I own neither Half-Life nor Portal, Valve does
After hearing a quiet hiss while opening the door he stepped through it into the open; the strangeness of his surroundings struck him at once.
The air seemed to be cleaner than anything he ever breathed before; 'the atmosphere here must contain more oxygen than usual', he thought and realized something.
'I am not on earth anymore! '
His eyes widened and he looked frantically around; everything was so alien to him.
He stood on a hill, looking down into a big valley inhabiting the strangest plants he has ever seen, violet, distorted tree-like objects sticking out of the ground, with a smooth surface, and a lot of small branches at the top, but without leafs. Most of them were about seven meters high and nearly a meter thick. Between them, there was a lot of free space, filled with different small plants that came out of the ground, one being stranger than the other. The ground itself was covered with grayish moss; he could not detect any wild life. Far in the distance he could see a huge mountainside, the top covered in snow and hidden behind thick, reddish clouds.
As he looked up he noticed most of the sky was occupied by a huge gas planet – he was on a moon, Victor concluded. Remembering he just came out of a testing room built by Aperture Science he turned around, to be rewarded with the view of a cube, which gray surface was made out of cut off pipes, cables and pieces of metal. The door seemed really tiny in relation to the huge cube.
Eventually, Victor decided to walk down the hill into the valley but he remembered holding a portal gun in his hands. Deciding to test its functionality, he quickly shot two portals at a smooth area of the cube and at a flat, not vegetated space between the trees. Grinning as a red and a white portal opened, he stepped through the white one and came out in between the trees.
'Fascinating'
He stared at the gun, a masterpiece of technology, probably one of the greatest accomplishments of science.
'As it seems, all the hard work did not go to waste. I did not die from any side effects…'
He wanted to walk further into the "forest", but suddenly he felt weak and breathing became harder. Seconds later he collapsed, tried to stand up again, in vain.
'The fucking atmosphere is toxic' was his last thought before he passed out.
ooo
The first thing he saw as he opened his eyes was a young brunette woman, looking at him with curiosity. What she saw was a handsome young man in his thirties, tall, thin, with shoulder-long black hair and glasses.
"So you've decided to get up at last."
Slowly, he sat on the medical bed he's been lying in and examined his surroundings. The room was quite big and had white walls which were mostly covered with medical equipment. At his left there were five more medical beds, all empty, on the opposite wall a glazed double door, in the right corner there was a desk with a computer on it.
The woman in front of him had long, brown hair, was quite tall and had very pale skin.
She decided to wave her hand in front of his face after he did not react.
"Hello? You understand me, do you?"
Perplexed he nodded at her.
"Well, I'm Dr. Weikner. You are quite lucky we found you before you died because of the toxic atmosphere. Why didn't you have a gas mask with you? Thankfully you didn't try to touch the trees – it would've killed you. It took me a lot of time and too many drugs to get this shit out of your system.
You aren't from here, huh?"
She raised an eyebrow, then walked to a shelf, taking out some medical equipment and went back to him.
"I have to perform a medical checkup. Hey, are you a mute or something?"
"No…" he spoke up and hesitated for a moment. "Where am I? How did I get here?"
"So you really came from earth. Probably together with that room on the hill and this strange … device. You're the first one since we came here. I don't have a clue why you're here or how you got here… but we're from earth, too, you know."
"So, you were teleported here, too?"
"Yeah. You'll hear the whole story soon anyways. By the way, do you have a name?"
"Victor Aeacus, nice to meet you."
He stood up and shook her hand, but realized suddenly he was in underwear.
"My clothes?" he asked her, blushing slightly.
She chuckled and simply pointed at some neatly folded fabric, then made her way to the desk, sitting down and beginning to work on her computer.
"Some people will come and want to talk to you. So better dress up. Of course, if you want to, you can stay in your undergarments, but I wouldn't recommend you to do so."
Rolling his eyes, Victor dressed himself, now wearing simple jeans, a black shirt underneath a gray sweatshirt and some shoes of the same color.
'There are other people here. But… why? Did they get here the same way I did? And how long are they already here if they managed to build a hospital… or whatever this building is. And where's my portal gun?'
Before he could ask Weikner any question, the door opened and two men walked in, both in security uniforms and pistols hanging on their belts. One of them, a heavily built man with short, red hair and a beard walked towards Victor, the other one, a tall man with gray hair, greeted Weikner, who just looked up and then proceeded to type on her keyboard.
"Well, you've finally woken up, as I see; I'm Hussain, George Hussain, chief of the security."
His voice was deep and he spoke loud, his handshake so strong he nearly crushed Victors hand; Victor didn't like the man from the beginning.
"Victor Aecus." he answered.
Hussain eyed Victor with suspicion. They clearly did not trust each other.
"Well, let's move to my office. We have to discuss quite a lot."
He turned around, gestured the other guard to follow him and walked out the door. Victor went after him, quickly, glancing briefly at Weikner, who gave him a sympathetic look.
Hussain lead him through long corridors with a lot of doors. Some people were walking around, most in lab coats, with clipboards or papers in their hands; he seemed to be in some scientific facility, probably underground because there were no windows to be seen. Concrete walls were illuminated by cold light which originated from flickering neon lamps. The ceiling was nearly four meters high, he noticed while looking up, nearly bumping into a scientist who shouted some obscenities at Victor.
"And here we are."
They entered a small room with a desk, which was covered with papers, and two chairs behind and in front of it. An old carpet lying on the floor and some cheap paintings tried to mask the ugliness of the gray walls. Hussain sat behind the desk, gesturing Victor to sit down, too, while the other guard stood in front of the closed door.
"Well, Mr. Aeacus, I am quite interested how you happened to show up in a nearby forest together with a… room and a device which is able to create portals. Care to enlighten me?"
Victor waited for a moment, deciding what to tell the security officer.
"I was at work when suddenly the facility was flooded with neurotoxin, so I tried to reach an exit, but I ended up at a dead end. I passed out and then I was suddenly on this planet, together with this device built by the company I'm working for.
Now do you care to enlighten me why you're here and where my potal gun is?"
Victor had a feeling it was no good idea to tell Hussain who sent him here. Hussain tilted his head and leaned back, looking at Victor with mistrust.
"You know this sounds really unlikely. I don't believe you. But, Hell, it doesn't make a difference if I tell you how we got here. You see…"
"Chief!" the guard interrupted him. "He's obviously working for Aperture Science. He could be a spy, or trying to sabotage our work…"
"Gardner! We're not on earth anymore. And whether I like this guy or not – he surely didn't fucking come here by purpose, because mankind does surely neither possess the technology to teleport to another universe nor do we do any research that's relevant to Aperture!"
While talking Hussain has stood up, now he sat down again, continuing to glare at Gardner, who shut his mouth and looked into a corner. His gaze shifted back to Victor who raised an eyebrow at him, unimpressed, and he continued to talk.
"I think you noticed by now we're Black Mesa, being a scientist at Aperture.
However, we worked at a facility in Canada, doing some classified research.
It happened about half a year ago. Suddenly everyone had a headache, some passed out, many sensitive instruments were destroyed and any contact to the rest of the world broke off. We didn't know what happened at first, but luckily the security cameras continued to function properly. What we saw was… surreal. But all of us realized we were not on earth anymore.
We send out some scouts, but it took two weeks till we finally found this facility, which has been abandoned a long time ago, as it seems. We lost some people because our radio didn't work and we did not know the air was toxic. Well, the facility has been probably built by aliens; thankfully they breathed nearly the same air as we do, so we could settle in here without greater problems. The ruins of the Black Mesa facility lie about a kilometer north of here.
But… not a long time ago, one of the scientists proved the… ahem… gravitational constant is slightly different here. Thus he deduced we're in another universe. Well, and now we're frantically trying to find a way to return to earth.
Interestingly we've found out this planet seems to be inhabited by some intelligent race with two parties who are at war, but we don't know much more about them."
Victor stared at Hussain for some time, processing the information. He was absolutely confused by the recent happenings and still deeply shocked he was not on earth anymore. A question came to his mind.
"Where did you take the portal gun?"
"The scientists believe the technology could help them with their research."
Victor nodded slowly, not lucky with the fact the portal gun was not in his hands, but accepting the fact because he had no chance to get it back without the consent of the Black Mesa personnel.
"Well, Mr. Aeacus, I think you must be quite tired and in needing some time to process the recent events. Mr. Gardener will lead you to your new apartment. Tomorrow one of the scientists will take care of you, give you a new occupation… We're in need of every helping hand. Only if you accept it, of course."
"And if I don't?"
"We'll kick you out, without a gas mask, those are quite valuable."
Victor chuckled darkly. "I could've guessed so. I accept."
"Very well."
Hussain shook his hand and then Gardner led him out of the office. He didn't speak a word to Victor, but occasionally greeted some nearby people who observed the new arrival suspiciously.
They stopped before a metal door with the number 425 drawn over it with some black paint.
"Your room."
This was the first time Gardner spoke to him.
"Thanks, mate, I owe you. You're the probably the friendliest person I've ever met."
Gardner just glared at him, then turned around and walked away.
Victor entered his room, which was quite tiny. There was nothing besides a bed, a shelf with some scientific books and a night lamp.
'Great. A lot of friendly people, a huge luxury apartment and a deadly planet – what else could you wish for?'
Victor let himself fall on the bed and stared at the dirty ceiling, thinking about the strange man who employed him.
'What's my job anyways? He didn't tell me what to do.'
He understood that at the moment he was nothing but a puppet and his "Employer" was the puppet master.
Of course, Victor had no intention of dancing to somebody's pipe.
ooo
(Without a sound, using telepathy)
"Without knowing it, Gordon Freeman has provided us with invaluable resources. Both the portal device, as the humans call it, and the navigators stone will give us the possibility to execute the plan, which will provide us with the means to change the outcome of this… mess. However, to be successful your plan has to be… perfect. Flawless. Can I rely on your services?"
"Of course... the plan will not fail."
Author's Note:
Well, this was a fast update. Hope you like it. Interestingly I found out today that if you drop your earphones into water, the bass frequencies get stronger. WTF?
