The Dark Goddess — Richard S. Shaver

Richard Sharpe Shaver achieved notoriety in the years following World War II as the author of controversial stories which were printed in science fiction magazines (primarily Amazing Stories), in which he claimed that he had had personal experience of a sinister, ancient civilization that harbored fantastic technology in caverns under the earth. The controversy stemmed from the claim by Shaver, and his editor and publisher Ray Palmer, that Shaver's writings, while presented in the guise of fiction, were fundamentally true. Deep within her caverns the great mer-woman longed for death to end her loneliness. But then came a voyager from space -- a man -- also lonely. . . .