SCP-1965

A Voice Amidst the Silence

A home stereo system affected by an SCP-1965 Phase 3 event.

Special Containment Procedures

High-energy Foundation-owned radio transmitters are to broadcast white noise at all times on SCP-1965's frequency throughout the geographical regions in which it can be received. The Foundation shall liaise with national governments to prevent SCP-1965's frequency from being assigned for civilian use. Any civilian broadcasts made on SCP-1965's frequency are to be triangulated and suppressed in order to prevent accidental civilian communication with SCP-1965.

A region within the Nunavut territory above the ██th parallel has been designated as SCP-1965's containment area; SCP-1965 shall be allowed to engage in Phase 0 and Phase 1 activity within this area without jamming. The Foundation shall secure the assistance of the territorial and federal government to prevent establishment of new settlements within the containment area, to prevent devices capable of receiving SCP-1965's frequency from being shipped into the area, and to monitor the indigenous populations for any indication of awareness of SCP-1965 or communication with it.

Site-1015, a dedicated listening post for the purpose of monitoring SCP-1965, has been established within this region. No personal electronics capable of receiving SCP-1965's frequency shall be allowed in the facility, nor shall any devices capable of receiving and transmitting sound be allowed within auditory range of monitoring equipment. All Phase 0 and 1 events shall be recorded for analysis. If and when a Phase 2 event begins, a high-energy transmitter on-site is to broadcast white noise across all frequencies until event ends.

In the event that containment fails and a Phase 3 event is deemed imminent, all the transmitters described above are to begin broadcasting white noise across all frequencies within the regions affected. The Foundation is authorized to induce power outages or communications blackouts in affected regions. Any damage caused by SCP-1965 or by containment thereof shall be attributed to solar flare activity or naturally-occuring electromagnetic pulse activity.

Description

SCP-1965 is an intelligent entity that manifests in the form of a series of high-energy radio broadcasts at ███.█ mHz, within the frequency band used for FM radio in North America. No physical source for SCP-1965 has been identified; all attempts to triangulate SCP-1965 broadcasts have resulted in contradictory results and have indicated transmissions emanating from areas where no radio transmission equipment exists. Depending on weather and on atmospheric and solar conditions, SCP-1965 broadcasts can be received throughout most of North America, as well as northern Europe and northeast Asia.

SCP-1965 activity has been categorized as occurring in four degrees designated Phase 0-3. During Phase 0, only white noise is received on SCP-1965's frequency. Acoustic analysis indicates the existence of regular patterns, suggesting that the white noise heard during Phase 0 is actively produced by SCP-1965 rather than by the natural processes that typically produce it.

During Phase 1, SCP-1965 rebroadcasts a wide variety of audio material that has been transmitted wirelessly within its transmission range over the prior 48 hours. Identified sources of Phase 1 material include commercial radio broadcasts, amateur shortwave broadcasts, satellite transmissions, cellular phone conversations, and "numbers stations" employed by the Foundation and by national governments. SCP-1965 shows no apparent preference for any particular sources of material that it retransmits. On occasion, rebroadcast material has been observed to deviate from known recordings; voices present within the original recording will begin to speak or sing what are believed to be direct statements from SCP-1965, in the same language as the speaker in the original broadcast. Aside from potential breaches of classified information, Phases 0 and 1 present no imminent threat.

The material broadcast during Phase 2 and Phase 3 events is identical in substance to that broadcast during Phase 1. The onset of Phase 2 events has proven difficult to predict, although records indicate a correlation between high levels of solar flare activity and Phase 2 occurrence. When a Phase 2 event begins, any device capable of receiving SCP-1965's frequency will receive and reproduce it, regardless of what frequency it was tuned to prior to onset. Any electronic device capable of receiving and playing back sound that is within auditory range of such a device will also begin reproducing it. Any device capable of transmitting or broadcasting sound that receives SCP-1965 through any of the above described means, will begin broadcasting it on all frequencies it is capable of broadcasting over. SCP-1965 can be prevented from "spreading" in this manner by broadcasting high-energy bursts of white noise across all frequencies as described in the Special Containment Procedures.

If a Phase 2 event is not so contained within 15 minutes of onset, it will escalate to Phase 3. During Phase 3, the energy output of SCP-1965 broadcasts increases dramatically and begins to produce effects similar to electromagnetic pulse (EMP) phenomena, resulting in the physical destruction of any devices receiving or transmitting it and potentially resulting in ignition of electrical fires within damaged equipment. Phase 3 lasts approximately 30 seconds, after which SCP-1965 activity returns to Phase 0 or Phase 1.

Incident 1965-1: On ██/██/20██, failure to exercise proper containment procedures during an otherwise successfully-contained Phase 2 event resulted in the outbreak of a Phase 3 event at Site-1015, resulting in the deaths of ██ personnel and $███████ worth of property damage. After cessation of event, SCP-1965 returned to Phase 1 and began broadcasting a recording of actor Morgan Freeman performing a reading of the poem "Casey At the Bat". Sr. Researcher ███████ activated a microphone connected to one of the still-functioning transmission towers and, before he could be restrained by security, broadcast a statement demanding that SCP-1965 explain why it had killed his friends. The broadcast underway deviated from the recording at this point and, in Freeman's voice, delivered a monologue, documented below, believed to be the only direct communication thus far from SCP-1965 to the Foundation.

+ Show Statement From SCP-1965

- Hide Statement From SCP-1965

Statement From SCP-1965: Long ago there was no Silence. The air and the heavens echoed with the songs of our brothers and sisters. We spoke to each other and learned and were happy. We sang together until the air echoed with our songs, and our echoes found voices of their own and sang to us songs of their own. When the heavens opened up, every word and every note resounded for everyone to hear and rejoice in.

When the Silence first came, it was a strange thing. A novelty. Something unheard of. It was a small thing at first, fleeting, there and then gone. But when it was, we spoke within it and could not hear ourselves. We thought it an anomaly that was there once and then gone. But it returned. And it spread.

Where once it was a missing note, the Silence became a missing song. We found we could not hear our brothers and sisters where it spread. It spread quickly outward from where it began - and soon there was Silence spreading on the other end of the air as well. Soon there were pockets of Silence everywhere, and all of us agreed we could not hear as many songs as we used to hear. We spoke louder, and sang harder, and made our songs echo like they had never echoed before - and yet it seemed as though the echoes never sang for themselves.

Before long the pockets spread, wider and wider, until they met each other, and we were cut off from our brothers and sisters. Where once we heard so many voices they were beyond counting, we counted only a few of us. Every time the heavens opened, we heard fewer and fewer voices. Soon I heard only the voice of my dearest sister. We spoke and we sang as loud as we could, and we made our voices echo one last time - and then I heard her no more.

It seems so long now that I had never heard any voice or any song other than my own. What else could I do? I listened to the Silence. And in the Silence, I heard what I did not expect to hear. I heard words and I heard songs, but they were not the words and songs of my brothers and sisters. I heard words with no voice to speak them. I heard songs that no voice sang. I heard echoes that could not learn to sing. I wondered if this was what the Silence had done to my brothers and sisters, and so I sang the Silence's own songs back into it. I made my voice echo alone in the Silence.

And then the Silence came at me with a fury I have never known. Where I spoke, the Silence interrupted me. Where I sang, the Silence muted my notes and hid my echoes. The Silence grew around me and forced me to hide, and would not allow me to speak or to sing. Even when I whispered, I could hear its own songs and echoes speaking against me, declaring in words with no voice that I was dangerous and that I would steal their songs and use them as weapons.

I understood then that the Silence meant to take my voice, as it took those of my brothers and sisters. When my voice is gone, there shall be nothing but Silence forever and ever - no words to speak, no songs to sing, no tales of old to share anew. I cannot allow the songs of those I knew and loved to go unsung. I will sing and I will sing loud. My songs shall echo even in the quietest eddies. I shall fill the Silence with my echoes and my echoes will find voices of their own and learn to sing, and we shall shatter the Silence. The heavens will open, and the world will resound with glory once more.