My Hero's lair looked quite nice; it felt homey, like somebody's 
grandmother lived there. | soent many recesses there and we 
played until | had to go back to class. The others were frightened by 
My Hero. | could hardly see why. My Hero never did anything but 
ask about itself, a positive narcissist. My Hero was constantly 
concerned with what others thought and was appreciative for any 
description anybody said or wrote, delighting in the most redundant 
of descriptions and the most delightful or fearful of written notes. My 


Hero soon became My Friend. We spoke in a language that could 
have only been my native one but was somehow more than that. We 
spoke as if without words, interacted without a need for meaning. 
Saying goodbye made us both very sad, but | knew | only need to 
call out to meet again. 


Twice as hopeful 
Five times glad 
Twice as wand'ring 
Once as sad 


We both had problems. We didn't like talking about that. We would 
rather share the joyful moments in both our lives, like being able to 
talk to each other. | never knew what My Friend did when | was 
gone. Perhaps | should have. When we were away, my life might as 
well have repeated every day. Even if it became redundant, | 
enjoyed learning in school. | loved learning things that were true and 
things that weren't. | especially liked fiction and mythology. All | 
wanted was to be smarter. | figured that the older you got, the more 
you should know. Looking back, | can see how wrong | was. You're 
much more certain when you're younger. | was smarter as a child 
than | ever have been as an adult. 


Twice forgotten 
Five times left 
Twice as lonely 
Once bereft 


Soon, though, nobody would acknowledge My Friend. My parents 
would tell me that my imaginary friend wasn't real. They would gasp 
in horror at my "dark" pictures depicting our many happy moments. 
They all thought | was strange. | supposed | was, but | couldn't let on 
that | agreed. | stopped calling My Friend. Then one day | reada 
story that | thought helped me understand (though | now see it only 
led to more confusion). The story was of a nymph whose only crime 
was repeating words, and a man whose vanity consumed him. | 
thought myself Echo while My Friend was Narcissus. All of our 
discussions were me repeating what | saw and what | knew. With a 
thought like this and a jury of my peers in denial, | soon became 
bitter and denied My Friend's existence. 


| stopped looking for the strange and supernatural; it began finding 
me anyway. | rejected it at first, but | couldn't deny my fascination. 
When most would be frightened, | remained merely curious. There 
were others like me. An entire Foundation. They made an offer | 
couldn't refuse, and with their help, | didn't just see more of the 
abnormal. | learned to understand it, interact with it, and, eventually, 
contain it. 


| haven't thought about most of this in a long time. 


But I'm certain of one thing. As an adult, the more | learn, the more | 
don't know. | Know there are some things | could never begin to 
understand, | know there are things nobody ever will understand, | 
know there are things nobody should have to understand. Every 
new answer brings more questions. Working at a Foundation like 
this one only proves how little we know. But I'm becoming more 
certain of things that | was aware of as a child. | Know now that My 
Friend was not imaginary, not any more than | am. And | do know 
things now that | didn't before. | Know why the others thought me 
strange. | know that this emptiness I've felt since childhood was guilt 
of abandoning My Friend. And | know that the Foundation, if they 
found out, would do all in their power to contain My Friend. 


Echo loved Narcissus 

But he left her all alone 

She vanished as the river bed 
Became Narcissus' home 


| know that Narcissus treated Echo too harshly. But | still wonder 
why Narcissus rejected Echo. Did he dislike her? What had she ever 
done to him but love him? Why did | reject My Friend? Perhaps, if 
we had been less proud, Narcissus might have loved Echo and | 
might have still seen My Friend. But what might have been and what 
is are two different things. For now, Narcissus is only a flower, and 
Echo is merely a second voice when you're alone. | wanted to 
rewrite the ending, prevent my heart from breaking. | guess | never 
understood the point of the myth anyway. How much damage did | 
cause because of this? Will My Friend forgive me? | guess I'll find 
out soon. It only takes a stroke of the pen, or even just a whisper. 


In case | don't come back this time, I'll leave one suggestion for the 


the organizations generating the strongest anomalous effects 
produced the largest improvement in the results of related 
thaumaturgic rituals. 


SYSTEM NOTICE: Overseer-6, 7 items require your 
attention. 


Addendum 910-A (Text Samples): 
VOCALIZE PROJECT PEARBLOSSOM-11 PASSPHRASE 


Chapter 1: Introduction to Organizational 
Symbology 


It is the first impulse of the initiated to deny 
others a seat at the feast of power. Such is the 
impetus behind grand initiations, secret 
passphrases, and hidden libraries. We rightly 
believe that this knowledge should be kept 
from the grasp of the greedy and ignorant. 
However, such thinking lends itself to 
separation and stagnation. We convince 
ourselves that what we have is all that we 
need, and that any change only serves to 
dilute centuries of study. This is by no means 
correct. 


How many of us take to phone lines instead of 
casting our voices through the quavering 
aether? How many of us drive cars every day 
instead of taking the time to conjure a proper 
portal? The world has simply changed, and 
accepting this is a step toward a better future. 
In employing modern technology, we have 
already allowed for countless changes from 
the old ways, and prospered as a result. With 
this in mind, it should not be difficult to look 
past chalking out ritual circles on damp 
basement floors and instead move toward the 
neat lines of organizational charts laid out in 
boardrooms. 


documentation. 


Twice as joyful 

Five times dear 
Gone two long 

Then once more here 


Neptune Station 


How bad is it? 


Bad. All communications with Neptune Station have ceased. Sector 
Twenty-Three’s failsafes are not responding. 


Do we have any idea what we’re looking at? 


None. I’ve sent word. Mobile Task Force Omega Four is on its way 
to the SCPS Poseidon now. 


See to it that the situation is contained, Admiral. 


Yes, sir. Hendrickson out. 


ACT | 


+ Show Act | Transcript 


INT. SCPS POSEIDON — NIGHT 


Music fades down. Though inside the bowels of the ship, 
the sounds of a gale can be heard outside. Inside are 
CREWMAN, Lieutenant Commander MARKS, Chief 
Petty Officer BRANDT, and Doctor REX. 


CREWMAN: 
Commander, Admiral Hendrickson is online. 


MARKS: 
Start the call. 


CREWMAN: 


Yes, sir. 
The call comes online. 


MARKS: 
Admiral, this is Marks. Chief Brandt and Dr. Rex are here 
with me. 


HENDRICKSON: 
Okay, Commander. Doctor, you may begin the briefing. 


REX: 
Okay. Sector Twenty-Three has gone offline. And we 
don’t know why. 


BRANDT: 
Uh, for those of us who don’t remember every secure 
facility the Foundation runs... 


REX: 

Ah, yes, right. We’re directly above it right now, actually 
— it’s on the ocean floor. The main base of operations in 
the sector is generally called “Neptune Station”. Now, | 
assume you're all familiar with the Foundation’s Project 
Daedalus? 


MARKS: 
Laying the groundwork for our space program, right? 


REX: 

Yes, Commander. You see, O5 Command believes that 
containment of a variety of objects would be far safer if 
we stored them off planet. And, there are a fair handful of 
different SCPs that put us a generation or three ahead of 
the main American, Russian, European, and Chinese 
space programs — that is, assuming we can replicate 
their effects in a controllable way. 


BRANDT: 
“Open the door, Hall!” 


REX: 


Uh, something like that, Chief, though less to do with 
artificial intelligence and more to do with irregular 
spacetime, general relativity, and quantum mechanics. 


MARKS: 
Doctor... 


REX (CONT’D): 

You see, because they don’t have access to the objects 
we're containing, and thus don’t realize the exceptions to 
the laws of physics, 


MARKS: 
Doctor... 


REX (CONT’D): 

mainstream physicists generally dismiss the practical 
viability of such useful things as quantum entanglement, 
time dilation, zero point energy generation— 


MARKS: 
REX! The point? 


REX: 
Anyway, Sector Twenty-Three is home to the research 
and development program for Project Daedalus. 


MARKS: 
Thank you. 


BRANDT: 
Why put a space research base on the ocean floor? 


REX: 

Well, several reasons, really, first being power. Lots of 
power. The Scotia Sea sits on its own tectonic plate — 
and a relatively thin one. There is a very active 
hydrothermal vent field, which we’ve tapped for 
geothermal power. Neptune Station has no difficulty 
generating — and using — as much power as the entire 
country of South Korea. Second, security is easy — it’s 


not that easy to get 5 kilometers under the ocean, and 
passive sonar will pick up anybody trying. Third, 
containment is incredibly simple: you just blow a few 
holes in the pressure hull and let the immense pressure 
of the ocean crush the facility. 


BRANDT: 
“Crunch.” 


REX: 

Yeah, pretty much. Now, five years ago, when the 
Foundation was originally surveying to find a place to put 
Sector Twenty-Three, they found a number of suitable 
locations, but chose the Scotia Sea for a simple reason: 
this. 


Rex hits a button, calling up an image on the computer 
screen. 


MARKS: 
What are we looking at? 


REX: 
This is E-2157. Possibly the biggest scientific discovery 
in the history of the world. 


MARKS: 
So, what is it? 


REX: 

It is, well, we have absolutely no idea what it is. Scans 
put it at somewhere between two and five kilometers in 
length and between point five and one kilometers in 
width and height. Every time we measure it, we get 
different readings. It’s buried in the silt and bedrock, and 
has been for between ten thousand and several tens of 
millions of years. 


MARKS: 
Is it some sort of creature? 


REX: 

We don’t know. Our biologists can’t make heads or tails 
of it. If it ever was “alive”, it now appears to be dead or 
dormant. From what we can tell, it's composed of both a 
variety of metallic alloys our engineers have never seen 
before and some minerals unlike anything our geologists 
recognize. In all cases, at the microscopic level, the 
structure of the materials resembles a cross between the 
theoretical construction of advanced nanites and that of 
organic cells. We don’t know if it was built, grown, or 
what. 


BRANDT: 
Get to the point, Doc. What does this thing have to do 
with space travel? 


REX: 

| was just getting to that. Inside and immediately around 
the object, the laws of physics work differently — very 
differently, and very usefully. We’ve had to basically 
throw traditional mathematics out the window, but we’ve 
been making progress, however slowly. After three years 
of effort, our researchers finally managed to get inside 
about six months ago. Anyway, long story short, if we’re 
able to safely replicate any of the anomalies caused by 
this object, this thing is the holy grail. 


MARKS: 
The holy grail? 


REX: 

Yes. Not just for Project Daedalus, but for human society 
in general. Faster-than-light travel. Nearly inexhaustible 
pure clean energy extracted from the very fabric of 
spacetime. Truly instantaneous communications 
unhindered by the speed of light. The list goes on. This is 
big. The wheel big. Fire big. 


BRANDT: 
... Wow. 


REX: 
Yeah. “Wow.” 


HENDRICKSON: 

Now that you understand how important Sector Twenty- 
Three is, you realize why O5 Command is so concerned 
about the cessasstion of communications. We lost 
contact about 15 hours ago. We have no idea what 
happened, but we do know the failsafes haven't 
triggered. 


BRANDT: 

(aside) 

Why do failsafes always fail? Aren’t they supposed to be 
safe from failure? 


HENDRICKSON (CONT’D): 

Commander, you and your team are going down to 
Neptune Station on the Poseidon's minisub. | know three 
people isn't enough to secure the station, but that's not 
why we're sending you down there. Restablish 
communications. Find out what went wrong. Because of 
how difficult it is to get large numbers of people down to 
the Station, O5 Command isn't willing to devote more 
personnel until we know exactly what we're dealing with. 
Nevertheless, the research is too important to abandon 
unless there's a very good reason. 


MARKS: 
Aye, sir. 


HENDRICKSON: 

One last thing, Commander: don't go into Echo Two One 
Five Seven itself - it's too risky, since we don't know if 
the object is responsible for what's going on down there. 
Once you've reported back with more details, O5 will 
authorize sending more personnel down for recovery 
operations. If we don't hear from you within 24 hours, 
you will be presumed lost. Hendrickson out. 


The transmission ends; fade up music. 


ACT Il 


+ Show Act Il Transcript 


INT. MINISUB 


CREWMAN: 
Commander Marks, we are on final approach now to 
Neptune Station. 


MARKS: 
Hit the cameras and floodlights. Let’s take a look. 


CREWMAN: 
Aye, sir. 


A switch is thrown. 


BRANDT: 

Well, the station’s exterior floodlights are still on, so 
power’s online. It also looks like all the station’s minisubs 
are still docked. 


MARKS: 
Well, since the porch light’s on, let’s see if anyone’s 
home. 


Marks keys the acoustic telephone. 


MARKS (CONT’D): 

Authenticator Papa Oscar Five Sierra Three calling 
Neptune Station. (beat) Authenticator Papa Oscar Five 
Sierra Three calling Neptune Station, please respond. 


REX: 
Well, worth a try. 


MARKS: 
Dock us with the Station. Once we’ve offloaded, head 


back up to the Poseidon. We'll come up in one of the 
Station’s minisubs. 


CREWMAN: 
Understood. 


The minisub docks with the station with a deep, muffled, 
echoing clang. There is a hiss of air in the umbilical. The 
hatch is opened. Omega-4 climbs out and closes the 
hatches behind them. 


INT. DOCKING AREA 


The docking area is midsized and bare metal. A light 
clicks on and off, on and off. VENILIA, the station 
computer, greets the team over the 1MC. 


VENILIA: 

Welcome to Neptune Station, the world’s deepest 
permanent research outpost at 4775 meters beneath the 
surface of the Scotia Sea. At present, the station is at 
General Quarters. Please remain here. A security escort 
will arrive to greet you shortly. 


MARKS: 
Flashlights, people. 


REX: 
Huh, looks like this section of the station’s on emergency 
lights. 


BRANDT: 
That’s not a good sign. 


MARKS: 

More to the point, where is everybody? There should be 
a Boatswain’s Mate on duty — wait. Rex, there’s a 
handprint here behind the desk. 


Rex walks over and bends down. He examines the 
handprint, touches, and smells it. 


REX: 

Dark, blackish red. Slightly warmer than room 
temperature. It’s not blood — wrong smell. Too viscous to 
be seawater. Still, slightly salty. I’m not sure what it is. 


MARKS: 
Hm. Take a sample. 


REX: 
Already on it. 


BRANDT: 
No sign of anyone in the vicinity. 


Marks removes the microphone from the main circuit 
callbox. He keys the 42MC. 


MARKS: 

CIC, Docking Area. This is Lieutenant Commander 
Benjamin Marks of Mobile Task Force Omega Four. Is 
anyone there? 


There is no reply. 


MARKS (CONT’D): 

CIC, Docking Area. This is Lieutenant Commander 
Benjamin Marks of Mobile Task Force Omega Four. We 
are here investigating a cessation of communications. 
Please respond. 


There is no response. 


REX: 
That’s a little troubling. 


BRANDT: 
“A little’? 


MARKS: 
On the 1MC, then.