The story begins with the abduction of a 14th-century English army by aliens of the Galactic Federation. The aliens are bound by a Galactic Federation law that states that advanced weapons cannot be used on primitive worlds, so they have taken the English to serve as mercenaries on planets where only low-tech weaponry is legal.
As the plot progresses, the English army continues to fight for the aliens, until the Baron in charge of the English is approached by a dragon-like alien, an another race under the heel of the Guild Aliens. It reveals to the Baron how the Galactic Federation was originally started over one hundred fifty thousand years ago by 3 races, with membership of the council requiring development of a form of FTL drive. Over the course of their long history, they strayed from its values - when it discovers new races it invades them so it can freeze their technological development and force them into protectorate status.
The dragon-like creature says that all the other races are different than humanity due to their development rate – they demonstrated 1000 years of progression in a 200 year period.
The Baron, with the dragon-creature’s help, eventually succeed in a mutiny and take over the ship, but they decide that they cannot go back to Earth because the Federation would be sure to follow them.
The story then moves forward to the 22nd century, on Earth, now under a single government, where humanity has become capable of building vast ships in space and has developed an FTL drive. However, the Federation considers humanity’s fast development a threat to its stability and has dispatched a fleet to wipe them from the universe.
As the massive Federation battleships are about to destroy the comparably small human ships, even bigger spaceships appear and destroy the Federation ships easily. The rescuers of Earth are the Avalon Empire, the civilization founded by the English who have grown in numbers and, using the technology found on the captured Guild ship, have advanced far beyond the Federation. For centuries they have prepared and lay in hiding so could return at the moment of Earth's greatest need.
The English reveal themselves to Earth and offer an alliance to take on the Federation, but the fight will be far from easy.
The Exclaiber Alternative and other works by David Weber can be found at Baen Books and here. It is one of several novels based on the premise of David Drake's 1986 novel Ranks of Bronze. The novel is also based on the short story "Sir George and the Dragon", which appeared in the 2001 anthology Foreign Legions.
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