The Boy Who Would Live Forever
by Frederik Pohl

Description:
In Gateway, long after the alien Heechee abandoned their space station, Gateway (as humans dubbed it) allowed humans to explore new worlds. The Heechee, alarmed by the alien Kugel, whose goal was to destroy all organic lifeforms, had already retreated to the galactic core, where they lived in peace. Now, in The Boy Who Would Live Forever, humans who dream of life among the stars are joining the Heechee at the core, to live there along with those humans and Heechee whose minds have been stored in electronic memory so that their wisdom may survive the death of their physical bodies. Their peace is threatened by the Kugel, who may yet attack the core. But a much greater threat is the human Wan Enrique Santos-Smith, whose blind loathing of the Heechee fuels an insane desire to destroy them and, incidentally, every living being in the galaxy. Stan and Estrella, two young people from Earth, went to Gateway looking for adventure and found each other. They settle among the Heechee on Forested Planet of Warm Old Star Twenty-Four, never suspecting that they may be the last, best hope to save the galaxy. But with allies like Gelle-Klara Moynlin - one of the galaxy's richest women, who isn't content just to have money but wants to use her wealth for good - and machine mind Marc Antony - a wonderful chef to thousands of living and stored clients - they are destined to contend with Wan's terrible plan.