204th Entry

June 3^rd, 2037

0933

Dear Earth Diary.

So. I’m…

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…going…

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…to…

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…die.

June 4^th 2037

0001

Well. That was a waste of a day. And/or life.

I want nothing more than to just go to sleep and forget all about it, but I’m wide awake. Which I’m guessing is pretty much my brain saying ‘hey, you don’t exactly have a whole lot of life yet. You should make the most of what you do have.

Seriously. Get up, you lazy bastard.

My brain is nice that way.

What’s most frustrating is I’d really started to believe that Mary’s plan, whatever it is, might just work.

And hopefully it will. But I won’t be part of it. Three cheers for bad timing.

0024

Wait a minute. I’m being far too defeatist about this. I’m not prepared to die yet. I can escape from here. I will escape from here! I’ve been in worse situations than this!

That whole space thing, for example.

I feel so much better. I can do this! The time to act is –

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“Good morning.”

…now.

“Now what?”

Never mind, just finishing a sentence. Was I asleep?

“Like a log.”

Do logs sleep?

“Like logs.”

What can I do for you? The execution hasn’t been moved ahead has it?

“No, I just wanted to deliver this cake to you.”

You made me a cake?

“My daughter wanted to thank you for the autograph.”

Why does your daughter even know who I am?

“You’re kind of a hero.”

But I haven’t done anything heroic.

“As I said. Kind of.”

I don’t understand.

“You know how you talk to yourself a lot?”

I’m sorry. Old habit from when it was being recorded.

“We heard them. Everyone’s heard them.”

I didn’t even think NASA had heard them.

“Someone’s been posting them online. We all know where you’ve been, what you’ve seen. What they were trying to do.”

Who, do, what?

“The clone city! Cloning’s illegal. As is sending people into space to die.”

I don’t exactly know that they meant for me to die.

“Not you. Mary.”

Then why isn’t your daughter baking her cakes?

“Nobody knows where she is. She’s disappeared.”

So, hang on, NASA sent Mary into space and wanted her ship to fail?

“Not NASA. The people who hired NASA.”

Who’s that?

“I dunno. Everything we know comes from your recordings. There are groups piecing together the cryptic clues you left us. The inner meaning of all those seemingly crazy things you did.”

Um, some of those crazy things were just crazy things.

“I have to go. Just eat your cake, and know that a lot of people here are on your side”

What, did you hide a file in it?

“Wouldn’t get past the x-ray. Everything in there is organic.”

Sounds very appetizing.

“I have to go. Eat your cake.”

Wait! Poison is organic!

…He’s not coming back.

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On the one hand, it could be a trap.

On the other hand… Cake.