Elaine is the assistant (don’t call her a lady’s maid) to Anastasia, the beautiful but rather airheaded and spoilt daughter of the recently divorced Emperor and Empress of the Galactic Union of Planets. Anastasia wants to head off on the traditional Year Out tour of the known worlds. Unfortunately, Daddy has put his foot down for once, so any sensible princess would just have to stay at home. Thankfully for the plot, she’s not that sensible, so she arranges to sneak off on it anyway, taking nothing but a backpack, enough credit cards to sink a battleship, and her trusty assistant, who believes that everything is totally approved, and that the fact they are leaving in a small shuttle under an assumed name is just a security precaution. After all, at a time when anti-monarchy feeling is running high, even Anastasia wouldn’t be stupid enough to wander off without a security detail or two following discretely behind, would she?
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