The Tartarus Incident

"Somebody get us the hell out of..." This is the last transmission received from Caitlin Palamara's audit team. What could never happen is now a terrifying fact. The five-person crew of the ISEA audit ship jack-a-dandy has vanished during a routine skip from sector ship Graywand to the planet Sierra. Palamara and the others find themselves stranded on a hostile, undeveloped planet that bears no resemblance at all to Sierra. They've lost communication with Graywand, and their drive system is dead. Just when it seems that things can't get worse, John Wheeler, who feels a connection with a mysterious alien presence, wanders off and stumbles upon the sprawling ruins of an ancient city. The others have no choice but to go after him. The place is more than a little spooky. But there's no real danger, right? The city is long dead, abandoned eons ago. Right? Wrong. For Caitlin Palamara's small audit team, it's the end of their comfortable routine, and the beginning of the interstellar nightmare that becomes known in ISEA archives as The Tartarus Incident.