to the carpet, who waved with a free tassel as it sat down to read 
one of the three books it was carrying. 


"Oh. Just realized | rude. Let me introduce self before moving on. 
Me Alvarro, and | member of Serpent's Hand." Clark and | looked at 
each other, not entirely sure what to say. After a brief moment of 
silence, Clark and | introduced ourselves. Alvarro shook our hands 
in turn—he seemed rather civil. 


"Now on to task hand. First, three rules here in Library. Must follow 
all times. One, don't not damage a book. Very serious in Library, 
books one of kind. Two, looking to rent book make sure you don't 
not return on time. We don't do late fees. Three, don't not go in 
Archives. Bad idea." Clark glanced at me with a puzzled look and | 
asked "Did he tell us not to, or that we could?" and Clark answered 
me with "| don't know, Lewis. Maybe he was telling us it was a bad 
idea not to." Alvarro led us further into the Library after lecturing us, 
we still had questions but we had difficulty understanding Alvarro so 
we decided not to. 


Date Unknown: 


The main hall that we began walking down seemed to be endless. 
The wall on the far side appeared to be a short walking distance 
away, however we didn't seem to make any progress towards it 
during the time we walked. We were led down a side corridor, 
passing by windows set into the wall on our right. "We have long 
time until Library. Let me show around. On right is where magic 
happens. Over here, you notice..." 


Clark and | drowned out Alvarro's speech as we gazed through the 
window. Inside, we observed a few individuals creating fire from thin 
air. Some were creating items from materials we have never seen 
before, without any utensils. Another was observed cutting himself 
and turning the wound into a flame. Before we could see what 
happened, Alvarro spoke up. "You listen to Alvarro?!" 


Clark and | snapped out of our stupor and turned to face Alvarro. 
"Now, where was |? Here, you notice entrance to archive inside 
Library. It quicker if walk here. Me go first, the spirits of Archives 
won't not let anybody enter." Alvarro passes through the doors, 


closing them behind him. Eventually he returned and waved us in, to 
which we followed. Inside we noticed a giant beast was sitting, 
looming above us. 


It has three heads, one of a goat, one of a lion, and a tail ending ina 
dragon's head. Alvarro patted the beast on the leg, to which one of 
its heads leaned down to eye level with us—the lion one, if | 
remember correctly. It sniffed us both in turn, then looked over at 
Alvarro and nodded in approval. "Spirit give approval. We walk 
though section of Archive only." | asked Alvarro why, to which he 
responded that there were many chimeras, that's what this beast 
was by the way, and that getting permission from all of them would 
take years. Clark and | just nodded, we had no idea what was going 
on anyway. 


Date Unknown: 


Alvarro turned and led us down the hallway in the archives, filled 
with row upon row of shelves containing cartography maps. Soon, 
Alvarro exited from the archives into a separate wing of the Library. 
"Library at end of wing." Alvarro said, and started to walk down the 
corridor. As we followed, the floor shook under our feet. Alvarro 
made a motion to pause, and told us to hold our breath. Clark and | 
didn't know what he meant, until an extremely pungent smell 
invaded our nostrils. 


Clark and | quickly pinched our noses and held our breath. A thirty 
foot tall golem marched past us, with metal rings around its wrists 
and ankles, with mounds of rotting flesh adoring its form. A pair of 
eyes looked down at us from where it stood. Clark and | wondered if 
we would die of suffocation, however the golem eventually moved 
on, disappearing into the door we just came from. Alvarro eventually 
passed into the main area of the Library, filled from wall to wall with 
bookshelves that reached into what appeared to be an atrium. 


Alvarro passed by the front desk, where a figure draped in a dark 
robe holding a chain that was connected to a lantern at the end was 
residing. After a short conversation, he called us over and presented 
a pair of library cards to us. "You only get one. It for books. Sign 
careful." Clark and | signed our names, noticing a second pair of 
cards appearing on the desk with our same signature on it. The 


librarian passes the lantern over them and they disappear into a 
drop slot in the counter. Alverro then releases us, telling us to not 
leave the room. Clark and | walked around, not quite sure what we 
were looking for. 


Something that looked like a spider, but not quite, scuttled behind us 
causing me to flinch from surprise. Clark turned around to see what 
the problem was; noticing the spider too, he panicked and tripped 
over his own two feet, knocking into the bookshelf the page was 
residing on. This caused the bookshelf to displace its many contents 
of books, falling into a sizable heap around Clark and |. As we were 
buried in, several of those spider-like creatures were seen scuttling 
over to the resulting pile of books, organizing them. 


Eventually, Alvarro helped dig us out and brought us aside. "Why 
you do this? | say don't not damage books!" | explained that Clark 
and | saw a creature climbing on the bookshelf, which caused us to 
panic. | gestured to the resulting mess as | explained what 
happened. Alvarro looked up; the pages seemed annoyed, but they 
were busy stacking and reorganizing the books. Alvarro sighed and 
pinched the bridge of his nose. "Can't trust strangers with books. No 
move, | go find map. Remember, don't not go into archive. Bad 
idea." Alvarro said, in a serious tone of voice, as he walked away 
from us. 


Date Unknown: 


Clark and | waited for what seemed like days. No sign of Alvarro 
anywhere and we were getting bored. We decided to go and take a 
look around for ourselves. When we stepped into the hallway, a 
gigantic beast that appeared to be a cross between a bull and a 
squid walked past us, its many eyes staring at us for what felt like an 
eternity. With a heavy snort, the beast lumbered on, disappearing 
two doors down. Clark and | exhaled in relief—what the heck was 
that thing anyway, Clark asked, to which | just shrugged. 


Walking down the hallway, we entered the very next door we arrived 
at. We found ourselves in a wing of the archives, pouring over 
shelves upon shelves of what appeared to be cartography maps. 
While we looked, something tapped me on the shoulder. | asked 
Clark what he wanted, and he informed me that he wasn't the one 


Spears 


Input: (1) Disc 

Setting: Rough 

Output: Shredded multi-colored reflective polycarbonate 
plastic, coated with aluminum. 


Input: (1) Disc 

Setting: Coarse 

Output: Pools of black and red ink (most likely from 
label), aluminum and polycarbonate plastic pellets. 


Input: (1) Disc 

Setting: 1:1 

Output: (1) Audio compact disc, “Beautiful” by Christina 
Aguilera 


Input: (1) Disc 

Setting: Fine 

Output: (1) apparently unchanged compact disc. 
However when played for D-class personnel, they 
commented on the extreme skill of the singing. 
Subsequently stomach pains and nausea were reported. 
Anomalous effects continued for approximately 36 hours 
after the test. 


Input: (1) Disc 

Setting: Very Fine 

Output: (1) apparently unchanged compact disc. 
However when played for D-class personnel, an 
immediate euphoric effect was noted, with certain 
individuals weeping with emotion and others falling over 
with apparent rictus smiles on their face. Soon after the 
effects were noted additional symptoms were exhibited, 
including seizures, jaundice, and vomiting. The 
experiment was immediately ended, however researcher 
A-1 — was injured by D-17645 while attempting to turn 
off the disc player, begging the researcher to allow him 
to continue listening to the music. 


Security proceeded to restrain the remaining ambulatory 


that tapped me on the shoulder. | was about to retort when | heard a 
snarl from behind me. Looking back, | saw a three headed dog with 
three long, whip-like scorpion tails. 


One of its tails reared back, appearing as if ready to strike us. Clark 
and | made a break for it while it was preparing to swing. A loud 
crash from the tail impacting the bookshelf must've aroused 
suspicion... The next thing we notice when we burst out into the 
main hall is Alvarro pushing his way through the main door of the 
library. He glared at us, and strode towards us purposefully. "You 
leave room? Where go and what do?!" He asked us, bluntly. 


Before we could explain, the sounds of wood splintering could be 
heard from nearby followed by an agitated roar. "You no listen to 
Alvarro? Why you do this?!" He said, angrily. "Take map, door that 
way! Travelers nothing but trouble!" Alvarro thrust the map at us just 
in time for the Cerberus to burst through the door and turn to us. 
Clark and | made a break for the door while Alvarro calmed the 
beast down. 


August 22: 


As we left, | looked over my shoulder to notice Alvarro returning to 
the main area of the Library. | heard some chanting coming from the 
room as we burst through the door arriving back at the fort. | told 
Clark that we should never tell anyone what we witnessed, to which 
Clark agreed. As we left the fort, things started acting... Weird. | 
can't quite remember what happened after that, it was kind of hazy. 
Clark and | found ourselves to not be in control of our bodies at this 
time either. 


| started walking backwards, as if | was in a dream. | didn't see 
anything wrong with it then, as if | was still too sleepy to realize it 
wasn't normal. We walked backwards into the door and back into 
the Library. Alvarro turned from the beast, he took back the map he 
gave us, Alvarro lectured us again, and walked back into the main 
area of the Library. The Cerberus made its way back into the 
Archives, and we followed it after the sound of wood splintering and 
a loud smash. We went back through the maps, walked back out of 
the door only to see the giant beast walk past us again but in the 
opposite direction. We went back into the library, waited at the door 


again, got another lecture from Alvarro and found ourselves in the 
pile of books again. 


The pages scuttled back off to what they were doing before, the 
books wobbled and returned to the shelf. We unsigned the Library 
card, and walked backwards down the long hallway to the entrance. 
Alvarro put on the Indian garb and walked out behind us. 


... And now I'm here. 
June 03, 1804: 


My name is Meriwether Lewis. Thomas Jefferson approached me to 
discuss an expedition that he has planned. He informed me about a 
swath of land that was recently purchased, and he trusted in my 
skills in order to explore it. After leaving the statehouse, | met an 
inspiring gentleman by the name of William Clark, a tall caucasian 
man in his early thirties. When he told me about his aspirations to 
become a draftsman, | immediately drafted him. | had to ask Mr. 
Jefferson if it was acceptable to bring a hired hand on this expedition 
with me. 


| don't understand. | was already here before. Where am I? | tried to 
tell Clark what was happening, and he was wondering if | felt alright. 
Clark obviously did not believe me. Shortly after, we passed by a 
Native American walking into the statehouse holding a piece of 
rolled up paper in his hand. Clark and | shrugged, not knowing what 
a Native American was doing at the statehouse. When | saw the fort 
again, | told Clark to bypass it. When he asked me why, | told him 
that it was for the best and that | would explain everything later. 


The rest of the trip went without incident, and we returned to give the 
map that was expected of us. | can only wonder if what | witnessed 
actually happened, however it was probably for the best that | forgot. 
After all, what are the chances that a place like that actually existed 
in the first place? 


Parts 


"The input terminals are now bonded with your optic nerve on the 
right side," Mo said, screwing on the case. "You should be seeing 
more or less normally." 


"It looks wrong,” slurred the object in the clamps. "The colors, are..." 
It trailed off, breath fogging the plastic mask over its nose and 
mouth. She saw its cheeks twitch. A trickle of blood leaked from 
under the boxy machine covering the top half of its face. 


"It may take a few moments for your brain to adjust to the images," 
Mo reassured it. "Try to focus on the idea of what Doctor E. is 
showing you. The pictures will become clearer if you just work on 
understanding what they are." 


She walked around behind the object, where Reid was suctioning 
blood away from its exposed brain. "Tell me about what you see." 
She looked it over; Reid's work separating the spine from the ribs 
was immaculate, and he'd managed to keep an impressive length of 
the vagus nerve intact. He's learning, she thought, and smiled. 


"| see... Trees. A tree. It's... Looks like grass and trees. Now a dog's 
there. And a truck. Fire truck." 


"That's great," she said, peeking over at Evelyn. The younger 
woman flashed Mo a quick thumbs-up without looking away from her 
equipment panels. "That's perfect. See? You'll be used to this in no 
time," Mo promised. 


The object's body shuddered, rattling in its stand. Captain Grounds 
snapped into a firing stance. The room surged with tension. She saw 
Ken's hand move from the anesthesia controls to the kill dial. 


"SRA holding,” Evelyn said sharply, tapping her control panel. The 


five of them paused, listening to the soothing drone of the reality 
anchor. "Men are such babies," she added. 


Mo rolled her eyes, wishing Evelyn was more professional, knowing 
it wasn't her place to address it. "You're doing fine," she said to the 
object, genuine compassion in her voice. "You're doing great, | 
promise. You're being so brave. We'll be done soon. Keep talking to 
me. What do you see now?" 


She re-checked the placement of the leads in its temporal and 
parietal lobes, and especially the thick bronze plug stuck into the 
cerebellum. Everything was perfectly in place. "It's a map," the 
object said. "Like, from a big book. Atlas. It's... China. Asia, 
somewhere." 


"Good!" Mo said, glancing at Evelyn to confirm. "Keep concentrating. 
You're part of the team, you know. We're counting on you." 


"| don't... I've never seen this way. | don't like it." 


"| Know it's hard," Mo said. "We just have to finish, then you can rest. 
Just one more thing." Reid handed her an input spike. "You're going 
to feel a big pinch, then you can go back to sleep.” She lined up the 

spike with the object's ear canal. 


"We're doing such a great thing here, and you're the most important 
part," she said, meaning it. 


Site 41 was a kaleidoscope of unique minds from all over the world. 
Together, they formed a construct of such dazzling brilliance that no 
one person could ever hope to fully grasp it all. Mo basked in it; 
walking the halls, just listening to snatches of conversation, was like 
floating in a warm sea of knowledge. 


"Fuck this line, right?" Doctor Ken Baars interrupted her reverie. "| 
just came for coffee, and I'm having to fight my way upstream like a 
goddamn trout. Unbelievable." 


"You're thinking of salmon," she said, but he didn't hear her. 


"And how about we have two more greens to get done this week? 
That's, what, seven this month? It's like, what the fuck are they 
doing with them all, you know? They've had me in on some fucked 
up operations since I've been here, but this just tops everything." 


"The Orpheus project is extremely important," Mo said, bristling. "If 
you aren't interested in being part-"