Picture	Information
	Bubble ID: N/A
	Sender: Envoy of Alpha Centauri civilisation
	Characteristic Vector: N/A

To the distant “Genesis” star system,

I fear this may be the last semantic stream transmission between our civilisations. The immatter enveloping your star system is rapidly approaching, and we have done everything we could; at this moment, even if a revolutionary technique was discovered by the greatest scientific mind either of us has ever seen, there wouldn’t be enough time to change the destiny of your civilisation falling to immatter. In this short period of 47 standard years since our first contact, our interactions have been genuine and invigorating; on behalf of our civilisation, I would like to express our unbound gratitude for this opportunity to meet amongst the myriad planets in this isolating universe.

In this final moment, our civilisation believes you have made adequate preparations. Your paranormal research organisation has demonstrated an undeniable wealth of knowledge, with the achievements to back it up; we simply pale in comparison.

Your understanding of semantic streams is, without direct interactions with immatter, as comprehensive as it can possibly be. All members of your civilisation are united in spirit, and have prepared as one for the arrival of immatter. Even through the depths of the universe we can see that vibrant, golden spark in your eyes. Even if neither of us know what life will be like in this new, uncertain age, our civilisation believes you will persevere and prosper.

Our civilisation will keep an eye on Genesis, and preserve all data in our communications. Given the chance, our civilisation wishes to reunite with yours after we both emerge from the clutches of immatter. Unfortunately, all predictions indicate we will be trapped for at least four thousand standard years, far exceeding the combined length of both of our modern civilisations - there is simply no way to predict how either of us will turn out. Regardless, on behalf of our civilisation, I sincerely hope we will be able to reunite, amongst the stars.

We wish you the best.

In the year 3000, according to the old calendar (CE), Earth officially entered the immatter located in the Milky Way. From there, a new “normalcy” established itself - immatter had split our world into uncountably many bubbles, and dampened all semantic streams in between. From that point on, human civilization as we knew it was fragmented into millions of disjointed “islands”. This was the warning that the Alpha Centauri civilization gave when we first established contact, and the fate that we could not evade even after decades of cooperation and mutual effort.

However, without the selfless aid given to us by the Alpha Centauri civilisation, we could not have prepared for entry into immatter, and our new normalcy, so successfully. We had a rocky beginning filled with unease, but the transition was an overall success. Without the great effort from our friends 4.37 light years away, our human civilisation would have been in far worse shape.

The SCP Foundation would like to give its thanks to the Alpha Centauri civilisation and the contributions they have made. Our best estimates show that it will be another 2,952 standard years before we leave immatter, and whether our civilisation still exists beyond that point is an open question. Still, knowing that there are friends waiting for us beyond the stars, even if they are unreachable via semantic stream, is a comforting thought.

Bubble ID: A3-KT Sender: Broadcaster Xiangming Xiao Characteristic Vector: [NT3AUBNN7D2EU424IU9E]

Today, we received a semantic stream broadcast that we believe is from Bubble A3-KA, with a dampening rate of 98.24%. From there we were able to make out the following passage:

To [DAMPENED] This broadcast comes [DAMPENING] -3-KA, [DAMPENING] our food supply [DAMPENING] sufficient, but we have [DAMPING]-blems with our supply of base met-[DAMPENING]. The bubble contains 2-[DAMPENING] whose long-term maintenance [DAMPENING] for much longer, if we continue [DAMPENING] issues. We hope that [DAMPENING] other bubbles can assist wi-[DAMPENING] We req-[DAMPENING] tons of silver and [DAMPENING]-0 tons of gold. Currently, we are not yet in [DAMPENING]-gency situation, transmission of materials can wait unt-[DAMPENING]-centration of immatter, but we hope that [DAMPENING]-oon as possible, we pray every-[DAMPENING] in our bubble, the following is a repeat broadcast of the previous message…

We can roughly deduce that Bubble A3-KA requires a restocking of base metals, but because of the dampening we cannot verify the amount needed or its urgency. Regardless, we have enough supply of base metals, and can take on the risk of dampening mid-transport. We should assume that our compatriots require urgent assistance, and send our aid accordingly.

We will monitor the surrounding immatter for the next 3 standard months, and send 50 tons of each type of base metal through semantic stream to Bubble A3-KA. We may be worrying for nothing, but we wish bubble A3-KA all the best, and hope that they can overcome this hardship.

Bubble ID: 5D-19 Sender: Broadcaster Yiqiu Tian Characteristic Vector: [Z0TD9G7965KFUO5XCWZ9]

Attention, all bubble residents! Attention, all bubble residents! We are detecting turbulence caused by a high concentration of immatter in the bubble’s immediate surroundings, please keep a distance of at least 400m from the bubble’s edge. The local SCP Foundation Eastern Command station has sent a tactical response unit to the area to help with evacuation. All residents at the Bubble’s edge, please follow instructions and evacuate in an orderly manner!

New estimates indicate a high likelihood of continuous immatter turbulence in the next four weeks, please do not approach the edge and its surrounding areas unless absolutely necessary. If you encounter any danger, please contact the local SCP Foundation Eastern Command station.

Bubble ID: AW-9M Sender: Broadcaster Zhen Zhang Characteristic Vector: [VSJSFQ7298D8OT81CU7H]

According to the latest predictions, the concentration of immatter immediately surrounding the bubble will reduce to 1100И/m⁴ in the coming week, giving us around 2-3 acceptable transmission windows for semantic streams. Current transmission preparations are as follows:

• The target bubbles will be AW-7Y, AW-AU and AW-I2.
• We expect to send 208 documents. All pieces of data we intend to send have been categorised and archived, please contact the broadcasting station if you urgently need to send any extra data.
• We expect to send three tonnes of vegetables, including tomatoes, carrots, zucchinis and corn, to bubble AW-I2, which we suspect is suffering from food shortages. Because all replies from AW-I2 have been rendered unreadable due to excessive dampening, the Bubble Committee has moved to continue with redundant aid.

Yesterday, we underwent routine semantic stream transmissions with bubble AW-9U. We ultimately received approximately 5g of carbon and 2g of glucose - without considering the possibility of AW-9U misinterpreting our request, this indicates a dampening rate of higher than 98% compared to the original request of 400g of carbon and 200g of glucose. However, as stated previously, we hope that conditions will improve in the coming week, and dampening losses can decrease to acceptable rates.

It is worth noting that the received semantic stream contained approximately 12g of an unknown metal attached to the surface of the expected items. Its surface resembles gold, but its structure and lustre have strange and anomalous features. Stationed SCP Foundation researchers have begun investigations.

Finally, we regret to inform that, based on CCTV recordings from the surrounding area, we can confirm the recently-missing 15-year-old Fan Qiu walked by himself into immatter surrounding the bubble, and we believe that he has been dampened. Following the wishes of his family, this will be the last broadcast on this topic. We wish the bubble’s residents safety and prosperity.

Until next time.

Before the establishment of the Node Matrix, all semantic stream transmissions were made extremely difficult due to the ever-present immatter. The vast majority of bubbles under our jurisdiction followed the same instructions - continually monitor the status of immatter immediately surrounding the bubble, and regularly broadcast semantic streams.

Even today, the amount of immatter surrounding Earth has not changed significantly, and the dampening rate of semantic streams has on average remained above 95%. Thus, it is clear to see that bubble broadcasters back in the day were just trying their luck when transmitting semantic streams: through constant high-power broadcasts, they hoped that some scattered words and phrases, some fragments of information, some well wishes and material aid, were able to resist corruption from immatter and reach the target bubble.

Sometimes, by taking advantage of tiny, almost miraculous transmission windows, we were able to send some semantic streams - including complex ones containing humans - fairly completely to the target bubble. In those dark times, in those difficult moments, scores of people risked their lives, resisted the effects of dampening, and broadcasted all sorts of information to as many bubbles as possible. Through these tiny moments of connection, each one succeeding despite impossible odds, we began to see hope.

Of course, the most important thing to note in this broadcast is the discovery of the unknown metal that came from immatter, which we now refer to as: aurite.

Bubble ID: IN-SC Sender: Unknown Characteristic Vector: N/A

<Recording starts>

Male voice: AIC, what is the concentration of immatter surrounding the bubble?

A short moment of static noise.

AIC: Roughly 1482.472И/m⁴, indicating a figure approximately 1.9% below yesterday’s predicted value. Still, its concentration is still in the “extremely high” category - any semantic stream transmitted through this concentration of immatter will experience a dampening rate above 98.5% after approximately 32 seconds.

Male voice: What about the predictions for the next few days?

AIC: The concentration for next week is predicted to fall to approximately 1250И/m⁴, but will sharply rise to above 1600И/m⁴ afterwards. Even with the most optimistic models, the immatter concentration surrounding this bubble will not fall below 1000И/m⁴ within the next five to ten years.

A short moment of silence.

AIC: I must note that all currently-stored predictive models for trends in immatter lack maturity, with a long-term accuracy of 55%; this can be interpreted as “slightly better chances than guessing a coin flip”. Furthermore, especially regarding immatter, no model can sufficiently predict whether unexpected events will happen.

Male voice: That’s fine, we can’t count on miracles when conducting research in any case. (pause) It’ll have to be today. AIC, start preparations.

AIC: Understood.

A short moment of static noise.

Male: AIC, describe what you see.

AIC: I see a you, a young male. You are holding a piece of unidentified, burning metal in your right hand, its flame is yellow and is currently spreading from your fingers to your arms, but I do not see any signs of harm, and you are not showing any indications of pain, fear, or discomfort. The flame has now spread to your whole body, but you are standing calmly. You are now completely enveloped by a golden flame, but your outward appearance shows no signs of change, your skin has not charred or blackened, your muscles have not disintegrated. From my perspective, it is almost like the flame is photo-edited onto your body. This is an abnormal situation.

Male voice: You’re right, this is abnormal. (pause) This doesn’t hurt at all, I must be right.

AIC: Does this mean the experiment was a success?

Male voice: No, we’ve just started. What’s the closest bubble to us?

A short moment of static noise.

AIC: Bubble IN-SA, with an absolute space vector value of… 73.16… 10.39… 65.76… 14.69… transmitting to your portable terminal… complete.

Male voice: I see it. I’ll leave now… through the immatter, arrive at IN-SA, and then come back. If I succeed… (deep breath) do you know what that means?

AIC: This means that you have found a way to travel through immatter.

Male voice: This means that humanity has found a way to travel through immatter.

A short moment of static noise.

AIC: Current data does not support your conclusion. According to previous experiment logs, this current method - if it succeeds - only works for you. You have previously conducted 573 experiments, and confirmed that the anomalous metal extracted from immatter has completely different interactions with different people.

Male voice: I know, AIC, I know… that’s why I have to use myself as a subject, to confirm this fact. (pause) But I believe I’m right.

A short moment of silence.

Male voice: I’m curious, AIC, before I leave. (pause) Other people… in other bubbles, all of them, they discover this method, and they manage to travel through immatter… what’s the probability of that?

AIC: I do not have enough data to predict this probability using existing models.

Male voice: Then make a guess.

AIC: Understood, starting deductive calculations based on logical assumptions with unknown accuracy… discovering this method requires an understanding of the properties of the abnormal metal, plus any researcher needs to conduct trials based on their unique characteristics over a long period of time, the process of which is filled with uncertainties… according to the derivation result, the chances of one human using this method to successfully travel through immatter is… less than 0.1%.

Male voice: I see… then the chances of human civilisation being able to communicate again using this method…

AIC: The precise calculation of this probability requires simulating the actions of tens of millions of people using sociological models, which needs a large amount of processing time. If we simplified calculations by assuming each individual’s success is an isolated event and multiplied the individual probability by itself tens of millions of times, then the probability of humankind being connected again rapidly approaches 0.

Male voice: …we can basically treat it as impossible. If it did happen, then we can say it’s a miracle.

AIC: Yes, it can be referred to as such.

Male voice: But is one person successfully travelling through immatter… really an isolated event?

AIC: Uncertain. I will need to use sociological models to perform a simulation.

Male voice: You said that this would need a large amount of processing time… how much, exactly?

AIC: Uncertain.

Male voice: …I see. Then let it run, AIC, I’m curious about the result.

AIC: I notice that the flame on your body has changed, it is fluctuating more than before. Do you wish to stay here and wait for the simulation to finish?

Male voice: …hmm, now the flame’s getting a bit hot. (pause) I should go now, you can start calculating, I’ll look at the results when I come back.

AIC: Understood. Starting the simulation.

Male voice: I’ll head off then, AIC. Wish me luck.

AIC: Good luck.

<Recording ends>

This is the earliest record on hand regarding characteristic vectors. We believe that this recording described an unknown person, who by setting aurite - and by consequence himself - on fire, achieved his characteristic vector that allowed him to travel through immatter. His discovery of the connection between aurite and characteristic vectors two standard years before the Foundation did was nothing but impressive.

Unfortunately, we were never able to find our mystery friend’s name. Before the establishment of the Node Matrix, we were adjusting to our new lives under immatter - in this age of chaos and organisational immaturity, bubbles that were outside our jurisdiction were not uncommon, and the difficulties posed by immatter only made them destined to drift further away. These sparsely-populated bubbles were already gradually deteriorating before the construction of the Node Matrix, and by the time we made contact a lot of them showed no signs of human existence. Bubble IN-SC was no exception.

More regrettably, we believe that our unnamed friend ultimately did not succeed. He never appeared in bubble IN-SA. Maybe the aurite burnt out before he reached his destination, or maybe he could not find a precise enough characteristic vector, and thus he was dampened in immatter the moment he departed. We unfortunately have no idea about his ultimate fate. When we arrived at bubble IN-SC, we only found an AIC, performing a simulation that had been running for close to 10 standard years. On discovery, its calculations were still not complete.

Two years after our unnamed friend set off into immatter, over 10 researchers independently discovered the relationship between aurite and characteristic vectors. As humanity discovered ways to transmit complete semantic streams through immatter, the wheels of fortune started to turn.