This is really two stories. The first is solar history; the second, the mostly true legend of a misfit called Knucklebone Smith. Knucklebone, so far as anyone could ever determine, was his real name—the sin of prankish, or perhaps disillusioned parents. He was exactly six feet eight inches tall from the insulated soles of his engineering boots to the top of his planeteer's helmet. He never in his life weighed more than one hundred sixty-five pounds. His face was angular and horse-like, and it ha