Conquest Over Time

When the radiogram arrives, Travis pilots the battered freighter Old 29 toward the freshly mapped world of Diomed III, a planet where the streets look like a Dickens novel and the air smells of burnt generators. The ship’s failing systems make the descent a nail‑biting race against time, and the planet’s designation as an “Open Planet” means every corporation in the galaxy is scrambling for a first‑contact contract. As clouds part and the surface comes into view, Travis realizes that winning the race is only the beginning of a far stranger challenge.

In this future the old Maturity Theory has been abandoned; any humanoid race, no matter how primitive, must be greeted and offered trade. That rule creates a chaotic frontier where Contact Men must be part pilot, part sociologist, part negotiator, and part survivalist, adapting to societies that range from matriarchal enclaves to cultures that view outsiders as apocalyptic omens. Travis’s mission on Diomed III promises a wild mix of cultural puzzles and corporate rivalry, setting the stage for a gripping exploration of first contact.