Trinity met the Verpine delegation in the Eternal's main docking bay, ushering them graciously aboard the warship. Only one of them spoke basic, and he introduced himself as Gnzz. Trinity noted casually that all three carried weapons, but motioned wordlessly for the Stormtrooper escorts to allow them to keep their sidearms.

"Welcome aboard the Eternal," Trinity said, offering a charming smile and gesturing around the landing bay, "I am Captain Ariel Trinity, and I represent the New Order of the Galactic Empire."

The Verpine seemed impressed (if a little aprehensive) of the size of the ship. Trinity wondered what they might have thought had the Eternal been one of the Reign class, or even Drayson's command ship, the Acheron.

"I regret that our meeting has been marred by the atrocity we witnessed earlier. Allow me to express my deepest apologies to you and your people. The person responsible will be dealt with, let me assure you."

It was a lie, of course, but the Verpine had no way of knowing that. What was clear them was that the Imperial Fleet was a highly regimented one: an officer who disobeyed orders would no doubt be dealt with.

"If you would follow me, allow me to give you a tour of our fine vessel."

She led the three delegates from the docking bay, past the empty racks that housed TIE fighters, and into the main corridor, which ran the length of the vessel.

"This is the nerve centre of our forward weapons cluster." Trinity said, keying open a door marked 'Restricted' and showing the three aliens inside.

The machinery present was impressive, to say the least, the banks of computers that monitored the various turbolasers and warhead launchers being looked over by a team of unsmiling Imperials.

"You should know," Trinity said casually, "the Eternal is one of the Empire's smaller lineships. We classify her a Destroyer, but in reality she's more of a gunboat than anything. Our Reign class ships are almost twice as big.

"A single Eternal still has enough raw firepower to lay a city to waste (should the need arise), and can even enter the atmosphere for more effective targetting of hostile emplacements."

The leader of the Verpine translated all this to his comrades, who were obviously impressed (if not a bit intimidated).

"Of course, the Empire's primary purpose with these ships is defence. We span over a thousand worlds, with permanent naval facilities on maybe only a hundred of them. From these worlds, though, we can move to defend any planet in the Empire within hours, and ships like the Eternal are key in the defence of the Empire."

They left the gunnery room, moving up the main corridor now, when Trinity stopped to open another door.

"I would like to show you something we are quite proud of now, however."

The room they entered was dark, the control circuits being routed to the main gunnery station on the bridge at the moment. The computers were marked 'Distruptor Control', and they blinked steady, signalling standby mode.

Trinty raised her comlink to her mouth and spoke, "Bridge, transfer control of Disruptor Battery Three to main board."

A moment later the terminals came to life, showing the targetting data from the four guns slaved to them.

The target in question was a small asteroid, unihabited and, from the sensor report, made of solid rock. It was at least half the size of the Eternal.

"These are Disruptor cannons." Trinity said, gesturing at the schematics of the the weapons. "You might be familiar with the pistols used by common criminals.

"Our department of R&D developd these cannons on the same principle, for use against attackers. They are short range, but immesnely powerful.

"Please, observe."

She tapped a series of keys, and seconds later the screens showed lances of deep purple energy shooting out and impacting the asteroid. It vanished, not consumed by flame, but simply... crumbled.

The Verpine watched, and Trinity had no doubt as to what was going through their heads.

What do you want," Gnzz asked after a moment, "from us?"

Trinity smiled easily.

"Absolutely nothing. The Empire and the Verpine have coexisted thus far without incident, barring today. We have used Roche as navigation point for our supply fleets.

"We would like to continue to do so, without the Coalition impeding us."

Gnzz translated this for his comrades, then said, "And if we refuse? If we invite the Coalition to call this place theirs?"

Trinity shrugged.

"You must understand the strategic position Roche holds. If the Coalition moves in force into this system, we will be forced to intervene in order to keep our passageway to the Borderlands open.

"I cannot speak for what the Imperial High Command will or will not do, but it is likely a war would be fought in your home system."

"And if we join you? What of the stories, that the Empire will crush us and make us their servants?"

"Let me make this very clear for you: you are being lied too. The Empire is not as evil and cruel as you may be told. Look around. Look at the worlds that call the Empire home. The citizens that are proud to serve an Empire that stands up for peace, for justice, for stability.

"The Verpine need not join the Empire at all. If you are willing to grant us passage through your asteroid field - allow us to establish a base of operations here - we would call that a fair trade. We would even guarantee your defence against all comers that might be hostile to you."

Once all of this had been passed on, Gnzz did his best imitation of a human nod.

"You're technology is very impressive." He said, with one more glance at the banks of monitors in the gunnery station. "We will consider this."