It was an innocent looking little tube. There are hundreds in every medical laboratory. It wasn't the tube that counted. The contents were all important. The liquid in that tube could destroy a galaxy, yet in itself it was harmless. Everything depended upon the formula and particularly the type of symbols which were employed to set down the formula. Given the right notation that formula could be the most lethal thing since Death went into business.
Gray Hawkins had three possible choices. He could destroy the tube and say nothing; he could report the whole thing to the Interplanetary Federation and leave it to the politicians; or he could use his own initiative. Gray was the kind of man who had plenty of ambition. He decided to play it alone. He hadn't really bargained on the strength of the opposition, but a man who held the power to destroy whole planets was prepared to take on the opposition of star-empires.