The Weight of Being

The Weight of Being is the story of one couple's adversity with discrimination and prejudice, only to find the true qualities of acceptance, even of themselves.

Wife and husband CeCe and Zerone have left Earth seeking refuge on Neptune's frozen and inhospitable moon, Triton. They made this life changing decision-homesteading on this surreal moon, leaving their jobs, their friends, and everything they once knew-because of the persistent and caustic racism they were forced to endure on Earth. Each day on this distant moon is focused on survival: contending with incomprehensible cold, an unbreathable atmosphere, and constant threats to their very existence. Here, on the edge of the solar system, they discover that the only thing they can count on is the deep, enduring love they have for each other.

Feeling claustrophobic in their small spacecraft-the Solaria-CeCe decides to venture out onto Triton's frozen tundra to do a little exploring. There she happens upon a strange object buried in the ice. Her curiosity piqued, CeCe returns it to their wayward home where she and Zerone try to uncover its mysteries. The object persists in its obscurity, revealing little of its nature. But one thing is certain-it is hundreds of thousands of years old and not of human origin.

Deciding their discovery is simply too important, CeCe and Zerone make the monumental decision to return to Earth-to inequality, to life in a ghetto, and languishing as third- (or fourth-) class citizens-so that they can share their find with the rest of humanity.

But as researchers on Earth eventually discover, the alien object stubbornly remains quiescent except, mysteriously, when in the presence of CeCe. A government-sponsored mission is commissioned back to Triton, with a larger crew and a more capable spacecraft than Solalria, to reveal the object's true nature, with CeCe and Zerone invited to join.

In the distant reaches of the solar system, over a billion miles from Earth, CeCe and Zerone must face both familiar and new challenges, including the prejudice and animosity of a hateful crewmember and an epochal introduction to an alien species whose intents are unknown. The very history of life on Earth may even be in question. But ultimately, they are forced to contend with their own perceptions and acceptance of the nature of their true selves.