It came from the darkness between the stars… and it should not be here.

When astronomers first spotted 3I/ATLAS—officially designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS)—they thought it was just another icy visitor from the edge of our solar system. But within days, the data told a far stranger story. This was no ordinary comet.

Its speed defied natural explanation—hurtling toward the Sun at over 130,000 miles per hour, faster than any asteroid or comet ever recorded. Its trajectory was hyperbolic, meaning it came from beyond our solar system and will never return. And unlike normal comets, 3I/ATLAS displayed an unusual forward glow without a clear tail, as if light itself bent differently around it.

Even stranger: it arrived decades after Earth’s earliest radio broadcasts would have reached the nearest star systems—perfectly timed for a reply.

Some scientists insisted it was just a rare interstellar object, like ʻOumuamua in 2017 or 2I/Borisov in 2019. Others, like Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Elias Calder, dared to ask the unthinkable: What if it’s not natural? Could 3I/ATLAS be engineered, an ancient probe from an intelligent civilization that detected us long ago?

The world is watching. As the comet approaches its closest pass to the Sun in October 2025, its strange activity intensifies—its coma thickens, its light shifts, and signals deep in the radio spectrum spike with unexplained patterns. Is it just the chaotic physics of a distant traveler… or is something inside it waking up?

In 3I/ATLAS: The Comet That Shouldn’t Exist, science fact merges with dark speculative fiction in a chilling anthology of cosmic horror and hard sci-fi. Across interconnected short stories, award-winning and emerging authors explore what might happen when an object like 3I/ATLAS changes everything we think we know about the universe—and our place in it.

Witness:

The Split Moon — a doubled moon, one version cracked and leaking vapor, drives villagers to split into two selves.
Nest of the Skyworm — frozen comet fragments reveal wormlike life that takes human hosts.
White Pulse — midnight flashes erase random parts of the world from existence.
The Vanishing Hill — an entire observatory disappears from maps and memory.
The Red Spiral — blood-colored crop circles begin to move, devouring everything in their path.
Bones in the Firetrail — skeletal silhouettes hidden in the comet’s tail draw closer with every photograph.
Silent Constellation — a blackout rearranges the stars into a pattern that erases those who trace it.
The Hunger Signal — a deep-space transmission drives listeners to ravenous, alien hunger.

From apocalyptic visions to unsettling first contact, each tale pushes the limits of imagination—and dread.

Perfect for fans of cosmic horror, Lovecraftian fiction, alien invasion thrillers, and dark, thought-provoking science fiction.

The comet is real. The questions are real. The answers… might be worse than you can imagine.

cosmic horror short stories

3I/ATLAS: The Comet That Shouldn’t Exist