The Arcturus survey team dispatched to assess the viability of the Appalachian resource corridor returned after sixteen days in the field. All seven members were physically intact. Their report was filed and immediately classified. What follows is a reconstruction from the team lead's personal notes, which she shared before her transfer to a non-field assignment.

The rivers in West Virginia are running backwards. Not all of them. Not consistently. But three major waterways that the team crossed during their transit showed flow direction opposite to their topographical gradient — water running uphill, away from the sea, toward the mountains. The team's hydrologist measured the current at multiple points and confirmed: the water was moving against gravity at approximately 2.3 kilometers per hour. The riverbed was eroding in the correct direction for the new flow, suggesting this was not a recent development. The rocks had been shaped by water moving uphill for years.

The team attempted to follow one river — the Kanawha, or what the map called the Kanawha — upstream (which was now downhill) to determine where the water was going. After twelve kilometers the forest closed in. The trees were wrong. Not mutated in the geneware sense — structurally wrong. Branches that grew in spirals. Bark that was warm. Root systems that were visible above ground, running parallel to the river as if accompanying it. The hydrologist said the root systems appeared to be guiding the water. The botanist said that was impossible. The hydrologist pointed at the river running uphill and asked which impossible thing they'd like to address first.

The team turned back at the point where their compasses stopped working. Not spinning — stopped. The needles pointed at the river. All of them. The team lead's final note: "The water knows where it's going. I don't think we should follow it to find out where that is."