The aliens were more worried about an old injury than the fact I'd killed a second Queen or used basic tools and my AI's instructions to make a bomb?

"Yea," I said looking at the Gurtmic, Mult, if I remembered right. "It happened a few weeks ago and hurt like you wouldn't believe, but its had some time to settle and start healing so as long as I don't do anything too strenuous on my ribs then I'm good. What's wrong?"

I had to ask the last part because all four of the alien Commanders were staring at me like I was some sort of boogeyman or cosmic horror. None of them answered my question before the Tar-en-ful, Gul-fen, spoke into a small hand-held device; a communicator.

"Send medical personnel who have studied Human anatomy and the medicines that have been declared safe for Human use."

After speaking to whoever was on the other side of his comm, Gul-fen turned toward me and asked a question of his own.

"You say that your injury is not one that is causing you such debilitating pain? Would you please indicate for me where it is? I am not versed in your species' anatomy to know where these 'ribs' are."

"Oh, sure, no problem," I said standing and raising an arm. "Ribs are about here, in this area, they act as a natural armor for our organs and some people think they absorb shock from blows and falls that we don't expect; so that our organs are completely protected and don't bruise."

While I was speaking I was using my other hand to point out the area in question. I think they were more alarmed by the casual tone of voice I held while doing something that was likely painful.

"Please Commander James," the Hullmran, Hyell, said with a pleading note to her voice, "sit down and do not worry about keeping a brave face for us. We cannot know what trials you experienced against the Scourge and had we known you were injured so much we would have sent for medical personnel to meet you yesterday after you came aboard."

After she finished speaking and before I could answer her, the doors flew open and a Gurtmic wearing a suit with that white diagonal stripe ran in with a large team of aliens behind him all carrying boxes, tablets, and guiding gurneys piled with other supplies. All of the aliens that came in were wearing a suit made for their race with the same diagonal white stripe on them. I guess these were the medical personnel.

"Where is the patient?" the Gurtmic that had dashed inside first demanded, authority lining his voice and silencing anyone who would try and challenge or argue with him.

"Here, it is Commander James," Gul-fen told him indicating me. For my part I just looked at the circus that had just burst in and tried not to gape at them and their panic.

"Commander," the Gurtmic began, "do not worry. We will take care of you. My team is trained in all classical medicines and we have been studying Human medical practices. We will keep you alive."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I started, waving their hands away. "What kind of pain do you guys think I'm in? Cai already treated me and set my ribs so the bones are healing. Plus it's been a while so they're probably all but done healing."

"I do not understand," the Gurtmic said. "You have suffered an injury while fighting the Scourge, yes?"

"I did," I answered.

Stolen story; please report.

"The injury you suffered, you mentioned that your race possesses internal organs close to where you suffered your injury. Do your organs not pain you and cause you difficulty moving?" this came from the Krrcktn Commander, Krnnmt.

"Yeah, I do have organs there," I told them. "In fact, I have my heart and lungs there and without them I'm not doing much walking around, but my ribs only broke in one spot and the points that hold them to my spine and sternum held them in place. That means that I wasn't hurt in my organs."

Let me tell you, if the fact that I was hurt had sent them all in a flurry, the idea that my organs were all fine froze them all. What kind of insides did all these aliens have? First, Cai said that not all of them had what he called "redundant muscle groups" which I still wasn't sure I knew what he meant there, and now they were all shocked that I could break a bone and not be in pain while doing nothing but talking to them? Or that my broken bones didn't translate to injured organs?

"Cai, why do they all look so surprised about my organs being fine?" I asked him aloud. That was one way I could solve this whole confusion for me.

"Allow me to show you with the Conference Hall's internal hologram system," Cai said. After a moment, he dimmed the lights and turned that system on to show me medical diagrams of each of the races present. One thing I noticed in all of them was the fact that the diagrams were divided into three pictures at most. Muscular systems, organ systems, and skeletal systems. Another thing I noticed was how few of the skeletons looked complete. That race didn't have ribs, that one didn't have femurs or the equivalent, another didn't have phalanges, finger bones, and they definitely had hands and fingers. Another thing I noticed looking at them all was in their varied shapes and sizes, they also had their organs placed in odd spots. Well they were odd to me but I was biased I guess. Hearts and lungs weren't always togther like for humans and sometimes they were protected by bones but the bones only had what I would call one attachment point.

The more I looked, the more I understood. They were all worried because in the races with ribs, broken ones spelled internal damage; for us they were difficulty breathing as long as nothing was knocked out of alignment or cracked off. I eventually sighed and spoke to Cai again.

"Show them the internal sturctures of humans, Cai. You can do that right?"

"I can," he said; great this will be kind of easy to explain. "I will require a scan of your own body. Is this acceptable?"

"Yeah, sure." In for a penny in for a pound.

It took another moment for Cai to make the neccessary scans but once he had I was looking at my organs, muscles, and skeleton; all floating above our heads for everyone to see. At least he left my junk off.

"Before I open the floor to questions," I began standing up and pointing to the skeletal diagram, "Cai magnify that one on the ribs, here is where I am hurt and if you look here and here you can see that I have other bones holding my ribs in place even if they get broken. I'm fine. Questions?"

"Where did your nasal protruberance go?" a small Hullmran demanded with a raised tentacle. I guess they have hand raising here too.

"My nose doesn't have a true bone," I told it as Cai pulled the holographic skull up. "Instead my people have what we call cartilige that lend our noses and ears their shape. It's a sort of soft bone from what I know of it and that isn't a lot. Next?"

Since I was willing to answer their questions, the medical aliens that had dashed up here were all too happy to ask me any and everything they could think of from "how do our fingers move?" to "what holds our bones in place?" I did my best, but like I told them repeatedly, I wasn't an expert. Instead for several questions I directed them to certain parts of the Internet that they had stored where things like medical journals and studies were kept, Cai's access to the full thing was a lifesaver there, since it let me use him as a search engine and find the sort of things I was describing to them.

Nearly an hour after the alien doctors and nurses and shown up, they finally left and I was again alone with the other Wardens.

"That was a most enlightening conversation," Krnnmt said. "I must admit that I now find myself wishing my own people had evolved in such a way as to have your seeming advantages."

"Indeed," Mult said with a wobble of his head; his version of a nod Cai told me. "Though, now that we have established that the new Commander is in no pain and can function with ease, I feel that we ought to turn our gazes to the true purposes of our meeting."

There were nods all around before Gul-fen turned to me and spoke.

"What must be done to aid your people in fighting the Scourge?"