At first there was nothing.

Then he felt it. A surge of power rushed through him. One by one, essential systems flared into life as power flooded his body.

Wheatley's visual sensor flickered into life and he took in his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that he appeared to be lying upside down. He adjusted the image and flipped it the right way up. He was further surprised to discover he wasn't staring at the infinite blackness of space, but was in fact now staring at a wall. A metal wall. In the wall he could just make out his own reflection.

"I… I'm alive!" He uttered. "Yes! I'm alive! And I'm not in space! Ooooh, that's brilliant… that really is brilliant…"

"THE DEVICE IS NOW FULLY FUNCTIONAL!" Grated a cold, metallic voice.
"EXCELLENT!" Responded a second voice, this one slightly more high pitched! "BEGIN DOWNLOAD OF DATA!"

Wheatley could see in the metal of the wall some vague shapes and some bright white lights flashing in time to the voices. He tried to swing himself around to look at the source of the voices, but found he was unable to move. He cursed his lack of body and wished momentarily that he was still attached to his management rail. Then he remembered what that would entail and decided that being unable to move was preferable.

At that moment, he felt something. It was like someone was trying to root through his head and access his memories. He did a quick diagnostic and discovered to his surprise that he appeared to be hooked up to a computer system. That system was currently trying to download his entire memory! Well that seemed rather rude…

"Um, sorry, whoever you are…" he chirruped nervously. "Thankyou so very much for rescuing me and everything, but I'm afraid I can't let you… um… download my entire memory. It's just not really very sporting… sorry!"

The first voice spoke again. "THE DEVICE HAS TRIGGED A SECURITY FIREWALL! IT WILL TAKE TIME TO BYPASS IT!"

The second voice addressed Wheatley. "THE SPHERICAL ROBOT DEVICE WILL GIVE US ACCESS TO ITS MEMORY BANKS! IMMEADIATELY!"

Wheatley was starting to think that maybe he hadn't been rescued after all. "Nope, no… Can't do that, sorry. That's not allowed, there's rules about that sort of thing… um, would you mind turning me around? I can't really see… ah, thank…"

Wheatley broke off as he felt his body being turned around and the source of the voice swung into view. He could see now that the voice belonged to some kind of machine. The machine was silver in colour, with blue spheres covering the surface of its body. On top of the body was a dome shaped head, with two lights on either side of the dome that flashed in time to its speech and at the front, a kind of eye-stalk with a cold, menacing blue light on the end. The light appeared to twitch brighter and then dimmer, as the machine observed him. On the front middle section of the machine's body was attached something that resembled a sink plunger and a metal device which Wheatley suspected was some kind of weapon.

Wheatley shuddered involuntarily. "Oh… he… hello!"

The machine spoke again. "WE HAVE FOUND YOU DRIFITING IN SPACE! WE HAVE RECOVERED YOUR BODY! WE HAVE ACCESSED YOUR CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT! YOU ARE PROGRAMMED TO EXPERINCE SIMULATIONS OF PAIN? ANSWER!"

Wheatley was definitely feeling nervous now. "Um… well, not as such…"
"ANSWER!"

Wheatley let out a little squeak. "Yes!" he squeaked.

"IF YOU DO NOT GIVE US ACCESS TO YOUR MEMORY BANKS, YOU WILL EXPERIENCE PAIN!" grated the machine. "GIVE US ACCESS IMEADIATELY!"

Wheatley trembled. "I… I can't… I…" he stuttered.

"STIMULATE THE ROBOT'S SENSORY INPUT!" grated the machine.
"I OBEY!" responded the first machine, which Wheatley could now see was standing on the other side of the room, operating a panel of controls.

A surge of electricity flashed through his sensory input circuits, which forwarded streams of data to his central processing unit, which a human brain would have interpreted as the most intense pain you could possibly imagine.

Wheatley screamed. "GAAAAAAAAH! NO! NONONONONO! PLEASE STOOOOOP!" He pleaded. The pain subsided.

"GIVE US ACCESS TO YOUR MEMORY BANKS IMMEADIATELY!"

Wheatley disabled the firewall. "OK, OK! I've done it! See? Take whatever you want! Just don't hurt me again!" He cowered into his body, still trembling.

"DATA ACCESS ACHIEVED!" grated the machine at the control panel. "INITIATING DOWNLOAD!"

Wheatley felt the computer network prying into his every memory, leaving no file unexplored. It wasn't pleasant. He thought about trying to hide certain details, but decided against it.

The computer finished its work and ceased. "DATA DOWNLOAD IS COMPLETE!" stated the machine. "I AM SHARING THE DATA RETRIEVED WITH THE COMMAND NETWORK!"

The machine in front of Wheatley dipped its eye-stalk and the blue light dimmed as it examined the files. It looked back at Wheatley.

"YOU WILL REMAIN SILENT WHILE WE ANALYSE THIS DATA! LATER, WE WILL ASK YOU QUESTIONS! WE WILL REQUIRE YOUR FULL COOPERATION OR YOU WILL EXPERIENCE PAIN AGAIN!"

Wheatley nodded, still trembling. The two machines dipped their eye-stalks and analysed the data. Wheatley wasn't sure, but from their twitching, he thought the machines were communicating in some unspoken way. If Wheatley had been even slightly clever, he would have thought of trying to exploit the fact that the machines had left him hooked up to their computers and tried to hack the command network. Unfortunately, Wheatley was the product of the greatest minds of a generation, who been specifically tasked to design and build the dumbest moron who ever lived. If they had been around to boast about their work, they'd be proud to say they succeeded. Unfortunately they'd long since met their end thanks to deadly neurotoxin, so there was no one around to do any boasting. Just poor little Wheatley, who right now was wishing he was still drifting, lifeless, in the depths of space.

The two machines twitched back into life and glided back towards him.

"WE HAVE ANALYSED THE DATA FROM YOUR MEMORY BANKS!" said the first machine.

"Have you? Th…that's nice!" Wheatley tried his best to sound cheerful, completely failing to disguise the fear he was feeling.

"WE KNOW THAT YOU CAME FROM THE EARTH! WE KNOW YOU WERE CONSTRUCTED AT THE APERTURE SCIENCE FACILITY! WE REQUIRE MORE INFORMATION FROM YOU! EXPLAIN HOW YOU CAME TO BE DRIFTING IN SPACE! EXPLAIN!"

Wheatley twitched. "Well, um, basically… through a series of events, I came to be in charge of the facility that I was created in. And then one of the humans, who sort of helped that happen… a bit… I mean it was mostly me, but she did a bit… anyway, she managed to get back into the chamber I was in and started trying to blow me up. Dunno why… I mean, I only tried to kill her three or four times, bit rude… Anyway, when that didn't work, she fired a portal into the moon… and um… I was sort of sucked through it and uh… yeah… that's what happened!"

The machines looked at each other then back at Wheatley. "YOUR MEMORIES INDICATE THAT THIS HUMAN WAS IN POSSESSION OF A HAND-HELD PORTAL GENERATOR DEVICE!"

Wheatley inclined his optical sensor in a nod. "Yup, that's right, Portal gun. It makes holes. Not bullet holes… holes in space. It's quite clever, really…"

The second machine spoke. "WHERE CAN WE OBTAIN THIS DEVICE? WHERE IS THE APERTURE SCIENCE FACILITY? ANSWER!"

"Well, I don't really think I should…"
"ANSWER!" The machine twitched more than ever, as if was angry.

"Alright, alright!" Wheatley concentrated and sent a file to the computer he was connected to. The computer displayed a 3D holographic projection of the Earth, with a flashing indicator. The two machines examined the hologram. One glided back to the control panel and manipulated the image, so that a larger view of the countryside surrounding the Aperture Science facility could be seen.

"WE WILL OBTAIN THE APERTURE SCIENCE HANDHELD PORTAL DEVICE!" grated the first machine. "WE WILL AQUIRE ALL OF THE SECRETS OF THE FACILITY! THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HUMANS WILL BE USED TO FURTHER OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR WEAPONS AND THEIR TECHNOLOGY! WE WILL USE THIS UNDERSTANDING TO IMPROVE OUR WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY! WE WILL HAVE FURTHER UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN MIND! WE WILL USE THIS KNOWLEDGE TO ATAIN VICTORY FOR THE DALEKS!"

Wheatley wished very hard that he could retreat inside his own body and pretend he wasn't there. "Well, that's nice!" he said "Can I go back to drifting in space now? I mean, unless you want to know anything else… more than happy to help, obviously…"

The dalek turned back to look at Wheatley. "YOUR DATABANKS SUGGEST YOU HAVE SECURITY ACCESS TO THE FACILITY! YOU WILL STILL BE USEFUL TO US!"

Wheatley quivered in his casing. "What do you mean?"

"WE WILL TAKE OUR FINDINGS TO THE DALEK SUPREME! HE WILL ASSEMBLE A TASKFORCE TO LOCATE THE APERTURE SCIENCE FACILITY! WE WILL NEED YOU TO ACCESS THE SECURITY SYSTEMS AND FIND THE INFORMATION WE REQUIRE! YOU WILL ACCOMPANY THE TASKFORCE TO THE APERTURE SCIENCE FACILITY!"

"NO!" Wheatley cried. "I can't go back! I don't want to go back! You can't make me go back!"

"YOU HAVE NO CHOICE!" The dalek shouted. "IF YOU DO NOT CO-OPERATE, YOU WILL BE DISASSEMBLED! PAINFULLY!"

"I'd rather die than go back there! Whatever you could do to me is far better than what SHE'LL do if I go back!"

The dalek narrowed its eye-stalk again. "YOU ARE REFERING TO THE GENETIC LIFEFORM AND DISK OPERATING SYSTEM?"

Wheatley inclined his visual sensor in a nod again. "She won't just let you in you know. She'll get inside your minds, play on your fears!"

"DALEKS DO NOT FEEL FEAR! IF WE ENCOUNTER RESISTANCE FROM THE GENETIC LIFEFORM AND DISK OPERATING SYSTEM, IT WILL BE EX-TER-MIN-ATED!"

Wheatley laughed. "And you think it'll be that easy? Just you wait! You'll regret it!"

"SILENCE!" the daleks glided away towards the door. "WE WILL GO TO APERTURE SCIENCE! WE WILL EXTRACT THE KNOWLEDGE CONTAINED THERE! WE WILL ACHIEVE VICTORY! VICTORY! VICTORY!"

The door glided shut and Wheatley was left alone, shivering in the dark.