Once he was dressed, Caleb padded over to Sho’s pod, looking down into it. The gel was kept nearly frozen while the pod was active, the crystallization of the layers leaving his view of her like an impressionist painting, her body reflected and broken into kaleidoscopic shards.

  He tapped on her terminal control surface and glanced at the display when it turned on. Her vitals were good. He left her pod and went to the next, checking Washington and Flores in the same way. All green. All good.

  Satisfied, he made his way to the hatch. He would find Shiro and Ning and make the handoff, getting a quick briefing on anything that happened over the prior year and helping them prep for stasis. They would go to sleep, and then he would be alone for the next year. It was a strange thought, considering there was a city of forty-thousand people on the other side of a six-inch thick seal.

  He reached the hatch and put his hand to the control panel, tapping on it to open the door.

  The panel made a short beep, the light on it flashing green.

  The door didn’t open.

  Caleb smiled. “I don’t believe it.” There had been plenty of malfunctions while he had been awake. Why was this a surprise?

  He tried it again. It still didn’t budge. He wasn’t worried. He tapped the control panel, bringing up the menu and opening a comm link with the module’s command center.

  “This is Guardian Alpha, Caleb Card,” he said. “Private Shiro, are you there?”

  He waited a few seconds for a response. None came.

  “Private Shiro? Are you in the CIC?”

  No response.

  Caleb still wasn’t worried. The original Guardian protocols had called for ten Marines to be awake at one time, with one of them in the CIC around the clock. Obviously, they couldn’t do that now. Shiro was probably finishing up his final patrol.

  Caleb repeated the message. Waited a few minutes. Repeated it. He continued the process for another hour.

  Then he started to worry.

  What if something had happened to the private? Shiro was supposed to stay in communication with Research at all times and with Metro Engineering in the event of an emergency. If something had gone wrong, they would have woken him.

  He tried the comm again, and then he tried the door again. It was flashing green, but it wasn’t even trying to move. Was the motor dead? Was there something else wrong with it?

  His calm was fading. He hadn’t thought he would wake up only to find himself trapped in the chamber. What the hell was going on out there?

  Relax. He had to relax. Start at the basics.

  He went back to his pod and activated the terminal. Maybe something had malfunctioned with the pod and woken him too soon, and Shiro wasn’t expecting him. It could be he would have to wait a few more hours to get in touch with him. No big deal.

  It took him a minute to find the log. It contained outputs for each significant event and a line with a status summary for every twenty-four hour period. He could use it to find out exactly what had happened, and when.

  The first line showed when the pod was activated, the next few diagnostics of its startup process and then the status as he entered it and was put to sleep.

  He started scrolling through the status lines. His heart began to race. What the hell? It didn’t take long for him to realize there were more than three hundred lines. He used his finger to scroll the log. It kept going, past three hundred, line after line with a timestamp of the date and time along with the status:

  ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL

  He had been under for more than a year. Much more than a year. The log seemed to go on forever.

  He scrolled it, the lines flying past his eyes as rapidly as his heart was beating, a different kind of panic settling in. How could he have been asleep for so long? Why hadn’t anybody woken him?

  As he passed the twenty-year mark, a new question caused a fresh panic. Why the hell hadn’t they reached Proxima yet?

  He kept scrolling, line after line after line. Thirty years, forty, fifty. He reached one hundred, and he wasn’t even near the end. He could barely breathe. He could hardly think. This couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be happening.

  The dates rolled past. One hundred fifty years. One hundred seventy. One hundred ninety. He blinked his eyes and stared at the timestamp. Maybe it was writing the log every hour? Maybe he had gotten that wrong?

  He confirmed the year was increasing. Two hundred. Two hundred ten. Two hundred twenty.

  Finally, the screen bounced as it reached the bottom. Caleb’s eyes drifted to the last message in the log.

  REMOTE THAW COMPLETE. SUCCESS!

  Remote thaw? Had someone woken him from outside the chamber? He didn’t even know that was possible. He calmed slightly, but only slightly. It was hard to be relaxed when one year had become two hundred thirty-six.

  He leaned back against his pod. Someone had woken him, but the door was still closed. Nonfunctional. He was locked in. Did anyone know it?

  Someone must have.

  The door slid open.

  Deception (Forgotten Colony, Book Two)

  Coming in November!

  Want to know when it’s available? Click here.

  Thank you for reading Deliverance

  I hope you’ve enjoyed the first entry in the Forgotten Colony series. Because your opinion is important, please take a moment to show your support for this book by leaving a review on Amazon now (mrforbes.com/reviewdeliverance).

  By showing your support, you can not only help me gauge interest in the series, but you can provide social proof to others that this is a book/series/author worth reading.

  In any case, I know there are a lot of books out there, and I’m grateful you chose mine. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

  If this is your first foray into the Forgotten books and you’re looking for something to read before Deception is available in November (mrforbes.com/deception), I recommend picking up Forgotten (mrforbes.com/forgotten). It’s the book that started it all, and ties in especially well with this one.

  If you’re already caught up in the Forgotten universe or you’re interested in any of my other books - there’s a more complete description in the next section of this book, or even better you can check out my backlist at mrforbes.com/books.

  Again, thank you so much for your support. If you have Facebook, please stop by my page sometime at facebook.com/mrforbes.author. I’d love to hear from you.

  Cheers,

  Michael.

  Other Books By M.R Forbes

  M.R. Forbes on Amazon

  mrforbes.com/books

  Forgotten (The Forgotten)

  mrforbes.com/theforgotten

  Some things are better off FORGOTTEN.

  Sheriff Hayden Duke was born on the Pilgrim, and he expects to die on the Pilgrim, like his father, and his father before him.

  That's the way things are on a generation starship centuries from home. He's never questioned it. Never thought about it. And why bother? Access points to the ship's controls are sealed, the systems that guide her automated and out of reach. It isn't perfect, but he has all he needs to be content.

  Until a malfunction forces his Engineer wife to the edge of the habitable zone to inspect the damage.

  Until she contacts him, breathless and terrified, to tell him she found a body, and it doesn't belong to anyone on board.

  Until he arrives at the scene and discovers both his wife and the body are gone.

  The only clue? A bloody handprint beneath a hatch that hasn't opened in hundreds of years.

  Until now.

  Earth Unknown (Forgotten Earth)

  mrforbes.com/earthunknown

  A terrible discovery.

  A secret that could destroy human civilization.

  A desperate escape to the most dangerous planet in the universe... Earth.

  Two hundred years ago, a fleet of colony ships left Earth and started a settlement on Proxima Centauri...

  Centurion Space Force pilot Nathan Stacker didn't expect to return home to find his wife dead. He didn't expect the murderer to look just like him, and he definitely didn't expect to be the one to take the blame.

  But his wife had control of a powerful secret. A secret that stretches across the light years between two worlds and could lead to the end of both.

  Now that secret is in Nathan's hands, and he's about to make the most desperate evasive maneuver of his life -- stealing a starship and setting a course for Earth.

  He thinks he'll be safe there.

  He's wrong. Very wrong.

  Earth is nothing like what he expected. Not even close. What he doesn't know is not only likely to kill him, it's eager to kill him, and even if it doesn't?

  The Sheriff will.

  Starship Eternal (War Eternal)

  mrforbes.com/starshipeternal

  A lost starship...

  A dire warning from futures past...

  A desperate search for salvation…

  Captain Mitchell “Ares” Williams is a Space Marine and the hero of the Battle for Liberty, whose Shot Heard ‘Round the Universe saved the planet from a nearly unstoppable war machine. He’s handsome, charismatic, and the perfect poster boy to help the military drive enlistment. Pulled from the war and thrown into the spotlight, he’s as efficient at charming the media and bedding beautiful celebrities as he was at shooting down enemy starfighters.

  After an assassination attempt leaves Mitchell critically wounded, he begins to suffer from strange hallucinations that carry a chilling and oddly familiar warning:

  They are coming. Find the Goliath or humankind will be destroyed.

  Convinced that the visions are a side-effect of his injuries, he tries to ignore them, only to learn that he may not be as crazy as he thinks. The enemy is real and closer than he imagined, and they’ll do whatever it takes to prevent him from rediscovering the centuries lost starship.

  Narrowly escaping capture, out of time and out of air, Mitchell lands at the mercy of the Riggers - a ragtag crew of former commandos who patrol the lawless outer reaches of the galaxy. Guided by a captain with a reputation for cold-blooded murder, they’re dangerous, immoral, and possibly insane.

  They may also be humanity’s last hope for survival in a war that has raged beyond eternity.

  (War Eternal is also available in a box set of the first three books here: mrforbes.com/wareternalbox)

  Hell’s Rejects (Chaos of the Covenant)

  mrforbes.com/hellsrejects

  The most powerful starships ever constructed are gone. Thousands are dead. A fleet is in ruins. The attackers are unknown. The orders are clear: Recover the ships. Bury the bastards who stole them.

  Lieutenant Abigail Cage never expected to find herself in Hell. As a Highly Specialized Operational Combatant, she was one of the most respected Marines in the military. Now she's doing hard labor on the most miserable planet in the universe.

  Not for long.

  The Earth Republic is looking for the most dangerous individuals it can control. The best of the worst, and Abbey happens to be one of them. The deal is simple: Bring back the starships, earn your freedom. Try to run, you die. It's a suicide mission, but she has nothing to lose.

  The only problem? There's a new threat in the galaxy. One with a power unlike anything anyone has ever seen. One that's been waiting for this moment for a very, very, long time. And they want Abbey, too.

  Be careful what you wish for.

  They say Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. They have no idea.

  Man of War (Rebellion)

  mrforbes.com/manofwar

  In the year 2280, an alien fleet attacked the Earth.

  Their weapons were unstoppable, their defenses unbreakable.

  Our technology was inferior, our militaries overwhelmed.

  Only one starship escaped before civilization fell.

  Earth was lost.

  It was never forgotten.

  Fifty-two years have passed.

  A message from home has been received.

  The time to fight for what is ours has come.

  Welcome to the rebellion.

  Or maybe something completely different?

  Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic)

  mrforbes.com/deadofnight

  For Conor Night, the world’s only surviving necromancer, staying alive is an expensive proposition. So when the promise of a big payout for a small bit of thievery presents itself, Conor is all in. But nothing comes easy in the world of ghosts and magic, and it isn’t long before Conor is caught up in the machinations of the most powerful wizards on Earth and left with only two ways out:

  Finish the job, or be finished himself.

  Balance (The Divine)

  mrforbes.com/balance

  My name is Landon Hamilton. Once upon a time I was a twenty-three year old security guard, trying to regain my life after spending a year in prison for stealing people’s credit card numbers.

  Now, I’m dead.

  Okay, I was supposed to be dead. I got killed after all; but a funny thing happened after I had turned the mortal coil...

  I met Dante Alighieri - yeah, that Dante. He told me I was special, a diuscrucis. That’s what they call a perfect balance of human, demon, and angel. Apparently, I’m the only one of my kind.

  I also learned that there was a war raging on Earth between Heaven and Hell, and that I was the only one who could save the human race from annihilation. He asked me to help, and I was naive enough to agree.

  Sounds crazy, I know, but he wished me luck and sent me back to the mortal world. Oh yeah, he also gave me instructions on how to use my Divine "magic” to bend the universe to my will. The problem is, a sexy vampire crushed them while I was crushing on her.

  Now I have to somehow find my own way to stay alive in a world of angels, vampires, werewolves, and an assortment of other enemies that all want to kill me before I can mess up their plans for humanity’s future. If that isn’t enough, I also have to find the queen of all demons and recover the Holy Grail.

  It’s not like it’s the end of the world if I fail.

  Wait. It is.

  Tears of Blood (Books 1-3)

  mrforbes.com/tearsofblood

  One thousand years ago, the world was broken and reborn beneath the boot of a nameless, ageless tyrant. He erased all history of the time before, enslaving the people and hunting those with the power to unseat him.

  The power of magic.

  Eryn is such a girl. Born with the Curse, she fights to control and conceal it to protect those she loves. But when the truth is revealed, and his Marines come, she is forced away from her home and into the company of Silas, a deadly fugitive tormented by a fractured past.

  Silas knows only that he is a murderer who once hunted the Cursed, and that he and his brothers butchered armies and innocents alike to keep the deep, dark secrets of the time before from ever coming to light.

  Secrets which could save the world.

  Or destroy it completely.

  About the Author

  M.R. Forbes is the creator of a growing catalog of science fiction novels, including War Eternal, Rebellion, Chaos of the Covenant, and the Forgotten Worlds novels. He eats too many donuts, and he's always happy to hear from readers.

  To learn more about M.R. Forbes or just say hello:

  Visit my website:

  mrforbes.com

  Send me an e-mail:

  michael@mrforbes.com

  Check out my Facebook page:

  facebook.com/mrforbes.author

  Chat with me on Facebook Messenger:

  https://m.me/mrforbes.author

 

 

  M.R. Forbes, Deliverance (Forgotten Colony Book 1)

 

 

  Thank you for reading books on GrayCity.Net
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