I'm currently reading mainstream romance author Jenny Colgan's sf novel, written as Jenny T Colgan (which I choose to believe, with no evidence whatsoever is a tribute to Iain M Banks [/headcanon] ), Resistance is Futile, and she mentions the plug compatibility issue early on by having an alien respond to the human heroine's enquiries in that direction by asking her: "Well, are you full of a thousand million eggs?" and mentioning four sexes. Being a romance novel they manage anyway... with a certain amount of authorial cutting away to waves on the beach (probably a knowing reference).