It takes a vast and complex bureaucracy for the peldaks to maintain their interstellar dominion over the Protectorate. But the peldaks are a martial, physical people who detest sitting behind a desk, and the peldaks don’t trust aliens to do the boring work for them. Therefore, the bureaucracy of the Peldak Protectorate relies on the unwilling labor of convicts.

This is the story of one such convict, Cyryl. The night he returns to Peldor from a tour of duty in the military, he drunkenly incites a riot and is sentenced to 35 years of pushing papers.