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  The Experiment

  October 15, 2015 1800 Hours

  Leyte Research Facility

  “It’s green across the board sir.” A tech looked up from his station. “We’re good to go.”

  Director C (not the Director, but one sufficiently high ranking enough to be referred to by a letter and not a name) nodded gravely. He deeply distrusted what they were about to do. He distrusted the equipment whose function and process were well beyond his level of understanding. He distrusted the profane and terrifying principles upon which the equipment was designed. And most of all he distrusted the engineers, the half-mad Thaumaturgic Engineers in whose veins ran the destructive pharmaceuticals that allowed then to comprehend knowledge mankind was not meant to know. Rising through the ranks of the Agency required a healthy sense of paranoia and as C watched the banks of softly glowing computers he wanted nothing more than to pull the plug on this whole entire project.

  But he stood firm.

  “Execute.” The order, once given, could not be recalled and the team of researchers sprang into action.

  “Preparing for despoiler event in three, two, one…” Thaumaturgic energy vented out of banks of Hawking batteries- the enriched gastplasm they contained was the product of only a non-existent god knew how many souls extracted from the bodies of tortured unfortunates- explosively ripping a hole in the fabric of physical space. It was the Kyoto Bombing in miniature, done for the sake of science and the possible invaluable pay-off from this experiment.

  “Primary containment holding.” A researcher reported. “Thaumaturgic radiation is within acceptable levels.”

  “Send the signal.” A lab-coated woman pushed a button and a radio signal, just a sequence of mathematically significant numbers, went out. If all went well the signal- with no way out of the non-Euclidian dimension that it had just been thrust into- should be drawn back out of the hole it had entered.... at least according to the engineers that was what would happen. Should this experiment be successful then the next one would involve opening two holes in reality and sending a signal through one and out the other, accomplishing for the first time true Faster Than Light Communication. A digital clock counted down, the engineers predicted the return of the signal at two minutes and seventeen seconds exactly using whatever incomprehensible calculations they used to regularly violate the laws of physics- not without impunity, no never without impunity.

  C resisted the urge to wipe away sweat from his brow as the green numbers flashed down. This was hardly the most hazardous project he had ever overseen for the Agency- why was he so worried? The Director pulled his mind back from woolgathering, more than anything he needed to stay in the here and now. The last seconds ticked away and the indicator light flashed on- exactly when predicted. Still there were no cheers from the team, they knew how quickly in this sort of Thaumaturgy jubilant success could become shocked terror.

  “Is it the signal?”

  “Yes sir.” The woman who had sent the transmission reported, studying the monitor in front of her. “I think we can call-” Suddenly she frowned, confusion spreading across her face, and C’s heart sank. “Director there’s a second signal coming through.”

  “I thought radio couldn’t originate in this dimension, I though the whole point of this technology was that physical radiation would be completely incompatible with existence there and thus be forced out.” The Director bit off a scathing rebuke. “What exactly is it?”

  “It’s audio.” The researcher’s fingers flew across her keyboard. “I’ll save the file in the partitioned hard drive, we can examine the contents later.” Solid thinking on her part and entirely in accordance with protocol, the audio was all too likely to drive anyone who heard it insane, or when rendered to binary result in another sadistic qasi-intelligent program like the King in Yellow File.

  “Sir!” Another tech spoke up, a note of urgency in his voice. “There’s been a massive spike in Thaumaturgic radiation, we’re losing Primary Containment!”

  “Close the breach.” Closing a tear in reality was vastly more complicated than opening one, they’d known how to do the first since 1945, and it was the danger of permanent holes like the one in Kyoto or the ones in New Zealand that had delayed the project. It was the sealing process that occupied the greater part of the incomprehensible equipment that C so distrusted.

  “It’s closing, but not fast enough.” The man’s face went grey. “We just lost Primary Containment and Secondary is going quickly. Recommend evacuation- the computer should be able to completely seal the breach on its own, we prepared for this possibility.”

  The Director didn’t take the time to consider it before punching in his code and ordering as full evacuation. Better safe than sorry. As it was Tertiary Containment lasted just long enough for all personnel to make it to a safe distance.

  Then- for a few havoc ridden seconds- all of physics turned itself inside out in a small area just outside of Leyte Facility.

  Several Hours Later

  “This is all the footage we have?” C was watching satellite images from inside a backup command post in Tacloban City, at least until the main facility was decontaminated he’d be working from here.

  “Yes sir, the actually event itself lasted three point seven seconds, it was was flagged by the computer as an Epsilon-class memetic threat and is therefore unobservable. But the interesting thing is this.” A tech stabbed one finger at the screen. “Here’s Leyte Facility before the event as late as we can still observe.” He clicked a button. “And here it is after the event.”

  The Director leaned forward. “What the hell…” His voice trailed off as recognition hit. He’d seen the photos taken by the US Navy in 1945 and the grainy images taken by the Imperial Japanese Navy later that same year. One of the greatest mysteries of the Second World War, it held a place in popular culture alongside the Obelisk and the Thing in the Mexican Pyramid. Mouth suddenly dry, he swallowed.

  “Get me Geneva on the line.”

  The Team

  October 18, 2015

  Leyte, Facility

  Marcus Grey idly stirred sweetener into his coffee as he waited in a briefing room that smelled- he was sure of it- of having been recently decontaminated. He had asked about that, he had also asked the upcoming mission, but so far no straight answers were forthcoming. A hazard of working for the Preternatural Containment and Regulation Agency, they took need-to-know even further than the OSS did. He had been provided with five dossiers and informed that they outlined the members of a Field Operations Team that he’d be commanding, even if he didn’t know in what specific circumstances he’d be commanding them. It was a diverse group with no two members from the same country, five men and one woman. As was usual whenever an FOT was lead by the citizen of an Allied nation the second in command came from somewhere in the fascist block, in this case it was Chiak Hirasawa- an IJA Lieutenant who would also be their Anti-Preternatural Specialist. A member of the Imperial Guard Division, he’d trained in the ruins of former Kyoto and should be an asset.

  The door to room opened and two men entered, conversing amicably. Grey recognized them from their dossiers; Heinrich Fritzsch their Medic, and Adolphus Schjerfbeck who was to be their Thaumaturgic Technici
an. A German and an Aaland born Swedish-Finn respectively, the files noted that they had both served together in the past and developed a close friendship, which was good as it made the Tech more stable. Fritzsch was a Nazi, albeit a fairly apolitical one, as was Schjerfbeck reportedly although he took the Darwinist aspect of fascism seriously enough that it had caused friction with other team members in the past. As was common with most Thaumaturgic specialists Schjerfbeck suffered from Mild Sagacity Syndrome although he was reportedly able to cope with the symptoms. Of course with that sort it always remained be seen if they would prove an asset or a detriment to any operations.

  “Gentlemen.” Grey rose to the greet the pair. First rule of diplomacy, always offer a positive first impression. “How was your flight?”

  “Fascinating!” The Technician blurted out. “I counted ninety-eight different sets of weather formations during the flight, we ran into a stretch of cumulous clouds-”

  “Good to hear.” The American cut him off. You had to be willing to do that with MSS sufferers or they would never stop talking, he had learned long ago.

  “They put us in economy.” Was the only commentary Fritzsch had on the flight. “Herr Grey, I presume?” The Medic offered his hand and they shook. “Do you know what the mission is?”

  “You know as much as I do.” Grey couldn’t help but get the sense that the other man was bored by the whole affair. He was saved from having to make further conversation by the arrival of the team’s third in command, a yawning bear of a man who went straight for the coffee.

  That would be Sergei Ivanovich Blagadov, nominally of the Committee for State Security- the KGB. That his deep rooted phobia of deep water necessitated the man’s being sedated for flights over the ocean was hardly confidence inspiring in a Combat Specialist. Nonetheless Ivanovich was a decorated and capable soldier born in Moscow, and he'd taken part in anti-occult operations in Siberia and Central Asia before being recruited by the KGB and subsequently by the PCRA. Not the sharpest tack in the box, but a crack shot and fearless in the face of anything not water related.

  “Tovarisch Commander.” The communist came to attention and saluted after he had found his coffee. “When does the briefing begin?”

  “As soon as we’re all here…ah.” The last two team members arrived, Hirasawa’s face impassive even though he was probably full of dour disapproval of the swarthy younger woman who walked next to him.

  Arra Brøndsted, their commando and the only female member of the team. Born and raised in the Republic of Greenland she was not yet out of her twenties and had already built up an impressive reputation. The sole survivor of a training exercise, she had swum a mile and a half in the frigid North Atlantic to safety when the zodiac she was in capsized. Arra lost a finger, everyone else who had been with her in the boat that day lost their lives. A strong swimmer, good with explosives, knives, and just about everything else that could be used to kill. The file also stated that she carried a small stuffed whale with her everywhere, token of a childhood in Nuuk. An very odd woman indeed, but definitely an asset and a citizen of the western bloc.

  “All here?” The pair was followed closely by a grey-suited civilian who carried a private computer under his arm. “Good. Then let’s start the mission brief.”

  Chapter 2

  “Five days ago researchers at Leyte Facility performed an experiment intended as the first step towards Faster Than Light Communication.” The short civilian hooked his computer into the room’s own display system. “This experiment involved tearing a microscopic hole in the fabric of reality and sending a radio signal through. To our surprise we received a response.” He tapped some buttons on the computer. “We’ve successfully confirmed that the response- it’s an audio file- is safe for human exposure. Here it is.”

  At first all they heard was white noise rolling out of the room’s speakers. The team members listened quietly, Arra shifting in her seat. They had cleared the signal in only five days? That meant some guinea pig had been made to listen to it and when he didn’t turn psychotic, the Agency decided it was safe. She took advantage of the time to look around at the rest of the team; the Russian and the Jap were impressive but she was disappointed by the rest. In particular by the Team Leader, he came across as more of a diplomat than anything else- what was he supposed to do, talk to the squids?

  Suddenly clear electronic tones could be heard emerging from the static, a repeating pattern of five or six musical notes.

  “Good lord, it’s the national anthem.” Grey breathed, and a few seconds later Arra recognized the first few bars of the Star Spangled Banner reiterated over and over, sounding cold and eerie.

  “This is when it gets interesting.” The civilian cocked one ear as the tones died away and were replaced by an a apparently human voice speaking what sounded like a single English phrase over and over again. There was no emotion in the voice, just measured words said flatly and without intonation.

  “What is that?” The Russian frowned. “Take care of chess?”

  The voice stopped and the Star Spangled Banner returned.

  “I can’t make it out either.” For the first time since arriving the Greenlander decided to let her voice be heard. “I take it you know?” She directed her question at the grey-suited individual.

  “We ran it through voice analysis and the computers came back with three words; ‘Beware JS.’ The speaker is also apparently male, but other than that we don’t know the significance. Less than a minute after the transmission came through there was a massive disturbance in the quantum atmosphere around the facility and high levels of Thaumaturgic Radiation necessitated an evacuation. When we could restore observation of the area we found this.” He pressed a button and a blown up satellite image appeared on room’s display screen. Clearly displayed next to the few surface buildings of Leyte Facility was the enormous steel and iron structure of an unmistakable shape.

  “A battleship?” Arra was incredulous. “A battleship?!”

  “Not just any battleship.” Hirasawa folded his hands. “It’s the American Colorado.”

  “Correct.” The civilian grinned in the manner of a history teacher towards a student who had remembered a particularly salient fact. “We can confirm from exterior observation that this is the USS Colorado, the same ship that disappeared on August 6th, 1945 some fifty kilometers south-east of Davao after being struck by a funayurei bomber. It’s been long theorized that the bomber’s sudden release of Thaumaturgic energy interfered with the Colorado’s Rainbow Device- an experimental cloaking system first deployed on the USS Eldridge in 1943- and prevented the ship from returning to normal reality. Judging from what we see now, that theory was right. Presumably the ship was trapped in the same dimension that we opened a hole into and something about the nature of the process drew it back into our universe.”

  Now they were getting down to it. The Greenlander smiled, “I’m guessing that it’s our job to go inside.”

  “Yes!” The Tech was grinning like a fool. “Who knows what’s inside?”

  Probably something very dangerous, but Arra kept her thoughts to herself.

  “Seventy years of continuous submersion in another dimension is unlikely to have been kind to the interior of the ship.” The Japanese Anti-Preternatural Specialist spoke up again. “There are parts of Kyoto where the streets don’t always lead in the same direction twice, where buildings are bigger on the inside than on the outside, I can’t imagine what this kind of exposure would have done.”

  “We’ve done passive sensor scans and they seem to confirm that the interior of the Colorado doesn’t necessarily have a fixed layout.” The civilian agreed. “But there’s really nothing else we can learn without sending someone in. And you have to admit; the opportunity for science that this presents is utterly unprecedented. You‘ll be in continuous radio contact with the facility, if you have trouble finding your way out then just blow a hole in the side of the ship and exit that way.”

 
It sounded very simple when you put it like that and the commando made a mental note to be sure she had plenty of C-4 with her when she went in. No matter what they believed on the internet, there were some problems that couldn’t be solved by sufficient application of firepower.

  “The mission is supposed to be just an hour and a half, if you run into anything too difficult to handle then just turn around and leave. If we go forty-eight hours without contact from you then we’ll assume the worst and open a second, much larger hole, drop the Colorado into it and seal it up. So make sure you check in regularly.” The man seemed positively ghoulish about the possibility. “One last thing, you’ll all be wearing Hazardous Environment Suits just in case, there’s still a little bit of Thaumaturgic Radiation hanging around, but not enough to be concerned about.”

  Arra didn’t say “Are you kidding me?”, but it was a near thing.

  Chapter 3

  “Seventy years in another dimension!” Adolphus gesticulated excitedly. “We’ve had things come from other dimensions here- daemons and gods- but no expedition to the other side has ever returned. This is the chance of a lifetime to see things no other man had ever seen, to make observations of an environment shaped by physical laws alien to our own!”