"Mmm, guns, yes." With a melancholy smile, Zelnick continued, "Or a fleet... though your sword is probably more manageable. Where did you get something like that, anyway?"

Zelnick snorted. "There were high points, true enough, but the situation was hardly ideal. It was a three-sided war-- my one fleet against two near-unstoppable forces, where if these guys win humanity and its allies remains enslaved, and if the other guys win every species they can get their claws on is slaughtered... I'm pretty sure my fleet won freedom and safety for all, but I woke up here before I could know." His smile was rueful. "I was terrible at the diplomatic bits, but at least when I was talking, my ships weren't being attacked."

Belatedly, he caught a nuance of Kenren's speech, and looked wide-eyed at his roommate. "... you've been bored for hundreds of years?" There were species that lived that long, but they didn't look human...