Rod Garvin just made too many waves for the Thought Control Board that controlled the 21st century. Throwing him in an insane asylum didn't restrain him. Nor, when that didn't work, did sentencing him to a suicide job on Mars. Garvin was bright, driven, and stubborn. The only thing Thought Control could was was get rid of him -- quietly and permanently. And that was fine with Garvin...since it meant he could make his dreamed-of voyage into deep space. But when his exploration ship stumbles onto an asteroid peopled by remnants of a star-faring race and possessed of incredible mineral wealth, it opens the possibility of unlimited look for Earth and Thought Control. If only Rod Garvin hadn't been the man to make the find...