anemia is a really funny deficiency to have when your buddy is an alien who's mostly made of metal
I looked at the readout for my latest blood test and sighed.
"New problem, question?" Rocky asked. We were about ninety days out from 40-Eridani's heliopause, and it seemed like new nutritional problems were popping up every day. Probably from me mixing more taumoeba into the coma slurry to make it last longer.
"Yes," I said. "Apparently I'm becoming anemic."
"Anemic. Means my body isn't getting enough iron."
"♪♫♪♩♩♬!" he said, his carapace shooting up. "I fix!" He scampered off down toward the dormitory.
I stared at where he disappeared into the floor. That... sounded a lot like him giving me his word for "anemic". But that couldn't be it. We haven't discovered any overlap of nutritional needs of humans and Eridians, besides a base need for glucose and proteins. And what did he mean by "I fix"?
In retrospect, I really should have seen what was about to happen. However, the brain fog from my various nutritional deficiencies was really starting to settle in, so I just continued to stare in confusion.
I was startled out of it by Rocky yelling. "Grace! Come to airlock! Grace!"
He continued to call my name and pester me even as I moved toward the ladder, and I know he can see me moving. "Alright, alright! I'm coming!"
As I got down the ladder, Rocky became even more frantic, tapping on his side of the airlock. Inside was what looked like some sort of pouch. "Take, take!"
"It has to cool down first!"
How long was I staring at the wall, that whatever it was had already cooled nearly two hundred degrees? "Alright, I take!"
I took the pouch from the airlock, and opened it. Inside was a bunch of... metal chips? Each one was about the size of the tip of my pinkie finger. "Rocky, what is this?"
He tilted his carapace in a way I've come to recognize as pride. "Is Eridian supplement. Cannot make you vitamins on Hail Mary, but have iron. Eat, before react with oxygen in you air!"
It took a second before things clicked into place. "Wh- Oxidation doesn't happen that quickly-" I shook my head, dislodging the errant thought. "Rocky, I can't eat this."
"Why not, question? Does not have thallium, or mercury, or any other 'heavy metals'," — yes, he did the air quotes, with three hands — "is just iron."
"Just because it won't poison me, doesn't mean my body can use it. It needs to be in... certain salts... I think." That sounded right, but information recall was becoming extremely difficult these days. I picked up one of the chips; it's very thin. "I might even have to worry about this cutting up my intestines..."
Rocky was uncharacteristically silent for a moment, so I looked back up at him. He was staring at me (don't ask how I know he was staring, I just do) in disbelief. Then he threw up two arms in exasperation. "Human body useless!"
I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing.
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