1987/11/07 - 1987/11/09
[REDACTED] #3
ATTN: Board of Directors Tokugawa Industrial Solutions
RE: LOG REPORT - SEVIER LAKE INCIDENT
Assembled by Hideo Sato, Communications Director, Tokugawa Industrial Solutions, Head Office, Tokyo, Japan
Approved by Yushima Kaga, Vice-President in Charge of Research, Tokugawa Industrial Solutions, Head Office, Tokyo, Japan
NOT FOR RELEASE
1987 November 07
Shoji Mazuka, Chief of Operations (Site 16), Tokugawa Industrial Solutions
Shoji Mazuka, Chief of Operations, Tokugawa Site 16, requesting urgent assistance with regard to the Sevier Lake Research Facility.
Serious questions need to be raised regarding the health and well-being of Doctor Andrew Hatch. I have attempted to coax him from his room repeatedly throughout the day. I have tried knocking, calling… he’s not even replying to my faxes. The thing is, I can hear him. He’s inside, he is talking to… someone, he just won’t come out. It’s concerning, and I’m not sure Doctor Blackmore has the relationship management ability to lead the research team. If push comes to shove I can of course lead the research efforts, but any advice on these matters would be greatly appreciated, perhaps a conflict resolution specialist could be sent from Tokyo.
This partially brings me to another issue. The system we have requires us to send physical information to the surface via a system of sterilised pneumatic tubes. Audio reports, refrigerated samples, all of it. It is then collected by a Tokugawa representative and express couriered back to Tokyo. While I approved this system at the time, per █████████████ suggestion, this was in 1975 and I think we may be running into issues with efficiency here. I have not yet found the time to go over these recordings, and given the possible emergency with Doctor Hatch, I suspect it may be some time before I can approve the reports, and they can be reviewed by the board. I wonder if we could contact the National Science Foundation about making use of their network.
Nonetheless, I will dispatch this message immediately. In the meantime I will continue trying to contact Doctor Hatch, however, I may be forced to take more drastic action should a recommendation not be forthcoming.
1987 November 07
Xue Chao, Research Assistant, Shanghai University
This is Xue Chao from the Shanghai University. Today was a very exciting day for me. I asked Doctor Blackmore if I could conduct some independent research of my own on the samples. She said no, but she did say I could have a turn at going over the samples she’s finished with. I can’t think of a better way to spend the weekend.
I have mostly attempted to recreate her work on batch number one. I have taken very many notes on her process and I think I have managed to follow it step by step. I think I am getting better at the dye test, but no matter what I do it does not change the outcome. A part of me was hoping that I’d be the apprentice who found something the master missed, unfortunately, the sample still appears to be dead.
I feel that I am getting a headache and will take a break for the day, but I hope to return at some point this weekend to conduct further tests. Oh, sorry, to ‘just go over’ the samples like Doctor Blackmore said. This is Xue Chao, signing off.
1987 November 07
Logan Diehl, Lead Engineer, Tokugawa Industrial Solution
Logan Diehl, working on a sunny November Saturday in the year of our lord nineteen eighty-seven. Woke up this morning to a fault light in laboratory 1A’s refrigeration systems, or the ‘fake science’ lab as Jimmy calls it. Which means that if I don’t see to this soon I’m going be dealing with the delightful Doctor Blackmore asking me every five seconds why I haven’t fixed it.
Now, the way these work, there are a number of backup generators to ensure we don’t lose a year's worth of work in a space of thirty minutes, so right now it’s not an emergency, but again, better to be safe than sorry with on a project of this… well budget.
Just looking at this casually it looks like… yeah… yep, this is a blown circuit. Shouldn’t be too much trouble to sort out… wondering if I could strip out the whole system, and put something better in there.
[DOG BARKING]
Hey, Bluey, quiet. Sit.
Guess you fellas are tired of me apologising for that? So, anyway, yes, that will be fixed probably tomorrow, but while I’ve got you here, I just want to offer a second on Shoji’s worries about the communication system. He’s suggested getting us on NSFNET, which I fully support, but what I’m wondering is, if I could the approval, I’d like to take the time to get digital recordings of everyone’s reports? I’ve been looking at the computer systems and I can whip something up. Let me know if you’d like to know more.
1987 November 07
Dr. James Stokes, Researcher, Tokugawa Industrial Solutions
[SINGING]
You saw me standing alone… Without a dream in my heart… Without a love of my own…
[BOTTLE THUD]
Sh-shoji, mate. Did you- D’ya know how hard it is too find the fucking football in America? It’s a Saturday, the mighty City are scheduled to play the mighty Huddersfield, so- [HICCUP] logically, I’m scheduled to be there. So I’m in Salt Lake on my r’n’r, go up to this bloke in town, just a normal bloke, American bloke and that, and I ask him, I ask where a lad might watch the football? And he says it’s only Saturday so there is no football, but they’ve got the Oilers and the 49ers at some pub tomorrow, know what I mean?
I said I’m not watching any of that football, I wanna watch proper football. Anyway, he’s well confused with what I’m saying so I- [HICCUP] Aw, Shoji I tell you this burger’s not sitting right with me at all… Anyway, I found a place playing it. Dead posh venue, actually, you lot, you management wankers would love it. The point, the point is, Shoji is that this cannot continue into the summer because England are having the West Indies ‘round, Richards, Marshall, mate I gotta, I gotta…
[BURP]
Oh, one more thing, that shit you’ve got us working on… I sequenced the genome this morning over a cuppa coz I’m brilliant. You’re having a laugh, there’s no organism of this size, on this earth that does not use adenine as a nucleobase. Now, I don’t expect you to know that, Shoji, I don’t expect you know much more than the origin of the power lunch, but I can tell you this, I know that as part of the suite of chemicals Tokugawa produces… xanthosine is a chemical… is a chemical you make a lot of, innit? Now, what we’ve got here isn’t quite xanthosine… but it’s pretty… but it’s pretty… it’s nearly on the money. So, now I’m sure that if I went down to the lab and took a sample from each of the batches… Actually, y’know what?
[CHAIR SCREECH]
[FOOTSTEPS]
[DOOR CLOSING]
1987 November 7 (Approx)
Dr. Andrew Hatch, Research Director, Tokugawa Industrial Solutions
[BANG BANG BANG]
I can hear it now.
[BANG BANG BANG]
[MUFFLED YELLING]
The door is locked, Shoji, and made of steel. I have the master keycard. You’ll never break it down.
A bizarre situation isn’t it? Deep beneath the earth yet so much closer to God.
[14 SECONDS OF SILENCE]
I can hear it now. It is crying out for the rest of itself. It’s a phenomenon I know all too well. Did I ever tell you of when I was a boy. I would eat and eat until my stomach burst and my mother would have to sew me back together again.
[30 SECONDS OF SILENCE]
You’ll never find me, Shoji. I am so far away from here and it won’t stop screaming.
[SCREAMING]
1987 November 09
Dr. Simone Blackmore, Researcher, Tokugawa Industrial Solutions.
This is Doctor Simone Blackmore, lead biologist at Tokugawa Industrial Solutions Site 16, Sevier Lake Research Facility. And I forgot this last time but it is the ninth of November 1987. I am recording this with urgency so that it can begin the necessary review process via Mister Shoji Mazuka, and be approved for release to the board of Tokugawa Industrial Solutions.
I am currently standing in the laboratory assigned to the lead biologist at this facility, a role currently filled by myself, Simone Blackmore. I have entered the lab early on Monday morning, with the intent to get a head start on work on the second batch of the Okhotsk samples. However, whereas the lab is typically left in a spotless condition and then locked at the conclusion of the week’s work, I arrived to find the door unlocked. This is a clear violation of paragraph three, subsection fifty-two of the code of practice regarding ‘Schedule-D’ material. It alone should be grounds for immediate dismissal of whichever chemist did this.
However, while this remains a serious breach of conduct, unfortunately, we have a far larger issue at hand. Located on the bench adjacent to the room’s eastern wall, was a petrie dish. Inside this was a specimen from the first batch of the Okhotsk samples. Whoever was last in here, whoever he was, he was apparently examining the samples and had forgotten to clean up after himself.
It’s unclear how long the sample has been sitting in the open air, but it does not appear to have done any harm. I know this because my natural curiosity got the better of me and I placed it under the microscope. The cell membranes appear to have either repaired themselves or been repaired via some other means. In either eventuality, independent function has resumed… this cell is alive.
END OF SECTION 3