Music was playing somewhere above her. Lyne twitched, struggling to open her eyes. She felt heavy all over, but especially in her head and eyes. Distantly, she thought that it was like when she was thirteen, when they had used something to make her go to sleep while her wisdom teeth were removed—it was like waking up after that had been, and she couldn't understand why, but she was too tired and heavy to care.
The music was getting louder.
"Mmph, Chara, g'way," she mumbled, bringing her arm over her face. "It's Saturday."
Chara didn't answer, and the music kept playing. Lyne blinked slowly under her arm, letting out a huff. "Chara, I said—" When she lifted her arm, Chara wasn't there. And neither was Lyne's room.
She was dressed in an orange jump-suit, and had strange metal contraptions strapped to her lower legs and feet. She was in a small chamber with walls that weren't quite see-through. The room was empty but for the bed she lay on, a toilet, and a squat table. On the table was a radio, which accounted for the music she had thought came from Chara's IPhone.
Slow, cold panic seeped through Lyne. She didn't know where she was. She didn't remember how she'd gotten here.
She had to get out of there, find out what was going on. There was a part of the wall made of a dark gray metal; that had to be the door.
Lyne attempted to leap off the bed, but stumbled, and her legs shook as she made towards the door. She grabbed the handles on it, but no matter how she pushed or pulled, the metal wouldn't budge. Steadying her shaking hands, she turned to search the rest of the room. If the door was locked—or if the metal panel wasn't even a door at all—she would need to find another way out. And she would need to be calm, would need to think for that.
So she wouldn't panic. Even though she had just spotted a clock above the gray metal that was counting down on her.
Count downs were never good. At least, not when you wake up in a strange room with no idea how you got there.
She searched the table first. There was only the radio (which she turned off, because the repeating song was only making her more anxious), a mug, and a clipboard. The mug was empty, and the clipboard had only papers with stretching diagrams. Lyne threw it down in disgust.
As the clipboard clattered to the table, a voice from above her began to speak.
"Hello, and again welcome to the Aperture Science, Computer, and Enrichment Center."
Lyne tensed. Looking up, she spotted speakers in the ceiling. There were also two security cameras hung near walls.
"We hope," the voice was continuing, "your brief detention in the relaxation vault has been a pleasant one." Although it sounded faintly feminine, it was clearly computerized, so it probably wasn't a real person speaking to her. But...even if it were a recording or a program of some sort, that didn't mean there weren't people wherever the computer was, watching her from the camera footage.
Where there were cameras, there might be microphones.
"Hello?" she tried asking. "Can anybody hear me?"
The voice kept speaking without pause. It was saying something about specimen and a test.
A...test?And the voice had said she was in Aperture Labs. Lyne knew Aperture; that was where her father worked. Lyne had even been there before, in fact, her dad had just brought—
...Oh. He had brought them—her and Chara and Apen—for some Bring Your Children to Work Day. The memory emerged, fuzzy and not full, but there nonetheless. They had come to the labs for a visit, and Lyne remembered how she had jumped at the offer to be allowed to run through the testing course. (Of course she had, it was a chance to use portals, and show-off her puzzle-solving capabilities and physical fitness.)
Test, the voice had said. Oh, oh, it made sense. She was at Aperture, in the testing facility. Lyne almost felt weak with the relief that went through her at how much sense that made. The more she thought about it, the more confident she felt of the explanation. Although she was still doubtful why they put her in that stasis chamber...but perhaps it and the disorientation caused were just an aspect of the test? (Apen would probably be able to rattle off an explanation of why it had had that affect on her brain, and what purpose it would serve in testing dexterity and spatial intelligence. The nerd.)
Lyne realized that the voice had still been talking without her notice as she puzzled through this. So she tried now to pay attention to what was being said.
"—serious injuries may occur. For your safety and the safety of others, please refrain from—" the words garbled. Lyne frowned. One of the speakers briefly sparked overhead, and she flinched down.
"I'm back," the voice continued, returning calmly. "The portal will open in...3, 2, 1…."
There was a flash of blue at the corner of her eye. Lyne turned, and saw an opening had appeared on the solid gray section, ringed with shimmering blue. The portal. Her dad had been over the moon about the portal guns being developed, and it had been all they could do to get him to stop talking about them once and awhile. She felt proud for him as she stepped through it. There was a soft tingling, and she was on the other side, blinking around her.
The room outside the chamber she had woke up in was empty. She moved around it, eyes searching, and finally stepped through the round doorway on the far wall and into the first level of the test.
The first task was insultingly easy. Just pick up a cube (which wasn't even very heavy, especially compared to the many bales of hay she had lifted for the horse she and Chara shared), put it on a large button to open a door, and walk to the elevator chamber. The second level required more thought.
A short distance from the elevator, there was a sharp drop into a room below. At that, Lyne hesitated, peering down. It was a good sized drop. The distance was longer than she'd ever jumped before, but, she did have those nifty braces on her legs. And, in any case, it wasn't like they would have required her to do something that would put her in real danger.
She jumped, and barely felt the jolt of landing. She surveyed her surroundings. There were three sections of the room partitioned off, completely separated by doorless plexiglass walls.
"Please place the weighted storage cube on the 1500 mega-watt Aperture science heavy-duty, super-colliding, super-button," the voice instructed.
Mouthful, Lyne thought, snorting softly. The mentioned button was in the enclosure to her left, and the cube in the one to her right. A portal was opened behind her, she notices as she turned. It flickered, the view on the other side changing so it now showed the button. Frowning thoughtfully, Lyne watched as a few seconds later the portal changed again, this time to lead into the area directly behind her which held a door out. So the connecting portal was switching between the three enclosures. And all she needed was to wait for it to change, and then—there.
The room with the cube appeared on the other end of the portal, and Lyne stepped through and strode to the cube. Hefting it up, she turned back towards the portal. It was sure to be moving soon, so she hurried, almost leaping through it. But the portal had changed just as she was reaching it, and she landed in the wrong area. Lyne frowned as she saw the button to her right, separated from her by plexaglass. She turned back towards the portal—only to have it change before her, disappearing and leaving her trapped in that enclosure until it came back.
She could have hit herself.
Gritting her teeth in frustration, she waited for the portal to go through its cycle and return. When it did come back, she stepped out with the cube into the open middle area and then waited again, that time for the portal to lead to the button. Lyne prided herself on being a very patient person, so the wait wasn't so bad. Only, she was annoyed with herself for having made such a dumb slip up, especially with all the people she was sure were watching through the cameras. There was also a window high above in this room, she noticed. The glass was blurred so that the scientists and observers on the other side could she her, but she coul only make out shadowy silhouettes.
Idly, Lyne wondered if her dad and Chara were watching her. Probably. Maybe Apen as well, unless he was still waiting to go through the test course. That gives her a little extra incentive, to think that her family was watching. Although her natural stubbornness and competitive nature were more than enough.
If Chara were in her place, Lyne thinks, she would have been waving and making faces at the cameras, and not only because her family might be watching. Lyne, however, is more dignified than that. So she only smirks up at the camera—and only after she's placed the cube on the button and hurried out while the portal leads to the door, which has been opened by the cube on the button. Then she strides towards the elevator to be taken on to the next level.