<Begin Log>

The video shows Dr. Kells office. It is after dark, and only a couple of small lamps, one on his desk and one on a nearby bookcase, provide light; the room is consequently dim and dark. Dr. Kells is writing a report at his desk.

After 19 seconds, an SCP-4989-A instance (hereafter referred to as 4989-A1) abruptly appears in front of Dr. Kells' desk. It stands facing Dr. Kells, who looks up with a start.

Dr. Kells: Wh- ah. I was wondering when one of you would turn up.

4989-A1 does not respond.

Dr. Kells: I imagine you've got people watching your precious Site 89. I imagine you have a whole host of spies located up and down the years of its construction. Well, unfortunately for you, I can put a stop to the whole thing right now. The apparatus isn't so important to us.

4989-A1 does not respond.

Dr. Kells: If you're planning on doing something to me, then hurry up. I don't have all day, you know. But without me, there's no Site 89 and Apparatus for you to get your hands on.

4989-A1: Oh, there will be, Simon.

4989-A1 presses a point on the side of its neck, and the suit immediately begins to fold away from him. When it has fully come off him, a humanoid figure is revealed, who looks identical to Dr. Kells. Dr. Kells abruptly starts and stand up, looking shocked.

Dr. Kells: Wh- what kind of- how have you-

4989-A1: It's really very simple. Mind if I have a seat?

4989-A1 takes a seat in an armchair in front of Dr. Kells' desk.

4989-A1: Tomorrow, your job as provisional Project Manager ends. You'll become O5-4, and you'll fly over to Site 01 to be sworn in. It is there that you'll discover that the O5 Council has access to certain advanced technologies that allow them to extend their lifespan. To prevent any aging, and keep them constantly renewed at their own age. You'll have moral qualms about it at first, sure, but you'll do it in the end. It's for the greater good, after all.

4989-A1 lights a cigarette, and begins smoking. Dr. Kells slowly sits back down again.

4989-A1: The years will pass, and you'll do well for yourself. Very well. You'll end up being the chief member of the Council. And one by one, as they get killed in some meaningless action or other, as they drop like the flies they are, as there isn't enough substance for the newer members to be anything other than mediocrities, you'll end up as the last one left. The only one with power. The-

Dr. Kells: The Administrator. You're the Administrator.

4989-A1: Quite. And so are you- or, you will be. The position will have been empty for a long time by then, but in times of war a Dictator is necessary. When it's done, I'll retire somewhere. Crozier Island, perhaps- we always did like the cold there. But until then, I need to win this war.

Dr. Kells: The Red Shah. He's-

4989-A1: Don't say his name. Please. It doesn't do good to remind the world of what he is, and what we did. What matters is that the enemy's at the door, and he's not happy.

Dr. Kells: Why do this? Why are you taking people?

4989-A1: Because I need bodies for the wall and there are none left. I'm trapped in the far, far north of Siberia, at Site 89, and nobody can help us. The legions have the land, the traitors have the sky, and the ice has the ocean. Nothing can get in or out of Site 89, and the only people left have their own problems to deal with, thousands of miles away. I need manpower. I need bodies.

Dr. Kells: This… that is monstrous.

4989-A1: Oh, undoubtedly, but you've been here too long to still have principles about these things. We take them, and we put stuff in their heads to make them fight and understand, and we put them on the wall to fight, to man the cannon, to die. That's our world now. That's where your grand project will lead us. We try to take Foundation people when we can, or ORIA people for our friends down south, but too much change at once is a shock to the system, so we have to spread it out a bit across time. We try to get ones who can hold a gun, at least. Are you alright? You look quite pale.

Dr. Kells: You can change time. You can stop all of-

4989-A1: No, sorry, I really can't. You remember what happened the last time we accidentally fucked the timeline up. Your career took decades to recover after that blunder. And besides, it wouldn't work. The timeline has ways of correcting itself; the most damage we've done is almost screwing the Fall of Rome up and messing up the Late Maya, who were doomed anyway. You can't get the staff, you see. Training these idiots is just too much-

Dr. Kells: Shut up. Just… just shut up. Let me think.

4989-A1: Take your time. I'm in no hurry. I can travel in time, after all.

There is silence for several minutes. 4989-A1 continues smoking.

Dr. Kells: You. You're what I turn into.

4989-A1: Don't act so surp-

Dr. Kells: Oh, shut up, you smug little- look, what the hell do you want from me? If everything really is so hard to change, why should what I do alter anything? What is this?

4989-A1: (quietly) I know for a fact it changes things, because I remember being you.

There is silence for several seconds.

Dr. Kells: What?

4989-A1: I remember sitting where you're sitting. I remember- well, I don't fully remember, I think I might have changed something this time around, but I remember myself, sitting there, full of outrage and indignation as I argued against the inevitable. And the version of me that came from the future changed my mind. I stopped the cancellation of Site 89, I took my seat on the council, and I did what had to be done. Because it does have to be done.

Dr. Kells: S-stealing people from the past-

4989-A1: I told you. I need bodies. And none of you need them, caught up in your primitive tribal wars with one another, or containing little outbreaks of antimemes or statues. You think the conceptual nightmares or Hindu snake gods which haunt your waking thoughts survived? The Shah is in everything, is in our heads, our hollow hearts. He can't be stopped, except by bodies thrown against him, except by this desperation.

Dr. Kells: You don't know that.

4989-A1: I do. I've seen him.

There is silence for several seconds.

Dr. Kells: You've- seen-

4989-A1: It was the fifth year of the war, on a snowy day. Those early years were pure carnage. I was leading our forces in a massive offensive against their position in the Altai Shan. We thought we'd finally made some headway in this campaign, after years of failure. His forces were retreating, we'd won the day… and then he came.

I saw him, Simon. I saw what he was. I saw all the bile, the howling, the hate-filled rage of this thing that men had made. It was like staring at a Pattern Screamer, but more hollow. I understood, then, what I'd told myself so long ago. As we fled, our minds on the edge of madness, I vowed that we would never lose. We would not fall. We would prevail. I understood the truth of the world today; its meaninglessness, its desperation, like the dark eyes of an eel in those moments when we cling screaming to life. I won't go like that. We will prevail.

Dr. Kells: You must have tried something else. What ab-

4989-A1: Anything you suggest has already been tried. I, or one of the others, or someone in the Empire, or the fucking GOC pretenders in Hong Kong- it's been tried. There's nothing else. There's just the wall. Rights, mercy, ethics, tolerance- these are peacetime things. What we need now is bodies. What we need now is meat. This is war, and I don't care what happens as long as one of us can stand upon the body of the Shah's last follower and still be alive.

4989-A1 stubs out his cigarette, and rises, standing over Dr. Kells' desk.

4989-A1: You have to give Site 89 the go ahead. You have to keep letting us take your soldiers. We'll be careful. We'll make sure nothing too deadly gets loose. And you can always recruit more. You have all the manpower in the world.

A silence ensues for several moments.

Dr. Kells: I- I can't just do that. It's not- I'm not-

4989-A1: You're making exactly the same whimpering noises I made years ago. And I know what I did, Simon Kells. I know what I am. And I know what you'll do. What you have always done, every time every slightly altered iteration has had this talk.

4989-A1 begins to walk away. Dr. Kells is silent.

4989-A1: Be seeing you. In a manner of speaking.

4989-A1 abruptly demanifests. Dr. Kells is left alone, staring at the snow outside his window. After several minutes, he presses a button on the underside of his desk, deactivating the camera.

<End Log>