home star n.

Swinging in a great, erratic orbit on the very edge of this nebulalike mass of raw planetary matter was a planet, a planet which they recognized. One of the planets of their old home star, fourth out from the Sun. It had been stolen from their Sun, now was swinging in an orbit of its own.

My home star lies clear across the Galaxy, near the periphery; I will not at present be more specific than that.

Westward in a deep purplish sky, the sun stood at eternal late afternoon. It was a K0 dwarf, barely one-tenth as luminous as man’s home star, furnace red.

‘We have tracked the signals to their source,’ Vargas said. ‘I thought you would like to see their home star.’

Among the stars of the universe, his place is not great, but as our home star, we must revere him.

I looked up from my position crouched against the bulkhead, looked at the screens, and there was nothing but black on them. We were in the safe area of our own home star and with traffic around us. There was no way anything ought to be going wrong, but G was pulling us and making the lights all over the boards blink red, red, red.

‘Now, we will show you their home.’ A nondescript red star floated in the center of the amphitheater, speckled with dark star spots. ‘This is their home star.’

Finding no resistance at first, they established supply lines and built adamantine fortresses in every solar system that surrounded their home star. Along the way, the Gees began encountering other space-going races and, hesitantly at first, began forging mutual defense pacts. Eventually, more and more systems fell within their sphere of influence, and the process rapidly gained momentum.

Viras—that name actually refers to its alien villains' home star, not the enormous rubbery squid they eventually unleash—doesn’t introduce its giant foe until the final reel.