Note: The story in this book takes place A.D. 3047 according to the timeline in A Chronology of Technic Civilization

Synopsis: From the front flap of the Gregg Press edition: "The Terran Empire is crumbling - and it requires the remarkable talents of Sir Dominic Flandy, bon vivant, universal troubleshooter, and Knight in Earth's Imperial Space Navy, to put the pieces back together. A hint of trouble and the purchase of an aristocratic slave girl send Flandry on a quick flight to Diomedes aboard his well-equipped spacer Hooligan. Once there, a diabolically unorthodox gambit nets Dominic the data he both needs and dreads to find. As he had suspected, the Diomedean unrest was merely a thin smoke screen, masking a deadly plan for galaxy-wide insurrection and civil war that could blast the tottering Empire into its component planets, leaving it easy prey for the neighboring Merseian federation. Time is running out for the Empire, and only Dominic Flandry, half a universe away from the real trouble planet of Dennitza, has the knowledge to prevent an explosion which could spark the beginning of the end for Terran civilization."