Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Facial Expressions

"Why are we even here?"

At the front of the room, The Grizzled Tesraki Bridge officer took his seat. One of his ears was partially mangled, and his dark Ochre fur stuck up in strange places only adding to his grizzled appearance.

In the front row, the young Tesraki that had spoken tapped a foot impatiently against the floor.

The room was filled with new recruits to an asteroid mining cooperation in the Quadinspira galaxy. There were More than a dozen bored looking Tesraki, a Rundi or two and even, to everyone's surprise, Four Vrul, who had only just begun appearing in the private sector after the downfall of their current government in a surprising coup . The front row also boasted a finnari or two and the odd gibb, though no one expected it to last very long.

"Look, the less questions you ask, the sooner I can get through this presentation." The grizzled tesraki rubbed his mangled ear, "Corporate has made this a mandatory introduction course, and for once I tend to agree with that decision."

"Seems more like a waste of time to me." Someone muttered.

The grizzled tesraki's head jerked to the side following the muttered comment, "I may have a bad ear, but that doesn't mean I'm deaf." The entire class shifted nervously at the tesraki's strange behavior. The average Tesraki wasn't nearly so confrontational.

He crossed his arms again, "have any of you ever met a human."

There was a pause around the room, but no hands were raised.

The Tesraki snorted, "Than that is exactly why you are here because corporate thinks, rightly, that you should have some warning before you go into an environment with humans. Otherwise, you're setting yourself up to get a mangled ear." The entire class was paying attention now, trying very hard not to stare at the Tesraki's mangled ear.

"Did.... did a human...."

The tesraki stomped his foot on the ground in amusement before letting off a sound that was oddly similar to a strangled bark. The group glanced around at each other nervously, "You'll get used to it." The tesraki muttered before leaning back against the wall, "No, a human didn't take my ear off, it got messed up in an industrial accident, and in fact, a human is the only reason I am alive right now. Those bastards have incredible reflexes when they want, but my point is that humans CAN and HAVE done these sorts of things to people, and it is my job to make sure you pay attention to the training we are about to give you." He turned towards his desk and tapped a button on the tabletop dimming the lights and starting up a holoprojection at the front of the room.

The darkness was momentarily broken by a greenish loading screen before a video flipped on.

The image was of a mostly nondescript brownish gray vrul with prismatic orange eyes sitting calmly at a desk facing the camera. The little banner under the video read.

Dr. Krill Chief of Surgery at Arcadia Noxumber Hospital: Human Anatomy Expert.

The little vrul shifted in his seat, "So, you plan on working with humans." He nodded slowly to himself, "Well before you begin, I have been asked to give a little presentation to ensure the safety of you and all of your nonhuman colleagues." The video switched to be replaced by an interactive medical diagram of a human in question, "A human is a sentient omnivorous predator species from the quad inspira galaxy hailing from a class A death planet. Due to the hostility of their home environment, it has become clear, that conflicts in a cross species workplace can become dangerous for any nonhuman worker."

The diagram flashed, "While humans generally tend to be a docile and social species, capable of getting along with anyone they come in contact with, it is important to remember that the human need for survival is more heavily ingrained in them than it is in us, for this reason, humans may respond violently or unpredictably to situations they find threatening or unfamiliar. Their emotions are prone to changing rapidly and sometimes violently, though this is the exception to the rule."