The Currents of Space

1958

When a man is found, naked and battered, in the kyrt fields of Florina the locals think he's a crazy especially when they find he can't speak. Gradually over a number of months, he begins to remember how to speak then why he had come to Florina in the first place.

He had found something in the way that Florina's sun worked that would cause it to go nova in a fairly short time.

But Florina is governed by the people from Sark who had seen the benefits of the kyrt plant that provided those that could pay with virtually indestructable clothing. The powerful lords who controlled this trade receive threats against their holdings threatening destruction of the kyrt industry. Naturally these 'Squires' are suspicious and they institute security measures that pick out a strange man and his native girlfriend as they travel to the city in order to find out more about the holes in his memory. In order to escape from this trap, Rik and Valona find themselves in the hands of people calling themselves members of the Florinian Underground.

In the background there's the Trantorian Empire, now controlling almost the whole galaxy and in the process of transforming into the Galactic Empire, but still wary of provoking those worlds and powers that retain their independence. The government on Sark reckon that the current spot of trouble on Florina is related to an attempt by Trantor to grab their world and threaten the Trantorian Ambassador with heavy troubles if Trantor doesn't back down. This understandibly annoys the Ambassador for he truly doesn't know what's really going on - honest!

Finally things all come to a head where the abused comes face to face with the alleged abuser and explains his theory properly.

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