"What is that?" Jeremy asked.

"When I talked to Vik he mentioned that we've messed so much with this blackhole and its rotation that we might have provoked an unusual situation."

"What's that?"

"It's theoretically possible for a black hole to explode. He thought that thisone was about to. Seeing it happen is son of a once-in-a-lifetime affair."

"What goes on when it blows?"

"I'm not sure and neither was Vik. The cornucopion hypothesis would seem most inkeeping with our present situation, though."

"Better tell me about it so it won't come as a complete surprise."

"It holds that when it blows it leaves behind a horn-shaped remnant smaller thanan atom, weighing about a hundred-thousandth of a gram. Its volume would beunlimited, though, and it would contain all of the information that ever fellinto the black hole. That, of course, would include us."

"Would it be any easier to get out of a cornucopion than out of a black hole?"

"Not here it wouldn't be. Once our information leaves our universe it staysgone."

"What do you mean 'not here'? Is there a loophole if it gets moved someplaceelse?"

"Well, if it could be bounced past the Big Crunch and the next Big Bang and windup in our successor universe its contents might be accessible. We only know forsure that they're barred from release in this universe."

"Sounds like a long wait."

"You never know what time will be doing in a place like that, though. Or this."

"It's been interesting knowing you, Nik. I'll give you that."

"You, too, Jeremy. Now I don't know whether to tell you to open your sensorychannels to the fullest or to shut them down as far as you can."

"Why? Or why not?"

"I can feel the explosion coming on."

There followed an intense sensation of white light which seemed to go on and onand on until Jeremy felt himself slipping away. He straggled to retain his