Max stopped at the edge of the water and turned to look at him. That had come out of nowhere. “Query. Why would I want a new room?” Max asked. It had taken him time to learn to use all the latches and knobs in the room he had. Even though Rick had been quick to offer his help with any of the equipment, Max’s pride had prevented him from taking up too much of Rick’s time. Trial and error had allowed him to figure out most of the features, although Rick had to help Max with the use of bathroom.
“Come.” Rick headed for the door at warp speed.
Max blew out a breath. Rick was excited about something.
“Rick Father warmed Max Father,” Xander said.
Max grabbed the thin fabric Rick had manufactured after Max had described a towel.
“I was not dangerously cold,” Max said, “Not unless I stayed in the water much longer. Query. Do you need more warmth?” Max was uncomfortable leaving Xander in such cold water.
“Kohei is warm,” Xander said. “Air is warm.”
Max assumed that meant Xander could warm up by getting out of the water. “James, help with warmth,” Max said.
James hit the surface of the water with a tentacle. “Xander be warm!” he said loudly as Max was putting his pants on. Max didn’t know whether the clever little git was avoiding making a promise to help keep his brother warm or if that was a poorly worded vow. Max would come back and check on them soon, but he had to trust that Xander could speak up if he needed more help.
Grabbing his shirt off the chair as he passed, Max followed Rick through the pool room door closest to the control room.
The corridor was empty, but Max turned right. His instincts were still sharp because he found Rick halfway to the control room.
“Hurry, hurry,” Rick said before he headed for the lift. Max broke into a trot. Rick’s excitement was infectious. Max smiled as he crowded onto the lift with Rick’s oversized head. They went up one level and then the lift opened onto the corridor right outside the control room.
Rick placed a tentacle at Max’s back and urged him forward. Max frowned, but he followed Rick’s tacit suggestion and touched the control to open the door. Back when he’d been exploring the ship, he’d found this door locked every time. Now it opened. Max raised an eyebrow and headed into the control room.
“Go, go go,” Rick said. He was spinning slowly, which reminded Max of Kohei and his pirouettes. Max followed the gentle pushes to a door on the other side. Now they were in a section that Max had seen on the computer diagram that James had displayed. None of the access shafts led to this part of the ship, or at least none of the ones large enough for a human did. And as far as Max could tell, the only access was through the command room.
The second they entered the new area, Max could immediately tell the difference.
The corridors were wider, the floor softer. Instead of the simple grayish white color that dominated the lower ship, this deck had colors—blues and greens and grays that swirled together in a way that made Max think of water. Even the lights overhead flickered and wavered in a way that reminded him of sunlight as it filtered through the lake when he was a child and swam under its surface. Max ran his hand across the wall.
“Query. Color preference?” Rick asked.
“I prefer this. It's beautiful,” Max said.
Rick shimmied. “I chose designs. I fabricated colors and lights.”
“You created a feeling like water without water. It is impressive.” Max meant it. This part of the ship had a soul in a way that the rest didn’t. The lower decks were functional, not beautiful. Rick gave a quarter turn and then continued down the hallway, but he kept his largest eye on Max.
Max ran his hand along the wall. There were slight texture differences between the metallic gray and the shimmery blue and the soft green. Rick had chosen different materials rather than applying a color on a single material. It was stunning.
They entered the lift, and a large red jellyfish creature decorated the upper corner. Max touched one of the long tendrils that hung down from the bell-shaped body. They were far thinner than Rick's or even the children’s tentacles, and the body appeared far too insubstantial to hold anything approaching a brain. “Query. Is this from your home world?”
“Yes.”
“It looks like a jellyfish from my world.”
Rick touched the figure with a single tentacle before saying, “They are most dangerous.”
“So are jellyfish,” Max said. It was strange to think that two planets light years apart with dominant species as different as him and Rick could have such similar animal life.
Then again, maybe all inhabited planets had some version of a jellyfish. Certainly tentacles were more common than boned limbs, so it made sense that jellyfish would be more common than horses. Max wondered what these people would think of a horse... or giraffe. Having a little tiny head so far away from the body would have to seem strange to beings that had, for the most part, developed a head and body structure that was joined. Max figured they thought he looked pretty funny with a weird sticklike neck separating the two.
Rick stopped near a metallic teal ripple and touched the pad to open the door. “Option. You sleep here.”
Rick moved to one side and Max walked into the room. It was substantially larger and sections of wall stuck out, almost like someone had hung cabinets and forgot to add doors.
Max walked to the far wall where the bed had been in his own quarters. It had the same sorts of abstract swirls, only greens and yellows interrupted the shades of blue. It reminded Max a little of pictures of Earth from space. “It’s beautiful.”
“Explore,” Rick said.
Maybe Max was developing a vivid imagination, but he could’ve sworn Rick sounded proud. He should’ve been. He had an incredible ship. Max felt for seam that would lower the Murphy bed structure. It took him a second because the seam was up higher than he'd expected, right underneath the cabinets. Max triggered the latch and then stepped back as the sleeping platform took over the space. The room was larger, but the bed was close to a queen-size, so with the bed down there was still a lack of open space.
“Emergency supplies,” Rick said, and he pointed toward the area underneath the cabinets. Max sat on the bed and the surface yielded like the most expensive mattress in creation. He’d had a hookup on a thousand-dollar mattress once, and this thing made that seem like a Wal-mart hide-a-bed.
When Max looked up into the underside of the “cabinets,” mechanical controls and gauges covered the surface. Max reached up, hoping that if he was about to hit an emergency fire suppression system or something that Rick would stop him. His fingers hit glass or a cool plastic of some sort before he could touch any of the controls.
“In emergency cover withdraws,” Rick said. He climbed onto the bed next to Max. Max spotted a number of deep storage cubbyholes, but he didn't own anything besides one spare pair of pants, but he could have fit his entire wardrobe from back home into it. He had the feeling that these quarters were intended for either officers or family members.
“This is a nice room,” Max said. Something in his soul warmed at the idea that Rick wanted him to live in the private half of the ship. “Thank you.”
Rick gave another all-tentacle shimmy that meant he was happy, Max would never say it to Rick's face, but it reminded Max of the way his family dog would get excited when people came home. Snoopy had often given that same full body shimmy at the door. Max ran his hand along Rick's tentacle. It quickly curled around Max’s wrist.