ABANDONED. Sci-Fi Empire tries to prevent oscillating universe. Spoilers.

[TJ]

This book is about a space empire that controls populations through a caste system and religion. The scientists of the empire have determined that the universe is expanding and collapsing, recreating itself over and over. This is against the principles of the religion, and would mean that the empire would collapse eventually. In order to prevent the inevitable collapse of the universe, the empire has forced several stars to collapse together, forming a black hole, and in the process reduce the mass in the universe. The empire has calculated that this loss of mass will be enough to prevent the universe from collapsing in on itself and the universe will continue to expand until the universe cools and everything ends.

There are two people who are from different castes and should not be together, but they fall in love anyway. They are exiled to a prison world, which they find out is the head quarters of the resistance to the empire.

SPOILER ALERTS

The couple are recruited to pilot a starship at near the speed of light for eternity. As the starship approaches light speed the mass of the ship increases. If it travels long enough the extra mass from their journey will be enough to offset the mass loss that they empire caused from the collapsing stars.

The journey they go through leads them back in time, and they create the circumstances that cause them to fall in love in the first place.

There is something in the story about using a ring from the nose of the spaceship when they go back in time, The ring has acquired special attributes but I do not remember this part of the book very well, only an impression of what happened.

I read this book in the late 70’s or early 80’s, but I do not know when it was released.

[Kris]

TJ, please post a new comment if you're still looking for this book - or if you found it.

TJ (OP) was last active on the site in May 2020. Moving to Abandoned folder.