Synopsis: From the back cover of the DAW first edition: "The death of an android - Though androids have been ruled to be sentient beings, with the same legal rights and responsibilities as humans and the five known alien races, there are many who still see them as little more than machines to be taken advantage of or discarded at will. Yet even the most prejudiced of humans or aliens will find it hard to tell that Arda is actually an android. Sent by Smith's Employment Agency - officially to serve as housekeeper for the best selling author Fortizak and unofficially to act as an undercover agent at the Galactic Writers' Society banquet - Arda's assignment is to insure the safety of humans and aliens attending the meeting is person. She is also to keep watch over the giant irreplaceable gem which the Crotonite princess will be wearing. But neither Arda, Fortizak, nor the alien undercover agents at the banquet can foresee the strange sequence of events that will soon unfold - an attack and robbery of interstellar proportions, certain to undermine diplomatic relations between all Six Races. And, determined to solve the mystery and track down the culprits, Arda herself will become a prime target for murder, a fate from which even the combined efforts of Fortizak and Arda's alien allies may not be enough to save her..."