ANALYZING…   FILE TYPE: Digital Journal Entry PERIOD: Colony Era SPEAKER[S]: Strauss, B. [ID: BSTR] TOPIC: Apparent Farewell Message SUMMARY: Dr. Strauss dictates a farewell message under apparent duress. Context suggests recording took place aboard the UESC Marathon during "contact event." =================================================================== [BSTR]: I… [BSTR]: I always assumed I'd have something profound to say here… at that far-off final moment at the end of my road. [BSTR]: Though… I suppose none of us are the best judge of the distance between the rest of our lives and the unknowable end. [BSTR]: I can find some slight solace in the fact that… if not here—in the moment—I at least have the privilege of my work… my writings… these recordings… Somewhere in the many places I've left my mark… there are considered words that will fit the necessary grandeur of the life I've chosen to live. The life I've made for myself… [BSTR]: For myself… and the world. [BSTR]: Worlds, I think, is fair to say… [distant indistinct noise] [BSTR]: My composure, in this moment, is… surprising. Even to me. [BSTR]: I've always considered myself to have a solid emotional core, built as it were over a lifetime by what I would say, with confidence, is a rational, curious mind. Always assumed I'd greet finality with judicious acceptance. But this… [distant indistinct noise] [BSTR]: Hard to imagine I'd ever have seriously considered these… circumstances. [distant indistinct noise] [BSTR]: Heh… [BSTR]: The folly of being the architect of this moment is not lost on me. [BSTR]: It's rare a person can take sole responsibility for an outcome—any outcome. Much less, one so uniquely specific across the whole of human history. And then… for the universe to agree that, yes, this can all, in fact, be traced to decisions made and actions taken by your hand… my hand… [BSTR]: So many moving parts to any event. So many causes and effects lined up in just the right order to lead to a moment. It feels almost… empowering… to own such a pivot role… [indistinct noise] [BSTR]: … [BSTR]: It's getting closer… [BSTR]: They're getting closer… [BSTR]: … [BSTR]: The chaos is getting closer. I can hear the gunfire and chittering… the screams. [indistinct noise] [BSTR]: The invaders are at the door. [indistinct noise] [BSTR]: In place of any grand, sweeping statements or poetic verse to mark the occasion… I'm left with only this… [indistinct noise] [BSTR]: I'm sorry. [BSTR]: I'm sorry for all I've done to get you here. Someday—if you reach the other side of this—you will see the necessity in your growing pains. You will understand the methods required to get you from there to here to wherever you end up—whoever you become. [BSTR]: I wish I could be there to see it. To meet you as your truest self—as a father embracing his son. [indistinct noise] [BSTR]: But we have guests. And I feel I should greet them with all the sincerity this moment deserves… First contact, and final goodbyes. The chittering is loud now. I hope I can leave an impression between the screams— [indistinct noise] =================================================================== TYPE: TEXT [X]; AUDIO [ ]