THE VAULT IN THE VALLEY On a far semi-desert world, shunned by trade routes, and unattractive to star travellers, there is a barren and isolated valley. Dominating this valley is a great time-eroded Sphinx-like construction - a mass known to the few who have looked upon it as the Skull of Sykoris. Cap Kennedy followed a dangerous trail across many worlds - a trail of murder, duels, and evil - to find that it ended there, before the Skull, confronting a mystery older than all mankind. Beneath that Sphinx lay something desired by Earth's old enemies. Beneath it lay something that lured the criminal minds of many worlds. But what it was none knew - until Cap Kennedy himself released the frightful power of the Eater of Worlds.