Remember what I said about an aquatic species creating the Haska? (If you don't, go back and read Morong and Stevick's pages, then come back.)

This guy is one of the remnants of that species. The Su’aiq.

For those keeping track, this brings the number of species in the Space Friends universe thus far to four: Kertik, Chemno, Haska, Su'aiq.

So, the Su'aiq. Unlike most terrestrial species, their bodies contain an awful lot of cartilage--while there are some calcium-based bones (their skull, most of their spine, certain major arm and leg bones, parts of their hands) in their bodies, most of it is connected via cartilage or other forms of tissue, meaning that they have a difficult time supporting themselves outside of an aquatic environmet. It's possible to have a lot of that replaced with metal prosthetic bones, but even then, their legs are not terribly strong, and can only be built up so far. The only reason they even HAVE legs is for minor course changes and the ability to rotate in place, apparently--that and those claws on the back feet are good for catching themselves on rocks and the like. And then staying there. Too bad the only bones in the foot itself are the claws and a couple of very small, thin bones that are definitely not able to be stood upon outside of the water. So that's a problem.

Also, they don't have lungs. Gills only, check your terrestrial air-breathing privilege at the door.

For all these reasons and a few others, not many Su'aiq were off-planet at the time their world went belly-up due to solar expansion. Even with the evacuation, there are only a few thousand scattered across the universe at present--and the number continues to drop. To be fair, while they did have the technology to leave their planet, they had to create a huge water-circulation system on each ship, which had to be properly oxygenated, etc. It's not possible to have many individuals on any given ship, so the evacuations were extremely difficult and expensive. To this day, the Su’aiq refuse to tell other species how the individuals who got to leave were chosen.

It's difficult for a planetless species to maintain its numbers without outside interference, though--the Haska, ironically, were so widespread and so well-established off their planet of origin that they've had no problem surviving, but the Su'aiq have not been so lucky. Finding a planet with a sufficient quantity of water that can actually support them (appropriate level of oxygen, levels of salinity, depth, an ecosystem that can they can live in/they won't destroy just by being there, etc.) that is ALSO not already occupied by another sentient species (or at least populated by a species that will allow them to live there) has been hard. The few planets that can meet their needs have so far only been able to be populated by a few hundred Su'aiq, or at most a couple thousand--either because of ecological limitations or because of another species being unwilling to give more of their planet to the Su'aiq. (There are, admittedly, a lot of good reasons for this--resource competition, political/social difficulties and differences, etc.) Thus far, no political body has intervened beyond allowing refugees and/or limited permanent habitation on X or Y a planet. So they're very fragmented. This is not a good thing.

Also, their native language is... well, in addition to dying out (like they are), it's spoken mostly via whistles, clicks, creaks, and groans, all at a variety of registers. This means that most sentient life forms can't speak it at all, and no other species has thus far been able to speak it fluently--the Kertik can speak some of it, but only in a grotesque, incomplete pidgin that requires the use of common speech to be of any use. The names of individuals (not to mention the actual name of the species itself) are almost always impronouncable to most other species.

Because of this, individual Su’aiq generally take a 'common' name in addition to their 'actual' name--a phenomenon not unlike an Asian Human going by 'Jennifer' or 'Eugene' with their non-Asian friends instead of just suffering through it while everyone mispronounces their name terribly.

This guy's common name is Newports. Newports is not well-liked, in part because he's mostly interested in males of his species. This wouldn't be a problem, most likely, except for the thing about their population getting smaller. It's not a situation where individual choice in sexuality is supported or encouraged, at least not amongst his people. Even more troublesome, when he has found himself attracted to females, it's invariably to members of other species.

Helpfully, his people don't engage in direct intercourse to reproduce--they spawn more like fish, where sperm is sprayed into the water in close proximity to a number of eggs, which are then (hopefully) fertilised.

However, Newports has thus far resisted the pressure to become a father--and has become steadily more disliked and more of a pariah for it. And that's just amongst the Su’aiq who aren't actively attempting to pressure (or force) him to reproduce--and/or actively hating him for his refusal.

Still, as it turns out, the Su’aiq may not be the ONLY species capable of speaking their native language....

Fun Bonus Fact!

• The Su'aiq (and most other forms of aquatic life on their planet) are red-green colourblind. As a result, many Su'aiq are reds, greens, and purples as well as blues and greys; they're still perfectly camoflauged to their own eyes. This does not work as well on most other planets, but they've kind of progressed past the need for much camoflauge, so eh.

Eventually I'll write more about these guys and all the complicated interspecies politics, but now I am tired.

Art by Itsubun