Prologue

As Spock walked down the hall, a long string of thoughts ran through his mind. Of course, being demoted from captain of the Enterprise to merely first officer was a bit of a disgrace, but it had its perks. Namely, less work. Being captain of a starship really was exhausting, even for Spock. It was nice to have Jim Kirk back in command, and Spock was glad, on the inside at least, for that.

As he entered his quarters, however, all the thoughts vanished. Sitting on the floor was a heavy-looking metal cube, and standing next to the cube was a sort of white tripod, with a glowing red eye in the center of it. And Spock's green blood froze in his veins as an eerie voice whispered,

"There you are… "

Chapter One: The Visit

Section I: Enterprise 01

"Jim!" McCoy's voice carried over the crowd in the break room. "Jim Kirk!"

"Yes, McCoy, over here," replied the captain. "What's wrong, Bones? Aren't you enjoying yourself?"

"Goodness, Jim, of course I am! I'm at a party! Why when I call you over for something do you automatically assume it means something's wrong?"

"Because it usually does," Captain Kirk muttered. "If nothing's wrong, what do you want to say?"

"FIRST of all," answered McCoy, "That I'm a doctor, not an evil omen of some kind. And second, Lieutenant Saavik wants to know what score you'll give her on that test I can't pronounce."

Captain Kirk looked behind McCoy, and noticed for the first time the lieutenant, staring at the floor and tugging at her pointed ear nervously. "Why, Saavik," said Kirk, "You know very well that I'm not the admiral anymore."

Saavik jumped slightly as the captain addressed her. "Well, you used to be," she replied, trying her absolute hardest to retain a stoic Vulcan attitude, "And I'm not allowed to ask the current one. If you were an admiral, what would you tell me?"

Kirk smiled. "This was your second time taking the test to achieve captain status, and you didn't improve at all."

"Well YOU took the test three times," said Saavik, trying to control her indignation, "And the last time, you cheated!"

"Now, Saavik," Kirk said cautiously, "It was talking about THAT which got Spock killed last time. Let's change the subject, Lieutenant.

Lieutenant Saavik didn't bother pointing out that the Kobayashi Maru test had absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Spock's death and revival. Instead, she obediently followed the captain as he walked across the room, talking with McCoy.

"I just wish she had more experience in the field," she heard Kirk say. "The lieutenant would be completely lost in a real-life battle scenario, and lots of responsibility comes with the rank of captain."

I would NOT be lost, Saavik thought to herself, although she said nothing aloud.

"I suppose I know what you mean," agreed McCoy, "Green-blooded or no, she wouldn't have the slightest idea what to do in a real, unplanned emergency."

Yes, I would, thought Saavik, but still said nothing.

"Oh, Captain!" Cried a voice somewhere in the crowd, and Commander Chekhov emerged from amongst all the crew members. "Captain," he said in his confusing Russian accent, "Have you seen Mister Spock? I have something to tell him."

"I haven't seen Spock in a while, come to think of it," Kirk replied, "Have you, Bones?"

"Ah, he's probably still in his room," said McCoy. "I'll never understand you Vulcans, Saavik. Oh, well...Saavik, I just remembered! Didn't you say something about…darn it, what was it…"

But Saavik didn't answer. And McCoy said nothing more, and neither did anyone else, because everyone was listening to the sound which now came over the intercom.

"Attention, Captain," came Scotty's voice, "Someone just beamed up. I have her waiting in the transporter room, and she demands to see Saavik. She appears to be injured."

Saavik's eyes grew very wide. She stood silently for a second, staring at the intercom in disbelief. Then she took off running down the hall.

"Lieutenant!" cried the captain, and darted after her, quickly followed by McCoy.

Section II: Enterprise 02

As they reached the transporter room, the three found Scotty standing outside the door.

"I don't know how she did it," Scotty started to say, "the mechanism was hacked, but how-"

Saavik didn't let him finish his sentence, but instead pushed past him and burst into the room to find a dark-haired woman in an orange jumpsuit leaning on the transporter device. "Chell!" exclaimed Saavik.

"Who?" whispered McCoy to Kirk.

The woman looked up, with a mixed expression of joy and relief on her face. "Oh, Saavik," she said in a weak voice, "you're still here."

"What!" cried Saavik, with heavy emotion - startling the captain and doctor. "Chell, what are you talking about! Why are you here?" Her eyes fell, and she noticed for the first time the horrible bullet-wounds in the woman's arm and shoulder. "Oh, no, don't answer me. To sick bay! Oh Chell! How!"

Chell tried to reply, but her wounds were too great and she collapsed, unconscious.

Chell's eyes fluttered open some time later in a bed in sick bay. Just about everyone who could fit was crammed into the little room staring at the strange new patient. Chell groaned softly, and Saavik quickly came over to her. Of course, Kirk and McCoy followed.

"Chell," whispered Saavik, "Chell, are you okay? How do you feel?"

Chell did her best to sit up, although the pain was almost unbearable. "Saavik…"

"Yes, Chell," said Saavik, "I'm here."

"Oh, Saavik," Chell smiled faintly. "My friend…You're safe. Oh, thank Heaven you're safe."

Saavik looked concerned. "Chell, why would you think I wouldn't be all right? What's wrong?"

Chell frowned, as if trying to remember something; then suddenly she sat straight up. "Oh, Saavik!" she cried, "Oh, no…Why! Why didn't I realize!"

"Chell. Calm. Down." Saavik said firmly. "I still don't know why you're here."

Chell lay back against the pillow. "Oh, Saavik, I…I mean…" Saavik listened as Chell fumbled to speak clearly in spite of her injuries. "I'm sorry, Saavik…I was so frightened! When they came…and talked about a 'half-breed'…"

Saavik's eyes grew wide. "What? Half-breed? Who are 'they', Chell?"

"They were…Turrets. Two of them. Maybe three – I couldn't actually see them. I was down in old Aperture, trying to find a spare portal gun. My old one…Had an accident, let's say."

Saavik closed her eyes. "Ac…ci…dent. Go on, Chell."

"As I was walking down a hallway," Chell continued, "I saw a Funnel suddenly turn on, and I heard a turret's voice. I ducked behind a wall. I hate those little things." Chell paused to shudder. "I could only catch a few words, but they seemed to be having a…real conversation."

Saavik looked interested. "Yes?"

"The turrets were riding the Funnel – I could tell by the way their voices gradually got closer and then farther again. I heard something about a 'plan', and something about a 'subject'; but when I heard about a 'half-breed', I knew I had to act, because I was certain you were in danger."

"Hold on a minute!" Cried McCoy. "What do you mean, 'half-breed'? You mean Saavik?"

Saavik glared at him for interrupting. "Yes, Doctor. I'm half Romulan."

"I didn't know that."

"There's a lot you don't know about me," snapped Saavik. "Go on, Chell."

"What more is there to say?" replied Chell. "I had noticed a portal gun on a podium in the hallway. I made a run for it, and the turrets got me." Chell gestured to her bullet-ridden arm, wincing. "I grabbed it, got to the surface as fast as I possibly could, borrowed a small probe-ship, and hacked myself into your transporter."

Chell leaned back and smiled a smile that was full of pain and relief at the same time. "But the important thing is you're okay. And so am I. We're both safe, Aperture is dead, and no harm can come to us if we stick together. Right, Saavik?"

"Yes, I suppose...no harm..." Saavik answered in a distracted sort of way. She forced a smile, flinching to smile in front of the captain, but she did it anyway. Underneath, though, Saavik was not listening to Chell; she was listening to her own thoughts in her own head, and she didn't really like what she heard.

McCoy was beginning to get irritated. "I don't know WHAT's going on here, but someone had better explain it to me!"

Chell looked suspiciously at the doctor. "Who are you?"

"I'm McCoy, currently head surgeon on board the Enterprise," McCoy grumbled. "And now I'd like to know who YOU are, and how you know Lieutenant Saavik!"

"I am Chell, Aperture Test Subject. And I know Saavik because Saavik and I were friends at the Enrichment Center."

McCoy took a deep breath. "Okay. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!"

"Ugh," sighed Chell. "Fine. Let me start at the beginning.

"I came from the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. Saavik and I were both Test-subjects for the Handheld Dual Portal Device."

"All right, back up a little. Portal Device?"

"Portal Gun. It shoots Portals. I'll explain later.

"Anyway, we were both Test-subjects at Aperture, Testing for..." Chell shuddered. "...GLaDOS. She forced us to make it through nearly-impossible Tests, and then tried to murder us.

"I had been in cryosleep in the underground Center on Earth for longer than the computer could even remember. I know I began somewhere around Earth 2010, 2011. And here I am now - but I never really cared to do the math. Anyway, I was trying to get to the Surface with a...friend...and he accidentally reactivated GLaDOS. GLaDOS does not like me.

"You see, I'd been there before. I'd been a Test-subject; and I…killed her."

"Just a moment!" McCoy cried desperately. "You KILLED her?"

"GLaDOS is a computer, Doctor.

"Anyway, she told me that I was the only human left. So did my 'friend' Wheatley. Well, I suppose they were right, to an extent, instead of Wheatley just being stupid and GLaDOS lying; after all, Saavik isn't really human.

"Later on, I finally made it to the Surface. Wheatley had betrayed me, and he's now floating somewhere in space. GLaDOS let me escape, and I ended up lost in a wheat field. Somewhere. That was when I met Saavik.

"Saavik came around the time when I woke up from cryosleep. She went looking around for someone alive to talk to, and for the start of the Tests. She entered an old Testing Track by herself and did some Tests, before she realized that if there WAS anyone there they weren't paying attention to her. She made her way out, finally, and we met in the wheat field. Saavik was my only friend, she taught me how to speak again, since I had been in cryosleep so long it had damaged my brain, and we stayed best friends for the longest time. After that, she left for Vulcan, and I stayed on Earth, sometimes getting supplies from the Facility below. Any other questions?"

"Yes!" whined McCoy. "If this 'computer' wants to kill you, then how do you go down for supplies? What were you testing? I've never heard of this 'Aperture' place. Spock's the historian, not me!"

"Spock."

Chell and the rest turned to stare at Saavik, who hadn't spoken this whole time. "Spock," she breathed again, looking very tense and upset.

"Spock?" asked Chell. "Who's that?"

Then everything happened at once. McCoy and Kirk came to the same realization at once. Chell leapt to get out of her bed, but got tangled in the blankets and landed full force on poor Ensign Chekhov. Saavik tripped over nurses and crewmen as she ran out the door, down the hall, into Officer Spock's room. But Spock wasn't there.

The crew filed in behind her. The room was empty. But there were green streaks on the cold metal floor, and on the walls, and in the same sickly shade on the ground was a single word, large and sloppily written.

Help

Saavik stood motionless. The others gathered around the word, the helpless cry which rang from the silent bloody letters. "The turrets," whispered Chell, leaning on the doorway.

Saavik walked slowly to the intercom and pressed down the button. "Bridge!" Saavik ordered. "Full speed to Earth!"

Section III: Test Chamber 01

Mere minutes later, the Enterprise was orbiting round the blue planet which so many of the crewmen called their home. Kirk and McCoy hadn't gotten one helpful word out of Saavik since her terrible discovery. The Vulcan blood streaks in Spock's room seemed to indicate that the unfortunate half-breed had been dragged across the floor, bleeding, barely managing to scrawl the dreadful word near the doorway. The trails of blood began near the door and were smeared on the ground right up to the opposite wall, where they suddenly stopped without leaving any trace on the wall itself. When questioned about it, the only response they got from Saavik was "Portals, of course, you idiots!" while Chell managed to explain that Portals were a sort of moveable doorway, and that since she had escaped GLaDOS had been "shut down"; while promising them a better explanation when they actually got to Aperture. The stories were disconcerting, Spock's disappearance was disconcerting, but the most disconcerting part of all was when Saavik set the transporter coordinates to a location miles below the Earth's surface, apparently inside solid rock.

"Are ya mad?" cried Scotty in frustration at the half-Vulcan. "We'll materialize inside solid rock! Dead! There's nothing down there!"

"Just trust me for once, Scotty. I know what I'm doing," Saavik returned, before turning back to Chell and whispering to her. Chell whispered back.

"I'm not going down there," said McCoy with his usual stubbornness.

Exasperated, Saavik turned to the surgeon. "McCoy, when Spock died saving the ship and we blasted his body off into space, you went back for him because you believed he could be saved. He was dead. Here I can promise you absolutely eighty-three percent that Spock is still alive. Don't you want to save your friend now?"

"Well, yes…but…solid rock, Lieutenant."

Saavik didn't even bother to answer him as she herded her landing party into the transporter. Kirk smiling to hide his concern, Scotty looking skeptical, McCoy still complaining, Chekhov with his hands in his pockets, looking at his toes. Saavik had changed into an orange jumpsuit like Chell's, rolled-up sleeves and collar and black belt, but with white-and-black boots that were longer in the back than the front, whereas Chell was barefoot with metal braces on her legs; she kept it in her quarters just in case, Saavik said. Chell picked up her unnoticed Portal Gun from the floor where she had dropped it, and Saavik motioned that they were ready to beam down.

The appropriate switches flipped, a blue light glowed, and the six passengers were scattered through space to appear in a tiny glass box, sitting inside a slightly larger white-paneled room, overgrown with unhealthy-looking plants and covered in rust. A blue sign on the wall read "Aperture Science". The fluorescent lights flickered and buzzed, struggling to stay bright despite barely any electricity reaching them. There was no other change, and no other sound.

Chell turned and addressed the wide-eyed Enterprise crew. "Welcome to Aperture, my friends," said the subject, gesturing around. "There's been much deterioration since GLaDOS was shut down. No one left to take care of the place. It's become pretty hard to navigate over the years. I'll lead you through safely."

"Spock can't have gone far," Saavik reassured her friends. "The place is a maze, and turrets can't actually walk. It's a mystery how they even got to the ship in the first place, but I'm sure we'll understand once we find Spock."

Chell snapped her fingers, and a small panel appeared with a keyboard attached to it. "B-X-D-C-L-R," she typed quickly, and three of the glass walls folded up into the ceiling. The fourth fell to the ground, and shattered. Chell calmly led the landing party around the fragments of glass and through a large round door which opened halfway and just stayed that way.

The six companions filed into a tiny elevator that was meant for just one and rode the half-broken machine down into another, larger white room with a big red button and a sort of dispenser in it.

"This is a Test Chamber," announced Chell.

Chekhov looked around unimpressed. "Just this?"

"Yes. Test Chamber One. The simplest."

Chekhov gave a little groan at the Test's simplicity as a large grey cube with a blue circle symbol tumbled out of the dispenser. "Oh, you want more challenging Tests, Mister?" smirked Chell. "Just you wait."

The veteran Tester picked up the cube and tossed it to the Russian, who staggered back. "What's in this?" he gasped.

"How should I know?"

Saavik silently took the heavy cube from Chekhov with a smile that clearly stated how stupid she thought he was. "Aperture Cubes are all locked, see? They put the weight in, and seal it up. If there's any way to open them, I sure don't know what it is." She spun the Storage Cube on the ground like a top and pitched it like a basketball over Chekhov's head, so it landed on the big red button. Another large, round door slid open on the opposite wall.

"Wait!" shouted McCoy. "Did you hear that?"

The party paused, listening. The sound came again, this time everyone hearing it: a sort of tap-tap-tap from somewhere outside the room, behind the wall. "GLaDOS?" McCoy stammered.

Chell waved dismissively. "Can't be. She's gone, I told you. That could be anything, a dangling wire, a loose connection of some sort. The only thing that matters is, 'can we get out of the chamber'? And we can. So it's nothing to be concerned about."

We hope, Saavik added in her head.

The group filed through the door, with Saavik first and Chell last. A long, dark hallway with grated metal flooring loomed ahead. Saavik silently led her friends through a blue, incandescent sort of particle field stretching across the exit. "This is an Emancipation Grill. If you try to take a Cube or something through, it will be destroyed. An old safeguard from the earliest days of Aperture."

Chell herded the last of the crew through the doorway, and turned to press a tiny black button, almost invisible, next to the door. Several robot arms came down from the ceiling, rusty and slow, resetting the dispenser and picking up the Storage Cube. The door slid shut.

"What was that, Chell?" asked Kirk.

"I reset the Test Chamber," replied Chell. "If one Chamber on a Testing Track is still in use, meaning it hasn't been reset, the next won't begin and the elevator won't open. GLaDOS used to keep track of all the tests and reset them automatically, but now we have to do it manually. You'd better get in the habit or who knows what might happen."

"Besides," added Saavik, "I'm pretty sure the Cubes are recycled, so you might be short a Cube next test if you don't reset. That could be just as disastrous."

"But when does that come in?" asked Chekhov eagerly, pointing to Chell's Portal Gun.

"Later," Chell said. "Thankfully."

The elevator door opened, the group piled inside, and began their second descent.

Section IV: Test Chamber 02

"I'm going to get pretty sick of this after a while," announced McCoy as he and his companions poured out of the tiny elevator into the next chamber.

Chell stepped around the company and stood staring at the chamber with her hands on her hips. The room consisted of four sections divided by glass walls, each with a small, round hole in the exact center. One contained a door, the second a button, the third held the landing party, and a new Storage Cube tumbled into the fourth. Chell and Saavik waited a while, but nothing happened.

Chell gave a sigh and walked to the nearest solid wall, laying her hand on a large black button marked UTILITY. She pressed it, waited, and pressed it again. No result came. "Great," Chell muttered under her breath. "It short-circuited."

"Time for plan B," Saavik agreed. Chell help up her Portal Gun and fired a blue beam of light through the nearest hole, where it hit the wall next to the Storage Cube, just barely fitting through the little opening. A large blue oval shimmered on the wall as Chell took aim again and fired and orange one right in front of Chekhov's nose. The ensign jumped back as an orange oval appeared on the wall, and everyone's heads immediately spun from the most confusing thing anyone on the Enterprise had ever experienced before.

"Why," McCoy breathed, stepping forward, "that's us."

McCoy was staring through the Portal now, everyone behind him looking too. The orange Portal and the blue one twisted his view around so that he ended up watching himself from the side. He turned to his right, and looked in the blue, watching himself this time from the other side through the other Portal. "What in the name of -"

"Don't even ask me how it works, McCoy." Chell leaned up on the wall rubbing her still hurting arm. "It just does."

Saavik walked up behind her dumbfounded captain and gently prodded him toward the Portal. "Go on," she said in a reassuring voice with a kind smile. "Go through."

Captain Kirk took a hesitant step toward the glowing orange circle. "It's perfectly safe," Saavik promised.

The brave captain took a deep breath, and stepped through. He appeared in the room with the Cube, straight out of the blue Portal. The crew members stared in amazement. Kirk decided to act like nothing at all had been done, and picked up the Cube to carry it back through the Portal.

Wow, he took to that quick, Saavik thought. That's good! Maybe the others will follow?

When Kirk returned to his astonished crewmen, Chell obligingly shot another Portal so he could place it on the red button in the second section. "This thing is worse than the transporter," grumbled McCoy. "What do you call those things?"

"I call them Portals, McCoy." Chell's voice took on a sarcastic tone. "You'll have to learn to master them or you'll never survive here. They can only hit certain surfaces, and obviously your starship was one of them. The turrets must have shot a Portal into your vessel with a Gun on a pedestal while your docking bay was open or something. Then they worked their way to Spock's room using Portals and Funnels, which are large blue beams of light that carry you across gaps. See, turrets are robots which have three thin black legs and cannot walk. They also shoot at you.

"Once there they shot Spock and wounded him, used a Funnel to pull him through a Portal, and closed up the gap. He wrote 'help' on the ground. Now he's in Aperture, being slowly carried to wherever it is those turrets want to take him. That's just what I assume."

"Can't we hurry up?" interrupted Scotty. "We'd better catch up with Spock quickly!"

"Slowly, slowly," Chell said cooly. "You need to learn about Portals first. We'll catch up easily. These are turrets we're dealing with. They're none too quick, and usually none too bright."

Captain Kirk had completed the test, and with the aid of one final Portal the crew was soon on its way to the next Test. Chell reset the chamber when everyone was out, and McCoy remembered what Chell had told him and didn't say a word when he heard the tap-tap-tap starting up again. Into the elevator the anxious crew walked again, and down to the next chamber they went.

Section V: Test Chamber 03

The next test wasn't much more interesting, though nothing really could be after the unveiling of the Portal Gun.

"You're lucky GLaDOS isn't here now," Chell sighed. "She used to talk over the intercom. It got so annoying after a while. 'Do not look at or touch the front end of the Portal Gun. Do not get the Portal Gun wet.' Ugh, and her creepy voice!"

Chekhov pushed forward. "I want to try that!" he called, pointing to the Portal Gun and looking more like a little boy at the toy store than an experienced crewman in a dangerous situation. Chell refused.

"Look over the edge, Mister Chekhov," said Chell. "See what's down in that pit, there? The floor down there is covered in deadly toxins." She pointed to the swirling green pool below.

"Unless you want to disintegrate in that deadly pool, you'll wait until you learn more from me."

Chell fired a Portal over the wide pit on to the opposite wall, next to a small red button. "Lesson one: go press that button," Chell ordered.

Chekhov gave an impatient sigh, but he stepped through the Portal and did as he was told.

"What will that do?" Scotty asked, staring at the exposed mechanics with a look of obvious fascination. You'd love to take this place apart and see how it works, wouldn't you, Saavik thought to herself amusedly.

"Well," Chell replied, "I haven't been on this track in the longest time. You know why we chose these coordinates? We found traces of green blood in the entrance chamber. There's probably a hidden chamber, since only computers can operate those. You see, I don't remember this exact chamber, but you can tell what they activate by following the blue dotted lines on the floor." She pointed to the row of circles, which glowed briefly orange as the power from the button flowed along them, opening a door to reveal a Storage Cube. "See? That's how Buttons work."

"But, Chell," Chekhov asked, "what about that second li-OW!"

The rest of the party whipped their heads around as a second, unnoticed Storage Cube went flying through the air and bounced off of Chekhov's head. Chell leapt forward, instinctively, to catch the Cube before it fell into the deadly pool below. The Cube landed heavily on both her outstretched arms; she gave a sharp cry as a shocking pain ran up her injured arm and the Cube slipped out of her hands, and she collapsed on the floor.

Saavik rushed to her friend. McCoy took out one of his tiny medical instruments and examined her. "I knew it," he grumbled, "I knew we left too soon. She needs proper medical treatment."

Saavik gently dragged Chell away from the sheer-drop edge of the platform. Chell didn't protest as the half-breed gently removed the Portal Gun from her hands. It was all she could do to keep from blacking out.

"I'll handle the tests, Chell," Saavik was saying.

"But you haven't tested - really tested - in years, Saavik." Chell replied.

"Don't worry about me!" Saavik laughed. "I'll be fine. Just watch!" The half-breed held up the shiny white gun and reset it. Both Portals disappeared. Then, while Chekhov and Scotty placed the Cubes on their appropriate buttons, Saavik blasted a blue Portal at a wall next to a door. The force of the beam sent her skidding her backward into a steel rail.

"Oof!" was the noise that escaped Saavik's lips as she flipped over the rail. "I'm okay," she assured her friends, though she may have been assuring herself. "I'm-" Chell's face contorted in dismay as Saavik, fumbling to get the Portal Gun back under control, laid a trap for herself with Portals, accidentally firing them around the room. As she staggered forward, she couldn't stop her dizzy momentum fast enough to avoid the orange Portal on the floor. She fell through. The unfortunate half-breed came tumbling out of the blue Portal, now on the ceiling, and plummeted toward the toxic river below.

"NO!" Chell cried.

Saavik screamed in sheer terror. I'm really going to die like this? she thought. This quickly? Kirk and his officers leapt forward, but they all knew that there was nothing to do, that Saavik was going to die.

But Saavik did not die. Saavik survived the fall into the deadly pit, for the simple reason that she did not make it into the pit at all. A long string of white, metal panels had unfolded over the pool, as if on cue, to save her.

Saavik landed on her face on the hard, smooth surface. She got up groaning. How could I have been so stupid?

The landing party rushed to her. Chell staggered up and came too. One of the Cubes, unattended, fell into the poison pit below, and no one even noticed.

"I'm ALL RIGHT!" Saavik assured the doctor, who was looking her over worriedly. "I was wrong. I wasn't used to normal testing yet...but I'm going to try it again!"

Saavik rolled her eyes. "She never gives up," she whispered to Kirk with a smile. "Like I never used to. But lately, there's never been anything hard enough for me to give up on."

But as persevering Saavik got ready to try again, there came a sound that changed the entire plan. It was the tap-tap-tap that McCoy had heard, only now it didn't go away; it became louder and louder as whatever was making it moved closer to the party. Then it stopped, and with a long noisy creak, a panel on the wall shuddered, squeaked, and opened to reveal something amazing hiding behind the smooth metal.

She was young and small, with pale skin. Her long black hair was perfectly straight and waist-length, and there were countless sparkles in her eyes, the great dark pupils rimmed with blue and purple. She wore a child-sized orange jumpsuit and white boots with black straps, something like Saavik's. In her hair was a small blue clip, shaped like the Aperture Science symbol, and she looked at the landing party blankly, and the adults stared back at her.

The little girl who had emerged took a step forward, seeming neither defiant nor cautious, not brave or afraid. Accustomed. Natural. As if she were approaching a pet dog she knew well - a small, knowing smile, a relaxed position, a general air of calm. Her eyes lighted on Saavik, and after a moment's consideration she held her hand up in a casual Vulcan salute.

She stood and looked up at the landing party. The girl was expecting a conversation.

McCoy asked the obvious question: "Who are you?"

The girl's smile faded slightly, as if McCoy should have already known the answer. She cocked her head at him. Her eyes darted around, scanning each of the adults in turn. Saavik somehow got the feeling that she was taking some sort of roll call in her head, confirming that everyone who should have been there actually was. Finally, she opened her mouth and spoke up.

At the sound, Lieutenant Saavik shuddered. Visions of glowing red eyes and shining bullets invaded her thoughts as she stared wide-eyed at this little girl.

"I am Sophe," she said matter-of-factly. And her voice was high and child-like. Like a certain type of three-legged, whispering robot. "I have been here for as long as I can remember, and I want to help you."