"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."

The diagram vanished, turning itself back to Dr. krill, "I cannot teach you everything there is to know in this short video, but I Can give you a crash course on some knowledge you are going to want to have if you interact with humans, and that is...." The screen flashed again, and the next image that showed up was a close up headshot of a human.

The image was so startling that some of the students jumped a little in their seats, distrubed by the strange expression, the predatory forward facing eyes, and the rubbery lips pulled back from a wide array of glittering white teeth.

"Human body language, most importantly human facial expressions are going to be some of the most important aspects of your nonverbal interaction with humans. Humans have the most mobile face out of almost any species on earth. There are 43 muscles in the human face alone, and are specifically designed for social communication with other humans. Additionally the enlarged whites of the eyes serve to allow other humans to more easily read their eye movements.

This expression you see here is a common facial expression you might see on humans, and one that you should be pleased to see. The human smile is unique among sentient species and unique among their own primate cousins. The smile actually evolved from the "fear expression."

Another image flashed on screen, of a very similar expression, lips pulled back over flashing teeth, but this time the eyes were wider, where in the other image they were somewhat scrunched, causing little wrinkles to radiate from the edges of the eye.

"Historically speaking, the "fear" expression was also used as a sign of submissiveness towards more aggressive members of a human pack. By showing this expression humans might have helped to avoid conflict. Over time this expression evolved somewhat to indicate that the human has friendly intentions, using a "submissive" expression to indicate that they are not intending to be dangerous. Note the differences between the "fear" face and the "smile". A smile might result in the closing of the eyes, or squinting, which would reduce the functionality of the human's primary sensory organ, vision, while the fear face opens the eyes wider to allow in more light and increase the usefulness of the primary visual system. I must note here that a human can "Fake" a smile, but if the muscles around the eyes don't move, it is likely to be a fake smile. Additionally it is important to remember body language in context, a smiling human will open up their body in a submissive way, holding their arms out, exposing their chest, lifting their chin to expose the throat, while an afraid human will curl in on themselves, lift their shoulders, and lower their chin. Additionally, they are likely to lift their hands to protect their face.

Another image appeared on screen, this time it was a similar image, but somehow more unsettling than the first two. The teeth were still showing, but this time they were more obvious, and the eyes, while squinted were turned down so far that the skin around the nose wrinkled, "Smiling or fear should not be confused, with a snarl, which is an aggressive facial expression you are unlikely to see on a human unless they are incredibly angry. You see the teeth are still pulled back, but the lips are pulled thin, the brows are dropped low to protect the eyes, and the muscles around the nose are punched inward. The snarl may be preceded by an angry face."

The slide flipped again and this time, the image was of a human with its mouth closed, usually full lips were pulled tight into a thin line and almost inverted. The chin was down and the nostrils were flared. The brows were pulled tight together, and the eyes were wide and staring. The room shifted nervously, "It is best to avoid a human if you see this face, lips pulled thin, with such an intense stare. Humans don't generally tend to hold eye contact for long periods of time. If a human is staring at you with this much intensity, it is often going to be a bad sign, and it is best to move."

The screen flipped again, to show a row of a few more expressions, "It is best to differentiate human expressions that are happy and angry for your own safety, but here are a few quick examples of other expressions. Disgust"

The screen flashed.

A human with lips pulled back, though the expression was uneven, the head was slightly turned away, and the nose was wrinkled.

"Contempt."

Eye contact, one side of the mouth pulled up, lips slightly pressed together.

"A human that shows contempt towards you is not necessarily going to be violent, but it might be best to move departments if you can."

"Sadness"

Corners of the mouth turned down, eyebrows turned up in the middle instead of down.

"Other than facial expressions, there are a few human vocalizations that may be beneficial for you to hear."

The room was filled with a sound it was almost impossible to describe, it was like a screech but done in short sharp bursts. Multiple sound clips were played and all the sounds were different, but contained a similar repetitive pattern. It was a strange and unnerving noise to stay the least, "Believe it or not, this is one of the best sounds to hear coming from a human. It's called laughter, and usually means they find something entertaining. If you make a human laugh it's generally considered a god thing, though it can often be used in certain situations to break tension."

"Those of you with sensitive ears may want to cover them for this next sound, because if you hear it you will likely want to run. This is a human's warning/distress call and may indicate danger."

The Tesraki clamped their hands over their ears just in time for the room to be filled with a soul rattling screech that made everyone in the room flinch, and the desks to vibrate. Multiple clips were played, over and over again, terrified screeching like tortured animals, sometimes translation equipement even picked up words."

"HELP! HELP! HELP ME!" The words devolved into incoherent screaming that left the entire room shaken when it faded,

"Generally indicates fear, or pain, and can be a warning for other social species to leave, or even call for aid. Oddly enough a human will not require a class to learn our facial expressions, as they are incredibly socially intuitive on most occasions. Again I must remind you that humans are not inherently violent, and that aggression only happens rarely, statistically speaking, But I am still eager to caution you."

The video flashed back to the doctor who was leaning against his desk now, "At all costs it is your mission to make friends with the humans, iIt is extremely beneficial to both parties, and speaking as someone who has many human friends, I am likely in one of the safest locations in the galaxy, so be safe, remember these ips I have given you, and good luck."