The Borderland of Sol

A rash of spaceship disappearances around Earth results in a dearth of available transit, stranding Beowulf "Bey" Shaeffer on Jinx away from his love, Sharrol Janss.

Carlos is the father of Janss' two children, a fact that he found so embarrassing that he decided to leave Earth rather than face Bey upon his expected return.

Reconciled, Carlos mentions that he has been contacted by Sigmund Ausfaller of the Bureau of Alien Affairs, who has offered him a ride to Earth.

This proves to be the case for most of the journey, but only moments before entering the outskirts of Sol the ship suddenly lurches and drops out of hyperspace.

When his inquiries are finally answered, he finds that one of the bits of information was written by Dr. Julian Forward, a researcher Carlos has wanted to meet.

Ausfaller agrees that Carlos and Bey can go to Forward Station; he did not reveal himself during the conversation and the small ship would not give away the fact that there was a third crewmember.

He shows them his prize possession, the "Grabber", an electromagnetic assembly that lets him shake masses of neutronium to produce polarized gravitational waves, which he is attempting to use to establish communications with alien races who may not have discovered hyperwave.

However, by this time Bey has managed to free himself enough to cut through his bonds, which turn out to be the power cable feeding the Grabber, releasing the black hole once again.

They speculate that Forward deliberately turned up the air pressure in his final moments in order to allow the two to live until Ausfaller returned.