The High-general left the shuttle and stepped onto the surface of Odin.  The sky was dimly lit, like twilight, but the dock had artificial lighting to make up for it.

"Greetings" said a man in uniform, "I am Admiral Rix, Commander-in-chief of the Trappist United Defence Force."  He held out him hand.

"I'm High-general Li-Zhu of the Imperial Third Fleet.  Though I guess now it would just be the Imperial Fleet, as no other High-generals survived Nebula's assault on the Solar system."

"Then, if I remember Imperial tradition, you are the Emperor as well."

HG Li-zhu shook his head.  "I refuse to claim the title until my people are no longer refugees."

"In that case, high General, please follow me to the conference room so that we can discuss the situation here."

An hour later they had reached a compromise that both sides could agree with.  The Imperial military would withdraw to interstellar space, at least one Light-year away, leaving no more than fifty frigates for security, and the civilians would be allowed to remain behind, mining and solar harvesting as much as they wished as long as they complied with Trappist system law.

"One more thing before you go, General.  I assume you would like to reclaim the Solar System from Nebula if you can."

"That is one of my goals," HG Li-zhu replied, "my science ships inform me that they could re-terraform earth if I can reclaim it within 30 days or so.  I'm not sure if that's possible."

"It that case, I believe you need to talk to a friend of mine."  Admiral Rix motioned for them to follow him and lead the HG to a communications room with an alien-looking box in the center, rigged to data, power, and coolant lines.  "I assume you've heard of the Za'ta?"

"Yes," replied the HG, "They are an alien race from beyond Old Imperial space.  They were roughly on par with the Empire technologically, until the fall.  Now they are likely ahead of us."

The Admiral nodded.  "Well, when one of their colonies was attacked by The Swarm, their name for Nebula, they left their borders in search of allies.  One of their ships came here and, although we couldn't spare any ships to join their fight, they left this behind in case we needed to exchange intel about The Swarm." He motioned towards the device.  "One of their scientists cracked quantum entangled communication about fifty years ago.  This device is an improvement on his design, and will let us contact them, if you wish to join their task force."

The High General was left speechless by the realization of what the technology before him was, but soon regained his composure.  "One of our scientists had a theory on how to do it about twenty years ago, but we couldn't spare the resources for his research.  If they have a working QE device, this could revolutionize interstellar communications."  He looked at the Admiral.  "By all means, call them.  If they can help us retake the Solar System, we would love to join their task force."