Invasive Species
Novella 21,056 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"Rath van Dorn groaned and rubbed at eyes that were sore and red, his long brown fingers prying grit from the dry corners. ... How the hell did they expect him to concentrate on reports when his wife was missing? Had been missing for weeks. He tried to calculate how many, but he couldn’t remember what day of the week this was."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Analog, where the author gets the click.