Gateway (novel)

Did You Know?

• In 2015 Variety announced that a Gateway TV series was going to be written and produced by David Eick and Josh Pate for Syfy, although it failed to enter production.
• In 2017 Skybound Entertainment made an agreement with the Pohl estate for another attempt at making a TV series but it failed to begin production as well.
• A short concluding chapter, cut before publication, was later published in the August 1977 issue of Galaxy.

Plot summary

Gateway is an asteroid that was carved out by the Heechee, an alien species that disappeared long ago. People have only managed to figure out a small amount of the Heechee technology left behind there and elsewhere. The asteroid is run by the Gateway Corporation, which acts for a group of governments: the United States, the Soviet Union, New People's Asia, the Venusian Confederation, and the United States of Brazil. Inside Gateway, there are nearly a thousand small spaceships that were abandoned. Through very risky trial and error, humans have learned how to operate them to some degree. The controls that set a destination have been found, but no one knows where a given setting will send the ship, how long the trip will take, or whether there is enough fuel to come back. People who take the gamble pack the tight space with gear and as much food as they can, but sometimes it is not enough. When supplies run out, they may turn to cannibalism, and if that still fails, to suicide. Trying to take the ships apart to understand how they work has always led to disaster, as has adjusting the controls during a flight. Most settings send the ships to places that are useless or deadly. However, a few settings lead to new Heechee objects or planets that can support life in other star systems, which makes the crews very rich. The ships come in three standard sizes, holding a maximum of one, three, or five people. Some of the three-person ships and many of the five-person ships have armor. Every ship includes a lander for exploring a planet or other object if one is found.