Several Short Stories

Prejudice On Caduceus

 The starship Caduceus' crew was scattered with members of the Griggs family. The captain was Orion Griggs, chief of medical staff was his wife, Artem Griggs. Their eldest children, the twins, Lyra and Linus were fighter pilots on board. This wasn't something of controversy. Everyone on Caduceus knew that Captain Orion was not the one who chose his relatives to join the force, he only chose them to be on the Caduceus specifically.

Only one member of the Griggs family's presence on the Caduceus was ever questioned; Seren Griggs. Seren was the co-head of the Robotics, Engineering, and Mechanics (REM) team. Seren's employment was constantly called into question for one simple reason.

Seren was an Axale, an individual who is born either both or neither male nor female. Prejudice against Axen was commonplace. It was something Seren had always known. If they wanted to do something they would have to work twice as hard, be twice as good, and have twice the qualifications. No matter how capable they were their competency would always be viewed skeptically. Oh yes, Seren knew of prejudice.

Seren couldn't pass as anything but an Axen. Their long purple hair came down to their broad, masculine shoulders, pulled back into a ponytail by their neck with its Adam's apple. No breasts could be seen on their chest, under the jacket that stopped short of their feminine hips. They were clearly Axale. Many people in Seren's life considered this to be a disadvantage, a regrettable reality, like burnt food or crime. Seren; however, embraced it.

They made it incredibly obvious that they were indeed an Axale. Instead of wearing the men's or women's uniform Seren elected to mix them. They wore the jacket and pants from the women's uniform with the shirt, boots, and helmet from the men's. They had written A under sex on all their papers, an A even appearing on their ID tag. They wouldn't hide who they were until their dying day, no matter how much grief it caused.

The rest of the REM team never questioned Seren's authority. Even new members halted any comments about Seren's physicality very early on. The REM team saw Seren's talent first hand. The team knew Seren more personally than anyone else on the ship who wasn't a Griggs.

If anyone gave Seren trouble it was the pilots. Some held their tongues, fearing Captain Orion or Lieutenants Lyra and Linus. That did not mean the pilots never targeted Seren. It just meant the smart ones didn't.

Seren was walking down one corridor of the Caduceus, chatting wildly with Zion, the other co-head of the REM team. The two could often be found geeking about together. Besides being coworkers and teammates, Seren considered Zion Ajax to be one of their closest friends. They knew that the feeling was mutual.

A voice called from down the corridor, "Hey! Appall!". Seren knew full well that they were being addressed. Appall was a not so nice term used in reference to Axales, from when they used to be called Apales. Zion turned his head and glared daggers at the guy. Neither stopped.

"Hey you little he-she! I'm talking to you!", the guy was definitely following them, "You inferior little creature, you listen when a real person talks to you!".

That made Seren's blood boil, "Excuse me.", Their tone was sickly sweet, like one would expect from a very angry customer service employee. Anyone with sense would see how angry they were, and that getting someone that angry was a stupid idea. Apparently, Anders, the new pilot who was being so rude, didn't have sense.

"C'mon Seren, this jerk isn't worth a fight", Zion urged, trying to move his friend along. Seren knew he was right, that some older higher ups were looking for any possible excuse to send Seren packing and getting into fights wouldn't help. They were about to leave but Anders just had to keep going.

"What's it gonna do, call it's daddy? Would he even care about a freak of nature like this? I bet I could throw it out the airlock and he would be grateful.", Anders taunted.

That blew Seren over the edge. In an instant they had Anders pinned to the wall, half choking him. They could only see red. Only hear blood rushing through their skull. Only act in fury.

Zion was trying to snap his friend out of it. They had every right to be furious, of course, but Zion didn't want to see Seren kicked off the force. He knew that would crush them, and he would miss them terribly. Seren didn't appear to hear a word of what Zion said.

It was another voice that finally snapped them out of it, "Rennie ? What's going on ?". It was Lyra. She pulled Seren back easily, she always had been physically stronger than them.

Linus looked between the two of them,"Newbie! What did you do?". He sounded furious. A rare thing, Linus was always so calculating and cold.

Zion found his voice, "He called them an Appall, a he-she,an inferior little creature, an it, and a freak of nature.", his tone held no sympathy, "and said that Captain Orion would be grateful if he killed them.".

Lyra and Linus looked horrified. Lyra grabbed Anders by the shoulder and escorted him off. Zion knew that she was angry, and that an angry Lyra wasn't pleasant but he held no pity for Anders. Linus knelt down beside Seren where his little Axer had curled up against the metallic wall of the corridor.

"Dad would care if Anders through me out of the airlock, right?", Seren's tearful gaze met Linus's eyes, When Seren was on duty they never called the captain just 'dad' he was always 'Captain Orion', 'Captain', or 'Sir' until they were off. If they were calling him 'dad' then they must have been really shaken by Anders.

"Of course he would, Rennie,", Linus assured, pulling his Axer into a hug. A large part of Zion wanted to hug them too, but he already felt as though he were intruding on a private family moment.

Zion settled for running down the hall after Anders instead. He might not have known what to say to fix his misdeeds but perhaps he could punch his lights out instead.

Anders didn't need his lights punched out. When Zion came across him, he was being chewed out by his supervisor, who happened to be Lyra. It takes a real kind of idiot to target the little axes of their supervisor, good god Anders. From the tone of the conversation Zion got the sense the punishment would be significant.

The Griggs family was a constant presence on the Caduceus. They looked out for each other from aboard a hunk of junk metal starship. You hurt one Griggs you deal with them all. It didn't matter whether they were family by blood, like Lyra or Linus, or by love, like Zion. Family protected their own. No matter what the world may think.