P = E ÷ t …what if time didn’t matter…

Synopsis

The novel explores a period of around 10,000 years.  It begins with a group of people who had been put together for a sociological experiment who are then recruited to man a space colony ship to revolve around Venus.  This happens because for a very brief period in a few hundred years, the earth subscribes to a new religion that believes mankind is the centre and saviour of the universe and has a duty to survive and go out to populate new areas to ensure that survival.  All of earth cooperates to build the colony ships.

The ship we follow is the Starlight Cruiser.  The money to finance the colony ship comes from a machine that had been invented that apparently kept the spectre of a human together and functioning after death.  No one should now be afraid of death.  The inventor is on board the Cruiser.

Soon after 3 of the ships leave, the society is put back to petty squabbling.   We find out later that it is because the other two ships are jealous that the Cruiser figured out the problem of space travel and wouldn’t take them along, conspired with earth to vilify the Cruiser then attacked  it.  When they failed the factions were set and began to fight.

The Starlight Cruiser picks up a marble size remnant of an expired black hole and is driven though an uncontrolled explosion outside the solar system.  The ship is self contained and produces everything it needs as they proceed.  Knowing they can survive wherever they go, they decide to go outside the galaxy to where there is no space debris to ensure survival.  But even at the speeds that they can achieve this will take another 3000 years.  Throughout they keep improving on the longevity of the human race until they can almost ensure that someone can live indefinitely.

The first generation on board does not have the benefit of all the improvements to longevity so they are put in hibernation while the new generation who can survive the trip remain.

There are 2 lifeboats on board.  Those who cannot perceive or accept the decision to go outside the galaxy go off on their own to find an inhabitable planet.  One ship (The Starfire) turns on the Starlight Cruiser and attempts to hunt it down and capture it.  The other ship (The Starstream Galaxy) finds a planet in the Keppler system and attempts to inhabit it.  The Starlight Cruiser crew watches the dailies from it to follow the progress.

The automatic defense response of the Cruiser defeats the Starfire and they continue on their quest outside the Galaxy.  They try an experiment to team up couples using various techniques for limited periods of time to see if sociologically that would be a better system because mostly they were individually lonely and rejected.

Finally they start to approach the rogue star outside the galaxy.  It took over 300 years to get to top speed and over 300 years of planning to slow down to stop at the rogue star.

The rest is too much of a giveaway.  Too much of a spoiler.