Mixed Media Art by the author in concert with 
I was so moved by this art response from
The entrance of Sultruviam into the Earth-led consortium of planets on its quest to explore and map and live all across the galaxy was and remains one of the most magnificent gala events I have ever experienced. I think I must have worn my captain's dress uniform every day for three weeks, and was glad for every Guardian of the Sultruviam Skies keeping that desert heat to a minimum while in said uniform.
However, the happiest day for me, wearing that uniform, and setting up the teleconference line for Sable Captains and Commanders' members all over the galaxy to also appear in their fleet dress or business dress uniforms, was at the marriage of the two architects of the consortium's successfully making its case to Sultruviam.
Admiral Benjamin Banneker, my uncle, had eased over to acting ambassador because of some problems the planetary state department had that offended the two known sentient species of Sultruviamin – it was thought that the plasma-based Guardians were ruling, not cooling, the planet, as opposed to the “weaker” mere humanoids that couldn't terraform their world right to be running it.
There was a third sentient species that no one was even aware of until my uncle used his science officer chops to discern that the little Pixsees were not extra sparkly dandelion fluff blowing through the negotiations: they were little sentient creatures closer to the humanoid Sultruviamin in thought pattern, but living among the plants as their particular Guardians. The big Guardians had left this unsaid as a test to see if humanity was paying attention … Uncle Benjamin got humanity past the bar, and got all three sentient beings' requests and needs into the treaty!
So, everybody made their way to a beautifully prepared table and got the treaty hammered out … and Captain Almira Jackson would have been another hidden figure in history except that Uncle Benjamin had her and the team she was leading brought forth at every ceremony to be sure that it was known: she had studied all the comfort things known of Sultruviamin culture, and her team had created an environment for negotiation that was comfortable for both humans and Sultruviamin alike. This had helped the diplomatic bumps to be smoothed out much more easily, and also had impressed the Sultruviamin that humanity had progressed from its reputation of too much pride and ego … they loved to see Earth's ambassador spreading the credit all around, and they loved Capt. Jackson for they knew how had she had worked to get things right.
No one was gladder off Earth to see “Ambassador” Banneker and Capt. Jackson married than the Sultruviamin … to them, it represented all the things that had to come together so that the place was made for the Sultruviamin and humanity to come together.
Neither an ambassador nor a fleet officer can receive gifts from the worlds they work upon, but the Sultruviamin just reserved a whole lake and well-furnished lake house for their beloved two humans, and said, “Drop by any time!” So, as not to create a negative diplomatic incident, Uncle Benjamin and Aunt-Almira-just- about-to-be agreed that they would wed on Sultruviam, and make the first part of their honeymoom at the lake house.
Because Sultruviam is a really long haul from Earth, as far out into the Ventanan frontier as had yet become part of the consortium, it was good that teleconferencing was an option. Not that the option was even extended to everyone … after three weeks of pomp and circumstance, the groom and bride remained intent on what they had wanted: a small private ceremony with only their nearest and dearest present. Because Uncle Benjamin was the founder of Sable Captains and Commanders and Aunt Almira a prominent member, they agreed to set up a feed for the membership, but that was it. News media? Nope. Tons and tons of fleet folks? Nope.
However, I was there, with my husband Captain Rufus Dixon, co-founder of Kirk and Dixon Shipping. Marcus Aurelius Kirk Jr. – cousin to the Admiral Kirk you know – also came out from Ventana 4 with his whole family, and that also meant his wife, full fleet admiral Vlarian Triefield, mentee and long-term close friend to my uncle, was there. She had come all the way from the region of the accident that had drawn Uncle Benjamin and I back into fleet service to be there.
Also present was full fleet admiral Chenggis Chulalaangkorn, whose region of responsibility was the Ventanan frontier – he had taken a day off warping here, there, and everywhere, and had made the characteristic comment in his big-bear bass voice about that: “Oh, nothing's going to go wrong today on the frontier. First of all, the word that I'm here is not spread out, and nobody wants me to have to leave here and handle any mess ups – nobody needs that kind of trouble in their lives!”
Cmdr. Helmut Allemande, representing the crew of the Amanirenas with me, had actually been assisting my uncle in his scientific work needed as part of the treaty, and he and his wife Ursula had been out with us for a long time – but now we got to hear him sing at last with his great bass voice, which further stunned the Sultruviamin!
The Great Alexander Kipnis, filling in for Cmdr. Allemande in Richard Strauss's great love song “Zueignung” or “Devotion”!
Several chief diplomats of the Sultruviamin came, and Prince Shaaka and Princess Shaain of the Ninth Majestical House of the Uppaaimar also arrived.
On Capt. Jackson's side, all of her children and grandchildren and several of her nieces and nephews came. They had taken the chance remotely to get to know their mother's new love, and they had all fallen in love with him too – in person, it was like we had discovered long-lost family members that we already loved, but just didn't know we had!
So, although there was no pomp and circumstance like there had been for the previous three weeks, this really was what we all needed before again going our separate ways in a big galaxy: a big family coming together in love. The Sultruviamin were right in that the marriage of Benjamin Banneker and Almira Jackson represented the exact same thing as the coming together of humanity and the galaxy's beings of like mind: we were discovering each other to be a blessing, to each other, and those all around.
(“Eh, don't sweat all the historical details on humanity – we're trying to do better and if we forget, your Guardians are more than capable of sand-blasting us clear out of the system!” Aunt Almira quipped to the rolling laughter of our new Sultruviamin friends)
Getting married, once you get all the appropriate licenses, is quick. Fleet chaplain Rev. Denmark Vesey came out to officiate, and it seemed just a little while before the bride and groom met under the arch the Guardians of the Sultruviam Sky were kind enough to create in the sky for them –
Fractal art by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, keeping the color scheme that
– and the vows were said and we got to the good part:
“I now pronounce you man and wife!”
Ursula Allemande made the newlyweds a great seven-layer Frankfurter Kranz, among the richest of German cakes, and she had the poster in the back done lickety-split: “Congratulations to Adm. and Capt. Banneker-Jackson!”
Yes, in the fleet they would keep their names and their ranks – both were 60 years into their careers, and neither needed the ego boost of subsuming the other's name. But this day was for them, 82 and 80 years old, respectively, in a century in which they might expect 20, 30, maybe 40 years together still … the key word was, together.
Sure enough … all they wanted for "just married" was to just do what they had done when they had fallen in love … to go around and around the lake that he would not let her walk her around alone from her part of the work they were doing … a thousand thousand Pixsees sparkled it up for them, rejoicing … and, at some point they went up to the lake house, but that was none of our business.
“Yeah,” my husband said, “because we all gotta figure what we are about to do as empty nesters!”
“That's not the problem,” I said. “What are we going to do when they bring home some more grandchildren?”
Everyone at the wedding, every one of us younger than the newlyweds, just rolled laughing … their joy was ours, and this was not a moment of subtraction. We had all been added to, immeasurably.