The Empire of a Thousand Planets

Sent to investigate a distant interstellar empire, Valerian and Laureline find that it is being dominated behind the throne by a small cadre of earthlings, ruling for their own benefit and planning to attack the earth. Valerian and Laureline form an alliance with space traders, who are trying to get business back to normal. After being defeated, the remaining earthlings (\"the Enlightends\") seeing that their goals have become impossible, commit suicide.