Pop-ex (Population Exchange)

One Small Mistake

Tiger and Valor lead the way.

I let Jorman slow us down, sensing he wants to talk. I turn off the translator attached to my shirt, and Jorman does the same.

"You need to be careful, big sis, don't get attached, or involved. What if they don't let us join their crew? You could end up like mom." Jorman warns.

I chuckle and inform him, "Tiger, and his crew, aren't even sure of my gender." I point out. "Haven't you noticed that while they'll call you my brother, they haven't called me your sister; or even brother."

Jorman thinks for a moment, and then laughs. "You're right."

I nod my head. "If I'm reading things correctly: they're embarrassed to admit it, and would rather wait for us to reveal my gender through our speech."

"Well, if they're too cowardly to ask." Jorman states, "I'm not going to make it easy on them."

I momentarily grab him in a sideways hug. "They're going to have to learn that not every species is easy to tell the difference between the sexes, and sometimes they're just going to have to ask."

"Neither of your species are of a hard to tell variety." Jorman points out.

I point to a passing female Tharian, indicating her much smaller size, and frailer frame. She winks at me. I tell Jorman, "To their species I am hard to figure out. They're as strange to us as we are to them. Notice how differently their females and males dress."

"Maybe after the twin ceremony Valor and I will be able to bridge the gap. Genetic skills have been known to be shared in the process." Jorman points out excitedly, "Then we'll be even more valuable to their crew."

I laugh. "Now who's getting attached?"

"Ewe, not like that." Jorman exclaims.

I nod my head and whisper, "I like these people too. I think we could help them a lot, but we'll have to see how it goes."

"Tiger is confused about you." Jorman states, "But, also about himself."

"Thanks for the insight, baby brother, but I know that." I look at the Tharian guys we've befriended. "Have you told Valor what all is involved in the twin ceremony, and celebration?"

He shakes his head.

"He must know what he's agreeing to, or I will call it off!" I warn him sternly.

"We'll sit by ourselves, so I can explain." Jorman volunteers.

We turn our translators back on.

Jorman slaps Valor on the shoulder. "Let's go find somewhere to eat and talk."

They run off together.

Tiger slaps my shoulder in the same friendly manner. I try not to react to his touch. He asks, "Should we sit with them, or give them space?"

They need space right now." I inform Tiger.

He leads the way to a table and we sit down.

Soon after a woman, wearing clothes that barely cover her special areas, appears at our table. She grazes her hand across Tiger's shoulder. I sense this action makes him uncomfortable. Then she turns her attention to me. "You must be one of the visitors from the space dock. The whole ship is talking about you, and this new space time that we have to adjust to."

I nod at her and say, "You can call me Vlon."

"What can I get for you darling?"

I wince. This feels like a familiar term, and I don't know this woman.

Tiger announces, "Vlon has never had our food. Let's start with something easy, like a cheeseburger and fries."

"What to drink?" She asks with a wink.

I shudder. This woman definitely thinks I'm a guy, and I don't like the way she's looking at me.

"I think chocolate milk might be a good option." Tiger tells her, "And I'll have the same thing."

She nods her head and walks away.

"Don't worry, a drink doesn't always mean you're being offered alcohol." Tiger informs me, "But you might have to clarify that you don't want alcohol sometimes."

I realize that he thinks I shuddered at the thought of alcohol. I don't bother correcting him and instead admit, "You're species is confusing." Then I look around and realize everyone is either watching Jorman or me.

"Are you going to explain why I can understand you just fine now, but in the hallway: I couldn't understand you or your brother?" Tiger asks, drawing my attention back to him.

"That's simple. I have a personal translator." I answer, "Not only don't you have a personal one, your ship isn't equipped with translator technology. So, when mine is on: you hear me in your language, and I hear you in mine. When I had it shut off you heard what my language actually sounds like."

"We have a lot of adjusting to do, both personally, and technologically, to be ready to interact with other species." Tiger admits.

I nod my head in agreement.

The woman shows up, holding a tray with our food and drinks on it. She places everything down on the table. One set in front of him, and the other in front of me. She declares, "I didn't know what condiments, so I brought the main three." As she puts the bottles in the center of the table.

"I'll help Vlon choose." Tiger states and adds, "Thanks Marlene. I'll let you know if we need anything else."

She runs her hand across my shoulder, like she did Tiger, except I slap it away. Then I warn her, "You might want to keep your hands to yourself. There's plenty of species that take that kind of behavior to mean you're willing to be theirs."

"Maybe I wouldn't mind a taste." She whispers.

I glare at her. "There's a ship participating in the population exchange that treat women as communal property. Once you bed one, any of them can have you, whether you want the others or not."

Her eyes go wide. "Are you with that ship?"

I shake my head. "But, you are ignorant of the customs of other species, and need to learn them, before your actions get you into trouble."

She nods her head weakly and walks away, muttering to herself.

I grab the yellow bottle from the center and smell it, while Tiger watches. It's as repugnant as alcohol. I put it back. I grab the white bottle, it's not as bad, but still not pleasant. I put it back. I grab the red bottle. It's smell is tolerable. I look at Tiger. "I've chosen, now what do I do with it?"

He chuckles, takes the bottle from me, puts a small puddle on his plate. "First, try it to be sure." He grabs a flexible stick off his plate and dips it in the puddle before taking a bite.

I take the bottle and do the same on my plate. Tiger watches as I place the edible stick in my mouth. Once I swallow the food I admit, "Not bad."

He takes the bottle back and puts some on his sandwich. "Then you'll probably like it on your burger."

I copy him and take a huge bite as he puts some of the white stuff on his burger. After I swallow my bite I inquire, "Why are they all called condiments?" That must be so confusing, when they're all different."

Tiger thinks for a moment and then replies, "I guess it would, to an outsider. Condiments is a word that refers to something that isn't in a recipe, but that you might want to add to the finished product, to make it taste better."

"How do you know if you want condiments if they're different?" I ask before taking another large bite.

Tiger answers, "The one you like is called ketchup. The yellow one is called mustard. The white one is mayonnaise. There's other stuff called barbecue sauce, one called relish, and some people even use cheese as a condiment."

I look at my burger. "Cheese is the yellow stuff?" I confirm.

He nods his head, as his mouth is full of the bite he just took.

"I like cheese." I inform him, and take another bite. Another bite later and my burger is gone. As I'm finishing the sticks called fries Marlene appears, and puts a small dish in front of me, and another in front of Tiger.

"What's this?" Tiger asks.

Marlene answers, "Apple ginger pie."

"I thought we ran out of ginger, until the next harvest." Tiger states before taking a big drink of his chocolate milk.

"The cooks assistant found some on the space dock." She informs Tiger.

"I've never heard of ginger." I state as I pick up the pie to smell it.

I place an underlying odor just as Marlene clarifies, "They call it something else, Kinga, I think, but it's just like ginger, so the cook used it."

I drop my plate, and slap Tiger's away, just as he's about to stick his fork in it. "You can't put Kinga in food!" I scream.

"What's the big deal?" Marlene asks with a huff.

Just then there's a clatter from across the room. Then another nearby, followed by another.

"Stop eating the pie!" Tiger orders, "Or anything that normally has ginger in it!"

"Gather the collapsed into one area." I demand as I pull out my medical kit. I turn to Tiger. "I need to scan a male and female who didn't consume the Kinga root."

He nods his head. I use the scanner on him.

Marlene volunteers to be the female. I quickly scan her.

Then I turn to the nearest of seven people who have been gathered. I scan them. The computer calculates the medicine and dose needed. I pull out the injector, put in the Hydran, set the dose, and inject them. I immediately move to the next, repeating the process of scan, dose, inject, move on, until they've all been dosed.

I then stand up and tell Tiger, "You'll want to take them to your medical unit, so they can be observed."

Tiger orders crew members nearby to take them to the medical ward. Then he turns to me. "How did you know?"

"Kinga root is a common poison." I inform him, "The computer just needed an unpoisoned basis for your species to calculate from, and then it was able to determine what your bodies needed to counteract the poison."

Jorman approaches and exclaims, "It's a good thing Vlon was here. By the time your people figured it out they, and maybe others, would be dead."

"Come with me." Tiger orders.