For five years the crew of the Palomino had ranged through deep space, searching for evidence of alien life -with no result.
Then, their mission almost at an end, they discovered a giant collapsar the largest black hole ever encountered and, drifting perilously near it, was the long-lost legendary starship Cygnus.
Incredibly, the ship was not a lifeless hulk.
Its commander, the genius who had designed the Cygnus and planned its epic Boyage, still survived, served by a horde of mechanical slaves.
But Commander Reinhardt had no desire to be rescued.
He had a rendezvous with the incredibly hellish forces of the collapsar- and he planned to take the Palomino's crew along on his doomed adventure.