Halma. Where humans were ruled by a race of effete and arrogant Lords... where a feudalistic system banned all work by machines... where a benevolent welfare state rewarded talented hand labor with a barely adequate sustaining dole. Young Ghyl Tarvok, fascinated by the legend of Emphyrio, became a rebel. In a pirated spaceship, he began his search through the civilizations of neighboring planets for the key to the origin of his homeworld's culture and the secret that might change it. Inexorably he moved toward the last desperate hope: the planet his ancestors had left many thousands of years before-the mysterious and terrifying place called Earth.