by Joe Haldeman
While transporting an esteemed Starfleet scientist to his new posting, the U.S.S. Enterprise encounters a situation seemingly in defiance of the laws of science: an M-class planet orbited by a tiny black hole. As the crew proceeds to investigate the implausibilities of the new planet quickly mount: ...
Star Trek had an obsession with its heroes encountering God-like intelligences and somehow surviving, often by outwitting them or exploiting hubristic tendencies. Not sure what that's all about but here's another example, which at least avoids such a cliched resolution. Passable at best.
[These notes were made in 1984:]. A not-terribly-memorable encounter with two super-races, one fairly benign although at first misunderstood (the Arivne) and the other invading and malignant. Haldeman manages to arrange a battle of wills on some metaphorical/imaginative plain between two Irapina (t...