Discovery of the Ghooric Zone

"Discovery of the Ghooric Zone -- March 15, 2337" is a short story by Richard A. Lupoff, first published in the anthology Chrysalis (Zebra Books, 1977).
== Synopsis ==
In the year 2337, a trio of cyborg space explorers make the first visit to the Solar System's tenth planet. As their arrival takes place on the 400th anniversary of H. P. Lovecraft's death, the travellers name the planet for the writer's invented planet Yuggoth, naming its moons for other worlds in Lovecraft's mythology: Nithon, Zaman, and the twins Thog and Thok. Detecting what appear to be structures on Thog--the first signs of extraterrestrial life in the Solar System--the party lands there to explore, finding a passageway that lead down to an inner world that they decide is the Ghooric zone written of in Lovecraft's "Fungi from Yuggoth" sonnet sequence--complete with a "foul lake/Where the puffed shoggoths splash in doubtful sleep." There they find a platform on which rests the body of Lovecraft himself. When the explorers try to return to the surface, they find they are trapped in the Ghooric zone forever.
The story is intercut with a series of sketches of life in 2337, 2237, 2137, 2037, and 1937--giving a brief future history of Earth over the next four centuries.
== Characters ==
Njord Freyr, the male member of the crew, represents the Laddino Imperium that rules Earth's Western Hemisphere. He is the least modified of the team. 
Sri Gomati, the female crewmate, comes from Khmeric Gondwanaland, the government of the Eastern Hemisphere. 
Shoten Binayakya, the nonbinary participant in the voyage, is "fitted with multiply-configurable genitalia" and is "ambiguous as to his or her own origin."
== Publication History ==
The story was later reprinted in the revised edition of Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (Arkham House, 1990). It was also included in Lupoff's collection Claremont Tales (Golden Gryphon Press, 2001).
== External Link ==
Analysis at Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein
Category:Richard A. Lupoff works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works