Freya, a colony planet on the fringe of human civilization, has no extra-planetary enterprises and no spatial traffic except a few merchants of the Polesotechnic League who visit the League base in a green Freyan valley but never stay long. The Solar Spice & Liquors factor sells pepper and nutmeg. A century ago, the Freyans expelled the "Adderkop" outlaws who then colonized a planet in unknown space beyond the League outpost, Valhalla.
Since then, the Adderkops have increased in numbers and built a bigger fleet of obsolete warships but remain too weak to attack Freya so instead they prey on defenseless planets, exact tribute and conduct overpriced trade. Knowing that the League wants to expand into this volume of space and will not tolerate banditry, the Adderkops harass League outposts in the hope that the merchants will back off. However, Nicholas van Rijn leads an expedition to Freya where he bribes, bluffs, interrogates prisoners, makes deductions, gets a clue to a previously uninvestigated region of space and, going there, follows a neutrino trail to a human colony planet that must be the Adderkops. Then, flying to Valhalla where he is to be met by a League patrol ship, he will be able to send a few Star class battleships against the Adderkops.
It would be good to read a series of stories about the crew of a League patrol ship or battleship. Not employed by the Solar government, they will not wage war against any other government and will use only enough force to keep the trade routes open so their adventures will to that extent differ from those of Dominic Flandry who, in a later period, has enlisted in the Space Navy of the Terran Empire.
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