Most subjects should return enormously positive, with all limbs. (7.7k)
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SCP-9426: Dittophobia: Dittophobia: Dittophobia
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SCP-9426 ARCHIVAL PROJECT
Welcome, RAISA Technician. Please read this collection of relevant evidence before editing the final SCP-9426 file.
Note: All text has been translated from Korean to English.
SCP-9426 DEBRIEF TRANSCRIPT, 02/23/09
SAMUEL PIKE, Foundation Junior Researcher
OH SOON-HEE, recovered from SCP-9426.
OH: Has it really been sixty years?
PIKE: Close enough. We think your sense of time might have been impeded.
OH: It felt like it was just a few weeks. A few bad weeks. It’s hard to believe I was down there so long.
PIKE: It’s remarkable that one of you didn’t escape sooner, to be frank.
OH: There was no contact, almost from the beginning. Even the staff only used the radio for operational instructions. We had nothing. And that was when the system still functioned. Once they wrecked the cells, and the exits collapsed—
OH: We all assumed escape was impossible. It had to be. Why were we still in there, suffering, otherwise?
OH: Let me go back to the start.
- SCP-9426
- FRAGMENT: SITE BRIEFING
- RECOLLECTIONS (APRIL)
- INTAKE PROCESSING
- RECOLLECTIONS (MAY)
- FRAGMENT: SITE BRIEFING
Item #: SCP-9426
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-9426 is by its nature contained at Site-426 on Jeju Island, in the newly established Republic of Korea. Personnel assigned to Site-426 are to submit all documentation to a designated review officer prior to filing. Any document found to exist in duplicate is to be reported immediately. Duplicates are not to be destroyed.
Description: SCP-9426 is the spontaneous duplication of written documents within Site-426. Duplicates are physically distinct objects, which appear to have been produced independently by the same means as the original. Typeface, paper stock, ink distribution, and incidental markings are near-identical between original and duplicate, but small errors are persistently present.
Document types affected include prisoner intake forms, coroner's reports, and interrogation transcripts. No pattern of errors has been identified. Other than the difference of content itself, analysis has not produced any means by which to determine which copy constitutes the original. Distinction relies on use of contextual information and consistency between documents.
Discovery: The phenomenon was first identified in May 1950 by Major Seo Cheol-Su, who discovered two copies of a prisoner intake form in separate filing locations with different sentence periods. He reported the incident to the Archival Administration, who identified a further thirteen duplicated documents. Review suggested that duplication had been occurring since at least February 1950, predating the site's awareness of the phenomenon by approximately three months.
So far, the original document has been duplicated a further four times.
SITE BRIEFING: SITE-426
{$caption}
Plans of the surface facility at Site-426
Site-426 was established immediately after the end of the Second World War, in order to gather anomalies from around liberated Korea and Manchuria. For this reason, it was constructed on Jeju island, whose isolation would simplify Veil preservation efforts. The Site was founded under the auspices of the United States Military Government, which helped to source personnel from the former colonial administration. It employs some 40 research scientists and around 150 other staff, including a detachment of 50 armed security. The guard are formally Republic forces attached to the Site.
During the uprisings on the island in 1948-49, Foundation staff allowed Korean authorities to use the Site as a staging ground for operations against rural rebels, and later as a processing centre for prisoners before their transfer to the mainland. After the uprising ended, communist sympathisers across the island and mainland were relocated to a series of internment zones in order to protect them from reprisal attacks by disgruntled nationalists and youth groups. These protected individuals were assembled into the "Bodo League", of whom about 300 were housed at Site-426.
Their release is expected following the end of reunification negotiations on the peninsula.
The following content, and all subsequent “Recollections”, are attributed to one Seo Cheol-Su.
RECOLLECTIONS, APRIL 12TH, 1950
Another truck in today. Not ammunition this time, though. When they pulled open the back men spilled out, soaked with sweat. We put them to work assembling their own housing. It took four hours to throw up a passable set of tents within the fencing. Hopefully the frost will be away for a few months.
They seem like honest types. If it were up to me I'd shoot the subversives and let the rest go. But the patriots on the mainland don't know how to tell the difference. They're safer here until things calm down. We can teach them some manners between the labour hours, with luck.
Somehow there are women mixed in too. I don't know how Command made that mistake. We'll house them separately, I'll see to it. They seem terrified, and I can't say I blame them. I might need to put guards up in shifts.
One of them, a laundress, has a peculiar way of folding the clothes. Hospital corners. It is a singular technique. I wonder where she picked it up?
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DETAINEE INTERVIEW: OH SOON-HEE (F, 23)
INTAKE PROCESSING, SITE-426
CONDUCTED BY: LT. BAEK CHANG-HO
STENOGRAPHED BY: SR. RESEARCHER ARTHUR ROSEMUND
[Baek and Oh sit at opposite sides of a table. Baek reads from a pile of papers in front of him.]
BAEK: State your name and place of birth.
OH: Oh Soon-Hee. Seogwipo.
BAEK: Occupation.
OH: I taught at the primary school in my village.
BAEK: You worked for the Japanese?
[She shrugs.]
OH: Who didn't?
BAEK: Were you a member of the South Korean Labour Party?
OH: No.
BAEK: Were you affiliated with any organisation hostile to the Republic of Korea?
OH: No. I don't know who you think —
BAEK: Your brother.
[There is a pause here.]
OH: What about him?
BAEK: Was he a member of the South Korean Labour Party?
OH: I don't know. I haven't seen him since February of last year. He was always loyal, though. Never sat right with the occupation.
BAEK: He had trouble with authority?
[Oh does not respond. Baek shuffles the papers in front of him and continues.]
BAEK: You attended meetings organised by rebels throughout the last year.
OH: I thought — I was there for grain distribution. It was a town hall! We didn't know what was happening across the country. I swear, the moment I heard about the riots, I cut all ties with those maniacs.
BAEK: You left because you felt uncomfortable with the direction of the meetings?
OH: Yes! They were — mad. I can't imagine what they were thinking. And my mother was unwell, poor woman. She would have been horrified. To hear her girl was taken away as a traitor—
BAEK: Do you understand why you've been brought here?
OH: … My protection. From the mobs outside.
[Baek nods.]
BAEK: Exactly. We're all here for your sake. You made some unwise decisions, and incurred a debt to your nation. But a small one. Now you can pay it off. All you have to do is show a little gratitude.
OH: Of course, sir.
[She nods.]
BAEK: That's a start. You'll be assigned to the laundry. Be diligent and maintain your discipline, and your case will be under review.
OH: … When, sir?
BAEK: Well. That depends on external factors.
Note: Transferred to Administrative Wing laundry at request of Maj. S.
RECOLLECTIONS, MAY 9TH 1950
Things have come along nicely. The researchers at the Site have excavated cells in the earth for the prisoners, though it has only been a month. Now they all live four or five to a room, lined up along a long corridor beneath the ground. The way down is guarded by a pair of solid steel blast doors.
Though the noise is raucous, it is far more comfortable than the ice-driven campsite above. What a wonder of industry! I see why the government is interested in cooperation with this Foundation. They are much more friendly than the Americans, and are of many nationalities. I only ever thought to hear of the Danes on maps.
The prisoners are showing signs of correction. The work has stiffened their spines, I think. I and a few of my fellows, chief among them Lieutenant Baek, have taught them some of the laws of infection and biology. Better yet, the Foundation's doctors are joining in our education program, providing the prisoners with books. The younger men seem excited to learn. We imprisoned peasants, and we shall release doctors. They are appreciative, and answer our questions quickly. But still they do not often look me in the eyes. It is good to have respect, but I pity the way they cringe from me. Do they not know I, too, am a Korean?
That laundress is made of sterner stuff. She does not flinch when I speak, and is charmingly rustic. She was amazed when I told her what I had seen of the old universities and cities, before the war. Often, she tries to keep me away from my duties, that we might speak longer. Her confidence is admirable.
{$caption}
Personnel being briefed on wartime rationing
While tensions along the 38th parallel continued to simmer, anomalies were gathered at Site-426 at an accelerating pace. With the Nationalists now in total retreat, the GRU and their Chinese allies attempted to consolidate control over anomalous East Asia. The Foundation worked tirelessly to ferry objects out of occupied territory. Many were relocated to the continental United States, but others were found unsafe or unworthy of transportation and left at Site-426.
In June, as the Korean People's Army broke across the border, the Rhee administration gave the order to liquidate the League prisoners.
SCP-9426 DEBRIEF, 02/23/09
SAMUEL PIKE, Foundation Junior Researcher
OH SOON-HEE, recovered from SCP-9426.
PIKE: And then the war.
[Oh laughs wearily.]
OH: And then the war. What can I say? The rumours reached us fast. But you know more than I do. I guess the Republic must have held out. I recognise these emblems.
PIKE: It did. Along almost the same borders, in fact. What was the mood among your cohort?
OH: A lot of them were hopeful. A couple suggested a breakout, or a riot, or something. Anything. But this was Jeju. The local garrison knew how to put down rebels, even if we did make it out of the complex. And it was a long way up from the underground cells to the fence.
PIKE: You weren't quite as optimistic?
OH: Boys have their dreams of heroism.
PIKE: Hm. This isn't strictly relevant, but I think you deserve to know. Outside of the Site, the government had almost all of the League executed. They were worried you might turn traitor.
[There is a pause. Oh clenches her jaw.]
OH: All of them?
[Her voice breaks. She wipes at her face with the sleeve of her Foundation-provided jacket.]
OH: He'd be dead now anyway. Sixty years. Sixty years. It means nothing.
[She takes a breath.]
OH: So, that Foundation… what they did to us. You did to us. You meant it as a mercy?
PIKE: I wasn't there. Our methods have changed over the decades. But I imagine that was the principle, yes.
OH: Small comfort.
- ERRATA
- PERSONNEL DOSSIERS
- RECOLLECTIONS (JUNE)
- TESTING RECORD
- RECOLLECTIONS (JULY)
- FRAGMENT: SITE BRIEFING
ADDENDUM: SCP-9426 has extended its effect. Occasional small rooms or closets will be duplicated throughout the Site. These are reliably identical in layout to the original, but nonetheless present a security risk on account of incorrectly replicated equipment and documentation. Staff are encouraged to navigate with the aid of a map to avoid confusion.
All personnel are to be on alert for further SCP-9426 phenomena.
MEMORANDUM TO SITE-426 STAFF
DIRECTOR JOHANSEN
We will not be acceding to Republican demands. It disgusts me even to stand by while such barbarism takes its course outside our walls. Our prisoners will not be slaughtered under our care, but neither can they be released to the tender mercies of the Jeju garrison. As a compromise, we have granted them all the status of provisional D-Class. They are now under our protection.
{$caption}
Name: Seo Cheol-Su
Age: 33
Rank: Major
Notes: Served in colonial police forces from 1938 to 1945, primarily in Gyeongseong (now Seoul) and Manchukuo. Participated in counter-insurgency operations throughout the occupation period. Fluent in Japanese and conversational Russian. Retained by the US Military Government and Republic of Korea for expertise in local administration and security matters. Commended for attention to personal discipline; incorruptible. No known political affiliations.
{$caption}
Name: Baek Chang-Ho
Age: 24
Rank: Lieutenant
Notes: Worked as an interpreter for Japanese military police 1942-1943 before deserting. Joined independence movements in China 1943-1945, claiming affiliation with Korean Restoration Army. Returned to Korea following liberation. Brief service with Korean Constabulary 1946-1947, resigned under unclear circumstances. Volunteered for Republican Army in early 1949, assigned to Site-426. Flirted with Communist alignment during wartime, but ultimately rejected it.
RECOLLECTIONS, JUNE 27TH 1950
We bear a heavy burden. The League is too heavily infiltrated by troublemakers, and the treachery of the rebels is without limit. They wish to use our own people against us. It is good that the worst of the work does not fall to me. I spare a thought for the soldiers outside this Site, and the sin they must take up, for the nation's sake.
Our own prisoners have been placed under careful watch, for sign of any rabble-rousing, but they seem content so far. Whatever propaganda the enemy filled their heads with must be dispersing, now that they can see how we treat them. The testing is not so bad. And they go willingly, driven by offers of better food and housing. I am sure we are not
In the meanwhile, I try my best to keep them in good condition. Somehow there is running water even in the underground sections of the facility. The Foundation must have access to prodigious resources indeed. It is not only a matter of scheduling to ensure a good standard of cleanliness among the body. Some of them are reticent, and try to avoid me, but it took only a brief discussion of punitive measures to rectify their attitude. It is absurd that they fear a simple bathing. They remind me of the insults the officers used to sling at me before the liberation. It was surely this behaviour that degraded my nation, in the eyes of the Japanese.
Baek complains in the evenings that he is not suited for a prison warden's life. But he has been taking shifts at every hour he can spare. He was up guarding the cells, and later that same day I saw him overlooking the tests. He manages to be everywhere at once, despite his whining. I tell him to volunteer for the front if he is so bored of stillness, and he shuts up. But he seems uncomfortable. Call it an officer's intuition. Whenever I try to speak of it he simply teases me about the girl, and laughs at my denials.
I am sure she knows by now what she is doing. I see her most days, and we speak often. Whenever I ask her of her life she laughs coyly, and averts her eyes. They are like blooming jasmine glittering jewels the sea under the moon. I think of them often. I wonder how they look at me.
EXPERIMENTAL REQUISITIONS RECORD
JUNE 28TH, 1950
General-purpose anomalous testing begun over previous week. Luxury incentives adequate to provide a satisfactory quantity of subjects. Relevant anomalies are of low-to-medium risk; attrition is expected to be mild. Current pool of candidates is more than sufficient, though switch to coercive measures is expected to be necessary within two months.
All injuries so far have been within the remit of mundane medicine. Residue cleanup has not yet been necessary. Baseline cognitive mapping approaches completion. We expect to move into active stages within the next ten days.
RECOLLECTIONS, 3RD JULY 1950
It is a disturbing thing to wake every day to find new passages open, and familiar routes closed. The Site has become a maze. The official documentation is rewritten slowly, and still speaks of obscure corners being duplicated, while we struggle to find our way around sprawling corridors. The Foundation doctors recommend that we stay close to the surface, for worry of becoming lost, though they themselves brave the dark fearlessly. They are admirably cool in the face of such impossibility. I must remember these things can and must be understood.
The new space grants opportunities for mischief, too. I found Soon-Hee in one of the duplicated storage closets this afternoon. Or perhaps she found me, I cannot say. We spoke for some time. She told me of her students, and I told her of the flowers that grew outside the Seoul palace in spring. When I said she reminded me of them, she blushed and looked away, but did not move from where we stood. Her hand brushed mine as we parted. I am sure I will have reason to meet her again soon. How she managed to make her way so deep, I cannot fathom. When we spoke in the laundry she brazenly denied all knowledge of our meeting. She will give me all her secrets, eventually.
While we spoke, she mentioned the worry among the general population. They have been moved to the upper levels, where the cells, too, have multiplied. Now there is no risk of their being lost in the proliferating chambers below. But their good mood is souring. Often they come back with injuries, and yesterday a man returned without his left hand. I have examined the rumour myself, and indeed, his arm ends in a stump of smooth skin, like no injury I have ever seen. He will not explain its provenance.
At least
We are not
He has been cared for. I saw to it myself. These men owe us a debt of blood, and if the payment is unpleasant, so be it.
With the advent of the war, Site-426 has become a centre of psychopathology mitigation research. The D-class population provides the Site with a large and administratively convenient testing pool, and imported equipment has made it one of the finest facilities in its field. Continued expansion of the program is expected, and the wartime conditions are likely to provide a steady source of recruits for the foreseeable future.
Frequent injuries among the subject pool have provided an opportunity for Site-426 to also become a testbed for novel paramedical techniques. It is the opinion of Director Johansen that this represents the next major avenue of research at the Site.
SCP-9426 DEBRIEF, 02/23/09
SAMUEL PIKE, Foundation Junior Researcher
OH SOON-HEE, recovered from SCP-9426.
OH: After the first week, people stopped coming back from the tests. They always left something behind. I knew one man who simply ceased to cast a shadow.
[Pike winces.]
PIKE: Those sound like typical symptoms, yes.
OH: I hope whatever you were doing down there was worth it.
PIKE: It’d be classified. And the records are gone, regardless. I only have the big picture. In fact, one of the things I was hoping to get out of this interview was some detail on the procedures.
OH: I can’t remember it. There were things they taped to my head, pills, injections. A few times they strapped me down. Once I left with new teeth. But… I have no secret to reveal. Sorry. Sir.
[She glances at her feet, interlacing her fingers.]
OH: I avoided the worst of it, anyway.
PIKE: Ah. Because of your… entanglement.
[Oh blushes. She struggles to meet Pike’s eyes.]
OH: Yes.
PIKE: After you met, how did things develop between you?
OH: I was hesitant, to start with. People were terrified of him. The stories they told, you’d think he was with the Army, during the war. They had the wrong impression, but I don’t blame them. I tried to keep away too, but —
OH: Seo was… a very confident man. He was sure of himself.
[She fiddles with the hem of her shirt.]
OH: And he thought of himself as a romantic. Like a prince from the stories. He was magnetic.
PIKE: Hm. And did he return these feelings?
OH: He was always a little aloof, but —
[Oh pauses. Her next remarks are quiet, and she does not look at Pike directly.]
OH: Yes. He did.
OH: He must have.
- ERRATA
- RECOLLECTIONS (JULY)
- NOTES ON SUPPLY
- INCIDENT DEBRIEF
- RECOLLECTIONS (AUGUST)
- TESTING RECORD
EXPERIMENTAL REQUISITIONS RECORD
JULY 8TH, 1950
Attritive procedures have commenced. Luxury incentives are correspondingly becoming less effective. Security personnel are directed to encourage subject participation directly. So far only one individual has proven irreparable, but low-variance protocols have failed to produce results. High-risk techniques beginning ASAP.
Mortuary staff have been warned to prepare for an uptick in workload over the following weeks.
MEMORANDUM TO SITE-426 STAFF
DIRECTOR JOHANSEN
The Site’s growth provides an opportunity. We have verified that duplicated supplies are perfectly safe to use. With the demand at the front, scavenging will allow us to avoid placing unnecessary stress on the Foundation’s delivery systems. We might instruct security personnel to enter into the deeper levels and recover what they can, with a focus on heavy electrical and rubber components.
The extra ammunition should come in handy, too.
RECOLLECTIONS, 15TH JULY 1950
It is for the best that the men are kept in separate cells. The mood is black today. Someone did not come back from the tests. Complications, from a septic wound. I have seen too many cases like it, and I pity the surgeons who fought to save him. The prisoners are too rowdy to believe it, though. Their words spring with conspiracy, and when I remind them that we do our best they whisper behind my back. The mood is black today. Before the prisoners avoided my gaze, but now they glare back at me as often as not. Their expressions are just like
I need to remind them of my gun too often.
Even Soon-Hee is terrified. We do not meet as often as I would wish, but when we do she begs me to keep her away from the selection. I tell her I do not have much influence, which is true, but she just weeps and weeps. There is little I can say to reassure her, though I try my best to remind her that she is in the care of her countrymen now. It takes a few repetitions for her to calm down, and I must be strident in my reminders. I am distracted by the thought of her face, torn with tears, even when I should be working. It is a terrible passion.
I am often asked to go into the deep of the site by the doctors. It is silent, and I try to forget my troubles, but there is something eerie about the space. The repetitions are endless, and drown my memories. Every time I look, there is another stairway, and I struggle to remember if it is the first or fifth floor down. The one balm on my worries is Lieutenant Baek, who I see often, at odd hours. I have no idea how he manages to find the time, but he is determined. His patrols must collide with mine, which is inefficient, but I do not have the heart to complain. He seems troubled, and in private often asks me about the moods of the prisoners, sweaty and waxen-skinned. He trusts my judgment over his own. This is the sign of a properly attentive subordinate, but sometimes he can be too enthusiastic. When I described the tensions I observed today, for a moment, he seemed to smile.
FOOD REQUIREMENTS
Director Johansen,
The kitchen staff complain that the prisoners are constantly hungry, and do not receive adequate rations. Sometimes there are minor acts of violence when we serve them, even in their small cells, and I suspect a black market is springing up where we cannot see. There is already considerable unease among security, and I would trust their instincts. These Orientals have a better sense of how to handle their countrymen than we do.
Secondly, the larder is being depleted unaccountably fast. I would levy an accusation of embezzlement, but there are no buyers and no plausible transportation route. A higher degree of security is strictly necessary.
(I did not wish to file out conversations so formally, but it seems you are determined to draw this out. Very well: if these issues are not promptly addressed I shall have to go over your head, and write a formal complaint concerning your conduct to Pacific Command.)
— Arthur Rosemund, Senior Researcher, Site-426.
Under no circumstances are anomalous materials to be recovered from the duplicated areas of the Site. If you have to slow down your schedule down to the wartime pace of deliveries, then so be it. We have no notion of how the duplicates have been altered, nor do we truly understand the limits of the effect. It is a shock that the esoteric reagents have been duplicated at all, and I dare not use them. As a remedial measure, you may consider forgoing full amnesticisation on the patients. We do not judge their capacity for unrest to be a threat to operations at this time.
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WITNESS INTERVIEW: OH SOON-HEE (F, 23)
CONDUCTED BY: LT. BAEK CHANG-HO
STENOGRAPHED BY: SR. RESEARCHER ARTHUR ROSEMUND
Following the expiry of two subjects during testing, there was a brief outbreak of violence among the prisoners during the evening count. Two further prisoners were killed in self-defence by security personnel during pacification. Interviews were conducted in order to understand the events precipitating the attack.
[Oh and Baek are on opposite sides of a table.]
BAEK: When did you first hear the rumour?
OH: They started passing it up and down the cells after noon, I think. Someone down the corridor said he’d seen someone come out of the testing chamber. In bags. Another said a friend of his vanished overnight, but the guards denied taking him. A third claimed the Site staff were haunted by ghosts with the faces of the dead. The atmosphere was feverish.
[Baek wrinkles his nose.]
BAEK: And so you started to plan?
OH: No! I mean, maybe. But if there was planning it was far from us. We, and the cell opposite, we’re the women’s cells. Closest to the door. They didn’t say anything to us.
[She chews her lip.]
OH: And soon the guards started screaming to quiet down, of course. Went in with those batons and broke things.
BAEK: So how did you work together?
OH: It wasn’t — we didn’t have a signal or anything. I think a few of the angrier men just went for it, with whatever they had. Bits of rock, a length of chair leg. And then —
OH: They all panicked. It wasn’t anger. People are scared, sir.
[Baek looks away, silent. His brows are furrowed. He speaks quietly.]
BAEK: Scared of what?
OH: Accidents, sir. We just vanish sometimes and don’t come back. Imagine what it feels like to us.
[She flinches away.]
OH: But — I understand you’re doing the best you can, sir, and you don’t mean to hurt us, and I’m glad it’s you we have to rely on rather than those foreigners. Please don’t think I mean to —
[Baek sighs.]
BAEK: Relax, woman. I’m not going to turn you in. The Kempeitai are gone.
[He pauses, and looks her up and down, raising an eyebrow.]
BAEK: Say, you’re the Major’s woman, aren’t you?
OH: He —
BAEK: I bet you knew them pretty well, huh?
OH: What?
BAEK: the Kempeitai. Or just the Japanese, really. You must have gotten along with them beautifully. How old were you? Eighteen?
[Oh’s shoulders hunch inwards. At this point, I felt it appropriate to intercede.]
ROSEMUND: Don’t stray from the assigned topic, Lieutenant.
[Baek nods at me, though he seems irritable.]
BAEK: Yes. Then I think we’re done here. Go on back to your man.
RECOLLECTIONS, 3RD AUGUST 1950
The news from the front has us all feeling trapped. I do not wish to be a defeatist, but it seems that our fatherland shall soon be fully overtaken by the enemy. Perhaps the patriots shall retreat here, to Jeju, as the Chinese did to Taiwan. The prisoners disdain my principles, and some now go around unshaven proudly, as if to mock me. They have no more regard for my lessons in literacy, and more and more grow openly confrontational. Baek’s manner, too, has become resentful and insubordinate. When I confronted him, he named me a traitor twice-over. Once to the Japanese, he said, and once to the Communists. As if any of us could do better, when they ruled
He said that if he were less merciful, he would report my seditious propagandising to the Foundation and see me shot. His ranting filled the cells, and the prisoners jeered at me in turn. I wanted to strike him there and then. But what kind of example would that have set? Command is one-half decorum.
The strangest thing, of course, is that I have never spoken a word in favour of the rebels. He jabbered about a meeting in the halls, but I said no such thing.
Soon-Hee, however, did approach me on one of my expeditions into the Site. I am unsure how she managed to make her way so far down. I must have been five levels deep, and the lights were failing, leaving me with only a hand-torch for light. But she came to me out of the dark of a downward stairwell, and told me that the tests were unbearable. They had just taken her, she said.
Why she chose to lie
I will not describe
Did they really cut
In the stories, they told me
She threw herself at my feet and begged me to do anything I could to keep her away. Her skin was clammy, and she seemed almost feverish, as if sick. I repeated my powerlessness even as she pled, but she took such measures that I was overcome. She has drawn something out of me I did not believe existed. What she-devils have we found?
In the end I resolved the matter on practical grounds. As a laundress she provides skilled labour, and there is no reason such a post should be disturbed by the arbitrary quotas used elsewhere in the Site. I promised to make the necessary notation in the schedules.
I met her later, in the laundry before lights out, and she reciprocated on our arrangement. She seemed much less enthusiastic this time, as if surprised, but the affair was quite satisfactory. Perhaps she takes joy in the spectacle she induces from me. She took such measures that I was overcome. They had taken her, just as she said.
EXPERIMENTAL REQUISITIONS ACCORD
AUGUST AUGUST AUGUST
Experiments have seen a phase change. New results are looking enormously positive. Now the only restriction is the inflow of subjects. We request a considerable expansion of the pool, even if there needs to be some breaking of traditional protocols. Most subjects should return enormously positive, with all limbs. There are certain luxuries we have prepared for them.
Variance around the inflow of patients persists. Anomalous materials have caused a phase change, and the pills and needles are of enormous use. We think we can bring in new results with the mortuary. Only the surgery needs expansion, throughout the patient pool. There has been reticence to provide the necessary subjects, but we only have use for bandages and blades, for the surgery.
SCP-9426 DEBRIEF, 02/23/09
SAMUEL PIKE, Foundation Junior Researcher
OH SOON-HEE, recovered from SCP-9426.
OH: It was so sudden, when it happened. One moment we were settling in for the night, and then I heard gunshots outside, and the Lieutenant walked in.
PIKE: Are you referring to Baek Chang-Ho?
[Oh nods distantly.]
OH: Yes. He strode past our door, and unlocked the men’s cells, throwing them a set of keys. There were more gunshots outside, and everything went to hell.
PIKE: And then?
OH: The crowd went for the exit. They hadn’t realised their situation. I should have gone down — even then, I knew it. But the sense of urgency pulled me forward. I followed them up, past wrecked corridors that stunk of blood, trampling over dozens of bodies. I can only hope they were already dead.
OH: None of them were Seo. I checked.
PIKE: Was there still ongoing combat, at this time? Were you able to arm yourselves?
OH: A few of them grabbed weapons off the fallen guards. And there was detritus you could throw. Not that it mattered. Things were quiet, until we got to the doors.
[Oh’s eyes tighten.]
OH: They were sealed, of course. Ten feet of steel between us and freedom. Ten feet of steel and a dozen gunmen.
OH: Some of them tried to fight their way through the guards. Idiots. While they were busy dying I ran, and soon the whole mass followed behind me. The gunsmoke was too thick in the air for me to think about direction. I just headed down, down, down. And, even then, I could tell.
OH: There were more of us than there should have been.
- RECOLLECTIONS (???)
- FINAL MEMORANDUM
- RECOLLECTIONS (???)
- INTERVIEW
- RECOLLECTIONS (FOREVER)
RECOLLECTIONS
Damn
Why did
There were two. Am I finally I have seen an endless string of impossibilities under this Foundation, and taken them in stride. So I shall say what I saw plainly. Lieutenant Baek appeared in duplicate at the cells last night. And the two of them two of him betrayed us.
The prisoners are loose. The Foundation has left us trapped in here, and their wards have rioted, arming themselves with weapons both original and duplicated, seizing control of many of the floors. I have had to go deeper than I knew possible to evade their petulant threats of retribution. Attempts to rally the men are fruitless. They are eager only to hide, until this blows over. I think they are wrong to expect reinforcement, however. I suspect we are, at last, on our own. This day will be won or lost by us alone.
There is one upshot to our predicament. I had the opportunity to shoot Baek myself. Twice. The twinned traitors led a dozen or so of the hardiest looking rebels downward, looking for weapons. Overconfidence had softened their discipline, and I was able to ambush them with the three reliable soldiers left to me. A few of the rabble fled down a turn before I could strike them, but the Baeks insisted on remaining behind. One survived long enough for me to interrogate him. I asked him what had driven him to such excess, and he told me had thought of it a long time, but felt that he would surely die for nothing. But the Site had provided him with what he needed. An army, he said, an army that was surely loyal.
I think I am beginning to grasp what he meant. Though I spent hours heading down the stairwell, still there are prisoners and soldiers further below me. Thrice I have seen the face of Baek, who is dead and yet lives. Thoughts of those innocent meetings on patrol in the Site fill my mind. Who exactly was I seeing?
The following text was written in English.
MEMORANDUM TO SITE-426 STAFF
SENIOR RESEARCHER ROSEMUND
If our thesis is correct, copies of this report should be replicated across the breadth of the Site. Transmission lines are inconsistently present, and the distance is too vast to plausibly cross, so this is our best method of communication.
Protocol PARNASSUS is in effect. The exits to the Site have been sealed, and the wider Foundation will not allow breaches of the exclusion perimeter constructed around it.
Clones produced by the SCP-9426 effect appear to have identical memories to the originals, despite some serious psychological deviance. To any remaining Site staff: once duplication of your person begins, we cannot place an upper bound on how long your subjective experience will persist. Unenthusiastic personnel are reminded that euthanasia options are plentiful and easily assembled from common Site supplies.
That’s what happened to Johansen. Slotted himself as soon as he realised how long his duplicates might persist, and encouraged us to follow him. I welcome you all to your choices.
I’ll take the long way around.
I do not know how long it has been. My memories have grown hazy since I fled from the mobs. Several times I have attempted to climb back to the surface, but the higher levels remain awash with rioters, now well-armed. They are organised into squadrons, and too many of them are led by Baek. He is everywhere. I think he must be looking for me.
There is a conclusion I can no longer avoid. My own replicas number among the crowds that fill this place. A few nights ago, or what passes for night in the absence of a sun, I came across myself. He, too, wished to head upward, and he had gathered a small group to do his bidding. That girl, Oh, was among them. I pity her.
This duplicate has been twisted from his purpose. He is proud and confrontational, and though he has kept his band in proper order it is clear they obey him out of dread. When he spoke to me he refused my recommendations with a haughty sneer, and attempted to command me and the three that follow me to obey him, instead. His quarreling continued for some time, but in the end I knew it would be foolish to let his sniping endanger the men under my care. We continued until things came to a head when he quite casually claimed primacy among us by virtue of being the original Seo. I laughed, and he challenged me to reveal a pockmark inflicted on me by a stray shell, during the liberation.
Needless to say, I realised such a man was impossible to work with. While I retreated he ran back into the dark passageways, ranting as he went.
I checked, though I should not have let him poison me with doubt. I am still myself. The scar stretches across my chest.
But then how did he, too
I must persist. Confusion only serves the enemy. There is plentiful food here. The men are ready for command, and arms are stockpiled at every corner. One day, soon, we shall return to the surface. I know it.
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CAPTIVE INTERVIEW: OH SOON-HEE (F, ??)
EXPERIMENTAL ANNEX LVL. 19
CONDUCTED BY: LT. BAEK CHANG-HO
STENOGRAPHED BY: SR. RESEARCHER ARTHUR ROSEMUND
Subject captured c.a. hour 8000 of enclosure, near 41st Radiometry Lab. Brought to Annex for questioning.
[Oh is lashed to a table with restraints fashioned from scavenged shirt-fabric. Baek reads from a sheet of paper.]
BAEK: State your name and place of birth.
OH: Let me go. I know — you never liked me, but that was before, you know this isn’t right!
BAEK: State your name and place of birth.
OH: Please. I don’t —
BAEK: State your name and place of birth.
[Oh laughs, first at Baek, then at me.]
OH: I’m the Empress of Japan, and I was born in London.
BAEK: Occupation.
OH: Really?
BAEK: Occupation.
OH: Someone’s going to find me. I know there are still real people, good people, left in this pit. They’ll kill you.
BAEK: Were you a member of the South Korean Labour Party.
OH: You used to be one of them! Maybe you were never nice, but you were good. You let us free — at least, one of you did. Why are you still going along with this? You know you don’t have to obey him!
[At this point, I felt I ought to defend the poor man.]
ROSEMUND: You’re quite right, miss.
OH: You —
OH: Sir. If this is at your instruction, there’s been a misunderstanding. We don’t have to be enemies.
[She shakes with emotion, but tries to keep her voice deferent. She fails.]
ROSEMUND: Most of the versions of the Lieutenant I find are rather truculent. They do their best to interfere with my operations. But this one’s fruit has fallen very far from the tree. An obscure psychological mutation, I think. He does nothing I do not tell him to.
[Oh watches me, breathing heavily.]
ROSEMUND: Nothing to say?
OH: I haven’t met many of you down here. Doctors, or whoever it was that ran this place. The people holding the knife. It’s almost all soldiers or prisoners. They’re confused, afraid, trapped down here. By you. Why did you do it? Why are you doing this?
[I shrug.]
ROSEMUND: There has to be some breakage of limbs. For the procedure to take effect, you know.
OH: That’s it?
[She begins to cry, silently.]
OH: More babble. I don’t know why I thought — there might be something more.
[I smile, and fetch my tools. I motion to Baek to tranquilise her.]
ROSEMUND: Relax. All the pills and ropes are here, for the surgery.
OH: Do you even hear me? Any of you? Do my words mean anything?
OH: You’ll just keep doing this. For its own sake. Fucking devils!
OH: God.
OH: Let it end. I want to be done. When does it finish?
ROSEMUND: Never.
[Baek looks up at her. His voice is mournful.]
BAEK: Never.
Note: My hands were too occupied to stenograph the conversation past this point.
Things have gone on for a long time in this way. I have not grown old. My people have become well-mannered. Though their breeding cannot be corrected, they can write and read. No children are born, despite our efforts. There is much mourning where they think I cannot hear. But I am glad of heart, for this place shall last.
Oh is among us, and she is done with weeping. I no longer wake in the night hearing sobs. Now she is ever-joyful by my side, and has attained all the wifely qualities. I did not think myself a traditional man, but in taming her I have learnt many things about myself.
It does not feel that it has been so long, though surely I have been down here for years. The hours blend together, so that all that remains is this forward movement. I write this journal to keep track of the changes, but I find even the entries melting into each other. When was the last time I thought of outside?
I remember that there is such a thing as a sky. My urgency, though, has gone. I am sure that if I continue to live well, I shall reach it soon. I need only to persist in my efforts.
SCP-9426 DEBRIEF TRANSCRIPT, 02/23/09
SAMUEL PIKE, Foundation Junior Researcher
OH SOON-HEE, recovered from SCP-9426.
OH: One last thing.
PIKE: Go on.
OH: I… is there any way to tell me apart? From the others?
PIKE: I don’t follow.
OH: Don’t pretend, just to spare my feelings.
[She leans back in her chair and sighs.]
OH: Is there any way to say that I’m not just one more of them? A duplicate?
PIKE: I’m afraid not, ma’am.
OH: So, in practice, I might as well be one. I remember my brother, the schoolhouse, the children… but if what you say is true, so would they. Right?
PIKE: Probably. But — don’t let it get to you. It was you that got through this. You made it out. It’s not that you’re all false, it’s that you’re all real.
OH: Hm.
OH: You said there was one of me that lived with Seo, right? All her life?
[Pike makes a noncommittal tilt of his head.]
PIKE: She might still be down there.
[His eyes widen.]
PIKE: Sorry! I mean, try not to think about it —
OH: It’s fine. It’s really fine.
[Oh giggles, and her laughter continues to grow in intensity until she struggles to breathe. Tears stream down her face as she clutches her torso.]
OH: Oh, it’s fine. It’ll never not be fine. I hope she was happy.
PIKE: Do you think she was happy?
[There is a brief silence. Oh wipes at her face with her sleeves.]
OH: … I hope she was happy. I’m just —
OH: Glad to be out.
> Technician, would you like to publish your file? (y/n)
> y
3/9426 LEVEL 3/9426
CLASSIFIED
Item #: SCP-9426
Thaumiel
Interior of SCP-9426
Special Containment Procedures: Foundation personnel are to maintain a presence at the exit of Site-426, and a further perimeter around its outer bounds. Individuals extracted from SCP-9426 are to be tranquilised and brought to a processing centre. Under no circumstances are containment staff to pass the threshold of the Site-426 underground entrance.
Description: SCP-9426 is a spatially-distorted region beneath the former Site-426, composed of an enormous (but finite) number of subterranean layers of the Site as it existed in the year 1950, complete with duplicated stationery, electronics, weapons, and personnel. The first layer of SCP-9426 is identical to that depicted in the blueprints of Site-426, but as the levels descend, they grow wider, so that SCP-9426 has roughly the geometry of a pyramid whose zenith is at the surface.
SCP-9426’s full extent is unknown, but it is certainly of no less than 3000 cubic kilometres in volume. It is populated by duplicates of the original Site-426 staff, who periodically make their way to the surface. From 1950-2000, the exit into Site-426 was sealed as per PARNASSUS protocol, but after its expiry in August of 2000, cloned personnel have emerged at a steady rate. Material recovered from their persons constitutes the Foundation’s primary source of information about SCP-9426.
About one in seven personnel are security or scientific staff. The scientific staff are universally poorly-trained for modern work with the Foundation, and are simply amnesticised and returned to SCP-9426, but some of the security have found employment as Agents or MTF operatives.
The other six-sevenths of staff are clones of members of the historical Bodo League. These provide around 85% of the Foundation’s global supply of D-Class personnel.