SOLVED. Read around 1995. Scifi. Adolescent. A guy (probably boy) who uses kaleidoscopic crystals to pilot a spaceship. [s]

[Vulco1]

I'm trying to find a book I read around 1995 when I was in 4th grade or so. What I remember is a guy used a kaleidoscopic or at least multicolored crystal to pilot and control a spaceship. I think it was an adventure book and there were some supporting characters but I can't remember anything about them.

The book took place in the "contemporary" time and in America if not the western world.

I think the hardback cover was purple with a brown or tawny ship on the cover and maybe a rainbow as the rings around a planet.

I think there was some space combat, more like Star Trek than Battle Star Galactica.

I remember thinking at the time that it was like a book version of the Captain Blood video game.

Thank you

[Kris]

Vulco1, about how old is the main character? What events or personal connections put this character in a position to pilot a spaceship? Is there a war between humans and (invading) aliens?

[Tab]

Maybe, Collidescope by Grace Chetwin ?

Here is a description from NoveList:
When his spaceship crashes to earth, a highly advanced alien interferes with the lives of two teenagers--on a Delaware Indian--living on the island of Manhattan during different centuries.

Here is a longer description from Kirkus:
A synthetic guardian from space teams up with(view spoiler)[ a 6th-century Delaware Indian and a (hide spoiler)] 20th-century high-school girl. Hahn Ixpodsix (Humanoid Android for Hyperspace Navigation class 9, ship 6) is (view spoiler)[an agent of an intergalactic EPA bent on preserving planets for the original inhabitants. He is shot down by a renegade HAHN just as he finds Earth; to escape immolating Manhattan, he jumps back 1451 years, thus entering his crash in the legends of a local Indian village. Fourteen Indian years later (just four hours to Hahn), the Indian boy born at the moment of his crash is sent on a vigil requiring Hahn to rescue him,'but the boy--Sky-Fire-Trail--steals a time-travel crystal and lands in Manhattan in 1990, just in time to meet Frankie, a 16-year-old girl. The three of them dodge through space and time to escape bad-HAHN, finally destroying him and helping Sky-Fire-Trail lead his tribe to new land to the north. (hide spoiler)]

[Vulco1]

Collidescope is definitely it! I can tell from the book cover on the main page! Thanks!

Solved