Plilt

SCP-1717-EX: I Am Everything I Said I Was (2772 words)

Authors: Plilt

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Item#: 1717-EX

Containment Class: explained

Secondary Class: none

Disruption Class: ekhi

Risk Class: warning

A pod of subantarctic orcas, photographed off the coast of the Crozet Islands.

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-1717-EX should only be referred to by their number in official documentation. Outside this context, they are to be referred to as subantarctic orcas and should not be considered SCP objects. This database entry is retained for reference purposes, but has been updated with current procedures and information.

Underwater sites located in Administrative Region 35 (Antarctica) are to install sonar beacons one kilometer away from facilities. These serve the dual purpose of repelling subantarctic orcas and tracking their movements. Underwater anomalies are to be protected in the same manner, if possible. Should orcas approach, the use of lethal force is authorized. If the sonar is detected by the public, the Disinformation Bureau is to release a cover story about submarine military activity in Antarctica.

A network of fifty buoys equipped with microphones has been set up to listen to the communication of subantarctic orcas.1 Ceto.aic is tasked with monitoring orca communications, with particular focus on the relay system used by the Great Pod of the Circular Current. Orcas determined to have witnessed anomalous events are to be amnesticized at the earliest opportunity. Development of targeted memes to eradicate widespread knowledge of certain anomalous entities among orcas is under consideration.

The Foundation currently does not have any diplomatic contact with the Great Pod of the Circular Current. In the event the Great Pod forms a normalcy-protecting organization, the Foundation will initiate ties using standard protocols.

Archived Containment Procedures (Level 5+ Access Only)

Access Granted

Instances of SCP-1717 are to be tracked by Poseidon.aic using a combination of public reports, underwater microphones, satellite imagery, and radio transmitters. While uncontained instances of SCP-1717 are to be terminated if convenient, the public nature of SCP-1717 and their wide distribution and scattered population make termination of all instances impractical at the moment. SCP-1717-B are to be terminated as soon as possible.

A population of SCP-1717 instances have been contained at Research Area-78 for long-term observation and experimentation, to be focused on determining the origin of SCP-1717 and neutralizing all instances of SCP-1717 outside of containment without a breach of the Veil Protocol. Currently promising avenues include the use of tailored plagues, gene drives, and working with the Global Occult Coalition to relax anti-whaling regulations.

Embedded agents in academic institutions are to suppress any reports that could reveal the anomalous nature of SCP-1717, and amnesticize researchers.

Description: The subantarctic orca (Orcinus parantarcticus)2 have recently undergone an evolutionary shift, resulting in the species gaining full sapience. In addition to the typical cognitive abilities of cetaceans, subantarctic orcas have developed sophisticated language, increased cooperative capabilities, and a firm grasp of abstract concepts. Tool use has not been observed beyond the use of artificial waves to wash prey off ice floes, but this is believed to be due to the sparse environment of the subantarctic orca's home range rather than any cognitive limitation. The cause of this evolutionary shift is not known with certainty. Previously, it was believed to be anomalous in origin. However, extensive investigation by the Foundation using both mundane and anomalous techniques has determined that it is not anomalous or due to the interference of anomalous forces. Currently, the social brain hypothesis3 is generally accepted by Foundation cetologists to be most supported by the evidence.

The date at which the subantarctic orcas gained sapience is unknown, but believed to be recent. The species' level of cognitive, political, and technological development has not changed since Foundation observations began in 2001.

Orcas are organized in pods of thirty adults on average, usually led by the oldest female. Pods do not reside in well-defined territories, but for most of the year maintain a minimum distance of 15 kilometers between pods through the use of long-distance infrasonic communication. These long-distance calls are also used for social interaction between instances in different pods, and to warn other pods about potential threats. During the summer, pods congregate to take advantage of high density fish schools produced by phytoplankton blooms.

The current leaders of the Great Pod. Names are untranslatable, so they are known by their PoI numbers. From left to right, they are PoI-95-1, PoI-95-5, PoI-95-2, and PoI-95-4.

Currently, most known subantarctic orca pods are (at least officially) part of the Great Pod of the Circular Current.4 The Great Pod, formerly classified as SCP-1717-A, is an association of pods networked together through by rover male orcas who act as a relay system for messages as well as scouts. Their leaders (currently four in number) have collectively memorized the names, typical routes, and members of every member pod of the Great Pod. Prior to reclassification, these orcas were classified as SCP-1717-B. With the aid of roving orcas, the Great Pod mediate disputes between member pods, controls access to certain sacred sites, and maintains common resources. While the capabilities of the Great Pod's leaders were formerly thought to be anomalous in nature, studies performed on one of their number who died of natural causes have confirmed that they are simply the product of training and natural talent.

Subantarctic orca culture, due to their limited geographic range and long-distance communication abilities, has not differentiated very much. Despite their recent evolution it is highly developed, with a strong emphasis on song. Their mythology is centered around a cetomorphized ocean deity. Boats are viewed as disinterested, and sometimes dangerous, supernatural beings. Certain anomalies such as SCP-169 have become common knowledge among subantarctic orcas. However, the details have been altered enough by cumulative errors that even in the event of the relevant communications becoming public, a Lifted Veil Scenario is considered low probability.

The O5 Council has determined that the sapience of subantarctic orcas is part of normalcy. As the human scientific community is expected to translate the language of the subantarctic orca within the next few years, they are also subject to the Veil Protocol. Subantarctic orca instances are reproductively isolated. The rest of the orca genus will therefore likely remain at their current level of intelligence.

Addendum 1717-1: Minutes of O5 Command Meeting, 23/5/2035 (Level 5+ Access Only)

Access Granted

O5-4: Item five on the agenda is a request from the Classification Committee to reclassify SCP-1717 as explained.

O5-3: Why are they asking us? Reclassifications are their purview.

O5-7: Normally, yes. But ceasing containment of SCP-1717 would require applying the Veil Protocol to another species and the political implications are sizeable, so they wanted it to be our decision.

O5-2: How sure are they about this? If they're wrong, we won't have the resources to cover up SCP-1717 after the scientific community announces their true nature.

O5-7: Very. The Parazoological Department been investigating every possible cause for SCP-1717 for the past twenty years, and monitoring the population thoroughly for over thirty. There's no sign of any anomalous activity other than that which can be traced to known, unassociated anomalies that SCP-1717 instances have come into contact with. They're abnormally normal, really.

O5-6: SCP-1717-B's abilities still suggest an anomalous component.

O5-4: Parazoology doesn't think so. They've vivisected one of their leaders, studied its neurology some, and they've concluded that -B just has a really good memory. Non-anomalous humans are capable of similar feats. Savants and such.

O5-9: Even if this is true, I don't think it matters. There are several human ethnicities that we contain even if the individual members aren't technically anomalous, because an anomaly is an integral part of their culture. SCP-1717 may have developed their intelligence naturally and their situation is unfortunate, but they know too much, and our amnestics and memetics are designed to work on humans, not whales. They need to remain behind the Veil.

O5-4: R&D thinks amnestics will be functional, at least. The physiological processes targeted are conserved across Mammalia.

O5-9: We don't have the resources to effectively wipe all their memories of anomalies, though.

O5-4: No, we don't. But most of those oral traditions are so distorted as to be unrecognizable. Their stories of SCP-169 would look like tales of a big amphipod to anyone who didn't already know what SCP-169 was, and they have it in the wrong area. Besides, it's getting harder and harder to keep them secret. The more time between the abandonment of containment efforts and the public's discovery of SCP-1717, the easier it is to hide our role and hide the anomalous.

O5-7: Contact would ease the Veil protocol, too. Most of our memes don't work on whales, but some do, and the people I've talked to in Memetics think they can design ones that would work on both species. They'd be more restricted in function, but if we could get the memes to anyone going down there we could ensure transmission. Our ability to transmit memes to SCP-1717 in the past has been limited because we didn't want to tip them off to our existence, but if we reclassify them that won't be an issue any longer.

O5-1: Parazoology's own reports say they aren't sure how SCP-1717 gained sapience. I don't want to classify SCP-1717 as explained until we actually know with certainty.

O5-3: The Committee classified many anomalies as explained because there was no sign of anomalous activity, even if we couldn't explain all the details. It's nearly impossible to determine what causes specific traits to evolve and how they do so; we still don't know why humans gained sapience. I don't see why this case should be any different.

O5-7: There's never been any real evidence that SCP-1717 gained sapience very quickly, either. We're just assuming that we wouldn't have missed it prior to 2001, but the Type D population was little studied until recently.

O5-9: I can be satisfied with that. Does anyone else have points to raise before voting?

O5-6: What do we do with the captured instances?

O5-7: Parazoology wants to retain them for testing purposes. We'll terminate the -B instance. It's useless now; the experiments we've done have altered their brain too much to use it for testing.

O5-9: Anything else?

[brief silence]

O5-9: Then I call for a vote.

RECLASSIFICATION PROPOSAL 1717

PROPOSAL:

"Maintain classification of SCP-1717 due to their institutional knowledge of SCP objects."

COUNCIL VOTE SUMMARY:

YEA
NAY
ABSTAIN

5
6
2

STATUS

REJECTED

RECLASSIFICATION PROPOSAL 1717

PROPOSAL:

"Maintain classification of SCP-1717 due to current uncertainty about the cause of SCP-1717."

COUNCIL VOTE SUMMARY:

YEA
NAY
ABSTAIN

4
9
0

STATUS

REJECTED

RECLASSIFICATION PROPOSAL 1717

PROPOSAL:

"Reclassify SCP-1717 as Explained. Allow discovery of Orcinus parantarcticus sapience."

COUNCIL VOTE SUMMARY:

YEA
NAY
ABSTAIN

8
5
0

STATUS

PASSED

Addendum 1717-2: On May 25, 2035, the following message was received by Overwatch Command.

We protest the Foundation's rash, unilateral termination of containment of SCP-1717. Our organizations have collaborated on this issue of global security since 2004, and we have refrained from classifying the species as a KTE only because you assured us that full liquidation was not necessary. Now the Foundation sees fit to cease participating in bilateral efforts without consulting us.

The Global Occult Coalition is not convinced by the evidence (or more accurately, lack of evidence) presented by the Foundation, either. If the subantarctic orca has gained its remarkable intelligence through anomalous means, or have received direction from outside forces, it will be impossible to liquidate them above the Veil.

We request that the Foundation re-establish containment of SCP-1717 immediately.

— Undersecretariat of the Global Occult Coalition

The following reply was sent:

While we understand your concerns, we assure you that the reclassification process was undertaken with all due care. This is an internal process, which the GOC is not invited to comment on -- though if there is evidence against our reclassification you would like to submit, you may do so through standard channels.

The Foundation would also like to reiterate that our Legal Department considers the International Veil Agreement to apply to the subantarctic orca, per the clauses on people residing on terra nullius. While they do not currently have contact with humans, the terms of the International Veil Agreement apply to cultural isolates. The subantarctic orca is already above the Veil. We know the Coalition would not be so rash as to try to terminate an above-Veil group, so how difficult it would be to terminate them is not an issue.

We hope that this does not negatively affect our working relationship, and look forward to continuing to work with the Global Occult Coalition to contain anomalous entities in the future.

— Overwatch Command

No response was received from the Global Occult Coalition.

Addendum 1717-3 (Level 5+ Access Only)

Access Granted

Given the response of the Global Occult Coalition, it was decided to expedite the discovery of the subantarctic orca's sapience by mundane science. While this was a controversial decision, interfering in the scientific community was judged to be less of a deviation from normalcy than risking the GOC or another anomalous actor trying to affect a non-anomalous species. The Cryptid Specialist Group5 was selected as an intermediary to reduce the risk of the GOC or another signatory to the International Veil Agreement misconstruing the Foundation's actions as a breach of the treaty.

A direct transfer of data was rejected as too obvious. Instead, Dr. Gonzalez, a Foundation cetologist known to the Cryptid Specialist Group and several weeks from retirement, was directed to attend the Ocean Sciences Meeting. Dr. Isabella Basile, a member of the CSG, was scheduled to give a presentation on dorsal fin abnormalities in the sperm whale. Dr. Gonzalez was given a flash drive with all data on SCP-1717-EX, as well as low-security data on other anomalous cetaceans. This flash drive was encoded using Foundation cryptography the CSG's associates have already cracked, and safeguarded using weak memes.

While at the conference, Dr. Gonzalez fidgeted with the flash drive in an obvious manner, especially when Dr. Basile was in the room. On the last day of the conference, Dr. Gonzalez engaged Dr. Basile in conversation about her presentation and left his flash drive on a nearby table when he left. Monitoring of the Cryptid Specialist Group confirms that they have taken the flash drive, are cleaning the data to make themselves out to be the source of it, and intend to publish the data by the end of the year.

Dr. Gonzalez was then terminated but was allowed to retain his pension and discreetly given a large severance package.

Addendum 1717-4 — 91st Session of the Council of 108, 2035: On September 6, 2035, the Council of 108 voted 55-53 to classify the subantarctic orca as a parathreat (designated KTE-2358-Fiji) after a proposal was introduced by the New Zealand government.6 The exact details of the session are currently unknown to the Foundation, but agents inside the Coalition have reported a fear of potential geopolitical disruption and competition for resources. Several Coalition vessels have been dispatched to retrieve subantarctic orca tissue samples. The GOC intends to take advantage of their small population size and high levels of inbreeding to use orca DNA as a targeting component in an ritual intended to cause a mass mortality event. While this will not wipe out the species by itself, it will likely trigger an extinction vortex due to low genetic diversity.

Addendum 1717-5 (Level 5+ Access Only)

Access Granted

Per a 6-3 decision by the Ethics Committee, the Global Occult Coalition's actions are a threat to normality the Foundation is obligated by its Charter to act against. However, the SCP Foundation cannot afford a direct conflict with the Coalition. Given the nature of the GOC's efforts, the O5 Council decided to leak information to the Serpent's Hand in order to prevent the termination of the subantarctic orca.

With the aid of several assets within the "anomalous community," MTF Sigma-3 ("Bibliographers") was able to bait a Serpent's Hand cell into attacking a Global Occult Coalition outpost. Assets within the Global Occult Coalition had ensured that the outpost contained information on the Coalition's termination plans as well as on security measures taken at the ritual sites. They also prevented this information from being deleted when the outpost was breached.

Foundation listening posts in Administrative Region 35 intercepted a Coalition distress call from several Antarctic and subantarctic islands at 14:00 September 18, 2035. Distress calls reported that armed persons had appeared from previously unknown Ways or emerged from the ocean and were assaulting Coalition encampments. The Hand's superior mobility and the relative lack of armed GOC presence meant that by 16:37, the Coalition's anomalous rituals had been disrupted and many of their personnel had been killed in action.

Intelligence from Sigma-3 and the failure of subsequent Global Occult Coalition attempts indicates that the Hand has extended some form of anomalous protection over the subantarctic orca population, preventing the GOC's rituals from functioning. While ordinarily this would be worthy of SCP classification, the limited scope of the protection renders containment unnecessary.

Footnotes

1. While insufficient for full coverage, the Foundation does not have the resources to deploy more.

2. Formerly known as Type D orcas.

3. Originally intended to explain the evolution of human intelligence, the social brain hypothesis states that increased intelligence is an adaptation for large and complex social groups.

4. Translated from Subantarctic Orcan.

5. An unofficial working group of IUCN-affiliated scientists who protect anomalous lifeforms by discreetly influencing the activities of conservation agencies and NGOs. They were denied membership in the Council of 108 due to lack of open seats. The group has known links to the Serpent's Hand, the Manna Charitable Foundation, and the anomalous conservation NGO Legacy, but is considered to be of minimal threat in itself.

6. Global Occult Coalition member states are permitted to introduce measures but cannot vote on them. New Zealand's state normalcy organization is not a member of the Council of 108, having gained full independence after all slots in the Council were filled.