October 8, 1665
A man was observing the night sky on an observation point near his home. He was looking around the night sky with his telescope, when he noticed something that caught his attention.
"Hm? What is this?"
He noticed a star of a great luminescence, moving at a great speed across the sky. He began to observe this star as it raced past the outer planets of the solar system. As it reached Jupiter, it seemed to make a sharp turn, then disappeared into the planet.
As it disappeared, he then noticed a few bursts of light emerge from the red gas giant. He proceeded to observe the vicinity until sunrise, to which he saw no more disturbances in the sky.
"I have to tell Peter about this..."
-----
One Week Later
"Giovanni, what exactly am I supposed to be seeing?"
"Keep scanning through your looking glass. You will know what I am referring to soon enough."
The man, Giovanni, had brought his friend, Peter, to his observation point, after having told him about the star he saw the week before. They were scanning along Jupiter, as the star had affected it somehow.
"Giovanni, are you ill that night?" Peter asked his friend. "We have been here for a short while now, but I have not seen anything that is of interest."
"I was not ill that night, Peter..." Giovanni answered. "I am telling you the truth, I did see a star nearby Jupiter."
"I see..." the friend responded. "Although, I still have my doubts, since I do not know exactly what I am looking for..."
"It should be here somewhere..." the man then noticed something through his telescope. "Peter?"
"Yes?"
"Jupiter does not have a giant red spot, correct?"
"Well, no..." Peter shook his head. "I do not recall it having a red spot..."
"Then... how come there is?"
Peter then looked through his telescope again, now noticing Jupiter's newly discovered red spot. The two were at awe, observing this new discovery; the red gas giant, only possessing bands of colours, now had a newly formed a great red spot.
"Is this reality?" Peter asked in disbelief. "This has got to be a dream!"
"Peter, you are fully awake." Giovanni turned to him. "I will take note of our new discovery."
-----
Three Days Later
Giovanni was observing the red gas giant through his telescope, with the newly formed red spot nearby his sight. After a little while of silent observation, he noticed something peculiar.
"What is that I am seeing?"
He noticed that there were explosions and starbursts, all happening around the vicinity of the red spot. He stopped looking through his telescope and rubbed his eyes, then looked through it again.
"Hmm... it does seem to be real..." he muttered to himself. "I have never seen this before, there has been no record of this in the astronomy books and pages. I have to tell Peter about this in the morrow. He has to know."
With all that's said and done, the man walked back to his home and slept. He wanted to see what his friend had to see about what he saw in the gas giant's red spot.
It was already the next day, and the man walked towards Peter's house, wanting to tell him about his discovery last night.
Giovanni knocked on his friend's door, waiting for him to open it. He waited for a few seconds, until the door opened, revealing Peter.
"Oh, Giovanni..." he greeted. "What brought you here?"
"Peter, may I enter?" the man asked. "I have something rather peculiar to discuss with you."
"Oh, okay..." Peter agreed, realising the urgency of the situation. "Come in, we will speak about the matter."
With that, Giovanni walked inside his friend's house. Giovanni sat down at the dining room table, for them to discuss what the man saw last night.
"So, what did you wish to discuss about?" Peter asked, pouring him a glass of water.
"Peter, I saw the most peculiar sight last night."
"And what would that be?"
"A few bright lights were emerging from the red spot of Jupiter..." Giovanni explained. "I thought that perhaps my mind was fooling me somehow, but all of those lights were real."
"That is indeed very peculiar..." Peter sat down across from him. "I have never heard such a thing like that happen in prior studies before."
"Our times may be changing..." the man drank his glass of water. "In fact, this may be revolutionary in the field of astronomy."
"So... what do you suggest these bright lights may be?"
"It may be a powerful reaction of some kind..." Giovanni answered. "I said once before that a falling star disappeared into Jupiter, which we do not know much about just yet..."
"Are you sure our heavenly neighbour is alright?"
"It seemed like a cataclysmic event... but I will continue to observe it. I hope that it does not prove to be of any danger..."
-----
Centuries Later
The Foundation took notice of the SCP, and had implemented the BARRIER array, in order to monitor the SCP and to hinder its repair and transmissions.
Among this array, Unit 53 had noticed something of interest, causing one of the monitors to inform the commander.
"Sir, we got something here..." one of the monitors informed the commander. "You might wanna take a look at this..."
"What do you have?" the commander asked.
"We got a drone here picking something up..." the monitor responded. "Might be something that'll fix the SCP somehow."
"Alright..." the commander understood, then looked over to a small group of people. "Strike team, prepare to engage."
"Yes, sir." one of the personnel responded. "Concussion batteries will be ready in a few."
"Double time it, the target's gonna get away."
"Yes, sir."
With that, the personnel went on to prepare the concussion batteries to use against the target. It took only a few minutes for the armaments to get ready to be launched at the designated target.
"Engaging target."
The batteries were discharged and were heading straight towards the repair drone. After a few seconds, the batteries had been detonated.
A large cloud of black smoke is seen near the indicated target. As the smoke cleared, the drone didn't seem to be damaged at all; it had still functioned as if nothing had happened.
"What the hell happened?" the commander looked at the repair drone. "Why didn't it work?"
"Sir, the batteries were detonated early." one of the strike team personnel asked. "It's ineffective on the target."
"What detonated it?"
"We don't know, sir."
"The SCP probably has some sort of defense system..." the commander thought to himself. "One thing's for sure, we'll know what this SCP's up to."
-----
Present Day
"Hmm..."
Durham was observing an SCP on her monitors, tasked by Doctor Gears to observe its current status. She observed the Great Red Spot of the planet Jupiter, knowing that within it was the SCP.
"It doesn't seem to be slowing down in repairs... at least, that's what it seems to be from this distance." the researcher thought to herself. "I'll take note of this for Doctor Gears..."
Just then, she heard several knocks on her door.
"Come in." the researcher called out.
The door opened, revealing Captain Polonskaya holding a file of papers.
"Oh, hello, Captain Polonskaya..." the researcher greeted. "How was the experiment with the Gate Guardian a few days ago?"
"It was... unexpected." the captain responded. "When Able looked at the SCP, he was reluctant to move forward. As to why that happened, we don't know for sure..."
"Ah, that does sound bizarre..." the researcher responded. "Anyways, what brings you here?"
"Doctor Gears wanted me to give you these files to sort out..." the captain put the folder down onto the researcher's desk. "He said he was too occupied to do it himself..."
"Alright, I'll deal with this later..." the researcher replied. "Right now, I'm monitoring this SCP."
"SCP-2399, da?"
"Yes, that's it." the researcher nodded. "It doesn't seem to be slowing down in repairs, and it's a bit worrying."
"Da, it is..." the captain responded. "Who knows how long we have left until the drones fully repair that destroyer..."
"Knock, knock, guess who?"
The two looked to see that Doctor Bright was in the doorway, with Adrian and Iris in tow.
"What brought you here, Doctor Bright?" the captain asked with a sigh.
"Aww, come on, captain..." the problematic doctor responded. "Can't I just do anything without any questions?"
"Actually, you cannot." the captain shook her head. "The O5 Council has put together that long list of things that you explicitly can't do."
"Anyways, what brings you here, Doctor Bright?" Durham spoke up.
"Eh, I got nothing else to do, so I just followed these two around all day." the problematic doctor then nudged the joker with his elbow. "Ain't that right?"
"Yeah, he was just watching us." Adrian responded. "Very, very closely."
"And he didn't interfere with your training?"
"Well, he did scare Ryder a bit..." the teenage girl responded. "He just froze there when he startled him."
"Doctor Bright, what did you do?" the captain looked at the problematic doctor.
"Hey listen, I just walked up behind him and gave him a little, you know, adrenaline." the problematic doctor defended his actions. "I didn't think that it would scare the kid that bad."
"He's still a bit jumpy, trying to get used to things..." Adrian explained to him. "Good thing that Lia's trying to calm him down."
"Doctor Bright, I don't want you to go around and scaring random people." the captain told the problematic doctor. "Especially the soldiers under my command."
"Alright, alright..." the problematic doctor responded. "So what's going on here anyway?"
"I was monitoring SCP-2399..." the researcher answered. "Doctor Gears wanted me to monitor it for a week for a report..."
"Oh, that's the uh... the uh..." the problematic doctor snapped his fingers, whilst trying to remember something. "Wait, don't tell me. It's the... uhh..."
"We don't have all day..." the captain sighed.
"Hang on, it's on the tip of my tongue..."
"It's the malfunctioning destroyer, Doctor Bright." the researcher spoke up.
"Ooohh, right, yeah, that one..." the problematic doctor responded. "Yeah, I knew that..."
"So... what is it exactly?" Iris asked.
"We don't fully understand its nature nor intentions yet..." the researcher answered. "All we know is that it's a complex alien structure, currently located in Jupiter's lower atmosphere..."
"Like... right by the red spot?"
"The alien structure is the cause of that red spot." the captain answered. "It's currently within it, which I believe it would be a sort of defense system."
"Guess I learned something they don't teach us at school." the joker responded. "Anyway, so what's the deal with this thing?"
"Our most plausible theory is that this structure was meant to target Earth back in 1665..." the researcher responded. "It's believed that the structure had an impact with the moon Io, before being pulled by Jupiter's gravity."
"The world almost ended back then, huh?" the joker asked, to which the researcher nodded. "So what's gonna happen now?"
"Didn't the Foundation try to stop it by now?" the teenage girl added.
"They tried to discharge batteries upon one of its repair drones before, but that did nothing." the captain answered. "The BARRIER array are still trying to come up with a way to at least damage it."
"So what else are they gonna do?" the joker asked.
"That's out of my jurisdiction to know..." the captain responded. "That information's only available to the people involved with the SCP, the O5 and the BARRIER array..."
"Man... so the world's gonna end someday because of this thing, huh?" Adrian said.
"We all have our own passing dates..." the captain responded. "The only hope is that it doesn't come too soon."
"Eh, it's not that bad for me." Doctor Bright spoke up. "Been there a lot."
-----
"I still think this is a bad idea, Dustin."
"Listen, it'll be fine, Thea. Just watch..."
Without any more delay, the athlete stood up from his hospital bed. He showed his best friend that he was fine, however, the researcher sighed.
"Dustin, you should be more careful!" Athena told him, growing agitated. "You looked as if you were going to die from your injuries!"
"But I'm still here, right?" the athlete responded. "Come on, I'm back on my feet now, Thea. Don't worry too much about me."
"I'm still not convinced..." the researcher responded with a sigh. "At least you should take a break from field duty."
"Alright, fine..." the athlete sighed. "If it makes you feel better..."
"You must be Dustin Portnow, right?"
The two looked to see a middle-aged man walk towards them.
"Yeah, who's asking?" the athlete asked. "Who the hell are you?"
"Dustin, shush..." the researcher shushed her best friend, then looked back at the middle-aged man. "Sorry about my friend, Doctor Kondraki. He had been through a lot as of late, which is why he's like this."
"Right..." the anti-social doctor responded. "Anyways, I just came here to see what the commotion was about, and I wasn't expecting to see him here."
"Well, you got what you came for..." the athlete responded. "So you can go ahead and fuck off."
"Dustin!" the researcher whisper yelled.
"Relax, Portnow... I'm not a threat, and I don't want to be considered one." the anti-social doctor reassured the athlete. "I got other things to deal with than whatever it is you're going through."
The athlete merely glared at him. The anti-social doctor then turned to the researcher.
"You can handle him, right?"
"Don't worry, sir." the researcher reassured him. "I can handle him on my own."
"Alright, good." the anti-social doctor then turned around and waked off. "I'll be seeing you two around."
With that, Doctor Kondraki left the infirmary, leaving the two on their own. After a few seconds, the researcher spoke up.
"Dustin, what the hell was that?" Athena asked. "You were being unnecessarily rude to Doctor Kondraki!"
"Listen, Thea, after everything that's happened to me, I don't know who to trust!" the athlete responded. "Especially people like him!"
"That doesn't mean that you can be rude to him!"
"Thea, I..." the athlete then sighed. "I just... can't trust anyone else anymore. Ash got me captured just as I trusted her."
"Don't worry, Dustin." the researcher reassured him. "You have us, your friends that'll never leave your side."
"Right..." the athlete responded. "Guess you guys are all I got left..."
"You'll get used to trust others again somehow..." the researcher responded. "But for now, you should take things easy."
"Alright... fine..."
To Be Continued