Search Worlds Without End

Table of Contents:

• 5 - Introduction (The Stars Around Us) - essay by Robert Hoskins
• 11 - The Peddler's Nose - short story by Jack Williamson
• 26 - The Listeners - novelette by James E. Gunn
• 55 - Ghost Fleet - short story by Christopher Anvil
• 73 - Fondly Fahrenheit - novelette by Alfred Bester
• 93 - With Redfern on Capella XII - novelette by Frederik Pohl
• 117 - Underfollow - short story by John Jakes
• 129 - The Feeling of Power - short story by Isaac Asimov
• 139 - The Helping Hand - novelette by Poul Anderson
• 166 - A Work of Art - short story by James Blish
• 184 - The Great Slow Kings - short story by Roger Zelazny

Branded! One moment of treachery and all Case's hopes, all his aspirations for citizenship and status are shattered. Publicly shamed and despised as a coward, Case's bitter hatred of his home world and longing for revenge on its rulers make him a willing tool of those who conspire to topple the government of Earth. In his eagerness to humiliate those who destroyed him, Case embarks on a perilous voyage through space and intrigue only to finally discover he has betrayed his own goals.

A student is assigned to an exploratory agency to study humanoid races throughout the universe accessed through "gates" which link thousands of planets. The student is betrayed and learns that the agency is corrupt with a power-hungry insider who would take over the known universe and hungers for an even larger network of "gates" that link millions of worlds.

Just how far would a money-loving freesailer go to find the master key to every planet in the galaxy? And how would he get back?... when freesailer, plunderer James Oregas and his beautiful business partner set out to bilk the unsuspecting denizens of the backwater planet Llango... it got complicated... when Jamas, who knew the ins and out of stargates was doublecrossed and had to disappear -- and fast, it moved into high gear... when Jamas landed on Prime -- a repository planet of galactic history -- and learned of a mysterious lost race that held the master key to all the stargates for all the worlds... when Jamas himself decided to scour the galaxy, looking for that long-lost race, following a trail that would lead him to power beyond his wildest dreams -- if he somehow managed to stay alive!