Alien Non-Interference Clause: “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha no… wait, you were serious?” The Associated Worlds in general think they have a good handle on precisely what this sort of “Prime Directive” would mean in practice. Namely, it would mean that the first time one of those
Andreth Prime Allatrian-ith-Ancalyx Vallasélan, currently of Suite 141, Gildedrest, Starbridge City, Gáling (Ring Nebula), to Technical Services, Artificial Immunity Division, Riverside Eubiosis Foundation, greetings and many thanks for your prior assistance. I have never been so sick in my life. Well, obviously. I’ve never been sick in my life.
This is actually something I finished and published on an old, non-dedicated blog some time ago (October 2010) concerning this particular piece of my worldbuilding, and for the sake of completeness – and because it ties into some of those issues and attitudes mentioned under Blue and Orange Morality – I’m
Alien Kudzu: The unfortunate result, all too often, of importing things across ecosystems, and the reason why absolutely every ship comes with a Decontamination Chamber.
It must be a good writing day; I’ve just polished up another piece for submission to “Miscellanea: a transdimensional library“, a collection of excepts from fictional/unwritten books being assembled by Eggplant Literary Productions.  Very much my cup of tea, I think, as I’ve always been particularly fond
The fires always burn brightest on the Darkest Night. It’s not actually any darker than any other night in the bottom half of the year, but when Lumenna occults Sunaris – when the night is winter-black and there’s only one sun in the sky – for all reason and logic
…well, not drabble.  I’m, as it turns out, not very good at keeping strictly to 100 words in length, and, well, since the point of this exercise is to help develop my writing muscles/fluidity/ability to just sit down and write, dammit, applying such an artificial constraint to
Decontamination Chamber: Fortunately, these days, it just involves a light mist of nanites checking you out (while clothed, so no fanservice, alas), but it’s routine protocol for (physically) entering a new habitat or, indeed, planet, given the risks of disease and, worse, ecological contamination. It probably tells you everything
Alien Hair: Sometimes. Also, sometimes, fur, tentacles, symbiotic fungi, cilia, etc.
Alien Geometries: Something seen in automation-dominated infrastructure areas, where buildings and systems which are – for the most part – only ever used by AI tend to be made in complexes of simple geometric shapes, lines, and curves, without any of the softening or decoration that most sophont eyes find comfortable.
Alien Blood: Played straight, in many varieties. For example, eldrae blood is close to indigo in color, due to the not-hemoglobin it uses (borrowed from Elieran bluelife, which is indeed mostly blue; and it would lead to noticeably different skin tones if they weren’t all so damn pale anyway)
The Aesthetics of Technology: Oh, the Imperials play this one completely straight. After all, the Imperial motto is Order, Progress, Liberty, and it would never do to make all those neophilic people think that they weren’t getting their Progress, capital-p included. So not only should it be all future-y,