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First, it is NOT "The Color Out of Space" I'm looking for, but it takes its influence from Lovecraftian themes. I remember reading it in an anthology containing Lovecraft-inspired horror (similar to Black Wings of Cthulhu).

The basic premise is that a science team finds an asteroid and decides to land to study it. After setting up camp, they find that the asteroid keeps changing in size, the flow of time shifts constantly, and something in the asteroid is driving them to madness.

One of the main things I remember that happens in the story is that, as the science team tries to return to their ship to escape, they keep running into ghostly reflections of themselves in the past/future going in different directions, meaning that their escape is futile because of the changing shape of the asteroid.

I read this anthology about a year or so ago, at a Barnes and Noble (United States). I know I got it off the shelf, but I don't remember if it was a new release, or something that had been out for a while. Don't remember anything about the cover of the anthology.

Some other details I remembered about the story:

It was told as a series of journal/log entries by different members of the science team, pretty much telling of how they landed on/in the asteroid, exploring it, and how they were starting to lose their minds to this eldritch, unknown thing inside.

The science team were using mulebots, or something similar: basically robotic beasts of burden to carry equipment as well as explore further into the asteroid. There's a mention of one of these mulebots becoming stuck in a passage where earlier it had been wide enough to go through, which starts off the suspicion that the asteroid is changing size/form around them.

I think (and I'm not sure on this) the story ended with just the pilot and one of the main scientists alive, having made it back to their ship, but not able to find the way out of the asteroid that they came in. So they fly deeper into the asteroid and then... something happens? It's Lovecraftian in nature; basically they die but not really because they just keep flying endlessly into the asteroid.

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  • Welcome to Science Fiction & Fantasy! This question would be improved by going through the checklists here ; How to ask a good story-ID question?
    – Valorum
    Jul 14, 2018 at 16:57
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    Closest I can find is The Damnable Asteroid from Future Lovecraft. However that is missing several of the key points you describe. Jul 15, 2018 at 10:41

2 Answers 2

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"Object 00922UU" by Greg and Erik Bear, part of the anthology The Madness of Cthulhu volume 2.

A title like that is easy to forget.

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    Can you provide any extra details about how the story here matches the one in the question? Such as plot points, a review, book cover, etc.
    – Edlothiad
    Aug 10, 2018 at 7:51
  • It's an exact match to the plot Anthony outlined so there is not much more to say.
    – Montrose73
    Aug 10, 2018 at 10:20
  • The Madness of Cthulhu v2.
    – Montrose73
    Aug 10, 2018 at 10:26
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    @user14111 You can find reviews of this story here and here. (It's actually UU, not OU.) Montrose73, can I suggest that you add some information about this story, e.g. from these links, to show how it matches the OP's description? Answers here should preferably be self-contained, without requiring people to go and check details about the story to see whether it matches.
    – Rand al'Thor
    Aug 10, 2018 at 11:34
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    "Object 00922UU" is the one! Thanks so much!
    – Anthony
    Oct 6, 2018 at 20:58
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Could it be Master of the Asteroid by Clark Ashton Smith? It is very similar to what you are describing and was published in a Wonder Stories book in 1932 which also featured a story called The Man Of Stone by Hazel Heald, which Lovecraft collaborated on.

Story Below:
http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/127/master-of-the-asteroid

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