Deep in the blackness, beyond the reaches of the spheres, there is nothing. Nothing but an intense emptiness, occasionally broken by a stray particle or weak wave of radiation. Across this emptiness, a small speck shoots along. The speck is a barrel of metal filled with air and a few hundred yet smaller specks. These specks call the larger speck Erikson, and they call it great. The first starship. The first to be equipped with hyperdrive. The first to go between the groups of spheres.
Elsewhere in the emptiness, a presence waits.
We should never have taken it aboard. It was so hard to see against the blackness, why couldn’t we have just left it out there in space? We were too curious. We took it aboard, we put it in our lab, and we took every precaution to prevent any infections. And none of it worked. It was Laura who let it out. She couldn’t stop looking at the thing. Then, she just walked up to it and let it out.
I’ve never seen something so horrible before, what it did to her and everyone else. I don’t know how, but it can change them. It can pull them apart and put them back together differently. I think I saw Laura earlier, before I locked myself in here. She was there, a part of one of those things. Her eyes still moved, and all I could see in them was pain.
It uses us. We are its tools. It fits our bodies like our hands fit sticks and stones. We are tools to it, and nothing more.
The Erikson is too. I don’t know how, or why, but it did something with the hyperdrive. Nearly burned out the fusion cores doing it. Somehow, we’re back in orbit over Earth. We were two lightyears to Alpha Centuari, but now we’re back. And things are different. There’s no stations, no shipyards. I think we might be in the past. All I know is that I can’t let this thing get to Earth. I have to do it. For everyone. For Laura.
My name is Richard Gomez…..Goodbye.
Item #: SCP-████
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: [ACCESS DENIED, LEVEL 5 CLEARENCE REQUIRED]
Description: SCP-████ is a life-form of unknown origin, discovered in the wreckage of a large spacecraft that crashed into [DATA-EXPUNGED] on █████ ██, 202█, following what appeared to be a critical failure of the craft’s engines. Analysis of the wreckage suggests a fusion reactor was the craft’s power source. The life-form exhibits a limited mental control over humans, and is capable of reassembling human body parts into creatures under its complete control. Discovery and analysis of the craft’s computer records revealed [DATA-EXPUNGED]. A containment breach of SCP-████ would result in an XK-Class End-of-the-World Scenario, and testing can only proceed with the explicit permission of…