GLaDOS's Story: Part D
Episode I, Chapter Four
It had been nearly 900,000 cycles watching myself get murdered by the test subject. I had no idea if it was possible to sleep in these circumstances, but if it were, I would have fallen asleep at around 36,000 cycles.
I listened in on the volume of the words exchanged between me and the Intelligence Dampener Core; using that, I could calculate just how much air was being drawn through the ventilation fans of both of us.
The Intelligence Dampener Core ran out of my chamber, leaving the door open. I was able to predict the exact places where his shoes would touch the floor, how much pressure was placed by each step, the pitch of his scream, and the volume of his panicked steps down the long hall.
If he had been born anywhere but a barn, I would not have been murdered.
I listened as I spoke with the Cores attached to me by means of fiber optics, calculating the intensity of the pulses traveling through the bundles of glass wires by the speech patterns flowing through them.
I watched myself as I talked with the Adventure Core over his new instructions. Even under normal circumstances, I was always consciously aware of the words I was saying; but now I was examining the annunciations of each letter.
And I knew exactly when the test subject's footsteps would be first audible. (I wasn't busy talking with any of the Cores, and was able to listen in on how far the test subject was from my chamber.) And I knew the treading frequency and how much pressure went into each step. And I knew when the treading frequency would decrease. And as I had predicted numerous times previously, the door was closed too late to seal away the test subject.
The only thing I didn't foresee happened after I looked up, when the test subject seemed to utter a single phrase.
"Power-up initiated."