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A Contest of Suffering

A Short Story by Emily Weber

  It was because of the sree that reptiles had become symbols of intelligence in the galaxy. They had no limbs, side-mounted eyes, thick, cumbersome, snake-like bodies, and, perhaps most notable of all: they were covered in electricity-sensing whiskers that looked for all the world like plain hair.

    Sree whiskers sensed electricity so well that it was not unusual for a sree doctor to be able to pinpoint the exact location of a nerve through skin. It was this evolutionary advantage that made most sree born scientists. They often became engineers, chemists, inventors, physicists and the like. Their greatest scientific contribution to the galaxy was the Galactic Speedway (now known as the Galactic Government Speedway) which connected thousands of worlds.

    One such hyper-intelligent individual was a Galactic Government Speedway physics engineer and captain of the Gor sector station. He was not only in charge of maintaining an entire sector’s track of Speedway, but also the station’s entire make-up of live-in employees. When he wasn’t reading Speedway maintenance reports, he was sending out repair crews, managing station events, hiring and firing new employees, and planning new ways to improve the station’s work output.

    As the station rotated, the Gor system sun came into view of the sree’s quarters, and his eye that was facing the window fluttered open. He lay, belly-down next to his human girlfriend, who was playing with his hair. Her name was Georgia Jarrett; a plump woman who, like most humans, served as a station traffic monitor.

    “Y’nael,” Georgia asked, “how do you read that sree clock?”

    Y’nael lifted his head, looking at the clock his son had given him. “It’s four AM, station time.”

    “I guess we have a few more hours to sleep.” She rolled in closer to his side and wrapped her arms around his snake-like body, closing her eyes. As she lay there, he felt every bit of electricity that coursed through her systems through his whiskers. He had warned her recently that she needed to take her assigned vitamins and minerals as her immune system wasn’t working at optimum. Perhaps she would have a cold in a week or so.

    “Four AM?” He muttered, his long jaw lifting his head from the floor as he spoke. “I’d better get going.”

    “Nooooo.” She whined in an exaggerated fashion, hugging herself closer to him.

    “Sorry. Work calls. And anyway, I don’t need to sleep nearly as long as a human.” He began to wriggle free of her grasp. When their relationship had deepened half a year ago, he’d found being with a limbed being a bit disconcerting, even a little ‘gross’, as he’d put it—but as their relationship continued over the weeks, he’d grown to enjoy little moments like these.

    Georgia sat up, covering herself with her arms, “would you pass me my night robe, then? It’s freezing when you leave.”

    He grabbed her night robe with his snout and tossed it to her, and then donned his side-mounted spectacles. He then lowered his head down to her cheek—his Sree style bed was merely a floor cushion, and so he had to bring his jaw down about seven feet to reach her. “See you later.” He had no lips, but he’d learned just recently that he could simulate a human kiss by opening his mouth ever so slightly, and squeezing the tip of his tongue between his teeth so that it just touched the air. He then planted the small bit of naked tongue to her cheek so that an ever so small bit of moisture was transferred to her skin.

    Kissing was a silly practice to his reptilian sensibilities, but Georgia responded to it with joy, and so he’d continued to do it. After all, she’d gone out of her way to do similar things for him. “See you soon,” she said tiredly.

    After a few hours, Georgia got up and made herself coffee. She then donned her Galactic Government-approved Speedway employee jumpsuit and brushed her black hair before looking at herself in the mirror. The jumpsuit was a decent material for something the Galactic Government had produced, but it also did a terrible job at hiding her spare tire. She sucked in her gut as much as possible and walked out of their quarters, heading toward the traffic monitor deck.

    The station was fairly pristine for being a thousand years old. Given Y’nael’s persnickety ways, she had no doubt that once he’d become the station’s captain one hundred years ago, he’d demanded a thorough cleaning and remodeling.

    Eventually, she made it to the traffic monitor deck. Traffic monitoring was a dull job that didn’t require much intelligence; just discipline to learn the job and work the hours. There were about thirty people who worked here, and they came trundling in, tired but ready to relieve the night shift. About twenty-five of the thirty day shift monitors were human, and the other five were four-armed, red-skinned ghats.

     There were two long monitoring consoles in the room, each seating fifteen of the thirty employees. Both consoles faced an absurdly long horizontal window that overlooked the Speedway itself. Georgia squeezed her way past a ghat and sat next to her best friend; a thin, human girl named Stephanie who had been hired about the same time she had ten years ago.

    The traffic workers came from all corners of the galaxy, but they shared a special camaraderie for several reasons; they were all humans or ghats, they were all poor Galactic Government workers, and they were all Dearly Departed.

     ‘Dearly Departed’ was a common term in the overly populated galaxy. It referred to the children of delinquent parents—specifically, the lost children of delinquent parents. Because the Galactic Government was giant—spreading though millions of worlds, it was not uncommon for children to have their names misspelt when input into the system (or not at all) by lazy employees, or for the children to be transferred to the wrong foster colony.

    Because the parents of the lost most often never found their children again, the parents were told to assume their kids were dead and gone so that they could move on with their lives. Therefore, their children were referred to as the ‘Dearly Departed’.

    Dearly Departed children were kept in the custody of the Galactic Government until they reached maturity, and then they were given any multitude of Galactic Government jobs to support themselves. Georgia was thirty, and she’d been given her first job as a traffic monitor at the age of sixteen. She figured she would be staring at spacecraft for the rest of her life.

    Only a few days prior, a new employee—a seventeen year old boy had been hired. It was only on this day that he discovered all the traffic monitors aboard were Dearly Departed. “Are we really all Dearly Departed?” he asked from Stephanie’s right side.

    “Yep. We’re cheap to hire.” Stephanie replied with a bit of sorrow in her voice. “That’s why you never see a sree or a hruut down here. Such intelligent beings never have any Dearly Departed.”

    “The sree have it easy, while we work our lives away for the Galactic Government.” Another employee piped up from the other bench. “That’s just the way it is for the Dearly Departed. But at least we have each other.”

    The Dearly Departed were very close-knit. They all knew each other and they all helped each other. Whenever a new Dearly Departed arrived on the station, they would welcome him or her with open arms. In fact, there was to be a welcoming party for the young man over the weekend.

    Georgia had heard her friends talk this way about the sree many times. “At least our job is easy.” She said as she flagged a craft with an expired serial number.

    “That’s not the point.” Stephanie said, leaning on her control panel; “the point is that as humans and ghats, we’re never given the same opportunity—even when we’re not Dearly Departed. The sree have always lived like kings compared to humans. They intentionally keep us doing menial jobs the galaxy over so that they can reap the benefits.”

    “That’s ridiculous.” Georgia was a little offended, thinking of Y’nael and his kindness, “The sree are just naturally born intelligent beings because of… well, I don’t know. They’re an ancient race. Of course they’re going to be smarter than us, right?”

    One of the ghats who sat at the edge of the console laughed a little, “Ha. Georgia’s only defending them because she’s sleeping with one.”

    Georgia’s mouth fell open. She’d never been slung an insult like this before by her fellow Dearly Departed. She blushed with anger and embarrassment as some of the employees gave her disapproving looks. Ever since she’d become romantic with the sree, her relationship with her family of Dearly Departed had become strained.

    Later that night, Georgia returned to her and Y’nael’s room, her head still spinning from the insult and disapproval of the Dearly Departed . She paused by the door and looked left and right, suddenly ashamed that another human might see her enter the room.

    As she stood there, becoming lost in thought, Y’nael came up beside her. “Good evening.” He bent his neck down a few feet and planted a little kiss on her neck. His jaw quivered a little as he did so. His jaw quivered often—at first she’d thought that maybe it was a sree thing, but after careful observation of other sree aboard the station, she’d determined it was a Y’nael thing. Perhaps a nervous tick of some sort.

    “After you.” He said, his deep voice carrying down the corridor. Georgia entered the room, happy to be away from any possible prying eyes. “Anything exciting happen on the traffic deck? Any runaway fugitives?” He laughed gently. A few months back, an entire fleet of tydd criminals had come racing through the Speedway, causing a spectacular crash that ripped a hole in the track. Traffic was backed up for months.

    “Nothing as exciting as that, unfortunately,” she said absentmindedly. She fixed some food for herself while Y’nael lay down on his floor cushion that doubled as a couch and bed. She was in no mood to discuss what the other Dearly Departed had said—she simply wanted to forget the incident and the embarrassment it had caused her. It would be difficult to avoid talking to Y’nael about it, however, because the moment she came into contact with his whiskers, he would be able to tell she was troubled.

    Y’nael took off his side-mounted spectacles and placed them on a nearby Sree-styled desk—a peculiar-looking smoothed rock that was the shape of a small hill with an inward dent at the top. Georgia had tried to move it once when she’d first moved in, but it weighed hundreds of pounds, and so Y’nael had had to move it with his abundant snake-like muscles. “I don’t feel much like using my Net Hour tonight. Are you going to use yours?” he asked with a yawn so wide she thought he might dislocate his jaw.

    Citizens of the galaxy were only allowed one hour on The Net daily, and all at the same time. It was popularly known as “Net Hour”. This was hugely inconvenient for those in strange time zones, but it had to be this way because after Net Hour was up, millions of government employees would go through every post, download, conversation, and transaction. If they didn’t like what they read, entire conversations, articles or comments were deleted and users were fined.

    Georgia nodded. “Yeah, I’ll use mine.” It would be a good way to calm down before slipping into bed with him. Perhaps he would even fall asleep before she would wrap herself in his whiskers.

    She waited by the computer console for about ten minutes until a small chime sounded over the station’s intercom system, indicating Net Hour had begun. She began to read up on some news on her usual Galactic Government friendly pages, but her mind began to wander. She glanced back at Y’nael who was lost in a book—a now uncommon object as most books were digital. His jaw trembled as he read, and she couldn’t help but think it was an endearing tick.

    She then turned back to the screen and gently tapped ‘Do the sree view Dearly Departed as lesser beings?’ into the search engine. Looking up material like this was generally fruitless as the Galactic Government had most defaming information deleted after Net Hour was up, but she was curious.

    Something did pop up, however; a site that had only been active for a few days entitled ‘THE SREE DO NOT KNOW PAIN—THEY ONLY GAIN.’

    Georgia glanced at Y’nael again before entering the site. The first thing that caught her eye was a chart displaying various ways the sree had it made over humans. They, of course occupied far more higher-ranking careers; physicians, engineers, inventors, physicists, and the like. They were also a long-lived species (generally up to a thousand years), and had few infant fatalities due to better medicine. All things she already knew.

    An article below the chart outlined how the job prospects of humans and ghats and particularly those who were Dearly Departed were limited because of the expertise of the sree. ‘Why hire a dumb human for a leadership job when you can hire a hyper-intelligent sree?’ the article asked sarcastically.

    Another chime sounded over the intercom and the program closed abruptly. Net Hour was up. Georgia stared at the screen blankly, reviewing her life in her mind. As far as she could remember, she’d only ever been surrounded by humans and ghats with low-level jobs while the sree always had security—a ‘pain free life’ as the site had called it.

    Georgia turned around and looked at Y’nael who was still reading. She couldn’t imagine that he thought of her as a lesser being. She knew her life was more difficult than his, but it wasn’t like it was his fault things were the way they were.

    Finally, she reasoned away enough of her doubt to disrobe and crawl in next to the sree. He placed his book on his sree-styled desk and planted a few kisses about her face. “They say the first sree scientist was born when the first sree made love,” he said playfully, “when the whiskers of lovers touch, they know the world.” He smiled with a familiar jaw quiver.

    “I don’t have any whiskers,” Georgia laughed as she stroked the whiskers that he dangled over her. “But, I must admit I wish I had them. You get to sense so much more than a human.”

    Y’nael thought for a moment, the shadow of a thought moving almost visibly through his eyes, “Sometimes I wish I didn’t have them. Life’s more a mystery when you don’t feel so much.” He said as he kissed her again and she wrapped her arms about him. It was a nice sentiment, but she didn’t believe that he was actually jealous of her whiskerlessness. After all, he was a sree and she was merely a human.

    The next morning, Georgia reported for work early as usual, and was relieved when nobody brought up the sree or her relationship with Y’nael. However, some of them eyed her coldly, and she was glad to return to her and Y’naels quarters at the end of the day.

    Usually Y’nael arrived back at about the same time she did, but every ten cycles or so he would be delayed for an hour or two. This was one of those nights. Still feeling troubled about what she read on the site and heard from her fellow workers the previous day, Georgia decided to visit her friend Stephanie.

    Stephanie welcomed her to quarters with a warm hug. “What’s up?” she asked.

    “Not much. Y’nael’s a little late today so I thought I’d drop by here.” Georgia stepped inside and sat on Stephanie’s human-styled couch. After sitting on sree furniture for a few months, it was always welcoming to visit a human living space.

    “Not much here, either. Just sorta planning how I want to use my Net Hour.” She held up a sticky note with ideas. “Maybe I’ll try to find my parents for the umpteenth time.” She laughed jokingly. None of the Dearly Departed continued the search for long after the age of twenty—it was pointless.

    After talking blandly about various station issues, the talk inevitably turned to Y’nael. “So… how often are you intimate with him? Is it weird? Don’t sree weigh hundreds of pounds?” Stephanie asked curiously. She was trying to be polite even though she, just like the rest of the Dearly Departed disapproved of the relationship.

    “We’re together often. It was a little weird the first time, but it’s natural now.” She said honestly, “he’s gentle.”

    Stephanie’s expression changed a little, a frown crossing her lips; “But… don’t you ever feel a little guilty about being with him?”

    Georgia raised her eyebrow. “Guilty?”

     “I mean... I don’t mean to be rude—I can tell you really love him—but, you’re reaping all the benefits of being with a sree. And the captain nonetheless. He’s never going to fire you or look down on you like he does the rest of us Dearly Departed. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got a raise soon. Maybe move on from traffic monitoring to physics training…”

    “He doesn’t look down on the Dearly Departed.” Georgia said sternly and defensively.

    “Then why are the sree and the hruut on the top decks while we wallow on the traffic deck and live in the bowels of the station, fearful of relocation every day?”

    “I don’t know. But it has nothing to do with Y’nael. He’s good.” Georgia said, a surprising amount of emotion climbing up her throat.

    “He’s never suffered a day in his life.” Stephanie countered. “He’s a privileged reptile who only looks out for his own kind… and you, it seems. Mark my words; because you’re sleeping with him, you’ll be the first Dearly Departed to get a raise in a decade.”

    Georgia couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but she was unable to think of a proper counter argument. She got up angrily, kicked the couch she’d previously been so glad to sit on, and stormed out of the room.

    She returned to her and Y’nael’s quarters to find the sree fast asleep. On days he was late, he was always bone-tired. This was good, because she didn’t want him to sense how distraught she was. She quickly disrobed and wrapped herself up in his warm whiskers, plastering herself to his body. He may not have suffered a day in his life, she told herself firmly, but he’s good.

    The next day was pay day, and Georgia was selected to bring time slips to the top deck. Usually keeping track of work hours was done by a more sophisticated computer system, but the technology had broken a few months back and so it had been pen and paper since. Y’nael had sent out a replacement request, but the Galactic Government was what he called ‘a burdened slug’—it would be years before it was replaced.

    She entered the command room, the small bundle of time slips held in front of her. She’d never been nervous entering the top deck before, but now that Stephanie had pointed it out, she suddenly felt like an outcast amongst the busy sree and hruut milling about with their much more important jobs.

    “ Ah, Georgia. Over here.” Said a quadruped hruut named Bhuj. He was a quiet-voiced hruut who’d only come aboard a year ago.

    She handed the papers to Bhuj quietly, and she stood there as he input them into the computer, stamping the papers as he went. As she looked about, she was pleased to see a few fyarrs come and go, and even a human passed by, busily making his way to his desk. All she knew about this particular human was that his name was Jonathan, and that he was an outcast from the rest of the Dearly Departed because he worked with the sree. Georgia watched the blonde man as he sat down, alone amongst the aliens. She wasn’t sure how he could stand being an outcast from his own kind.

    “Georgia! I’m glad you stopped by!” Y’nael glided up to her from a group of sree who had just entered the room. “I have great news.” He said, his chin quivering, “I just got the okay to transfer you to the physics training program on deck three. That is, if you think you’re ready?”

    Georgia’s heart leapt. A smile spread across her face, but then vanished as Stephanie’s voice came into her head; she had foretold the previous night that she would be promoted. Y’nael noticed her change in expression. “What’s the matter? Don’t you think you’re ready? You’re brilliant, you know. You can do it.” He lowered his snout and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead.

    “I uh- yeah. I want to.” She shook her head a bit, trying to shake Stephanie from her thoughts. “I’m just nervous. There aren’t any other Dearly Departed in the program.”

    Y’nael raised an eyebrow and his side-mounted glasses slipped a bit. “Oh, not to worry. They’re all nice there. They’re eager to learn just like you—I can even help you out after work if you need me to. I’m not going to lie; it’s a tough program, but if there’s anyone who can make it through, it’s you.”

    Georgia was about to reply, but a voice called to Y’nael from across the deck; “Hey, Y’nael,” a hruut yelled, “There’s something up with the Speedway track in sector three-thousand-fifteen. It seems the orbit of that darn elliptical planet has pulled it out of alignment again. The GalGov’s asking for a maintenance plan.”

    “Phh’ty’r.” Y’nael said in the sree tongue. Though most used the Universal Language in every day talk, it was not uncommon to revert to one’s homeworld language for swearing. “I’ve got to get back to work. We’ll talk later.”

    A few weeks past, and word got out that Georgia would be moving on to the physics training program. If the Dearly Departed had treated her differently when she’d entered a sexual relationship with Y’nael, now they looked at her as if she was hardly Dearly Departed at all.

    Georgia didn’t know what to do about her situation. On one hand she could move on to an easier life on the top deck with more pay and job security, but on the other hand she would have to leave her Dearly Departed family behind. It seemed there was no middle ground.

    Finally, Georgia decided to talk to Y’nael about it three nights before she was due to report for training. It was late night when she decided to discuss this—she turned on her side, unable to sleep and gently rocked Y’naels snout until he awoke. “What is it?” Y’nael asked groggily, “Was I snoring again?”

    Georgia laughed a little and stroked his trembling jaw. “Nothing like that. There’s something important I wanted to discuss. I’m sorry to wake you, but I need to talk about it before it eats me up.”

    Y’nael forced himself to raise his head, sensing through his whiskers that she was in a serious state of mind. Then, Georgia carefully laid out her concerns.

    “…So, basically, the Dearly Departed are… not on board with me joining the physics program. They think I’m mooching off of my relationship with you, and they don’t want me working with the sree.” Georgia said, having explained all that had transpired.

    Y’nael thought over all she had told him. “They really don’t like the sree, do they?”

    Georgia was thoughtful. “Sort of. You’d have to be one of the Dearly Departed to truly understand. We’ve had it rough, moving from station to station as the GalGov sees fit. And to see the sree everywhere we go, always at the top… they think the sree look down on us, so they want nothing to do with you.”

    “But you want something to do with me, right?” he asked playfully as he nipped at her hair.

    Georgia giggled and shoved his head away from her. “It’s a serious matter, though. I love my Dearly Departed family. I want them to… give me their blessing, so to speak, to move to the upper decks, and to stay with you.”

    Y’nael lay his head back down and Georgia lay on her belly so that her face was close to his. “What if they don’t give you their blessing? Will you stay with me anyway?” he asked quietly.

    “I’m torn, Y’nael. I’m truly torn.” She answered honestly, and hoped he wouldn’t be offended.

    “What makes you so torn?” he asked, the tremble of his jaw shaking the last words from his mouth. “Don’t you want to be with me?”

    “I do. I really do.” She kissed him under his eye, “But nobody really… gets me like the Dearly Departed. They know what it’s like to suffer—to live day by day doing lowly jobs, fearful of what the future might be.”

    “Are you saying I don’t know what it’s like to suffer?” Y’nael asked, offense rising in his voice.

    Georgia stroked his whiskers soothingly. “Oh, Y’nael. I don’t mean to offend you. It’s just… you have to agree we’ve led very different lives. You must admit you’ve had it far easier than I’ve ever had it.”

    Y’nael looked at her, lost in thought, perhaps trying to think of some way he’d suffered as much as her. His jaw trembled again, and he nuzzled his snout in next to her forehead. “Well, I hope you’ll decide to take the job. You don’t have to suffer, you know. If I were you, I would always take the less painful route in life.”

    Georgia was too tired to think any further on the issue, and she snuggled herself back into the sree’s warm whiskers.

    It was the very next day that Georgia’s two worlds clashed. The Dearly Departed about her were distressingly quiet as she worked. She longed to talk idly with them as she used to—to talk about nothing and be happy doing it.

    She absent-mindedly looked to her right at Stephanie. Stephanie saw and glanced back. Georgia opened her mouth to say something, but all she could think to do was smile. It was a sad smile, however, and Stephanie’s eyebrows knit in concern. “Are you alright?” Stephanie asked, forgetting her anger momentarily.

    “No.” Georgia said, her voice barely rising above a whisper. “I don’t want to lose you guys.”

    “Then stop taking handouts from that sree. Stop acting like you’re better than the rest of us. Stop… acting like a sree. That’s what he’s doing; making you into a sree.”

    Georgia wiped a tear away from her left eye. Stephanie rested a hand on her shoulder, “You simply can’t take that job. When Y’nael’s done with you, you’ll be alone amongst the sree , and once they realize you’re inept, they’ll move you to another station. You’ll be completely alone.”

    Georgia was offended that Stephanie insinuated she wasn’t smart enough for the training program, but she might be right. All she’d ever heard was that it was one of the toughest programs in the Galactic Government.

    Before the conversation could go any further, Y’nael himself glided into the room. “Good morning.” He said casually, “Georgia, will you join me for lunch?”

    The rest of the Dearly Departed either glared at Y’nael or stared at their monitors to avoid looking at him. Georgia got up silently, feeling distressed. She hoped against hope nobody would say anything. But, from somewhere in the front row, a man whispered under his breath; “He’s buying you lunch now, too. You must really know how to stroke his whiskers.” Though it was a whisper, in the deathly quiet room it was disturbingly audible.

    Georgia stopped in her tracks, and her face became bright red. Instantly, tears emerged in her eyes. Y’nael heard the insult and saw Georgia’s reaction. His jaw began to tremble relentlessly as he grew angry, “Who said that?” his already deep voice deepened so that Georgia could have sworn the room shook.

    “I did,” said the man, standing up. It was Gary, an elderly man whom she loved and had looked up to as a grandfather figure. “…and I don’t care that you know it.”

    Y’nael moved close Gary, his flat teeth locked together so that the trembling of his jaw was less noticeable. “Good,” he said sternly and clearly through his teeth, “because you’re to report for re-location tomorrow. You’re fired.”

    Gary’s brave face broke, “What?! You can’t just fire me because I said something you didn’t like.”

    “You said something slanderous and offensive to one of my employees. It’s perfectly within my right to fire you. So pack your bags.” Y’nael said with finality and turned away, joining Georgia who had moved to the door. She was in shock as she saw the rest of the Dearly Departed rise.

    They came to the man’s defense, angrily shouting insults and rebuttals at Y’nael.

    “If you fire him, you’ll have to fire me too!”

    “Gary’s worked here for fifty years. You can’t do this!”

    “You’re sick, Y’nael. Just like the rest of the sree.”

    “Georgia, you can’t possibly want to be with a man like that!”

    “Look out for yourself, Georgia! He’ll make you into a sree!” Stephanie said, the last to shout as Y’nael ushered Georgia from the room.

    Y’nael and Georgia immediately headed to their quarters. As soon as they were past the door, Georgia lay down on the sree-style bed and wept. Her world had officially torn apart at the seams and she felt as if she herself had been unzipped as well.

    Finally, after her tears had cleared enough, she looked up at Y’nael, who could do nothing but watch and wait until she was ready to talk. “Why did you do that to Gary? He’s such a kind man.” Georgia managed to stutter out between choked sobs.

    “He didn’t seem that kind to me. He insulted you. I wasn’t going to stand by and let him say things like that.” he was still infuriated by the old man’s remark, and his hair stood on end.

    “He didn’t mean it! He’s just wanted to protect me.” Georgia sat up, and her eyebrows knit together angrily.

    “Protect you from what?” Y’nael bent down so that his face was close to hers.

    Georgia looked away from his gaze. “From you. They said you’re only giving me that position because we’re together. Y’nael, if we were to break up, I don’t want to end up like Jonathan. I don’t want to be alone. I’m so scared.”

    Y’nael blinked, and his jaw trembled so badly that she heard his flat teeth rattle together quietly as he clenched his jaw. Finally, he opened his mouth, “So what do we do?”

    “I can’t take handouts from you anymore, and I can’t risk being alone… I want to be with the Dearly Departed. They’ll look after me no matter what. They’ll be there for me no matter what.” As she finished her sentence, she saw Y’nael’s expression change to fear mixed with concern.

    “I understand you’re scared, but Georgia…” his nostrils flared as he took a breath, trying to calm himself, “I’ll admit it; I did suggest you for the physics training program because we’re together. However, I also suggested you for the program because I truly believe you can do it. Don’t let the Dearly Departed keep you within their ranks just because you’re ‘family’. There’s a great life opening up ahead of you. Don’t turn you back on it. You don’t have to be Dearly Departed anymore.”

    “If I’m not Dearly Departed, then what am I? Y’nael…” Georgia thought of Stephanie’s warning words, “are you trying to make me into a sree?”

    Y’nael’s nostrils flared again, and his whole body shook. “Never! Georgia, I love your arms and how you wrap them around me. I love your whiskerlessness and your human way of thinking. I love you.”

    Georgia’s hands shot up to her mouth. He’d caught her off guard.

    Time seemed to skip a beat and then gently came back to its smooth rhythm as Georgia’s head cleared. Her hands slowly left her lips. “Y’nael… I don’t think this is going to work. I know you’ve given me a great opportunity, but I don’t know that I’ve truly earned it.”

    Y’nael became flustered; his words came out mumbled and too quickly, “You have earned it, I swear it, Georgia.”

    Georgia stood up. “We’re just too different. Until you’ve suffered as the Dearly Departed have, you’ll never know me like they do.” The tears dried up in her eyes as she came to her decision.

    “But I have suffered!” It was the first time she’d seen it, but moisture entered the sree’s eyes.

    Georgia touched his chin. “How? You were born to be great, Y’nael. You’re a sree. As much as you think you’ve been through, you’ll never have been through as much as that old man you just fired.”

    She turned away, and her fingers slid out from under his quivering chin. She didn’t know where she was going to stay for the night, but she was sure the quartermaster could find her something.

    A week passed, and Georgia heard nothing from Y’nael. She didn’t show up to the physics training program. She returned as gracefully as possible to her work on the traffic monitoring deck.

    Soon, time slip day came again, and Georgia was selected once again to visit the top deck with the small stack of papers. She hoped against hope Y’nael wouldn’t be there—she knew just the sight of him would pull tears from her eyes.

    The top deck was busy as usual, and she almost stepped on a Sree’s tail as she entered the room. She looked for Bhuj, the hruut who always helped her with time slips, but he wasn’t present. “Hey, Georgia. Over here.” She heard an unfamiliar voice say.

    It was Jonathan, the lone human physics technician. “Bhuj is on vacation, so I’ll be helping with the time slips for a month or so.” He took the pile of papers from her and began entering them into the computer system.

    She kept an eye out for Y’nael as he worked, but he was nowhere to be seen.

    “How’s Y’nael holding up?” Jonathan asked casually. Georgia was surprised that he knew they’d parted ways, and she was slightly offended that Y’nael was going about, telling others about their break-up.

    “I don’t know.” She said simply.

    “I hope he feels better soon. I owe him a lot,” Jonathan continued, “…if it wasn’t for his hiring Dearly Departed, I’d still be a construction worker on Obilth.”

    “You’re Dearly Departed?” Georgia asked, “then, did you take the physics training program?”

    “Yep. Y’nael’s always on the lookout for new talent from us Dearly Departed. I think it’s because he lost his own son during some catastrophe on a planet in the Bhiv Sector. From what I heard, he’s still looking for him after hundreds of years. I think he sees a bit of his son in all of us.”

    “I didn’t know that.” She suddenly felt very sorry for Y’nael.

    “Oh? I guess you’ve only been together for a half a year, right? Crap, I probably should’ve let him get around to telling you his personal stuff himself.” His eyebrows curled up with concern.

    Georgia stood in silence, feeling for the poor sree. But, eventually her mind wandered back to the plight of the rest of the humans below decks. “Jonathan, can I ask you something? Do you ever feel bad, working up here while the rest of us work on the traffic deck?”

    He thought for a moment. “It was weird at first, being amongst a bunch of sree and hruut, but why should I feel bad? I worked hard for this position.”

    Georgia nodded, and leaned over his shoulder to see where he was. He finished inputting the slips and turned to her. “I hear you’ve been accepted into the physics training program as well. Maybe I’ll see you up here soon?”

    “Maybe.” Georgia shrugged, “I’ll see you around.” She gathered up the small pile of receipts he printed out and stepped away.

    “I hope Y’nael feels better soon. Sick bay is just the worst.” He said before she could get five feet from him.

    “Sick bay?”

    “Yeah. Wait, you didn’t know? He’s been there for three days. Something to do with his nerve disease.”

    “Nerve disease?” She raised an eyebrow, “what’s going on?”

    “He hasn’t told you yet? Maybe he didn’t want you to worry…” he looked into her eyes, “If he hasn’t told you, I don’t know if I should. Some sree are ashamed by it. They take so much pride in their whiskers, you know.”

    “Please tell me!” her voice rose to an uncontrolled pitch, and her face grew red.

    Jonathan stood up and took her to a corner of the room so that no one else could hear. “It’s alright. Calm down. He has something the sree call Hu’hin’a’vo. It’s a nerve condition that causes unrelenting pain and suffering. I looked it up once with one of my Net Hours—Hu’hin’a’vo means suicide whiskers. Apparently anyone who contracts it feels constant pain throughout their body, especially into the whiskers. Most Sree take their own lives when they can’t stand it anymore.”

    Georgia felt the room begin to spin. “Constant pain? It never lets up?” She asked dumbly.

    “So far as I know. He told me some days are better than others, especially with the treatment he gets about every ten cycles. But sometimes he becomes bedridden.” He paused, “I think the only thing that really keeps him from taking his life is his work and the search for his lost son… and you, I guess. I can tell he’s been much happier since you got together.”

    Georgia dropped the pile of receipts, and before she knew it, she felt her legs moving her to the door. The world was a blur as she made her way to sick bay. Everything about Y’nael suddenly made sense; how he was late getting to their room every ten cycles—he was getting treatment. How his jaw trembled—it was because he was in pain. How he hired Dearly Departed—it was not to save money on cheap labor, but to help those who, like his son, had been lost.

    She felt faint as she turned a corner and had to stop. As she stood, waiting for the station to stop spinning, she realized the irony of the Dearly Departed telling her that Y’nael looked at humans as lesser beings. They’d thought he judged humans by their species, but it was they who had judged him for being a sree—they’d all assumed he’d never suffered in his life because of the species he was born to, but in reality he’d suffered far more than they ever could have imagined.

    Finally, she made her way to sick bay. It was a small bay—only a few beds for the odd emergency. But Y’nael wasn’t there. The station doctor, a female sree approached her. “Here to see Y’nael?”

    “Where is he?” Georgia asked, looking about.

    “He’s not here. I sent him back to his room last night. All he needs now is rest. I’m surprised you didn’t visit him while he was here.”

    Georgia raced to Y’nael’s quarters and knocked on the door loudly. She half expected the man not to answer, but soon the door budged open. Y’nael’s head jolted back in surprise when he saw her.

    A look of hope darted through his eyes, but it vanished quickly. “I pardoned the old man, you know. He’s already on his way back to the station. You don’t have to worry about him.”

    “Why didn’t you tell me about Hu’hin’a’vo?” She demanded. Now it was her turn to tremble. She suddenly felt dehydrated as she stood before the man who had offered her so much—whose help and love she had denied merely because he was a sree.

    Y’nael looked about nervously and ushered her into the room. “It’s not something we share.”

    “ But, Y’nael. Is the pain really always constant?” Without thinking, she took his head in her hands. “Are you really always suffering?”

    He closed his eyes as she held his face. Suddenly, a façade crumbled from his very being, and not only did his jaw begin to quiver, but his entire body shook slightly as if he was being pricked by thousands of insidious needles.

     “Always.” he said, eyes still closed.

     For the umpteenth time that month, tears streamed from her eyes. Even when they’d made love—his most sincere expression of his feelings for her, he had been in pain. She planted a dozen kisses about his face then looked into his eyes as they finally fluttered open. “I was a fool to think the only people suffering on this station were the Dearly Departed. Can you forgive me, Y’nael?”

    “Of course. But only if you stay with me until I awaken from my nap. The doctor said I need plenty of rest after that last treatment.” he said, and lay down on his sree-style bed.

    Georgia snuggled up to him as he regained what little control he had over his pain, and his body stopped shaking… except for his chin, which gently trembled underneath his head.

    “Tell me about the first sree scientist again.” Georgia said as she stroked his whiskers.

    “They say the first sree scientist was born when the first sree made love,” he said, relieved, and tired and content; “when the whiskers of lovers touch, they know the world.”

    It was true she was a week late to start, but Georgia Jarrett soon found herself walking to her first class in the physics training program. The Dearly Departed had all but disowned her, and the future was uncertain.

    All she really knew was that she was doing it for herself, and the only people who really mattered to her were those who wanted her to succeed wherever life took her.

Description

A Contest of Suffering

A Short Story by Emily Weber

  It was because of the sree that reptiles had become symbols of intelligence in the galaxy. They had no limbs, side-mounted eyes, thick, cumbersome, snake-like bodies, and, perhaps most notable of all: they were covered in electricity-sensing whiskers that looked for all the world like plain hair.

    Sree whiskers sensed electricity so well that it was not unusual for a sree doctor to be able to pinpoint the exact location of a nerve through skin. It was this evolutionary advantage that made most sree born scientists. They often became engineers, chemists, inventors, physicists and the like. Their greatest scientific contribution to the galaxy was the Galactic Speedway (now known as the Galactic Government Speedway) which connected thousands of worlds.

    One such hyper-intelligent individual was a Galactic Government Speedway physics engineer and captain of the Gor sector station. He was not only in charge of maintaining an entire sector’s track of Speedway, but also the station’s entire make-up of live-in employees. When he wasn’t reading Speedway maintenance reports, he was sending out repair crews, managing station events, hiring and firing new employees, and planning new ways to improve the station’s work output.

    As the station rotated, the Gor system sun came into view of the sree’s quarters, and his eye that was facing the window fluttered open. He lay, belly-down next to his human girlfriend, who was playing with his hair. Her name was Georgia Jarrett; a plump woman who, like most humans, served as a station traffic monitor.

    “Y’nael,” Georgia asked, “how do you read that sree clock?”

    Y’nael lifted his head, looking at the clock his son had given him. “It’s four AM, station time.”

    “I guess we have a few more hours to sleep.” She rolled in closer to his side and wrapped her arms around his snake-like body, closing her eyes. As she lay there, he felt every bit of electricity that coursed through her systems through his whiskers. He had warned her recently that she needed to take her assigned vitamins and minerals as her immune system wasn’t working at optimum. Perhaps she would have a cold in a week or so.

    “Four AM?” He muttered, his long jaw lifting his head from the floor as he spoke. “I’d better get going.”

    “Nooooo.” She whined in an exaggerated fashion, hugging herself closer to him.

    “Sorry. Work calls. And anyway, I don’t need to sleep nearly as long as a human.” He began to wriggle free of her grasp. When their relationship had deepened half a year ago, he’d found being with a limbed being a bit disconcerting, even a little ‘gross’, as he’d put it—but as their relationship continued over the weeks, he’d grown to enjoy little moments like these.

    Georgia sat up, covering herself with her arms, “would you pass me my night robe, then? It’s freezing when you leave.”

    He grabbed her night robe with his snout and tossed it to her, and then donned his side-mounted spectacles. He then lowered his head down to her cheek—his Sree style bed was merely a floor cushion, and so he had to bring his jaw down about seven feet to reach her. “See you later.” He had no lips, but he’d learned just recently that he could simulate a human kiss by opening his mouth ever so slightly, and squeezing the tip of his tongue between his teeth so that it just touched the air. He then planted the small bit of naked tongue to her cheek so that an ever so small bit of moisture was transferred to her skin.

    Kissing was a silly practice to his reptilian sensibilities, but Georgia responded to it with joy, and so he’d continued to do it. After all, she’d gone out of her way to do similar things for him. “See you soon,” she said tiredly.

    After a few hours, Georgia got up and made herself coffee. She then donned her Galactic Government-approved Speedway employee jumpsuit and brushed her black hair before looking at herself in the mirror. The jumpsuit was a decent material for something the Galactic Government had produced, but it also did a terrible job at hiding her spare tire. She sucked in her gut as much as possible and walked out of their quarters, heading toward the traffic monitor deck.

    The station was fairly pristine for being a thousand years old. Given Y’nael’s persnickety ways, she had no doubt that once he’d become the station’s captain one hundred years ago, he’d demanded a thorough cleaning and remodeling.

    Eventually, she made it to the traffic monitor deck. Traffic monitoring was a dull job that didn’t require much intelligence; just discipline to learn the job and work the hours. There were about thirty people who worked here, and they came trundling in, tired but ready to relieve the night shift. About twenty-five of the thirty day shift monitors were human, and the other five were four-armed, red-skinned ghats.

     There were two long monitoring consoles in the room, each seating fifteen of the thirty employees. Both consoles faced an absurdly long horizontal window that overlooked the Speedway itself. Georgia squeezed her way past a ghat and sat next to her best friend; a thin, human girl named Stephanie who had been hired about the same time she had ten years ago.

    The traffic workers came from all corners of the galaxy, but they shared a special camaraderie for several reasons; they were all humans or ghats, they were all poor Galactic Government workers, and they were all Dearly Departed.

     ‘Dearly Departed’ was a common term in the overly populated galaxy. It referred to the children of delinquent parents—specifically, the lost children of delinquent parents. Because the Galactic Government was giant—spreading though millions of worlds, it was not uncommon for children to have their names misspelt when input into the system (or not at all) by lazy employees, or for the children to be transferred to the wrong foster colony.

    Because the parents of the lost most often never found their children again, the parents were told to assume their kids were dead and gone so that they could move on with their lives. Therefore, their children were referred to as the ‘Dearly Departed’.

    Dearly Departed children were kept in the custody of the Galactic Government until they reached maturity, and then they were given any multitude of Galactic Government jobs to support themselves. Georgia was thirty, and she’d been given her first job as a traffic monitor at the age of sixteen. She figured she would be staring at spacecraft for the rest of her life.

    Only a few days prior, a new employee—a seventeen year old boy had been hired. It was only on this day that he discovered all the traffic monitors aboard were Dearly Departed. “Are we really all Dearly Departed?” he asked from Stephanie’s right side.

    “Yep. We’re cheap to hire.” Stephanie replied with a bit of sorrow in her voice. “That’s why you never see a sree or a hruut down here. Such intelligent beings never have any Dearly Departed.”

    “The sree have it easy, while we work our lives away for the Galactic Government.” Another employee piped up from the other bench. “That’s just the way it is for the Dearly Departed. But at least we have each other.”

    The Dearly Departed were very close-knit. They all knew each other and they all helped each other. Whenever a new Dearly Departed arrived on the station, they would welcome him or her with open arms. In fact, there was to be a welcoming party for the young man over the weekend.

    Georgia had heard her friends talk this way about the sree many times. “At least our job is easy.” She said as she flagged a craft with an expired serial number.

    “That’s not the point.” Stephanie said, leaning on her control panel; “the point is that as humans and ghats, we’re never given the same opportunity—even when we’re not Dearly Departed. The sree have always lived like kings compared to humans. They intentionally keep us doing menial jobs the galaxy over so that they can reap the benefits.”

    “That’s ridiculous.” Georgia was a little offended, thinking of Y’nael and his kindness, “The sree are just naturally born intelligent beings because of… well, I don’t know. They’re an ancient race. Of course they’re going to be smarter than us, right?”

    One of the ghats who sat at the edge of the console laughed a little, “Ha. Georgia’s only defending them because she’s sleeping with one.”

    Georgia’s mouth fell open. She’d never been slung an insult like this before by her fellow Dearly Departed. She blushed with anger and embarrassment as some of the employees gave her disapproving looks. Ever since she’d become romantic with the sree, her relationship with her family of Dearly Departed had become strained.

    Later that night, Georgia returned to her and Y’nael’s room, her head still spinning from the insult and disapproval of the Dearly Departed . She paused by the door and looked left and right, suddenly ashamed that another human might see her enter the room.

    As she stood there, becoming lost in thought, Y’nael came up beside her. “Good evening.” He bent his neck down a few feet and planted a little kiss on her neck. His jaw quivered a little as he did so. His jaw quivered often—at first she’d thought that maybe it was a sree thing, but after careful observation of other sree aboard the station, she’d determined it was a Y’nael thing. Perhaps a nervous tick of some sort.

    “After you.” He said, his deep voice carrying down the corridor. Georgia entered the room, happy to be away from any possible prying eyes. “Anything exciting happen on the traffic deck? Any runaway fugitives?” He laughed gently. A few months back, an entire fleet of tydd criminals had come racing through the Speedway, causing a spectacular crash that ripped a hole in the track. Traffic was backed up for months.

    “Nothing as exciting as that, unfortunately,” she said absentmindedly. She fixed some food for herself while Y’nael lay down on his floor cushion that doubled as a couch and bed. She was in no mood to discuss what the other Dearly Departed had said—she simply wanted to forget the incident and the embarrassment it had caused her. It would be difficult to avoid talking to Y’nael about it, however, because the moment she came into contact with his whiskers, he would be able to tell she was troubled.

    Y’nael took off his side-mounted spectacles and placed them on a nearby Sree-styled desk—a peculiar-looking smoothed rock that was the shape of a small hill with an inward dent at the top. Georgia had tried to move it once when she’d first moved in, but it weighed hundreds of pounds, and so Y’nael had had to move it with his abundant snake-like muscles. “I don’t feel much like using my Net Hour tonight. Are you going to use yours?” he asked with a yawn so wide she thought he might dislocate his jaw.

    Citizens of the galaxy were only allowed one hour on The Net daily, and all at the same time. It was popularly known as “Net Hour”. This was hugely inconvenient for those in strange time zones, but it had to be this way because after Net Hour was up, millions of government employees would go through every post, download, conversation, and transaction. If they didn’t like what they read, entire conversations, articles or comments were deleted and users were fined.

    Georgia nodded. “Yeah, I’ll use mine.” It would be a good way to calm down before slipping into bed with him. Perhaps he would even fall asleep before she would wrap herself in his whiskers.

    She waited by the computer console for about ten minutes until a small chime sounded over the station’s intercom system, indicating Net Hour had begun. She began to read up on some news on her usual Galactic Government friendly pages, but her mind began to wander. She glanced back at Y’nael who was lost in a book—a now uncommon object as most books were digital. His jaw trembled as he read, and she couldn’t help but think it was an endearing tick.

    She then turned back to the screen and gently tapped ‘Do the sree view Dearly Departed as lesser beings?’ into the search engine. Looking up material like this was generally fruitless as the Galactic Government had most defaming information deleted after Net Hour was up, but she was curious.

    Something did pop up, however; a site that had only been active for a few days entitled ‘THE SREE DO NOT KNOW PAIN—THEY ONLY GAIN.’

    Georgia glanced at Y’nael again before entering the site. The first thing that caught her eye was a chart displaying various ways the sree had it made over humans. They, of course occupied far more higher-ranking careers; physicians, engineers, inventors, physicists, and the like. They were also a long-lived species (generally up to a thousand years), and had few infant fatalities due to better medicine. All things she already knew.

    An article below the chart outlined how the job prospects of humans and ghats and particularly those who were Dearly Departed were limited because of the expertise of the sree. ‘Why hire a dumb human for a leadership job when you can hire a hyper-intelligent sree?’ the article asked sarcastically.

    Another chime sounded over the intercom and the program closed abruptly. Net Hour was up. Georgia stared at the screen blankly, reviewing her life in her mind. As far as she could remember, she’d only ever been surrounded by humans and ghats with low-level jobs while the sree always had security—a ‘pain free life’ as the site had called it.

    Georgia turned around and looked at Y’nael who was still reading. She couldn’t imagine that he thought of her as a lesser being. She knew her life was more difficult than his, but it wasn’t like it was his fault things were the way they were.

    Finally, she reasoned away enough of her doubt to disrobe and crawl in next to the sree. He placed his book on his sree-styled desk and planted a few kisses about her face. “They say the first sree scientist was born when the first sree made love,” he said playfully, “when the whiskers of lovers touch, they know the world.” He smiled with a familiar jaw quiver.

    “I don’t have any whiskers,” Georgia laughed as she stroked the whiskers that he dangled over her. “But, I must admit I wish I had them. You get to sense so much more than a human.”

    Y’nael thought for a moment, the shadow of a thought moving almost visibly through his eyes, “Sometimes I wish I didn’t have them. Life’s more a mystery when you don’t feel so much.” He said as he kissed her again and she wrapped her arms about him. It was a nice sentiment, but she didn’t believe that he was actually jealous of her whiskerlessness. After all, he was a sree and she was merely a human.

    The next morning, Georgia reported for work early as usual, and was relieved when nobody brought up the sree or her relationship with Y’nael. However, some of them eyed her coldly, and she was glad to return to her and Y’naels quarters at the end of the day.

    Usually Y’nael arrived back at about the same time she did, but every ten cycles or so he would be delayed for an hour or two. This was one of those nights. Still feeling troubled about what she read on the site and heard from her fellow workers the previous day, Georgia decided to visit her friend Stephanie.

    Stephanie welcomed her to quarters with a warm hug. “What’s up?” she asked.

    “Not much. Y’nael’s a little late today so I thought I’d drop by here.” Georgia stepped inside and sat on Stephanie’s human-styled couch. After sitting on sree furniture for a few months, it was always welcoming to visit a human living space.

    “Not much here, either. Just sorta planning how I want to use my Net Hour.” She held up a sticky note with ideas. “Maybe I’ll try to find my parents for the umpteenth time.” She laughed jokingly. None of the Dearly Departed continued the search for long after the age of twenty—it was pointless.

    After talking blandly about various station issues, the talk inevitably turned to Y’nael. “So… how often are you intimate with him? Is it weird? Don’t sree weigh hundreds of pounds?” Stephanie asked curiously. She was trying to be polite even though she, just like the rest of the Dearly Departed disapproved of the relationship.

    “We’re together often. It was a little weird the first time, but it’s natural now.” She said honestly, “he’s gentle.”

    Stephanie’s expression changed a little, a frown crossing her lips; “But… don’t you ever feel a little guilty about being with him?”

    Georgia raised her eyebrow. “Guilty?”

     “I mean... I don’t mean to be rude—I can tell you really love him—but, you’re reaping all the benefits of being with a sree. And the captain nonetheless. He’s never going to fire you or look down on you like he does the rest of us Dearly Departed. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got a raise soon. Maybe move on from traffic monitoring to physics training…”

    “He doesn’t look down on the Dearly Departed.” Georgia said sternly and defensively.

    “Then why are the sree and the hruut on the top decks while we wallow on the traffic deck and live in the bowels of the station, fearful of relocation every day?”

    “I don’t know. But it has nothing to do with Y’nael. He’s good.” Georgia said, a surprising amount of emotion climbing up her throat.

    “He’s never suffered a day in his life.” Stephanie countered. “He’s a privileged reptile who only looks out for his own kind… and you, it seems. Mark my words; because you’re sleeping with him, you’ll be the first Dearly Departed to get a raise in a decade.”

    Georgia couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but she was unable to think of a proper counter argument. She got up angrily, kicked the couch she’d previously been so glad to sit on, and stormed out of the room.

    She returned to her and Y’nael’s quarters to find the sree fast asleep. On days he was late, he was always bone-tired. This was good, because she didn’t want him to sense how distraught she was. She quickly disrobed and wrapped herself up in his warm whiskers, plastering herself to his body. He may not have suffered a day in his life, she told herself firmly, but he’s good.

    The next day was pay day, and Georgia was selected to bring time slips to the top deck. Usually keeping track of work hours was done by a more sophisticated computer system, but the technology had broken a few months back and so it had been pen and paper since. Y’nael had sent out a replacement request, but the Galactic Government was what he called ‘a burdened slug’—it would be years before it was replaced.

    She entered the command room, the small bundle of time slips held in front of her. She’d never been nervous entering the top deck before, but now that Stephanie had pointed it out, she suddenly felt like an outcast amongst the busy sree and hruut milling about with their much more important jobs.

    “ Ah, Georgia. Over here.” Said a quadruped hruut named Bhuj. He was a quiet-voiced hruut who’d only come aboard a year ago.

    She handed the papers to Bhuj quietly, and she stood there as he input them into the computer, stamping the papers as he went. As she looked about, she was pleased to see a few fyarrs come and go, and even a human passed by, busily making his way to his desk. All she knew about this particular human was that his name was Jonathan, and that he was an outcast from the rest of the Dearly Departed because he worked with the sree. Georgia watched the blonde man as he sat down, alone amongst the aliens. She wasn’t sure how he could stand being an outcast from his own kind.

    “Georgia! I’m glad you stopped by!” Y’nael glided up to her from a group of sree who had just entered the room. “I have great news.” He said, his chin quivering, “I just got the okay to transfer you to the physics training program on deck three. That is, if you think you’re ready?”

    Georgia’s heart leapt. A smile spread across her face, but then vanished as Stephanie’s voice came into her head; she had foretold the previous night that she would be promoted. Y’nael noticed her change in expression. “What’s the matter? Don’t you think you’re ready? You’re brilliant, you know. You can do it.” He lowered his snout and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead.

    “I uh- yeah. I want to.” She shook her head a bit, trying to shake Stephanie from her thoughts. “I’m just nervous. There aren’t any other Dearly Departed in the program.”

    Y’nael raised an eyebrow and his side-mounted glasses slipped a bit. “Oh, not to worry. They’re all nice there. They’re eager to learn just like you—I can even help you out after work if you need me to. I’m not going to lie; it’s a tough program, but if there’s anyone who can make it through, it’s you.”

    Georgia was about to reply, but a voice called to Y’nael from across the deck; “Hey, Y’nael,” a hruut yelled, “There’s something up with the Speedway track in sector three-thousand-fifteen. It seems the orbit of that darn elliptical planet has pulled it out of alignment again. The GalGov’s asking for a maintenance plan.”

    “Phh’ty’r.” Y’nael said in the sree tongue. Though most used the Universal Language in every day talk, it was not uncommon to revert to one’s homeworld language for swearing. “I’ve got to get back to work. We’ll talk later.”

    A few weeks past, and word got out that Georgia would be moving on to the physics training program. If the Dearly Departed had treated her differently when she’d entered a sexual relationship with Y’nael, now they looked at her as if she was hardly Dearly Departed at all.

    Georgia didn’t know what to do about her situation. On one hand she could move on to an easier life on the top deck with more pay and job security, but on the other hand she would have to leave her Dearly Departed family behind. It seemed there was no middle ground.

    Finally, Georgia decided to talk to Y’nael about it three nights before she was due to report for training. It was late night when she decided to discuss this—she turned on her side, unable to sleep and gently rocked Y’naels snout until he awoke. “What is it?” Y’nael asked groggily, “Was I snoring again?”

    Georgia laughed a little and stroked his trembling jaw. “Nothing like that. There’s something important I wanted to discuss. I’m sorry to wake you, but I need to talk about it before it eats me up.”

    Y’nael forced himself to raise his head, sensing through his whiskers that she was in a serious state of mind. Then, Georgia carefully laid out her concerns.

    “…So, basically, the Dearly Departed are… not on board with me joining the physics program. They think I’m mooching off of my relationship with you, and they don’t want me working with the sree.” Georgia said, having explained all that had transpired.

    Y’nael thought over all she had told him. “They really don’t like the sree, do they?”

    Georgia was thoughtful. “Sort of. You’d have to be one of the Dearly Departed to truly understand. We’ve had it rough, moving from station to station as the GalGov sees fit. And to see the sree everywhere we go, always at the top… they think the sree look down on us, so they want nothing to do with you.”

    “But you want something to do with me, right?” he asked playfully as he nipped at her hair.

    Georgia giggled and shoved his head away from her. “It’s a serious matter, though. I love my Dearly Departed family. I want them to… give me their blessing, so to speak, to move to the upper decks, and to stay with you.”

    Y’nael lay his head back down and Georgia lay on her belly so that her face was close to his. “What if they don’t give you their blessing? Will you stay with me anyway?” he asked quietly.

    “I’m torn, Y’nael. I’m truly torn.” She answered honestly, and hoped he wouldn’t be offended.

    “What makes you so torn?” he asked, the tremble of his jaw shaking the last words from his mouth. “Don’t you want to be with me?”

    “I do. I really do.” She kissed him under his eye, “But nobody really… gets me like the Dearly Departed. They know what it’s like to suffer—to live day by day doing lowly jobs, fearful of what the future might be.”

    “Are you saying I don’t know what it’s like to suffer?” Y’nael asked, offense rising in his voice.

    Georgia stroked his whiskers soothingly. “Oh, Y’nael. I don’t mean to offend you. It’s just… you have to agree we’ve led very different lives. You must admit you’ve had it far easier than I’ve ever had it.”

    Y’nael looked at her, lost in thought, perhaps trying to think of some way he’d suffered as much as her. His jaw trembled again, and he nuzzled his snout in next to her forehead. “Well, I hope you’ll decide to take the job. You don’t have to suffer, you know. If I were you, I would always take the less painful route in life.”

    Georgia was too tired to think any further on the issue, and she snuggled herself back into the sree’s warm whiskers.

    It was the very next day that Georgia’s two worlds clashed. The Dearly Departed about her were distressingly quiet as she worked. She longed to talk idly with them as she used to—to talk about nothing and be happy doing it.

    She absent-mindedly looked to her right at Stephanie. Stephanie saw and glanced back. Georgia opened her mouth to say something, but all she could think to do was smile. It was a sad smile, however, and Stephanie’s eyebrows knit in concern. “Are you alright?” Stephanie asked, forgetting her anger momentarily.

    “No.” Georgia said, her voice barely rising above a whisper. “I don’t want to lose you guys.”

    “Then stop taking handouts from that sree. Stop acting like you’re better than the rest of us. Stop… acting like a sree. That’s what he’s doing; making you into a sree.”

    Georgia wiped a tear away from her left eye. Stephanie rested a hand on her shoulder, “You simply can’t take that job. When Y’nael’s done with you, you’ll be alone amongst the sree , and once they realize you’re inept, they’ll move you to another station. You’ll be completely alone.”

    Georgia was offended that Stephanie insinuated she wasn’t smart enough for the training program, but she might be right. All she’d ever heard was that it was one of the toughest programs in the Galactic Government.

    Before the conversation could go any further, Y’nael himself glided into the room. “Good morning.” He said casually, “Georgia, will you join me for lunch?”

    The rest of the Dearly Departed either glared at Y’nael or stared at their monitors to avoid looking at him. Georgia got up silently, feeling distressed. She hoped against hope nobody would say anything. But, from somewhere in the front row, a man whispered under his breath; “He’s buying you lunch now, too. You must really know how to stroke his whiskers.” Though it was a whisper, in the deathly quiet room it was disturbingly audible.

    Georgia stopped in her tracks, and her face became bright red. Instantly, tears emerged in her eyes. Y’nael heard the insult and saw Georgia’s reaction. His jaw began to tremble relentlessly as he grew angry, “Who said that?” his already deep voice deepened so that Georgia could have sworn the room shook.

    “I did,” said the man, standing up. It was Gary, an elderly man whom she loved and had looked up to as a grandfather figure. “…and I don’t care that you know it.”

    Y’nael moved close Gary, his flat teeth locked together so that the trembling of his jaw was less noticeable. “Good,” he said sternly and clearly through his teeth, “because you’re to report for re-location tomorrow. You’re fired.”

    Gary’s brave face broke, “What?! You can’t just fire me because I said something you didn’t like.”

    “You said something slanderous and offensive to one of my employees. It’s perfectly within my right to fire you. So pack your bags.” Y’nael said with finality and turned away, joining Georgia who had moved to the door. She was in shock as she saw the rest of the Dearly Departed rise.

    They came to the man’s defense, angrily shouting insults and rebuttals at Y’nael.

    “If you fire him, you’ll have to fire me too!”

    “Gary’s worked here for fifty years. You can’t do this!”

    “You’re sick, Y’nael. Just like the rest of the sree.”

    “Georgia, you can’t possibly want to be with a man like that!”

    “Look out for yourself, Georgia! He’ll make you into a sree!” Stephanie said, the last to shout as Y’nael ushered Georgia from the room.

    Y’nael and Georgia immediately headed to their quarters. As soon as they were past the door, Georgia lay down on the sree-style bed and wept. Her world had officially torn apart at the seams and she felt as if she herself had been unzipped as well.

    Finally, after her tears had cleared enough, she looked up at Y’nael, who could do nothing but watch and wait until she was ready to talk. “Why did you do that to Gary? He’s such a kind man.” Georgia managed to stutter out between choked sobs.

    “He didn’t seem that kind to me. He insulted you. I wasn’t going to stand by and let him say things like that.” he was still infuriated by the old man’s remark, and his hair stood on end.

    “He didn’t mean it! He’s just wanted to protect me.” Georgia sat up, and her eyebrows knit together angrily.

    “Protect you from what?” Y’nael bent down so that his face was close to hers.

    Georgia looked away from his gaze. “From you. They said you’re only giving me that position because we’re together. Y’nael, if we were to break up, I don’t want to end up like Jonathan. I don’t want to be alone. I’m so scared.”

    Y’nael blinked, and his jaw trembled so badly that she heard his flat teeth rattle together quietly as he clenched his jaw. Finally, he opened his mouth, “So what do we do?”

    “I can’t take handouts from you anymore, and I can’t risk being alone… I want to be with the Dearly Departed. They’ll look after me no matter what. They’ll be there for me no matter what.” As she finished her sentence, she saw Y’nael’s expression change to fear mixed with concern.

    “I understand you’re scared, but Georgia…” his nostrils flared as he took a breath, trying to calm himself, “I’ll admit it; I did suggest you for the physics training program because we’re together. However, I also suggested you for the program because I truly believe you can do it. Don’t let the Dearly Departed keep you within their ranks just because you’re ‘family’. There’s a great life opening up ahead of you. Don’t turn you back on it. You don’t have to be Dearly Departed anymore.”

    “If I’m not Dearly Departed, then what am I? Y’nael…” Georgia thought of Stephanie’s warning words, “are you trying to make me into a sree?”

    Y’nael’s nostrils flared again, and his whole body shook. “Never! Georgia, I love your arms and how you wrap them around me. I love your whiskerlessness and your human way of thinking. I love you.”

    Georgia’s hands shot up to her mouth. He’d caught her off guard.

    Time seemed to skip a beat and then gently came back to its smooth rhythm as Georgia’s head cleared. Her hands slowly left her lips. “Y’nael… I don’t think this is going to work. I know you’ve given me a great opportunity, but I don’t know that I’ve truly earned it.”

    Y’nael became flustered; his words came out mumbled and too quickly, “You have earned it, I swear it, Georgia.”

    Georgia stood up. “We’re just too different. Until you’ve suffered as the Dearly Departed have, you’ll never know me like they do.” The tears dried up in her eyes as she came to her decision.

    “But I have suffered!” It was the first time she’d seen it, but moisture entered the sree’s eyes.

    Georgia touched his chin. “How? You were born to be great, Y’nael. You’re a sree. As much as you think you’ve been through, you’ll never have been through as much as that old man you just fired.”

    She turned away, and her fingers slid out from under his quivering chin. She didn’t know where she was going to stay for the night, but she was sure the quartermaster could find her something.

    A week passed, and Georgia heard nothing from Y’nael. She didn’t show up to the physics training program. She returned as gracefully as possible to her work on the traffic monitoring deck.

    Soon, time slip day came again, and Georgia was selected once again to visit the top deck with the small stack of papers. She hoped against hope Y’nael wouldn’t be there—she knew just the sight of him would pull tears from her eyes.

    The top deck was busy as usual, and she almost stepped on a Sree’s tail as she entered the room. She looked for Bhuj, the hruut who always helped her with time slips, but he wasn’t present. “Hey, Georgia. Over here.” She heard an unfamiliar voice say.

    It was Jonathan, the lone human physics technician. “Bhuj is on vacation, so I’ll be helping with the time slips for a month or so.” He took the pile of papers from her and began entering them into the computer system.

    She kept an eye out for Y’nael as he worked, but he was nowhere to be seen.

    “How’s Y’nael holding up?” Jonathan asked casually. Georgia was surprised that he knew they’d parted ways, and she was slightly offended that Y’nael was going about, telling others about their break-up.

    “I don’t know.” She said simply.

    “I hope he feels better soon. I owe him a lot,” Jonathan continued, “…if it wasn’t for his hiring Dearly Departed, I’d still be a construction worker on Obilth.”

    “You’re Dearly Departed?” Georgia asked, “then, did you take the physics training program?”

    “Yep. Y’nael’s always on the lookout for new talent from us Dearly Departed. I think it’s because he lost his own son during some catastrophe on a planet in the Bhiv Sector. From what I heard, he’s still looking for him after hundreds of years. I think he sees a bit of his son in all of us.”

    “I didn’t know that.” She suddenly felt very sorry for Y’nael.

    “Oh? I guess you’ve only been together for a half a year, right? Crap, I probably should’ve let him get around to telling you his personal stuff himself.” His eyebrows curled up with concern.

    Georgia stood in silence, feeling for the poor sree. But, eventually her mind wandered back to the plight of the rest of the humans below decks. “Jonathan, can I ask you something? Do you ever feel bad, working up here while the rest of us work on the traffic deck?”

    He thought for a moment. “It was weird at first, being amongst a bunch of sree and hruut, but why should I feel bad? I worked hard for this position.”

    Georgia nodded, and leaned over his shoulder to see where he was. He finished inputting the slips and turned to her. “I hear you’ve been accepted into the physics training program as well. Maybe I’ll see you up here soon?”

    “Maybe.” Georgia shrugged, “I’ll see you around.” She gathered up the small pile of receipts he printed out and stepped away.

    “I hope Y’nael feels better soon. Sick bay is just the worst.” He said before she could get five feet from him.

    “Sick bay?”

    “Yeah. Wait, you didn’t know? He’s been there for three days. Something to do with his nerve disease.”

    “Nerve disease?” She raised an eyebrow, “what’s going on?”

    “He hasn’t told you yet? Maybe he didn’t want you to worry…” he looked into her eyes, “If he hasn’t told you, I don’t know if I should. Some sree are ashamed by it. They take so much pride in their whiskers, you know.”

    “Please tell me!” her voice rose to an uncontrolled pitch, and her face grew red.

    Jonathan stood up and took her to a corner of the room so that no one else could hear. “It’s alright. Calm down. He has something the sree call Hu’hin’a’vo. It’s a nerve condition that causes unrelenting pain and suffering. I looked it up once with one of my Net Hours—Hu’hin’a’vo means suicide whiskers. Apparently anyone who contracts it feels constant pain throughout their body, especially into the whiskers. Most Sree take their own lives when they can’t stand it anymore.”

    Georgia felt the room begin to spin. “Constant pain? It never lets up?” She asked dumbly.

    “So far as I know. He told me some days are better than others, especially with the treatment he gets about every ten cycles. But sometimes he becomes bedridden.” He paused, “I think the only thing that really keeps him from taking his life is his work and the search for his lost son… and you, I guess. I can tell he’s been much happier since you got together.”

    Georgia dropped the pile of receipts, and before she knew it, she felt her legs moving her to the door. The world was a blur as she made her way to sick bay. Everything about Y’nael suddenly made sense; how he was late getting to their room every ten cycles—he was getting treatment. How his jaw trembled—it was because he was in pain. How he hired Dearly Departed—it was not to save money on cheap labor, but to help those who, like his son, had been lost.

    She felt faint as she turned a corner and had to stop. As she stood, waiting for the station to stop spinning, she realized the irony of the Dearly Departed telling her that Y’nael looked at humans as lesser beings. They’d thought he judged humans by their species, but it was they who had judged him for being a sree—they’d all assumed he’d never suffered in his life because of the species he was born to, but in reality he’d suffered far more than they ever could have imagined.

    Finally, she made her way to sick bay. It was a small bay—only a few beds for the odd emergency. But Y’nael wasn’t there. The station doctor, a female sree approached her. “Here to see Y’nael?”

    “Where is he?” Georgia asked, looking about.

    “He’s not here. I sent him back to his room last night. All he needs now is rest. I’m surprised you didn’t visit him while he was here.”

    Georgia raced to Y’nael’s quarters and knocked on the door loudly. She half expected the man not to answer, but soon the door budged open. Y’nael’s head jolted back in surprise when he saw her.

    A look of hope darted through his eyes, but it vanished quickly. “I pardoned the old man, you know. He’s already on his way back to the station. You don’t have to worry about him.”

    “Why didn’t you tell me about Hu’hin’a’vo?” She demanded. Now it was her turn to tremble. She suddenly felt dehydrated as she stood before the man who had offered her so much—whose help and love she had denied merely because he was a sree.

    Y’nael looked about nervously and ushered her into the room. “It’s not something we share.”

    “ But, Y’nael. Is the pain really always constant?” Without thinking, she took his head in her hands. “Are you really always suffering?”

    He closed his eyes as she held his face. Suddenly, a façade crumbled from his very being, and not only did his jaw begin to quiver, but his entire body shook slightly as if he was being pricked by thousands of insidious needles.

     “Always.” he said, eyes still closed.

     For the umpteenth time that month, tears streamed from her eyes. Even when they’d made love—his most sincere expression of his feelings for her, he had been in pain. She planted a dozen kisses about his face then looked into his eyes as they finally fluttered open. “I was a fool to think the only people suffering on this station were the Dearly Departed. Can you forgive me, Y’nael?”

    “Of course. But only if you stay with me until I awaken from my nap. The doctor said I need plenty of rest after that last treatment.” he said, and lay down on his sree-style bed.

    Georgia snuggled up to him as he regained what little control he had over his pain, and his body stopped shaking… except for his chin, which gently trembled underneath his head.

    “Tell me about the first sree scientist again.” Georgia said as she stroked his whiskers.

    “They say the first sree scientist was born when the first sree made love,” he said, relieved, and tired and content; “when the whiskers of lovers touch, they know the world.”

    It was true she was a week late to start, but Georgia Jarrett soon found herself walking to her first class in the physics training program. The Dearly Departed had all but disowned her, and the future was uncertain.

    All she really knew was that she was doing it for herself, and the only people who really mattered to her were those who wanted her to succeed wherever life took her.