[tray]

I need help remembering the name of a book. I read it about 20 years ago as a teenager, and it was so good it turned me into a sci-fi nut. I’ll try to remember as much as I can, but the details are understandably fuzzy because of my age at the time.

The book starts out where a squid-like creature from another dimension is found that lays eggs that are antimatter based (I think). These eggs are modified for use in the propulsion of new “starships” (I think). The new “technology” is also used to create stable wormholes. The finder of this discovery goes on to create 2 foundations. One foundation was for space exploration and the profits from that were used to fund research in immortality. The discover travels forward in time at the end of the book to get his treatment. The second foundation is based on generating power for earth and is based on a rail system where the generator falls toward earth on a rail and at the end of the rail it travels through a wormhole gate and ends up back at the top of the rail to continue the decent and create free energy.

The main character travels beyond the solar system to a number of planets and sets up permanent wormholes back to earth for colonization purposes. Because he can travel at near light speeds, the wormhole gates also function as time travel gateways. Eventually a series of gateways are setup on a space station with varying time differences, from an hour to a decade, and by selecting the right combination of gates, time travel is possible to any point in the future or into the past (but no further back that when the gates where created.)

I know this was rather long winded, but I wanted to put down what I could remember in the hopes that SOMEBODY knows what this book is. :D

[agallman]

tray: sorry I can't help, but I'm in the same boat with another series of books that I read about 20 years ago as teenager too. Here's my post (listed under agallman) but see if you might can help me out....

About 20 years ago I had a four-book series that I read (and let someone from highschool borrow them and never got them back). Each book was about 1 of 4 planets that a person could go to, but could not return because some metaphysical bio-cell changed your body and you would die if you left. Each planet was significant in it's own environment (i.e. one was water based, etc.). In order for this group of government people to get to the planet take care of some issues, they took 4 different inmates from prison, implanted a mind-control device in each of them, and sent them one at a time down to each of the 4 planets. The inmates were controlled by one guy on a space ship orbiting the planets.

If anyone read these and happens to know what the titles and author of these four books were, I would appreciate you dropping a note or email (anthony_gallman@yahoo.com) to me. Thanks.