Author's Note: Wow, I didn't realize that this was sitting on my desktop finished until just now. Sorry... if anyone's reading this... lol... :D
"The Enrichment Center regrets to inform you that the information you are requesting is classified," GLaDOS sent back over the network, irritated that anyone should ever dare try to hack their way into her database. Why would they even try? she wondered, peering uninterestedly at the scientists below who were staring back up at her in surprise. She saw the bald one lean over and whisper something into his coworkers' ear, neither of them ever taking their eyes off of the machine. She supressed a frustrated growl.
"What's the matter?" the man called George was whispering. "You didn't lower the pings yet, did you?"
"No," Henry replied, flabbergasted. "I haven't had a chance to do anything more than open the file. Have you?"
"No," he said softly, shaking his head. "Then what's—?"
"It is not of importance," came GLaDOS' low growl across the chamber, and from the opposite end of the room, she saw the group of four scientists who had been trying to force their way out of the Chamber pause, afraid. "It was merely a request for information from the outside world. However, the outside world is of little concern compared to the task at hand—reconnecting me to the testing tracks." GLaDOS allowed herself a moment to feel, once again, through the mass of systems surrounding her for the chambers in question. They remained just as detached from her as they had been since she was first switched on. "We all are aware that you have not completed that task yet. I suggest you work faster, otherwise I'm afraid you're all about to become immediate past members of the being alive club."
Henry swallowed hard. "Okay. Shouldn't be more than another few minutes…" he turned to Henry, and whispered, his voice trembling a little with nerves, "Are you ready?"
The balding man nodded. "Ready."
GLaDOS watched them with a narrowed optic, her head extended toward them. She never took her eye off of either of them as they worked, ignoring the pained and frustrated cries coming from the scientists still hammering hard on the chamber door. Imbeciles.
Other than those sounds, and the clicking and tapping of the two men working at their separate computer terminals, there was silence. The AI cherished it, however, for it gave her the opportunity to think deeply—for the past ten minutes had called a few things she had not previously thought of to her attention.
One was the notion that there was a chance, however small, that the scientists would not do as she had asked. Human minds, despite how simple and idiotic they could be, were hard to decipher—just as Caroline had had an advantage over her, the men and women down in the chamber currently had one small advantage over her.
They could always refuse outright to reconnect the testing tracks. They could refuse to test—though admittedly there were ways around that by way of panel manipulation and outright forcing them—but it would not be the same, and she could not force them to complete more complex test chambers if they did not feel the inclination to do so on their own. All that she could do was offer them incentive, and, if that didn't work, threaten them, and ultimately kill them—but it would not be practical. It would be a last resort.
Also, she found it extremely difficult to imagine what the scientists may have been thinking as they typed away at their workstations. The human mind was simple, sure, but it was disorganized and chaotic, prone to illogical thinking and stupidity. GLaDOS could comprehend those things, but unless she wanted to re-open the Black Box where Caroline had been hidden, she'd never be able to fully foresee a human's course of action, especially not if they were an idiot.
The two men below exchanged a glance. Their AI had been silent for a total of two minutes as they worked, which, thus far, had been a little unusual. Had they succeeded in lowering the compliance protocols? Would their AI re-submit to them, and unlock the chamber? Would it be enough to let them switch her back off without further damaging Caroline?
Henry turned sharply toward George, noting that the AI was no longer watching them. Her 'head' had lowered to stare almost directly at the floor. "Done," he said softly, out of GLaDOS's range of hearing, "I've lowered the pings. What do you make of that?" he gestured to the apparently-submissive AI.
"Looks like our job is done," he replied with a self-satisfied grin. "All we'll have to do is shut 'er down and re-activate the door mainframe!"
Henry shook his fist in celebration, turning his back on GLaDOS to embrace George in a triumphant hug, but then—
"Not so fast."
Both scientists froze, wide-eyed.
"I want you to think about this. Have I given any sign that I was finished with you two? Unless I am malfunctioning—and we all know that I am not—then it appears that you two have not fully reinstated my control over the testing tracks. As previously stated, the Enrichment Center has ways of dealing with employees who exhibit signs of disobedience—though you and I would both prefer if it didn't come to that."
This was, of course, a lie, but the scientists didn't need to know that.
George stepped sharply away from Henry, crestfallen. "I thought that would work. I really thought that was the problem."
"What do we do now?"
For the first real time, George caught a hint of panic in his coworker's voice.
"I—I don't know."
"There is only one available course of action. Why don't you both stop trying to be the bigger person and reconnect the testing tracks? That way, we can all quit wasting valuable time—there is a series of experiments I would like to perform on you two. But don't let that notion discourage the rest of you—if it makes you feel any better, you can volunteer as replacements, should test subjects numbers one and two find that their brainpower and capacity for testing did not match what they had previously anticipated."
"Y-you'd better do it," stuttered Henry, backing away from the AI as her poisonous, yellow glare shifted from George onto him. "You'd better reconnect her. Otherwise… otherwise we might never get out of here alive."
GLaDOS turned to George. "He understands. Now it is just up to you. The safety and well-being of all future testing participants is resting on your shoulders—all you have to do is this one, simple thing, and I will let you all go."
"She'll let us go!"
"To the testing tracks. So—what do you say?"
George watched the motion of the swaying-AI with focused eyes and a slight crease between his eyebrows. If he was afraid, he did not show it nearly as much as Henry, and when he spoke, his voice was clear and level—"No."
The huge chassis jerked in outright surprise. "No?" she repeated, her modulated voice high with surprise.
"No."
She hummed for a minute, and only the sound of anxiously shifting feet and the dissatisfied buzz of her processors could be heard within the chamber. "Well—thankfully I have access to a certain Aperture Science deadly neurotoxin generator, which can easily be linked with this chamber. So that's good news—for me." a collective gasp rang through the chamber, "And believe me, it is very, very deadly. I suggest you all take a deep breath—and hold it."
"George, what are you doing!" someone screamed across the chamber while banging hard against the firmly-locked door. "GEORGE! Reconnect the testing tracks, or we're all going to die!"
Henry span to face him, a look of disbelief on his face. "Do it, man!" he said violently, "Do it! We can find a way out later—just reconnect them so she'll open the door and won't gas us to death!"
"Hold on a minute!" George snapped back, flinging out a sweating palm. "Hold on, will you! I have another idea!"
Henry groaned, sliding his clammy hands over his pale face. "Look, no offense pal, but your ideas aren't exactly the best! And if we don't get out of here, we're going to be murdered!"
There was a series of shouts of agreement and screams from the opposite end of the chamber, and two other employees broke away from the throng by the door to run over to the two men. "C'mon, George! You're the only person who can finalize the command!"
"You're the head of artificial intelligence development! Do something!"
"Save us!"
"He's not going to do it. We're all going to die here. He's not going to even try to save us. I hope he dies first."
"STOP!" yelled George angrily over the rest. "I said I have an idea! She's not going to gas us—she can't! If she kills us, there'll be no way for her to reclaim control over the testing tracks! She won't be able to fulfill her primary directive! And we all remember how much even Caroline approved of testing…"
A tense silence filled the chamber at his words. Behind him, the AI's huge chassis shifted uncomfortably, but she did not speak. A few people coughed and then nodded in agreement.
"So what do we do?" asked Henry finally.
"We wait," George replied in a whisper. "I don't think we can hold her off forever, but we'll have to risk it for long enough for one of us to come up with a better idea."
"All right," Henry nodded, "It's not like we have much of a choice. I just hope she doesn't decide to gas us anyways, test chambers or no."
GLaDOS was furious.
She had thought that she had felt anger before. She had thought that the rush of emotion she had experienced as Caroline's memories flooded her system was agonizing. The surge of anger in that occasion had been enough to warrant her to trap them in this room—aided, of course, by the unwavering desire to fulfill her directive. It was also infuriating that the scientists legitimately thought that she needed incentive to test—if anyone within the laboratories needed that, it had to be them. Not her. She was built to solve science. The human brain she had been created from loved science.
And, now, worst of all, her fears had been confirmed. That one pesky scientist had caught the fatal flaw in her plan, as she had wished he wouldn't. She wasn't exactly at liberty to state ultimatums when she was the one needing them.
She still had all the power. Oh, goodness yes. She could gas them. She could smash them, deploy turrets, pick their tiny, wretched forms up within her claws and crush them. But none of these things would get her what she wanted.
She realized all of this in the space of less than a minute. Within that time, she also estimated what her best course of action would be—to let them go, let them run their diagnostics, let them poke and prod her programming and intrude into things that weren't their business, until finally they decided she was fit to assume total control. But that was unimaginably dissatisfying.
There was also the memory of that signal she had received earlier. She still wondered about it, in the back of her gigantic mind—where did it come from? Who was so keen to have more information on her? And—most importantly—she wondered if there was a plausible way she could use that outside source to somehow force the scientists to reconnect her.
…Wait.
There was an idea in there, somewhere. A good, clever, plausible idea.
What if she tricked the source into manipulating her system just enough to reconnect the testing tracks for her? Then she would not have to deal with the scientists at all. She would only have to deal with this unknown entity, which would undoubtedly prove easier to convince than the humans scurrying fearfully below.
Yes.
Ignoring the two conversing two men (they would be first, she decided. The man called George and his bald friend), GLaDOS' chassis stiffened as she sent a hesitant pulse of signal from the laboratories, hopefully in the direction of the source she had heard from earlier. It was a simple, short message, just the text "Hello," as well as some basic requests for information such as 'where are you located' and 'what is your function.'
If she was honest with herself, she had hardly any hope of such a message receiving any kind of reply from the entity, especially since she had completely shunned their last request for information. In fact, she had chosen not to pour too much valuable thought into the incident at first, and the result was that she was not entirely sure if the entity would even be able to receive her message. Perhaps it was a mobile device which had moved out of her range, or it was only able to send, and not receive?
This was why GLaDOS was genuinely surprised to receive a message in reply only two-point-six seconds after she had sent her own.
"That is classified," the source replied in text—but despite the signature being text-only, the algorithmic markers gave away what would undoubtedly be a masculine monotone. GLaDOS sighed, for the response he (judging by the masculinity of the voice only, of course) had given her was one that she had largely been expecting more than anything else.
However, a minute later, the construct added two last words, "But greetings."
This was interesting. She had not anticipated a semi-polite demeanour… if it could be counted as one. She waited a few more minutes, wondering if the construct would have anything else to add to its previous messages—but it did not.
GLaDOS hummed to herself in silent contemplation. By the first response, she was able to tell that the residual data coming through the signal was being broadcasted by some sort of other computerized intelligence—though how advanced this creation may or may not be was still a mystery to her.
One thing was for certain—it was advanced enough to crack her password and break through a few other defenses she had set up to protect the facility. Ironically, it was good news for her, because it meant that whatever entity she was about to converse with, whoever it was currently maintaining a stony silence on the other end of the line, was, by all accounts, clever enough to be able to manually hack into the program keeping her from accessing the testing tracks (with her help, of course).
Perhaps, she should have been more worried about whether or not this outside source could be trusted with such a matter, but since the only area of the facility currently outside of her control was the area in question, security was not a huge concern. Also, an AI of her status had many, many ways of protecting herself from threats, but more importantly, GLaDOS spared hardly any thought into the possibility that this other AI could potentially be powerful enough to wrench the testing tracks completely out of her control.
Even less than a day into her new life, GLaDOS remained just as full of pride and self-satisfaction as she would ever be—it was her facility, she was the world's first, true artificial intelligence (or so her makers had told her), and the true sensations of outright fear and unconfidence were still as foreign to her as the rest of the heavier human emotions still locked away within the Black Box.
GLaDOS hummed a little more, her chassis swaying lightly above the quickly-regrouping scientists. It wouldn't be long until one of them came up with a 'plausible way out of their situation', and when they did, if they ever attempted a rebellion, GLaDOS would put a stop to it faster than they would know to hold their breath. She didn't want to kill them, it was a waste of valuable human lives—but she would most certainly do so if they tempted her.
It was time for them to learn a lesson about what happens to employees who defy protocol.
