Ship Out of Water
by
The Way

i
Captain Janet Orp leaned back in the command chair, aghast. On the com, President Kurmaph’s voice droned on, but the crew paid no attention; the horror on the screen held their gaze.
It might have been a bathtub full of ink draining, but it was an odder thing than that. Their craft, the Pym, had stopped its hyper flight right next to the mouth of a huge black hole, and it had them in its inexorable grasp. Like a ravenous vampire, the gargantuan hole was sucking up all matter in its path to satisfy its fell appetite for lifegiving blood…only in this case, it was the lives of the crew that were to feel the bite.
“Cripes!” shouted First Mate “Pippy” Torquez, convulsively grasping the helmsperson’s ursine shoulder. “This is quite a pickle, Captain! What’ll we do?”
“What indeed, Pippy? What, indeed?” came the bleak reply. Came the bleak reply.