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 10
Dr. Simone Blackmore, Researcher, Tokugawa Industrial Solutions.
This is Doctor Simone Blackmore, lead biologist, Tokugawa Industrial Solutions Site Sixteen, Sevier Lake Research Facility. The time is twelve PM on the eleventh of November, nineteen eighty-seven. Further study of the recently reanimated Okhotsk samples continues. And continues to prove fascinating.
My recent work has singularly focused on the samples that were left in Lab 1A over the weekend and found the morning of the ninth of November. Cellular regeneration appears to be occurring at an accelerated rate relative to that of even non-human primates. The initial weight recorded on Batch One, which contained samples A, B and C, sample C being the one that was subjected to the exposure, were one-point-six-seven grams, two-point-four-eight grams, and one-point-nine-one grams respectively. Yet now, approximately forty-eight hours after being exposed to the conditions in the lab, sample C weighs exactly one-point-nine-six grams. An increase of fifty milligrams. While this is likely due to the regenerative process, I have assigned Miss Chao to investigate any alternative hypothesis as to why this may be occurring.
In terms of preservation of the sample, Batch One, Sample C, which I will from here on refer to as B1SC, will not be stored in a refrigerated container for fear of altering the conditions that allowed it to reanimate. Instead, the sample is being kept in a secure perspex container, with air holes to allow it to remain in contact with the atmospheric conditions in the lab during periods in which I cannot personally observe its status. Photographic evidence of the sample will be collected twice daily, both in the morning and evening, to monitor the sample’s progress.
On another note, earlier this morning Doctor Andrew Hatch recently announced a lockdown procedure over the facility’s PA system, covering the entire facility. It’s largely irrelevant to the work I’m currently undertaking. He has also announced he will be joining the research efforts in person. I look forward to discussing my findings with him further.
1987 November 10 (Approx)
Dr. Andrew Hatch, Research Director, Tokugawa Industrial Solutions
[EIGHT SECONDS OF SILENCE]
You’re doing well, Andrew. Looking strong. Stay the course, pay no heed to the doubters.
[TEN SECONDS OF SILENCE]
But I can see only fire… It engulfs me. You’d think by now I'd hear screaming but it’s only silence. So quiet, and my mind was once a cacophony.
[11 SECONDS OF SILENCE]
“The Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Storting has, in accordance with the terms of the will set up by Alfred Nobel on the Twenty-Seventh of November Eighteen Ninety Five, awarded Andrew Hatch the Nobel Prize in Physics for Nineteen-Sixty-Eight”
[5 SECONDS OF SILENCE]
“For his significant contributions to the field of physical cosmology.” They could have carved it on my chest. I was but a young man, now look at me. Look at me. LOOK AT ME.
[SCREAMING]
We can get through this together. All of us. There’s no need to panic. This is just a setback, don’t you believe me? Shoji, my friend, where are you? Where are you?
1987 November 10
Logan Diehl, Lead Engineer, Tokugawa Industrial Solutions
-mone he’s out of his Goddamn mind.
[UNINTELLIGIBLE]
Doctor Blackmore, sorry. Look, the dictaphone is recording. Can you leave me in peace? Please?
[UNINTELLIGIBLE]
[DOOR CLOSING]
Logan Diehl, with another one of these audio logs as per the insistence of both Mister Shoji Mazuka and apparently Doctor Simone Blackmore as well. What can I say, I just got out of a pointless three-hour-long meeting aimed at reaching a consensus about what do to about the Doctor Andrew Hatch situation. Apparently, the management team at Tokugawa believes the definition of consensus is refusing to compromise until everyone agrees with Mister Mazuka.
Basically, the plan is to pretend like nothing’s happened and send a very sternly worded fax to Doctor Hatch, which will cause him to give himself up? I dunno. Anyway, so we’re continuing with these pointless reports, that he’s promised us all he’s ‘definitely gonna start listening to soon.’ He’s out of his mind, Shoji Mazuka is out of his Goddamn mind. Doctor Blackmore, too, that woman wouldn’t eat breakfast without a peer-reviewed study explaining its benefits.
[FIVE SECONDS OF SIELNCE]
Oh and Jimmy wasn’t even there, Shoji’s still got him locked in the pantry. Honest to God, I would have let him out but the thing is shut with three different locks and Shoji has all the keys. Honestly, the first priority should be getting some means of communication back to the surface. If Hatch took them down remotely, they can come back up remotely, of that much I’m sure. Then the cameras. Shoji says I’m supposed to fix the keycard problem before anything, no freaking clue how I’m supposed to do that.
[LOUD STATIC NOISES]
[ANDREW HATCH SPEAKS OVER THE PA SYSTEM]
Attention all personnel. Food rations are to be henceforth distributed according to each staff member’s weight. The largest staff members will be fed first, so as to prevent the agony of caloric restriction. Further instructions will be issued in the coming days.
[LOGAN DIEHL RESUMES]
I don't know what we’re going to do about that, either.
[DOG BARKING]
But I do know what to do with you. Here, boy.
1987 November 11
Xue Chao, Research Assistant, Shanghai University
This is Xue Chao with my latest audio report. The day is November eleven nineteen-eighty-seven. I am very worried as I record this. Doctor Hatch has made it so we cannot leave the research site. He seems like he has gone very insane. I had wanted to meet him, but not like this.
Mister Mazuka held a meeting today, and I was not invited. I guess it’s because I am only a doctoral candidate and not a qualified scientist yet. The meeting went on for a very long time, but when they came out only Mister Mazuka was smiling, Doctor Blackmore said she was happy but sometimes it is hard to tell from her face. They say we are to pretend everything is normal- No, they say everything is normal, this is just a minor incident, so keep doing what we are doing.
I’m not even sure what I’m doing. Doctor Blackmore wants me to find other reasons why the cells came back to life but every time it gets too quiet, or something loud happens, I worry Doctor Hatch is there. He scares me now. I spoke with Doctor Howard, she is the medical doctor on the site. She says I can talk to her if I feel worried. I think I might.
1987 November 11
Shoji Mazuka, Chief of Operations (Site 16), Tokugawa Industrial Solutions
Shoji Mazuka, Chief of Operations at Site Sixteen, with my daily audio log for November eleventh. Yesterday I held an exhaustive meeting on what to do about the Doctor Hatch situation. The idea was met with widespread praise by our most committed staff members. Attending the meeting were Doctor Blackmore, Mister Diehl, Miss Chao, Security Chief Moreland, and Medical Officer Doctor Elizabeth Howard.
The agenda was, of course, how best to approach the recent breach of the managerial hierarchy by Doctor Andrew Hatch. The policy documents on this matter are clear, all major decisions regarding ███████████████████ to the Sevier Lake facility must be approved by the Chief of Operations prior to being enacted. As such I have terminated Doctor Hatch’s contract with Tokugawa Industrial Solutions, effectively rendering him powerless going forward.
However, as Mister Diehl has informed us, Doctor Hatch’s apparent possession of a Master Override Key, unbeknownst to the rest of the research team and especially management, presents us with a problem. █████████ the design of the facility’s security system means that the same card must be used to both lock and unlock any security lock mechanism in the building. So, at the moment, we have no means to unlock the main doors and leave Site Sixteen. I have assigned Mister Diehl to solve this problem before week’s end.
This evening, I will be presenting Doctor Hatch with his termination forms. In the event that he continues to refuse to leave his quarters, they will also be delivered to him via fax. This will mean that unless he leaves the facility forthwith, and hands over all material belonging to Tokugawa, he will be guilty of both trespassing and wholesale theft of company property. I believe this will be sufficient to end what I personally consider a minor incident among a large amount of quality work being done by a team of dedicated researchers. I will then begin reviewing the audio logs.
1987 November 11
Dr. James Stokes, Researcher, Tokugawa Industrial Solutions
Doctor James Stokes, still locked in the high-security pantry. It’s been tough adapting to life on the inside, but I’ve managed to establish myself as the top dog among the dried apricots and cans of tuna by eating them. Calumet Flour appears to be making moves to usurp me in the prison hierarchy, but that has a picture of an Indian on it and I’m English so I hope he remembers the score from last time… Either that or I’m losing my bloody mind.
Speaking of which, I don’t think Doctor Hatch is tip-top right now. Man’s gone barking fucking mad, frankly. It’s almost impressive, I’ve never heard such nonsense on the radio and I’m a Manc. But never fear, gentle listener, standing in his way is the Man of Spreadsheets Shoji Mazuku, ably assisted by his faithful sidekick, Simone: The Red Tape Kid. So we’re dead buggered if Doctor Hatch decides to use more than four per cent of his brain power.
Thing is, if Doctor Hatch has done what I think he’s done, then there’s nowt Shoji or Simone are gonna be able to solve it but they're gonna act like it’s their job anyway. Which is why I’m relying on you, Logan. You might be a filthy colonial rebel, but you’re the only one I think will listen to reason. I didn’t do it, mate. Now watch me prove it.
END OF SECTION 5