Beyond the Blue Event Horizon — Frederik Pohl

GATEWAY TO THE HEECHEE

Robinette Broadhead, made rich . by the Gateway mission that had cost him the woman he loved joined in bankrolling an expedition to the Food Factory a Heechee spaceship found beyond the orbit of Pluto and designed to graze the cometary cloud and transform the basic elements of the universe into untold quantities of food.

Broadhead thought his motives were simple enough: a gamble on a breakthrough that could end famine forever and would make him the wealthiest man in history. But his understanding, tough-minded wife knew something else drove her husband: a vision of his lost love, poised forever at the "event horizon" of a black hole...where Robin had abandoned her.

Every scrap of Heechee lore that could be brought back and interpreted increased the chance that he would someday, somehow be able to reach and perhaps even rescue his beloved Gelle-Klara Moynlin.

After three and a half years, messages came back from the expedition that electrified the world: the Food Factory was still working...they had found a human aboard...they had discovered the key to the use of a whole new level of technology...And. it appeared, they had found the Heechee!