SECTOR C TEST LABS & CONTROL FACILITIES
BLACK MESA RESEARCH FACILITY
NEW MEXICO, USA
MAY 16TH, 8:58am
The tram jolted to a stop. A guard walked slowly towards it, his feet making the metallic catwalk rattle with each step.
The guard punched a few numbers into the keypad next to the tram door and it slid open.
"Mornin', Mr Freeman," the guard said, as he and Gordon walked along the catwalk towards the entrance, "Looks like you're running late."
Gordon nodded, politely, stopping himself from firing back an extremely rude response.
The guard leant down to the keypad near the large metal door and entered a complicated-looking code.
A whirring noise filled Gordon's ears – the two bars blocking the entrance slid away and the door opened, revealing a metallic corridor with a door of the same design at the other end.
Gordon stepped through into the hallway, as he'd done many times before, and the door slid shut behind him.
As soon as the first door closed, the second door opened, and Gordon entered the Sector C lobby.
A guy was typing at a computer, frustrated. He looked up and saw Gordon out of the corner of his eye, momentarily leaving his work at the computer.
"Mornin', Mr. Freeman!" he said, cheerily, "I had a bunch of messages for you but, uh, there was a system crash about – I don't know – twenty minutes ago and I'm still trying to find my files."
The guard gestured at the computer's monitor, now displaying The Bluescreen of Death, "Just one of those days, I guess."
Gordon chuckled politely.
"They had some problems in the test chamber too, but I'm pretty sure that's all straightened out. They told me you should get down to there as soon as you got into your Hazard Suit."
Gordon slid his hands into his lab coat pockets, "Thanks."
"Anytime, Mr. Freeman," the guard said, returning to his computer.
Gordon walked through the hall, down to HEV suit storage in the locker-room.
He was worried about the test – according to the guy at the front desk, other equipment was reacting violently already, and Kleiner had been saying for days that it would go wrong.
Kleiner had told Gordon of a scenario that would tear the fabric of reality, allowing extra-terrestrial life and otherworldly objects through into their world.
It was called a 'Resonance Cascade'.
As Kleiner explained it, "Every object has a set resonance. When studied, or aggravated, the object will resonate even more, sometimes even rapidly. If the object resonates too much, then, well…we're dead. If something resonates too much, then it has the ability to open dimensional rifts, or portals, or…gates to another world."
According to Kleiner, though, the idea of a Resonance Cascade was just a theory – it had never actually happened before.
It was just a theory.
AREA 3 MEDIUM SECURITY FACILITIES
BLACK MESA RESEARCH FACILITY
NEW MEXICO, USA
MAY 16TH, 9:05am
Barney Calhoun was hammering on the door to the A3MSF.
There was somebody on the other side, attempting to let him through, but they were largely unsuccessful as of yet.
"Wait, stand back!" the voice called, "Lemme try this…"
Barney stood back, and the door slid open slowly. He entered, and saw a guard crouched on the floor, a box of tools on the ground to his left and a sparking, broken, swipe detector on the wall near the door.
"Hey, Barney. Sorry about that, we've been having problems all over the facility this morning. System crashes, security malfunctions – it's a wonder this whole place hasn't shut down yet."
The guard punched in a few buttons at a control panel and a door slid open, allowing Barney into the lobby.
"See you when I see you, Calhoun."
Barney stepped into the lobby, taking it all in. A chubby guy sat at the front desk, tapping away at a keyboard.
A scientist was complaining to a guard in the corner, something about his files, while the guard was calmly trying to explain that he actually wasn't in the I.T. Department.
Barney walked past the desk into the locker room. His locker was marked B. CALHOUN in bright yellow letters, easy enough to find. He pulled it open, clipped on his helmet and vest, and shut the locker door.
Barney walked past the desk again, looking down at the floor.
Don't make eye contact. Don't make eye contact. Don't make eye-
"Hey, Calhoun! You're late."
Barney was about to fire off a snappy response when the guy chuckled and waved his hand absent-mindedly
"I know, I know, problems with the access system. It's been happening all day. I need you in Sector G; some guy's elevator ain't working. You got your sidearm?"
He surveyed Barney – his pistol was not in its holster.
"Okay, go get your gun and move your ass to G."
Barney walked over to the elevator in another corner of the room and absent-mindedly tapped the LOWER FLOOR button.
The doors slid open and Barney stepped out into the armoury. People were at the firing range, brushing up on their gun technique, as if they'd ever need to use it.
Barney strolled over to the front desk and tapped on the glass. The guy was reading a magazine. Barney tapped on the glass again. Well, knocked. The guy looked up.
"Oh, hey," the guy rummaged around under the desk for a minute, finally pulling out a Beretta M9 and handing it to Barney.
"Have a good day, Calhoun."
Barney holstered his weapon and grunted.
SECTOR C TEST LABS & CONTROL FACILITIES
BLACK MESA RESEARCH FACILITY
NEW MEXICO, USA
MAY 16TH, 9:10am
Gordon pressed a button on the console and the HEV pod opened, revealing a shining, metallic-looking orange and grey armoured suit, with a lowercase lambda (λ) emboldened on the front.
The lambda was there to signify that the original designers of the HEV suit were the Lambda Team, over at Sector F.
Gordon walked over to the recently opened pod and gazed at the suit for a moment, then snapped out of hist trance and pulled it from its rack.
Gordon slid into the suit with ease, and the material the suit was made from automatically fitted itself to the wearer, so comfort was guaranteed.
Gordon wiggled his toes and fingers, checking that they weren't obstructed in any way – they weren't.
All in all, the suit fit like a glove.
Gordon strolled over to one of the HEV charging ports embedded on the wall and raised his right arm. He tapped the elbow, and a panel slid away, revealing a plug.
Gordon plugged himself into the charger and power coursed through his suit. The charger beeped – out of juice.
He tapped his elbow again to close it off and checked the stats that displayed on his wrist – HEALTH - 100% -
SUIT - 75% -
A scientist observed him in the suit, a slightly wistful expression passing over the man's face, "Ah…I remember my days in the HEV suit. Of course, back then it was the Mark III model...but not much different to the IV."
SECTOR G TRAMSTOP
BLACK MESA RESEARCH FACILITY
NEW MEXICO, USA
MAY 16TH, 9:20am
Barney emerged onto the Sector G tramstop platform, pushing his feet off a rusty metal ladder.
He quickly patted himself down, checked for his pistol and swipe card and began to enter the small room that led off into the sector.
Suddenly, he saw something out of the corner of his eye – a tram going past.
A man in a suit stood in it, staring at Barney with piercing green eyes.
The Benefactor.
Barney turned around and stood, transfixed, watching the strange man's tram passing by.
The tram rounded the corner, and Barney slowly became aware of his surroundings.
He entered the room, scowling at a nearby vending machine and wishing that he had brought change.
SECTOR C TEST LABS & CONTROL FACILITIES
BLACK MESA RESEARCH FACILITY
NEW MEXICO, USA
MAY 16TH, 9:29am
"Hey, Freeman! Looks like you're in the barrel today."
The guard pushed a button on a nearby panel and the doors in front of Gordon slid open. Along the walls of the next hallway were screens displaying propaganda and information about the facility, rotating images every few seconds.
One such picture proudly displayed the American flag alongside the Black Mesa emblem, and a security guard saluting.
Seriously?
Gordon was actually nervous about the experiment. He knew that there wasn't really any reason to be – this was routine stuff.
They did experiments like this every day and nothing had gone wrong so far, but even so…Gordon was worried.
Kleiner had already informed him that the test would strain their equipment to the limit, and the resonance of the sample would be amplified beyond what was considered 'safe', but Black Mesa had always been slightly relaxed about health and safety issues.
Gordon had a terrible sense of foreboding as he stepped into the elevator and felt the platform shift down the shaft.
He tried to put all thoughts of catastrophe and problematic results out of his mind as he stepped out of the elevator.
A scientist with bushy grey hair and a curly moustache turned as he entered, "Gordon!" he called, "Right this way! With me, please."
Gordon went over to the scientist, "Good morning, Dr. Kemp."
The scientist didn't bother to return his greeting and gestured to the open hall in front of them.
As they walked, the older man babbled onto Gordon about system failures and dodgy equipment – definitely not helping Gordon's anxiety.
"…and it's probably a good thing that you're late, otherwise it would've failed during the test, and that would have been a proper disaster! God, Gordon, this place is falling apart…"
Gordon let the man's meaningless words wash over him and began to feel almost out-of-body, as if he was just spectating his actions.
Gordon watched himself enter the Anti-Mass Spectrometer Control Room and saw the small team inside turn to see Gordon and Kemp entering the room.
Then one of the men spoke and Gordon was pulled back into his own body.
"Ah, Gordon. There you are," The man speaking was Dr. Jetts, a man in his late thirties with blonde hair and thick eyebrows.
"We've boosted the Anti-Mass Spectrometer to one hundred and five percent-"
"One hundred and five?" Gordon repeated incredulously.
"Well, yes, it's a bit of a gamble but we need the extra resolution," Jetts responded slightly sheepishly, "Gordon, you must understand, this is the purest sample we've seen yet."
"The Administrator is very adamant we get a conclusive reading from this test," Kemp said, rather stiffly.
Gordon just nodded. He couldn't be bothered arguing with them anyway.
The other scientist, a man called Griggs, short, bespectacled and completely bald, looked up from the file he was skimming through, "They're waiting for you, Gordon. In the tesssst chamber."
Griggs had elongated the 's' on the word test when he pronounced it, making it sound as if a snake was speaking. It sounded strange.
It sounded wrong.
Kemp tapped a button on a nearby keypad and the door at the other end of the room opened and Kemp gave Gordon a little push.
Gordon exited the room, and heard a familiar panicked voice fill his ears.
"Oh my god, Eli, it's about to go critical!" Isaac Kleiner practically shrieked.
Eli Vance's gravelly tones responded calmly, as always, "Then stabilise it, Izzy."
"Right, y-yes."
Gordon walked over to the pair as Kleiner frantically pushed a few buttons on a keyboard and the machine that he and Eli were working on gave a light BEEP.
As Isaac sighed in relief, he spotted Gordon.
"Gordon!" his whole face lit up, "The equipment is going crazy! Eli and myself have been rushing from panel to panel today trying to stop the Anti-Mass Spectrometer from exploding."
Gordon gulped.
"Now, now, it's nothing to worry about…the equipment has never really been that, well, stable anyway," Kleiner smiled reassuringly.
Gordon was not, in any way, reassured.
"Get down to the test chamber, Gordon," said Eli, "They've been waiting for you down there for almost an hour. We'll see you later. Good luck!"
Gordon smiled half-heartedly and entered the elevator, pushing a button on the nearby wall-mounted panel and the elevator doors closed.
Gordon took a deep breath.
In.
And…
Out.
A/N: Thought it'd be a good idea to do a double upload today on reflection, so enjoy. Review, favourite, etc. Gina Cross arrives next chapter!