Soldier, Imperial bodyguard, fleet captain, prisoner of war - Sten has been many things in his long career. But there's one thing he's never been - a diplomat. But when the Emperor sends Sten to the Altaic Cluster to support its dictator in quelling a civil war, a diplomat is exactly what Sten must be. As the war intensifies, he begins to suspect he's up against something more than a local disturbance.