Duty Log

Outpost 219-A is not a very exciting place to be. High up in the mountains a long drive from anywhere, the only thing the two radio technicians have to do all day is perform a daily inspection of the huge radio antennas that listen to the signals sent by their potentially unfriendly neighbours, fix anything that breaks and make note of local weather conditions and the risk of forest fires.

Between the tedium of their duties and the taciturn nature of his only subordinate, Warrant Officer Peter Wilson lasts less than a week before he starts treating the "Remarks" section of the log rather less formally or reverently than modern military thinking would approve of.

After all, he reasons, who reads the logbook of an outpost where nothing has ever happened and probably never will happen?