Tantalus Depths
Mary Ketch signed on to the Tantalus 13 deep space survey mission to get some time and distance from her problems at home. It was supposed to be a simple piloting job to help an artificially intelligent, self-constructing factory called SCARAB lay the foundations of a mining colony on a barren rock.
But when the barren rock turns out to be a solid sphere of pure platinum, the astronauts realize they've made the greatest discovery in human history: Tantalus 13 is not a planet at all, but an ancient artificial construct of unknown origin and purpose.
As the crew begin to meet gruesome and fatal "accidents," their sense of achievement dwindles and Mary suspects the guilty party may be the increasingly deranged SCARAB. But SCARAB may not be acting alone, and Tantalus has only begun to reveal the dark secrets that lie in its depths...
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Evan Graham
Evan Graham doesn’t just write science fiction—he engineers it. His stories hum with precision, each one built like a self-contained vessel designed to probe the edge of human experience. With Tantalus Depths, the first in his Laniakea series, he introduced readers to deep-space exploration layered with psychological tension and philosophical unease. His take on sci-fi leans hard into the cerebral without ever losing its sense of suspense; there’s always something simmering beneath the surface, whether it’s cosmic horror or the fragility of human ambition.