Phideaux was a good boy from southern Louisiana. He grew up and somehow managed to get out of college with twin PhDs (one in engineering and one in biology).
This was enough to get him a posting to a remote Galacticum scientific outpost as a maintenance man.
So, Phideaux got to his posting and had to sit through the "welcome to the Galacticum" course. This went over the basics of how to use the universal translator, which sanitary facilities to use (and how to use them) and some basic social points on how to interact with all the other species one might encounter in the Galacticum. His mentor (a spindly-legged arachnid sort of person) told him he was the only human at the base and he might get some funny looks from time to time due to it.
Homesickness
Time passes and Phideaux gets homesick. He misses his momma's cooking and goes looking for a steak to eat.
He finds that the dining facility only serves fakemeat (and harsh glances from the staff for even asking about eating actual animal flesh), so he goes to the replicator only to find the same situation (no harsh glances from the machine, though). "Well", he thought to himself "guess a man's gotta adapt to his environment." So he went to his office workstation and called up the biological diversity statistics for the area he was working in and did some research on which non-sentient herbivore might make the best eatin', from a "environmental impact of hunting one once a year" point of view.
From his earlier experience asking for a steak, he figured he'd be eatin' all this meat in solitude, so one varmint oughta last him a year or so once it was processed and stuck in the stasis box.
Phideaux found his target species in the index, and so went out into the maintenance shop, where he machined up a slug thrower that worked off of compressed air. It took him a few iterations to figure out how to make one that was accurate, but he got there in the end. While he was working a few coworkers asked what he was up to, and so he told them it was a "biological sample acquisition device" (no sense in scarin' one's coworkers, right?). Phideaux's new toy was simple, by Galacticum standards. It'd pull in atmosphere via a built-in scrubber and fill a pressure tank which - when the trigger was pulled - would instantly exhaust and drive a solid metal slug down a rifled barrel. Phideaux had grown up huntin' down in the swamps, and he wasn't displeased with his jerryrigged rifle.
The hunt
The next day he took off early, as his nature index had told him his target species would be active and available then. He went out and found a herd of the herbivores and chose one that the ecology wouldn't miss. Even the smallest multiped would give him enough meat to last over a year, and that was after providing samples to the resident xenobiologist team.
Out Phideaux went and back Phideaux came. He was dropping off the samples at the biolab and one of the scientists asked him where the rest of the animal was. Phideaux crosses his fingers & tells him that while he was out gathering biological data he just happened to witness a predation and this was all that was left of the animal. "It's not what ya say, it's how ya say it, amirite?" he thought to himself. He knew humans were perceived based on their past (evolved carnivorous hunters) and he was trying to keep that perception tamped down here as much as he could.
Food prep
Phideaux had his meat, now he just needed a way to cook it. The dining facility had no traditional kitchen as it made all the "food" out of nutritional paste that was converted by restructuring machines (a simpler form of replicator) to look (and allegedly taste) like the required diet of the diner. So Phideaux headed back out into the shop and started fabbin' up a "biological sample carbonization chamber".
Phideaux's day off rolled around and he loaded up his gear on a gravsled and took off for an isolated area west of the facility where it was unlikely he'd encounter any other Galacticans. The area he had found was very biodiverse with many plants that were safely edible by humans, so he'd have something like "steak & taters" after all.
Chillin' & grillin'
Phideaux was sitting back in his lounge chair with some local tubers roasting in the BBQ grill. "Great to get out of the office every once in a while", he thought to himself. "Time to get those steaks a'cookin'". He got up and crossed to the stasis unit to pull out a couple prime cuts. They sizzled enticingly as they hit the hot grill.
He was enjoying the heat and odor from the BBQ when a voice cut into his chill. "Hi friend Phideaux! What are you doing out here?" It was a group of scientists. The speaker - a Bovinian - said "We were just out this way checking on some sensors when we smelled something unusual and saw some smoke. We followed up and found you! What's all this, then?". The Bovinian and a dendrosapien moved closer to examine the site.
"Are you cooking REAL ANIMAL FLESH?" the Bovinian asked, visibly shaking. The dendrosapien - Phideaux couldn't remember its name - moaned "living plants, too?" as its leaves shook like a heavy wind was blowing.
"You two citizens may return to the facilities" a third voice spoke up. It was the arachnid that had taught Phideaux's "welcome wagon" course. "I will remain behind and instruct human Phideaux in proper Galacticum etiquette." the arachnid continued.
The two others moved off toward the base, supporting each other and muttering under their respirations about "humans".
When they were long out of sight, Phideaux's spidery friend moved close to Phideaux's lounge chair and squatted into a resting position. "It has been a long time, friend Phideaux. Could I trouble you for a piece of raw flesh?"
