I was playing the game with my sons and we had a Hate vs. Zombie question. Zombie had three ships on a planet, and Hate exercised his power. Hate wanted to take the three ships from Zombie's planet, so Zombie would lose a base.

Zombie felt that since he didn't go to the warp, Hate could not remove the ships. Hate felt that he could remove the ships from the planet, and *then* Zombie's power would kick in, and Zombie would go to other bases instead of the warp.

Is there a ruling on this?

Zombie can lose ships ... just not to the warp. In the example you provided, Zombie would have had to lose the colony but rather than sending those 3 ships to the warp, he would send them to any other colony/ colonies that he has.

ZOMBIE: You have the power of Immortality. Whenever you should lose ships to the warp, use this power to instead return them to any of your colonies and keep using them

Interesting that word 'return' in the description. Like, they must have gone somewhere but got pulled back by a greater force.

This is a good thing to keep in mind when you're playing the Zombie. Look for an opportunity to strip a base if you can choose which ships go to the warp. We like to put the lost Zombie ships in a 'neutral zone', and then the Zombie puts them back. He may use this movement of ships to his/her advantage as well.