Fifty men & women set out in the twenty-third century from Earth aboard an interstellar craft to travel to a planet some thirty light-years away. The ship will approach the speed of light & so (as Einstein predicted) subjective time on board will slow & so the journey of several decades will be of much shorter duration for the crew. But the ships deceleration system is irreparably damaged when it hits a cloud of interstellar dust & acceleration continues toward light speed tau zero. Soon the ship is speeding through galaxies & eons are passing on board the ship in the blink of an eye.. .