Interstellar Empire

Interstellar Empire collects The Altar on Asconcel, The Man from the Big Dark, The Wanton of Argus/The Space-Time Juggler
Interstellar Empire is a fixup of a novella & two short stories published in '76. In his introduction, Brunner explains he wanted to write sword & spaceship stories. To do so, he had humanity find a huge cache of warehoused spaceships left behind by an earlier race. Thus they could have top-notch space travel without the technological development required to invent it. The stories are also set in the waning days of a vast interstellar empire that is crumbling badly, so that some planets are still firmly under imperial control, some are struggling to stay that way & others have gone their own way.
The novella, The Altar on Asconel, concerns three brothers who join forces to try to liberate their home planet after it's been taken over by cultists from the far reaches of space. The 3nd story, The Man From the Big Dark, concerns the efforts of one man to warn a planet that they're about to be invaded by space pirates. The 3rd story, The Wanton of Argus, involves a struggle over who shall become regent for a young king after his father's death. It has a surprising twist at the end involving a time traveler who wants to make sure things turn out right.--Gail O'Connor (edited)