A sci-fi horror SHORT STORY by Douglas Nelson

Far beyond the reaches of charted space, a long-range exploratory vessel drifts off course. Massive in scale, still considered experimental, the Tantalus Reach was built to travel farther than anything before it. What was meant to be a years-long mission has stretched into something else entirely.

Now, one man wakes from cryo aboard the empty ship.
No alarms. No instructions. Just dead air, flickering lights, and a silence that feels far too complete.
With systems failing and no clear path home, he begins to search for answers—alone.

But some missions don’t go wrong all at once.
Some take their time.
Some break slowly.

TANTALUS REACH is a slow-burning sci-fi horror story of isolation, discovery, and the long decay of things left too far from home.