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By the time he makes the only serious mistake of his long and distinguished career, Rear Admiral Garrison is several years retired from military service and gray bearded. And while the error isn’t really his, as commander, he accepts it as his own. His subordinate, a man named Fisher, flushes red beneath the dark flecks of stubble on his cheeks. His eyes open in horror. Garrison nods. Their merchant spacecraft, The Kraken, has crossed the event horizon and slipped into the bubble of the black hole. They watch as the starlight slides away into darkness, streaked and blurred like rain