A Human has a very sensitive digestive system due to the damage done from multiple illnesses before they escaped the Deregger world they'd come from. Now working aboard a Havenworlder ship, they found even many of the Havenworlders' foods too harsh for their digestion, and had to explain why the foods they made, while nutritionally balanced, were bland even to the Havenworlders. -- Anon Guest
Human Roi was a Rescue. The crew of the Pohkit Ansee knew this on an intellectual level, but there were always the empirical surprises. The abundance of nature scene screens in their room and the high population of indoor plants in their personal habitat. There was the Hyper-compressed velvet toy seal packed in their livesuit for emotional emergencies.
The repeated shocker was in Roi's diet.
Oatmeal in the morning, with a specific selection of berries depending on the day of the week[1]. Carefully portioned out in a little cup. On Tendays[2], if things were going well, Roi was allowed an egg, sunny side up. Lunch was a very careful salad with light oils and dinner was the same chicken parmigiana with steamed vegetables and a very inconspicuous sauce.
The Havenworlder crew were baffled at this. When encountering new foods, Roi had a scanner with which they could announce it was not recommended.
The common complaint from the Shipboard crew was, "But you're a Deathworlder, you can eat anything."
Roi had something of a joke. "I must'a got the Havenworlder stomach by mistake." The truth was far more disturbing.
Medik Phrakchur murmured the truth in one Shipboard Sensitivity Meeting. Following Roi's consent, and a crew-wide round of mild shock suppressants, the news became public.
Ulcers, in combination with lingering disease after-effects, had left Roi with enough digestive issues to fill an encyclopedia.
"In summation, the retrogenes are slow and the healing is twice as slow. We're working on that whole 'quality of life' thing." Roi shrugged in the same way they shrugged at anything else they couldn't change. "It's gonna take years."
The crew were a lot more descriptive about the things they could not share, thereafter. Just so Roi could live vicariously.
[1] The Galactic Standard Calendar consists of a ten-day week, a four-week month, and a ten-month year. Only Humans find this confusing.
[2] There's also a remarkable lack of imagination in the naming of everything.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / jacklyric]
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