I read this book about 25-May-2006. I've read this book before. The book is copyright 1993. This note was last modified Saturday, 10-Mar-2007 10:16:05 PST.
Second book. This time, Colin becomes Emperor, and Earth defeats the Achuultani scouts and Earth plus Colin (and the ships he's rescued) defeat the main force.
And they finally make an attempt to communicate with the Achuultani, and even succeed (unlike with Heinlein's "bugs"). Poor guys; turns out they're being run by a rogue computer that needs to keep the state of emergency going to retain power.