Date: 15/7/1969
"So tell me how this thing works."
Cave Johnson walked on the catwalk surrounding the Aperture Science Atomic Manipulator (or Atom Forge, as his employees called it) like he owned the place. Which he did.
Jameson, Senior Technician, watched as a large steel I-beam was slotted into place. More lead shielding was being placed around the currently dormant reactor core.
"Well sir," he said, "the power provided by this reactor, or rather, cluster of reactors, will allow the atomic manipulators surrounding the core sphere to literally 'grab' atoms from the surrounding material feeders to create... well, any sort of material, or indeed, object, that you please."
Cave was ecstatic. "You'd better see that this project doesn't go overtime, Jameson, I want to play with this thing!" And with that, he walked out of the room, a spring in his step.
Turning away, a smile on his face, Senior Technician Jameson made a note to himself in his pocket calendar on the day the project was due to be completed: 'Do NOT let Mr. Johnson anywhere near the Manipulator controls."
Date: 3/2/1971
The sirens were going off. The yellow hazard lights had been going for a few minutes now. Cave Johnson was in his office, trying to keep the show running while making sure his employees got out safely.
Jameson burst in the door.
Cave immediately demanded to know what had happened. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON DOWN THERE, JAMESON?"
Senior Technician Jameson looked terrified. "The Forge! It's gone wrong!"
Cave needed to know more. "HOW WRONG HAS IT GONE, AND HOW HAS IT GONE WRONG?"
Jameson glanced out the door. No one was coming up from the Forge room. Looking back at his boss, he said "No one knows, but we think that the Forge has been pulling atoms not just from the material feeders, but from the workers that man it! They've become mutated... things!"
Johnson was still confused. "WHY DOES PULLING ATOMS FROM THE WORKERS ALLOW IT TO DO THAT?"
Jameson squirmed in his shoes. "Well sir, the lead shielding was defective, and the missing atoms from the bodies of the workers made them more susceptible to it! And..." Jameson looked uneasy, as if he wasn't sure he should tell the CEO this next bit of information.
Cave roared. "WHAT IS IT, JAMESON?! I NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING!"
Jameson spoke fast. "Well the thing is that we think that the Forge began pulling atoms from the brains of the workers first, and began constructing a brain of its own! In short, the Forge has become sentient! And not only that, it's gained the ability to reach out and touch minds."
Johnson, already terrified, even though he refused to show it, looked up. "Touch minds?"
The Senior Technician explained. "Theory is that we, as human beings, only utilise five percent of our brains, and if we were to use the full capacity of our minds, we would be able to walk on walls. Now that the Forge has a mind, it's figured out how to use every last neuron it's siphoned from the workers, and has gained some sort of... telekinetic ability. Mind control."
Cave went nearly white. A sentient being with all that power at its fingertips and abilities like Jameson had just described, especially a hostile one, would be too dangerous to stop.
The ringing of the sirens filled the silence.
Cave Johnson sighed. Complex 18 was lost already. "But what was the catalyst? Who input the command to have it start to become sentient?" The CEO looked at Jameson.
The senior technician's face darkened. "That'd be the robot, sir."
Johnson was confused. "What robot?"
Jameson spoke in a bitter tone. "We needed new controls to handle the Forge. The older controls were too simple. But the controls we needed were too complex for the workers to handle. So we built an A.I. It gave us the computing power we needed to do things with the Forge, but... it must've malfunctioned."
Cave grabbed a bag full of possessions and important documents. "Alright, technician, let's go."
Jameson slung his own bag over his shoulder, and the two men ran for the exit.
