Aide Memoire

Sharp-tongued Terrestrial diplomat Retief is sent to the long-lived world of Fust, where Ambassador Magnan wants him to publicly sponsor a harmless-sounding youth group called SCARS. Retief's instincts tell him otherwise, and when he follows the trail from pompous ceremonies to the shipyards, he finds a society seething with resentment, age politics, and hidden agendas. The supposed passenger liner under construction turns out to be based on an old battle cruiser design, and the Groaci Embassy is far too interested in the project for comfort. As Retief digs deeper, he uncovers violence, sabotage, and a plot to smuggle titanite explosive aboard the luxury barge Moss Rock. The "youths" behind the unrest are tied to a corrupt shipyard foreman and a Groaci scheme to frame the Terrestrial Embassy and trigger wider conflict. With dry wit, improvisation, and a knack for reading alien motives, Retief turns a diplomatic disaster into a trap for the conspirators—only to discover that the real "leader" is not a youth at all, but an elder hidden in a stolen carapace.