Item #: SCP-158

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-158 is installed in Operating Theater 07 in Bio-Research Area-12. Personnel are not to be allowed in, nor is power to be supplied to the room, unless they have submitted, and had approved, a proper clearance requisition form to the Chief of Research Prof. █████. Personnel wishing to use the device must request and read the entire transcribed instruction manual in full. During the device's use, two (2) armed guards are to remain on standby outside the room at all times. In the event of an accident, all power must be cut to the room instantly, and guards are to examine the room carefully for any signs of misconduct. Misconduct will be punished in a manner decided by the Chief of Research on a case-by-case basis.

Description: SCP-158 is a large mechanical arm, similar to one that one might find in an automotive factory, although the end attachment is unusually shaped, resembling a pointed tridactyl claw. Its optimal placement is to be installed and suspended upside down, its base attached to the ceiling in a room that has been built to accommodate. A series of cables are protruding from the base and some are connected to a complex mobile console, complete with VDU (Visual Display Unit) and full keyboard. The others should be connected to a working power supply if the device is to be operated successfully. At the bottom of the console, there is a dispensing device, with attachments for a container roughly 7.6 cm (3 in) in width, and 17.8 cm (7 in) in height.

The arm, cables and console have sustained fire damage, though this is purely cosmetic, and does not affect the device's performance.

When activated, the device will take twenty (20) minutes to boot up and become fully functional.

When used correctly upon a living organism that displays cognition, SCP-158 will remove an unknown substance and transfer it through the dispensing device beneath the console. The optimum container for this substance is a glass jar or beaker that fits the attachments. After this action is performed, the organism that it was performed on will cease all higher brain functions, with only the activity in the brain stem continuing. The subject will not respond to external stimuli, and will not exhibit any movement beyond basic reflex actions.

The substance removed is gaseous, though its overall appearance and properties differ from subject to subject. The substance is an indefinite source of kinetic, electrical, heat, and light energy. Although the rate and output, again, differ from subject to subject, the average is relatively low.

The device was found in late 2007 in █████, ███████, within a burned out hospital that had been in apparent disuse for a large, discernible period of time (rough estimations would put it at over five years). Along with the device was a badly damaged "owner's manual" which contained instructions on how to use the device. These instructions have since been transcribed and copied numerous times, with a single copy always present in the containment room. While the instructions clearly state how to maintain and use the device, the chapters chronicling who built it and what exactly it did were too badly damaged to be read, requiring a process of trial and error to find it (see Experiment Log 158-AA ).

Additional Notes: The device is also capable of reversing the extraction, placing the same, or a different, substance back into the subject (see Experiment Log 158-AG ). When this action is performed, the subject will regain all cognitive and higher brain functions, but the total results differ, depending on whether or not it was the original substance extracted from the patient that was replaced.

Addendum-01: Dr. ██████████ suggests experimentation with D-class personnel and electronic equipment, to attempt to reproduce SCP-168, SCP-1875, SCP-2306, or similar phenomena. (Pending)

Addendum-01A: Inspired by the previous Addendum, Regulator █████ has hit on the ingenious notion of using SCP-158 on a test subject, then exposing the body to until the virus runs its course, and finally re-injecting the contents back into the transmogrified body. ███████ and █████ are extremely excited about this proposal, and have arranged a meeting with all twelve of the ██████████ to discuss the far-reaching benefits of such a technique.

Experiment Log 158 AA:

Experiment Log of: Dr. Heinrich Driesch, a medical researcher assigned to SCP-158.

Date: ██-██-2008

Experiment-01:

The device worked perfectly. It seems the damage to its casing was merely cosmetic. But more interesting was the substance extracted from Subject-001A. It's a dark brown in color, and is some strange cross between liquid and gaseous states. It should be analyzed in around an hour. Attempts to get the subject to show any sort of brain activity since has, as of yet, met with no progress. Still, no great loss there.

Experiment-02:

This time, the substance was a light blue, and it seems more... active than the previous one. I wonder if it had anything to do with the difference in age...

Experiment-03:

The test results came back, but they were inconclusive. They couldn't find anything. Literally. There were no signs that the substance even existed, apart from the steady emitting of light and heat. Anything else, nothing.

Again, this subject has produced another different sample, different in color, and in the energy output. This is quite odd.

Experiment-06:

There was a slight accident, involving my assistant, Lucy. I'm not sure how she managed it, but she knocked the sample from Subject-006B onto her laptop. The strange thing was, was that it was out of power before hand. Now, it's running, despite the fact both the plug and battery have been removed. However, there are some irregularities in its actions, small glitches, nothing serious. It makes me wonder.

Experiment-11:

This is the last one for the night. This sample is different, just like all the rest, but I've been noticing some semblance of a pattern to it. After a few more experiments tomorrow, I believe I'll be able to elaborate.

None of the subjects extracted from today have come out of the vegetative state. There's physically nothing wrong with them. Nothing at all. I've had them screened for every possible medical anomaly. They're just not there. Lights are on, but nobody's home. Still, despite this, I'm keeping them restrained and under guard, and Lucy's laptop, just in case. With the kind of things that go on around here, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Date: ██-██-2008

Experiment-24:

I was right, there is a pattern to it. I'm almost certain the irregularities in the energy output are caused by the subject's age and vitality. As for the difference in colors, I think it may be down to the subject's disposition, but I'm not sure. I need to run a couple more tests, and get the original files on the subjects.

Lucy's laptop is still running, despite not actually having a proper power supply for two days. There's no trace of the substance, internal or external. There's not even a mark on the casing. The irregularities are strange too. If left idle on a word processor, text will write itself, but it's gibberish. Still, it's an experiment that warrants some investigation.

Experiment-27:

I've tried putting the substances obtained from the subjects into a variety of mechanical and electronic devices. The results are surprising. All of them have begun to work independently of an external power source. The ones of an electrical nature exhibited slight glitches of a intermittent nature. The mechanical items worked far more smoothly, although there was still the occasional oddity.

The experimentation on the subjects continues. I think we'll stop when we go through around fifty.

Date: ██-██-2008

Experiment-45:

The substances implanted in the objects have proven to be able to be removed from them using the machine. When they were extracted, they were exactly the same as beforehand, pre-implantation. We could use these as a type of infinite energy. But, we'd have to find a way past the constant discrepancies in behavior.

I've left the original one in Lucy's computer, much to her chagrin. The glitches seem to be getting more frequent, and more specific. Now, it opens the word processor itself, and types coherent sentences. I've saved them to file for research purposes. The camera and microphone activate themselves, and try and remain on regardless of attempts to turn them off. After a while of doing that, the word processor opened and typed out the words "QUIT IT YOU ASSHOLE". I'm submitting it for a Turing Test.

Date: ██-██-2008

Experiment-49:

The laptop passed the test, and has displayed characteristics similar to Subject-006B, the original donor, although subject states that it has no memory of the time past when it was interred in the laptop. This confirms my suspicions. Against all logic and scientific reason, SCP-158 is a device that extracts what most people would term a soul. This only opens up the possibilities for experimentation. This session, however, is over.

Notes: Dr. Driesch is promoted to the head of studies regarding SCP-158. Further experimentation on SCP-158 and its products will continue.

Experiment Log 158 AG:

Experiment Log of: Professor K. P. Crow, regarding SCP-158 in use for the "Olympia Project".

Date: 29-11-2008

Pre-Experiment Note
I've gathered up several D-Class personnel, having interviewed and evaluated them all, and picked those with personalities and characteristics that I like, or would be useful. Some are male, others are female, as I believe a soul transcends the flesh it is interred in.

But the purpose of this experiment, is to test the "extra" capabilities of the device, those spoken upon in the heavily damaged sections of the book. I've pored over them incessantly, trying to glean as much information as possible from it, but the instructions I managed to get were sketchy at best, and downright unhelpful at worst.

But that will not deter me. I'm a researcher! Trial and error are my middle names!

Experiment-01

I withdrew the first subject's soul. Try as I might, I was unable to do anything extra to it, but then again, there was such a small window of time for me to utilize it and try everything. But on the bright side I managed to reverse the process. While that had been done before, no one has discovered the sequence needed to activate, operating on blind luck. This is the first thing I'll concentrate on.

Experiment-05

Hah! I've done it! It wasn't that hard.

Experiment-06

You know, I've noticed that there's a small period in the middle of the operation where the process pauses, as if it's waiting for further commands. I think that's when the further inputs can be made. I'll have to start checking.

Experiment-07

I've been removing and re-implanting the same soul into the same test subject, mainly as a form of experimentation with the controls, but also as practice. Oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be any sort of side effects regarding the subject's health. One would think there would be, considering what I'm doing to her... Regardless, I've been probing around that pause with the controls, and I think I almost have it.

Experiment-08

I made it begin the movements of something else entirely before it paused again and resumed its original course. I almost have it...

Experiment-11

I got it! It completely stopped during the pause, and a completely new set of options appeared on the monitor, being things like "split", "merge", "remove aspects", "add aspects" and "combine aspects". From this I can only deduce that the device is capable of internally storing and modifying these souls for use on other subjects. This is exactly what I was looking for!

Date: 30-11-2008

Experiment-12

The aspects that the machine talks about are difficult to define properly. They're all notated by a single word each, often something obscure from various religious texts. I've had to pore over the holy books of at least four major religions and six minor ones, just to understand what the hell the machine is trying to tell me, and even then, I'm still not entirely sure I understand. As far as I know it, most of these "aspects" are facets of the person's personality, and their general basic behavior, as well as things like willpower, understanding, conscience, creativity, empathy, and drive. This... may take some time to truly figure out.

Experiment-37

This is taking much, much longer than I had originally anticipated. So far I've discovered that the device itself can store up to ten different souls and their composite aspects, and modify them internally. Finding out exactly what each aspect corresponds with is difficult to say the least. I'm having to modify each subject slightly, then send them out for a complete psychological evaluation to try and discern what exactly I did. Then I have to repeat the process several more times just to make sure. It's tiring to say the least, but on the upside, at least I'm becoming more proficient at the device.

Experiment-42

This is getting ridiculous. This has sucked up most of the time in my day, and I'm near falling asleep here. There has to be a different way to monitor or measure the changes in these people's souls. I'm going to try and get onto R&D and see if they can find some sort of way of reverse engineering some part of this device, something to make this run just that little bit smoother, something to help us understand it more. I know how to operate it, but I'm shooting in the dark here. I'm like a child with a piano, I know which keys make which sounds, but I can't play a song to save my life. I'll try again tomorrow. Maybe the morn will bring with it new ideas.

Date: 01/12/2008

Experiment-57

I had thought I had grasped an idea of the limits of this device, but I was proven wrong. I had assumed the machine was at fault, being too complicated for its own good. Now I realize my mistake. It's not the machine, it's the very nature of a human soul. There's no true way to express something like that in mere words, although this machine tries desperately to do that. That said, it will take me some time to be able to use this device competently enough to do what I am hoping to do. I'll have to study the things I have seen and recorded to the very limit of my abilities.

Date: 02/12/2008

Experiment-80

I've left the device alone for the moment, electing to study my notes than raise more questions interacting with the device. I've recorded over four hundred different words in regards to the aspects, with an almost unlimited number of combinations capable therein. Seems apt of course, considering the complexity of the human condition. But should I master this device, the possibilities could be endless. But such a thing does not seem to be anywhere in sight. It may take months, even years, simply to grasp this device, let alone do what I have suggested.

I plan to do it in days.

Date: 03/12/2008

Experiment-93

Still no real progress. At most, I've gotten a single soul that is a composite of all I've learned, but it's something that I can't quite describe. When interred into a host, it's highly interesting, but when I send it in for a psyche test, the results basically go out the window. We can't get a valid result, which in and of itself is impossible.

Experiment-95

I've been modifying this composite soul, which I'll dub Subject Zero for the time being, and every time I do so, I get the feeling there's more to this than meets the eye. It seems to be more aware of its surroundings, more knowledgeable than its host should allow, displaying an intellect that would outstrip most researchers in this place many time over. Possibly even me...

Experiment-107

My god... This is unprecedented. The reason why the evaluations were so inconclusive, why Zero seemed so knowledgeable, why it seemed to be able to see another world around it, they all make sense now.

Subject Zero, by some fluke of chance, or by my meddling with this machine, somehow, simultaneously exists on this plane of existence and several others. I have created an entity that exists beyond the scope of human interaction, a consciousness that can see, and hear, and feel, and think outside of this realm. It is aware of what I have been doing, and it appreciates me having created it. It is, in a sense, immortal. Even if its physical host is destroyed, it is capable of continuing to survive beyond that, only slightly limited in this level of existence.

It revealed the truth to me, and I have asked it to answer my questions for the evaluation honestly. It agreed.

Experiment-110

Zero would make an excellent candidate for my assistant. It respects and admires me for its creation, much a child would an endearing father figure. I have assured it that it would be treated well, and that I will give it a host to the best of my ability to create. All that it asks of me is that it is given a name other than Zero. A name. Not a number.

I told it to give itself a name, to christen itself whatever it so wishes. It told me it would have to think about it.

End of Session

Notes: The composite soul has been accepted as a component for the "Olympia Project"