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Info
SCP-XX: It's Just The Best Way to Get Around!
Alternate Title: Jump-Centric
Author:aismallard (Author Page)
Thanks to .
Item: SCP-XX
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: In the unlikely event of incursions from SCP-XX into the baseline reality, posted security personnel are to intercept involved persons and move them to the fixed SCP-XX-A installation at Outpost-7092. This device is programmed to deliver the captured individuals to SCP-XX-B, which will debrief and amnesticize them.
Description: SCP-XX is an alternate universe which partially intersects with the baseline reality at [REDACTED], Sri Lanka. Near this location, it was possible for civilians to accidentally utilize SCP-XX-A to transport into the Foundation's universe instead of their intended location. SCP-XX is populated with baseline humans.
SCP-XX-A is a physical process within the SCP-XX universe which enables near-immediate transportation of a person and attached goods to another location. Technology to take advantage of this is considered non-anomalous within SCP-XX, as it is a consequence of several local laws of physics.
SCP-XX-B is the Foundation analogue organization within SCP-XX. Per joint containment procedures established in Document-F07155-3, SCP-XX-B has implemented covert modifications to SCP-XX-A technology to make inter-universe travel impossible to achieve without proper access codes. Consequently, almost all present cross-universe SCP-XX-A travel is between the Foundation and SCP-XX-B as part of official cooperative activities.
Addendum XX-1: SCP-XX-A Technology
While knowledge of the underlying principles behind SCP-XX-A has been known within SCP-XX for millennia, it has only been used as a typical means of travel for people within the last century. This is due to the following practical issues with SCP-XX-A-mediated travel:
- Transport via SCP-XX-A requires a significant amount of energy. While the quantity required is possible for an industrialized society to generate, it is too large to be practical for a handheld machine.
- Inputting destination coordinates is a laborious and error-prone task. Improper coordinate transport is fatal for persons nearby the source and destination areas (though generally not for the person being transported themselves).
However, these issues have been since resolved due to significant technological and infrastructural investments. In the modern world, people within SCP-XX regularly travel using the technology hundreds or thousands of times a day with no issue. The time required for a transportation is approximately 1.2 seconds from activation to arrival.
Typical wrist-device. The triangular metal section is pressed to activate transport.
Within SCP-XX, nearly all persons wear small wristwatch-like devices. Such devices can differentiate between a person, any held goods, and their environment to determine precise input coordinates. These devices are able to teleport a person when provided with a destination and sufficient energy.
To provide this energy, an expansive coil system has been installed in homes, offices, walkways, parks, and all other places where people frequent. By means of comparison, this coil energy system is as prolific as roofs are within the baseline reality: even the most minimally-developed regions will have at least some basic coil system to enable transportation.
The wrist-devices are able to capture this energy in a burst and utilize it to initiate transport. However, properly conveying the person to a destination without causing bystander casualties was a long-time challenge towards the adoption of SCP-XX-A as a practical means of human movement.
Consequently, point-to-point transportation has been made illegal, and instead all transport destinations must be fixed SCP-XX-A installations. These are large, flat areas of raised floor, approximately 3.8m × 3.8m, and are called "circles" despite their rectangular shape. Transport circles are inlaid with a special metal which "attracts" SCP-XX-A transport bubbles. Combined with a bubble management system attached to each circle (or for large public areas, groups of circles), all that is effectively required to instantly transport to a given destination is to enter its circle ID into your wrist-device.
This destination circle system has improved transport safety by limiting dangerous areas to small nearby areas which can be easily blocked off.
However, safety reports have noted that many escape hallways are created in such dangerous areas, both due to the cost (it is cheaper to utilize an area which otherwise cannot be used), and the perception that escape hallways only exist due to legal requirements and are effectively unused (as even in during disasters, transport is the most practical means to escape a dangerous situation).
Like coil infrastructure, circles are installed extensively. A typical home will 2-3 destination circles installed, large office buildings will have several on each floor (in lieu of elevators, people simply use a transporter to materialize at the relevant location), stores and shops will have separate circles for customers and employees, and public areas such as parks and arenas, will have hundreds to thousands of destination circles.
Due to the difficulty in memorizing thousands of different circle ID numbers, very few people actually enter ID numbers directly. Instead, sophisticated personal devices (akin to the modern smartphone in function albeit visually distinct) have emerged. These can save commonly-used circles (e.g. one's home, workplace), can recommend others based on search queries and recent activity, and transmit circle IDs to the wrist-device for use. Personal devices are also used for configuring circle security (for instance, restricting one's home to only be available to family members and close friends).
This expansive system of energy coils and destination circles forms the basis of almost all transportation within SCP-XX, but like all other infrastructure, has an associated cost. Estimates put installation and maintenance of these devices within cities at the equivalent of $92 million USD per 100,000 residents. Energy coils in particular must be regularly replaced or serviced due to wear and tear.
X-ray of transporter accident survivor.
Addendum XX-2: Societal Effects of SCP-XX-A Technology
Surveys of the SCP-XX populace indicate that people perceive SCP-XX-A as universal, safe, and easy to access. When asked, civilians indicate that it is inconceivable to imagine someone who did not have a wrist-device, writing off such individuals as paranoid hermits.
However, as they contain a number of rare metals, wrist-devices are not free, nor cheap, with a typical new model costing about 70% of median income in developed nations, and up to 210% of median income in poor nations. While many middle-income households possess multiple wrist-devices (typically two per person, one as a primary and another as a backup), most poor households would struggle to buy one new wrist-device per adult.
Most often, lower-income households will avoid purchasing new wrist-devices, but even when used these devices represent a significant fraction of their income. Because transportation is a social necessity within SCP-XX, an entire industry has adapted to serve this market, providing loans to purchase new wrist-devices. Such financial products have been criticized for having predatory interest rates, or only being affordable because they continually recirculate shoddy, used wrist-devices.
Some poor individuals make do by sharing one wrist-device across multiple people. % fucked if it breaks. having to juggle sucks. misogynistic men use it to keep women at home.
% buildings no outdoors access
% disabled people cannot use it, and have to take absurd walkways (escape areas) to get through. time taken is ridiculous, and society assumes everyone can zip around
% apps to determine when it's safe to go. cost
% many such walkways go through danger areas
% people unable to use it are still sometimes given it, for instance during emergency medical care, killing them. people act strangely to the idea that people cannot use it
% include quotes from experts and stuff
As noted in Addendum XX-1, most deaths from transporter accidents are those of bystanders.
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