He ends up taking off in this ship by himself, leaving behind the scientific genius, Hunter, who invented it. And also this other guy, Carrington, who I already kind of forget what his deal was.

Hunter and Galeko are the two poles of the book. Something goes weird with Galeko's journey, exacerbated by his lack of knowledge of space flight and various scientific principles.

Apparently he gets close to the speed of light and ends up getting rescued by another spaceship from Earth, but a thousand years in the future.

The future's a cool place because of this every expanding group mind that settles conflicts when appealed to and is extremely fair and democratic.

But Galeko's mind is in danger of being taken over by the undying brain of an insane Hunter who dreams of death and destruction and vengeance. The consciousness of a younger, saner Hunter is also in play, trying to help Galeko resist.

The story jumps around in time lines and consciousnesses, with Galeko sometimes experiencing more than one at the same time.

It was an unusual and engaging story, simple but at the same time layered and complex.