[AUDIO LOG TRANSCRIPT]
File Name: Audio Log 1_2403██.wav
Date: 24 March 20██
Location: Site-2, Xenobotanical Containment Lab, Nephentes materanensis Containment Room
Clearance Level: Ω-5 (Restricted Access)
Involved Personnel:
Dr. Erwin Broadsheet (Head of Extraterrestrial Life Sciences)
Dr. ████ Hoshino (Senior Xenobotanist, Specialist in Anomalous Flora, Dr. Erwin's Research Assistant)
[BEGIN LOG]
[Ambient Humming of Machinery & Containment Barriers Active]
Dr. Hoshino: [Soft chuckle] You know, Erwin, if we weren’t working under an active containment field, I’d swear this thing was watching us.
Dr. Erwin: [Distracted, flipping through notes] It might as well be. The bioelectric readings spiked again last night—way past baseline variance. I ran another scan; the conductivity in the root system isn't just reacting to external stimuli anymore. It's predicting them.
Dr. Hoshino: You think it's some form of bioelectronic sentience? We’ve seen neural mimicry in extreme plant species before, but this… [Pauses, leans closer to observation window] This is different. It’s adapting too fast. Faster than anything in our databases.
Dr. Erwin: And that’s what concerns me. When we introduced Compound V-9 into the nutrient medium, its metabolic processes didn’t just accelerate—they reorganized. The Nepenthes materanensis is integrating the compound into its structure, rewriting its own biochemistry. That was never supposed to happen.
Dr. Hoshino: The petals—they weren’t this shade yesterday, were they? [Shuffling of papers] They were originally a deep red. Now… greenish-black.
Dr. Erwin: That’s not just pigment variation. The spectrometer picked up traces of unknown alkaloid synthesis. If my calculations are right, the plant is producing a neurotoxin we can’t even classify yet.
Dr. Hoshino: [Low whistle] And the council still wants this thing weaponized?
Dr. Erwin: You know how they work. They see potential, not consequences. [Sighs, rubs temples] HOC-5 sent me another "strategic reassessment" memo last night. They’re pushing for live trials. They think it has applications beyond sustainable bioengineering.
Dr. Hoshino: [Coldly] Meaning military.
Dr. Erwin: Meaning control. They don’t just want to study it. They want to own it.
Dr. Hoshino: And what if they already do?
[Silence. Only the faint, rhythmic pulsing of the plant’s tendrils against the reinforced glass is heard.]
Dr. Erwin: What are you saying?
Dr. Hoshino: [Lowered voice] I pulled archived files from Strangerville’s offsite blackbox servers. Erwin… this species—it wasn’t discovered. It was recovered.
Dr. Erwin: [Quietly, disbelieving] That’s not possible.
Dr. Hoshino: The council knew about it long before we got our hands on it. There were reports—fragments, redacted field logs, and something about a downed artifact in Sector-██. Every file referencing the original source of the plant was scrubbed clean. [Pause] They didn’t find this thing in deep space, Erwin. They dug it up.
[Silence. Faint, wet movement as the plant shifts within containment.]
Dr. Erwin: [Firmly] Then we’ve been working under false pretenses this entire time.
Dr. Hoshino: We were never here to study it. We were here to finish what they started.
[Static interference – Possible external breach in recording uplink.]
Dr. Erwin: Hoshino, we need to—
[ALERT: SYSTEM ACCESS BREACH – REMOTE OVERRIDE ENGAGED]
[Recording terminates abruptly.]
[END OF LOG]
Notes:
Final 30 seconds of the original recording are missing.
Dr. Hoshino’s terminal access was revoked within 24 hours following this recording.
On 24 March 20██, Site-2 experienced catastrophic containment failure.