Article 7: Interview of Dr. Boris Gannibal, PhD

April 27th, 1970

[The doctor seems to have misunderstood the purpose of his chair, electing to squat upon the table instead. His hair has begun to turn white and fall out in clumps, his skin blotchy, his eyes overflowing from their sockets, staring out lidless, unblinking. Still, he turns as I enter the room]

“Hello.”

[Grunt]

“Can you see me? How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Oh, I can see you, I do, I do. But it doesn’t matter.”

“How?”

[Shrug] “I do, yes I do. Now, I think you have questions, yes? I know you do.”

“How did you know?”

“I know, oh, how I know. You bring me another Brother, yes? Or perhaps even a Sister? You need to know what they say, you want to know!”

[Sigh.] “I do.”

[I hand him Subject Boris]

“Oh, oh joy! The stars and atoms smile! A Sister, oh yes, a Sister! A good Sister, yes, not like that naughty Brother. You belong here, not like him. He should have been left behind. He did not deserve the Truth, he stole it!”

“Who is this ‘brother’?”

“The other one, the one you brought me earlier, the one who gave me Eyes, those Eyes that writhe and writhe inside my head! You call him ‘Predator’, you do. This one means ‘Eye’.” That evil Brother, Predator, Anjick, whatever his name, was unworthy, defiling the knowledge of The Topaz Sea with his presence! And so he remains accursed, incomplete, the rune ‘Predator’ upon his petrified flesh.”

“So these runes, you can read them?”

“More or less, more less than more, heh. Our mouths are deformed and twisted, they are, and our ears were not meant to listen to such inhuman utterances.”

“Then how did you know that other one meant ‘Predator’?

“I knew, I knew, I did.”

“But how did you know?”

[He begins to rock back and forth]

“I knew, I knew, like I always had. But I didn’t. I had forgotten it. We all have, we pygmies, the molding cancer of man. But the Brother, he showed me what I forgot, tearing the facade away when the Truth tore itself from my skull. I didn’t remember all at once, oh no, my mind was too small, too small. It still is, heh. Every time the Truth rips free, it leaves a little bit of itself behind, it does. The great Truth, transcendental, endless, a bottomless sea, is not meant for human comprehension.”

“You keep going on and on about this ‘Truth’. What is it?”

“You will never know! At least not yet. You have eyes, yes, but they are a most evil sort, operating only on the basest of planes. Unseeing, rotten, unworthy! The truth is wisdom, but not from here, no. They, the Brothers and Sisters, they Know! They found Them, made contact, and they transcended, they ascended as they descended into The Topaz Sea! They found the Truth! Well, most of them…”

“Most of them?”

“The foolish ones, brains rotten, driving themselves aft, they didn’t want to know! They refused to learn! Although, that was not such a terrible idea, perhaps...perhaps…per-”

[He slumps over]

“Bastard, he’s fainted again. We’ll try again when he wakes up. We’re done here.”