Pa
The Intern
Chapter 1 Play It Wheatley's P.O.V.
Oo ooh you can fight if you want. If you want. Ye-ah.
Oo ooh you can fight it if you want. If you want.
We listen as the music echoes through the emptiness of space. Or, at least, I am. I'm not sure if Kevin was paying much attention. Or is it Spencer? I haven't decided yet. The only title the defective core went by was "Space" or "Space Core", so I decided to give him a real name. I think I like Spencer…
I wake the neighbors and they always come a'knockin'.
Each time I play a record they will try to stop me.
Oh.
Wish they'd leave me alone while my music's
So low.
The music continues playing from my…speakers, I guess? I'm not sure where exactly the audio for my radio comes from. Turns out, turning on my internal radio doesn't cause me to die. Should've come to that conclusion sooner, huh? "Spencer," I'll just call him Spencer for now. "you still around?" The space core had gotten a bit quiet since the song started playing.
"I'm in SPACE!" he squeals. "That's great, mate…" Of course he was going to say that. I think. Yep. Just a pair of cores, in space. For the…sixth month since 'Rejection Day'. That day when I was sent into space because of Her. Well it wasn't entirely Her fault. I was stupid enough to take over the facility…
"When you take over the facility by taking her for granted, and everything She has gets destroyed…" I murmur, the words to the turret's song running through my memory card. My non-existent hand slaps across my non-existent face. I'll go mad if I never see her again. I'd rather die apologizing to her than die without apologizing at all. That is now my only purpose in living. Find her and apologize. But how would I do that? I barely even know her name, for that matter. "What was it? Ch- Che… It's got an 'l' in it, I'm certain. Oh bollocks, what was it?!" I squeeze my shutters shut in frustration.
"Copilot!" Spencer shouts, jolting my concentration to my surroundings. "W-What is it?" I ask, doing my best to turn myself around. Not the easiest thing to do, with no gravity and all… Though it probably wouldn't be much easier if there was gravity, so I try not to complain.
"ROCKET!" Spencer announces. Rocket?! What rocket?
A few core lengths away, a white seven foot long capsule floats closer and closer to us. "Space. Spaceship! Human space! Space travel. Sleep travel space! Sleep, in space…" the defective core continues to 'explain'. And I missed this thing coming toward us…how? The front of the capsule slowly turns to face us as it floats. There's a glass window near the top…
"GYAAAAHOhmyGod!" I yell. There's a human inside! A bloody flippin' human! I realize there's a large, black Aperture logo underneath the window. The cursed place. "Space, asleep. In space. Asleep in space. Waiting. Waiting in space for captain. Copilot!" Spencer shouts my nickname. The look on his optic showed that he was absolutely sure that what he was saying made sense. "Are you sure that this thing is-" "Required core detected."
The cryo capsule beeps as it whirrs to life. A yellow light blinks next to the Aperture logo. The inside of the case glows a neon yellow, illuminating the figure inside. The human is a male, his mid-length ginger hair spiking up at awkward angles above his forehead. "What's it doing? Why did it- Oh! This is-!" I simulate the sound of a gasp.
"Launch android transfer capsule! Now!" the core shouted. The ebony tiles on the floor parted to reveal an ivory container, time fading its bright color. The oxygen in the room was being sucked into the dark recesses of space, pulling on the braces keeping the core's chassis on the ceiling.
"Let go! I'm still attached! I can pull myself back in!" the core shouted to the test subject clinging to his handles. Back on the ground, the capsule's thrusters kicked in. "Target acquired." The auto pilot's automated voice came from the capsule's compact chamber. The capsule shot into the air, the air vacuum accelerating it toward the blue portal on the ground. "Acceleration capacity, exceeded. Unable to lock onto designated area of transition." The pod flew, brushing past the evil core, in turn breaking a defective core from the chassis' attachments.
"SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!" The core cried as it was ejected to the stars.
The pod followed, carrying the almost-human along with it…
XXxxXX
"I can't believe it! I've been wondering where you'd gotten off to!" I exclaim to the pod. The android body doesn't reply. Of course not. I'm not in it. "Bap-bap-bap bap CO-PILOT!" Spencer yells. I remember that my radio is still on, and I turn it off. The cold space seems too quiet now. The silence is soon broken by the capsule's recorded messages, though.
"Core operating system, ready. Required core, confirmed. Retrieving operation, deploying." A panel on the front of the case slides open, revealing a clawed grabby thingy. What? I can call it that if I want to. The claws chink open as they near me, completely ignoring Space Core. "Hey, what are you doing?! I never said I wanted to do a transfer now! Get away! NO!" The mechanical appendage pays no heed to my pleas. The metallic fingers wrap around my hull before the silver cord pulls me and the clawed grabby thingy toward the capsule, right into a connection outlet.
"Stop! I don't want to do this!" I scream to the pod. "Co-pilot? Space…Earth?" Spencer asks. I stare at the corrupted core. He'd never, ever in the entire time we were in space, ever mentioned anything about the planet Earth. What in the world was he getting on about?
"Subject core, are you ready for exterior transition?" "I honestly don't know why you even ask that, because I know that no matter what I say, you're going to do the whole bloody procedure anyway." I sigh. "Good. Starting exterior transition process." I hear gyros start up within the cryo pod. "Wait. Is this going to hurt? It is, isn't it? Oh God this is going to hurt a lot. I just know it. Oh no-" Burning electric shocks shoot through my hull.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUURGH!" I scream out in pain. I feel the capsule's utensils crawling into my system, reaching my core. "Spaceship hurt Copilot! Bad spaceship! Go to space jail!" Spencer yells at the pod. "Copilot, are you okay?" a full sentence, for once. An actual full sentence. "Urgh…Spenc- AAAAAAAH!" The pain intensifies as something inside me opens. Like a…case, protecting my life fore. Or, that's what it feels like.
"Nooooo! Stop! I like being a metal ball! Arms and legs are-AH!-completely overrated! Don't need those, no sir! I don't… w…want…thhhhhhhh…." My mobility suddenly slows. The simulated adrenaline just…disappears. My frantic pleas slur to a stop. As black spots dot the rim of my vision, I watch Space Core/Spencer fidget about soundlessly, his words literally deaf on my sound receptors. I just didn't care, for some reason. There's nothing but blissful quiet and ecstasy. I try to say: "It's okay, Spence. I'm just fine." But I can't hear myself talking. I…think I said it, but I'm not sure. My field of vision is a hazy pinprick. To heck with thinking. What does thinking do but cause stress? I'm so tired. It's easier to just sleep…
The stars and galaxies and sun and planets and Space Core are obscured into oblivion with the heavy closing of my shutters.
Chapter 2 Yellow LightsWheatley's P.O.V.
"Exterior transfer, complete."
The world blinks back in a flash, everything a white sheet for a millisecond. I blink my eyes tightly to get rid of the dull pain in my head, placing my hands onto the wall in front of me. Wait. Wall?
My eyes are met with the glass window of the pod, but from an inside view. Why is that?
I try to back up to look at my surroundings, but my back collides with another wall, yet this one's cushiony. I feel around, discovering that there are small, yellow-lighted walls all around me. The small space is almost big enough to fit a human…
"…Bloody…" I whisper, running my hand through my hair. Oh my God. I have hands! And hair! I immediately lift my hands to my face. I have a face! I look over my palms and the back of my hands. My fingertips are a slight pinkish color. I wiggle my fingers, not entirely sure how I'm doing it. "Eh-heh, I know I said arms and legs are overrated, but…this is just brilliant!" I squeal. "Oh, wait. How do I get out of here? Oooooh I didn't think about that." I swivel my head around to look for a way out. Hmmm… A head. That's new.
As far as I can tell, the only things I can consider for my escape plan are the cushiony walls and the small glass window. Out in space, I see Spencer calling my nickname and something about space, though it's hard to hear exactly what he's saying through the walls of my chamber. Not that that's surprising. Sound is normally difficult to hear through a wall of some sort. Hmm. Chamber. Kind of sounds like lair…
'Welcome, to my LAIR!' I shudder. If I don't find her soon, my guilt will eat me alive. "Releasing subject android. Please prepare for cryogenic capsule evacuation." What? "Evacuation? What, are you just going to catapult me into space? I've done it before, but I'd rather not-" The front of the pod falls away, leaving me once again to the mercy of space.
"-AAAAAAAAAAACE!" The world is suddenly filled with sound. "Spencer!" I exclaim. "You can stop shouting now!" Not that I think it'll work. I've told him that countless times and he's never stopped. …Until now. "Spencer? You alright mate?" I ask. The space-obsessed core was silent, his optic slowly moving to observe me and my new body. "Oh! Spence! Um… well, you see, back at Aperture," I stutter, the word Aperture tasting like poison in my mouth. "I assigned an emergency android replacement body to my lair, in case I ever was in danger of being killed by that lady…" I pause.
"LAAAAADYYYY!" Spencer screams. So he does remember her. "I remember hearing the android pod being activated when the portal to the moon opened, but I guess it was sucked out into space." I finish. Spencer just spins in his hull, processing only half of what I had said.
"Space man! Space suit! SPACE!" He hollered. I cross my arms and glare, the orange material of a jumpsuit light to the touch. "A jumpsuit? Seriously? Well, what'ya gonna do." I sigh, a small bundle of the fabric in my fist.
"Wait, how am I breathing?! Humans can't breathe in space! ...Oh, android. Heh, right. Uuh..." My new hands fall from my throat. They almost feel...I don't know, detached. It was like being plugged in, or being in that bloody massive body, in control of everything. Not everything was attached to you, but you could still move it. Just...a little more.
I look to the mumbling space core slowly floating across me. The shock of my new form past him, his attention is no longer on me. "So, what do you think? How tall do you think I am?" I ask, patting my midsection. "Suun!" the core exclaims. So much for an honest opinion.
The space-obsessed core continues to shout. "Sun. Suun! Earth! Let's go to earth! Let's go, let's go!" I slide my synthetic hand down my face. His erratic, almost bipolar behavior was starting to worry me for once. "Okay, Kevin- Spencer, Space Core, whichever; I want to go back to earth just as much as you do. But how exactly are we going to get there? I don't know about you, but if you have a plan, now would be a great time to go with your plan, because I don't have one."
We float in silence for what seems a lifetime. Maybe it was only a few minutes. Time doesn't appear to exist here, not in space. Is this really what the rest of my existence is going to be like? Waste away in space forever?
"Gravity."
It came simply, like it was the most obvious answer to an easy question. The Space Core watches me expectantly, waiting for me to do something. But then I realize that the core wasn't looking at me, but past me. Turning my body, I can see the planet earth. It had gotten bigger. Much your document here...