"The Currents of Space" is the second book in
Isaac Asimov's
Galactic Empire Series. Much of the action is set on the slave
planet Florina, the only place in the
Galaxy where the valuable fiber kyrt will grow (nobody knows why). The
hero and
heroine are Rik, who used to be a scientist before his
memory was erased with a psychic probe, and Lona, the peasant woman who looks after him. One day Rik remembers that everybody on Florina is going to die, and he and Lona attempt to find out how this can be while fleeing from the authorities.