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SCP-7558: Always Test Your Backups

Alternate Title: "Shallow Well"

Author: aismallard (Author Page)

Thanks to wctaiwan, Yossipossi, and Rounderhouse.

Item #: SCP-7558

Object Class: Thaumiel Decommissioned

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-7558 is currently in operation, maintained by RAISA's Records & Archival Office. See Document-551-E4071 for operational details. Project WELL has been discontinued, and SCP-7558 has been disassembled.

Description: SCP-7558 was an extradimensional bridging device created by the Foundation in 1951 for the WELL Backup System. When activated, it opened a link to a stable pocket universe located at a fixed location (SCP-7558-A), with the goal that it would protect documents, records, and other materials against dimensional shifts and CK-Class Reality Restructuring Scenarios.

SCP-7558-A, circa 1960.

It was equipped with a number of then-state-of-the-art paratechnological protections and detectors. For instance, one such utility was the Scranton Ring technology which, while installed on the SCP-7558-A end of the portal, blocked connectivity if Hume levels in the baseline universe were too unstable.

Originally under the management of Mobile Task Force Alpha-1 ("Red Right Hand") for storing copies of important classified documents, during the digitization of the Foundation's records, management was transferred to the newly-created RAISA. As such, its purpose was changed to the secure general backup of all Foundation documents, as well as a daily comparison job to detect CK-class scenarios or other anomalous incursions. During its operational history, it did not report the detection of any CK-class scenarios.

Addendum 7558-1: Backup Integrity Audit

In April of 1980, RAISA technicians began work on a project to verify that magnetic tapes in SCP-7558-A were resistant to reality alterations affecting the baseline universe. Since no such events had been previously detected, plans were made to artificially induce a localized event to test its effects.

However, during this investigation it was discovered that the method SCP-7558 used to access SCP-7558-A was not actually consistent. If conditions within baseline reality differed, then the location of SCP-7558-A would be altered. Despite this issue, careful inspection of SCP-7558's access log showed that only one pocket universe (SCP-7558-A) had been utilized since the start of Project WELL.

After discussion with the Department of Extradimensional Studies, a system for detecting pocket universes similar to SCP-7558-A was proposed and implemented. The intent of this work was to determine whether the SCP-7558 consistency issue was theoretical (and thus, fixable), or if it represented an ongoing failure mode.

In the subsequent search, 29 matching pocket universes were discovered.

Extradimensional exploration teams investigated each discovered universe (designated SCP-7558-B-1 through SCP-7558-B-29), and found that each held Foundation archival records nearly identical to those in SCP-7558-A, with some observed differences:

Within each SCP-7558-B instance, a number of historical details in each iteration differed, in a manner consistent with retroactive alteration.

A continuity could be seen between SCP-7558-B instances over time, with changes from more "distant" instances being carried forward to more "nearby" instances.

Relatedly, the "closest" instance (SCP-7558-B-29) was the most similar to SCP-7558-A, while the "furthest" instance (SCP-7558-B-1) was the most dissimilar.

All SCP-7558-B instances had a "termination date" in which no further activity occurred within the pocket universe. Such dates only moved forward in time and matched the same ordering, with SCP-7558-B-1 being the oldest.

With the gathered evidence, it was determined that SCP-7558 was failing in its role to detect CK-class scenarios, since, in each retroactive alteration, the device was simply creating a new pocket universe rather than accessing the existing SCP-7558-A instance from the previous continuity. Because of this flaw, the Foundation had incorrectly believed that no reality restructuring events had occurred since 1951.

Given the unsuitability of SCP-7558 in providing reality-stable archival, in 1981 the WELL Backup System was scrapped and replaced with a new system based on logical tautologies, which are consistent across multiversal variances and CK-class restructuring scenarios. For more information on the DEEPWELL archival system, see Document-551-E7160.

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