The Rack

''With the fortress running on emergency power, priority had been given to critical systems, so the abandoned living quarters were pitch-black when I arrived. Using my field torch to navigate, I found what appeared to be a medieval torture rack, but given the poor lighting, it may have been an overturned bunk. I'd put my money on the torture rack. A rack will stretch a man until his muscles tear and his bones pop. The device was so imposing that even medieval Britain recognised them as barbaric, and outlawed their use. I'm not judging the Maquis for employing the rack, because I know first-hand that desperate times require desperate measures. Maybe it wasn't used for torture at all. I did find it in the bunk room, so it could have been Mallery's bed -- he's got a Napoleon complex, and maybe he was trying to grow a few inches. -- Journal Entry, 03 September, 1951 -- James Grayson''