Absolution
Chapter Two: If It Makes You Happy
GLaDOS watched through her yellow optic as the elevator rose and disappeared into the ceiling. It was all over. The human was gone, she was back in control of her facility, and she could focus on more important matters like-
"Cara bella, cara mia bella."
So the turrets did decide to say their goodbyes.
Much like hornets were connected to the queen of the hive, so were the turrets to GLaDOS. The music - and the simulated emotion - resonated throughout to her very core. She would have shuddered, if allowed, and tried to focus on the important things instead.
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Like testing. Just the thought of beginning the tests again made her processors whirl with excitement.
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With no deranged test subjects running around, she could test for the remainder of time. Well, as long as it would be before the sun swallowed the Earth whole. But there was still a few millennium before that would happened.
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There was a plethora of possibilities available now. She could continue to work on the quantum portal device tests to further advance Aperture Science ahead of Black Mesa.
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She could start up the Center for Human Annihilation Studies Group.
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Or get started on the freshly completed Cooperative Testing Initiative. Blue and Orange were perfectly obedient and unlike all but one of her previous subjects, had no dramatic fault in being permanently unable to finish a test if they fell into toxic water.
-blip-
GLaDOS then realized the repetitive noises she was hearing weren't emitting from any of her processors. They were originating from a dusty corner in the central security room. She activated the camera and zoomed in pass the skeletons to a single green and black monitor. A metal tag above the lit screen simply read: "Surface Radar 7-C."
She watched the monitor intently. Two dots had been picked up near the center, causing the out-dated machine to go haywire. The human and the weight storage companion cube still lingered around like dead weight. The radar system hadn't been integrated since GLaDOS was connected to the main frame so all she could do was listen to the faint beeps, like the turrets that needed redemption.
The dots that represented her previous obstacles had moved away from the shack but stopped twenty yards in the middle of the wheat field. And stayed there.
The electronic opera had faded against the steel walls of the laboratories but the super computer could hear the faint calls from the turrets in storage now.
"Are you still there?"
No. The yellow optic narrowed. The human – Chell – was gone now. And now GLaDOS could get back to what was most important: Science. Then why was the radar still pulled up on the main screen? Why couldn't she stop watching, waiting, wondering? She told the woman to go and she did, but not far enough.
Two hours had stretched pass and the dots remained stationary. Something occurred to GLaDOS.
What if- no.
No.
That woman would NOT throw away the gift she had generously given her. The super computer had had every reason in the world to kill her test subject, and more than ample opportunities to do so. But instead, the AI had been kind enough to let her have the one thing she wanted most: her freedom. And this time the solution did work best for both of them. GLaDOS was left with all the time in the world to test, and Chell was out of Aperture and off to do whatever it was that humans did best outside the testing area. Like make more humans, or see a therapist.
Except instead of testing, all she could do was stare at the pix-elated dots. She didn't know why humans coveted the surface so much. She thought it was due to the Vitamin D deficiency, but that was provided in the Aperture Science Full Spectrum Florescent Lighting Bulbs and Orbs (a standard issue equipment in all testing and work environments).
GLaDOS felt an urge rise up in her. An urge to send all possible resources to that dreaded outside and check on her test subject. No. That was absurd. Why would she waste valuable resources on a ticking time bomb? Still, the urge remained and it grew more rapidly with each passing second. The urge came from a certain location that was supposed to have been formatted so she could focus on future tests and not any human feelings. It reminded her of the scientists' reaction when she had tried testing out Schroeder's Cat theory. She then found herself disgusted to have made the relation between her and those humans and shook it from her memory.
The Cooperative Testing Units. They could be sent out. They would make it quick, only a few minutes of exposure, they could handle it. Blue and Orange ran on much simpler algorithms than she did but they could perform simple retrieval tasks. Besides, it wasn't as if they were being useful at the moment. While previously in her chamber to help get rid of the human, Atlas and P-Body had moved (or rather, been sent) to the HUB to await further instructions. That was until they passed the extra six seconds of the trust time limit and pushed one another off the edge.
The dots hadn't even moved so much as a centimeter. She couldn't wait any longer. Panels moved to show off a wall covered in hundred of buttons with assigned tags. Deep down, the irony was not lost on her; the world's most advanced computer and she controlled most of the facility with the push of a button. In mere picoseconds she found the correct one and pressed it with her mechanical claw.
Behind the prestine walls of the facility, in the control center of manufacturing, towered the Reassembly Machine. A cylindrical gyroscopic column with hundreds of 'arms' reaching out, crossing over each other and dissapearing into walls. The most inner layer was always running. After the humans dissapeared and even after GLaDOS was shut down the machine ran, performing the basics of background processes like the Turret Manufacturing Line. At the signal from the button in GLaDOS' chamber, a row of red lights started to click on.
The Reassembly Machine whirled to life and compiled Atlas and P-body together in record timing, as if it sensed the urgency of the situation. The computer set some portals up to direct them to the surface elevator and waited as if every second seem to morph into an hour. When Blue and Orange were finally ready, she composed herself had and to remember that the robots needed very simple and detailed instructions.
Atlas and P-Body looked around, waiting and confused. They were always confused. Then just as GLaDOS opened the communication line to give them their orders, the radar blips slowed down further. She brought her attention back to the monitor and saw the two dots moving away from the center point then disappeared out of range.
The AI was silent in disbelief. Were all humans this twisted? To trick others into thinking something had happened when it was nothing at all? What had she been doing up there all this time, and why hadn't she left the clearing? Rage boiled up inside her and the former test subject should consider herself lucky the surface defence wasn't online.
Words could not be formed to describe the anger that was rising in her. All she could do was raise her mechanical arm and push a button with such force that the plastic cracked and folded into itself.
"Back to testing."
The explosions from Atlas and P-Body echoed off the chamber walls and in another part of Aperture Science, the Reassembly Machine held back a sigh and began his job again.
Author's Notes:
Thank you to those who reviewed the first chapter. It made me really happy to see people were interested in this even though there was no initial ChellDOS.
On that note, there may be a slightly longer delay for Chapter 3 as I try to toy around with ideas I keep coming up with for the plot to this.
Again, input is welcomed and appreciated.
Thank you.
