Item#: 3284

Containment Class: keter

Secondary Class: none

Disruption Class: vlam

Risk Class: notice

Special Containment Procedures: There is currently no known method of efficiently containing SCP-3284. Personnel may submit experimental containment proposals to Senior Researcher Dr. Anna O'Neil for review. Proposals to apply a non-Keter classification to SCP-3284 are preemptively denied per O5 order until a fully effective containment strategy has been devised.

When not being tested, SCP-3284 is to be placed in an unsecured lock box located within Containment Chamber 303K at Site-272, and D-Class are to be assigned guard and recontainment duty for shifts lasting no more than five hours.

Description: SCP-3284 is a steel ball bearing measuring approximately 2.5cm in diameter and weighing 67g. It has the anomalous property of being uncontainable by any currently known means.

All methods of containment or restraint of SCP-3284 thus far attempted have failed within fifteen minutes of initiation. In the majority of cases, this failure appears to be spontaneous in nature, with evidence pointing toward cascading failure events stemming from causes present prior to the attempt. In the remaining cases, where failure cascades have been rendered unlikely or implausible, SCP-3284 has exhibited the anomalous ability of spontaneous relocation into an unobserved area up to ten meters from the edge of the containment area.

These effects only manifest for SCP-3284 itself, and thus cannot be used reliably by other objects or entities to escape containment.

SCP-3284's anomalous nature was initially discovered during routine testing of an experimental containment chamber at Site-272. The door mechanism in which SCP-3284 had been installed suffered repeated failures, and testing in other machinery had led to similar results. Initially it was determined that its anomalous effect was the destructive failure of any mechanism it was placed within, but this was updated to the current description after breaches continued occurring despite the lack of mechanical or electrical devices used during several containment attempts.

[Access Abridged Experiment Log B]

[Close Abridged Experiment Log B]

The original log of experiments that took place prior to the description update have been archived in Document 3284/04A. The full log of experiments from the current run may be found in Document 3284/04B.

Experiment 3284/01B

Testing: Control test.

Containment Method: SCP-3284 was installed in its original position in the upper hinge of the outer airlock door on Experimental Containment Chamber S272-037.

Result: Due to a previously undetected flaw in the upper hinge's ceramic plating, the hinge immediately siezed with the airlock door in the closed position. A repair team was dispatched and the hinge dismantled, whereupon SCP-3284 fell from the hinge's interior and rolled across the floor before coming to a stop approximately three meters away.

Notes: While not precisely following the same sequence of events of the previous breakdowns and repair attempts, the results of this test still fit the pattern established during initial discovery. -Dr. O'Neil

Experiment 3284/02B

Testing: Basic containment procedure.

Containment Method: Standard Safe-rated security locker with keypad entry.

Result: Approximately four minutes after containment initiation, the locker's keypad suffered from a momentary power surge, causing it to react as if the passcode had been entered. The locker's door was pushed open by the force of the lock disengaging, allowing SCP-3284 to roll out and fall to the floor. The door then swung closed and the lock reengaged. The power surge was later determined to have been caused by faulty wiring within the keypad.

Notes: It is difficult at this point to determine if SCP-3284's anomalous property is somehow causing the faults and making them appear as if they had always been there, or if it is merely taking advantage of faults that were actually already there. -Dr. O'Neil

Experiment 3284/05B

Testing: Basic containment procedure.

Containment Method: Standard Safe-rated lock box with biometric entry.

Result: Approximately eleven minutes after containment initiation, the lock box's biometric scanner spontaneously registered an appropriate retinal pattern. The lock disengaged, causing the lid to spring open. Cameras recorded the sound of a metal object falling onto the concrete floor six seconds before the box's lid settled back into position and the lock reengaged. SCP-3284 was found in a corner of the testing chamber that was neither covered by the cameras nor directly visible from the observation area. Review of the footage shows a common house fly landing on the biometric scanner immediately prior to the lock disengaging.

Notes: I debated including the part about the fly in my report but ultimately decided to adhere to scientific rigor. The odds that a fly could in any way resemble a retinal pattern at all or somehow mark such a pattern into the surface of the scanner are simply astronomical if not outright impossible, but so are the odds of all these mechanical and containment failures happening around the same ball bearing simply by chance. -Dr. O'Neil

Experiment 3284/10B

Testing: Observational containment.

Containment Method: Direct human observation utilizing two D-Class and two security personnel stationed in an unsecured conference room.

Result: Due to the deactivation of the conference room's security cameras to test pure human observation, all data collected from this test came from debriefing of the D-Class and guards. It has been determined that approximately seven minutes after containment initiation, all four direct observers moved their attention away from SCP-3284 at the same time1. The object spontaneously relocated to the hallway during this lapse.

Notes: Even containment methods that are not strictly physical are subject to SCP-3284's anomalous effect. I wonder how it can tell it's being watched? -Dr. O'Neil

Experiment 3284/12B

Testing: Observational containment.

Containment Method: Unsecured conference room fitted with a web of modified hidden security cameras.

Result: Precisely fourteen minutes after containment initiation, a temporary power outage in the administrative wing of Site-272 caused the cameras to deactivate for 2.3 seconds, after which they reactivated on internal battery power. During the downcycle, SCP-3284 had spontaneously relocated to an unobserved point outside the camera web's area of coverage.

Notes: Even though the cameras were hidden, they were detected. A new series of experiments purely to test SCP-3284's perceptual range may be in order once we figure out how to actually contain it. -Dr. O'Neil

Experiment 3284/16B

Testing: Reality-bending detection and containment.

Containment Method: Standard Euclid-rating containment chamber containing four Scranton reality anchors and a Kant counter.

Result: The containment chamber's door lock and lighting both failed approximately two minutes after containment initiation and reengaged seventeen seconds later, during which time SCP-3284 had relocated into an unobserved spot in the hallway. SCP-3284 registered at 51.3 Humes pre-containment, 50 Humes during containment and the subsequent breach, then 50.9 Humes post-breach. The reality anchors remained operational throughout but did not activate.

Notes: The Hume readings are all well within standard reality background counts, and the anchors didn't even try to stop the breach from happening. Rather than help us understand SCP-3284 and its abilities, this test would seem to raise even more questions, not to mention several new concerns. I will be requesting more funding for SCP-3284's experiment and containment budget. -Dr. O'Neil

Request denied. The object does represent a risk to information security, but given that it has not yet traveled more than ten meters outside containment during a breach, that risk is minimal. -Site Director Yarborough

Experiment 3284/20B

Testing: Advanced containment procedure.

Containment Method: Modified Euclid-rated lock box placed inside a standard Euclid-rated security crate stored in a standard Euclid-rated containment chamber guarded by two security officers.

Result: Approximately ten minutes after containment initiation, all mechanical security measures suffered catastrophic failure events that allowed SCP-3284 to roll unhindered into the hallway outside the containment chamber. Officers Thompkins and Elwood attempted to halt SCP-3284's momentum but failed when Officer Thompkins slipped on a previously unnoticed wet patch on the floor and fell into Officer Elwood, causing minor injuries to both and allowing SCP-3284 to pass by them.

Notes: None.

Experiment 3284/21B

Testing: Extreme containment procedure.

Containment Method: Encasement of the object in a 50cm3 block of concrete and placing it in a modified Keter-rated security crate stored in a modified Keter-rated containment chamber in Bunker 272-07B guarded by five security officers and observed by a web of modified hidden security cameras.

Result: None. Experiment 21B was canceled during its preparatory stages by Site Director's order.

Notes: All further experiments in this vein are hereby preemptively denied. While SCP-3284 is deservedly classified as Keter, and even though it is understandable that attempting to contain what is essentially an uncontainable object may be a frustrating task, SCP-3284 is simply not enough of a threat to normalcy, the Foundation, or humanity in general to require such extreme measures or resource expenditures. The research and containment budget for SCP-3284 still remains the same as it was in the beginning, and the research team is advised to start thinking more creatively going forward rather than simply trying to brute-force a solution. -Site Director Yarborough

Experiment 3284/27B

Testing: Perpetual re-containment.

Containment Method: Unsecured standard Safe-rated lock box guarded by one D-Class in an unsecured modified Safe-rated containment chamber.

Result: At random intervals approximately ranging from one to fifteen minutes, SCP-3284 spontaneously relocated from the interior of the lock box into an unobserved area of the 10m3 containment chamber. D-22930 was alerted to each relocation event by the sound of the object striking the concrete floor as heard in previous experiments, allowing him to quickly find it and place it back in the lock box. This cycle was continually completed without failure up to the test's conclusion three hours after initiation.

Notes: It seems we have found a way to trick SCP-3284 into 'thinking' that it has escaped without actually allowing it to do so. Conceptual containment appears to be its weak point, and hopefully that will continue to be the case until we manage to devise a more permanent solution. -Dr. O'Neil

[Close Abridged Experiment Log B]

Addendum 3284-001: This article has been slated for revision due to the events of Incident 3284/72, and as such should be considered out-of-date until further notice. Details can be found in Incident Report 3284-72A.

Footnotes

1. According to their reports, D-92368 and Officer Thompkins had blinked, D-22930 had turned his head to yawn, and Officer Elwood had looked down at his watch to check the time.

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