SCP-4935 - Hereafter

BY ORDER OF THE OVERSEER COUNCIL

The following file describes a Class B temporal anomaly,

and is Level 4/4935 classified.

Unauthorized access is forbidden.

4935

Item#: 4935

Containment Class: euclid

Secondary Class: none

Disruption Class: vlam

Risk Class: caution

SCP-4935.

Sankuru Nature Reserve, SA, DRC.

Special Containment Procedures: The access point to SCP-4935 is to be sealed and guarded when not in use. Access to SCP-4935 is forbidden unless authorized. Authorization is to be given only by the Site-77 Director of Containment1, and only for the purposes of continued research into the nature of SCP-4935.

Description: SCP-4935 is the group designation for two phenomena. The first, identified as SCP-4935-α, is a temporal anomaly existing within the Sankuru Nature Preserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The anomaly can be identified visually, as light further away from the anomaly appears to red-shift as the observer draws closer to it. Inversely, the anomaly and the area directly around it appear blue-shifted to outside observers, who will see anything approaching the anomaly appear to blue-shift towards an indeterminate point in the center of the anomaly and disappear. The same is true in reverse for anything exiting the anomaly, as returning subjects will appear red-shifted until they match pace with the standard flow of spacetime.

SCP-4935-α-PRIME (hereafter identified simply as SCP-4935) is the point in time beyond the SCP-4935-α anomaly. Analysis of the stars visible in the sky within SCP-4935 has determined that SCP-4935 is the planet Earth, roughly 130,000 years in the future from the present day. Due to changes in the planet’s atmospheric composition, the air within SCP-4935 contains significantly more oxygen than present day, leading to an abundance of megaflora. The area directly around SCP-4935-α within SCP-4935 is a grove of trees, many of which are in excess of 200m in height.

SCP-4935 is seemingly devoid of intelligent life, with two significant exceptions. The first is a race of secretive and highly advanced pseudo-humanoid entities who self identify, phonetically, as the Akot2. These entities inhabit the dark, canopied forests of the planet in small numbers, often in underground vaults or other similarly protected structures. They appear generally similar to modern humans, with elongated skulls, larger, deep set eyes, reduced mouths and noses, less robust chests and abdomens and longer, leaner arms and legs.

The Akot3 describe themselves as protectors and guardians of a massive4, levitating black cube situated above a similarly massive machine complex near the center of the African continent. This cube, composed primarily of silica and carbon with trace organic compounds throughout, is called the “Hereafter”, and is a site of significant religious importance to the Akot. According to the Akot, the Hereafter was constructed as resting place for the some ninety-three billion persons who lived on the Earth at the time of its construction, all of whom had lost the biological ability to die. As time passed and the age of these peoples grew unceasingly long, several major wars broke out and the species, as a whole, descended into madness. The Hereafter was designed as a way for the peoples of the Earth to enter a suspended state, until such time that the ability to die could be restored to the species. The Akot were those entrusted to maintain the Hereafter and continue researching the nature of the biological alteration the planet had experienced. This event was likely a hypothesized ΩK-Class ("End-of-Death") Scenario, though the biological triggers for such an event are still unknown.

The Akot universally suffer from a debilitating genetic disorder that causes their bodies to deteriorate over time. To offset this, these entities often augment their bodies with technology designed to enhance their reduced functions. However, the most significant consequence of the genetic disorder is that the Akot have a tenuous connection to three-dimensional space. Due to an event sometime in their past5, the Akot exist within two spatial dimensions simultaneously. Through the use of highly advanced technology they have been able to “anchor” themselves in the baseline dimension, though the condition still puts a considerable strain on their bodies and they are still subject to violent and painful dimensional shifts if the anchors fail. The Akot call this alternate dimension the “High Horror”, and discussion of the dimension is strictly taboo.

The second exception is a massive6, scorpioid entity (SCP-4935-β) that is currently intertwined with and attempting to pierce the exterior of the Hereafter7. SCP-4935-β, which is biological in nature, is called the “Corpse-Father” by the Akot, and has been on the planet for roughly six-hundred years8. The origin of this entity is unknown. This entity is capable of spawning larval incarnations of itself through its chitinous flesh in large swarms. These larval entities are aggressive and dangerous in large numbers, but have short life-spans9.

The Akot have claimed that SCP-4935-α exists due to a series of experiments testing machines designed to collapse the linear flow of time in a controlled area, as they as a species no longer have the physical capability or technological advantage needed to combat the SCP-4935-β entity. To date, it is believed that these experiments have been unsuccessful [NOTE: SEE ADDENDUM 4935.6 FOR MORE INFORMATION]

Addendum 4935.1: Dr. Monakker’s Memo

Memorandum on SCP-4935

Dr. Isaiah Monakker

We established contact with the humanoid entities within the anomaly last Thursday at approximately 0725 hrs local time. They are an incredibly secretive people, as their entire culture is seemingly built around their staying out of sight. During our initial exchange, a handful of them who we were not interacting with stood absolutely unmoving around us, to the point where you could miss them if you weren’t actively trying to remember they were still there. It’s an incredibly bizarre feeling.

Language ended up not being the issue we thought it might. The world they inhabit is well over one-hundred thousand years into the future of ours, and while they have evolved past the point of needed verbal languages, they have seemingly held on to the technology required to reproduce verbal speech in case they needed to interact with any of the people inside the Cube. It doesn’t reproduce “English” or “Spanish”, but some kind of delta wave that produces a verbal response in the language the listener is most familiar with. They’ve given us a handful of these units for study - I can’t begin to imagine how useful this might be to us if we can reverse engineer these.

They have a name for themselves, but for some reason it doesn’t translate properly. The word we’re using is “Akot”, since that’s the nearest phonetic we can make any sense of. They say it means “gravedigger”, but there’s such a heavy spiritual emphasis on the word that it ends up not meaning anything to us without context. Their language is like that - they can communicate with us since we have adjacent (if frighteningly under-advanced) neurological physiology, but a lot of what they say is based in this deep-seated mysticism that is meaningless to us when translated. We’re getting better at communicating, but a true understanding of their culture is going to require that we bridge that gap at some point.

However, I’m getting ahead of myself. The Cube. They call it the “Hereafter”, and it holds a deep religious significance for them. Most of what they know about it has been passed down through legend, but I think we’ve gotten the gist of it:

At some point in their distant past (potentially more than 100,000 years, which puts that date dangerously close to the modern day), humans as a species suddenly lost the ability to die, biologically. The Akot call these people the “Forerunners” - human beings who had gained immortality and had their society radically changed. Many of the great cities on their planet were built in the next five-hundred years or so, though all of these are little more than ruins on their planet now. The Akot also talk about voyagers who set sail for the stars with their newfound immortality, though little else is said about them.

Since people could no longer die, the population began to boom out of control. They were able to control this somehow early on, but after a certain point the birth rate was unsustainable. Resources grew incredibly scarce and people began to starve. They still couldn’t die though, so it seems like they just suffered for what was essentially the next thousand years. More left the planet, but eventually they ran out of material to build rockets with. Their technology had improved dramatically, but these struggles suffocated them. Their society began to collapse, and resource wars broke out. These were made worse by the fact that there were never any deaths in these wars, just more and more mangled bodies with consciousnesses attached to them. They eventually realized that blowing someone up wouldn’t kill them either, just scatter their consciousness into some sort of disorganized hell - a fate they consider to be the ultimate anguish.

This was about the time the Akot were created, by the way. Dr. Flavius is filing his report next, and it should contain more information about that. Needless to say they were also looking for a way to die, but their experiments backfired in a pretty significant way.

Regardless, after the wars had crippled the population the world sort of went silent for a while. The Akot archivist I spoke to said that they have better records of the medieval dark ages than they do for this period. If it wasn’t for timekeeping devices that kept moving, it would be like that time had never happened at all.

They also don’t have much on record about who built the Cube or where it came from, though it’s definitely extraterrestrial. There was a group of thirteen people who offered to the world an escape from their lives through sleep. The Cube would feed them and clean them and keep them sleeping, and if somewhere down the road they were able to die again, the Cube would kill them. The only ones who weren’t invited into the Cube were the first Akot, who were too fragile to enter the Cube and had already been ostracized by society for what they had done. They were left to clean up the world and watch over the Cube, a task that generations of Akot have been doing for more than one-hundred thousand years.

Let me be clear about something, in case you end up interacting with any of these entities - they are remarkably old. They also can’t die, so they essentially just stay alive until their bodies become so ravaged by the dimensional shifting that they collapse and can’t keep going. These are still conscious entities, mind you, but they just don’t function any longer. They reproduce only enough to keep a sustainable population active, but some of the oldest members of their society are in excess of 20,000 years old. They perceive time differently - and speaking to them is difficult. Most of the interpreters we spoke to were only a few hundred or thousand years old.

Either way, they’ve continued on like that for a long, long time. That is, until the Corpse Father appeared.

Addendum 4935.2: Transcript of Exploration Attempt EX.4935.03

Note: The following exploration attempt was conducted shortly after contact with the Akot people, when the nature of the machine named the "Hereafter" by the Akot was determined. Conducting this exploration was Mobile Task Force Epsilon-45 "Base Jumpers".

The following agents were assigned to this attempt:

E-45 Murphy - Team Lead / Fire Support

E-45 Santos - Fire Support

E-45 Li - Fire Support

E-45 Jackson - Logistics Support

E-45 Ailes - Communications

E-45 Murphy: Let's get mics hot. Everybody plugged in?

E-45 Li: I'm on.

E-45 Jackson: Check.

E-45 Santos: Mic check.

E-45 Murphy: How do we sound Coop?

E-45 Ailes: Everyone is green. We're good to go.

E-45 Murphy: Alright. For the record, we're on to the complex beneath the main cuboid construct. The locals call it the "Ark". We just need to get in, scout it out, grab some samples, and so on.

E-45 Li: The usual.

E-45 Murphy: Yep. The usual. Stay close, and let's try to get out of here in one piece, aye?

Team moves down a hill and leaves the nearby forest. In front of them is the construct beneath the "Hereafter", a mechanical superstructure the size of a small city. Long metal extensions rise up towards the cube above. There are no signs of life.

E-45 Santos: Fuck me that thing10 is big.

E-45 Murphy: That it is. They're already planning on trying to get teams up there to look at that a little closer, too.

In the distance, something heavy falls from the sky from behind the cube and lands somewhere in the superstructure below.

E-45 Ailes: What was that?

E-45 Murphy: We can't, uh, we can't see it from here, but there's this big ugly thing on the other side of the cube. Some kind of huge scorpion. It's trying to get into the cube - has been for a few hundred years, apparently. We'll try and stay on this side of the Ark to avoid any of the falling debris.

Team approaches the superstructure. A tall perimeter of metal pylons extends around the exterior of the structure.

E-45 Jackson: Alright, let's see what the Mole Rat tech can do.

E-45 Jackson plants a canister on the ground, which fires a harpoon into the air. The harpoon plants onto the ground on the other side of the barrier. The E-45 team members attached motorized harnesses to the cable, which pull them up towards the top of the barrier. Once there, they climb to the other side and slide down using the harnesses.

E-45 Santos: Those are pretty great.

E-45 Jackson: Yeah, I've been pretty impressed. Since they started phasing out the Rats as a task force all of this great gear is suddenly appearing, free to use. It's wild.

E-45 Murphy: Alright, let's take a look here. We're at the south eastern edge, so there's a structure about… three-hundred meters from us that looks promising. Let's head that way.

Team proceeds towards tallest nearby structure.

E-45 Murphy: We're actually lucky this thing is as old as it is. They were still putting doors on buildings back then - anymore these guys can just sort of pass through walls now, they're really immater-

E-45 Li: Hang on, listen.

Inside the structure there is the distinct sound of metal striking metal. The sound is periodic and is not loud.

E-45 Santos: Are we expecting to run into anyone in here?

E-45 Murphy: No. Let's get that door open.

Team removes corrosion on a nearby door to access the structure. Once removed, the door falls to the ground with a loud crash.

E-45 Ailes: They heard that.

E-45 Li: The sound is gone.

E-45 Murphy: Let's get inside. Come on.

Team enters the structure. Within is a series of tall open areas, likely ventilation towers. They have no visible bottom. Running across them is a narrow elevated walkway suspended from rigging attached to the walls.

E-45 Jackson: What was this built for?

E-45 Murphy: It's a doomsday machine. It was made to kill them, but it didn't work. They've got all kinds of theories about why - the most prevalent is that they just weren't smart enough to understand the original creator's intention, or something. It's a big deal to them - sort of a point of both pride and shame.

E-45 Ailes: It's eerie.

E-45 Li: Hey, listen. That sound is back.

The metal tapping sound has returned, and is close enough now to be heard easily.

E-45 Jackson: There, look. On the walkway.

The team shines a light down the walkway. Roughly twenty meters away, a humanoid figure is visible, half protruding from a nearby wall. One of the figure's hands is extended, grasped around a short piece of metal tubing. This figure is slowly tapping the tubing against the wall.

E-45 Murphy: Hello? Who's there?

The figure ceases movement. A single extant eye opens, the other being part of the wall. The eye is milky white. As the team approaches, it becomes clear that the figure is an Akot, though time appears to have grossly altered its features.

E-45 Murphy: Can you hear us?

Unknown Akot: (The figure's voice is barely audible) A dream. A dream. Another dream. Can you hear us? Who dreams like this?

E-45 Murphy: My name is Captain Murphy, we're a group of explorers. Can you understand us?

Unknown Akot: You- you are real? You can see me and you hear my voice? (Pauses) You are not of my people. I cannot see you, but I feel you. Who are you?

E-45 Murphy: We're travelers. We've come from far away. We're exploring this area - what is this place?

Unknown Akot: Do you- can you kill me?

E-45 Murphy: Excuse me?

Unknown Akot: Please - do you have the means? Have you come to kill me? When my body began to fail me, I fell into the Horror - I was not brave like Gerryon. Gerryon resides now in Hell, but I was afraid. I came here, into the machine, to sustain me, but it is worse. The loneliness. The darkness. I am alone. I am alone. Can you kill me?

E-45 Murphy: We can't, I'm sorry. We're just exploring - can you tell us about this place?

Unknown Akot: (Choked gasp) I had thought, maybe, after all this time we would have learned… I am called Housinn, have you heard my name? Do they still speak it? (Silence) No. No. It has been six-thousand years since I came here. There will be none who remember me now.

E-45 Murphy: Where are we?

Unknown Akot: This was our last bastion. We came here, noble Ilysses and his company, to stand opposed against the Master of Corpses. There were many of us, but they have been scattered into the darkness. I was afraid. I came here and hid, to wait.

E-45 Murphy: Six-thousand years - we were told the creature came here six hundred years ago?

Unknown Akot: Who told you this? The craven king Berlan? He has no doubt passed into the shadow as well. They lie to you. They lie - I have seen it. I was there on the day that the seas opened up and it crawled out of the depths. Six-thousand years, I know it. I was there. Why would they lie? What have they asked you - to protect them? To give them aid? There is no aid. The Corpse-Father is inevitability. Gerryon has abandoned us. What remains? Who is left? Perhaps in their arrogance they believed that you would be fooled into thinking they had not exhausted all of their options.

E-45 Ailes: What do you mean?

Unknown Akot: They will act in desperation now. I know it. I have dreamed of it, for so many years. A day when they would expend their last efforts and we might be saved, in one way or another. (Pauses) I want to die. I want to die. Why can't I die? Why has this simple mercy eluded us?

E-45 Murphy: This machine - does it have a control area? How is it operated?

Unknown Akot: The center - Gerryon's Ark. It is there. But - the Ark cannot be tasked any longer. It has expended itself. There is no more use for it. There is no salvation here.

E-45 Murphy: I understand. (To team) Let's move forward.

Unknown Akot: No! Please, no. Do not leave, please. It has been so long, here in the darkness - they have forgotten me. They have left me to rot here forever, please. The Corpse-Father might pass over me, and then I will be here alone, until the stars go out. How many years? Millions? Billions? I cannot- I cannot do it. Please, please!

The team moves away from the Akot. The figure continues to plead until the team is further down the walkway. After a short time the figure ceases to vocalize, and the metal tapping continues.

The team continues through the innerworkings of the machine for some time, pausing occasionally to check telemetry or take samples. The machine is very complex but entirely inert - no sound except for the team is audible. Extraneous dialogue is omitted from these logs.

Eventually, the team reaches a series of illuminated hallways. They follow the hallways towards a central area. The hallway eventually exits into a large, circular expanse. In the center of the expanse is an illuminated pillar of coiled steel tubing stretching up several hundred meters. At the top of the pillar is a dull blue ring of metal, occasionally pulsing with a dim light. Far above the top of this pillar is the bottom-most corner of the black cube above.

E-45 Santos: This is probably what he was talking about, aye? The poor son of a bitch in the wall? (Pauses) What do you reckon that thing is?

E-45 Jackson: Good question. (Looks up) Probably has something to do with that thing.

The team advances towards the structure. Suddenly, a figure appears in front of them. The figure is a young boy - distinctly human, with a noticeably different physiology than modern humans. Sensors attached to E-45 Ailes' equipment identify that this figure is immaterial - likely a projection of light or other similar holographic image.

E-45 Li: Jesu-

Projection: Greetings, travelers11. My name is Gerryon, engineer of the forsaken peoples of this world. You have arrived at our final resting place - we were cursed by an uncaring creator with a tormented existence that would not end, but by the grace of this machine we were delivered unto restful death. Tread lightly on these hallowed grounds.

E-45 Santos: Think it can hear us?

Projection: (To E-45 Santos) Of course. This database was created to answer and respond to the inquiries of all those who may come across our burial place.

E-45 Murphy: What was this machine designed to do?

Projection: Long before I was born, my species collectively decided that we would prefer death over the continued torment of an existence without end. We tried - and failed - to reach that end, by any means. This machine is the culmination of our efforts; a device that, when activated, will rend our souls from our bodies and sever the threads that can be said to be keeping us alive.

E-45 Murphy: How is this machine powered?

Projection: That information has been expunged from this database.

E-45 Jackson: Expunged? What?

E-45 Murphy: When was this device activated?

Projection: The device has not been activated.

E-45 Ailes: What?

E-45 Murphy: How does this device determine if it was activated?

Projection: There are still living human beings on this planet. Due to this, it is impossible that the device has been activated.

E-45 Murphy: (Pauses) How was this machine created?

Projection: That information has been expunged from this database.

E-45 Murphy: (Pauses) How did Gerryon know how to create this machine?

Projection: Gerryon was the product of the greatest minds of several generations. His birth was conceived by the most advanced sciences of the day, and the stimulation of his mind followed. When he awoke into being he was given access to the greatest compendium of knowledge this world had to offer.

E-45 Murphy: Where did he get that knowledge?

Projection: The SCP Foundation had collected a massive archive of- (pauses) I'm sorry, it appears any additional information has been expunged.

E-45 Murphy: Now that's something. (Pauses) One more thing. Can this machine be activated?

Projection: The Ark is no longer functional to its intended purpose in its current state. It has been modified by a third-party to perform a different task.

E-45 Murphy: What task is that?

Projection: I'm sorry, that information is not available.

Team continues to explore for a short time afterwards, but no additional information of note is recovered. Team is extracted in full after a short stay within the anomaly.

After extraction, the exploration team noted a dilation in their experienced time and the time experienced on Earth. The discrepancy lead to a larger investigation into the flow of time in the area surrounding the anomaly. This investigation determined that there was a slight dilation in the area directly surrounding the anomaly.

1200 hrs EST
1/2/2019
Site-17
1857 hrs CAT
-3 MINUTES

1200 hrs EST
1/9/2019
Site-17
1857 hrs CAT
-3 MINUTES

1200 hrs EST
1/16/2019
Site-17
1856 hrs CAT
-4 MINUTES

1200 hrs EST
1/23/2019
Site-17
1856 hrs CAT
-4 MINUTES

This investigation is ongoing.

Addendum 4935.3: Excerpt from Dr. Flavius’ Report - “SCP-4935: The Akot People”

SCP-4935: The Akot People

Dr. Jean Flavius

The Akot trace common ancestry to human beings, though the exact date is difficult to determine. The commonly held belief is that the Akot as a species emerged shortly before the Long Dark, as part of an experiment designed to help them achieve death. The early Akot believed that the soul was separate from the body, and that instant transmission of the soul to a higher plane of existence (similar to their deeply held religious beliefs involving death) would terminate their consciousnesses and allow for a way to “bypass” death.

The machine they built to accomplish this still exists - it lays dormant now, beneath the Hereafter at what we would consider the Ile M'Bamou near modern day Brazzaville. It is the resting place for those Akot whose bodies have abandoned them and now live quiet, unmoving, undying lives. Interestingly enough, the Akot acknowledge that they named themselves after their ancestors having to bury their living dead in the mausoleum of the great machine.

Whether or not this attempt would have been successful is irrelevant - a chief scientist at the time made a critical miscalculation, and instead of separating the souls of his people from their bodies and sending them away to pseudo-death, the machine tore the Akot - body and mind - from this dimension and sent them to the place they call the “High Horror”. Then, instead of bringing them back, the machine left them to dance on the edge of a wire separating the two realities, so they are never truly comfortable in one or the other. They would later build machines to help offset this, but they are a meager comfort. The Akot are perpetually tormented between the darkness of their home world, and the nightmares of the other.

The Akot continue to believe, even after so many years, that technology will save them. They have built incredible machines that allow them to move silently, unseen through the world, communicate with each other using only their minds, and move in ways that humans were never meant to. But they are frail, and their machines are diminishing. The presence of the Corpse-Father only exacerbated what was already a dire situation - a time is coming soon (relative to their lifespans) when there will no longer be enough healthy Akot left to sustain their machines, and their undying bodies will all fall into the High Horror.

That is, as we understand it, why they developed the temporal anomaly we classified as SCP-4935-α. They know that they’re running out of time, and they know that the Corpse-Father will not only be their own ruination, but also the ruination of the sleeping people inside the Hereafter, as well. It would, for all intents and purposes, be the damnation of their race. So they’ve called back through time to see if there is any way their ancestors could help them with this threat.

At least, that’s what they’re telling us.

Addendum 4935.4: Excerpt from Dr. Tanner’s Report - “SCP-4935-β: The Corpse-Father”

SCP-4935-β: The Corpse-Father

Dr. Bernard Tanner

We’ve seen an entity like SCP-4935-β before - specifically, the SCP-4812-K entity is a similar scorpioid entity, though dramatically smaller than SCP-4935-β. There are some other major physiological differences as well; larger exoskeletal plates, a wider barb at the end of its primary tail appendage, etc. Given the similarities, though, it’s difficult for us to rule out that SCP-4935-β might be the same entity at some point in that world’s future.

The Akot speak little about SCP-4935-β, who they call the “Corpse-Father”, except to describe the wedge it drove into their population. It’s worth noting here before beginning that when the Akot use the word we hear as “corpse”, it doesn’t mean what we think it means. So far as we can tell, when they say “corpse” they’re describing the Sleepers, both the ones in the Hereafter and the Akot on their planet that have lived for so long they have gone past madness and into a sort of waking catatonia. These beings are “alive”, but the Akot don’t really view them as functional, and thus call them corpses.

SCP-4935-β isn’t extra-terrestrial - on the contrary, the Akot describe it as having “crawled out of the sea” some six-hundred years prior, which seems to have been something that the Akot didn’t know was possible12. The first Akot called SCP-4935-β the “annihilator with a thousand eyes”, and describe the head of the entity as having many faces joined together. The explanation I was given is that SCP-4935-β consumes creatures - humans, animals, etc, and adds their faces and, seemingly, their consciousnesses to its own.

This is where the divide emerged - investigation of SCP-4935-β resulted in two distinct camps. The first were the Akot who believed that being ingested by the Corpse-Father would be a fate worse even than those who had been torn apart in the wars of long-ago. They saw the writhing, screaming faces on the head of SCP-4935-β and feared it. The other camp called themselves the “Corpse-Children”, and believed that SCP-4935-β was their deliverance. They claimed that SCP-4935-β would take their faces, yes, but obliterate their soul and free them from the shackles of their mortal coil.

This conflict was not a small one, and fractured the already tenuous Akot society. It ended when twenty-five thousand Akot (roughly 40% of their total population at the time) marched to the sea to meet SCP-4935-β. As expected, the Corpse-Father consumed them, but when their faces appeared on the entity’s head they were in anguish and cried out to their brethren to save them and forgive them.

The remaining Akot tried to kill SCP-4935-β, and describe some frankly bogglingly advanced weaponry they used to do so. Nanites that would turn its body to dust, rods of plasma that would drop on it from the sky, nuclear weapons that today we would consider impossible and other, more terrible machinations. When the skies cleared and the dust had settled, the Akot had exhausted their arsenals and SCP-4935-β was unimpeded. Eventually it would reach the Hereafter and begin trying to chew through it, seemingly to reach the people inside. Beyond being a blasphemy to the Akot, failing to protect the Sleepers within the Hereafter would be betraying their most sacred calling, and isn’t something they would even discuss letting happen.

With that in mind, the larger picture of the Akot's desperation becomes clear. They are trapped between the place they call the High Horror, the winding down of their own machines, the crushing responsibility of caring for the souls in the Hereafter and now the unkillable Corpse-Father. They were already at the brink before this latest threat, but their situation has become immeasurably grim.

This brings us to SCP-4935-α. When we first crossed the threshold of their time and our own, we were told that they created the anomaly to try and get help from the past, which we thought was suspicious at the time. Even now, weakened as they are and so few in number, they could destroy us in the blink of an eye. We’re a hundred-thousand years removed from their technological achievements - what could we possibly accomplish that they haven’t been able to? Then the story changed, and we were told that the anomaly was a result of failed weapons testing against SCP-4935-β, which was more reasonable but still didn’t explain why they would have lied in the first place. They never addressed the lie, either.

We’ve found out why. Dr. Regal, I believe, has that in her report.

Addendum 4935.5: SCP-4935 Near-Vicinity Time Dilation Report

Control Time
Date
Location
Dilated Time
Dilation Amount

1200 hrs EST
1/30/2019
Site-17
1855 hrs CAT
-5 MINUTES

1200 hrs EST
2/6/2019
Site-17
1853 hrs CAT
-7 MINUTES

1200 hrs EST
2/13/2019
Site-17
1844 hrs CAT
-16 MINUTES

1200 hrs EST
2/20/2019
Site-17
1831 hrs CAT
-29 MINUTES

1200 hrs EST
2/21/2019
Site-17
1756 hrs CAT
-64 MINUTES

1200 hrs EST
2/22/2019
Site-17
1525 hrs CAT
-215 MINUTES

NOTE: DATA POINT EXCEEDS ALLOWED VARIANCE.

Addendum 4935.6: Excerpt from Dr. Regal’s Report - “SCP-4935-α”

Report on SCP-4935-α

Dr. Jamie Regal

The Akot trace their ancestry back to the first humans who attempted to end their grossly prolonged existence using technology to break the bond between body and soul. They call the machine “Gerryon’s Ark”, and it sits directly below the Hereafter. They credit the development of the machine to Gerryon, a sort of legendary mythical figure, who is both demonized and deified in their culture. Gerryon was a chief scientist who built the machine that damned them, but they also believe the machine is their salvation, and that Gerryon’s vision was marred by the first Akot and the Sleepers and that's why it hasn't saved them yet. Worth mentioning here is that, according to Akot legend, Gerryon was only eight years old13 when he commissioned and had constructed the Ark, which may have had something to do with the disaster that unseated the Akot from this dimension. Either way, they believe if they can deduce the exact functionality of the machine, as Gerryon intended, it will save them.

A few days ago, one of our engineering teams produced some troubling findings. Exploratory teams on the far side of SCP-4935-α were no longer experiencing the 1-to-1 forward progression through time they had previously. The most recent team reported spending the allotted 180 minutes on the other side of SCP-4935-α, whereas our teams on our side reported they were gone for 277 minutes. In other words, the forward progression on the far side of the anomaly appears to be slowing considerably relative to our own.

After putting together our findings, we approached the Akot about it. They were surprisingly frank about it - SCP-4935-α wasn’t the result of them trying to reach us for help, or some sort of weapons test. It was an open valve.

[BEGIN LOG]

Ti-8: Do you have any explanation for our findings?

Archivist: Your findings are correct. In our shame, we have deceived you.

Ti-8: Shame about what?

Archivist: We are out of time. I don’t mean to reduce this explanation to making excuses, but all options are justified.

Ti-8: I don’t understand.

Archivist: Death is a long lost dream. For the gravediggers, and for those Sleepers in the graves, all that can be accomplished is an end of suffering. Time expounds our agony. It was decided, a short time ago, that there is no end to the sorrow of the Corpse-Father that does not also follow the end of time.

Ti-8: Is this why we’ve seen alterations in our relative experience of the forward progression of linear time?

Archivist: It is Gerryon’s last gift. We cannot escape agony. We cannot escape torment. We cannot escape the Corpse-Father, and we cannot abandon the Sleepers. Time brings us closer to the moment of our final defeat, and stopping that progression is our last chance. Gerryon’s Ark will interrupt the flow of time, and with it will pause our suffering forever.

Ti-8: On how large a scale?

Archivist: In our youth we may have dreamed to stop the stars spinning in the sky, but our might has waned. Here, in the cradle of our birth, we will draw the line in the sand. Whatever takes place outside of our collapsed state will mean nothing to us. Perhaps we will remain in that state until the universe grows cold and dark and is snuffed out completely. Perhaps then will we be given our reprieve.

Ti-8: To be clear, this is the same machine that caused your people to become disconnected from three-dimensional space, correct?

Archivist: It is. We do not fault Gerryon, no more than we would fault the sun rising or the wind blowing. Gerryon was nature, a mind conceived by the blessings of the Earth. Those who first laid hands on his Ark and could not conceive his vision turned the machine against us. It has been many long millenia since then, and we have grown and learned. We have peered into the heart of Gerryon’s design and seen its majesty.

Ti-8: What is the temporal anomaly? The one that we entered here through?

Archivist does not immediately respond.

Ti-8: Do you hear me?

Archivist: Yes.

Ti-8: Do you have anything to say?

Archivist: There will always be error. In such desperate circumstances, those errors may result in unfortunate casualty. It is no fault of ours.

Ti-8: What kind of error is it?

Archivist does not respond.

Ti-8: What is it?

Archivist: (Agitated) Do not think to speak so freely to me. You and your people cannot even begin to comprehend the full depth of the suffering laid upon my people these many long years. You are fleeting creatures with fleeting existences, you do not understand what it is to feel pain. To experience horror. You know nothing. (Pauses) Do not judge me, forefather. Do not judge us for our fear. We have known nothing but agony for thousands upon thousands of years, and we have long since abandoned the courage of our youth. We are afraid, and we are cowardly, and we want to die. We want to die more than anything else we could possibly desire, but fate has decided to spare us that solitary mercy. So we will take this last unkindness away from it.

Ti-8: What is the anomaly?

Archivist: We feared that we would have to turn Gerryon's Ark upon ourselves, and I will admit that this frightened us more than nearly anything. But Gerryon blessed us with a reprieve. The Ark is not for us, forefather. The Ark is for you. You have not yet been touched by the long dread finger of a life everlasting. We will collapse your timeline, and you will not have to suffer. We will not be born into suffering.

Ti-8: You understand that we will not allow that to happen.

Archivist: You have no choice. We attempted to activate the Ark here, but instead of what we had intended, it opened the way to your time. This is when we knew, forefather. This was Gerryon's gift, intended for you. His will cannot be undone. You must receive it.

Ti-8: This would mean our destruction, you understand that?

Archivist: No. Not destruction. Can't you see? Salvation. Salvation for us both.

[END LOG]

Addendum 4935.7: Ethics Committee Memorandum

Ethics Committee Memorandum

SCP-4935

Precedent indicates that Foundation teams and operatives should take every opportunity to avoid hostile action towards anomalous entities, artifacts, and locations, even when those anomalies are themselves hostile. Due to our belief that these anomalies can do a greater service to humanity through research and understanding than through their destruction, this committee has often found that action which may result in the annihilation of an anomaly is both unnecessary and unacceptable.

However, when the hostile actions of an anomaly would threaten to disrupt the actions of the Foundation and the security of the civilian populace, certain necessary measures must be taken. In the case of SCP-4935, in which an anomalous populace has threatened action against both the Foundation and our world's population, this committee finds it ethically allowable to take actions that may result in the collapse of the primary SCP-4935 anomaly, as well as any damaging effects this may have on the inhabitants of the anomaly.

By majority vote, this committee ordains the plan established by Dr. Regal to mitigate the risk of SCP-4935's hostile actions against our world.

Vote Aye - 7

Dr. J. Jaillet / Dr. P. Walters / Dr. M. Mumbai / Dr. L. Olinger / Dr. J. Cimmerian / Dr. C. Kirby

Vote Nay - 2

Dr. Y. Johns / Dr. B. Potter

Addendum 4935.8: Management of SCP-4935's Hostile Actions

On 1/31/2019, Foundation engineers under the supervision of Dr. Jamie Regal (Site-77) established two Scranton-Lang Energized Nullifiers at the site of SCP-4935. These nullifiers quickly collapsed the SCP-4935 anomaly. At the same time, several large explosive devices placed within the "Gerryon's Ark" device were detonated, with the intended purpose of disabling the machine used to generate the SCP-4935 anomaly.

Shortly before the collapse of the primary anomaly, when the anomaly itself had shrunken by over half, the forms of several Akot were visible on the other side of the anomaly. Several limbs and other body parts were pushed through the anomaly, as if in a frantic attempt to cross it. However, the anomaly continued to collapse, crushing those attempting to pass through it. Once the anomaly had fully exhausted, no trace of it or the individuals stuck in it remained.

After several hours, time dilation in the area around SCP-4935 had been reduced to zero. Once a sufficient amount of time had passed, the nullifiers were de-energized, and the anomaly did not reform.

By a vote of 9-0, the Classification Committee approved Dr. Regal's request that the anomaly remain in the EUCLID-Class until such time that the anomaly could be confirmed to no longer be a risk for re-emergence.

Footnotes

1. Currently Dr. Jamie Regal.

2. Akot, in the Akot dialect, means “gravedigger”.

3. Per direction from the Foundation’s Classification Committee, the human entities within SCP-4935 are not sufficiently anomalous to themselves warrant an anomalous entity identifier, as the sum of their distinguishing characteristics can be explained, presumably, by technological advancement, evolution, and time.

4. Roughly 20km x 20km x 20km.

5. The same event that triggered the genetic changes that later created the wasting disorder.

6. Roughly 7.9km from head to tail, though the tail alone accounts for 5.95km of this length.

7. The Akot claim that this entity is “eating” its way into the Hereafter through the dense outer layers of the structure. As such, the forewardmost sections of the entity, including its face, sensory organs, and its first row of multi-segmented appendages are not visible from the ground, as these are all buried into the outer layer of the Hereafter’s superstructure.

8. The accuracy of this figure is in question.

9. Most entities becoming exhausted within 30 hours.

10. Referencing the cube.

11. Team reports that the projection's speech does not need to be translated.

12. With little other explanation, the Akot archivist said “the creatures in the seas perished long ago.”

13. This fact leads to an interesting dichotomy in the Akot civilization. Gerryon is heralded as a once-in-a-civilization level genius who singlehandedly designed the Ark, but did so when he was only a child. The Akot have extreme reverence for the elderly (by their standards), but little for the young, except for the very young, who they say are "blessed by Gerryon" and are often isolated from any dangers in the hopes that the young Akot will become the next Gerryon. Additionally, according to their legends Gerryon was pulled into the High Horror and trapped there, unable to return to receive the implants that would anchor him in this world. The Akot don't like to talk about it, but it is generally accepted that he is still there.