Dumarest had sailed endless leagues in the morass of the sea of stars. Yet nowhere among the infinite worlds upon which he touched did he find what he sought. He was looking for home, for an ancient planet so old that its name had turned to sand trickling down an unreachable hourglass. Nimino, the ship's navigator, sat opposite him along with the fat, widely traveled trader, Yalung. As long as there was a chance of reaching for a grain of information, he would continue to ask the same question he had always asked every league of the way. "Tell me," he said, "have you ever heard of Earth?"