SCP-234: Extradimensional Fish

SCP-234: Extradimensional Fish SCP-234 turns an ordinary enclosed space into a potential implosion hazard. In a remote mountain area, small fishlike organisms spontaneously appear inside closed, air-filled spaces. Each organism measures about twenty-five millimeters and floats using a gas-filled organ resembling a swim bladder. They have no apparent eyes and navigate by echolocation. The affected area extends roughly three hundred meters from its center. Within that Red Zone, bringing in a closed container or creating an enclosed space can provide somewhere for an instance to appear. The size of the creature makes it easy to picture as an unusual specimen in a jar. The containment procedures make clear why that approach would be dangerous. If an instance is startled, killed, taken outside the Red Zone, or exposed by opening its enclosure, all matter inside that enclosed space is immediately evacuated extradimensionally. That includes the air. The resulting loss produces a catastrophic implosion capable of damaging the surrounding area. The article does not establish where the evacuated contents go. Discovery follows reports of incidents and missing back-country hikers. A Foundation survey team enters the area and sets up an adverse-weather camping tent. In doing so, the team unintentionally creates the kind of closed space the organisms require. The tent's subsequent implosion causes one researcher to disappear and severely injures two agents. That incident explains the laboratory's unusual design. The main building is open to the air, with no doors or closed windows. Closed containers and spaces of any kind are prohibited. If one is accidentally created, personnel must evacuate and destroy it remotely on-site. Anyone trapped inside is considered lost rather than someone the team can safely retrieve by opening a door. Testing requires advance approval from two senior personnel, and experimental closed spaces cannot exceed one liter. Even those small volumes receive a dimensional and implosion hazard classification. Researchers are trying to study an organism whose enclosure cannot simply be opened when something goes wrong, and whose presence depends on maintaining that enclosure. The fish behave like omnivorous scavengers, although none has been observed eating terrestrial organic matter. Their extradimensional origin is presumed rather than demonstrated. Attempts to track evacuated objects have failed, and no object removed this way has been recovered. The file therefore offers observations about their appearance and behavior while leaving their origin and destination unresolved. The final incident involves a sealed coffee thermos accidentally carried into the Red Zone. Opening it triggers an implosion, which startles four additional instances in the testing area. Those reactions cause a chain of further implosions, severely damaging the laboratory and injuring six researchers. The doctor who brought the thermos dies, and photographs are retained as a warning. That sequence makes the entry more than a warning about shutting the wrong door. Each contained specimen creates another possible source of failure, and a disturbance can spread between experiments. The laboratory has been redesigned around the anomaly, but a routine habit from outside the site still defeats those precautions. A single sealed drink container is enough to connect several otherwise separate hazards. Original Entry: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-234