In the early days, humans had just been allowed into the Alliance, but quite a few were still wary. These were very dangerous deathworlders. Sure they were smallish, depending on the species that worked with them, and somewhat squishy, but damn were they tenacious and dangerous! It was well known they were predators, too, that could, and would, eat pretty much anything, including quite a few things that were poisonous.
However, what the crew wasn't prepared for, was during dinner. The human was a bit of a joker, liked to smile and was easy-going and easy to work with. So the crew's fear and nervousness was fading fast. Then the human got a bad case of the hiccups during dinner. And they had no clue what in the heck was going on -- Anon Guest
Humans have a great love of sharing things. Sharing meals, sharing games, sharing humour, sharing weird little facts about whatever they happened to enjoy. Shared meals, they insisted, were a wonderful bonding experience. Or... it would have been.
Humans, at this stage in things, were the ones who knew the most about Humans. All the rest of the Alliance had were testimony from close encounters, anecdotes, translated documents, and a lot of rumours and myths. Some of which were actively encouraged by mischievous Humans.
This was, officially, the first formal meal that Alliance civilians shared with a Human. Though the conversations were largely in GalSimple, everything was going well. Until the Human - Gef - started having a breathing issue. They started speaking oddly, with peculiar stops in their breath. Even when they weren't talking, there was a peculiar noise accompanying the spasms. Human Gef seemed to treat it as a minor annoyance.
"...and then the -hoik- actress sai-- hic. The actre-- HYURP. Aw [SOAKED WITH MOISTURE] of a [FEMALE CANID] -hiyurp- [BUTTOCKS]." Human Gef, irritated, started deep breathing, interspersed with strange noises with their odd intakes of breath.
"Are you well, Human Gef?" asked Gef's immediate neighbour at the table. "Did we break you?"
Human Gef took a deep breath and held it. Something that was alarming to the beings who didn't have a semi-amphibious stage in their development. Human Gef's chest still twitched as they held up a finger. There were gestures.
Thumbs up, meaning all good. One finger raised, meaning give me a moment.
Silence fell within the room like a flooding rainfall. Every single Alliance cogniscent present came victim to the sweeping tides of panic at the unknown. Had they, Havenworlders and regular citizens of the Alliance alike, inadvertently caused a war by harming a Deathworlder?
Human Gef finally exhaled very slowly. Never before had a Human breathing out been such a subject of intensely loaded fascination. "Nothing to worry about, I promise it's just -hyup- [SODOMY] hiccups. I gotta try again. Last one -hyoooorik- didn't catch."
Of all the possible Deathworlder body malfunctions, this was one of the most perplexing.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / diego_cervo]
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