SCP-ES-039

Item #: SCP-ES-039

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: All SCP-ES-039 instances must be captured, interrogated and searched. The staff in charge (currently the Directors of Area-08, Site-34 or Site-31 or staff 5/ES-039 identified as such) shall have the power to decide:

· DISMANTLE the SCP-ES-039 instance, in case of a duplicate, unstable or dangerous subject for the secrecy of the Foundation. All pertinent information about the subject must be stored on Secure Server 89 and sent to all Foundation staff.

· STORE the SCP-ES-039 instance, usually by using a Zero Box adapted to the subject's skull. It is recommended to keep the subject unconscious until it has been installed. Once installed, the SCP-ES-039 instance will require the same care as a human being in a permanent coma.

· CAPTURE the SCP-ES-039 instance. For practical purposes, SCP-ES-039 instances may be retained in Standard Humanoid Anomaly Containment Cells with the care and resources necessary to maintain an ordinary human being. Their specific containment procedures can be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

· RECRUIT the SCP-ES-039 instance according to the general containment guidelines, and always with the authorization of the Commander of the Mobile Task Force Beta-3 ("Blue Danube") or the endorsement of the O5 Council. Only captured SCP-ES-039 instances that have not been involved in containment breach events may be "recruited". This approach is recommended in instances well known to the public or with social or institutional functions too relevant to be dismantled or permanently stored. If dismantling is necessary, a cover-up strategy should be established to justify the complete destruction of the instance, particularly its skull.

For obvious reasons, SCP-ES-039 instances are not susceptible to chemical or surgical amnestic therapy, but are susceptible to dangerous memetic and cognitive agents. The MH-ES-039 memetic agent kit, which may be useful in these cases, may be ordered by contacting the Division or Archive Sector of your Site or Area of reference to obtain it.

A pattern of recognition of SCP-ES-039 offers for possible new instances has been included as part of the standard methods of control of electronic and analogical information (checking physical mail, electronic mail, messaging services, etc.). Every addressee of a SCP-ES-039 offer will be briefly informed about the malicious nature of the anomaly and conditioned not to accept it.

The mass orbital containment of SCP-ES-039 depends on the active Orbital Mobile Task Forces, and has been deployed since 1957 as part of COEWS. Contact your Site Director or staff with 039/4 clearance or higher for more information.

Description: SCP-ES-039 is a group of humanoid entities that lack a central nervous system in their cranial cavity. Instead, the cranium of each SCP-ES-039 instance contains a specialized and anomalous device that acts as a radio receiving antenna with a much higher gain than expected for an antenna of its size. Each instance has a uniquely designed antenna that would allow it to pick up communications from a low orbit with a single satellite; several of these satellites have been detected, which are entirely non-anomalous but unconventional and of unknown origin.

SCP-ES-039 instances have the appearance of nondescript human beings and, except for an unusual tendency not to move from their area of habitual residence, their conduct in baseline conditions is also ordinary. Since 1960, up to ███ SCP-ES-039 instances have been identified, mainly in NATO¹ countries and concentrated in small rural or suburban communities with an excellent radio signal. A total of [REDACTED] SCP-ES-039 instances have been identified, of which [REDACTED] have been captured by the Foundation. (Archive note: This information may be obsolete; pending review by the SCP-ES-039 Analysis Team. - Dr. R. Barnard, File Division, Area-08-B.)

Only three SCP-ES-039 instances have been identified accurately, paired with two microsatellites with which they maintain permanent radio contact, although it is assumed that all SCP-ES-039 instances consist of a humanoid-satellite pair. The content of their radio communications is encrypted; each pair uses a unique, encrypted language. Despite an uninterrupted cryptographic study since its identification, not a single language used by SCP-ES-039 has yet been deciphered.

There are no other known SCP-ES-039 instances connected to microsatellites, so their characteristics may not be universal. However, the three satellites owned by the Foundation are vaguely cylindrical devices half a metre in diameter, more than a metre long and weighing around two hundred and forty kilos. They are covered with solar panels with an efficiency superior to that of modern non-anomalous systems from space agencies unrelated to the Foundation². These solar panels have an albedo close to zero, making them invisible to conventional observers. The satellites have unconventional but not anomalous means of propulsion.³ All satellite parts include engravings that appear to constitute a non-anomalous sort of language of uncertain origin. (Archive note: This language has been identified as under hieratic Palacian, modality B-B-R. They seem to be serial numbers. - Dr. R. Barnard, File Division, Area-08-B.)

Available information suggests that the microsatellites paired with each SCP-ES-039 instance contain a human central nervous system and non-anomalous life support and radiation shielding devices sufficient to guarantee their indefinite survival. There is also information suggesting that damaged or dysfunctional SCP-ES-039 satellites could produce erratic, violent or entirely pathological behaviors in paired humanoid instances, but there are not enough data to justify this connection.

There are multiple hypotheses about a supposed process of impersonation or transformation of ordinary human beings in SCP-ES-039 instances, or about its apparent "duplication"; however, since the creation of new instances has not been observed, the SCP-ES-039 Analysis Team will not incorporate any until sufficient data are available.

Addendum ES-039-1: Initial detection and analysis.

++ OPEN DOCUMENTATION

SCP-ES-039-1, SCP-ES-039-2, and SCP-ES-039-3 were identified when the microsatellites to which they were paired were captured by the Foundation's [REDACTED] spacecraft, a prototype transorbital launcher on a clandestine mission to [DATA EXPUNGED] that tracked radiation sources in its vicinity by indication of COEWS-179 and COEWS-███. Although COEWS-179 indication was kept after the removal of the three satellites and the mission objective was accomplished later, this recovery allowed the initial identification of the three initial anomaly instances, which died simultaneously when the satellites were towed into the shuttle and placed in magnetically sealed containers.

SCP-039 instances involved suffered two heart attacks, following the complete and fulminant failure of their cardiorespiratory systems. They were in a public place in Washington DC (USA), so they were picked up by the health personnel of the area; given the low probability of three simultaneous sudden deaths, the area was closed and the medical authorities established a temporary quarantine until the cause of their deaths was determined. The Foundation intervened before the first autopsy was performed.

When the autopsies on the obtained instances were completed, SCP-ES-039-4, an entity by the name of Adlai Stevenson II⁴ who claimed to have been his entire life, appeared at Command Site-04, requesting to speak with any Foundation representatives who were available to discuss the "release" of SCP-ES-039-1, 2 and 3. The following is an interview between SCP-ES-039-4 and Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan, with related information.

[BEGIN LOG]

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: As a matter of fact, this interview will be recorded. The entity sitting before me insists that I refer to him as "Mr. Stevenson" or "Mr. Adlai"; is it appropriate that I use the former?

SCP-ES-039-4: Of course, miss. Ma'am?

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: Agent.

SCP-ES-039-4: Agent. My apologies.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: Mr. Stevenson, you say that you speak for all the people we have preliminarily classified as "SCP-ES-039", is that correct?

SCP-ES-039-4: I would prefer not to use that term. Satellitese, or perhaps Satellitan. That is what my son usually calls me.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: Your son [check notes], your son, Adlai III?

SCP-ES-039-4: The same. Call him Addie. He's an enthusiast of the dawn of the nuclear age, and he's passionate about the program as a whole. It's not my case, I'm sure that he can see it… but to each his own. The army has filled his head with peculiar notions, I suppose. A sergeant of yours was always talking about those comics, you know? Aliens and robots. Nothing practical.

[five seconds of silence on the recording]

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: Mr. Stevenson… Are you aware that your brain is on a satellite?

SCP-ES-039-4: [smiles] Have you seen the scans yet? What a remarkable development. That's practical, isn't it, Agent?

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: When did it happen? How? Who did it, and why? Understand my confusion, Mr. Stevenson, but technically you're not even quite here…

SCP-ES-039-4: My rights are still real. I am still a human being.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: You are not answering my questions; besides, we are not talking about that.

SCP-ES-039-4: Yes, we are talking about this. I am a human being whose brain is in orbit. When did it happen? I'm not sure. A benefactor considered me too important to allow me to die or just disappear before my time… me, and many others. So they sent me on a quick trip to the Great Lakes of which I remember nothing and… well, that's the way we are. I was lucky, others are told to go to Florida. You see! A man who failed the party, but not the people! That's what the letter said. Who knows? Maybe my good samaritan didn't sign it to save himself from you. It was typewritten.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: You do not know anything about your good samaritan? But you know there used to be one.

SCP-ES-039-4: The more I think about it, the more I feel that I am right not to dwell on it too much. But my fellow men think we have been rewarded.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: How so?

SCP-ES-039-4: Ah… I can finally talk about this subject. It's refreshing!, you know? So many months of silence, of pretending that everything is fine… of having to take a nap every time I have to make a long drive… O Lord! Or having to catch a plane.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: Are you referring to the realignment of the satellite to readjust to your position? Is your reception limited?

SCP-ES-039-4: Are you an engineer apart from a sentry, Agent Fitz-Titan?

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: Answer the question, Adlai, please.

SCP-ES-039-4: Of course I do, that's why. Do not ask me how I know. I do not know. I do not have the slightest idea of scientific or technical things. I told you before that I don't like to think about… this. Look, my cranium does not even have a scar, but it also does not have brains. Wow! What do you want me to do? Make a fuss? A lot of people would be harmed, and you just do not do that. My ideas are unpopular, but that is why I have to be reasonable in what I do and what I think… and yet, if someone blows my head off for what I say, anyway! Not much will be lost. I mean, I was never the toughest of the regiment, but have you seen these arms now? Oh dear, I am old and wrinkled…

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: Mr. Stevenson.

SCP-ES-039-4: [laughs, pulls out a cigarette, is allowed to light it] Most Satellitese do not move from the region in which they live to avoid problems. The antennas do not have a reception as wide as we would like. We have our heads in the clouds, but we better have them right above the rest of us… don't you think?

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: I understand. Do you know all this intuitively?

SCP-ES-039-4: Aaah… Yes? You could say yes, yes.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: Are you still in touch with your "good samaritan"?

SCP-ES-039-4: Not exactly. He's a patriot, I suppose… but modest. Every now and then a new Satellitese comes up to me, someone who has just been divided… you know, feet on the ground and head in the clouds. Well. Well, to each one of us, he says something. To tell you the truth, I am the one who has the most common sense of all, I think… but to the majority he says that, if you are going to work for the nation, if you are going to be good and great patriots, it is better that your minds are well protected. Plans are being developed, Agent. Plans to assassinate us. Plans that our benefactor finds out about. And… well, we almost all know things.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: What things?

SCP-ES-039-4: Things like this, Agent. Things like me. We knew them from before. We knew about yourselves, or the Division P⁵, or the Coalition⁶ or from the fathers (lit.)⁷… everyone had their contacts with things… strange things. That should not be known. That no one should know. [visible shiver, gives a long drag] Wow, that has not happened to me in a while. [chuckles]

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: Did they provided protection against anomalies?

SCP-ES-039-4: Rather of those who would persecute us if they knew that we know what we know. It's a long list! But also, of course, of course. You live more peacefully knowing that you are not going to die until the time comes. Yes, you could get pneumonia or cancer, but no bullets or accidents.

Agent Lynn Fizt-Titan: Your bodies cannot die? But that…

SCP-ES-039-4: Oh, no, no, we are given a new body if the old one dies. You die, and one day you wake up in your bed and you are not dead anymore. Est ac iret cubitum. Like going to bed, God forgive me. No one is playing God, Agent Fitz-Titan, just… just they give us a chance to survive.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: And in return… they do not ask anything?

SCP-ES-039-4: No. Well, that we live. That is the deal. We work step by step through the homeland and no matter what they do to us… we are going to stay here. And they too will stay.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: Excuse me?

SCP-ES-039-4: Agent, you know I have come to ask you to release my fellow men. They were only playing cards. They have work to do. Their wives are waiting for them at home. They have children, Lynn. One even has a granddaughter.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: We will deliver their bodies as soon as we have completed their autopsies.

SCP-ES-039-4: [compelling] They did not open the satellites! Are their brains intact?

[three seconds of silence]

[the subject stands up, troubled] Are they?!

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: Why do you care, Mr. Stevenson? Is there any way to reimplant them into a living body?

SCP-ES-039-4: No. No, the procedure is irreversible. We all know that. We are all responsible adults and we all know what can and cannot be done. One of the things you cannot do is step back.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: How many SCP-ES-039 instances currently exist? Alive or not.

SCP-ES-039-4: Hundreds. Agent, I know hundreds. And I have no reason to think that we are just the ones I know. Several are well-connected, influential people… I am just the front man. And you know I cannot be taken off the board, right, Agent Fitz-Titan? If I disappear, you will ask questions. What are you going to do? Put my cranium on a railroad and let a freight train do its dirty work?

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: Mr. Stevenson…

SCP-ES-039-4: Go ahead! Do it. In a week there will be a new body in my house, safe. Know that I live in a neighborhood full of Satellitese. [shakes its head] We just want to be left in peace. We just want… we just want to live in peace, to work for the welfare of the homeland. Is it so much to ask? Give us back your satellites and our benefactor will take care of the rest.

Agent Lynn Fitz-Titan: I will have to discuss this proposal with my superiors. But I will need more information about SCP-E…

SCP-ES-039-4: Call us that once and you will not get another word out of me.

[END LOG]

Follow-up note: Despite repeated attempts to negotiate with SCP-ES-039-4 (including threats), it refused to cooperate. SCP-ES-039-4 was dismantled and incinerated, and a suitable cover was prepared.

A duplicate of SCP-ES-039-4 appeared two days later, and not seven as he had stated, at home, materializing in his bed. Mobile Task Force [REDACTED] personnel immediately intervened, subdued him, his spouse (SCP-ES-039-5) and ██ neighbors who tried to avoid their capture. A total of ███ SCP-ES-039 instances were tracked and captured. █ human beings had to be subdued and executed. ███ instances were captured until an adequate mode of containment and storage was developed in Area-08-B, avoiding execution. SCP-ES-039-4 and 5 agreed to cooperate with the Foundation in maintaining the cover of a fire that destroyed the residential neighborhood in which they lived; however, they did not provide any more relevant information.

Except in isolated cases, the captured instances died of natural causes while in storage, and no duplicates were detected.

The origin of duplicate SCP-ES-039 instances or the mechanism by which they manifest themselves at home is unknown. Multiple duplicate instances have been recognized, the majority being indistinguishable at the microscopic level from the "original" instances. All the instances identified were indeed adults; those of sufficiently young human descendants were subjected to amnestic treatment and put in the care of the relevant institutions.

The human beings to which the brains of SCP-ES-039-1, 2 and 3 instances (and by extension the rest of SCP-ES-039 instances) ,are presumed to, belong have never been found. It is not known whether the bodies of the SCP-ES-039 instances are remote-controlled biorobots produced from these humans.

Our SCP-ES-039 study has revealed another ██ instances since we convinced SCP-ES-039-4 to join our side. Three were low-ranking agents of the Foundation. All three committed suicide. All three were gathering information about the security of Site-34. Imagine my perplexity, not to mention pure paranoia.

If we go on like this, we will have identified several hundred more instances before [REDACTED] is over, and who knows where we will be at the end of the century. If there are more instances, I propose to popularize medical cranial studies or the proliferation of radio stations; perhaps that will reduce the number of SCP-ES-039 instances, or make them more easily identifiable.

In any case, at this time the number of SCP-ES-039 instances could be excessive for containment… and we cannot kidnap Stevenson. Just like that, we cannot. He has too many friends. It was hard enough to keep him hidden for two weeks, if we store him… it will be a nightmare.

I recommend that an escort be provided for all SCP-ES-039 instances that we cannot contain and that they be kept under close surveillance. And to make cranial radiographies to everybody. Once a year. And then, whoever does the X-ray.

- Agent L. Fitz-Titan, November 4th, 1956, Offices and Assets Sector of Site-34.

Follow-up note: We have confirmed that the Satellitan had nothing to do with Kennedy's assassination. It is even worse, but it has nothing to do with it… fortunately it is not our problem. Kennedy himself had refused, on our recommendation and that of our associates in the CIA, to be part of SCP-ES-039. The "benefactor" offered it to him several times. The contacts had recently become pressing. 4 is very depressed; he says he feels partly guilty. He never got along with JFK. He is also furious with me for recommending to Kennedy that he said no, of course, but we know that.

- Agent L. Fitz-Titan, November 23th, 1963, Site-34 Offices and Assets Sector.

Follow-up note: 4 has died. A heart attack. After three weeks watching his bed, I am almost certain; he is not coming back. God rest his soul.

- Director L. Fitz-Titan, July 14th, 1965, Site 34 Humanoid Containment Sector.

Addendum ES-039-2: Archive Excerpts; SCP-ES-039 genetic analysis.

++ OPEN DOCUMENTATION

Below lies archival information on the SCP-ES-039 genetic study.

The biopsies performed on the brains paired with SCP-ES-039-1, 2 and 3 have allowed us to study, sequence and compare their genomes. They do not coincide. They are human brains, only not from these same humans. The samples confirm that the bodies of the terrestrial entities are human and that they descend from their families.

I don't know whose brains they are, but theirs are not.

I will continue the studies, as well as the tracking of possible anomalous genes, once I join the Area-08 Genome Program.

- Researcher R. Franklin, December 30th, 1961, Biological Research and Containment Sector, Command Site-04.

In an interview with a recently captured SCP-ES-039-███ instance, a young African-American from Georgia, I asked her if she knew that the DNA of the instances studied was not the same as that of the microsatellite brains. She suddenly fell into a coma. Just like that. As if we had put her in a Zero Box, but nothing I did brought her back. She spoke normally, and suddenly her face becomes unhinged, saliva begins to fall from the corner of her mouth, and she collapses on the table. It's as if her strings had been cut off. Horrible.

What did I think it would happen? Why did I tell her? What did I do?

- Researcher R. Franklin, January 3rd, 1962, Biological Research and Containment Sector, Command Site-04.

Addendum ES-039-3: Incident SCP-ES-039 / SCP-ES-███ - 2001.

++ OPEN DOCUMENTATION

INCIDENT REPORT SCP-ES-039

To: Staff 3/039 or higher.

From: Commander β-3.

Message Subject: Collateral damage in the SCP-ES-███ containment

After the containment of SCP-ES-███, which required the use of an Experimental Radiant Orbital Weapon Type-9⁸, the remains of two hidden microsatellites were discovered which had been damaged by the partial damage cone of the weapon. After their recovery, they were the remains of two SCP-ES-039 satellites; two SCP-ES-039 instances were detected, dead at the time of the activation of the Radiant Weapon on Earth. Both SCP-ES-039 instances, designated SCP-ES-039-████ and ████, were operative intelligence personnel of the Government of the People's Republic of China infiltrated into NASA.⁹ They intended to assassinate three elected politicians who have rejected offers from SCP-ES-039. If we needed confirmation that SCP-ES-039 is malicious, that should be enough. They follow opposing strategies and always have to do with stopping or altering space development.

During the following week, 24 cases of unstable SCP-ES-039 instances manifested all over the planet. Three of them died shortly after being identified. The rest was put into storage. It has been proposed that the use of the Radiant Weapon, a very primitive stage of a program that never intended to produce collateral damage to satellite networks in high orbits, may have had deleterious effects (cancer, radiation burns, etc.) on SCP-ES-039 biological components found in orbit.

Since we still cannot detect the SCP-ES-039 satellites by random active or passive scanners, I recommend contemplating this approach for the rapid dismantling of SCP-ES-039 as a contingency plan, if we do not care about the geopolitical consequences or if the means exist to cover it up. I also recommend investigating any politician or politician's relative who dismantled the SDI¹⁰ in the 80s and 90s. Reagan was already a surprise. I do not want one more satellite in the White House or the Kremlin, whatever they may be. Not in Beijing, for fuck's sake.

In the meantime, I have instructed the Area-08 Chief Archivist to prepare a minimally anomalous meme to discreetly infiltrate information about SCP-ES-039 to the Foundation staff families to warn them about the nature of their offers without breaking operating secrecy. In my Task Force alone we have already lost three sons and daughters for this, including my [DATA EXPUNGED]. Never more.

Commander [DATA EXPUNGED], Contention Mobile Task Force-3.

Footnotes

1. North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Includes Belgium, Canada, Denmark, United States, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Croatia, Albania and Montenegro as of February 2018.

2. Note that it is estimated that the three satellites were put into orbit by unknown agents between 19██ and 1956.

3. High-efficiency ion thrusters. See Foundation Engine Research For Aerospatial Development, For more information, see volumes fifteen to nineteen of 2015.

4. Lawyer, two-time Democratic Party presidential candidate for the Presidency of the United States and Ambassador to the United Nations, in addition to having held other relevant bureaucratic positions during his professional life.

5. The Division P of Psychotronics of the Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU. No SCP-ES-039 contacts have been confirmed with any known member of this group.

6. The Global Occult Coalition. No SCP-ES-039 contacts with any known members of this group have been confirmed.

7. It is presumed that SCP-ES-039-4 refers to the Horizon Initiative or other groups part of it.No SCP-ES-039 contacts with any known members of this group have been confirmed.

8. The Xi-2-0 Prototype ("CZECK") is a directed energy weapon, consisting of several invulnerable anomalous elements around a ███ megaton thermonuclear explosive, whose radiation is directed in the form of a coherent X-ray laser beam. Today, it is an obsolete tool, replaced by the Xi-7-3 and Xi-7-4 Prototypes, and all information concerning its use or design is censored.

9. National Aeronautics and Space Administration

10. An organization popularly known as "Star Wars" for its proposal for the armamenting of satellite orbiting devices.