Commander Min put down his magazine, rose from his chair, crossed over to the window, and looked out for the hundredth time.  The guard still stood politely at the end of the sidewalk.
Well, at least they'd put him under house arrest, and not thrown him in some prison.  He checked the time piece on his wrist.  The car would be here any time.  His wife emerged from the kitchen straightening her gown.
"Will you be home for supper?" she asked.
Her husband shrugged.  "No telling how long it will take," he told her.
His wife began to weep.  "I don't understand," she complained between whimpers, "you're a good officer.  You've achieved high rank.  I don't understand why they're doing this."
"They think I've broken Imperial Rules," her husband told her. "It is all a misunderstanding.  Once I have spoken I am sure they will understand."
As he finished speaking an eight wheeled ground car came to a halt at the end of the sidewalk.  The Commander lifted his sword and shield, the symbol of his office, took a deep breath, opened the door, and stepped outside.  His walking tentacles made soft clicks as he made his way down the sidewalk and entered the vehicle.  He took the middle seat in the back, and strapped himself in, his three body sections sitting neatly in the preformed rests.
The guard at the end of the sidewalk followed him, and they were soon on their way.  The traffic through the city was quiet.   Citizens on the sidewalk paid little heed to a vehicle full of Imperial Officers. It was a common sight.
The vehicle stopped in front of the greatest building in the city.  The Commander stopped to look up at the legend written above the door.  "Headquarters, Imperial Fleet, Third District.  Only The Brave May Enter Here."
The Commander tapped his sword and shield with his free hand, then followed after his escort.  They made their way through lavish halls filled with officers scurrying to and fro.  They passed by the windows overlooking the command center where hundreds directed the vast fleets defending and expanding The Empire..  Finally they came to a hall where several hundred officers sat in double rows before a stage where five senior officers sat at individual desks.  As they entered Commander Min stopped.
"Let the accused come forward!"  the Senior Officer in the middle seat commanded.
Min made his way down to the Place Of The Accused, and stood waiting.  He studied the five officers above him.  They were obviously very old, unlike his smooth body, theirs were rough.  Slivers of old skin peeled down and hung around the joints of their body sections, sometimes four or five layers deep.  Instead of being bright red the exposed skin was purple, and sometimes, almost blue.
The senior officer banged his sword.  ""Let the accusation be made!" he announced.
A young officer came forward.  "It is stated," he announced, "that in the year Ka, on the ninth of Sava on the eighth day in the sixteenth and tenth hour the accused did make parlay with the enemies of the people, and bear a message back from those peoples to His Majesty The Emperor."
"How does the accused plead?" the Senior Officer demanded.
"The prisoner pleads 'not guilty,'" Min answered, "and wishes to make an explanation to the Board Of Court Martial."
The Senior Officer looked to his fellows, who nodded in agreement.  "Very well!" he announced.  "The officer may make explanation."
"We came into the system," Min began, "designated Alpha Psi Nub, and encountered a fleet of vessels of our new adversaries.  We fought a quick engagement doing little damage and receiving little.  When the enemy broke away and held off in deep space away from Imperial territory.  The lead ship sent out a signal of truce, and thinking they were surrendering I came out alone to hear their terms.
To my surprise the enemy Commander greeted me quite cordially and complimented me on the skills of myself, and, my crews, saying we were worthy adversaries. But they were going to withdraw because they were not about to lose their lives, or, take lives for an empty system, that we would meet again at another time and another place, and finish the engagement.   But he asked me to carry a message to our Emperor that might make further confrontation unnecessary; a message from their own leader.  I said I would hear the message and consider rather or not I would carry it back to The Emperor.  This was the message;
'We are two completely different species.  You cannot exist on the worlds we inhabit, because they are so warm you would explode and boil away in minutes.  We cannot live on the worlds you inhabit because we would freeze to death in a very short time.
For us to fight each other is foolishness.  You have worlds in your systems you cannot use because they are too warm. We have worlds in our systems we cannot use because they are too cold.
Instead of fighting each other and both of us losing valuable individuals and material why don't we accept each other's right to exist and trade worlds that neither one of us can use, for those we can?
We are not a species that looks for war...especially war that avails us nothing.  And we do not believe your people