No, I didn't forget about this!
Eli opened his eyes. This time, however, he did so naturally. He looked at the clock on the wall of the bedroom. 7:30 in the morning meant he had gotten roughly eight hours of sleep. The last time he had gone to a real doctor was in the infirmary in Black Mesa, after his leg had been bitten off by a bullsquid and he received his prosthetic. The doctor had told him eight hours of sleep was just fine for a fifty year old. Although, he wasn't fifty anymore.
Eli's morning, when undisturbed by Alyx, was very routine. He would go to take a bath, then go down to dinner. He would eat whatever the cafeteria was serving with a cup of black, black coffee. "No exceptions!" He would always tell the chefs.
Alyx did not get up until about eight o'clock. Judith began her day when her alarm told her to: 9:00 AM.
Eli checked on Alyx, took a bath, and went down to breakfast. 7:30 was the peak time for breakfast, as it was served from 6:00 AM by human chefs, and the Vortigaunts would relieve them after 9:30 AM, as was their custom. Breakfast would end at 11:00 sharp.
As Eli was drinking his coffee, a man by the name of Leon sat next to him.
"So I heard about that robotic pet you're building. How are you going to pull that off?"
"With effort." Eli did not want to discuss the matter with anyone but Judith.
After he finished breakfast, he went to a lift that led down to his lab. He passed the "Watering Hole", an area where citizens could play chess, nap, or just read a book from the small library. It was where most citizens gathered when they had nothing to do. It was quite like a watering hole, where animals would gather.
A citizen was playing chess with a Vortigaunt. He was apparently losing, as he shot up from his seat and swept all of the pieces off the board. Eli chuckled. He came to the lift, pushed the down button, and stepped onto the lift. It started to descend, the Watering Hole disappearing from view as his lab revealed itself.
He stepped off of the lift and sat down at his desk. He had brought his sketches with him, and he laid them out onto the table. Sitting in a large metal bin were the parts that were crucial to the pet's existence. An old scanner head would work as the head for the pet, while a few parts from a failed experiment would serve as his hands, while other miscellaneous pieces of metal would serve as his body. He would be quite small, though.
Eli stared at his sketches. He didn't know where to begin. Would he first build the pet and then write the program, or vice versa? How the hell was he going to write that much on a program to achieve the friendliness and human nature he had in mind?
His only choice at the moment: Type until his fingers bled.
So the typing began. Eli was writing a piece of script for playing fetch when Judith came in.
"You're working already? Gosh, Eli!"
"Judith, this is impossible! This pet just needs too much AI!"
"Well, Eli, you'll just have to work at it."
And he did. For five hours, he installed a program for him to play catch with Alyx. For another two hours, he tried to come up with a way for the pet to have unnatural strength. He programmed every little bit of characteristics he wanted in a dog. He felt his eyes getting weak. He hadn't eaten anything for eight hours. His throat was dry. His stomach growled audibly.
Judith had gone upstairs to take care of Alyx. Eli didn't want to ask for her help, and if he had to write one more line of code, he would collapse. But he felt someone tap on his shoulder. He spun around and gasped. It couldn't be him. Never him. He might have believed it if Dr. Breen showed up in his office, but never ever this man. The suited man smiled. Time stopped.
"Dr. Vance, I can see by your face this is not the first time we...meet. I can also see that you are having dif-fi-cul-ties with this idea of yours. Frankly, I am not too enthusiastic about your choices, but I cannot simply get rid of your idea. I, however, will do the exact opposite. At your rate of progressss, you will die of thirst before you can complete your work. Alyx is a very special girl, and I will need her for my plans. Having a bodyguard will definitely alter the outcome of things, but I can work around that hindrancccce. So, I have no choice but to finish your work for you." The G-man walked over to the heap of parts Eli had collected. He waved his arm over them. They floated and started to merge together into the exact shape Eli had in mind. He gasped. For once, the G-man was doing something good. He finished making the pet.
"Now, Eli, if you were a different person I would trust you to never, ever tell your daughter about this. But you are quite the honest person, so I will have to remove this memory from your mind by force and instill in your head the false thought that you created this contraption. Goodbye." The G-man vanished into thin air. Time resumed.
"Wow. That took a lot of work. I don't believe it. I finished the pet. Now, what should I call you?" Eli turned to the dog, who was standing and looking at Eli. "Hmm, I know! Defender of Good! Wait, that can be what DOG stands for! You like that?" He asked DOG. DOG jumped up and down. His parts were well oiled and they made small "VOOT" noises as they moved. Eli smiled with content.
"Follow me, DOG! Want to meet your new friend?" DOG jumped up and down. He was just a little bit taller than Alyx, at four feet.
Eli led DOG to the lift and took him up to the Watering Hole. Refugees gaped with amazement as he led DOG through the mess hall to the Scrapyard. Alyx liked to play around there and play "House" with her two teddy bears.
"Okay, DOG. I want you to wait here while I go get Alyx."
He walked through a gate to a big clearing. Alyx sat in the middle of the scrapyard, scolding one of her bears.
"Alyx, I have a surprise for you!" Eli exclaimed.
Alyx looked up. "What is it? What is it?"
"Well, baby, I know you always wanted a dog..."
"Yes!"
"Well, I couldn't find a real one..." Alyx's face fell. "So I made a robotic one! DOG, come out here!" He heard the familiar "VOOT!" as DOG ran into the clearing.
Alyx screamed with delight and ran up to DOG. "What's his name?"
"The Defender of Good. But you can call him DOG. He is so strong, he can lift a motorcycle!"
Alyx screamed again. She hugged DOG. His eye seemed to shine.
Alyx picked up a piece of a scanner that had been shot down the previous week. She threw it across the scrapyard. It landed in a dumpster.
"Good shot, baby!" Eli exclaimed.
"Fetch, DOG!" Alyx told DOG. He hopped up happily and ran to the dumpster. He jumped into the dumpster and started searching around for the small scanner piece. He finally came out of the dumpster, holding it with his built-in gravity gun. He punted it to Alyx.
She dropped the scanner and hugged Eli. From this point on, he knew that he had made the right decision.
I love making the G-man interfere with stuff. I thought it would be interesting if Eli believed he built DOG, but he actually didn't. Heh heh. I'm evil. Also, check out the poll on my profile!