Sana looked up from her desk when Foh!una walked in carrying several food parcels. "These are so of the new foods from the Aauuans."
"Arrurrans."
"Yes, that. Where you do want them?"
Sana pointed at a shelf, and Foh!una set the items down. "Thanks. I need to start testing those and see whether the food is any good for your people to eat."
"Need to try so?"
"Yes, please. Give a mont." Sana turned on her scanners and made sure they were linked to the biosensors Foh!una had already ingested. The Ooafan looked healthy, or at least within what seed to be a typical range for the survivors among her people. "All right, go ahead and try sothing."
Foh!una hopped up on an examination table with a foil packet in her hand, then started fiddling with it. After a few monts, her ears started curling forward. She turned the package over several tis, then grunted with effort as she tried to rip it open. "Beep the beep beep?" Foh!una sighed. "How...do...I...open...this?" she asked with exaggerated patience.
"Let see it." The Ooafan passed it to her, and Sana inspected it for sensors, seams, or other indicators. There was a large glyph near one end with a suspicious texture. "Oh, I get it." She took a finger and traced it around the swirls of the glyph. As soon as she finished, the foil unwrapped and laid itself flat on her desk.
"What did you do?" Sana showed her, and Foh!una shook her head, ears flaring. "How was I ever going to beep beep that beep beep?"
Sana shrugged a shoulder. "I have seen this design before."
"Does it work by lightning? It is paper! Where are the batteries?"
"It is not paper, it is tal foil with..." Sana stopped and looked down at it, wrinkling her nose. "That is an unpleasant odor."
She tapped a code at her desk, which extruded an eating utensil in response. When she showed one to Nick, the human had said, "Fitting. The spork from Hell." Now, she plucked it and began to poke at the food.
"It looks like a wrap."
"A what?"
"A...flat bread that goes around the rest."
"Like an empty-inside bun?"
Sana cut off a tiny piece of the outer bread and offered it to the Ooafan. "Sll that, please?" Foh!una took the sample and put it in her mouth without closing it, then took it back out.
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"Slls fine. I'll eat it." The green alien did as she said, chewing carefully. "Not bad." She swallowed. "How does it look? Am I dying?"
Sana watched the readouts. "Not yet, at least."
The two of them discussed various dical topics for a bit, then Sana called the Arrurran ambassador.
"Hello?"
"Hello, this is Doctor Sana Vickall. I am sorry, is your na...Grrmyip?"
"Pretty good. It's actually Grrmyip, but that's close enough. What can I do for you, Doctor?"
Sana made a ntal note to check the sound waveforms after the conversation. "We are testing your foods. Can you help identify ingredients?"
"Ah...yes. I will try."
For the next while, the ambassador politely gave the nas of ingredients one at a ti when they were recognizable to him: a yellow vegetable, a red vegetable, the at of a certain animal, and so forth. In so cases, the Arrurran was clearly consulting a database of his own, not being familiar with every possible food on his planet. Fortunately, he had his own supply of many of the foodstuffs and spent so ti reading the labels.
Eventually, Foh!una had to stop sampling; Sana explained that they were approaching the limits of her equipnt's ability to sort out which food was having which effect on the Ooafans' system. Nothing in the first batch was problematic, sowhat to Sana's surprise. So of the foods that slled bad to her were fine for Foh!una, and tastes ran the other way as well.
"Thank you for your help, Ambassador Grrmyip," Sana said formally. "I apologize for not yet getting your air and immune system checked out so that you can move about the ship freely."
"I understand, Doctor. Feeding your people is very fast important. I am fine now. I am not sad from have ti. Many of your crew are happy to talk with ."
"Again, thank you." Once they signed off, Sana taught Petra urgent and bored.
One word at a ti, we'll get there.
Nick wandered into Sickbay just as Foh!una was leaving. "Thank you again, Fortuna, for help when I was injured."
"You are welco, Nik!eh."
"Hello, Nick. What can I help you with?"
"I..." Nick stopped and sniffed the air. "Sothing slls good, like...oh my beep do you have beep?!" Sana laughed and showed him the different foods that had been opened. Nick recoiled from most of the sa foods Sana herself did, but one stew drew his attention firmly. "Can I try this?"
"One mont, Nick." She switched the scanners to read his sensors instead of Foh!una's. "Go ahead." The human took a taste, and got complicated expressions on his face.
"A mix of good and bad?" she guessed.
"Definitely, yes," Nick answered. "I was not expecting coffee-flavored stew. It's...in the wrong place."
"How so?"
"Coffee is a bitter drink. Many have it with sothing sweet, and it is sotis baked into sweets. To find it mixed with at is...um..." He hesitated. "I'll eat it, but...I will try things to add to it." The pink alien looked very conflicted, if Sana was reading his expression correctly.
"You miss this coffee?"
"Yes. Oh, um...did we ever translate caffeine?"
"Yes, Nick, I'm pretty sure I know what chemical you an."
Nick paused, then sighed. "Sa as good, that I don't get beep to drinking it again."
"I look forward to trying human foods when we get to Earth, if we can manage it."
" too," Nick said with feeling, and Sana laughed.
Abruptly, Sana's scanners beeped with an alert. "Oh. Hm."
Nick frowned at the sa ti. "Oh, boy."
Sana did not need a scanner to hear the gurgling in Nick's system. She gestured, and Nick hastened to relieve himself in private.
"I'll work on simulations for a gut bacterium for you," Sana called after him.
"Thanks, Doc..."
Sana shook her head and got to work, grateful that she had plentiful Goldaskian food aboard.
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