I waited five seconds, then risked one last look. The Ghosts' moon ship was a silvered landscape, tilted up to my right. A thick hose snaked up to the ripped-open pod. Chrome spheres clustered around the pod like bacteria over a wound.

I saw the flash through closed eyelids.

I tumbled backwards. The pain in my chest passed into a dull acceptance. Those Ghosts would have to move fast.

A cold smoothness closed around me.

There was light behind my eyes. I opened them to an airy room. A window to my left. Blue sky. The smell of flowers. A nurse's concerned face over me.

A human nurse.

Behind him, a Ghost hovered.

I tried to speak. "Hello, Wyman."

A footstep. "How did you know I was here?" His pinched expression made me smile.

"You're looking a lot older, Wyman, you know that?" My voice was a croak. "Of course you're here. You've been waiting for me to die. But here I am, ready to collect my fee.

"I expect the doctors will spend the next year scanning me on all wavelengths, mapping out the quagma scars and working out what they mean. I'll be famous." I laughed; my chest hurt. "But we're going to get the treasure, Wyman. A message from another realm of creation.

"Of course we'll have to share it. Humans and Ghosts... but at least we'll get it.

"And you'll have to share the profits, won't you? And there's my fee as well. You didn't budget for that, did you, Wyman? I'd guess you're about to become a lot poorer--"

He walked out, slamming the door.

"But," I whispered, "we must put the interests of the race first."

There was a bit of blue sky reflected in the Ghost. I stared at it and waited for sleep to return.

The burst of human inventiveness characterized by the prototype Susy drive was not sustained. As Wyman foresaw, it was simply too easy for human beings to steal what others had already discovered, rather than develop their own.

The Susy drive -- unstable, expensive, unproven -- was abandoned.

New images formed before my eyes.

Suddenly I was looking at my own face.

"Jack, every life has a part, in the great cosmic drama we are forced to act out. Watch, now..."

Planck Zero

Planck Zero

A.D. 5653

Recently I've been poring over theoretical physics texts. My friends -- those who can still stand to see me, since the Ghosts rebuilt me -- can't understand it. Okay, they say, you were almost killed by the Ghosts' Planck Zero experiment. It was terrible. But isn't it all over now? Why brood? Why not walk -- or rather, fly -- out into the sunshine, and enjoy what's left of your life?

...But I have to do this. I need the answer to a specific question.

Is there any way out of a black hole?