The Borderland of Sol

Plot summary

A rash of spaceship disappearances around Earth leaves few transit options, stranding Beowulf "Bey" Shaeffer on Jinx away from his love, Sharrol Janss. At the Institute of Knowledge he meets his old friend Carlos Wu, who is the father of Janss' two children. Carlos had left Earth rather than face Bey upon his expected return, but Bey is happy about the children because his albinism prevents him from having his own, and he and Sharrol had agreed that Carlos should act as a surrogate. Carlos mentions that Sigmund Ausfaller of the Bureau of Alien Affairs has offered him a ride to Earth. Bey has had past conflicts with Ausfaller, who once planted a bomb on Bey's alien-provided General Products' #2 hull to prevent a diplomatic incident. Worried for Carlos, Bey accompanies him to the meeting. Ausfaller explains that alien passengers were aboard some of the vanished vessels, and he must investigate. His ship, the Hobo Kelly, appears to be a cargo vessel but is actually a warship built from a General Products' #2 hull, capable of 30G acceleration and armed with guided missiles, an x-ray laser, and smaller laser cannons. Of the eight ships that disappeared, only two were incoming, so their inbound mission has better odds. The journey is uneventful until moments before entering the outskirts of Sol, when the ship lurches and drops out of hyperspace. They find three small tugs at a distance but nothing else. As they head toward Sol, Bey discovers the hyperdrive motor is completely missing from the hull. Carlos uses the ship's hyperwave communications to retrieve information from Elephant's databanks on Earth, looking up black hole related topics.