The Boy Who Would Live Forever

The Heechee are a fictional alien race which developed advanced technologies, including interstellar space travel, but then disappeared.

Two young explorers, Stan Avery and Estrella Pancorbo, set out on a preprogrammed Heechee ship, but they do not discover anything valuable.

They set out towards a black hole where the Heechee are hiding to escape from the "Foe", a dangerous type of being also known as Kugel.

Meanwhile, a wealthy human named Gelle-Klara Moynlin uses sophisticated Heechee tools to watch the Crab Nebula expand.

In another subplot, an artificial intelligence named Marc Anthony roves through the galaxy monitoring the Kugel and Wan.