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TEN HE DID HAVE, the captain acknowledged cautiously, a very strong interest in the Worm World. Where was it? For a moment he received the impression of a puzzled lack of comprehension in the vatch. WHERE IS IT? the great voice rumbled then, surprised. IT IS WHERE IT IS, SMALL PERSON! So the captain realized that instruments like stellar maps meant nothing to his klatha entity, that it had in fact no real understanding of location, as the human mind understood it. But it didnt need such understanding. The universe of humanity seemed a product of vatch dreamimagination to the vatch. It roamed about here as freely as a man might roam among creations of his imagination. If it wanted to be somewhere, it simply was there. With the exception of the Worm World. The Worm World, the vatch explained, was an enigma. A tantalizing enigma. Having picked up reports of Manaret and its terrors here and there in its prowling, it had decided to take a look at it. It discovered it was unable to approach Manaret. Something barred it, something blocked it. Its essence was held at a distance by the Worm World. That shouldnt have been possible, but it was so. It made the Worm World a challenge. The vatch investigated further, began to fit together a picture of what was known about Manaret. There was the dire monster Moander which ruled it and commanded the worm globes that terrorized human worlds wherever they went. The vatch learned that Manaret was in fact a ship, a tremendous ship designed along planetary dimensions. Confined within a section of the ship was a race of proud and powerful beings, who had built it and originally had been its masters, but who were now the prisoners of Moander. These were known as the LyrdHyrier to humans who had gained contact with them in seeking the means to resist Moander and his Nuris. If there was anything the LyrdHyrier could do to overthrow Moander and regain possession of Manaret, they would do it. And that would end at the same time the oppress