 Here, the conflict and comic relief of the story arises from the protagonists' dislike of middle management and blind enforcement of rules, and the insistence thereon by senior officer 'Benjamin Henniker'.In the second book, the hostile fleet attack the "Fist of Earth" after 50 years' absence, and are opposed by the "Fist"'s crew and scientists in a short series of dogfights.Following the first such sequence, the Benefactors identify the fleet as renegade creations of their own, under the command of a single rogue of the Benefactors' own species.