Black Box (27 page)

This will be my last log entry.

Ever.

Cornered, and at gunpoint, I finally
understand what is happening.

You are human, from Earth. You are from our
future.

Why have you come to kill us?

I am relieved that there are still some
heroes among you. Mr. MacDonald has offered to protect me from the
captain you sent to assassinate me for as long as he can. The
captain who, he told me, has murdered the rest of my crew. Even as
I came to, Roger pointing out the marine on the deck as someone
trying to protect us from the two who had attacked, I could hear
the shouts and the gunshots. It seemed like an endless rattle as
that bastard cut down some of the finest people I have ever
known.

Thank God for Mr. MacDonald. He has promised
to fight for me while I record this final entry and launch the
black box.

Roger Rhodes has offered to stay with
MacDonald and help.

Make the report, MacDonald told me sadly.
Send the box.

So I’m here to send the box. I’m under no
illusions about what will happen to me. In just a few words,
MacDonald has told me all about this Captain Beckett and what kind
of a man he is. That animal will kill us all. I will not give him
the pleasure of seeing me beg for my life. I’m not sure I want to
return home in a time when its leaders are men such as you.

As a final word from myself and the crew
of the
Einstein
, from the people who gave you the ability to
be here in the first place, I send you my despair. But, most of
all, I send you my pity.

Black Box Launched – Computer Record
Expunged...

Walker, Colonel Nicholas