"When you're stuck in a room with a rival, it is normal to hate each other. At first, you may want each other dead, to beat each other's head into a bloody pulp or to rip out each other's throats. But when you let your emotions settle and talk to each other, you'll find that you have more in common than you first believed. Such is the beauty of language." - Charlie Daniels, Imperial Linguistics Department

ITS Dominion science wing, orbit of Iliad A, Iliad system

Admiral Conner walked along the hallway spanning the middle of the science wing, casually gazing at the researchers processing this universe's data, determining hyperlanes and most importantly of all, scanning the alien's weapons and processing its language. Although it may seem odd that a warship has facilities for scientific endeavours, the Technocracy is primarily dedicated to the advancement of the sciences and as such, has commissioned all warships to have some form of a scientific research center for both the study of enemy ship composition and enemy species weaknesses. Even the Colossus world-ender had a section dedicated solely to geological study to exploit the loose material generated from cracking a planet, although it has since been repurposed ever since the neutron sweeper was installed.

What concerned her more was Williams' discovery of an alien lifeform. Well, alien might be pushing it, it bore a striking resemblance to her species, but she doubted a genetic test would find any match between her kind and it. She walked for a few more minutes before she arrived at her destination: 材料研究 (Material Studies). When the door opened, she only saw two people present within the medium-sized chamber, both focused on a spear-like weapon while a pistol-like weapon was suspended in an observation tube.

Seemingly not hearing the door opening, Julie decided to have some fun. Wearing a devious grin, she carefully walked behind the pair hunched over at a desk until she was a foot behind them.

"How's it going, boys?" she suddenly asked. At her voice, the pair turned around and upon realizing who she was, they quickly tried to salute with one falling on their back. This caused Julie to laugh so hard that she fell on her back as well.

"A-haha, At e-ease boys," she got out between laughs and while wiping tears from her face. "Holy shit, that was hilarious."

"It wasn't funny, ma'am," the researcher who fell on his back said.

"Anyways, progress?"

"Not much ma'am," the other researcher said. "From external observations and testing alone, we know that it is extremely light, almost like bone. The tip is also very sharp, dare I say almost monomolecular sharp. Unfortunately, as Admiral Williams had explicitly forbade us from doing any invasive studies, we can't determine anything more than that."

Juliet nodded at that. "Any luck at translating the language?"

"We've translated enough for our translation devices to do basic conversation, but we need more input if we wish to get more words."

"Well then, I'll leave you two to it, I've got places to be." The pair saluted her again as she left. Julie's next stop? The medical ward.

ITS Dominion medical ward, recovery wing A

"She's still asleep?" Admiral Williams asked the head nurse. They were in a room far away from the other patients to make her as comfortable as possible and to get the most trust since he had a feeling humanity wasn't the most liked species in this universe. They had recently gotten their hands full with a sharp increase in migraines, headaches, disembodied voices and cases of hallucinations where the patient suffered visions of entities with crab claws for hands or a humanoid figure with wings and two bird heads on long necks, but Williams had dismissed them as stress caused by jumping universes. Even so, the medical ward has been quite busy for the past few days.

"Yes, it was a miracle that the surgeons saved her arm," the head nurse said.

"We have some of the best medical practitioners in the Technocracy on board, that was to be expected."

"It was a miracle because we don't have her DNA on record, which means we can't clone replacement organs, grow replacement limbs or use our nanites to assist us. We have her species' DNA now of course, but..."

"What's that thing on her head?"

"It's a psionic inhibitor, sir, as her species is very psionically tuned, she'll probably use her psionic powers to break out of her restraints. The inhibitor will prevent her from harnessing her psionic abilities while remaining as comfortable as possible."

The door to the observation room opened with a small hiss as Julie entered the room.

"Julie," Williams said with a nod.

"Admiral," the head nurse said while saluting.

"So that's the alien?" Julie asked while pointing at the unconscious figure.

"Yes, she's still asleep for now, but it's only a matter of time before she wakes up."

Elathana was slowly waking up. The first thing she noticed was that she was lying on a very soft bed, harder than the one on her craftworld, but still very soft. The next thing she noticed was a rhythmic beeping that filled her ears with noise. She turned her head to the left and saw a device which displayed a number and a jagged line. She heard the sound of a door sliding open. She looked over and saw a tall Mon'keigh male step into the room and bring over a hovering chair which he sat on.

"你能听懂我说话吗?" He said in his primitive language, although it was more elegant than the Gothic she heard often from the Mon'keigh. She gave him a confused look, to which the Mon'keigh looked surprised, then panicked, then left. She heard a commotion outside the room before the Mon'keigh came back in, this time with a device attached to his lower face and neck.

"Can you understand me now?" He said in perfect Aeldari.

He looked at her surprised face and continued talking.

"Perfect! Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Williams and I'm the admiral of the ITS Dominion, the fine ship you are currently in. You were lucky that we found you, you were near death but we worked tirelessly to bring you back to health."

"I have nothing to say to you, Mon'keigh," Elathana said bitterly. Williams laughed at that.

"Really? Not even 'thank you human for saving my life?' You should know that we almost considered amputating your left arm."

"You should've killed me on the spot, isn't that what your corpse emperor wanted?"

Williams looked confused. "I'm sorry, corpse emperor?"

Elathana looked at him in disbelief. "Do not try to deceive me, Mon'keigh. Your fanatical destruction is well known to me and my kind."

Williams went through a range of emotions, from shock to confusion and then finally disappointment.

"Ah yes, I am well aware of my... compatriots' thought processes here," he said in a tone similar to a disappointed parent. "Rest assured that we do not share such beliefs and you will be well taken care of here. We pride ourselves on the advancement of science and innovation, and we refuse to fall for some elaborate hoaxes."

The beeping that was present was starting to get on Elathana's nerves.

"Could you shut off that blasted noise?" She asked in intense annoyance. Williams then walked to the device and turned it off.

"Apologies for that," he said with a genuine tone. "That device was monitoring your heart rate in case of any complications, but that's not needed anymore. Should I also remove the device on your head?"

She hadn't noticed it before, but she felt a dull, numb sensation filling her mind.

"That would be preferable, yes," she said.

Williams nodded.

"护士长，请进房间," he said while pressing something in his ear. Within a couple of moments, another human in a white outfit entered the room, but before they could remove the device, Williams stopped them.

"Before they remove this device from your head, I need you to promise me that you will not, under any circumstances, attack me or one of my crew as soon as this device is removed. Can you promise me that?"

Elathana sighed. "Yes."

A rapid beeping sound accompanied by a few clicks followed before the numb feeling in her mind was gone.

"Better?"

"Yes."

"Okay then, first question, why were you even on that planet in the first place? It seemed very foolish of you to go there alone."

Elathana contemplated telling him the truth. This Mon'keigh had so far been the exact opposite of what she expected of their barbarian race, he wasn't hostile, he didn't rabble on about the corpse emperor, and he showed genuine concern for her health. Sighing and thinking that the human wouldn't be able to comprehend anyway, she decided to tell him.

"I was supposed to retrieve an artifact belonging to my people, I had it in my grasp when I passed out, and no, I did not go in there alone. I was with four others, you probably saw them as you entered."

"The bodies wearing bone-white armour?" Williams asked as Elathana nodded. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Did you pick up their spirit stones?"

"Their what?"

"The glowing gemstones on their armour?"

"I think we did, they must be with the object that you were clutching when we found you, down in the science labs. Get dressed, your clothes and armour are on your left. We'll go to the labs, get your spirit stones and artifact, then I'll take you to your quarters." Williams then stood and made for the door.

"Wait," Elathana said, causing Williams to look back. "Thank you, human, for your help."

Williams smiled. "No problem, it's the right thing to do after all."

Williams exited the recovery room and exhaled.

"Well that went well," he said to Julie.

"Really?" Julie asked, uncertain. "I couldn't understand a single word besides you asking if she could understand you and you calling the head nurse in."

"Wear this," Williams said as he passed her a translation device. "It attaches to your neck and lower face, it'll allow you to understand what she says."

With a few grunts, Julie had attached the device.

"How do I look?" Julie asked

"You look cool, like some form of synthetic," Williams replied to which Julie laughed. The door opened and out stepped the alien the two had their eyes on.

"I'm ready human, we can..." She began before she noticed Julie. "Who's that?"

"My fellow admiral, Juliet Conner," Williams explained while Julie gave a weak wave. "Follow me miss, I'll lead you to the science wing."

A few minutes later, ITS Dominion science wing

"...and this is the science wing," Williams explained. "Where the best and brightest men and women tirelessly work to advance humanity's understanding of our magnificent universe." The trio walked for a couple of minutes, passing by numerous staff and crew who looked at the new individual with awe and curiosity. Elathana had sensed that so far, not one human had looked at her and held contempt or hatred.

"I never did get your name," Williams said.

"My name is immensely difficult for humans to pronounce, but you can call me Elathana."

"Well Elathana, we're here," Williams said as he pressed a series of buttons that caused the door they were facing to rotate and slide open, revealing six scientists looking over readings or discussing their results. One of the scientists noticed the admirals and saluted them.

"Sir, ma'am, what brings you here?" The scientist asked. "And who's that?" They pointed to Elathana.

"My, uh, friend here," Williams said while winking at Elathana who looked at him with annoyance. "She's looking for something very dear to her, four glowing gemstones and an object made from a bone-white material. Inventory records state that they are located in this lab."

"Oh, yeah, they should be right here. Follow me please."

The scientist led the trio to a back room occupied by various display cases, almost all of them empty except for one near the back of the room, which contained four glowing gemstones and what appeared to be an ancient Egyptian ankh made out of a bone-white material with gemstones inside.

"Is this what you were looking for, ma'am?"

"She doesn't understand you, idiot," Williams said before asking Elathana the same question.

"Yes, thank you," she said, visibly relieved.

Williams saw as she quickly took the spirit stones and artifact and wondered what the 'spirit' stones were actually. A power source? No, they would've detected the power levels when scanning them. Some form of data storage? He doubted that any civilization would need such an extreme form of storage. Sentimental decorations? This seemed like the most likely answer, as Elathana herself also wore one.

"Good guesses human," Elathana suddenly said.

"Excuse me?"

"Your thoughts are unprotected, they flow from your mind like a raging river. You trying to comprehend what you have no idea about is adorable, but your ideas are all incorrect. Perhaps someday your kind will know the truth, but not at the moment."

Williams blushed. So that means I'll need to stop thinking about what her civilization created and their purpose when I'm near her vicinity, he thought. Fuck, she probably heard that too.

Elathana's smirk all but confirmed it.

Thoroughly embarrassed, Williams decided to change the topic.

"A-anyways, I'll show you your quarters."

The trio left the science lab, Julie barely able to contain her laughter.

A few moments later, ITS Dominion residential area

"This is your quarters," Williams said unlocking the door. "We took your memories of your residence and tried to emulate it as best we could, but we obviously do not have the materials that your kind do, so you have to forgive us for that. Get yourself comfortable, we'll talk tomorrow."

"Thank you," she said, disappointment evident in her voice. The admirals then turned and left, capes trailing behind them and talking amongst themselves.

"So, what do you think of her?" Williams asked Julie.

"Honestly, she's a bit cold, and thinks she's better than all of us despite being outnumbered and on the brink of death when we found her."

"They are rather arrogant, but I think it's a result of her negative experiences with humanity in this universe. I mean we did find her in the midst of human soldier corpses."

"Yeah, but she could show some more gratitude to her saviours."

"No matter, our job is to prepare our arrival system for the Technocracy, they'll find a way to negotiate with her kind soon enough."

"Speaking of which, her species needs a designation."

"Hmm, how about Elvus sapiens locus vetus?"

"Nice."

Information data logs

Imperial Internal Affairs division: Running a galactic empire is no different from running a nation-state on a planet except everything is scaled way up, including the paperwork. Countless orders, requests and complaints file nonstop across every channel, each one needing to be approved, denied or suspended on top of the daunting task of making sure everything is at peak efficiency making running an empire a task seemingly fit for no one. This is where the men and women of the Imperial Internal Affairs division come in. Based on the paradisical atoll world of New Hainan, the IIA has offices in every city on every planet, and every habitat in the Technocracy, each housing numerous unthanked workers logging various requests and complaints made by all citizens. As the Technocracy is a multicultural society, they must learn the languages of every species residing within the empire, although most just need to learn one or two and pass the ones they don't know to someone who does. Each member is paired with a moderately sentient AI partner to further simplify the process.

Imperial Foreign Relations Office: Similar to terrestrial nation-states, your empire's reputation is carried on the backs of the people you sent to represent it to foreign lands and as such, they need to be highly disciplined, respectful and completely tolerant of other cultures. The Imperial Foreign Relations Office is tasked with making the Technocracy seem as pleasurable as possible, handling new citizens for integration purposes, opening new embassies when appropriate and diffusing any incidents with tourists, temporary citizens and officials. It also serves as a neutral host to negotiations between two warring nations who want an unbiased host for their situation. The envoys and ambassadors of the IFRO are some of the best negotiators and representatives in the galaxy, second only to the Hesukari in terms of persuasive power, and they are well suited to the Galactic Community to "nudge" votes in the Tecnocracy's favour and also maintain coherence in the Pangalactic Co-prosperity Pact, the Technocracy's hegemony.