Thrawn's diary - A madman's song

[Tarator]

Jeremy Paterson's last words

February 822 A.S.

I write this note in the knowledge that it may well serve as my last will and testament. Myself and two other men have been trapped beneath the elevator shaft for more than twenty four hours, with little light, and increasing dehydration. The only thing keeping us alive is the hope that there could be a rescue team already on the way. We were all so positive at the start, but that seems long ago now.

Taylor was the first to crack. We all just lay there, trying to sleep through the sound of his wailing and sobbing, trying to pretend his problems weren't our own, and that he was weak for having given up so soon. The fact was, he was dealing with the situation pretty realistically: our chance of survival gets smaller every hour. Since then, he hasn't said much, but the despair that gripped him seems to have spread through the rest of us.

We were such fools to ignore the Colonel, and he paid for that with his life. When he started changing security codes on all the doors, we thought he was crazy. It was a pain that's what it was. I had to trek all the way to that crazy biologist's office down in crew's quarters this morning, just to check the code for Storage.

But he obviously knew something about the ship that we didn't. Some of the guys started acting weird. Not crazy weird, just.... not normal. Right after the mess started, we were in Storage, when one of the guys who had seemed pretty straight just started shouting. It wasn't a normal kind of shouting. I'm not any kind of word smith, so I just don't know how to describe the noises he was making. We'll just have to stick with not normal. Anyway, he managed to hurt a couple of guys, damage some equipment before we got him under control. When we released him, he seemed okay. Phased, but alright. Didn't really know where he was, that far away look in his eyes. That look.... I'll remember that for the rest of my days, even if there aren't many more of them.

His pupils weren't dilated.... they just seemed to take up more space than should be possible: black, and horrible. Then he snapped and grabbed up one of the high rated explosive packs. We knew what he intended, saw it in those eyes. Those that could, made a run for it, but the guy was already beating down on the Colonel, he didn't have a chance. There were four of us who made it out to the elevator shaft. Only three survived the explosion. The shaft collapsed in on us, and now, its anyone's guess how many are still trapped down here.

The last thing I saw was those eyes. Seemed like they were staring at me, and me alone.

Jeremy Paterson