The following was found in a notebook in an abandoned EKP base camp near the northern edge of the Synapse. When asked to provide further information, the EKP indicated that none of their records showed an expidition using the specified base camp during the dates listed by the author.

Many of the notes listed here in parentheticals were in actuality written in the margins, in a variety of colors of ink. They have been standardized here for readability.

TRANSCRIPT BEGINS

FOUR SIX THREE ONE ONE THREE SIX. First contact at the edge of the anomaly. Called colloquially ‘the synapse’ (meaning close to the mind, meaning a part of the head, meaning a connection between two things, a pathway of information? a bridge? negated of meaning? avenue street throughway boulevard path road divisory passage) called by our orginization ‘Pelagic Fiber Concurrent Resonance Event Threshold Horizon’, or PFCRETH (I always read this like it is pronounced ‘prefect’, which it is not), or Threshold. I call it the origin. That should be capitalized. The Origin. (Paper should be in third person impartial/second person, should not imply author - remove ‘I’ statement and subjective opinion).

Team of six on location, small observation station seven point four miles northeast of the city. This means just into the mountains, cannot see the valley the way we (what is the passive form of we?) came, nor the dead city our twin (subjectivity!). The research outpost is not used often, took considerable repairs to become functional, first three months of the project dedicated to the process of getting it in working order (interesting process; I like electrical engineering, by which I mean I like playing with wires. No ‘I’!). Last project that used this research station was HSE-178823, which was (by my count. By ‘the’ count? The count not a person.) about sixteen years ago. Which is odd because it’s both before the EKP was founded and before the PFCRETH reached this location. Maybe used as a base camp to travel to PFCRETH location further out? Perhaps they were more cautious now. Something we cannot afford to be now, so we are told. Casualties happen. Do you believe in the cause? Not objective.

Of the six of us, four will stay here and three will tether at this location and dive. Another risk: using the base as a tether. Less stable and more likely to drag the rest of us in; justification: this would produce a greater quantity of data (provided we could get it out to a receiving station. Which is why the base is not connected to the transmitter, one can be pulled in and leave the other above water to continue transmitting (you would think something like this would be useful for SOS messages (save our souls!) but this is not the intended use, nor is it practical. Sorry if you think so. Don’t have space to explain)). The data output is the intent here, the method is flexible. If our leader decides to change it, so be it.

Should be written in the passive voice, listing of events, not personal statements. Intent/objective, hypothesis, methods, data, results, conclusion. Results and conclusion to be left blank for future members (will I not write them? Who added this?).

INTENT/OBJECTIVE: Investigate the PFCRETH. Return data to base. (to what end? What are we searching for? What data? What are we recording and where? The only recording instrument I have been given is a clock with four hands). Use recorded data to expand EKP understanding of the movement of, motives of, and rate of advancement of the PFCRETH. Partially used to give danger ratings to Lariat City Council (← untrue!), partially used for internal experiments.

The EKP has proved to be one of the primary institutions involved in the collection of data surrounding the phenomena known in the common parlance as ‘the MAR’ called here the RFIU. The extenet of this data allows further collected data to be compared to past movements of the RFIU, it’s behavior and patterns better understood and therefore better predicted. Other institutions across the continent have, with differering amounts of success, attempted to understand and predict the RFIU in the same way, we now suggest that as the dataset held by the EKP is the most extensive, it is in equal consideration with itself (edit for clarity) and can be used as it’s own database.

Our current focus as an orginizaiton is on the PFCRETH, the RFIU ‘front’ that seems to be advancing across the continent at a slow rate, understanding this phenomenon will better allow it’s negation and, if this fails, it’s avoidance entirely. Vital life saving measures (data that will save lives?). So four of us throw ourselves in. Logic that cuts through.

The data from this study will be compared with an equal study equidistant from the most-advanced section of the PFCRETH front to the south, and data from the beachhead itself, to see if the RFIU is moving at a uniform pace or is differently affected in different locations.

HYPOTHESIS: The same hypothesis the EKP always holds: the RFIU will kill us. Understanding it is the only action we can take against it. Wipe the slate clean. Chart the movement to such a fine degree such that it becomes true. Et. cetera.

METHODS: (Repeat of above. Reorder. Is that necessary? Read in correct order/read in correct order) Six of us arrived at the base of operations. Intent? Three go in, four stay out, to pull them back out when the time comes. Stay shallow, do not get lost, dive only as deep as you need. Skirt the dropoff, if you can see it, ask to be pulled out before disaster and not during. Record data in the field, return to base, log data, transmit to station. Simple mission (it’s not a simple mission. We all know this. We know why we were sent here).

Leader of the mission has something to prove. Needs to make something of themself so they have a different plan, a change to the methodology. Generally frowned upon, but field commanders are trusted to make the decisions they need to make in order to collect the required data, they are only promoted to field commanders as such because they are trusted to make this decision. Leader says six go down, one stays tethered. As I am the most junior member, I will remain tethered. Come disaster I will pull them out. Come disaster I will log the results in their absence. Return to the EKP and send the information home (not to return). (There is no I! There is no selfhood! Fault unfounded, etc. Remove reference to personality/personal failing. Is, was.)

First day: test. Three go down, four stay out (second in command fought with the leader about this. I and the other junior member stood outside and smoked but we could hear every word). REPHRASE: The data was collected by a group of the squad numbering four, at a depth of around 30 feet into the PFCRETH. Previous data collected at ranges between 10 feet and 75 feet, ultimate goal for this mission is 200 feet (working our way up in increments) as to allow a gradient of data across the front of the PFCRETH to be mapped. Discrete data points not really helpful (understanding: if this mission is a success, they will send another one (or they will simply send us) another mile north to repeat the same process. Discrete data points aren’t really helpful.

Test proceeds as normal. All three dive to required depth with no problems, record data with required equipment, return to base. Entire foray take six hours, four of that comprises of the ascent and descent to the required distance (if this makes it appear that any further distance is completely unreachable, due to the massive amount of time needed for descent, it’s not - the descent time doesn’t scale. No matter the depth, it will take about four hours there and back. Interesting, right?), no anomalies recorded, team encounters no danger. Data logged (to be reported in next section). Spirits are high. Team decides to send five next time, and to dive straight to 100 meters. Second in command notes this is a bad idea but doesn’t start a fight about it. So this is the protocol for the second day.

Five people, 100 meters. (Have you done the math yet? That’s three hundred and twenty eight feet. They meant 100 feet. Said 100 meters. One is true, one is not. Which is which? Are you starting to see how proximity affects you?) They descend with no issues, good spirits, everyone laughing (too personal). Myself and the commander at base. They start recording information, sending it back to us when they can, we log it. Commander is at ease, I’m nervous. There are no ‘I’ statements. I’ve never actually seen the Mar before. Let alone the Synapse. I watch out the windows andn look at a mountain range that drops away in front of me, suddenly unreachable.

The feeling is indescribable. (passive voice) The feeling is a thing that is done to us, not that we are doing. Starts in the fingertips (no ‘I’!), latches onto the ribs. Warning message a hundred years ago, waivers signed that this would not happen to us, tests in controlled environments. Thing in your ribcage. Thing in your braincase. Mountain dropping away…laughter over the comms, the recitation of numbers. OH ONE OH OH SIX FIVE NINER SEVEN SEVEN. Do you believe in luck? Do I?

Commander at ease. Does not seem to notice I have become compromised. Good. I should say something (but I am saying something, aren’t I? What is this record? Am I not trying to tell you something?), but I don’t. The team over the comms says they’ve collected the last of the data, they’re coming back. Four hours until the return. SOMETHING IN YOUR RIBCAGE/SOMETHING IN YOUR BRAINCASE. BUT WHAT? Write the data out in logs while we wait. No word of any issue. They get back three hours later. The commander was nervous but trying not to show it and I was seeing mountains become shorelines become great gulfs and feeling the top of my head dissolve. I was aware of this danger. I wasn’t aware of it happening to me. I can’t seem to write this the way I’m supposed to.

Day three. Accurate time: night before day three. Early morning, if you’re precise. Tomorrow all six will go down, down to 300 meters. They said meters again and no one noticed it. I will be left behind. Ah, well. In the early morning I go out without a tether and the passive voice has been lost entirely. I do this myself. Not us, not we. It is not a thing done to me. It is a thing I am doing.

I walk out to the line where the mountains fall away, and dive into the sea.

I have never seen the Mar before, never seen the Synapse. It is called that for a reason. Not RFIU, not PFCRETH. Mar. Synapse.

DATA: The clock with four hands tells me nothing, except depth. I make it to seven hundred meters (two thousand, two hundred, and ninety six feet) before the communication cuts. Tell them the Synapse is advancing faster here.

CONCLUSION: Tell them nothing they can do will stop it.