A device which causes a star to emit electromagnetic signals attracting starseeds; said to have been invented by the Puppeteers. They have supposedly used a starseed lure to influence the course of the Man-Kzin Wars by causing an Outsider ship to visit the human colony world We Made It, allowing humanity to purchase hyperdrive technology. This technology allowed humanity to decimate the Kzinti in subsequent wars. However, other accounts have it that the outsiders followed an unmanned human starship that traveled between the human colonies.