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of high technology. Which was why, after the shock of first contact wore off, the king had arbitrarily banned the Federation from the planet.
    That was his excuse, anyway. The Federation had a different take on the matter. As they saw it, King Politaus thought rule by democracy endangered his job security, and he wasn’t going to let his people get any bright ideas on the subject.
    Whether or not to force the issue had been a hotly debated topic in the hallowed halls of the Galactic Federation, becauseit turned out that Madrea was rich in sunstones, which the Federation desperately wanted to get its hands on.
    Since I’d been gone from the Department of Protocol for some time now, I’d only heard vague rumors of sunstones. I searched the files until I found an explanation. It seemed sunstones were an opalescent rock that produced energy in massive quantities all out of proportion for their size. The Federation scientists theorized that a two-pound rock could provide power for an area the size of eight city blocks on Centaurius for several cycles. Team one up with a surge crystal that amplified power and the possibilities were endless. Unfortunately, until Madrea was discovered, they were rarer than surge crystals and worth more, ounce per ounce, than Orpheus crystals.
    And the native Madrean population had no idea what they were sitting on. They used the sunstones, which gave off a soft glow, as a light source. All over the inhabited continent of Madrea, billions of credits’ worth of sunstones, controlled primarily by the Bashalde, sat idle in glass lamps.
    It was enough to drive the greedier element in the Federation Council to the brink of war. This faction was led by Helios One, a resource-poor system in the Perseus arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.
    Although if you asked me, Losif Strand, the hereditary ruler of Helios One, was more interested in lining his own pockets than in helping his people. At one point, he’d been under charges for war crimes against the Federation, but his slimy, high-priced lawyer had slid him through a legal loophole and Strand had gone free.
    I’d never met him, but I’d heard his speeches to the Federation Council and I’d seen him from a distance, across the grand ballroom at the social gatherings held after each council session.
    He was a tall, hawkish man with dark hair and odd ambereyes. Not bad-looking, per se, just too austere and self-absorbed for my tastes.
    But the law is the law, and Strand had to leave Madrea alone. And in case any of the worlds in his coalition got too bold, the more conservative worlds were standing by to enforce any breaches of the Federated Constitution. All in all it was a very touchy situation, and I could see why the Federation enforced the king’s ban on the planet. Just by being there I could tip the uneasy peace that was currently holding by a thread.
    Not to mention what would happen if it were discovered that Madrea’s abundance of quartz had suddenly turned the world into a potential secondary source of Orpheus crystals, thanks to the Sumantti’s presence on the planet. And one not controlled by the Buri at that.
    Immersed in the data as I was, five days zipped by almost without my noticing. My only breaks were for meals, sleep, and the brief time I was on ZT Twelve, picking up my Bashalde clothes.
    A word to the wise: never take a dragon bird on a space station filled with boutiques and jewelry stores. They have an affinity for anything that glitters, and no concept of payment for goods received. It took some fast talking on my part to keep from being arrested for shoplifting fifteen minutes after we stepped out on Level Six.
    And to add insult to injury, I ended up paying for the gaudiest necklace ever created just to keep the creature happy and occupied while I finished my business. It had flowers the size of Peri’s head in garish colors, and the center of each flower was a fake gemstone. It was also long enough to wrap around her five times,