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The Forgotten Colony FREE

It was a long winter, and a lot of us starved.

We just don’t know enough about this terrain yet. Some plants appear to be edible but poison whoever consumes them a few days later. Of course, we’ve planted some grain we brought down on our dropship, but the cargo hold and command dropship were supposed to have far more.

If only we could find the wreckage of those.

Dreams aside, it is my responsibility to leave our camp and help identify edible species, so our numbers aren’t reduced any further. Even now, we’re down to a little over five hundred colonists. There’s hardly enough genetic diversity to last us beyond a few generations—less, if we can’t sort out the food situation.

But we have to retain hope. Hope is all we have left. I’ll keep this logbook up to date with my findings, so that those who come after already have a decent grasp of what will kill them and what will nourish them.

April 15th,

I’ve been following a creature for a few days—something that looks like a wolf-horse hybrid. It has black fur and a stripe of white down its back. Seeing as I am the first of my people to discover it, I shall call it Diremount.

Catchy, right?

The beast has noticed me a few times, but it hasn’t made any move to harm or even intimidate me. Perhaps this would be a good species to domesticate at some point. That aside, I discovered a plant with black leaves that has strange, medicinal properties.

When I ate a little, all of the ache in my legs disappeared. Of course, I fell unconscious a moment later and stayed like that for many hours, but I still think this was a worthy discovery. So many people are in pain back home. This might be able to help them.

I find it strange that we’re in such a sorry state.

Six years ago, the agency promised us so much. A new life on Alpha Centauri. The chance to be frontiersmen—but with all the technological trappings of Earth. The mission commander lied to us, it seems. But the mission commander is also dead, so perhaps he lied to himself as well.

What scares me most is not that we may starve to death but that we might survive and forget who we are. Knowledge is a transient thing. If people do not work to uphold civilization, it will quickly crumble.

Already, I’m noticing the formation of cracks in my people. Small factions are forming back at camp. People are fighting over our limited supplies. There’s talk of some groups separating. I don’t like it.

Hopefully, the knowledge I collect during this expedition will allow us to survive and maintain some semblance of a developed society.

I am not satisfied with my findings thus far, but I will continue to press north and west.

April 20th,

I write this log in a haste because I fear I won’t survive.

I was walking through the northern forests, following a group of rodents—one of which I caught and ate—when I noticed something rather odd.

A patch of ground and sky that didn’t fit with the rest. A half-mile radius of desolate black sand and churning storm clouds in the middle of lush woods. It looked to me like someone had cut out a piece of one map and glued it onto another.

I tried to walk inside it, but I quickly felt sick to my stomach upon entering, so I backed away. It wasn’t until I looked in my pocket mirror twenty minutes later that I realized I’d aged at least ten years. The wrinkles around my eyes deepened. My hair felt thinner. I’m not sure what I stumbled upon, but it is not the reason I write with such fear currently.

I am afraid of the thing that came out of it.

At least twenty-five feet tall, the creature looked like some kind of lizard, with layers of razor sharp teeth and horns placed at strange angles. It spotted me when I was sitting outside the desolate area, looking at my newfound wrinkles.

I tried to run, but it was too fast. It reached me in only a few seconds, swiping me aside with its clawed hand. Then, it kept running. It didn’t stop to make sure I was dead. It didn’t try to consume me. It just ran off into the trees.

I worry that it’s still out there, watching me, waiting for me to sleep.

The wound in my side is cause for concern too.

Untreated, it will probably fester within a few days. I think it’s time that I head back home, even though I’m largely empty-handed. I’ve eaten some of the black leaves to dull my pain for the journey.

April 27th,

I’m lost.

I should be almost back at camp right now, but I feel like I’ve been going in circles. My wound must be infected and messing with my mind. I have two main pieces of evidence to support that:

1. The wound has glazed over with a peculiar gray goop.

2. I’ve been having terrible dreams of that wasteland.

Though in my dreams, the expanse of black sand is much larger. I’ve seen mountain ranges and valleys filled with creatures like the one that attacked me. I’ve seen worms, and wyverns, and spiders the size of cars. They won’t leave me alone. I’ve been afraid to sleep because of these thoughts, though I know I must rest.

I think the creature is following me.

I keep finding tracks that no species I’ve seen could have made. I’ve seen scratches on trees and flickers of scales passing between them. I don’t know what it wants from me, but my instincts say it’s out in the forest for much the same reason I am—to look for food.

Why hasn’t it killed me, then? What does it want with me? Does the meat taste better when it’s afraid?

If this logbook ends abruptly, know that I have been consumed.

Huh. There’s a funny irony in that. Eat or be eaten, I suppose.

A paradise frontier, eh, Mission Commander?

What a joke.

May 1st,

I’m still lost, and I’m certain my wound is festering.

But I found a nice animal that sort of resembles a fox, and it is certainly edible. I dined on that this evening. I was going to cook it, but I got an urge to eat it as is. On Earth, eating raw meat would have caused an upset stomach, but I feel fine after eating this alien fox.

Well, not fine.

But not any worse because of the animal.

May 4th,

There are thoughts in my head that aren’t my own.

They don’t use words, but I know that they’re trying to direct my behavior. Am I really going crazy? I worry that much. I worry about a lot of stuff. I know I haven’t slept in three days, but it doesn’t really make a difference.

The horrible visions are no longer confined to my dreams.

I see flickers of the destitute wasteland whenever I blink. I hear growls behind me where no creatures are waiting. I feel like a computer that’s been unplugged halfway through a software update—confused, paralyzed, data scattered.

Actually, I lied.

I do think the growls are coming from an actual creature. I still think it’s following me. I’ve seen it clearly a few times now, stalking me with its inquisitive, sunken eyes.

It’s been days since I’ve had any sense of direction, but I will try to continue my duties as best as possible.

Today, I found a curious species of insect that I think is edible. I ate it, and I haven’t died yet, so that’s a good sign. There’s also a type of grass that I don’t think is poisonous. I’ll try that as well and let you know what I find.

May 8th,

Whisperroot, not poisonous.

Skyworms, partially poisonous.

My cuticles, not poisonous, though metallic in taste.

Maybe I shouldn’t bother writing about my findings. I don’t think I’m going to make it back to camp like this. I have no idea where I am. I’ve given up searching.

Sleep comes at strange moments. Oddly, it’s become easier to doze off now that the voices, the instincts, never cease—sleep isn’t so terrible when life is a waking nightmare.

And those compulsions. The compulsions aren’t intelligible in a human sense.

They’re just there. Omnipresent.

The wounds are glowing too. They do it every once in a while in these long, drawn out pulses of yellow. It’s during the flashes that my thoughts become fuzzy and I begin to move. I never know where I’m walking. It feels like I’m an outside observer, watching as someone—or something—else takes control of my appendages.

I’m having a hard time remembering why I’m out here in the first place. How did I get to this planet? I know this isn’t our home. I say ‘our’ because of that thing that’s in my head. We’re both foreigners here. Somehow, I know this.

May 10th,

It’s cold today. I don’t know what’s happening. There aren’t any animals out, and the plants seem to have shrunk a little as well. I don’t understand, and the world is spinning, and nothing seems right anymore. I really thought about giving up on these entries, but it won’t let me. It wants me to document this process.

How can I do that when I don’t know what thoughts are mine and what belong to something else?

May 11th,

Bark swallows, but hurts stomach after.

May 13th,

I’m scared. I no know why’s happening. It’s dark, but those eyes watching me from the trees. Don’t know how, but I see through those eyes and watch myself shift around. I unwashed, injured, and disheveled.

I certain it want from me.

But no know what it want to say.

May 14th,

STOP WATCHING ME, PLEASE!

It get closer every minute. Study me.

May 15th,

Creature sits with me. Gave food to me. Edible? No know. I eat.

May 17th,

Understand it now. It communicates with me. It doesn’t know where it is, but it says it has friends. Lot of them. Different species. Not edible. Not supposed to eat them. Not supposed to eat friends.

May 19th,

My thoughts are clearing, and creature no longer scares me. It no have a name, but it has thoughts and emotions. It’s quite human-like.

Not in looks and touch, surely. But it has thought—thought that transcends itself.

Thought that transcends me too.

May 20th,

This morning, we returned to the patch of black sand to find it larger. Another creature exited it. This one is a worm, but I can talk to it too. I’m human and from Earth, so I’ve seen how violent the food chain can be.

Animals kill and eat each other. Animals evolve specifically to kill each other. That doesn’t exist there, on Barrow.

The creatures don’t speak, obviously, but the buzz of their thoughts registers to me as sounding like the word ‘Barrow.’ It’s another planet, and it’s very different from Alpha Centauri. Personally, I prefer Alpha Centauri.

But there’s a beauty to the way they live.

May 21th,

I’m not scared anymore.

In fact, I’ve reached a feeling of calm that I haven’t experienced since before leaving Earth for Alpha Centauri. We’ve been doing everything wrong, we humans. We’re not different from common animals, the ones that kill each other.

Even back at camp, where everybody knows everybody, rifts are forming. I’ve talked about that in this logbook. I’ve feared it.

But then, this creature gave me the gift of seeing another way. I don’t think I could have ever come to this realization on my own.

The light flickering from my wound is a sign that there is a higher power out there, guiding the creatures from Barrow. We could learn a thing or two from them. I have.

I feel no desire to harm anymore. I have no desire for fame or riches. In fact, if the light emanating from me told me to sit down and die, I would.

Even more peculiar, I think I know the way back to camp now. It’s as if my brain needed to be torn out, washed in the sea, and put back into my head. The movements come easily to me now.

So, I will walk.

I will go home.

I will bring my new friends with me, so that my people can feel what I’ve felt:

Enlightenment.

A Prophet’s Logbook is a companion short story for Us Before Them. Get Us Before Them here:

Us Before Them

Zach was screaming on the other side. Ryker knew the airlock was soundtight, but with how loud he was screaming too, he wasn’t even sure he would have been able to hear Zach anyway.

As Ryker pounded on the glass, bits of black appeared around the edges of the airlock, broken only by dots of white in the far distance. Already, the vacuum of space was cooling the glass down.

In a flash, Zach ran away from the airlock and moved deeper into the dropship. What was he doing? Where was he going? Ryker got his answer when he spotted Zach pounding on the control module of the ship. But it didn’t turn around, and it didn’t slow.

And yet, Ryker still yelled. And cried. And called out, “Please don’t leave me, Zach!”

As if Zach had heard his plea and decided to ignore it, the dropship blasted forward, turning Zach into nothing more than the silhouette of a figurine disappearing into the distance.

“Come back!” Ryker screamed. He continued to pound on the blast door for another three minutes, despite the fact that he lost sight of Zach shortly after the dropship’s thrusters kicked in. Then, he collapsed beside the airlock, feeling its chill, and sobbed unrelentingly.

What was he going to do? He was only ten years old, alone on a space station. Zach was going to come back for him, right? The agency would send a ship back up to get him—Ryker was sure of it. Zach would say something. He had to.

Ryker curled up into a ball, trying to piece together how he’d gotten there. He and Zach had woken up from cryo, found that all of the Prescott survivors were gone, found the body of Zach’s dad, floated the body, and gone to the docking bay. They were just about to board the ship Zach’s father directed them to when Ryker realized he’d lost the ring his own father gave him in Prescott—the one he currently twirled in his palm.

Then, all the lights turned red, that siren started blaring, and the door to the transport shut. What the heck had happened?

Abruptly, Ryker realized that many of the airlocks in the docking bay still had dropships behind them. Could he use the autopilot on one of those to take him to the ground? Ryker got to his feet and ran to the nearest one, clicking the disengage button.

“EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ACTIVATED,” the speaker in the ceiling intoned.

He ran to the next airlock and tried the same thing.

“EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.”

Ryker tried the next blast door. Then, the next. Then, the next. None of them would open. Finally, he gave up and slid back to the ground, curling up as he had before.

Then, a calm voice said from the speaker, “External sealing complete.”

“What...?” Ryker slurred, then sniffled.

The robotic voice came again, sounding like one of the safety recordings that played at Disneyland. “The threat has been averted!”

“What threat?”

“The threat. The Emergency Protocol has been set to stay engaged for everyone’s safety, but I see no need for that pesky siren anymore.” The persistent whine ceased at once.

Was someone else on the station with Ryker? Could someone help him?

“Who are you?”

“I’m the Gateway’s AI, awakened by the threat. And you are?”

Ryker swiped the snot from his nose. “Ryker.”

A series of beeps came from the corner of the room. “Ryker Gagarin, age 10, blond of hair, born in Pasadena. I found you in the manifest. Is everything alright?”

Ryker swallowed hard, his eyes still clouded from tears. “Please make Zach come back.”

“One moment!” The beeping came again, then the AI returned. “Communication with OSE is down. It’s almost as if we’ve been... decommissioned! Hah!”

“That’s not funny...”

“An attempt to lighten the mood. I can see in my cameras that you’re crying. And you’re on the ground. That’s odd for a child of your age. Might I direct you back to your quarters, where I’m sure your parents are waiting?”

Ryker’s parents wouldn’t be there. Ryker’s parents were dead. Both of them had died in Prescott—one to the meteor impact, one to the Red Plague. If this AI was so smart, couldn’t it see that?

“I’m not leaving,” Ryker whimpered.

“Why not?”

“Because they’re going to come back.” Space travel was fast. Maybe OSE would send a ship up within a few hours. But if he was nowhere to be found when they arrived, maybe they would think he was gone and go home. Ryker couldn’t let that happen. He wanted to go home with them. He wanted to be near Zach. He didn’t know who would care for him when he returned, but someone had to take him in, right? At any rate, he couldn’t risk missing his opportunity to get picked up.

They were going to come back.

He just had to wait.

They’d get him within a few days.

#

“WARNING! WARNING, GAGARIN!” the Gateway’s AI screamed in its monotone voice as a thousand red and yellow lights flickered throughout the station.

Ryker sprinted down the hallway, his brain fried from another long coding session—no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to access the dropships. However, he was still sharp enough to realize that something must have been terribly wrong for the AI to start freaking out.

“What the fuck’s the problem?” Ryker roared.

“LANGUAGE, GAGARIN.”

“I’m fifteen!”

“WARNING! WARNING! STATION BREACH!”

What the hell did that mean? Ryker hadn’t gotten any notifications that a ship was docking; he would have rushed to the docking bay immediately if that were the case. No, this was something different. A structural issue. Or a software bug.

In the five years that Ryker had spent on the Gateway, he’d had to fix plenty of them. Well, he didn’t actually know how to repair the Gateway’s complex gadgets, but he’d acted as a pair of hands for the AI and was learning quickly. Learning through experience.

Nevertheless, there were some experiences he preferred to avoid.

Like catastrophic failure of life support, which was bound to happen if there was really a breach in the station.

“Where is the issue?” Ryker asked the station.

“MY SENSORS ARE HAVING A HARD TIME PINPOINTING THE EXACT SITE OF INJURY, BUT I BELIEVE SOMETHING HAS STRUCK AN OUTER RADAR DISH.”

A radar dish. That meant the issue was in the Spark, the rear part of the station that contained a lot of its technical infrastructure. Now that he knew the general location of what was wrong, he headed in that direction.

“Communications don’t work anyway. Why does it matter?” Ryker had tried to contact Earth many, many times, and his words always fell on deaf ears.

“WELL, IT... UM...” The AI trailed off for a moment. “WARNING! STATION BREACH!”

“I don’t care if there’s an issue with a radar dish. Just stop whining!”

“NEGATIVE, GAGARIN.”

“What?”

“I CANNOT DISABLE MY WARNING FLAGS UNTIL THE PROBLEM IS RESOLVED. WARNING!”

Ryker growled and ran faster, reaching the Spark shortly after. Gravity was weaker back there because the module didn’t spin as fast as the Homestead, which made up the station’s primary habitable space. “Which airlock will get me closest to the breach?”

“WARNING! F-12, I THINK.”

So, Ryker went there. Although the AI would probably try to coax him into actually fixing the radar dish—which was impossible if it had actually been struck by debris—he figured he could silence the warnings by tearing out the whole rig. After all, a person couldn’t complain about a cut on their hand with their arm amputated.

When he reached airlock F-12, one of the station’s smaller external doors, he was grateful to find that there was already a suit next to the door and tethers beyond it. He quickly slipped into the exosuit, which hardly fit him, and clutched the helmet as he pressed the disengage button beside the inner door.

It slid open, and he stepped inside the airlock. Why he was able to open the airlocks that led to nowhere but couldn’t open the ones that led to dropships, Ryker couldn’t fathom.

But he’d crack the code eventually.

There was something barrier in place, the same thing that had trapped him on the station five years earlier. He just had to find where in the Gateway’s millions of lines of code that function was hidden. Then, he could eliminate it and go home.

Hell, he could have been working on that currently, but the Gateway’s AI just thought it so important he addressed the lowest risk damage to the station.

“WARNING, GAGARIN!”

“I know! Fuck!”

“LANGUAGE!”

Ryker would need to tone down the AI at some point. It was yet another item on his long to-do list. But right now, he just needed to get it to be quiet. Ryker grabbed the tether and started attaching it to his belt, but before he could do so, the AI said, “I SENSE YOU HAVE YOUR SUIT AND TETHER ON, GAGARIN. OPENING AIRLOCK.”

Ryker’s eyes widened. “No, wait!”

The outer door opened, and Ryker immediately flew out into space. He desperately tried to hold onto the tether, but the finger pads of his gloves were too slippery, and the vacuum of space was too forceful.

In a split second, there was nothing around him but black. And he was drifting away from the airlock at an alarming speed.

Two feet.

Six feet.

Ten feet.

Maybe he’d fall from orbit right then and there! That would have been ironic.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Ryker yelled and flailed his arms, unable to steer himself back to the station. He didn’t want to die. Not like that. Not because of some stupid program that made him do all of its dirty work!

What could he do? Was there anything to grab onto? He couldn’t exactly turn around, but he could tell that there wasn’t anything within grabbing distance in front of him. If only he could—

His back slammed into something, knocking him forward a bit. What was that? In the reflection of his glass helmet, he managed to catch a glimpse of a solar array behind him! Oh, thank god! The suit didn’t afford him much mobility, but he threw his arm behind him anyway.

His hand missed the photovoltaic plate. He missed it on the second try as well. But then, on the third go-around, his fingers stuck between two of the plates, giving him the leverage he needed to turn around.

He immediately hugged and kissed the solar panel through his helmet. When he was done giving the wonderful outgrowth of the station his love, he glanced back the way he came. Unless he jumped off the array, he probably couldn’t reach the airlock directly, but perhaps he could shimmy along the panels, then spider crawl across the outer wall of the ship.

He had no choice but to try.

What he knew for sure, though, was that weakening the Gateway’s AI was his first order of business once he was back inside!

#

“Show me lines 315,200 through 330,500,” Ryker said, hunching over the computer. He glanced out the window and noted a forest fire that was big enough to see from orbit. Those were becoming increasingly common on Earth.

“AT ONCE, GAGARIN,” the Gateway’s AI responded.

The codebase became a blur in front of him before settling on a block of code that looked virtually identical to everything around it. OSE’s engineers definitely hadn’t prioritized readability when they programmed the Gateway.

That much was evident in the fact that he’d spent twenty-three years trying to crack what should have been a simple function—there was something keeping the docking bay’s airlocks closed, some ‘Emergency Protocol,’ and he just needed to reverse that.

But Ryker wasn’t even sure the code had been written by people in a readable language. The syntax was so complicated that Ryker figured even the brainiacs who created it wouldn’t have been able to fully decipher it.

If anything, Ryker probably knew more than them, having spent two decades learning its tricks and identifying what meant what. The Gateway’s AI had been helpful in teaching him early on, but he’d long since dumbed the system down.

He could still remember the anger he felt after being blasted through an airlock.

Reducing the AI to its most basic cognitive functions—just the stuff it needed to keep the ship operational—felt like a worthy punishment. Sometimes, though, he missed his old chatting partner. All he had now were movies he’d watched a thousand times already.

“What does ‘DISPROT’ mean?” Ryker asked, squinting at a line of green code.

A few beeps came from the ceiling. “DISASTER PROTECTION.”

“For what kind of disasters?”

More beeps. “SECURITY.”

Ryker groaned. “What kind of security?” Another downside of weakening the AI was that it was far vaguer than it used to be. Unfortunately, he couldn’t simply turn its intelligence up and down whenever he wanted, as OSE had put a cooldown in place to make sure nobody would tamper with the system often. If he temporarily upped its cognitive capacity, he’d spend the next six months listening to lectures about Mozart.

“INTERNAL MUTINY.”

That was interesting. Ryker had never found anything related to that before, but it made sense. The Gateway was supposed to carry people to Mars, wait fifteen years, bring those colonists to Alpha Cen, then begin making regular trips between Earth and the exoplanet. There was bound to be a problem at some point.

“What happens in the event of a mutiny?”

The electronic sounds from the speakers lasted longer than usual, implying that the AI was searching its database heavily. “EXTERNAL LOCKDOWN.”

A pit appeared in Ryker’s stomach, then transformed into something closer to excitement. “Like locking people out of the dropships?”

“PRECISELY.”

“Holy shit.” Ryker began to aggressively search the surrounding code for anything that could engage or disengage this mutiny protection measure, which he thought sounded strikingly similar to the Emergency Protocol. The code was, as usual, unintelligible, but he forced himself to focus more than he usually would.

He couldn’t replace or delete random bits of code. The changes would immediately be reverted to prevent system shutdown. But he could make slight alterations to the program that were within the normal range of changes. For instance, if a lightbulb was programmed to be on or off, he could change its state. What he couldn’t do was change the Gateway AI’s voice to match Darth Vader’s.

After another thirty minutes of searching and scanning, he found his lightbulb.

A simple true-false statement labeled: EMRPRO.

He sat back in his chair, tears already appearing in his eyes. “Gateway, what does EMRPRO mean?”

“EMERGENCY PROTOCOL...” The speaker beeped for a solid five seconds, so the system must have really been thinking hard. Then, it simply said, “HAH... YOU FOUND IT...”

That was the most the AI had emoted in over fifteen years. And yet, it signaled to Ryker that it was time to celebrate. Leaning forward again, he changed the ‘true’ to a ‘false.’

A whine came from the speakers, followed by a flashing red light outside the small computer room. When it ceased, Ryker shot up from his chair and bolted out the door, sprinting faster than he ever had with a single destination in mind: the docking bay.

As he entered the wide room he’d been left in twenty-three years earlier, he rolled his father’s ring on his finger. Which airlock should he go to? There were several to choose from with dropships on the other side, though most of the blast doors were quite damaged. After all, he’d tried to break them open more times than he could count, piles of power tools strewn across the docking bay.

Before his decision paralysis could mount, he ran to the one directly in front of him and slammed his palm on the disengage button. A few seconds went by with no change. Had it not worked? Had he mistaken the EMRPRO for something else? Then, something began to happen. There was a whistle of decompressing gas. A trickle of steam. A slight vibration beneath his feet.

Then, to his utter shock and relief, the airlock slid open.

“CONGRATULATIONS, GAGARIN,” the AI said. “I HOPE I NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN.”

In spite of himself, Ryker began to laugh. “Yeah, I’m never coming back to this dump.”

With that, Ryker stepped through the threshold and took a deep breath.

It was time to go home.

Twenty-Three Years is a companion story to The Forgotten Colony, adding backstory to Ryker Gagarin’s character. Want to read more? Check out The Forgotten Colony below!

The Forgotten Colony

How could they when the dropship with the healthy colonists was still in the air, and chaos had already broken out? The night had been so peaceful before. Mitchell thought that everyone else who’d stayed behind was on the same page. If the uninfected wanted to leave and go back to Earth, they could. If they wanted to stay in Prescott with their friends and family members, colony leadership wouldn’t stop them.

Mitchell thought it was a fair arrangement and had long come to terms with the risk associated with staying beside his sickly wife. But he couldn’t have foreseen that the real risk would come from his fellow colonists, rather than the Red Plague.

“What’s... going on?” his wife slurred, her raven hair shimmering with sweat. A bead of blood clung to the corner of her eye, like a child refusing to leave its mother’s leg.

Mitchell peeked out the window of their hab unit and grimaced. Most of the colony was built with nonflammable materials, but the rioters had found other ways to wreak havoc. Some actively dismantled vital infrastructure—oxygen generators, hydrofarms, homes. Others brawled in the regolith streets, dripping blood all over each other.

Something told Mitchell that it wasn’t all from their wounds. That was how the Red Plague worked. Red poured from every orifice possible. He glanced back at his wife, finding that the crimson orb had finally cascaded down her face, leaving a rusted streak behind.

“You’re safe in here,” Mitchell said in a soothing voice.

“You’re shaking...”

“I’m fine.”

Mitchell wasn’t. He’d heard the gunshots shortly before the launch. Dozens of them, each sound echoing off the glass dome that surrounded Prescott. That meant people were dying. Civilians. More importantly, it meant that the guards were so afraid for their lives that they were willing to open fire.

They were friends of his, probably. People he’d trained with back on Earth, preparing for all sorts of low-gravity combat and policing. He’d always thought it a little unnecessary to send soldiers to a Martian mining colony. But he now understood how quickly things could fall apart. He understood how—

Across the street, the sickly rioters threw open the door to his neighbor’s hab unit and dragged the man and woman who lived there outside. Mitchell knew them well. Before the Red Plague, he’d had Elliot and Violet over for dinner.

Tonight, Elliot wore a typical blue-and-black guard uniform, his shoulder pad emblazoned with the P insignia. Violet wore nothing but a nightgown, indicative of the fact that she wasn’t a guard. She was just a biologist.

A mob quickly formed around Elliot, kicking and shoving him as his wife looked on in terror. A female engineer in the mob then punched Violet in the cheek. The biologist tumbled to the ground and received two sharp kicks before she managed to stumble away.

Elliot was not so lucky.

As Mitchell watched the crowd beat his friend senseless, a man made eye contact with him through the window.

“Hey, that’s a guard’s hab unit too!”

Mitchell’s stomach sank. He looked back at his wife once more, knowing he had to protect her, and threw open the front door. Plunging into the Martian night, Mitchell sprinted perpendicular to the mob, only to find that there was a similar group a few units down.

He just had to draw them away, so they’d ignore his wife.

But where could he go? He was trapped under a glass dome with hundreds of desperate people. Unsure where else to turn, Mitchell ran for the Slabs, a section of the colony beyond the town itself that was riddled with rocky overhangs. With any luck, he could hide in one of the small alcoves and wait for the dust to settle.

That was his plan, at least.

He hadn’t gotten more than a hundred feet away before three strong men grabbed him and pushed him to the ground. Mitchell readied himself for a flurry of attacks, but none immediately came.

“You saw what they’re doing over by the canteen?” one the men asked another rioter.

A cloud of dust wafting from the street told Mitchell that several more people had arrived to hurt him.

“Yeah, they get what they fucking deserve,” another colonist said in a gravelly voice, then spat on Mitchell’s back.

“Help me bring this monster over there,” the first one said. “And grab the other guy too—before he’s too dead to realize what he’s done.”

What was happening? Where were they taking him? In a flash, Mitchell was back on his feet with two men clamped onto his arms. They dragged him fast enough that he couldn’t fully stand. Instead, his feet dragged as men he’d probably passed on the street every day led him elsewhere in the colony.

“Please,” Mitchell said.

“Shut up!” The man clutching his left bicep used a free hand to punch Mitchell in the stomach.

The wind immediately went out of him.

Soon, they passed the schoolhouse and the canteen, both of which were heavily damaged. As the pain in his stomach mounted, Mitchell looked at the passing dirt. What were they going to do to him? He hadn’t done anything wrong.

Yes, he was a guard. And yes, some guards in the colony had clearly opened fire in the chaos of the exodus. But he wasn’t one of those. He was at home with his wife, hanging onto the last few days he’d get with her before the Red Plague claimed her life.

The men who dragged him didn’t seem to care.

Eventually, they stopped in front of another colonist with a bucket of white paint. The man—an engineer, maybe?—immediately drew something on Mitchell’s fatigues. No, he wrote something. Words. But what?

Still angled at the ground, Mitchell glanced to the side, where a quartet of men were carrying a damaged Elliot. The man with the paint brush promptly walked over to him with a sneer and made the same scrawling on his chest.

When the man moved out of the way, Mitchell saw what it said: TRAITOR.

At that moment, Mitchell looked up, finding a mostly destroyed building in front of him, its aluminum frame collapsed on one side. A crossbeam that must have originally been part of its roof jutted from the structure.

Three bodies hung from it with metal nooses around their necks, each one a guard and each one with the same message: TRAITOR.

Mitchell had barely processed what was about to happen when they slipped a cord around his neck.

Traitor is a companion story to The Forgotten Colony, helping to explain something that Zach Croft sees upon his return to Prescott. Want to read more? Check out The Forgotten Colony below!

The Forgotten Colony

I’ve gone in and added quite a bit of analysis for the main characters, but I’d really appreciate any contributions from fans of the books.

I’m really excited to see what aspects of the world you’re most interested in, as well as what conversations you guys will end up having (I love hearing the theories).

You can contribute below!

The Forgotten Colony Wiki

For those who need a reminder…

If you’re a reader who’s been in a slump or a writer who wants to be creative even when busy, download SnipFic today and help redefine fiction! I’ll be featuring whichever story gets the most in-app engagement TODAY on my socials to celebrate launch.

Join SnipFic

p.s. I’ll personally be posting stories on there (definitely some in the Zach Croft universe), so if that would interest you, make sure to look up JBRyder when you join!

I’m very excited to see where this community goes.

Until next time,

- J.B. Ryder

Write a hundred words and get featured! That’s what SnipFic is offering with its launch day contest. Your story can be about whatever you’d like, but it should preferably be self contained. That means it isn’t a snippet of a larger work. If you have any flash fiction you’ve written in the past, you’re free to post that as well.

For the iOS users, I’ll be picking the most popular SnipFic from the app at the end of launch day. You’re totally free to promote your SnipFic on other platforms to drive people to engage with it on the SnipFic app.

For Android users, simply post your story on Instagram or TikTok with #SnipFicLaunchContest ! It would be nice if you could tag me as well, so I don’t miss any. I’ll be choosing one from under the hashtag to accompany the story chosen in the SnipFic app.

Please send this post to any writer friends you think would be interested!

Thank you! I’m looking forward to seeing what y’all write on launch day!

- J.B. Ryder

They’re available separately on Gumroad, but as a thank you to all the amazing writers in my community, I also created a discounted bundle with both of them!

I greatly appreciate all of the support you guys have given me. It’s because of you that I’m able to tell the stories I love and help other writers do the same.

If you want to plan your stories like me, you can get the bundle here for only $4.99!

Below, you can see what each of the templates contains:

Thank you very much!

- J.B. Ryder

Get the discounted bundle

I’ve been grinding away at Zach Croft book 3, and I’m very excited about the progress I’m making on it. I can’t give you any definitive timeline yet, but I hope to make a significant amount of headway over the next two months.

This story is going to be wild.

At any rate, it’s Christmas! That means it’s the perfect time to get the Zach Croft series for that one friend or family member who you think should get into sci-fi. It’s totally fine if they haven’t read much science fiction in the past—the one thing you’ll see in 60% of the series’ Goodreads reviews is that it’s an excellent introduction to the genre without getting too, well, sciency.

Therefore, I thought I’d drop the links here!

Book 1:

The Forgotten Colony

Book 2:

Us Before Them

Note: Us Before Them includes a summary of TFC at the start, so if that one seems like it would make a better gift, don’t be scared away by the “Book 2” label.

On a side note, I recently created a Gumroad profile and posted the outlining template I personally created/used for The Forgotten Colony and Us Before Them. To account for how complex the books are, the template covers alternate timelines, shifting POVs, unlimited sub-plots, unlimited character arcs, etc. This thing is how I managed to create a cohesive story out of the monstrosity my twelve-year-old self came up with.

If you’d like to outline more effectively, you can access it here:

The Ultimate Outline

Thank you all for your support! I plan to start sending out more updates here now that I’m deep into work on the third and final Zach Croft book. Stay subscribed to remain up to date on my progress.

Until then,

- J.B. Ryder

Note: you do not need a Kindle to read the book. The Kindle app will work.

Other note: there is a summary of The Forgotten Colony at the start of the book, so don’t worry if you haven’t started the series yet.

I’m excited to hear what you all think!

— J.B. Ryder

Download Us Before Them for free while you have the chance!

Y’all are in for a wild ride…

Us Before Them

The time has finally arrived to return to the Zach Croft universe. I am beyond excited to hear what you all think about the world of Alpha Cen, as I’ve been wanting to write this book since before I finished the first draft of The Forgotten Colony.

Speaking of…

You don’t actually need to read The Forgotten Colony to enjoy Us Before Them. However, as a celebration gift, I have made The Forgotten Colony ebook FREE for the next two days (July 1st and July 2nd). So, you can pick up both at the same time!

I would really appreciate it if you could share this post with anyone you think would be interested (friends, family, Instagram story, etc) to get the word out.

Thank you and let me know what you think of the book!

— J.B. Ryder

Purchase Us Before Them

Y’all are in for a wild ride…

Us Before Them

Get The Forgotten Colony

It’s free for the next two days, so you might as well.

Us Before Them

Subscribe now

We’re only seven days out from the launch of Us Before Them! Thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered already. For those who haven’t, know that the ebook version will contain BONUS CONTENT that describes how different aspects of the series evolved out of the original lore ideas I had as a twelve-year-old.

In addition, a full summary of The Forgotten Colony will be included at the start of Us Before Them, both for returning readers to catch up and for new readers to enjoy Us Before Them without prior information. If you haven’t read The Forgotten Colony yet, don’t worry—it will all make sense.

As a gift to people who have supported me, you can now read the prologue + the first two chapters of Us Before Them through the link in my Instagram broadcast channel. To join it, simply tap the link below from a mobile device, then join my J.B. Writers’ channel.

My Instagram

Pre-order Us Before Them

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me during the long and difficult writing process for the Zach Croft sequel. I’ve been wanting to write this story since before I was even done with the first draft of The Forgotten Colony. Pre-order Us Before Them below!

NOTE: you do NOT have to read The Forgotten Colony to enjoy Us Before Them. All necessary information will be included at the beginning of the book!

Pre-order Us Before Them on Amazon

Subscribe now

As a gift to people who have supported me, you can now read the prologue + the first two chapters of Us Before Them through the link in my Instagram broadcast channel. To join it, simply tap the link below from a mobile device, then join my J.B. Writers’ channel.

My Instagram

Pre-order Us Before Them

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me during the long and difficult writing process for the Zach Croft sequel. I’ve been wanting to write this story since before I was even done with the first draft of The Forgotten Colony. Pre-order Us Before Them below!

NOTE: you do NOT have to read The Forgotten Colony to enjoy Us Before Them. All necessary information will be included at the beginning of the book!

Pre-order Us Before Them on Amazon

It was really awesome to see all of your ideas for the species of Alpha Cen. I got SO many great submissions, and I will always think in the back of my mind that all the species I couldn’t choose DO, in fact, exist off-page in the forests of Alpha Cen. But alas, I could only pick one winner. The Pincher has already been added to the story, and its creator has been referenced in the acknowledgements!

In other news… a lot of people don’t like ebooks because it doesn’t always feel special to have a digital copy of a book. However, I will be including BONUS CONTENT in the ebook version of Us Before Them that explains how many of the original, crazy ideas I came up with at twelve years old evolved into key plot points of the Zach Croft series. After all, every story has to start somewhere.

Below is an example of one section:

For those of you that want a physical copy, don’t worry—they will be available at launch on July 1st. But the bonus content is only a part of the digital version because that’s the only format available for pre-order. If you are already planning on getting the ebook, I would really appreciate it if you pre-ordered it, as it will help boost Us Before Them on launch day.

Thank you!

— J.B. Ryder

Pre-order Us Before Them

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me during the long and difficult writing process for the Zach Croft sequel. I’ve been wanting to write this story since before I was even done with the first draft of The Forgotten Colony. Pre-order Us Before Them below!

Pre-order Us Before Them on Amazon

Read the prologue of Us Before Them for free

Prologue

Still need to read The Forgotten Colony?

To all of you who already bought The Forgotten Colony, thank you so much for your support. Your excitement and enthusiasm for the book has made the long four-year journey totally worth it.

If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review on Goodreads and/or Amazon.

If you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy, it’s available on Amazon now, in paperback, hardcover, and ebook format.

Buy The Forgotten Colony on Amazon

Review The Forgotten Colony on Goodreads

Note: you do NOT need a physical kindle to get The Forgotten Colony. You can read it on a phone or browser.

Thank you!

GET THE FORGOTTEN COLONY FOR FREE

I just wanted to let you guys know that the submission window to participate in the Us Before Them acknowledgements contest will close in two weeks (June 4th)!

Below, you can find a copy of the instructions and two examples:

If you’ve read The Forgotten Colony, post a video on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts giving a short review of TFC (favorite character, scene, theme, whatever you want).

If you haven’t read TFC yet but are excited for Us Before Them, post a video talking about what you’re most eager for (perhaps what you’ve seen people talking about online).

Tag my account and #usbeforethem, and on June 4th, I’ll choose five posters to include in the acknowledgements of Us Before Them! You really have a lot of freedom in how you go about this contest, so feel free to take liberties. I’m very excited to see what you guys say (and maybe what some of your predictions are).

Thank you!

— J.B. Ryder

Read the prologue of Us Before Them for free

Prologue

Pre-order Us Before Them

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me during the long and difficult writing process for the Zach Croft sequel. I’ve been wanting to write this story since before I was even done with the first draft of The Forgotten Colony. Pre-order Us Before Them below!

Pre-order Us Before Them on Amazon

Still need to read The Forgotten Colony?

To all of you who already bought The Forgotten Colony, thank you so much for your support. Your excitement and enthusiasm for the book has made the long four-year journey totally worth it.

If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review on Goodreads and/or Amazon.

If you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy, it’s available on Amazon now, in paperback, hardcover, and ebook format.

Buy The Forgotten Colony on Amazon

Review The Forgotten Colony on Goodreads

If you’ve read The Forgotten Colony, post a video on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts giving a short review of TFC (favorite character, scene, theme, whatever you want).

If you haven’t read TFC yet but are excited for Us Before Them, post a video talking about what you’re most eager for (perhaps what you’ve seen people talking about online).

Tag my account and #usbeforethem, and on June 4th, I’ll choose five posters to include in the acknowledgements of Us Before Them! You really have a lot of freedom in how you go about this contest, so feel free to take liberties. I’m very excited to see what you guys say (and maybe what some of your predictions are).

Until then,

— J.B. Ryder

Read the prologue of Us Before Them for free

Prologue

Pre-order Us Before Them

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me during the long and difficult writing process for the Zach Croft sequel. I’ve been wanting to write this story since before I was even done with the first draft of The Forgotten Colony. Pre-order Us Before Them below!

Pre-order Us Before Them on Amazon

Still need to read The Forgotten Colony?

To all of you who already bought The Forgotten Colony, thank you so much for your support. Your excitement and enthusiasm for the book has made the long four-year journey totally worth it.

If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review on Goodreads and/or Amazon.

If you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy, it’s available on Amazon now, in paperback, hardcover, and ebook format.

Buy The Forgotten Colony on Amazon

Review The Forgotten Colony on Goodreads

Start reading at the link below and make sure to pre-order the ebook!

Welcome back to the world of Zach Croft

Thank you!

- J.B. Ryder

Pre-order Us Before Them

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me during the long and difficult writing process for the Zach Croft sequel. I’ve been wanting to write this story since before I was even done with the first draft of The Forgotten Colony. Pre-order Us Before Them below!

Pre-order Us Before Them on Amazon

Still need to read The Forgotten Colony?

To all of you who already bought The Forgotten Colony, thank you so much for your support. Your excitement and enthusiasm for the book has made the long four-year journey totally worth it.

If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review on Goodreads and/or Amazon.

If you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy, it’s available on Amazon now, in paperback, hardcover, and ebook format.

Buy The Forgotten Colony on Amazon

Review The Forgotten Colony on Goodreads

Thank you to everyone who has followed me on this journey. I’m incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to share my story with the world, as Us Before Them is something I’m very proud of. At the risk of overhyping it, Us Before Them takes everything that made The Forgotten Colony awesome and makes it, well, more awesome.

The link to pre-order is below!

Us Before Them Amazon page

Until next time,

— J.B. Ryder

Have you read The Forgotten Colony yet?

To all of you who already bought The Forgotten Colony, thank you so much for your support. Your excitement and enthusiasm for the book has made the long four-year journey totally worth it.

If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review on Goodreads and/or Amazon.

If you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy, it’s available on Amazon now, in paperback, hardcover, and ebook format.

Buy The Forgotten Colony on Amazon

Review The Forgotten Colony on Goodreads