Asteroid 745: Mauritia

Aboard an interplanetary ship, a junior prospector is asked to tell the passengers a ghost story—an unusual request in an age when humanity has left haunted castles and earthly superstition far behind. Yet he remembers one expedition that still defies every sensible explanation.

Years earlier, his crew landed on Asteroid 745, Mauritia, a barren, twenty-mile rock that promised little beyond iron and disappointment. Their irritable commander, Chief Braun, is desperate to find valuable ore and pressures the four prospectors to scour the surface under constant radio contact. As the crew members spread out across the silent asteroid with their Geiger counters and equipment, the emptiness of space begins to feel less reassuring than it should. What they encounter on Mauritia will challenge their assumptions about unexplored worlds—and about whether ghosts truly belong only to the past.