Page 17 of Her Alien Warrior
"Ah, you got my summons," a necia warrior dressed in white robes said without even lifting their head from examining something on the table. He straightened, and I could see small spikes poking through their robe, they were barely more than an inch of spike from their shoulder unlike the size of General Sou-el's, which were substantially bigger.
I wasn't sure why I was making a comparison, but ever since the commander made a note of it, I'd been paying more attention to the size of epul on every warrior I passed.
"I didn't get a summons," I corrected him, "I'm here because I have a headache."
"How odd, please come, sit." I took a seat, and he waved a pen over me, before tapping at the air and grunting. "Yes, there is the problem."
"What?"
"Easyfix," he said without a thought and before I could ask, 'what' again, he stabbed me in the neck with a needle. "There you are. The latest model. Don't worry your old implant will dissolve. You'll pee it out in nanobits after it's filtered through your blood stream."
I rubbed at my neck and glared at him.
He continued talking like there was nothing wrong, "This is why I keep telling the trill to let us administer the implants ourselves. Humans keep slicing open the skin and causing scar tissue to build up. Never great for implants to have scar tissue since your bodies are so slow to heal. This implant is better anyways, they give everyone those basic models for language processing, and they aren't built for message relays because people think they are just overhearing a conversation they aren't part of. They end up adjusting the frequencies and then there you go, headaches."
"So, you're telling me I caused my own headache by trying to mute background translations?"
"Messages, not translations, you can tell by the ding before it starts speaking."
"I thought it was an intercom error on the ship..."
He sighed with exasperation, "Humans."
"It's fixed now?"
"Better than fixed. Newest model, more languages, messaging interface that can connect with an eye implant, or lenses. When you hear the tone, you can press behind your ear and activate the message withoutgetting a headache. It's even capable of muting background noise, if you press just so," he demonstrated on himself, "you can increase or decrease the noise buffering. Sometimes I turn it on to tune out someone particularly chatty. Did you want an eye implant while you're here?"
"Uh, I've had enough excitement for the day."
He leaned in and whispered, "Between you and me, you've been approved for whatever you want and that isn't something every human gets, so I'd think about coming back for one before your permissions are removed. On to why I summoned you. I have to retrieve samples of every warrior on the list that you are potentially interested in for bathing. As you have been flagged as potentially allergic to the enzymes in our saliva."
My face flushed with an image of General Sou-el licking my skin. He must have added a note to my file because of my reaction to him, if only he knew it had nothing to do with allergies.
"Is that normal?"
The medic stared at me and then carefully smiled without showing his fangs. "What is normal, really, but undiscovered data? I'll collect samples and have you come in to test them safely as a precaution. Do you have a preference to narrow down the list?"
"Aren't they just going to, uh, lick me? Does it matter beyond that?"
"It matters a great deal," he said aghast like I had said something ridiculous. "There is preference of skill, enzyme compatibility,rank and honor among the tribe, interest level of bonding or strictly for assisting with yours or another's adrenaline saturation." Seeing my confusion, he shook his head in disbelief and mumbled about how no one ever listens to him when he says more training should be given to humans. "I'll take care of it, and make some selections for you, come back next rotation. I'll message you when I'm ready."
The medic stabbed me again, this time with a canister that took a blood sample, then swiped at thin air, like he didn't even see me anymore as he grunted and nodded. More hand flicks and he smiled to himself muttering to himself, "Yes, that will do nicely."
My headache was gone, but a new type of annoyance built as I tried to think through next steps of where I was supposed to go after I left the medbay. Surprisingly, the meal from this morning kept me full throughout the day, and with how big the ship was, I lost track of where I was, or even how to find my way back to where I started.
Everything looked the same, every hall was filled with sliding doors that led to more halls, small living quarters for ship staff and I wondered when I'd come across something different like a communal space or even the medbay, observatory, or an office.
I'd passed several humans, warriors, and even some other species I wasn't familiar with. Didn't see the helpful trill again, but I finally spotted a double-wide slider that usually meant a communal space of some kind.
When Ientered, there were rows and rows of stacked stasis pods on a conveyor system that I couldn't even see the end of.
A trill was dressed in a similar robe to that of the medic I saw earlier, she turned to see me and lifted a brow ridge.
Her green skin was lighter than the other I saw in the hall earlier, but I did remember the odd pinky greeting I was shown and attempted a recreation of the gesture now, to temper the awkwardness. She did the same, and said, "Small is the sight when focused on one instead of many, human of Earth."
Scales fluttered along the outer ridge of her head, a golden sheen glinting off them in the dim light before she closed her eyes and tapped her pinky once more to her temple.
I wasn't sure if I was supposed to say something in return, but she was definitely watching me expectantly, so I replied, "That's very admirable to give to others."
