Narrated by the writer.

A year-long shift in the center of the interstellar void will get quite boring. For the 4th shift crew from the starliner Pericles, enroute to Earth from one from the colony worlds, the passing could best be called routine.

Before forward sensors detect an unknown and unexpected object ahead. What they find there, in the limitless night of space, will forever change the universe, for them and for all mankind.

Assuming they endure to tell anyone about the encounter.