The following documents are an Assortment of Materials Concerning Candidate 1511, collected and catalogued after the events of [REDACTED]

Dearest Mary,

Spectacular news, I was accepted by the Antarctica Eden Society! I sat an interview with a lovely man by the name of James Ezekiel and was offered a position as his personal assistant. I discovered Dr Ezekiel was a fellow geneticist and we instantly hit it off, sharing an illuminating conversation pertaining to the society’s well-funded exploration of Horizontal Gene Transfer. I start in two weeks, pray for me!

With boundless love, 

Noah

Dearest Mary,

Life in Antarctica has been like nothing else. The landscape is so majestically alien, I am unable to tell if it is the view or the temperature that takes my breath away! It is moments like these that remind me of the skill in which God wields his brush. On another note, Dr Ezekiel’s intellectual company has been unrelentingly intriguing. That man’s passion for biological exploration must be unmatched by any other and as a fellow Christian, his views on scientific interpretations of the Bible are refreshingly unique. Although the laboratories can feel rather empty while Dr Ezekiel is gathering samples in the field(or as the doctor calls it, exploring Eden) there is always work to keep me busy. How are the boys and their studies? Send them my love.

Eternally yours, 

Noah

Candidate Progress Log

Candidate 1511’s acclimation to the laboratory setting has proceeded smoothly. Sufficient dermal and faecal samples have been gathered without suspicion. 1511’s willingness to complete observational and analytical work for extended periods has enabled genetic analysis and horizontal transfer with the Eden stone to begin without issue. Mental acclimation to candidates 48, 146 and 417 to proceed as usual.

Dear Mary,

For the past week, I have assisted Dr Ezekiel in the maintenance and observation of several exotic organisms. Each one was discovered from beneath the very ice this research facility was built upon and contained within large, plexiglass microbiomes. It is safe to say my previous study of the intricate forms of deep-sea life has not prepared me for the specimens before my eyes. One such example being a bed of arterial coral sporting throbbing capillaries of crimson ooze. Another resembled a spasming hand that in reality was a behemoth sea slug with twitching, finger-like growths. The most compelling of these specimens by far was a mass of pale, twisting fungus, strikingly similar in appearance to the meandering pathways of the cerebral cortex! Dr Ezekiel must have seen my expression when I saw the wondrous thing, as he generously offered me the responsibility of maintaining the specimen (nicknamed Hugo’s Brain by the doctor), an offer I eagerly accepted. 

Regards,

Noah

Dear Mary,

I appear to have encountered a paradox. The closer I observe and analyse this specimen, the less I understand. The fungus seems to defy logic. Upon close inspection, no visible basidia (So the boys know, fungal, spore-bearing structures) of any sort can be located, and the fungus must remain at an approximate temperature of 37 degrees Celsius to avoid rapid cellular deterioration. If the fungus was taken from beneath the ice, how could it have survived the subzero temperatures? Without basidia how can Hugo’s Brain reproduce? And most pressingly, what is the pink-yellow tinged liquid Dr Ezekiel has instructed me to sustain it with? Fungi rarely need any additional sustenance apart from the material on which it grows. May the Lord grant me insight.

Regards,

Noah

Candidate Progress Log

The development of trojan cells with Candidate 1511’s genetic information has been successful, ingestion of preliminary neural stem cells has proceeded without incident. Activation of rapid neural stem cell cultivation via Eden stone proximity cleared to go ahead as planned. 

Mary,

Ezekiel lied to me. I’ve been feeding a brain. I searched for another, anyone but Ezekiel, but there was no one. How could I not notice the quietness? The empty bunks in every cabin? I confronted him and he promised me the truth. Down, down, down, down, through the black ice he led. All the time, Ezekiel whispering of his endless toiling in the cathedral below, of the stone, the monument that was God, Adam and Eden. The stairs reached a jarring end, and through a hall of daemons in translucent cages we crept, not to wake them, Ezekiel said. The twisting flesh and splayed viscera of those things are indelible in my mind. The passage opened to a cavern, it's vaulted ceiling too high for light to reach, pushed up by black spires of ice. And at its heart, the stone. Too large for its name, Ezekiel's instruments lay scattered and worthless at the base of it. I stepped forward, as if it were pulling at my soul, and looked into the mottled mass of chitinous, warped tissue. It might have been alive once. Ezekiel called it an ark, I didn’t understand then. That devil, Ezekiel, calls me away now.

Noah

I hear them, Mary. It started as a murmur, shadows hiding in the periphery of my sight. The presence was indiscernible, like the spoken word to a newborn, but each passing moment makes them clearer. Many recent, some so very ancient, they have come together. They want me to join them. With the growing of the whispers, something stirs within me. I look at Ezekiel and I do not understand, his rhythmic grunting and subtle facial twitching having lost any meaning. My mind recedes further into this husk of proteins and tendons, now dull and unresponsive. I feel loose from the physical, even writing this now is a struggle for control over fraying nerves and sliding flesh. Somehow, it feels correct, becoming detached from myself, all I see is an unmatched eloquence of thought, a presence to fall into.

Missionary Evaluation

Candidate 1511’s conversion has resulted in a plethora of data, with several cryogenically preserved samples being shipped as this is written. It seems the ego absorption model may finally be receiving some solid evidence in the form of 1511’s personal accounts of the process. 1511’s physical metamorphosis has resulted in an appearance similar to that of an inverted embryo. It seems 1511 will have to remain in Cathedral storage like the majority of the candidates. Thankfully, 1511 created few problems. I was initially worried when he came to me regarding the cerebrospinal fluid nutrient needed to sustain the 417 sample, but his natural curiosity allowed me to speed up the trojan cell activation process, completely circumventing the need for anaesthesia and restraints. Here's hoping the bio-analysts will have a breakthrough with these samples. For now, I have work concerning 1511’s loose threads.

Dr James Ezekiel

Dearest Mary,

I must apologize. I have been putting off writing this letter for far too long. I do not believe I will be returning home. While my love for you has frozen over, I have found another here in this land of ice. Do not come for me. Tell the boys I am sorry.

Sincerely,

Noah