Cave Johnson and the Salt Mines
by TimeAndLife21
Cave Johnson was in his tiny office in the middle of nowheresville, Idaho. At least that's where he dubbed the little town. He was frowning to himself and he looked through the small window that served as an overlook to see his people work with Science. After the BIG success with the bulletproof shower curtains with all branches of the military (except the Navy.) he wanted to do bigger stuff. Now, Cave is a genius. He just hides it. He enjoys smooth talking about everything. From work, to people, and a whole bunch of stuff. But in secret he woks on his own projects. In private. Then he pitches the idea to the lab boys and see what they can do with it.
Now that his company, Aperture Fixtures now have all this money...what was he going to do with it? Well for one thing, he was going to change it's name. He'll probably come up with a better name in the near future. But for now, he needed to do something about his rinky-dink warehouse. He wanted to go...BIG. Bigger than big! He wanted to do more science! The shower curtains was just something to get his company off of the ground. Which worked greatly.
He had brilliant ideas! Instead of using electricity from the power stations, he managed to use Potatoes as an energy conduit. Granted, it's taking over more than a million potatoes (and then some) to power this damn warehouse, but it works! He sighed and sat down at his desk. What to do with his warehouse...he then gave up thinking and took a look at the newspapers, hoping that something will strike his mind. His lovely assistant, Caroline, a swinging young 23 year old woman who loves science more then he does, and that's saying something, came in and gave him a bright smile and served his coffee just the way he likes it. dark and bitter, with just a hint of Irish cream.
"Hey, Kiddo." He said as he didn't look up as he scanned the paper.
He took a swig of his coffee and gave a relieved sigh.
"That's a damn fine cup of coffee." He said as he looked at the young woman with a slight fondness.
He liked Caroline. He really did. Granted, she was about 8 years younger than he is, but when since age has stopped him?
"Anything new today, Kiddo?" He said as he took another swig.
"Well, sir...nothing too big. Stocks went up and more of the shower curtains have been sold. A lot of the east coast have been buying a lot of them." Caroline said as she sat down and cross her legs at the ankles.
He had to keep himself from looking at her slim legs. Pretty as a postcard, she is.
"That's good." He said absentmindedly.
Then frowned again. He felt like suffocating.
He got up and he looked out the window again.
"Hey Kiddo, you ever get the feeling where you are in a tiny box and you can't get out?" He said as he observed his scientists down there.
A couple of them were working on a prototype robot and it started to spark and catch fire. Luckily, one of the technicians had a fire extinguisher and put it out.
"A little bit, Mr. Johnson. Why?" She asked as she stood up next to him.
"I'm thinking...we want to make more science. Make the future bright and exciting! Everything is always changing! But look at us...we barely have enough room to even make stuff work." He said as he frowned at a coupel of the scientists arguing with each other.
He was going to have to fire them later.
"I'll see what I can do, Mr. Johnson." Caroline said as she said fiercely.
"That's my girl. Alway willing to do what it takes for Science." He thought as he smiled at the woman.
"Alright Kiddo, good luck with your work. Get back to me when you find something." He said as he took the last swig on his coffee.
He hoped to God's high heaven, that Caroline would find something.
Most likely, she will.
Cave was asleep in his tiny office, drool was slightly dripping out of his mouth as he slept. It wasn't even two minutes later, that Caroline busted through the door with a wide grin on her face, her usual hair do, a bun with her bangs swept to the side, was out and flowing down her back. Her glasses was down on the tip on her nose.
"Mr. Johnson!" She shouted joyously.
Cave shot up from his seat and fell to the ground with a loud shout of surprise. He then stood up straight and trying to clean himself up, fussing with his loose tie and wiping the drool from his mouth. His usually coifed hair was a mess and he tried pulling it back. No Luck.
"What is it Caroline? I was busy." He said sleepily.
She didn't even care of he was messed up.
"I've got it! If we can't build a bigger warehouse, why not go somewhere bigger?" She said as she walked up to him with her green eyes shining.
He was stunned momentarily by those gorgeous green eyes and said,
"I'm sorry, what did you say, sweetheart?"
He was genuinely confused. This conversation about a bigger warehouse was debunked a couple moths ago. But...
"Mr. Johnson, we want to work on this portal technology right?" She asked smiling.
The portal idea came to him not too long ago. But with the physics in mind and everything, it won't be possible unless they had the right resources. Meaning a bigger place. It was a brilliant idea! Using portals to travel from one place to another in less than a second. He thought of the idea while he was taking a shower one night. Of course, it wouldn't be possible. But...
"Hit me sweetheart."
What the hell, maybe she found something after all.
"How would you feel if we buy the old salt mine in Michigan?" she smiled widely.
A salt mine? In Michigan? It took him a couple of second to process this.
"A salt mine." He said blandly.
Caroline bit her lower lip in excitement and danced a little in place.
"Think about it, Mr. Johnson! We can do anything down there! It's HUGE! We can do all this portal testing down there!" She said as she held up a paper.
He took it from her and looked at the information. It turns out that the Salt mine in Michigan was closed due to the fact that the mining company couldn't dig down any more. Cave thought to himself. All that space…everything would be limitless.
"This is AMAZING! It can work! All the testing with portals...the thought of getting from on place to another, we are one step closer to kick Black Mesa's Ass!" He thought as he grinned along with Caroline.
"Kiddo, you never cease to amaze me. That's it!" He said as a stroke of an idea hit his mind.
"That's it, Caroline! We've been looking at all this in the wrong places! Science isn't going to cut it up here on the surface! We need to go deeper! Very deep! Under the crust!" Cave said as he walked around the room with his booming voice.
"Yeah!" Caroline said as she punched a fist in the air.
"This is it Caroline! We are going to make science happen in this mine! Contact the Mining and construction company! We are going to make science happen!" He said as he looked back down at the paper.
Everything is finally going right!
A year later, Aperture Science Innovators (Yes, Cave finally managed to change the name of his Company), the salt mines were filled to the brim (and them some) with test chambers and other rooms for testing and other experimentations...unfortunately, the Mantis DNA didn't end well. He needed to work a little more on that. But in other words, the Portal technology is turning out to be pretty good. Still in the prototype stage, but is is progressing.
Cave was in his large office area making pre recorded messages for when people come in, but so far nothing has caught on, until Caroline came in.
"Hello, Mr. Johnson." She said brightly with his coffee in hand.
"Ah, Kiddo! How are things coming along?" He said as he got up and walked over to her and gently taking the coffee from her hand.
"Everything is going fantastic, Mr. Johnson." She smiled brightly.
If it wasn't for her, none of this could have been possible. He remembered the news conference a few weeks ago before they opened up the facility.
"Science is the future and it's just beneath the earth's crust." He quoted.
Everyone was eager to see what Aperture would do. They say he was crazy, but he was successful in it. Something came to his mind.
"Caroline, mind coming with me for a moment?" He asked as he sat back down with the recorder.
"What for, Mr. Johnson?" She asked as she stood next to him.
He held up a finger for her to be patient. And hoped that she can play along.
"Welcome, Gentlemen, to Apeture Science, Astronauts, War Heroes, and Olympians - You are here because we want the best! And you are it. So, who ready to make some Science?" Cave asked.
Caroline went right along with him.
"I am!" She said happily.
"Ha Ha! Now, you've already met one another on the limo ride over, so let me introduce myself, I'm Cave Johnson, I own the place. The eager voice you hear is the lovely Caroline, my assistant. Rest Assured, she has transferred your honorarium to the charitable organization of your choice. Isn't that right, Caroline?" He said as he looked at her smiling.
"Yes Sir, Mr. Johnson." She said smiling back at him.
"She's the backbone of this facility. Pretty as a postcard, too. Sorry, fellas. She's married. To science." He said as he turned off the recording.
"So what do you think?" He said to her.
"It will work wonderfully, Sir." She said not breaking her smile, although she was blushing just a little bit.
"Alright. I'm done with the recordings for the day. What say you an I go to one of the test chambers? I hear that our substitute pudding that we had to take off the shelves is being used. The blue one. And I hear the lab boys are trying to work on something to protect the portal device. Want to take a look at that too?" He asked.
"Of course, Mr. Johnson." She smiled.
He held out his arm and she gladly took it. They left the office and walked through the lighted caves of the Salt Mine. Cave was glad to have bought this place.
His vision of having Science down here will go on for centuries.
TAL21: As i was playing Portal, i wanted to find out why Cave Johnson went for the Salt Mines. At least in my own way. I thought it would be nice to see why he would go so deep down and do it all there with the toxic waters and everything. Caroline was originally wasn't supposed to be in there, but i ship the Cave/Caroline couple a lot! They are so cute together. Plus, having Cave in a tiny office was funny to me. Think about it: A big man in his field and he was confined to a tiny space. I imagined him to be the kind of guy that will shoot for bigger and better areas that will contain his ideas for everything. Anyways, Tell me what you have thought about it! I hope you enjoyed this one shot! :D
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