Fragments of Researcher I. B█████'s Journal

Credits

Titre : Fragments of Researcher I. B█████'s Journal
Auteur : DrJohannes
Translator: Uncle Nicolini

The only intact illustration in the journal. It is commonly believed by Foundation historians that most of the pages torn out contained other drawings or diagrams related to the "Mutus Liber" Project.

Fragments of the diary of Researcher I. B█████ discovered in a room of the archives of Site A████ having escaped the purges orchestrated by Site M████ between 1677 and 1684.

Researcher's Note: The following text is one of our best sources of information about the Mutus Liber ("Silent Book") Project, which is estimated to have originated in 15██ and accidentally ended in 1677 with the fortuitous creation of SCP-001-FR. Unfortunately, it is an extremely incomplete text, describing only very vaguely the technical aspects of the project, the Researcher I. B█████ not having apparently had a leading role in it. However, it is also thanks to the remote involvement of this researcher in the project, and the fact that his journal has, as a result, escaped the purges orchestrated by the Directors of the Site M████, that this testimony has reached us.
- Dr Bruant, Historian and Archivist
To date, nearly 40% of the information we have about the catastrophic Project Mutus Liber comes from this diary.
- Dr Johannes

(This transcript has been adapted into modern language. The pages before the first paragraph have been torn out. It is assumed that this one was written in late January 1677 by Scholar I. B█████, reporting on the progress of his colleagues at Site M████. The text starts in the middle of a sentence.)

(…) is certain that the Lens¹, the one by which one can see the movement of celestial spheres too far away for the best apparatus conceived by the English mathematician² can detect them, is now judiciously placed in the assembly. It is nevertheless necessary, H█████ told me, that the Lens is oriented in such a way that the operator is not fascinated by it. This defect has already cost him two assistants; they walked straight into the crucible as if they were walking to their salvation.

The day is near, but they have so much to do. I fear that the assembly will not be ready in time for the phenomenon predicted by the Lens, and if it is not, such an opportunity will not come again for ages. The progress of H█████'s work on the Lens is nevertheless promising. We would never have thought it possible to use it without having to sacrifice the operator; the transmission of the work to the highest spheres will be purer. Quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius; et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius, ad perpetranda miracula rei unius.³

February 5

It is difficult for me to concentrate on my other research as I receive so many letters from my fellow participants in the Great Work. No less than three birds arrived today, as well as a horse-drawn steed recklessly carrying our colors in broad daylight; I dread receiving another missive from the strange device discovered by T███████. The brass bells that ring to warn of the arrival of a transmission did not cease their infernal racket last night. I must admit that the missives are getting better every day, although I still think that T███████ is an outright liar when he claims to be the inventor of this remarkable device. He must have extorted the plans from the individual locked in the fourth basement of his site, the same one who claims to possess knowledge from the future that was whispered to him in his sleep and can't stop writing.⁴

In any case, all these missives cause me both joy and concern, joy at how enthusiastic my fellow researchers are, concern that I cannot fully concentrate on my other tasks.

February 9

T███████, this lout and thief, had the audacity to wake me up at dawn with his cursed ringing device, and that only in order to question the name of the project related to the Great Work. This maroon is incapable of understanding symbols and I sigh at the thought that a place in this deeply symbolic project could have been granted to him. According to T███████, the name Mutus Liber is a bad name, because the assembly of the Crucible does not resemble a book, and cannot be transcribed entirely because of its shadowy areas and complexity. I replied that it was not the Crucible but the Great Work itself that was illustrated in this name, but as I often like to say, "for the illiterate man every book is silent", and T███████, if he is not illiterate, is alien to the poetry of symbols.

The assistant of H█████ who worked at the foundry responsible for shaping the third arm handling the deadly metal object told him that several of the handlers were feverish and covered with strange wounds, as if they had tried to approach Robert⁵ in person during the past few days. I am quite glad I declined the invitation to come and see the object with my own eyes when I entered this sinister leaden room. Has anyone ever heard of a metal that kills by the mere sight of it?⁶

The fact remains that H█████ does not count bringing back⁷ manipulators poisoned or killed by this infernal object, and that it does not (…)

(Two pages seem to have been torn out.)

(…) with great care. The fifth reflector apparently had to be changed when the metal entity⁸ that S. T██████████ used to feed the fifth section of the crucible took on a life of its own, and changed its appearance before seizing the reflector and gazing adoringly into it. It seems that those who wrote the procedures for imprisoning it failed to mention that the mirrors affect it as much as the water. I wrote to S. T██████████ that water is a reflective surface, and that the entity was actually reacting to its reflection, not to the water itself. Those who referred to it as Narcissus a century ago were far more correct than my superiors would like to believe.

February 23

Wonderful news this morning: the team linked to the "sun" part of Mutus Liber has finally managed to determine the whole cartography of the apparently unpredictable movements of the Light Bird.⁹ The young C████████ unwound before my eyes, in the main research room, a roll of paper that must have been at least as large as a royal tapestry and covered with patterns rivaling those of the most intricate oriental carpets. Her own colleagues seem unable to decipher all the patterns she has traced on this immense palimpsest, and if there were no intelligence behind this work, I would believe it to be the work of an insane spider or artist.

Still, the Bird of Light and its trajectories are now decipherable and predictable, at least by the young C████████ if not by the whole team. No one has been able to explain the origin of the cracking sounds he makes when he moves, but it may not affect the success of the operation. He is now isolated in a strange structure made of blown glass, partly reminiscent of the enormous beak of a whippoorwill, which the assistants have been quick to nickname "the Whippoorwill". The crackling sounds produced by the bird, which will later be channeled into the crucible by the third reflector, run through it constantly. My worries seemed unfounded, and the project should be completed this summer shortly before the conjunction predicted by the Lens.

March 8

I am seriously considering putting aside my secondary research, when I return to A████, as the Mutus Liber occupies my days and nights. The ingenious construction designed to confine the Man in the Fourth Room¹⁰ the time of the experiment (…)

(A page seems to have been torn out. The scraps of paper still attached to the seams of the journal appear to be covered in ink crosshatching. One hypothesis is that the torn page contained an explanatory diagram describing one of the parts of the machine of the Mutus Liber project.)

(…) does not believe that this is really necessary. Far be it from me to antagonize a Director, especially in a field that does not fall within my expertise, but it seems to me somewhat cavalier, especially in view of the number of anomalies and entities attached in all sorts of ways to the completion of the project. May God have mercy on us if this imprudence releases this thing that J. D██ refuses to talk to me about, and that he keeps secretly in this strange trunk that he had custom-made¹¹; his assistants whisper that it encloses on all sides an entity twelve times larger than the chest. This would explain the crazy energy that is released as soon as the valve is turned.

March 30

I am in such a state of fury that my moods are certainly affected. It seems that only a few hours after my departure from the Site M████, an assistant has judged useful to move the Face of Janus¹², that we had spent so many hours to position meticulously, so that the dark face occulted the "Sun" part of the vast loop of electric vitreous conduit so that it did not hinder the functioning of the "Moon" part. The assistant has completely inverted the Face, believing in his naivety that the dark face should observe the "Moon" part. I suppose the Face has already taken care of punishing him in his own way if he failed to wear a protective mirror, but the hours wasted are driving me crazy.

April 11

The Director has decreed a temporary halt to my other projects, in favor of the Mutus Liber project. I am happy to see that he takes the universal purification of all states of matter more seriously than most of the learned people who work on A████.

I was very sad to learn of the irreversible departure of Mrs. L████. Her work was sent to me to be deciphered - the encryption process reminds me of the German abbot of old¹³, but applied with an additional subtlety that is trying to escape me. I am afraid I will not be able to do this before the Conjunction. This should not be a hindrance as her assistants have kept all the adjustments she had prepared on the first reflector. However, I had to track down the glassmaker from whom she had ordered a stained glass tile that seems to fit into the work, and greatly attenuates the effects of the Star's Source.¹⁴

April 19

The unbearable wait for (…)

(One page seems to have been torn out. According to the following page, it contained the schematic of a complex mechanism. The text being incomplete, it is not known if it was a SCP, a component of the "Crucible" built by the researchers participating in the Mutus Liber project in 1677, or something else.)

(…) is not without evoking the smoothness of mosaics that I could see in these places. Its manufacture is of the most intriguing and cannot be of the hand of a man, even if it is guided by a divinity. Curious glows run through the engraved channels, like the humors running through the human body; they become strangely colored when plunged into darkness. Assistant F███, whose father is a clockmaker in Bruges, is particularly fascinated by the mechanism and has tried to draw a diagram of it, which appears on the previous page.

May 11

If I am to believe my friend and colleague W██████ who returned yesterday, Site M████ is swarming with preparations and so many assistants and researchers are busy and twirling around that one could be mistaken and think that the place is actually a gigantic carousel turning endlessly. Ah, the image is apt - a whirlwind of men bustling around a celestial merry-go-round, destined to spin and light the world.

The relative calm at A████ is only deception, in essence, maintained by the ignorance that most researchers, assistants, and other guards have of the upcoming metamorphoses. A secret has never been more delicate to keep, like an angry cat in a coat - some seem to suspect that something is up, though.

The young H█████ reported to me earlier that rumors are circulating in the neighboring towns that the Count of ██████████ has had one of the rooms in his house walled up - it is said that anyone who falls asleep in this room will vanish before sunrise. An Entity may be at work, and I will go and inspect the place under guard once the Great Work is completed.

May 23

This is hard to believe, and yet, if I believe the missive that a courier has just brought me, as well as the message traced in the middle of the night by this damned tinkling copper device of T███████, the preparations of the Great Work are completed! Only a few days before the Conjunction announced so many years ago by the Lens. Ah, I cannot sleep again. If the common people knew what incredible terrestrial and celestial wonders are being prepared, everyone would sing our praises - but our success will be the sweetest of rewards.

Et sicut omnes res fuerunt ab uno, mediatione unius, sic omnes res natae fuerunt ab hac una re, adaptatione… Ascendit a terra in caelum, iterumque descendit in terram, et recipit vim superiorum et inferiorum. Sic habebis gloriam totius mundi. Ideo fugiet a te omnis obscuritas.¹⁵

(This passage is accompanied by a pen-and-ink drawing of the sun and moon framing a group of six stylized rays of light, pushing away what appear to be dark clouds.)

June 1st

The day is near. The time has come for mortals to defy their destiny and the order of things. I cannot get to M████ in time to see the completion of our Great Work, but if I stand on the roof, I should be able to see the immediate results; and as the Work radiates, with eyes wide open, I will see the place where the light is. Haec est totius fortitudinis fortitudo fortis; quia vincet omnem rem subtilem, omnemque solidam penetrabit. Sic mundus creatus est. Hinc erunt (…)¹⁶

(Six pages seem to have been torn out.)

(…) has been executed by the high authorities of M████. It is only a matter of time before they decide to finish with Site A████ and my works. It would only be fair, but what a mess it would be. Their intentions - my intentions - were noble. We only wanted to bring back the light. But we were not ready.

November 16

Lord, give me courage. Lord, give me strength. Everything that lives dies, everything that dies can no longer be brought back. The world has become a path that can only be walked to a destination, and that destination is the end of everything. Lord, forgive them, they knew not what they did. Lord, forgive me for letting them defy you.

November 21

I can't live like this anymore. This sin will pale in comparison to the one we have committed. It is right that those who have hastened the end of everything should hasten their own.

Lord, give me courage as a shield. Give me hope to carry me. Let me dwell in your light. It is all we have left.

Oculatus abis.¹⁷

Footnotes

1. One of nine (9) to twenty-one (21) SCPs destroyed in the failed Mutus Liber project in 1677. This journal is the only historical source the Foundation still has about this SCP. Unfortunately, the description it gives is too vague for us to reconstruct the object and its properties.

2. One supposes that this epithet designates Isaac Newton, who was working at the time for several years on the conception of more powerful telescopes, equipped with parabolic mirrors

3. "What is below is like what is above; and what is above is like what is below, in order to accomplish the miracles of a single thing." (from the Tabula Smaragdina, or "Emerald Table")

4. This passage is debated among Foundation historians, but the most commonly held theory is that the SCP-887 anomaly is not a unique case.

5. "Robert" referred to the devil, and allowed one to avoid having to speak of him directly when superstitious.

6. This "deadly metal object" has long been considered a destroyed SCP. The most recent theories, however, suggest that it was an object of some sort fashioned from highly radioactive plutonium

7. This term is debated among Foundation historians but suggests that death was not a purpose before the accidental creation of SCP-001-FR.

8. One of the nine (9) to twenty-one (21) SCPs destroyed in the failed Mutus Liber project in 1677, referred to as "Entity 162 - Narcissus" in another document that survived the archive purge. It was apparently a humanoid metallic entity that could not help but stare at any reflective surface presented to it, releasing electric shocks at regular intervals when not staring at a reflective surface. It is assumed that this property was exploited by the Foundation as an energy source to power a section of the main machine of the Mutus Liber project. Since electricity was still poorly understood in 1677, this was one of the many shortcomings of the project that apparently led to the accidental creation of SCP-001-FR.

9. One of the nine (9) to twenty-one (21) SCPs destroyed in the failed Mutus Liber project in 1677, referred to as "Entity 111 - Bird of Light" in another document that survived the archive purge. Few details have been preserved about this SCP, which was apparently some sort of entity made up of pure energy in the form of a tiny bird that made an eerie cracking noise with each change of direction. Current theories about these cracking noises, in the absence of further documentation, range from the generation of static electricity to the creation of micro-spatial rifts.

10. One of the nine (9) to twenty-one (21) SCPs destroyed in the failed Mutus Liber project in 1677. This journal is the only historical source the Foundation still has about this SCP.

11. One of nine (9) to twenty-one (21) SCPs destroyed in the failed Mutus Liber project in 1677. The vagueness of this description prevents a clear identification of the SCP; however, it is possible that it is "Entity 014 - Shadow of Disaster," mentioned in another document that survived the archive purge.

12. One of nine (9) to twenty-one (21) SCPs destroyed in the failed Mutus Liber project in 1677. This journal is the only historical source the Foundation still has about this SCP.

13. It is assumed that this epithet refers to the abbot Trithemius, the inventor of the Cipher of Trithemius, a method of polyalphabetic encryption (applying a different Caesar shift to each letter).

14. One of nine (9) to twenty-one (21) SCPs destroyed during the failed Mutus Liber project in 1677. This journal is the only historical source the Foundation still has about this SCP.

15. "And as all things were made, and came from the unity, by the mediation of the unity: so all things were born of this one thing, by adaptation… [This object ascends from earth to heaven, and again descends to earth, and receives the power of the higher and lower things. By this means you will have the glory of the whole world; and for this all darkness will depart from you." (from the Tabula Smaragdina, or "Emerald Table")

16. The missing part of this Latin quote is "(…) adaptationes mirabiles, quarum modus est hic." The full quote can be translated as follows: "This is the strongest force of all forces: for it will overcome every subtle thing, and penetrate every solid thing. This is how the world was created. Out of this will come wonderful adaptations, of which this is the means." (from the Tabula Smaragdina, or "Emerald Table")

17. "You go away clear-sighted". Supposed to be also an anagram of the name of the Researcher I. B█████.