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Grehtec was having an average day at IAP academy when Aiden had been pulled out of class, for what was only stated as a “human medical requirement.” that necessitated him going back to Earth for several hours. This was of great concern to zem, what with humans having some of the most terrifying levels of resistance to almost every kind of damage one could think of- hell, entire cultures of them enjoyed eating capsaicin for fun. Of course, the point of the diplomatic schooling they were getting was to establish peace and not fear between all sentients, but the point remains that there was something going on that could require a medical exemption of class for someone with that body, and zey were concerned for zeir friend.
For all zey knew, he could be dying, which seemed far-fetched with the casual look on his face when he left, but zey’d seen footage of humans smiling after bullet wounds so who could tell anymore.
Needless to say, Grehtec was extraordinarily relieved to see Aiden back in school only 2 days later, looking just a little worn out. Zey rushed over to him and grabbed his shoulder, only to freeze in alarm when Aiden visibly and violently flinched away from the touch.
“Are you okay?” zey asked worriedly. “I’m so sorry, is your arm injured? Is that why you went to the Earth hospital?”
Aiden, evidently did not match zeir panic, simply rotating the arm in question around a few times with gritted teeth before responding.
“No, no, I’m totally fine. Just a little sore from the vaccines.”
“Vaccines?”
Grehtec had never heard the word before. There was a possibility it was just a mistake in the universal translator, languages could have so many differences that it took hundreds of years to program in a new language and have it work with the rest, and human languages had only been in for 200-250 years, depending on which language it was. Hopefully Aiden would respond so they could add this new word to the database.
“Yeah, vaccines. It’s when doctors inject you with a weakened version of a disease so that your body knows how to fight it if you ever get infected with the full-strength version. I just got my update on flu and rabies” he explained, as though what he said was just a normal thing to happen to him.
“Your species purposefully injects itself with diseases and calls it medicine because it fends off even more dangerous diseases?!?” zey asked with a healthy level of freaking out.
“Kind of, I guess, but getting seriously infected from the weakened version is really rare, and we’re well equipped to handle it in the cases it does happen. It more so provides a blueprint for our immune system to make antibodies so it can attack and kill it more quickly and wholly if a real infection comes, so there’s less of a chance of death.”
Grehtec just stared in shock.
“The full-strength version of these diseases is enough to kill a human?”
“Oh yeah, you DON’T want to know what happens to someone who doesn’t get treatment for full-strength rabies.”
He was right about that one. Zey definitely didn’t want to know.
“And all you get is… a little sore and tired from these?” zey asked cautiously
“Usually, yeah.”
Grehtec was almost scared to ask the next question.
“And… what happens if you …don’t get this ‘vaccine’?”
Aiden sighed in the tense, false-cheery as he did when he was upset at something.
“Well, a lot of things, but namely you have a much higher chance of getting badly infected, and it makes you about twice as likely to die in infancy. A lot of stupid people ignore the facts though, and only listen to the stigma and fear.”
That was… mildly horrifying. The infant mortality thing and the fact that parents would willingly do that to their child, that is. The stigma and fear over facts on the other hand reminded zem uncomfortably of the overall attitude the universe still maintained towards humans. Zey still remembered the look on zeir parent’s face when ney learned that Aiden, the friend ney had previously held in high regards, was from Earth. Zeir whole village took several months to get used to the idea, and over their collective biases, and still remained reluctant anytime Grehtec brought Aiden over.
Zey had no idea humans could be on the giving end of that too, zey had only seen them receiving it. One thing that was for sure though, was that zey would never stop being surprised by humans, for better, for worse, and for, most commonly, downright bizarre.