Crosby knew the mission was a bust soon as the cruiser's memclocks started glitchin'. Then the prospect of flyin' straight into a black hole at warp speed didn't seem none too bright to her. But the head scientist 'board the ship, Dr. Ursula Romley, had put the shine on everyone. Made it seem like things weren't 'bout to go horribly wrong.

But they did. Course they did.

After the memclocks started readin' 11:11 'cross the board, Crosby and the crew started gettin' nasty head-thumpers.

"Everything is as expected," Dr. Romley said all prim and proper, grimacing through her own pain.

They couldn't massage their scalps on account of the everythin'-proof suits Romley'd demanded they all wear.

"It's for your own protection, people!" she'd said. "Orders from the man upstairs!"

Well, where the hell's that protection now, huh? Crosby felt herself thinkin' through a cloud of agony as the walls of the cruiser seemed to ripple and contort. Then, for a split second, she saw herself—like in the third person.

And she felt so far away.

From herself. From her life. From the ship.

From everything.

And then she was back. Regular ol' first person. That feelin' of bein' far away went away. Even her boomer of a headache was gone. Crosby glanced at the others, strapped in their seats like she was. Did they all experience the very same strain of fever dream? She was about to say somethin', when—

"Perfectly normal," came Dr. Romley's sweet tones. "Everything is going just swell. Oh, Mr. Turkington will be so pleased w—"

She never finished congratulatin' herself. The cruiser was rocked all the sudden and Romley hit the side of her helmet on a handrail. Crosby nearly laughed, 'cept things disintegrated. She saw a flash of a million differen' fragments of a single momen' in time: That of the ship bein' seized by the black hole.

Then she was gone.

Crosby opened her eyes and saw she was floating out in space, alone, with a tether wrapped 'round her waist that went straight into the centre of the black hole. Her oxygen levels were runnin' real low and, by the looks of it, the cruiser had gone the way of the dinosaurs.

And then she saw it.

At the end of the tether. In the centre of the black hole.

There was a white hole.

[Scenes from the Mothership, Entry #1009-22]