Earth, Sea And Blood

"To Earth there's no returning. She vanished with the childhood of our race. Yet as a poet once said, 'No matter how far we range, the salt and rhythm of her tides will always be in our blood.' One chapter has ended. Humankind's saga flows on."
-Sandra Miesel IN Poul Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, 2018), p. 216.

In James Blih's "Nor Iron Bars," it is disclosed that Sol is a variable star, that one of its subordinate cycles is of 212 days and that this cycle:

"'...is reflected one-for-one in the human pulse rate.'
"'...we can never be lost! Not as long as the Sun is detectable at all, whether we can identify it or not! We're carrying the only beacon we need right here in our blood!'"
-James Blish, "Nor Iron Bars" IN Blish, Galactic Cluster (London, 1963), pp. 61-92 AT p. 90.

"The sea.
"The sea is our mother.
"The home we grew too big for. The womb from which we woke.
"This is what the wise men say.
"But the wise men lie. We brought the sea with us.
"Because blood is salt water, and in our hearts there is a lightless ocean."
-Mike Carey, Lucifer: Children and Monsters (Riverdale, NY, 2001), p. 93, panels 1-2.