No One Goes There Now

Colonizing the galaxy's near reaches, the myriad, mutated children of Earth are loosely governed by Imperium Terrestriana's hierarchy, an elite, long-lived neohuman minority that proactively fosters Convention, a body of interstellar civil law featuring Code Duello; under its precepts, trillions of eligible patricians and plebes wield their swords in order to settle all public and private disputes. Imperial explorers discover parsecs-distant Dan, a raw, idyllic world seemingly ripe for colo...