The Suliibruum Party Crashers (Because Plasma-Based Creatures Don't Generally Have E-Mail)

“Well, it is conference season, and we're going to be around here for a good while, so, since I was an acting ambassador to Sultruviam, I think I am going to go to the embassy conference.”

That was my uncle, Admiral Benjamin Banneker-Jackson, and of course that led to my aunt, Captain Almira Banneker-Jackson, saying this:

“About time we went to a party big enough for me to wear the new dresses you bought me!”

But that inside joke was succeeded by the one still being told today about the incident that occurred at one of those parties...

“When do you tell the bigger Suliibruum ambassadors they can't come to the black and white party because they have way too much green in their spectrum?”

“Never. You can't afford to have them scream about why they can't get in.”

The Suliibruum Scream had been heard for the first time in centuries, just months earlier...

… and had wiped out a whole star system's worth of human settlement in the Baloanaweigh System because that had been a stage for theft in the Suliibru System.

But they loved Benjamin Banneker-Jackson, who they had met after the incident in which his warning was heeded and humanity was exacuated before being destroyed by their scream. They had said then that they were going to come meet with him … the humanoid Sultruviam had told the humanoid Suliibruum that my uncle was coming, so the plasma-based Suliibruum decided they would approximate humanoid form and show up as well. Technically, they were invited … they just didn't have a mailbox, online or off, to get the mail.

The humanoid Suliibruum fell down and instantly worshiped, only to have that finally corrected … the plasma-based ambassadors had mastered carrying a universal translator around …

“See that you do not do that – we are fellow stewards with you of the worlds of Suliibr!”

So, the worlds of Suliibr were now represented by all their sentient stewards, and all were of the mind that they were ready to join the consortium … so although human foolishness had lost the consortium the Baloanaweigh System, the consortium gained both the Suliibruum species and negotiated access to the resources unwise humans were poaching!

The man responsible for this outcome was the site for the first total Suliibruum embrace … both sets of ambassadors embraced him, making also the first plasma-based embrace of carbon-based creatures without destroying them.

“It was close … plasma is generally not cool, but they were wearing quite the fashion statement: an incredible dampening field,” my uncle said. “I can't say it was entirely comfortable, but love hides a multitude of faults.”

“And,” my aunt said, “the next time I go to a party I'm getting a dress with that color scheme because I love green and y'all know I am still that hot!”