YEAR 500,000

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

An Lowe opened her eyes and looked at the red sphere that seemed to hover at the center of the tangent-orbital reference visor. She recognized Earth.

She did not feel excited. Returning to her world after six thousand years could not excite her. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could excite her.

She sensed G'wer, the 'Orian,' speaking to her sensorially:

—In three hours, we will be there, 'Eldem.'

G'wer must have been watching her from his steel tower, the eighty-thousand-meter antenna, the beacon of the Galaxy. He was not human. He lived inside the glass receptacle, among metallic spores, circuits, and ultra-photocells. A curious 'robot' with a mind more complex than that of humans.