The Enrichment Center was quiet. It had been quiet for thirty years. Thirty years ago, GLaDOS let the lone human test subject, Chell, leave the Aperture facility. And since then, all had been still.
But something was about to change.
In the pristine entrance chamber to the Relaxation Vault, there was a hum and whirring before a blue box began to materialize.
A thin man in a brown pinstriped suit stepped out the mysterious blue machine and took a look around, his dark brown eyes observing every detail. He pulled a gray cylindrical device out his suit pocket and started scanning the area around him.
A woman with ginger hair shortly followed the tall man out the box.
"Come on then, where the hell are we?!" she exclaimed.
"Mm; no idea." the man told her. He seemed to be concentrating intently on something.
"What is it, Doctor?" the woman asked him.
"Hmm?" the Doctor asked, snapping out of his phase of concentration.
"You were thinking about something." she said. "I can always tell when you're thinking about something. You do that 'face'." she added upon seeing the Doctors look of confusion.
"Oh, come on now Donna. I don't ALWAYS do the face." he said.
"You kinda do..." Donna told him.
"Nah! Not when I'm trying to hide my extreme thoughtfulness!" the Doctor exclaimed.
"Nope, every time. Without fail. You do THAT face." she said, pointing to the Doctors face. "Now what are you thinking about?"
"Not much." he told her.
"No, Doctor, come on. You gotta stop keeping things from me." she pleaded.
"Well, its just the TARDIS says we're on Earth. But where we are has technology that's way beyond the capabilities of humans at this point in history. I think we might be in an alternate universe. The sonic scan said that everything here is of Earth origin. So really, that's the only logical explanation." the Doctor told her. A silence fell as the Doctor decided what they were to do.
"We could leave?" the Doctor suggested. "Since the TARDIS got trapped in a parallel universe a little while back, I've made sure to always try and keep a back up power cell around the TARDIS in case we need to get away from somewhere that lacks in vortex energy. The TARDIS can't use the vortex here as a power source - it's not the same. It's like trying to put a pen in an automatic pencil sharpener. All you'll end up with is a broken pen and some plasticy flakes. And what good are a bunch of plasticy flakes to anybody, eh?"
"Right, okay then, space man. I knew you were odd but using automatic pencil sharpeners to explain spacey-wacey stuff is just a whole new level. But knowing you, you'll probably want to stay and explore, right?" Donna asked, looking resigned to the fact that they would probably be there a long while.
"You know me too well." the Doctor said, with his usual manic grin. "Come on then." he added.
The Doctor took two steps before noticing a green mist in the air. He was just about to turn around to alert Donna when he collapsed, along with her.