Doc Smith wrote a novella, "Imperial Stars," published in If magazine, but nothing further and no outlines or plot ideas. Stephen Goldin expanded the novella into a novel and then wrote 9 more books in the series. It's the 25th Century, and humanity has colonized a great deal of the galaxy, including several worlds apparently inhospitable to homo sapiens. The form of government selected to unite scattered humanity is an old-fashioned Empire, with hereditary monarchs,…