Overlord of Colony Eight

Jim Reese trudges back to the jungle‑bound outpost after a month’s exile, hoping his time apart will mend the rift with his partner Lois. The low‑plastic domes of Colony Eight loom like a fragile oasis, and the first friendly face he meets is Kuhli, a native whose addiction to a potent painkiller has left him jittery and terrified. Kuhli warns Reese of “big trouble” and clutches a pack brimming with the drug that has already begun to disrupt the settlement’s fragile balance.

When Reese reaches the colony, the eerie silence is broken only by the hulking figure of his old friend Lloyd Kramer, who stares at him as if he were a stranger. Kramer’s cold, mechanical response—“I do not recognize you”—turns a reunion into a hostile confrontation, suggesting that something has fundamentally altered the community. As Reese fights to understand the sudden paranoia and the mysterious “conversion” that has taken hold, he must decide whether to flee, negotiate, or confront the hidden threat lurking among the domes.