SCP-222: Clone Coffin

SCP-222: Clone Coffin SCP-222 is a set of tunnels in the Dolomites containing carved stone coffins. One coffin can duplicate a living person. The Foundation discovers the site in 1955 while investigating a cult using the tunnels, and it eventually becomes one of the organization's busiest anomalous facilities. The process begins when someone is placed in the coffin and the lid is closed. They fall asleep within fifteen minutes, regardless of attempts to keep them awake. After an hour or two, they wake feeling rested. Opening the coffin during the sleep period usually kills the occupant and prevents a successful result. Within twenty-four hours, a duplicate appears somewhere in the tunnels. Researchers have never successfully observed where the duplicate originates. The new person generally seems to wander until finding the coffin. They resemble the original physically, but arrive in tattered clothing of unknown origin. Manufactured objects are not copied, which makes medical implants and even dental work a concern. The process also preserves the original's medical conditions and apparent lifespan. It does not offer a younger, healthier replacement. Its most useful difference, from the Foundation's perspective, is what happens to memory. The duplicates retain language and many learned skills but cannot remember their personal histories. Combat ability can survive. So can computer and interrogation skills. Ethical beliefs and loyalties often remain as well, allowing the Foundation to train a duplicate in its procedures without starting from an inexperienced recruit. The tests show that those loyalties can be inconvenient. One duplicate resists a staged attempt to recruit him into the KGB and is welcomed as a loyal Foundation worker. Another declares allegiance to a terrorist organization. Questioning the original reveals that the unexpected allegiance was accurately reproduced. The coffin has copied a commitment the Foundation did not know its employee held. The organization nevertheless uses it extensively to expand its workforce. The addenda then start raising questions about that decision. A general reports behavioral differences that simple memory loss may not explain. Two attempts to clone existing clones produce people who are resistant to indoctrination. Their intelligence remains at least comparable to that of the originals, so resistance cannot simply be dismissed as a loss of mental ability. Reports also suggest that the Foundation has more personnel than its records account for. A census is proposed, and future cloning requires documented approval from senior staff who are not themselves clones. After a general's duplicate nearly succeeds in taking over a site, the Foundation orders identifying tattoos on every clone's forehead and hands. The original description calls the coffin obviously useful. By the end, the organization is struggling to distinguish its employees, track how many exist, and decide who can authorize making more. A machine that reproduces skilled workers has also produced people with their own decisions to make. The Foundation's staffing plan depends on treating those decisions as predictable, and its own records show they are not. Original Entry: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-222