The thing about the control timeline that's also very interesting is the blackrock quarry. It comes along at a very ambiguous time thats not clear in the documents you get. We know it wasn't there under Northmoor's administration but it also is there after Trench takes his place. There's a lot that's left rather unclear about the transition between Trench and Northmoor that is interesting to think about if you consider the circumstances.
Northmoor embodied everything that Trench was terrified of the job doing to people. From his dialogue we know that Northmoor was a power hungry maniac, but also went into the NSC willingly to some degree. He agreed to resign, Trench says. But after his very clear disdain for Northmoor do you actually believe he's being completely truthful? Is it not possible he had his own skewed view of him that made him less empathetic to whatever it was that happened to him? Logically you cannot let a guy as powerful as Northmoor run around freely on the chance he wants to tear the world apart as AWE's often threaten to do. And where else has his solution to locking things deep away, hidden from memory ever happened? Just like they did with Dylan, they locked him away in the most convenient location and forgot about him, 'cleaning house' of anyone who did remember the former director. Ash is gone by that point so it's far easier without him contesting locking a man away alone for decades.
but that gets back to the black rock quarry. It appears around the time the first NSC is translocated, into a place filled with Rock that nullifies altered objects. It's a space like threshhold, it's probably very cold. Why would the NSC-01 translocate itself there? It would take a lot of power to move that reactor, and to a place filled with Black Rock which could nullify his hellish torment. The perfect place for him to be finally freed, it is the solution to what the board did to him. He made a solution for himself, found it after being locked in there for a year or more.
But he isn't freed. Instead, he's placed back into the NSC. By Trench. Not only is he put back in there, but it's no doubt reinforced and he's chained up. They know he can still access his power and so they had to do something to stop him, using the Black Rock he took manifested to do it. It's ironic, and points to the fact that he didn't go into that reactor willingly. Not that second time. Trench talks about him in a mocking tone and it's one of the few times he's not stoic. He's cracking jokes at the former Director. Why would you ever believe anything he has to say about him? when he's the only source besides a memo or two that points to him being a hardass boss. Ash put put up with him for decades and even created the Ash Act, which talks about treating people who happen to be parautilitarians and other beings with the respect they deserve. And when Ash is gone, they lock him away, alone. In the dark. Chained up while Trench makes puns about him keeping the lights on.
The Quarry threshold is far more bleak when you put these facts together. Chained up on his knees by the very solution he manifested to help himself with.
