[center][h3]Cathacia, Planet Arcadia[/h3][/center]

The Empress looked the doctor in the eye, listening carefully to every word she said. The accent was definitely alien, but the "translator ring" (however that worked) didn't make a single mistake. Even the grammar was correct, speaking the formal dialect that would be required when speaking to the Empress. The ring appeared to have more knowledge of Abh culture than the doctor, which was especially odd since there didn't seem to be any major electronic component to it. As far she could tell, it was just a ring.

When she heard "Roa'marri", it was quite clear that she was afraid. While she controlled most of her facial cues, her eyes gave it all away. Whoever she was, that name meant something to her.

"I was on the bridge of the Imperial flagship, which is probably what you found crashed. I was leading an attack on an enemy colony of about a hundred million people, not an invasion, just a blockade. We figured that if they couldn't launch anything, then we could set up defenses and construction facilities uninterrupted. After all, we were only trying to establish a frontline outpost. It was our first offensive of the war, the plan was to surround the enemy homeworld on all sides then force them to sign a peace treaty. I'll give you the short story for now, maybe later I'll tell the whole story. After we had entered blockade formation around the planet, an allied warship rammed us, setting off the emergency escape system and forcing me to flee. Before I jumped away, I heard a transmission from the ramming ship. It wasn't the voice of that ship's commander, it sounded just like him, but it wasn't him. They declared allegiance to the enemy, something no Abh would do after what they did at Midway. The only explanation I have is that they were somehow mind controlled by our enemy, who revealed themselves in that message to be known as the New Roman Empire. That was the first time they let us learn anything about them aside from the shape of their ships and what their weapon discharges looked like."