned arm tentacles with only three major joints. Long, oddly placed finger tentacles. Human.”
That was a creepy description of humanity, but accurate as well. “Where? The main door?” Max trotted past Kohei on his way to the elevator. “Query. What name did he give?”
“Asking of name intimate. I am no rude.”
Max stopped in the elevator and forced himself to wait for Kohei to get all his tentacles inside when he wanted to hit the urgent button on the thing. “Wait. Do all species consider asking for a name rude?”
“Clarify. Query. Statement was query?”
“Yes, that was a question.” Kohei did not have Xander’s familiarity with the language, but then again, he was the child Max had ignored, so that was his fault. “Query. Do all species consider asking for a name rude?”
“Many species,” Kohei said. “Hidden people do not, but they will often give different names depending which personality to display. Other peoples often do equate rudeness with asking of name where name does not correlate with close relationship. Official designation is enough.”
That had so many cultural bombshells in it that Max couldn’t deal with all of them. For now, he cared about the human at his door. The elevator opened, and Max hurried out with Kohei trailing after him. “Query. Did the human leave his official designation?”
“Official designation: human seeking entrance to ship of Hidden people.”
Max sighed. Gene Roddenberry must have been kidnapped by logical aliens at some point because aliens were more like Spock than coincidence could explain.
He opened the main door and froze. He stared at her and she stared at him, and both of them had their mouths hanging open. Max found his voice first. “Dee?”
“Max! Oh my God, it’s you!” Dee had never been a touchy-feely person, but she threw herself at Max and caught him in a huge hug. Kohei went all curly fries, and then his tentacles got stiff and he moved forward.
“Dee! It’s so good to see you. I saw your plane shot out of the sky.” The second he said that, Max knew what had happened. Like with him, the aliens had plucked her out of the plane so she didn’t die the way Dan had when debris tore through his parachute. “Fuck. Were you on the same police ship that took me in?”
“I have no idea,” she said, “I was unconscious for a time, and then I hid in the world’s tiniest room.” She backed up a step and glared at Kohei. She probably figured he was eavesdropping.
Rather than dribble and drabble out the weirdness, Max decided to get it all out on the table. “Dee, this is Kohei. He is one of three offspring I was a surrogate for.”
She looked stunned. This is why he had avoided his home planet... that and he might be arrested for desertion because he had chosen family over returning to the Air Force. Eventually she said, “Max” in a low, horrified voice.
Max didn’t want his children exposed to even more prejudice, but he didn’t want to tell Dee to go fuck herself. It was a difficult position. “Kohei, why don’t you go in and ask James to look at the work I’ve done on the Tribes armor.”
“Max Father,” Kohei said. His tentacles were a confused mass