* * * * *
Waiting for them, the great glutton yawned, and drew in countless molecules, waves, and particles in doing so. Only the X-rays were left alone to come and go as they pleased. For to them, the giant nothing was but a valley to be crossed, one with bridges aplenty that could not break. And to the behemoth, the eater of worlds, the silver needle was but a drop of water among a vast ocean to drink, a grain of sand on a beach where it was counting. One by one, until nothing remained anywhere, save in the belly of the black hole.
* * * * *
The silver needle shot through the void leaving a trail of lights that were only fleeting images upon a dark canvas. Slow puffs of smoke came from the sides of it, and pods filled with people rocketed away, hoping for rescue. Back in the craft, the captain, having no more escape pods available, prepared to go down with his ship. As the tug became stronger, he wondered of things that he had never before thought of. Strangely calm, he began to talk to himself, or, as he reasoned, whoever might be listening above us.
Wondering aloud, he said, "What will happen at the event horizon? Will we simply be crushed to millionths of our regular sizes, and nothing more?"
But he knew that was not possible, in his head, knew there was a strange thing which this black hole must do, never imagining such a plain death.
"Will we perhaps be spit out into another universe? Or," he said, hoping and wishing, "will we be sent to heaven to face God? What on Earth--"
But he wasn't on Earth. The ship was swallowed, and the hunger begged for more. The last escape pods to break from the ship slowed... slowed... stopped. And for a breathless moment, all aboard imagined themselves with their families again, as the reversed directions. A flash....
* * * * *
A silver needle plummeted through the depths of space....