Sacrifice 250

"But she would know the truth of what had happened when she came back to being herself, wouldn't she?" asked another of the engineers.

"Have them throw her down here to us," answered Raoul.

Everyone looked over at him aghast, and he explained, "We will need to eventually replace our numbers anyway. Someone has to run the control room when we pass on. A sacrifice every couple of years will maintain the necessary crew down here."

He picked up his well-read copy of the planet's manuals. "And from what I can tell, we will have to repeat this peak reading every three or four years anyway to keep the planet from going back into stasis."

So, three hours after nightfall last night, we began communicating through the woman, Jarleena. Since then readings have continued to rise. Additional computers and other equipment are starting to come on line. I am unsure whether the power will remain functional after the levels return to normal, so while power is at its peak, we will attempt to launch our disaster buoy using what Raoul assures me is a pulse cannon designed to shoot things into orbit around the planet. Once the buoy is high enough into space, hopefully its internal programming will take over and it will eventually find its way back to our home planet.

The disaster buoy relies on cosmic winds and random interaction to navigate through space, so it could take many, many years to reach the home planet. If our plan works, there may still be people alive on Colony Seven when you receive this message. If the plan fails, we all will have become part of the dust of this barren planet, but you will at least have the answer to why the colony failed.

I am hopeful, but much depends on our actions here tonight, and the actions of the people on the surface. Ultimately, however, the life of the colony depends on the surface people, in some fashion, continuing this strange, but necessary, ritual in future years. It is the only way to insure the continuation of life on this planet.

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END OF STORY AND EPILOGUE

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