Once again, I have come back from a long period of silence to bring you the next chapter! Be happy for me!
On other news, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! And to those who don't celebrate it, Happy Year of the Horse and may your work days be productive!
DISCLAIMER...You should know it by now (I own nothing by the game company Valve, but I DO own my OC's and devices).
Also, MESSAGE! This chapter contains some notions of mental conversation. I have attempted to write it so that readers can understand who is speaking. If you are confused or intrigued by this concept, let me know!
A WRITER'S COOKIE TO ANYONE WHO KNOWS THE NEW LOCATION PRESENTED IN THIS CHAPTER (and which took me a long time to look up and find...) (Clears throat while spitting some fire)
Onward to the Chapter!
A question that most people ask each other in curiosity is, 'What would be the worst place to wake up?' Most humans would answer some country they have never been to, or a place that they find hostile, probably not travelling beyond their state, country or continent. More worldly educated humans would answer with the worst place they had been to in their travels. A few humans that had seen all or most corners of the world would most likely give the most detailed answers, with talk of culture, people and environment all thrown together into a single explanation.
For someone on another planet with no memory of how he/she got there, none of the supplies he/she brought and no visible way on figuring out how to get back home, this question gets answered quite quickly. This, sadly, was the situation Carthage found himself in as his body reactivated/awoke on his backside partially submerged in a pool of unidentifiable liquid glowing a bright aquamarine and with strange hairs at least 2 feet long emerging into unfamiliar air.
[SYSTEM ANALYSIS: ORGANIC SYSTEMS AT 100% EFFICIENCY] [MECHANICAL SYSTEMS AT 20% EFFICIENCY] [SAMPLE OF LIQUID REQUIRED TO BEGIN SUBSTANCE ANALYSIS]
As the adolescent android saw this message, he attempted to stand back up but only succeeded in falling completely into the pool as his feet slipped from underneath him. Surfacing quickly with a swear word, he felt the human emotion of concern clash against the logical planning of his processors over how he got here. His logical inputs reasoned a teleportation unit was responsible, while his human brain wanted to know if this was connected with what he had seen back at that village.
Wait, how long ago was that again? It felt to his human mind like a few hours, but his inner clock thought it was just a few minutes. Perhaps he hadn't been fully aware of what had happened while he was at the village. If he recalled correctly, things had started blanking out when he had seen those two bullet-ridden villagers amidst the destroyed houses. They had looked so familiar...
Carthage grabbed his head with a sharp intake of foul-tasting air as he felt the memories rush back into both his minds, along with, once again, something else…
He looked up at the stars lighting up the black night sky, a crescent moon shining amongst the countless pinpricks of light. As he lay on his back at the top of a hilltop neighboring his village, his two human eyes glimmered with childlike curiosity and amazement, wondering how far this field of stars extended into space.
"You alright up here, Martin?"
The 10-year old boy turned his head to his left upon hearing this question and saw a black haired man around 40 years old but looking in his late 50's and having deep rings under his eyes from lack of sleep. Martin smiled as this man, his father, sat down next to him, the man's brown eyes showing concern at the boy's actions.
"Don't worry about me, Dad," Martin replied with a wink at his father, "Nothing bad has happened to me yet." His father didn't respond other than keeping his worried expression, causing Martin to sigh in frustration before looking back at the starscape above them both. A singular cricket, perched somewhere far in the distance, was the only sound that broke the silence around the two humans.
"Do you think it exists?" This question asked from Martin threw his father off guard, causing him to pause before responding with "What exists, son?"
"Intelligent life on other planets. You know," Martin elaborated with a wave of his slightly sunburned right hand, " Aliens and the like. What if they do exist and are acting like us, waiting for a signal from another world to fully begin their exploration?"
"I don't think searching for other life is our biggest concern, Martin," the boy's father said with force in his voice, "You already know about the troubles our village is having. That is what's more important right now."
"I know that, Dad," Martin explained with a nod of his head, "But I can't stop thinking about it, you know? If an alien would come to our world, and whether it would be hostile or friendly."
Martin's father looked up at the sky, the hint of a smile showing on his face at seeing his son the happiest in several days. It made his heart hurt all the more considering the poverty they, and most of the human race, were suffering under.
"I know you like all those science-fiction stories we've read, son," the older man then said as he stood back up and brushed the dirt off his wrinkled blue pants and white undershirt, "But you shouldn't let your mind wander all the time—your mother always said to keep focused on the 'now' instead of 'then'." With these words, Martin's father walked back down the hill towards the village, turning back once to see Martin getting up as well.
Martin glared at his father's back as the older man resumed his walk, anger in his mind as he remembered his mother's death the year before. She was the only person who fully understood him…
...And that anger was quickly joined with sadness the moment Carthage's mental state returned to normal. Placing his human hand on the bottom of the pool he currently kneeled in, his mechanical mind attempted to get sense of what he had just seen.
'That man,' Carthage thought to himself as he slowly stood up again and walked out of the organic pool, 'Was he really my father? And if he was, why can't I remember any more about him than what he looked like?'
'Your memories are clouding your judgment,' Carthages's machine side butted in, 'The current priority for you is completing the mission GlaDOS assigned to you.'
'For your information,' Carthage's human side shot back, 'I said my mission statement to GlaDOS myself, and these flashbacks aren't' of my doing. Perhaps they're suppressed memories YOU stored in your hard drives when you were first activated.'
'That is a highly unlikely and incredibly stupid concept based on meaningless conjecture. You should feel mentally challenged for even thinking such a statement.' Carthage could almost see his machine side turn away from his human side with 'arms' crossed and a frown on its 'face'.
'That's where we disagree: you don't allow anything illogical and imaginative into your thoughts.' Carthage's human side now seemed to look like the begging person in a two-person argument, trying to win the opponent to its side. 'I help develop the creative thinking this person has, as well as his emotional output towards success and failure. Without those, he would just be a cruel, emotionless, unthinking machine!'
Carthage grabbed his head again as he stood up and stumbled down a pathway across rocky ground covered with what looked like a forest of organic vines. He paid no attention to his surroundings or anything within them…
'A machine, yes; a perfectly formed, flawlessly executed, single-minded machine capable of doing any task assigned to it without failure. Where has humanity brought itself with its own quarrels and instinctive thinking, hmm?'
'YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO INSULT YOUR CREATORS IN THAT WAY!' Carthage's human side sounded like it was 'breathing' hard after this 'shout', and the silence that filled the android's brain directly afterward was no help towards calming his brain down.
With this silence came a hollow sound that seemed like several voices echoing off a nearby to the tune of A flat, but not exactly like someone singing the note. Carthage let this note fill his audio sensors, breathing in the slightly stale air from the strangely organic surroundings of stone cliffs, vines, and…
"Oh, my God…"
Carthage then noticed the sky around him for the first time, awestruck by what both his human and machine eye recorded. The sky was like an aurora show to the eye, colors clashing against one another and blending into new shades never recorded on the visible spectrum. Two suns, looking like mirror reflections of each other across the horizon, glowed yellowish green in the sky and brought their own colors to the surrounding collage. Strange objects, almost looking incomplete or deformed in their shape, hung in the sky as large masses of alien origin.
Wait, alien? Reeling at a human-like thought that filled his body with overpowering fear, Carthage sent the command for a system scan into his computer processors to find any Aperture satellites nearby.
[SYSTEM SCAN BEGINNING…]
[20% COMPLETE…]
[50% COMPLETE…]
[80% COMPLETE…] It was quite disturbing to see the scan go so quickly.
[SCAN COMPLETE] [NO APERTURE SCIENCE SATELLITES DETECTED IN ORBIT AROUND PLANET] [ATTEMPT SECOND SCAN? Y/N]
Carthage's brain and body lurched as he clenched his human and mechanical hand—no satellite detection was reachable planet-wide? But that meant no contact with Aperture, or even any Earth-based facility that could receive electronic communication! That meant he was on another planet or moon, alien in nature by what he saw around him. How would he survive? How could he communicate with GlaDOS? Was there a way back to Earth? Worst of all, did this mean his mission was compromised and impossible to complete?
'You see,' the machine inside his body chastised, 'this is what happens when you go against your mission diagnostics. You interacted with alien life forms that you could have avoided contact with. Now you are probably on their homeworld with no possible way of getting back to Earth!'
'Shut up, automaton!' The human inside Carthage sounded as if it had just whirled around with rage in its widened eyes. 'We can find a way out of here if we just look around.'
'Why look when we could merely scan our surroundings? That is a much more efficient way to-'
'In case you've forgotten, your systems aren't fully operational. You could scan something completely wrong or not notice a hostile life form. Ever think of that?'
Carthage quickly looked around himself at this sentence, his breath increasing rapidly through his filtering systems. Until now, he hadn't properly rationalized the possibility of encountering another alien creature here.
[SCANNING AREA FOR UNIDENTIFIED LIFE F-]
"Abort that scan!" Those words sounded strange coming from Carthage's mouth, the second set of actual words he had spoken. It was like a part of him didn't want him to do that.
Oh, wait; there really was a part of him that didn't want to do that.
'Affirmative. It is pleasing you are FINALLY noticing my presence here.'
'Oh, be quiet…'
"Do you think she's OK in there?"
P-Body shrugged her shoulder plates in response to Atlas's question while repositioning her Portal Device in her metallic hands. The two robots walked in a circle around GlaDOS's position, switching views between the countless data files above them and their maker's slightly immobile body, casting quick glances between the two. The fact that almost two hours had passed since GlaDOS had entered the digital network did not concern them in the slightest—they were not humans who only had a limited life span, after all. The two did not speak much, focusing their minds on their mission—to protect GlaDOS from harm while she was in the digital network.
Atlas paused for a moment in his pace while looking at GlaDOS's left side, putting his left hand to his nonexistent chin as if copying the human expression of stroking one's beard in thought. P-Body did not verbally speak the words coming to her processors, instead widening her photoreceptor in a mimic of a human raising his or her eyebrow in confusion.
"Just had a thought," Atlas then explained without turning his head, "Does it take this long to exterminate a virus threat from a computer network? Some of the other ones we encountered after GlaDOS stopped that Intelligence Dampening Sphere were very simple to remove."
"Well," P-Body tried to explain, "There are some viruses that are quite deceptive in their actions, and others that are quite destructive. It's not in our opinion right now to judge, but I would think GlaDOS is dealing with a more sneaky virus."
"But do most viruses inflict outer damage to the system they're attacking?"
"Not many do that," P-Body sounded like she were reciting from a textbook reading, "Only the more destructive ones are capable of damaging the outer computer system. Don't you remember working with Carthage to take care of OlaTOS's leftover programs in Old Aperture after she was defeated? Anyway, why do you ask?"
"You'll want to look at this…"
"It's good to see you haven't changed since our last encounter, GlaDOS. I wouldn't want to deal with something less effective in combat—it would not be as fun."
GlaDOS couldn't respond verbally to this with all 'oxygen' expelled from her digital lungs, instead giving what she assumed to be a death glare towards her capturer. The silver-eyed android grinned like the cat that got the cream before stepping out of the eye socket of the virus and onto the left arm of the virus that still held GlaDOS in its grip. The android held its left hand upward and kept it clenched in order to continue restraining GlaDOS, the red aura surrounding the Multi-Purpose Glove on its right hand only adding to its intimidation factor.
"Oh? You're not responding? I thought you had a cutthroat insult lined up about my style, body structure, combat strength…or weight. Didn't you have something like that against Chell while she was here?"
GlaDOS heaved her body with renewed energy at this, knowing that you did not need to breathe in the digital network to keep conscious. She inched for the chance to break free and slam that smug head inside out with her fists or a weapon from the surrounding code. Insulting Chell was HER job, and had been for as long as the two of them were in the facility, and no one could take that from her. 10 years apart from her most [REDACTED] test subject did nothing to change this, Carthage being an acceptable, but not perfect, replacement for her.
"I know you're angry at me," the android said while never losing its smirk, " Who wouldn't be in this situation? Hell, I would be angry with me if I were in your hands—luckily, I'm not, though, so we can rule that idea out entirely." GlaDOS only continued her stare while also observing the surrounding pieces of code, hoping against overwhelming logic that there could be a way out.
[WARNING!] [CENTRAL CORE UNDER CORRUPTION!]
'Crap...' GlaDOS thought to herself in a very human-like manner as she remembered the virus's corruption traveling across her body. There was no reflection in the network to view the change, but she could feel her left arm and shoulder start to tremble without her authorization.
"Ah," the android then spoke with joy easily detectable in its synthesized male voice, "It seems my corruption is taking its hold on you. No point in struggling any further, you know. I have you exactly where I want you, and I am NOT letting you go like that MORON once did." The android finished with a strong 'wink' of its right optic, looking like a mix between an elderly stalker and a child with a big secret that he wouldn't tell for anything.
GlaDOS did not know how to respond to this if she could—the android seemed to be reciting a monologue it had probably prepared before this conflict arose. Unlike a cliché supervillan, though, this machine actually HAD the abilities to back up its confidence, making it all the more dangerous. Also like those movies, there was usually a chance for the good guy to escape and fight back, like with an ally or something.
Well, the only 'sidekicks' GlaDOS had at her disposal were Carthage, who wasn't around, the [REDACTED] test subject, who was nowhere nearby, and Atlas and P-Body. Seeing as how the two robots were the only ones in that category actually in the facility, the android's logic processors placed them at top priority, despite GlaDOS's human emotions objecting slightly at the action—or was that the corruption talking?
"If you're wondering about who could actually help you here," the android then butted in after kicking GlaDOS square in the face and keeping her immobilized at the same time, "Don't get your hopes up at all—NO ONE is coming to save you. What could two robots do to my own 'child' that I can repel? Besides, your 'child' is many, many, many miles away from this place with no possible way to return here."
[WARNING!] [CENTRAL CORE CORRUPTION AT 20%]
Damn it, she didn't have TIME to think about a response to that…
'How much time can I survive here without running out of power or food and water?' Carthage thought to himself as he walked through a dimly-lit cave passage covered with more organic vines and small rocks at random intervals.
[ESTIMATED SURVIVAL TIME: 360 hours until critical situations]
'That leaves only 15 days,' Carthage's machine side reasoned, 'You'd better hurry and find a way back to Earth soon.'
'He knows the situation, Captain Obvious' the boy's human side responded with a 'huff' of its 'breath', 'You don't need to spell it for him word by word.'
'Then should I spell it for your ape-like brain?' At this, Carthage's human eye twitched—he was starting to get really pissed off at this 'competition' inside his head. If it didn't stop soon he knew he was going to blow his mouth off.
'You humans used to be the top of your food chain in the world,' the computer spoke as Carthage got more and more irritated, ' and then you got too greedy about what you had and what you COULD have and regressed yourselves back to your 'Dark Ages'. Even the coming of these aliens, the "Combine" by what that one alien stated, didn't stop your devolution into monkeys fighting over scraps of-'
"SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU, just SHUT THE F*** UP!" Carthage's shout against his own mind resonated through the cave for several seconds afterward, no doubt alerting anything outside or nearby to his presence. Not that there WAS anything outside anyway, or so he could tell with what limited senses he had.
The boy's brain was silent as his body continued through the cave and out into an open area of floating rocks surrounding a larger rock with another 'healing pool' on it. The rocks seemed to be floating by an unseen magnetic force or gravitational field—whatever the case, Carthage knew he couldn't see what was causing it.
[ANALYZING MAGNETIC LEVELS OF SURROUNDING AREA…]
"Abort it. NOW." Carthage's voice echoed at a much lower pitch than usual, sounding more like an alien creature than a techno-organic being.
[…] […] […]
[SCAN ABORTED AT 2% COMPLETION] [ATTEMPT AGAIN (Y/N)?]
"Remove the scan from Archives files."
[RECOMMENDATION: AVOID PERMANENT REMOVAL] [SYSTEM WILL BE UNABLE TO RECOVER-]
"DO IT! Don't make me repeat myself," Carthage gripped his human left hand onto the right, metallic side of his face as he said this, his grip sending pain signals racing through his nerves.
[UNSTABLE EMOTIONS DETECTED] [ATTEMPTING TO NEUTRALIZE…]
"I am in control, not you. I will NOT be a mindless thing existing for a singular purpose. I am a human being with emotions and feelings. I can care for things beyond being programmed to do so, and I judge things on a preference of what I like and don't like. I AM MY OWN MASTER! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT!?"
[…]
[…]
[…]
[COMMAND ACCEPTED] [SCAN REMOVED FROM ARCHIVES] [STATE NEXT ORDER (_)?]
"Just keep quiet for now," Carthage said with the release of a breath he did not know he had in him, "I'll discover things the way I want to discover them."
[ORDER ACCEPTED] [MODIFYING BEHAVIORAL OUTPUT TO ACCEPT NEW COMMAND...]
{My apologies, Sir. I did not mean to offend you. As compensation for my earlier actions, I would like to tell you that this planet's gravity is quite lower than Earth's, making traveling on foot much easier.}
Carthage blinked quickly as this new level of computer dialogue entered his inner eye before shrugging it off for later reference and jumping onto the closest rock, gasping slightly as he felt the reduced gravity lift him higher than he had ever jumped before.
THUNK!
Landing, though, seemed to hurt a little bit more than on Earth. But that was what the healing pool was for, right…?
{You are correct, Sir.}
So...did you figure out the location? It's alright if you didn't, I am presuming at least one reader knows the answer.
I apologize for the long pauses between updates, but I DO have several other engagements (choirs, school work, gaming clubs and friends, to name a few), so I don't have all day of every day to write this story out.
With this, Draconos is taking off!