SCP-1484

Canon Hub » Site-17 Deepwell Catalog » SCP-1484

Site-17 buries a crime under advanced physics.

BY ORDER OF THE ETHICS COMMITTEE

THE FOLLOWING FILE IS UNDERGOING REVIEW AND REVISION FOR ETHICS VIOLATIONS, EXCESSIVE TECHNICAL LANGUAGE, AND IMPROPER CONTAINMENT PROCEDURES.

Item #: SCP-1484

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: Due to its size, SCP-1484 is kept in dedicated containment chamber 105B at Site-Mayim 652C at Site-17 during its temporary transfer. Personnel outside SCP-1484's containment team should not access SCP-1484 without authorization from a Level 3 containment team member. All tests require authorization from SCP-1484's containment lead, Senior Researcher Ignas Mažeika.

SCP-1484 has never been observed to display anomalous properties without activation. In the event it does or if it breaches containment, personnel are advised to immediately escalate the matter to a SCP-1484 containment team member or, if unavailable, any personnel with expertise in theoretical particle physics. Usual access restrictions will be suspended in a containment breach for the purpose of recontainment.

Any macroscopic byproducts of tests with SCP-1484 should be deposited in an adjacent containment chamber. Access is restricted to Level 4/1484 except via authorization by the containment lead or the Director of Site-17, Thomas Graham.

Description: SCP-1484 is an artificial, extraterrestrial device measuring approximately 1.9m x 1m x 0.3m. It possesses an internal vacuum-sealable chamber into which objects can be inserted and retrieved. It was retrieved from the passing extrasolar object 'Oumuamua by Foundation interplanetary space probe [DATA REDACTED] in 20██. It was initially assigned to Site-Mayim in Geneva for further study of its properties due to its proximity to CERN high-energy particle physics facilities, however it was later temporarily lent to Site-17 after a loan request filed by Senior Researcher Mažeika and Site Director Graham (see Addendum 1484-1).

When activated, the primary anomalous property of SCP-1484 is its effect on hadronic matter and quarks inserted within its internal chamber, including violation of conservation of baryon number, via the novel gauge field characterized by invariance of its Lagrangian under symmetries of gauge transformations¹ defined by the Lie group SU(5)². This gauge field, motivated to represent a unification of quantum chromodynamics with the electroweak interaction into a single force, thus naturally couples quarks to leptons via interactions. The quantized force-carrying boson particles of this gauge field will be referred to as X and Y bosons per existing literature³.

The referenced Lagrangian⁴, which illustrates this relationship between quarks (such as up u and down d) and leptons (such as electrons e and neutrinos ν), is

(1)

\begin{align} \mathcal{L} = \frac{g}{\sqrt{2}}X'^\alpha_\mu[-\epsilon_{\alpha\beta\gamma} \overline{d}_L^{c\gamma}\gamma^\mu d^\beta_L - \overline{u}_{R\alpha}\gamma^\mu \nu_R^c - \overline{u}_{L\alpha}\gamma^\mu\nu_L^c] \newline + \frac{g}{\sqrt{2}}Y'^\alpha_\mu[\epsilon_{\alpha\beta\gamma}\overline{d}_L^{c\gamma}\gamma^\mu u_L^\beta - \overline{u}_{R\alpha}\gamma^\mu e_R^+ - \overline{d}_{L\alpha}\gamma^\mu\nu_L^c] \newline + \frac{g}{\sqrt{2}}X^\alpha_{s\mu}[\overline{d}_{L\alpha}\gamma^\mu e_L^- + \overline{d}_{R\alpha}\gamma^\mu e^-_R + \overline{u}_{L\alpha}\gamma^\mu\nu_L + \overline{u}_{R\alpha}\gamma^\mu\nu_R] \end{align}

A detailed walkthrough of an example SCP-1484 interaction is provided in the testing log in Addendum 1484-2 and thus omitted for brevity.

ETHICS COMMITTEE EXPERT WITNESS ANNOTATION

The Ethics Committee has enlisted me to explain this SCP file to them in their investigation. There is no avoiding the extreme technicalness of this anomaly, although I will endeavor better than this file, which I believe was deliberately obfuscated to discourage scrutiny like the present kind. The "explanatory note" in particular reeks of malicious compliance with SCP file readability guidelines.

Most readers are familiar with fundamental physics forces: electricity, magnetism, gravity, maybe the nuclear forces. The primary anomalous effect of SCP-1484 is that it applies a new kind of force, speculated about in some physics theories (nameless but we can dub the "novel nuclear force"), to things put inside of it. This force decays quarks. Quarks make up protons and neutrons, which make up atoms, which make up normal matter, so SCP-1484 decays matter in a specific way (either entirely, or by changing its chemical element).

— Dr. Cordelia Argent (Principal Researcher, Astronomical Phenomena Division)

+ Addendum 1484-1: Email Communications Regarding SCP-1484 Loan Request [LEVEL 4/1484]

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From: Thomas Graham (pcs.71-etis|mahargt#pcs.71-etis|mahargt)
To: Ignas Mažeika (pcs.71-etis|zmsangi#pcs.71-etis|zmsangi)
Subject: SCP-1484 Loan

Mazeika,

I enjoyed our conversation yesterday. Your proposal regarding SCP-1484 is exactly the sort of enterprising, out-of-the-box thinking Site-17 needs. Proceed to draft a loan request for my review.

I hope things are going ok with the wife, you seemed a bit out of sorts. Nobody who's golfed with me for as long as you have would chip a ball straight into a sand trap like that.

Best wishes,
Dr. Thomas Graham, Director of Site-17

From: Ignas Mažeika (pcs.71-etis|zmsangi#pcs.71-etis|zmsangi)
To: Thomas Graham (pcs.71-etis|mahargt#pcs.71-etis|mahargt)
Subject: RE: SCP-1484 Loan

Dear Director Graham,

Thank you for your personal attention and kind words regarding this matter. I also enjoy our catchups. Please find attached the standard SCP object loan application I already filled out, including exhibits and derivation appendices.

I apologize for letting my home life bleed into my work. You know how she is, and she's only gotten worse with the recent budget cuts - I'm embarrassed to say, but since you asked, her birthday's coming up and I don't know what I can get her.

I'll also try your suggestion to use a 9-iron instead of a 7- next time.

Thank you,
Senior Researcher Mažeika, Ph.D.

Attachment: SCP-1484_Loan_Application.pdf

From: Thomas Graham (pcs.71-etis|mahargt#pcs.71-etis|mahargt)
To: Ignas Mažeika (pcs.71-etis|zmsangi#pcs.71-etis|zmsangi)
Subject: RE: SCP-1484 Loan

Mazeika,

This looks ok to send to Director Parmelin. Thank you for the quick turnaround.

I'm sorry to hear about the wife. Naturally, she's unable to understand the importance of our mission. Take pride in your professional accomplishments and my esteem, and keep making me proud, Ignas.

I'm glad you like my advice. After all, part of being Site Director is mentorship - and being right, of course.

Best wishes,
Dr. Thomas Graham, Director of Site-17

From: Ignas Mažeika (pcs.71-etis|zmsangi#pcs.71-etis|zmsangi)
To: Thomas Graham (pcs.71-etis|mahargt#pcs.71-etis|mahargt)
Subject: RE: SCP-1484 Loan

Dear Director Graham,

Anything for you. And I know very well the value of your advice from experience.

Let's grab some drinks once this SCP-1484 matter is settled. Maybe with Gates and Thompson too, it's been a while since we've done one all together.

Thank you,
Senior Researcher Mažeika, Ph.D.

To Director Parmelin,

My name is Ignas Mažeika, Senior Researcher and head physicist at Site-17. I am filing an official request with you for Site-17 to borrow SCP-1484 from Site-Mayim for a research program pertaining to Site-17's specific expertise as detailed in the application, which has been approved and endorsed by my Site Director, Thomas Graham.

Thank you for your consideration,
Senior Researcher Mažeika, Ph.D.

Attachment: SCP-1484_Loan_Application.pdf

Senior Researcher Mažeika,

Enchanté. Your outlined research program holds promise, particularly the focus on hadrons and emergent behavior. However I ask why we could not conduct it here at Site-Mayim? Our location near Genève allows us to leverage the specialized equipment at CERN to investigate SCP-1484 and further above-the-veil understanding of physics, which has motivated our focus on sub-hadronic interactions in testing thus far. Your Site-17 focuses on humanoid anomalies, correct? Not an obvious specialization for SCP-1484.

Bien confraternellement,
J.A. Parmelin, Directeur du Site-Mayim

To Director Parmelin,

Thank you for your well-considered response. Although Site-17 is indeed primarily focused on humanoid containment, given the size and remit of our Site we also have an extensive inventory of non-humanoid objects in containment. Our Site has the equipment and personnel (such as myself) to temporarily contain and study SCP-1484. As mentioned in Appendix 1, Site-17 also contains several humanoid anomalies with anomalous physics properties, such as SCP-4051, the containment or explanation of which may be greatly enhanced by the study of SCP-1484. Site Director Graham and I hope you consider this request in the spirit of scientific collaboration and our shared mission of containment.

Thank you,
Senior Researcher Mažeika, Ph.D.

Senior Researcher Mažeika,

Thank you for the additional context. Site Director Graham also personally called me regarding the matter. I have decided to approve the application. We will lend you SCP-1484 for 1 year, to transport via air or sea at your expense and discretion, to be contained at your expense, with standard SCP loan insurance terms.

Bien confraternellement,
J.A. Parmelin, Directeur du Site-Mayim

Attachment: SCP-1484_Loan_Application_SIGNED.pdf

+ Addendum 1484-2: SCP-1484 Test Log A (Site-Mayim)

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Test ID: 1484-A-1
Researcher: Bernard Delebarre
Input: Up quark (u) source
Interaction: $u + u \rightarrow e^+ + \overline{d}$

We expect two up quarks to decay into a positron and an antidown quark⁵, anomalously violating baryon number conservation (as we begin with 2 quarks and end with 1 quark and 1 lepton). This interaction is mediated by an X boson.
Notes: Given initial investigations into SCP-1484, we conducted this test to confirm our hypothesis for its primary anomalous effect using the simplest possible test case of quarks. Due to the color confinement property, we used an experimental beam facility at nearby CERN to source the inputs for this experiment.

I would like to take a moment to justify the resources Site-Mayim is spending on these tests. SCP-1484 presents an unprecedented opportunity to study physics beyond the Standard Model. It will not only enable better containment of other SCP objects involving advanced physics (including SCP-2460, SCP-2123, SCP-6959, SCP-2700, and SCP-2821, which include Keter-class threats to humanity), but also possibly advance our understanding of non-anomalous science as well. After all, there is no containment more comprehensive than explanation. The SCP-1484 project fills me with optimism and anticipation.

ETHICS COMMITTEE EXPERT WITNESS ANNOTATION

This test demonstrates SCP-1484's effect in the simplest way possible, a quark decay. Two quarks become a single quark and a lepton (a lighter kind of particle, like electrons and neutrinos), showing one of the quarks has decayed into a lepton. Like other Site-Mayim tests, this test focuses on theoretical study rather than practical applications.

— Dr. Cordelia Argent

Test ID: 1484-A-2
Researcher: Bernard Delebarre
Input: Up quark (u) and down quark (d) sources
Interaction: $u + d \rightarrow e^+ + \overline{u}$

We expect an up and a down quark to decay into a positron and an anti-up quark. This interaction is mediated by a Y boson.
Notes: The purpose of this test was to investigate mediation by the Y boson.

Test ID: 1484-A-3
Researcher: Bernard Delebarre
Input: Up quark (u) and down quark (d) sources
Interaction: $u + d \rightarrow \overline{\nu} + \overline{d}$

We expect an up and a down quark to decay into an antineutrino of any kind and an antidown quark. This interaction is mediated by a Y boson.
Notes: This test was cancelled during setup due to the loan of SCP-1484 to Site-17.

+ Addendum 1484-3: SCP-1484 Test Log B (Site-17)

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Overall Note: Due to Site-17's lack of specialized equipment, and the color confinement property of quarks below the Hagedorn temperature, testing at Site-17 focused on baryonic matter as outlined in the Loan Proposal rather than the sub-hadronic scale.

Test ID: 1484-B-1
Researcher: Ignas Mažeika
Input: Proton (p) beam
Interaction: $p \rightarrow e^+ + \pi^0$

We expect a proton to decay into a positron and a neutral pion via an X boson. Note the above diagram includes the sub-interaction from Test 1484-A-1, although the same result would be obtained via a Y boson with the interaction from Test 1484-A-2. Note that the subsequent dominant decay mode with 98.823% branching ratio for the neutral pion is $\pi^0 \rightarrow 2\gamma$ .
Notes: The purpose of this test was to test SCP-1484's anomalous effect on baryons. This is the dominant decay mode for the proton, where we determined branching ratio $B = \frac{\Gamma(p \rightarrow \overline{\ell}H)}{\Gamma(p \rightarrow all)} = 83\%$ of interactions. Another aspect of the anomalous effect of SCP-1484 is that the decay rate Γ observed within SCP-1484 activations is significantly higher than the predicted equation⁶:

(2)

\begin{align} \Gamma = |\Psi(0)|^2FA^2\left(\frac{g^2(M)}{8M^2}\right)^2\sum{\mathcal{M}^2} \end{align}

ETHICS COMMITTEE EXPERT WITNESS ANNOTATION

This test focused on proton decay (as protons are made of quarks, and Site-17 lacks the specialized equipment to isolate quarks). SCP-1484 decays a proton into a positron (antimatter electron) and a pion. A pion is an unstable particle consisting of a quark and an antimatter quark, so annihilates itself ~99% of the time into radiation (assumed in subsequent tests' equations).

The containment team's note of an anomalously high proton decay rate Γ within SCP-1484 when activated is a mathematical restatement of its anomalous property.

— Dr. Cordelia Argent

Researcher: Ignas Mažeika
Input: Proton (p) beam

Test ID	Interaction
1484-B-2	$p \rightarrow \overline{\nu}_e H_{ns}$
1484-B-3	$p \rightarrow \mu^+ H_{s}$
1484-B-4	$p \rightarrow \overline{\nu}_{\mu} H_{s}$
1484-B-5	$p \rightarrow \overline{\nu}_e H_{s}$
1484-B-6	$p \rightarrow e^+ H_{s}$
1484-B-7	$p \rightarrow \overline{\nu}_{\tau} H_{s}$
1484-B-8	$p \rightarrow \overline{\nu}_{\tau} H_{ns}$
1484-B-9	$p \rightarrow \overline{\nu}_{\mu} H_{ns}$
1484-B-10	$p \rightarrow \mu^+ H_{ns}$

Notes: The purpose of these tests was to explore other proton decay modes in SCP-1484 and their branching ratios⁷. H_ns refers to any non-strange-quark hadronic endstate, while H_s refers to any strange-quark hadronic endstate.

ETHICS COMMITTEE EXPERT WITNESS ANNOTATION

When a particle decays, it can decay in multiple ways, each with an associated probability (called branching ratio). This series of tests explored those alternative decays and their probabilities.

— Dr. Cordelia Argent

Test ID: 1484-B-11
Researcher: Ignas Mažeika
Input: ³He (helium-3) nuclei beam
Interaction: ${}^3_2\text{He} \rightarrow {}^2_1\text{H} + e^+ + 2\gamma$
Notes: The purpose of this test was to observe the anomalous effect of SCP-1484 on larger atomic nuclei including multiple protons and a neutron.

ETHICS COMMITTEE EXPERT WITNESS ANNOTATION

This test and subsequent Series-B tests focused on decaying a proton, this time embedded into an atom's nucleus. The number of protons in an atom's nucleus determines its element, e.g. oxygen, carbon, iron. If a proton decays, it changes what kind of element an atom is (in this case, helium into hydrogen).

— Dr. Cordelia Argent

Test ID: 1484-B-12
Researcher: Ignas Mažeika
Input: ⁷Li (lithium-7) nuclei beam
Interaction: ${}^7_3\text{Li} \rightarrow {}^4_2\text{He} + 2n + e^+ + 2\gamma$
Notes: The purpose of this test is to observe the anomalous effect of SCP-1484 on larger atomic nuclei.

Test ID: 1484-B-13
Researcher: Ignas Mažeika
Input: ⁷Li nuclei beam
Interaction: ${}^7_3\text{Li} \rightarrow {}^2_1\text{H} + 3n + 2e^+ + 4\gamma$
Notes: The purpose of this test was to decay multiple baryons in a single interaction.

+ Addendum 1484-4: Email Communications Regarding SCP-1484 Compute Approval [LEVEL 4/1484]

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From: Ignas Mažeika (pcs.71-etis|zmsangi#pcs.71-etis|zmsangi)
To: Thomas Graham (pcs.71-etis|mahargt#pcs.71-etis|mahargt)
Subject: SCP-1484 Compute Run Approval

Dear Director Graham,

In order to advance the outlined SCP-1484 research programme to atoms for elements higher on the periodic table and larger quantities of input material, my team requires a large compute run to simulate SCP-1484's anomalous property (using the more accurate model) and properly tune its inputs and settings. As the Site-17 CS division estimates this run will require the use of off-site Foundation datacenters and cost an estimated $1.5 million, exceeding the threshold for formal notification and approval, I am required to obtain your approval as Site Director and the approval of the global Director of Foundation IT. Please find attached the application for your review, I will send it to Director Miyamizu after you approve.

Apologies for the delay given the limited time we have with SCP-1484, it was entirely due to the CS-related sections co-written by Dr. Steele and her division. I tried to press the urgency on her, but she would just get irrationally irritable with me whenever I did. Makes me miss the level-headed diligence and prolificness of her predecessor.

Thank you,
Senior Researcher Mažeika, Ph.D.

Attachment: SCP-1484_Compute_Application.pdf

From: Thomas Graham (pcs.71-etis|mahargt#pcs.71-etis|mahargt)
To: Ignas Mažeika (pcs.71-etis|zmsangi#pcs.71-etis|zmsangi)
Subject: RE: SCP-1484 Compute Run Approval

Mazeika,

Looks good, approved and returned. Forward it to Director Autism for her approval.

While I share your appraisal of Steele's performance, if one wanted to be charitable to her, she and McPharrell have unfortunately had their hands full dealing with significant personnel problems. Problems that said predecessor left behind for the rest of us to clean up after him. I am sure you are mindful of avoiding the same, Ignas.

Best wishes,
Dr. Thomas Graham, Director of Site-17

Attachment: SCP-1484_Compute_Application_SIGNED_TG.pdf

To Director Miyamizu,

In order to advance the outlined SCP-1484 research programme, both for higher baryon numbers and for Avogadro-scale experimentation with emergent forces like electrostatic and dipole forces, my containment team requires a significant computational run (using the full Lie algebra SO(10) model) for simulations of SCP-1484's primary anomalous effect, to predict its outputs and tune its inputs and settings. The Site-17 CS division estimates this will exceed Site-17's local compute capacity, requiring off-site common Foundation datacenters and a cost of $1.5 million, thus requiring your formal approval as global Director of IT. Please find attached our application, which Site Director Graham has already approved, and sign and return to us. Time is of the essence given the limited loan of SCP-1484 to Site-17.

Thank you for your attention to this matter,
Senior Researcher Mažeika, Ph.D.

Attachment: SCP-1484_Compute_Application_SIGNED_TG.pdf

+anuj (head of datacenters) & sean

ignas,

i have some concerns with this app. it's very dense, i can't understand, i need to so i can prioritize it vs other things when approving as IT director. we have many other competing large runs, like a new scp-3334 memetic hazard detection training run and protein simulations for a cancer treatment synthesized from scp-████ and analytics' new scp detection algo.

further, besides not being one of our traditional heavy users like analytics or site-15, site-17 has lately fallen behind on its share of payments to dept of IT. IT and datacenters are a common resource for all foundation and each user needs to pay their fair share.

pls address before approval

thx,
meg
Director of Foundation IT

Sent with Blackberry Work

Miyamizu,

I sympathize, I'm not a physicist either and have a hard time understanding SCP-1484. My job as Site Director is to understand the best interest of Site-17 and the Foundation, and after reviewing the materials and talking with Dr. Mažeika, that is what I have deemed.

We've had some temporary budget issues but I assure you that you will not need to worry about Site-17's financial commitments going forward, after you approve this application. We are in fact willing to increase our commitment to IT.

I can stop by Site-15 and we can grab a meal to discuss.

Best wishes,
Dr. Thomas Graham, Director of Site-17

tom,

does it have to be inperson?

thx,
meg
Director of Foundation IT

Sent with Blackberry Work

tom,

thx for the talk/explain and the meal. when u said u were "taking me out for dinner" i didn't expect sushi yoshizumi and a 30-yr-old bottle of hibiki whiskey. whered u even find it? ryoto-san's jealous. u know how much i miss home :)

approved the scp-1484 request, pfa.

i appreciate your commitment to site-17 making us whole on the budget and increasing its contribs in the future. this will let us better serve the foundation

thx,
meg
Director of Foundation IT

Sent with Blackberry Work

Attachment: SCP-1484_Compute_Application_SIGNED_TG_MM.pdf

Miyamizu,

I'm glad you found my explanations and our discussion helpful. And thank you very much for approving the compute run application, this will go to a good cause and help with SCP-1484 immensely.

Regarding the unrelated concerns you brought up during our talk: as brilliant and busy as you are, it would waste your talent and time to concern yourself with Site-17. That is my job, after all, and I can assure you I hold and enforce the highest ethical standards for my Site.

Best wishes,
Dr. Thomas Graham, Director of Site-17

+ Incident 1484-1

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Incident 1484-1: On 06/02/20██, Junior Researcher Evan Mondell filed with Site-17 HR and his manager, Senior Researcher Ignas Mažeika, a sexual harassment claim against his colleague on the SCP-1484 containment team, Researcher Maxwell Davis. Dr. Mondell alleged a persistent pattern of unwelcome, inappropriate actions directed at him during the study of and performance of tests on SCP-1484. Dr. Davis denied the claims, citing his lack of past such misconduct and his marriage to his husband. Per the Foundation Code of Conduct, as head of the SCP-1484 containment team, Dr. Mažeika immediately revoked Dr. Davis's Level 3/1484 need-to-know clearance pending investigation by the Site-17 Sitewide Disciplinary Committee. In a session chaired by Dr. Noah Gates, it confirmed Dr. Mondell's claim and Dr. Davis's reassignment from SCP-1484 to other projects. Per protocol, Dr. Davis's workstation was scrubbed of all SCP-1484-related material prior to his transfer.

From: Thomas Graham (pcs.71-etis|mahargt#pcs.71-etis|mahargt)
To: SCP-1484 Containment Team (pcs.4841-pcs|maet-tnemniatnoc#pcs.4841-pcs|maet-tnemniatnoc)
Subject: Recent events re: SCP-1484

I would like to use this incident to reiterate an important point to the SCP-1484 containment team. As Site Director, it is my personal responsibility and sincere desire to ensure we cultivate a welcoming, inclusive, and ethical culture for everyone at Site-17, regardless of background. I applaud the Sitewide Disciplinary Committee and Dr. Noah Gates for taking swift action, and the courage of the accuser to step forward. As the Foundation's premier humanoid containment site, we at Site-17 must and do hold ourselves to a higher standard and deal with any potential problems at the first sign.

On that note, happy Pride Month.

Best wishes,
Dr. Thomas Graham, Director of Site-17

A request by the Fire Suppression Department for a reinvestigation into the circumstances of Dr. Davis's reassignment from SCP-1484 was denied by Site Director Graham, followed by a meeting with FSD leadership. Dr. Davis left Foundation employ three months later.

+ Addendum 1484-5: Email Communications Regarding SCP-1484 Misinfo Application [LEVEL 4/1484]

+ Addendum 1484-6: SCP-1484 Test Log C (Site-17)

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Test ID: 1484-C-1
Researcher: Ignas Mažeika
Input: ²⁰⁴Pb nuclei beam
Interaction: ${}^{204}_{82}\text{Pb} \rightarrow {}^{197}_{79}\text{Au} + 4n + 3e^+ + 6\gamma$
Notes: The purpose of this test was to experiment with SCP-1484's anomalous effect on a much heavier atomic nucleus.

ETHICS COMMITTEE EXPERT WITNESS ANNOTATION

In this test, the SCP-1484 containment team turned lead into gold (which they neglected to mention, besides the equation). And, so it seems, Site-17's wizard king in the high court reinvented alchemy from a scientific basis.

— Dr. Cordelia Argent

Researcher: Ignas Mažeika
Interaction: ${}^{204}_{82}\text{Pb} \rightarrow {}^{197}_{79}\text{Au} + 4n + 12\gamma$

Test ID	Input	Output
1484-C-2	1ng of ²⁰⁴Pb	0.966ng of ¹⁹⁷Au
1484-C-3	1µg of ²⁰⁴Pb	0.966µg of ¹⁹⁷Au
1484-C-4	1g of ²⁰⁴Pb	0.966g of ¹⁹⁷Au
1484-C-5	12.8kg of ²⁰⁴Pb	12.4kg of ¹⁹⁷Au

[Tests 1484-C-6 through 1484-C-3004 omitted for brevity]
Notes: The purpose of these tests was to experiment with the effect of SCP-1484 on macroscopic input quantities. Excess neutrons were disposed of in boron rods. All macroscopic outputs were stored in the adjacent containment chamber as per Special Containment Procedures.

ETHICS COMMITTEE EXPERT WITNESS ANNOTATION

The SCP-1484 containment team ramped up their tests from beams of atoms to macroscopic inputs, with an enormous accompanying increase in input energy as mentioned in Addendum 1484-5.

Since the tests now use full atoms, including orbiting electrons, rather than just atomic nuclei, the positron (antimatter electron) byproducts now annihilate the leftover electrons. This is in addition to the pion self-annihilation mentioned in Test 1484-B-1. Even non-technical readers know how energetic, or explosive, antimatter annihilation is. That SCP-1484 can contain these energies inside itself without being destroyed must be a secondary anomalous property. This is completely omitted from the Description, I suspect to avoid inviting further questions.

— Dr. Cordelia Argent

+ Incident 1484-2 [LEVEL 4/1484]

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On ██/██/20██, most of the SCP-1484 containment team took a five-day trip to Bangkok to attend a physics research conference. On the final day of the trip, after the team returned from a late-night teambuilding activity to their hotel at the Four Seasons Bangkok, the Royal Thai Police arrested Junior Researcher Evan Mondell on charges of public intoxication, drug possession, and assault of a law enforcement officer. Local Foundation assets regained custody of Dr. Mondell and erased Thai state records of the incident, then referred the matter to the Foundation's Internal Tribunal. Senior Researcher Mažeika summarily suspended his Level 2/1484 clearance per the Foundation Code of Conduct.

The Internal Tribunal convicted Junior Researcher Mondell of the levied charges and sentenced him to [PERSONAL DATA REDACTED], permanently removing him from the SCP-1484 containment team. The trial also uncovered that the SCP-1484 containment team had visited an adult entertainment venue for the "teambuilding activity" prior to Dr. Mondell's arrest, where additional criminal conduct by him had occurred. The team missed the first three days of the conference, instead staying at the luxury resort Amanpuri in Phuket with travel via chartered flight. Dr. Mažeika also failed to pay customs duty for a substantial gift for his wife (purchased on the trip with personal funds) upon reentering the US.

Dr. Mažeika attributed the choice of entertainment venue to a mistranslation during trip planning and the failure to recognize its nature once there to inebriation. He did not deny the Phuket side-trip, but explained that the team deserved a break after the "exhausting" work conducting thousands of tests for Test Log C and the extensive computer simulations required beforehand. He then obtained exceptional, retroactive approval for the side-trip as an "off-site retreat" from Site Director Graham. Dr. Mažeika received a reprimand for the inappropriate charter flight (in non-conformance with Foundation expense policy) and disgorged the cost back to the Foundation from his personal funds. He also paid the outstanding tax to US Customs and Border Protection.

Site-17 Ethics Committee Liaison Flora Marinos requested an investigative warrant for the SCP-1484 team due to its blatant unethical behavior in Incident 1484-2 and strong suspicion of further malfeasance. Site Director Graham denied the warrant, citing that SCP-1484 is a non-sentient anomaly based on advanced physics, that the Ethics Committee's jurisdiction extends to review of Special Containment Procedures and their execution only, and that Incident 1484-2 thus has no relevance to the Ethics Committee. He further stated the misconduct was confined to an individual team member, already disciplined by the Internal Tribunal.

+ Incident 1484-3

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On ██/██/20██, a large explosion (~10 tons of TNT, comparable in size to the GBU-43/B Massive Ordinance Air Blast, the largest non-nuclear bomb) occurred in the ancillary containment chamber of SCP-1484, where its testing outputs and byproducts are stored. The contents of the ancillary chamber (later accounted as 497 standard gold bars and 3000 boron rods) acted as shrapnel, further propagating damage throughout the facility.

Incident 1484-3 resulted in the inadvertent neutralization of 3 SCP objects (including SCP-1484 itself, which sustained heavy damage and was rendered inoperative) and the containment breach of 9 other SCP anomalies (including a Keter-class anomaly). In the direct aftermath of the explosion, 16 Foundation personnel and 8 D-class personnel lost their lives, while a further 29 Foundation personnel perished in subsequent recontainment efforts. The Site-17 sewage and electrical systems also sustained damage which required 2 weeks to repair, causing morale issues. Overall, Incident 1484-3 is estimated to have caused $███ million in damage and reconstruction costs to Site-17. Furthermore, in combination with prior poor investment decisions by its fiduciary and adverse market events (primarily a decline in the precious metals markets due to an influx of supply), the Site-17 life insurance policy was exhausted by this mass-casualty event, forcing it to default on beneficiaries and curtail payouts.

Subsequent investigation found trace amounts of platinum at the explosion site. It concluded that ~30.3mg of a single standard 12.4kg gold bar had undergone anomalous proton decay.

ETHICS COMMITTEE EXPERT WITNESS ANNOTATION

The Ethics Committee asked me to explain how Incident 1484-3 could have possibly occurred, given SCP-1484's effect had previously been thought to be confined within itself, during activations. I have some ideas based on the doublet-triplet splitting problem in SU(5) and SO(10) theories which the SCP-1484 containment team should have been aware of, given the expertise they've otherwise shown in this SCP file, but my conclusion is much simpler and more human. The SCP-1484 containment team displayed an astounding lack of basic anomaly research competence and containment care in failing to even consider whether the anomalously high proton decay rate Γ, which they even measured and remarked upon for objects inside SCP-1484 in Test 1484-C-1, might persist to some residual degree for those objects outside of it, especially before recklessly performing tests on the sheer scale that they did. The team didn't care to know - or perhaps for some reason, didn't want to know.

— Dr. Cordelia Argent

+ Addendum 1484-7: Ethics Committee Investigation

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Per standard protocol, given the scale of the containment breach in Incident 1484-3, external containment specialist Dr. Marisa Norwood was brought in from Site-19 to review the incident, containment procedures, and overall Site response, as well as write a post-mortem with recommended best practices. After initial investigation, Dr. Norwood referred the matter to the Ethics Committee, citing improper storage conditions and inadequate Special Containment Procedures for SCP-1484 test byproducts, a difficult-to-read SCP file that prevents understanding the anomaly or its containment breach, and suspicion of further malfeasance warranting a more detailed investigation. The O5 Council voted 9-4 to override Site Director Graham's veto and grant the Ethics Committee a full investigative warrant into the SCP-1484 containment team.

The Ethics Committee, led by Site-17 Liaison Flora Marinos, initiated its inquest with a review of SCP-1484-related documents and interviews with team members, although it was hampered by the absence of many documents (later found to be deleted or destroyed by the containment team during the two days between Director Graham's veto and the O5 Council vote).

INTERVIEWER: Flora Marinos, Site-17 Ethics Committee Liaison
INTERVIEWEE: Senior Researcher Ignas Mažeika, Containment Lead for SCP-1484
SUBJECT: Testimony of Dr. Mažeika in Ethics Committee Investigation of SCP-1484

<BEGIN LOG>

Dr. Mažeika slowly opens the door to Liaison Marinos's office. Liaison Marinos is annotating some papers as Dr. Mažeika looks around before taking a seat.

Dr. Mažeika: Um, good afternoon, Ms. Marinos.

Liaison Marinos looks up, sets aside her papers, and offers a hand, which Dr. Mažeika accepts after some hesitation.

Liaison Marinos: Good afternoon, Dr. Mažeika. Please, relax.

Dr. Mažeika does a shallow laugh.

Dr. Mažeika: Well, easier said than done. I hope you forgive my nerves, even if I'm sure it doesn't help me, but I'm sure you understand. Ethics Committee talking to me after a major containment breach, it's not exactly a pleasant scenario.

Liaison Marinos: It's perfectly understandable, Dr. Mažeika, but I assure you our involvement should be considered routine, even if Graham thinks otherwise. After an incident this large, we should always review the involved anomaly's Special Containment Procedures and their execution.

Dr. Mažeika: That's a relief to hear. Truth be told, though I'd like to clarify that an honest mistake, or not even a mistake here, an oversight, isn't wrongdoing and in fact is sometimes unavoidable, I do feel bad about what happened. It was a terrible accident and while there was no way I could have known or prevented it beforehand, such is the nature of working with anomalies, it did ultimately happen on my watch.

Liaison Marinos: Well, I'm sorry to hear that, but I am glad that you're taking ownership of your supervisory role. It shows responsibility, which can't be taken for granted here. And you are right that mistakes aren't misconduct. We're all on the same side here: everyone's goal is improving containment and making sure something like this doesn't happen again.

Dr. Mažeika: Yeah, I agree with that. I'm happy to help any way I can, just ask.

Liaison Marinos laughs.

Liaison Marinos: Well, maybe the first thing is helping me understand this SCP file. My liberal arts degree definitely didn't cover squiggle diagrams and formulas in Greek.

Dr. Mažeika smiles.

Dr. Mažeika: You know, I remember back when I first wrote this file and submitted it for Ethics Committee review, you guys did come back and ask me to clarify. So I included that long footnote on gauge theory. You guys did end up approving it, so you must have found it helpful.

Liaison Marinos: Well it's all Greek to me, literally I think, but the anomaly itself is highly technical so what could we do? At the time we didn't see much that could be done to make the file more readable.

Dr. Mažeika: Yes, SCP-1484 is indeed a very complicated anomaly. I sympathize with your position.

Liaison Marinos: Thanks for the sentiment. First question then, could you please explain why you had to conduct over three thousand tests in Series-C?

Dr. Mažeika: Ah, well as you can see in Test Series B as context, there is a probabilistic component to this anomaly which requires many iterations to measure. For example, we computed branching ratios, which are a kind of probability, for different decay modes. We also tried measuring the discrepancy in Γ, which factors into another kind of probability if you think of it as parameterizing a Poisson process, versus the below equation from the Machacek paper:

Dr. Mažeika begins writing on a piece of paper, which Liaison Marinos interrupts with a chuckle.

Liaison Marinos: That'll be more than enough, Dr. Mažeika - it's all wasted on me. Your qualifications to lead this project shine through, though, as does your eagerness to share your expertise in helping us.

Dr. Mažeika: Thank you, Ms. Marinos, you flatter me. I ask in earnestness though, so please don't take offense: what added value do you feel the Ethics Committee could contribute to this review in that case?

Liaison Marinos: Well we have to try, right? Got to justify our paychecks somehow. Maybe I should switch tracks to something more in my wheelhouse: as their manager, can you elaborate what acts of sexual harassment former employee Dr. Davis perpetrated against Dr. Mondell in Incident 1484-1 that merited his removal from the team?

Dr. Mažeika blinks several times.

Dr. Mažeika: Forgive my reaction. It's just quite unexpected, as it's quite a personal matter and has nothing to do with the containment breach. Per the Foundation Code of Conduct I have nothing to add besides the findings of the Sitewide Disciplinary Committee, which confirmed Dr. Mondell's accusations, nor am I obligated to speak further on this matter.

Liaison Marinos: I see. Nevertheless, I must persist on this question.

Dr. Mažeika: Let me be clearer, Ms. Marinos. Per Title 9 of the Foundation Code of Conduct, I am obligated not to disclose information entrusted to me on subordinates in my care regarding such sensitive matters.

Liaison Marinos: I appreciate your commitment to the Foundation Code of Conduct, Dr. Mažeika, but I might also point out that the same Code of Conduct Title 9 compels you to cooperate with Ethics Committee inquests and overrides other privacy requirements.

Dr. Mažeika: Only applicable within the warrant and remit of the Ethics Committee, which is to say, Special Containment Procedures and anomaly interaction. You'll need to explain why you're interested in this information.

Liaison Marinos: I will, later in this interview.

Dr. Mažeika: That sounds a lot like "trust me", which seems difficult to distinguish from "I'm going rogue". All the information you need should be accessible with your clearance from the Sitewide Disciplinary Committee's records, so why are you even interested in this tangential matter to begin with?

Liaison Marinos: That is precisely what prompted me to investigate this, Dr. Mažeika. The committee minutes and records on Incident 1484-1 were…vague, to say the least. So I attempted to piece together what happened myself, using what little details there were on the time and place of Dr. Davis's actions coupled with Site-17 surveillance footage. It was a slog, but this is what I found.

Liaison Marinos retrieves a few papers from behind her desk.

Liaison Marinos: Bringing the team slices of some rainbow cakes that Senior Researcher Zhang had baked. Sticking a Pride flag on his workstation, and putting up another one after Dr. Mondell took it down. Wishing people a happy Pride month after Dr. Mondell asked him to stop, and even after you ordered him to stop at Dr. Mondell's request. Is this correct?

Dr. Mažeika: …Again, I have nothing to add to the findings of the committee. Actually, I will say, the local cultural standards of Site-17 are not an ethical issue for you which permits your investigation. And I do think even you would agree with me that Dr. Davis's behavior and insubordination were creating a hostile work environment for my team that merited discipline. He really should have kept politics out of the workplace.

Liaison Marinos leans in.

Liaison Marinos: Was it because he was gay?

Dr. Mažeika: Since I am bound towards honesty in my Ethics Committee testimony, I must disclose that I will never understand how an organization like the Foundation not only does not view homosexuality as an affront to the spirit of normalcy we supposedly protect, but celebrates it for a whole month, as if we might next permit Serpent's Hand banners in the breakroom. But even so, no, I emphasize I would never take, or in this case allow others to take, such action against Dr. Davis solely for that attribute, distasteful as I find it. I am a professional. Polygraph me, geas me, it will confirm the same.

Liaison Marinos: No need, I believe you.

Dr. Mažeika: Thank-

Liaison Marinos: A day before Dr. Mondell reported Dr. Davis and you then immediately revoked his Level 3/1484 clearance and access to SCP-1484-related files, Dr. Davis sent you this email regarding SCP-1484.

Liaison Marinos produces a printout and slides it over to Dr. Mažeika.

From: Maxwell Davis (pcs.71-etis|sivadxam#pcs.71-etis|sivadxam)
To: Ignas Mažeika (pcs.71-etis|zmsangi#pcs.71-etis|zmsangi)
Subject: RE: SCP-1484 compute results discussion

[-team]
Dr. Mažeika,

I need to have a serious conversation. You had initially convinced me this project was for a good cause, but after reviewing the latest Series-C testing proposal and simulation results I can no longer support the sheer scale you propose in good conscience. The amounts of ingoing and outgoing energy and material we are dealing with, the likes of which one rarely sees in the normal course of Foundation work, are a gamble on an extremely advanced, physics-breaking anomaly we barely understand. Just because we can write equations for its behavior doesn't mean we know everything it does. It was tolerable before but now it's too much of a risk. This goes against all containment research good practice and our mission, not to mention…I don't need to write it, you know.

As your longtime colleague and out of my respect and camaraderie for you, I told myself I had to give you an opportunity to swerve from this path. But just so you know I'm serious, if you do not, I have almost finished preparing a report to send to the Ethics Committee, with all the details. To be clear, this project will not continue in its current form.

With regards and your friend,
Max
Researcher and Containment Specialist, Site-17

Dr. Mažeika: This is fake. You should know that, infosec required that all SCP-1484-related material be deleted from his workstation upon his removal from the team.

Liaison Marinos: Per policy change in light of past incidents, communications of personnel found to have engaged in workplace harassment or assault are archived on RAISA-approved Deepwell storage, regardless of infosec concerns, in case they are needed for future investigations.

Dr. Mažeika exhales.

Dr. Mažeika: This is a philosophical disagreement on research approach from a disgruntled, eventually-disgraced colleague who is no longer here to elaborate. I will allow that in this case he may have turned out to be right, but such routine disagreements occur on every containment team. And not every one of them gets it right.

Liaison Marinos: Isn't the timing a little odd though?

Dr. Mažeika shrugs.

Dr. Mažeika: Not really. Actually, maybe Dr. Davis's recalcitrance and antisocial behavior, which led to Incident 1484-1, sprung from feelings of frustration regarding this matter. Who knows.

Liaison Marinos: If you say so. Moving on, I had a few other questions. You conducted over 3000 Series-C tests, and there were 3000 boron rods in the ancillary containment chamber, but only 497 gold bars. Now I'm not a math expert, but even I can recognize a discrepancy here. Could you explain it?

Dr. Mažeika: Sure. If you refer to Tests 1484-B-1 through 10, you'll see that the proton decay mode in SCP-1484, while always resulting in some hadron and lepton, can take 10 different specific forms with different branching ratios B, some of them quite exotic. Interacting with SCP-1484 and producing outputs we expect was a trial-and-error process that did not always have the predicted results.

Liaison Marinos nods.

Liaison Marinos: I see. Now, could you explain the choice to produce gold in particular?

Dr. Mažeika: Well, there's a few motivations here. One is that lead as an input was quite cheap. Down the periodic table, mercury was one alternative output, but as it's a liquid at room temperature it would be more difficult to store. Thallium is toxic whereas gold is not, so the choice is settled. It also, well, happens to be more useful. Exploring applications of an SCP object is not unethical - I don't see you interrogating Dr. Norwood over SCP-914.

Liaison Marinos: Yes, yes, you're correct. But coinciding at the same time as a large increase in Site-17's expenditures?

Dr. Mažeika: The two are not related. I'm not familiar with the specifics as I'm not in accounting, but the one time I asked Site administration about the matter, they cited increased revenues from certain SCP objects as the explanation.

Liaison Marinos: But you can see where I'm coming from, can't you, Dr. Mažeika?

Dr. Mažeika: I'll admit, I do. But there is nothing untoward about our handling of SCP-1484, Ms. Marinos. Your investigative warrant has entailed full access to our team and our records, including me at this very moment, and you have not succeeded in producing a single definitive piece of evidence. I understand Site-17's reputation, but perhaps it's time to call game on this one and bench your overactive imagination. This is not a humanoid anomaly, after all.

Liaison Marinos rises from her chair, retrieving another printout, and paces up to Dr. Mažeika's side.

Liaison Marinos: You know what, Dr. Mažeika? I'll concede you're right. You've done a very good job, better than almost anyone else I've seen. I haven't been able to find a single smoking gun tying you to my hypothesis. But we've had Dr. Cordelia Argent study this file as an expert witness.

Dr. Mažeika: I'm sorry, who?

Liaison Marinos: Dr. Cordelia Argent, Principal Researcher at the Astronomical Phenomena Division and expert in physics. She wrote the following explanatory note on the potential future impact of SCP-1484's test products:

She hands Dr. Mažeika the piece of paper.

So, how bad is it? My calculations based on existing literature and remaining SCP-1484 documents show a single proton decay releases 938 MeV. In other words, if a proton in each atom of a single gold bar decayed at once, it would release 1.3 megatons of TNT, comparable to a strategic nuclear warhead.

But it's actually worse than that, as Tests 1484-B-3 through 7 indicate a tiny probability of proton decay into strange matter, which could literally destroy the world in an XK-class scenario (see SCP-6959 for details).

The SCP-1484 containment team's reckless actions have created a Keter-class threat to humanity out of a Safe-class object.

Dr. Mažeika's hands shake. Liaison Marinos speaks into his ear.

Liaison Marinos: I don't have a smoking gun right now. But if you did do anything, given what we now know about what SCP-1484 does to its outputs, the Foundation is guaranteed to find out eventually. And given what will happen eventually in that case, you'll find you'll be much better off telling the Foundation than having it find out. You'll find how much better it is to be charged under the Code of Conduct's Title 7, Anomaly Misuse, than Title 12, K-class and Lifted Veil Scenarios. And I will say, if you try to run, and there's any SCP-1484 outputs floating out there that go boom, in whatever spectacular weird physics way they go boom, you'll find the Foundation to be the least of your problems at that point and there will be nowhere to run.

Dr. Mažeika swallows and slumps in his chair. His eyes go distant.

Liaison Marinos: So, Dr. Mažeika, tell me.

Dr. Mažeika whispers.

Dr. Mažeika: L-look, it was all for the Foundation. Site-17 has fallen on some hard times budget-wise, and it was affecting our mission. We even almost cut the on-site counseling program. But-

Liaison Marinos: Eugh, really? It's come to this? Don't try to moralize to me, I can't stand it.

Liaison Marinos grabs from her desk a sheet of paper with a list of names of personnel deceased in Incident 1484-3.

Liaison Marinos: All for the Foundation? Was it for MTF Commander Charles Saltzman? Or Senior Researcher Sunny Zhang? Or Containment Engineer George Whelan? Or…

Liaison Marinos scans down the list.

Liaison Marinos: Or Junior Researcher Bridget Parker, on your own containment team? Was Incident 1484-3 "for the Foundation"?

Dr. Mažeika rises and shouts back.

Dr. Mažeika: Look, look you ivory tower prick! You might have lucked into this job with your stupid liberal arts degree, but I've worked here for over twenty years! And I worked many years before that to get my Ph.D. from Cornell! Work that some Ethics prick like you would never even begin to understand! And what do I have to show for it? I had a friend in grad school who went on to work for Jane Street, and he makes more in a year than I think I've made in my whole life! You know what Foundation pay is like, especially after the recent budget cuts here. But the most insulting part, I mean, it's not even for the greater good, even within the same Foundation - have you ever been to Site-15?

Liaison Marinos shakes her head.

Dr. Mažeika: Byrnes and I had gone a few times. The entry-level Junior Researchers there make more than I do. They have on-site massages and a former Michelin-star chef in their canteen and a fucking art gallery. Hishakaku in AIAD has his own jet and spends more on GPUs than the entire Site-17 budget even though it's a sub-department of a sub-department, when I could have probably explained SCP-1484 and invented a Star Trek replicator out of it with that sort of budget. Site Director McDoctorate has a bowl of absurdly delicious chocolate bars in his office next to his Rubik's cubes, for any visitor to take, and someone told me afterward each one costs $100. The money exists, but whatever priorities the Foundation and the O5 Council have, it's not us! Look around! Even when Site-17 can magically scrounge up some change for any degree of intricate containment chambers or procedures, all of a sudden there isn't any for salaries! Even the humanoid skips here at least don't have to worry about paying a mortgage or groceries.

Dr. Mažeika catches his breath.

Dr. Mažeika: And my wife…if you had to deal with her, you'd do the same thing too! She screams at me, she hits me, the worst thing is she makes me apologize afterwards and I feel like I'm losing my fucking mind! All because I can't satisfy her lifestyle with my shitty Foundation income! I can't even divorce her because we live in a community property state so I'll probably lose the house, which means guess what? I get to live in on-site housing and never have a life again, for the rest of my life. So yeah, fuck it, I did it and I'd do it again. The year I milked SCP-1484, hell yeah, I finally felt like a proper man in my fifties. Like I was finally being compensated for all my work here and all my unique expertise, which has saved the world numerous times, mind you. Even my wife seemed happy for the first time in years, an impossibility, and that alone made me happy, or at least relieved to be free from her shit. Hell, Graham's known about how shit my home life has been for years, you can ask him when you talk to him.

Liaison Marinos: Site Director Graham was involved in this?

Dr. Mažeika suddenly quiets. His expression freezes.

Dr. Mažeika: No, no, no, no, no. It was all my doing, Graham had absolutely nothing to do with it. No order, not even any knowledge. Everything, I initiated myself. Even in the worst times in my life, when my wife was destroying it and I had nobody else, Graham was the only positive thing I could rely on in my life. He was always there for me. I would be nothing without him. I wanted to repay him, to help him in a tough spot when he's always helped me so much. I….

Dr. Mažeika buries his head in his hands.

Dr. Mažeika: I just wanted to make him proud.

Liaison Marinos waits for Dr. Mažeika to recompose himself.

Liaison Marinos: So to be clear, you and the SCP-1484 containment team embezzled the gold produced from SCP-1484?

Dr. Mažeika: …Yes.

Liaison Marinos: How many bars are missing?

Dr. Mažeika: 2503.

Liaison Marinos: Jesus. And where are they now?

Dr. Mažeika shrugs and makes an emphatic "I don't know" gesture.

Liaison Marinos: What do you mean you don't know?

Dr. Mažeika: The team and I sold a few of them, but we gave out quite a lot to other teams, so-

Liaison Marinos: Wait, other teams?

Dr. Mažeika: Yeah, at least ten others. Maybe more. Security, accounting, some containment teams. Some of them to launder the money into Site funds or spend on containment, some to, you know, grease the wheels. It wasn't just me, it was the whole Site.

Liaison Marinos: …Jesus. Alright, one more question for today's interview: you did stamp trackable serial numbers on the bars, right? Right?

Dr. Mažeika does not respond.

Liaison Marinos: [EXPLETIVE DELETED]

Liaison Marinos sighs, regains her composure, and jots down some notes.

Liaison Marinos: This concludes this interview. Thank you for your cooperation, Dr. Mažeika. We will be speaking again soon.

<END LOG>

Further Ethics Committee investigation found that the amount of money embezzled from the SCP-1484 project, in the form of gold bar testing outputs, totaled $1.3 billion USD. It found the vast majority of it was spent on Site-17 containment and operating expenses, mainly to compensate for the Site's budget deficit. This was primarily accomplished either through laundering the proceeds through cashflow-positive SCP objects (such as SCP-7191) into the Site budget or having containment teams directly sell the gold themselves and pay containment-related expenses in cash without recording. Other amounts were distributed among departments such as Security (to allow the gold to be smuggled out of the Site) or Accounting (to hide irregularities) to enable the scheme to continue. The Ethics Committee did find substantial irregular expenditures tied to SCP-1484-derived funds, a few of the most illustrative examples included below:

Dr. Mažeika's personal expenditures:
- $5 million Lake Tahoe vacation home
- 3 Hermès women's handbags (including an alligator-leather Birkin)
- 2 Chanel classic flap bags
- a Cartier diamond Baignoire watch
- a set of Harry Winston diamond rings
- a Van Cleef & Arpels guilloche alhambra 20-motif necklace
- a Porsche 911
SCP-1484 containment team expenditures:
- the trip to Bangkok in Incident 1484-2
- several trips to Barcelona, Athens, Miami, Dubai, Geneva, and Kyoto for "research conferences"
- trips to Las Vegas and Jackson Hole as "team retreats"
- a trip to Paris including only Senior Researcher Ignas Mažeika and Junior Researcher Bridget Parker
- a lavish team Christmas party at a private room in the French Laundry
- illegal narcotics
- an Illy coffeemaker in the team breakroom
Personal expenditures of other teams' members:
- real estate in the Bay Area and Sacramento
- luxury cars, alcohol, and illegal narcotics of various kinds
- contemporary art
Site administration expenditures:
- an upgrade of the Site Director's official car from a BMW 3 Series to a Bentley Flying Spur
- an upgrade of the on-site executive jet from an Embraer Phenom 300 to a Gulfstream G650ER
- a new Nobu-branded Japanese food station at the Site-17 canteen for Level 4 staff and above
- remodeled private dining and conference rooms
- enhanced security for high-ranking Site-17 personnel, including retired personnel

Overall, the Ethics Committee implicated 7% of the entire staff of Site-17 in awareness of or direct involvement in the scheme, indicating an institutional-level broad degradation of culture surrounding ethics and integrity. It thus concluded punishing every participant would harm the ability of Site-17 to accomplish its containment objectives and focused on only the most egregious conduct, such as that of the SCP-1484 containment team and several key players in other teams.

Site Director Graham refused to sit for an interview. After negotiations, however, he agreed to submit the following statement to the Ethics Committee:

From: Thomas Graham (pcs.71-etis|mahargt#pcs.71-etis|mahargt)
To: Ethics Committee (pcs.scihte|eettimmoc-scihte#pcs.scihte|eettimmoc-scihte)
Subject: Statement regarding SCP-1484

To the Ethics Committee,

As Site-17 Director, I am just as heartbroken as you about the recent containment breach at my Site. Many talented colleagues of mine, including some I handpicked, made the ultimate sacrifice for our Foundation's mission of containment. Many more were left with trauma or life-changing injuries.

And just like you, I express the utmost disappointment in Senior Researcher Ignas Mažeika's leadership and his team. Dr. Mažeika was a friend for many years, and in all my time knowing him I could have never imagined he would be capable of such scandal. My specialty was not in physics, and I supervise thousands of anomalies of all different kinds in Site-17, particularly the humanoids for which we are known for and for which I am an expert. For an SCP object as highly technical and incomprehensible as SCP-1484, I have no choice but to rely on the judgement and trust of subject matter experts like Dr. Mažeika. If we held all Site Directors to such a standard for supervising all of their anomalies that we required them to effectively hold a degree in every field imaginable, we would not have any Site Directors for much longer. The one thing I will confess to is that I was a poor judge of Dr. Mažeika's character, and to reiterate, he has let me down deeply.

Let me know if I can be of any further assistance in this investigation.

Best wishes,
Dr. Thomas Graham, Director of Site-17

Although the Ethics Committee could not identify any direct evidence implicating Director Graham in any wrongdoing related to SCP-1484, the Committee nonetheless recommended a reprimand and three months of remedial therapy and management leadership training for gross supervisory negligence leading to containment breach and unprofessional conduct. The O5 Council voted 7-6 to confirm the punishments for supervisory negligence. It rejected the charge of unprofessional behavior and shortened the remedial therapy and training period to one month, citing Director Graham's many responsibilities.

The Ethics Committee found Senior Researcher Mažeika and the entire SCP-1484 containment team in violation of the following sections of the Foundation Code of Conduct, and referred them to the Internal Tribunal:

Theft of Foundation funds, equipment, personnel, documentation, or other property (Title 1, Chapter 6 § 1.1)
Misuse of Foundation resources or services (Title 1, Chapter 6 § 1.3)
Misuse of formal position to extort, manipulate, or otherwise negatively affect other members of Foundation Staff. (Title 1, Chapter 7 § 1)
Misuse of formal position for inappropriate personal benefit (Title 1, Chapter 7 § 3)
Gross negligence of an anomaly (Title 3, Chapter 2 § 2.4.1)
Improper or unethical research agenda for an anomaly (Title 3, Chapter 2 § 2.6.1)
Unauthorized release of an anomaly from containment (Title 3, Chapter 2 § 2.7.4)
Misuse of official documentation to present false or inaccurate information. (Title 5, Chapter 3 § 1.1)
Intentional obfuscation of details in official documentation. (Title 5, Chapter 3 § 2)
Intentionally improper, incomplete, or inadequate Special Containment Procedures. (Title 5, Chapter 3 § 3.3)
Personal misuse of an anomaly (Title 7, Chapter 1 § 1.1)
Theft of a Foundation anomaly (Title 7, Chapter 1 § 1.2)
Misuse of an internal disciplinary proceeding (Title 9, Chapter 8 § 1)
Gross negligence leading to or significantly increasing risk of K-class scenario (Title 12, Chapter 2 § 3.6)

The Ethics Committee also referred the following Site-17 personnel from other teams to the Internal Tribunal: [PERSONAL DATA REDACTED]

The Ethics Committee recommends the following changes be made to this Special Containment Procedures file:

reclassification to Keter
redesignation of the remains of SCP-1484 as SCP-1484-1, and its testing outputs (3000 gold bars and 3000 boron rods) as SCP-1484-2
modification to special containment procedures to move SCP-1484-2 to a blast-shielded underground containment chamber in Area-42 under Cheyenne Mountain, pending feasibility and funding study for space-based disposal. All mandated amendments to special containment procedures shall remain the financial responsibility of Site-17 regardless of the physical Sites involved.
modification to special containment procedures to establish a search effort for the remaining unaccounted instances of SCP-1484-2 (2258 remaining, 245 recovered) and research efforts to find ways to identify SCP-1484-2 instances. Site-17 is to cover all research costs, as well as all recovery and (if necessary) compensation costs.
- SCP-1484-2 instances are subatomically identical to non-anomalous gold according to existing technology. The only means of studying the novel force, SCP-1484, is broken.
- research efforts have found SCP-1484-2 instances that have undergone microscopic proton decay events are identifiable by trace platinum impurities
addition of a special personnel requirement that the new Containment Lead not be former or present Site-17 staff. Containment Lead shall have as primary reporting manager a Site Director other than Site-17 Director Graham, with Director Graham as a secondary reporting manager.
stipulation that the new SCP-1484 containment team will retain probationary status and be subject to Ethics Committee review or inquest at any time, without need for a new warrant
requirement that the Description be rewritten in plain English, comprehensible to non-technical staff as well as members of the Ethics Committee

Additionally, after reviewing investigation materials, external Directors added the following sanctions to this investigation:

Site-17 is to compensate Site-Mayim for the loss of SCP-1484 per standard SCP object loan insurance terms (to be invoiced within the fiscal year, estimated Fr. 85 million CHF) - Director Parmelin, Site-Mayim
Dr. Ignas Mažeika and his teams have received a permanent ban from off-Site Foundation computing resources for material misrepresentation on an IT Department compute application. Dr. Rachel Steele and her teams have also received a 2-year ban for gross negligence in the same. Since Dr. Steele heads Site-17's CS division, Site-17 will require another Site to partner with it for any compute applications for this period. Site-17 itself has also received probationary status and deprioritization for all applications and requests, and a $3 million fine payable to the IT Department for misuse of Foundation resources. -Director Miyamizu, IT Department

Lastly, Site-17 Ethics Committee Liaison Marinos wishes to attach to this file in full the following Victim Impact Statement by Researcher Ashley Averett, one of twenty-nine read out to the Internal Tribunal after the trial of Senior Researcher Mažeika, with her consent.

Transcript from Foundation Internal Tribunal case: Ignas Mažeika v. SCP Foundation

<BEGIN LOG>

Researcher Ashley Averett takes the stand and begins reading off a stack of papers. Her right arm is in a sling.

Dr. Averett: My fiancée, Senior Researcher Sunny Zhang, is…will be best remembered to the people in this court today, to her colleagues and personnel writ broadly of Site-17 and elsewhere, as a brilliant scientist and containment specialist who contributed to or led the containment of fifteen SCP anomalies over the course of her career.

One insane fact which I think encapsulates much about Sunny is that she spent her first years at Site-43 before putting in a transfer request to Site-17. Of course everyone asked her why she did this, myself included, and she always gave the same answer: "The same reason I joined the Foundation: to make the world a better place." Sunny wasn't blind, she knew exactly what Site-17 was like and chose it intentionally, concluding her talents would better improve the world here than as another set of good hands there.

I'll admit I wasn't in a good place when Sunny transferred to our site. I was on Prozac and seeing a shrink and neither did anything, like a typical 17er. But when she opened the door to our lab, it was like, well, sunshine emanated from her. From her expression to her excited hand gestures to her extremely bright-colored dresses and frilly fashion which I fell in love with the moment I laid eyes on them. You know "Site-17 face" if you've been here long enough? She never had it somehow. Some people almost found it all offensive. But me? I couldn't really feel it at the time, but even without knowing I would just gravitate beside her, like a person numb from coldness instinctually seeking warmth. I think even the humanoid skips, God have mercy on them, enjoyed talking with her, especially once she started leading teams and introduced her unorthodox 43er containment approach. Man, that really pissed off Graham, but even he couldn't argue with his favorite containment efficiency numbers: happier skips are quieter, cheaper skips.

The feeling was always there, but I don't know when I actually realized it. Maybe it was her escalating attempts to get Dr. Steele to laugh at the Christmas party which made me laugh instead. Maybe it was when I hiked the Site-17 nature reserve with her, a bunch of dull rocks and trees which had never interested me before, but suddenly brightened in vivid color as she explained everything excitedly and compared it to her childhood adventures in Canada. Maybe it was the first time she made some of her mom's soup dumplings for the team so we could take a break from the canteen slurry, which I'd give anything to have again right now. Or maybe it was just every humdrum day we spent together shoulder-to-shoulder in the lab, how her academic demeanor and eager curiosity transformed even the driest discussion about containment procedures or test results into something fun when it was with her. But one day I realized I liked spending time with her. And, maybe, well, I liked her.

With all the blind bravery of a crack addict who knew nothing else good about the world, I asked her out. To my surprise, she said she had never been in a relationship before, certainly not with another girl, but said she was willing to try it out with me. "Try" turned into years without her breaking up with me, somehow, until one day we were in the lab at like 1am typing up the containment procedures for SCP-████ when she told me she loved me, explaining that she realized she had never said it before, and I fell out of my chair and hit the back of my head against a lab bench.

There were a lot of times I thought about leaving Site-17, or the Foundation, or life in general. The shrink and the Prozac never helped, but she did. How could I think such a thing when this literal angel said she loved me? How could I think of doing anything to hurt her like that? She finally gave me something to orient my life around.

We took a trip to Canada together. I think I gained some weight from all the Tim Hortons maple donuts and ketchup Pringles she fed me. She introduced me to her friends at Site-43, and then her family, who were much more chill about it than I expected. We shared a…kiss under the Niagara Falls instead of in front of it like you were supposed to, even though we got soaking wet, because she felt really shy about it.

When that geezer Graham, as much as he hated her, finally promoted her to Senior Researcher, I baked her a chocolate cake which turned out a complete lumpy disaster. It had "congrats" written in messy frosting and a small printed picture of a scowling Graham stuck into it with a pin, and I'll never forget her laugh. She got so excited about how with her new salary she could finally buy an off-site house with me and live together, even in this impossible housing market, when I remembered her giving up her favorite Starbucks frappes for that free black crap they have in the 17er break rooms for that goal. She started talking about pushing Project Persephone again, maybe getting a Department Director or the Ethics Committee to sign off on it to get past Graham. She told me she had to keep working hard because he couldn't be Site Director forever, and whenever the time came, who knew, she had to be ready…

There aren't really any nice restaurants near Site-17 given where it is, but I picked the nicest Italian place. I just knew it had to be off-Site.

She said yes.

Dr. Averett trails off as she fiddles with her ring. Her voice grows uneven.

Dr. Averett: Look, I knew this was a risky job. I just…I just thought, at worst, at least I'd get the chance to say goodbye to her while looking at her beautiful face…

Dr. Averett looks off to the side.

Dr. Averett: We were just walking to supervise SCP-████'s counseling session per containment procedures. She was wearing my favorite yellow one-piece under her labcoat and high heels, laughing as she was in the middle of some story about Dr. Lillihammer from her 43 days.

Dr. Averett pauses again, closing her eyes.

Dr. Averett: That gold bar just went through her skull like it wasn't there. I don't think I can ever wear a labcoat again, thinking about her, her brain splattered all…all over my…

Dr. Averett begins to hyperventilate.

Dr. Averett: Some of it got into my eyes, I think a piece even fell into my m-

Dr. Averett collapses against the stand, sobbing for twenty seconds and intermittently moaning Dr. Zhang's given name. The courtroom is otherwise silent. Towards the end an attorney from the prosecution approaches her, but Dr. Averett indicates she will finish her statement.

Dr. Averett: I, I would give anything for that brick to have hit me instead. She was the genius, she was the brave optimist despite everything, she was the one who could have changed Site-17 someday. She could have lived without me. I'm just another useless mediocre wreck and waste of emotional space like everyone else in this god-forsaken Site even though we literally contain god here. She was my better tomorrow and my whole world and you took her from me, you piece of shit!

Dr. Averett turns towards the defendant, Dr. Ignas Mažeika.

Dr. Averett: Fuck you, Dr. Mažeika! Fuck you, SCP-1484 containment team! Fuck you, Site-17! And-and fuck you, Director Graham! Do what you want to me, I don't care, because I have nothing left to live for!

I don't know if any of you soulless ghouls have ever loved anyone besides yourself, but I'd rather have her than all the billions that you stole!

Dr. Averett resumes loud sobbing as she steps off the stand for the next speaker.

Dr. Mažeika does not react.

<END LOG>

Footnotes

1. Explanatory note for non-expert personnel (as mandated by special containment procedure file guidelines): A gauge is a tensor function by which one can vary the matter or gauge fields and preserve the Lagrangian (energy dynamics) of the system. The simplest concrete example is electromagnetism defined by electric field vectors

\mathbf{E}

and magnetic field vectors

\mathbf{B}

, representable as a single 4-vector potential

\mathbf{A}_\mu = ( \mathbf{A}, \phi )

via

\mathbf{B} = \nabla \times \mathbf{A}, \mathbf{E} = -\nabla\phi - \partial\mathbf{A}/\partial t

. Then

\mathbf{E}, \mathbf{B}

are invariant under the transformation by scalar gauge function

\Lambda(x^\mu)

for

\mathbf{A'} = \mathbf{A} + \nabla\Lambda, \phi' = \phi - \partial\Lambda/\partial t

(note the Minkowski metric sign convention). The associated Lie algebra is

i\Lambda

, which generates a Lie group of gauge transformations via

g(x^\mu) = e^{i\Lambda(x^\mu)}

. These transformations have the property of preserving the covariant derivative when they act on the matter field

\psi

. In other words,

D_\mu\psi' = D_\mu(g(x^\mu)\psi) = g(x^\mu)D_\mu\psi

for covariant derivative

D_\mu = (\partial_\mu - i e \mathbf{A}_\mu)

(a motivation and derivation of this is in Document 1484-1-Mažeika). Other forces like the weak nuclear force and the SCP-1484 force will contain an extra commutator term due to mathematically, non-Abelian Pauli matrix basis, and physically, self-interacting/charged force-carrying bosons. These transformations are the Lie group of "symmetries" under which the gauge can be transformed: for electromagnetism, U(1), or the circle of radius 1 in the complex plane. This concept of "gauge" can be extended in other gauge theories for other forces, including the one in SCP-1484. - Senior Researcher Mažeika

2. As opposed to the above-the-Veil Standard Model, which uses the symmetry group

SU(3) \times SU(2) \times U(1)

. Even though the Georgi-Glashow SU(5) model is a somewhat inaccurate simplification versus other Grand Unified Theories of particle physics such as Lie algebra SO(10) or Pati-Salam, the rest of this Special Containment Procedures file will reference it for the purpose of clarity and ease of comprehensibility (containment team personnel should refer to Document 1484-7-Mažeika for more details on this point) - Senior Researcher Mažeika

‡ Licensing / Citation

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