Coffin

Under the Barrier: A Secret on Uranus's Mantle

Rafael de Santis was once a soldier in the Pan-American Confederation, fighting against the expanding Asian Hegemony. But during a top-secret mission to the Enheduanna scientific space station, hidden in one of the Lagrange points of the Sun-Earth system, he lost his legs and part of his memory. Several years later, his desire for bio-implants leads him, like many others, to the Lazarus programme, which is taking place near one of the Solar System's ice giants, Uranus. Here, permanently confined to his module, he must mine diamonds for 365 days deep in the planet's mantle—once he has served his time, his physical damage will be repaired. That's the theory. But as is sometimes the case, the reality is quite different. Alone in the mantle of Uranus, Rafael experiences a series of strange things and discovers that his mining module is equipped with advanced technology that humanity should not have at its disposal. When he is temporarily cut out and undergoes a week of convalescence at Asylum station, he meets his former commander, Captain Lagina, and his new team of marines. They seem to have arrived because of a danger that is being kept quiet, but which lurks in the depths of the planet, below the so-called Barrier, a boundary that mining modules are forbidden to descend past. At the same time, Rafael begins to recall memories of his last mission—and realises that it has something to do with the events that are happening now. Through a combination of circumstances, he ends up below the Barrier, and what he discovers there will force him to re-evaluate his life, everything he knows and has known. And to fight—against people he once considered friends…