Hundreds of years in the future, the pioneering space flight made by Princess Bronwyn has evolved into an empire of interstellar commerce---an empire always on the shakey verge of rebellion. It is also a world that ranges from dense industrial slums to the glittering towers of the legendary Vortex Patrol. Into the former is born an extraordinary girl who finds herself fighting, cheating and stealing her way from the gutters of the spaceports of Blavek to the ranks of the Patrol itself.