Book excerpt: 500 years after the Galactic Empire's collapse, the 427th Light Maintenance Battalion of the Imperial Space Marines stubbornly hold onto their mission, training to repair starships that never come. Their equipment gradually wears out and to all outward appearance, they seem to be primitive savages, living by hunting and farming. When a coup removes Colonel Marcus Harris, commander of the maintenance battalion, in favor of his executive officer, the colonel and a loyal second lieutenant, Kurt Dixon, are jailed. When Dixon escapes, he hides in a battle suit to avoid detection. He accidentally activates it and is propelled into outer space. There, he is rescued by a scout of the new Galactic Protectorate...a ramshackle, barely-functioning organization whose leaders are fighting amongst themselves. The Galactic Protectorate, despite its name, has lost most of the technical expertise to do even routine maintenance on their own equipment. Both sides have something the other needs. But can they possibly work together? And if they do, will it be war -- or the start of a new Galactic Empire? Theodore Cogswell's classic science fiction novella is available in ebook form for the first time in more than a decade!