"Are you ready?" Doug said, smiling at the bright optic.
"R-ready, Doc!" Orion chirped, and an airy tune burst from his speakers, to which they both sang the lyrics:
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Then the traveler in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.
"Doc?" Orion interrupted, looping the tune for a moment, "am I gonna be a star in space?"
"You know what a star is. You tell me."
"N-not a real star. A star l-like the s-song."
Doug paused a moment, his soldering gun raised midway. "Yes. Yes, I suppose you will. You'll lead us to Gamma, and then we'll bring him home. You'll be our light in the darkness."
Satisfied with that answer, Orion continued:
In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
'Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveler in the dark.
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
"Am I really going back? Back to space?" Orion jittered a little, giggling.
Doug looked up from his schematics, regarding the core with a pitying look. "Do you remember a time when you didn't want to go to space?"
Orion merely laughed happily, mumbling, "Space! Space, going back, back to space!"
"What's this?" Doug heard himself ask. Looking over, he saw a transparent image of himself, his mouth twisting at a strange-looking core locked into a vice.
Behind him – well, the shadow-him – was Henry, who set down a chipset he was messing with and walked to the vice. He, too, was of a ghostly shade, wavering quietly in the low light of Doug's present-day workshop.
Leaning back in his chair, Doug decided not to stop his broken mind and allowed the memory to unfold.
"New class of personality core!" Henry proclaimed proudly, setting a large hand on the sphere's casing. "Instead 'a merely making more voices in her brain, we're gonna map out her neural pathways, try t'see why she's thinkin' the way she is."
"I admit she's getting less... murderous. But still, isn't enough enough? She's at a good balance. We haven't had to hit the killswitch in weeks."
The balding scientist set his hands proudly on his hips, shaking his head. "Ain't gonna work for too long, man. She learns. She evolves. We gotta know what she's up to. An' this li'l guy's gonna do it for us!"
The ghostly yellow starburst of an optic flared to life, darting quickly around, hovering its glance at both scientists like a dragonfly. Henry grinned, stepping back to admire his work.
"Yup, lovely. Hey, Core! What's yer function?"
Though the core's optic was jittering, he spoke in a calm if not high-pitched and a bit stuttering voice. It was not the memory that stuttered; Doug remembered the quivering voice all too well. "My mission is t-to infiltrate neural pathw-ways within the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating S-System without being det-tected by the G-Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System."
"A hacker, then," Ghost-Doug said, rubbing his chin. "Is she going to corrupt him, too?"
"Corruption's just a fluke, Doug." Henry waved passively, leaving a little swipe of gray mist in the air. "Plus, we dunno whether it's her or not. Could just be faulty programming."
"Oh yeah? Tell that to the Testing Resource Core. What's it calling itself now? Rick? And delusional and thinking it's on all types of adventures?"
Henry's face darkened. "W-well, that's different. He was kinda pushy, ya know, thinkin' his tests were better than...better than hers."
"And didn't she 'distract' him by basically frying his mind? Making him think he's some macho adventurer and fulfilling his inborn desire to create scenarios? Now he just babbles all day about knowing taekwando or something."
"That's just a rumor," Henry growled, and from the look on his face, Doug realized he should be quiet. Too much talk about how GLaDOS was misbehaving generally led to Doug being ejected from the office. Right now, not only did his past self require Henry's special soldering gun but also needed to keep a watchful eye on anything related to the GLaDOS Project.
The spirits faded, and once again Doug found himself in the old ramshackle office, filled with nothing but cobwebs and memories of the dear departed. The lively core's optic still glittered in front of him, babbling quietly about the nearest nebulae.
Doug chuckled, picking up his soldering gun. It really was the best one, even decades after its owner was dead and gone.
"Let's get back to work, shall we?"
"Quite the job," GLaDOS said via intercom as seven of her cameras viewed the little explorer. "I'm actually impressed."
Doug was still scowling. Three cameras would have been more than enough. The other four were there to taunt him. He just knew it.
He had to admit she was right, however. The satellite was little more than four feet wide and two feet tall, Aperture-white, hosting wide solar panels on either side, though the core himself could probably last forty or fifty more years on his battery alone. The Aperture logo was, as usual, placed on every single piece, clearly identifying to whom the satellite belonged. In retrospect, with the Combine able to travel out of the atmosphere, this probably wasn't the best idea.
Orion's optic had been placed in another core-like sphere, which was able to shift and blink and roll and do all the nice core things that Orion was used to doing, although it was quite a shame that there would be no one around to see it. The form of this sphere was based on GLaDOS's final cores, the ones intended to quell her behavior permanently. It was odd, seeing the bright LEDs of the old core stuck in a white core's body rather than the smooth, gradient colors, but it was somehow nostalgic too.
The whole thing was stuck inside of a giant, circular room, over half of it containing a large window through which researchers could monitor from the outside. In its earlier days, the same room had been a test area for dangerous goods, but today it served a different if not more noble purpose. Orion was seated comfortably in the middle of a white, portal-holding floor, and a large prototype of an ASHPD was adhered to the ceiling.
It had taken a good week of hard work, including the GLaDOS-assisted reconstruction of the launch chamber, but it was over and the results did indeed look great.
Doug was still inputting some information on a computer outside of the encapsulated satellite when Chell walked in.
"I thank you greatly for your input," he said, not looking up as he continued typing. "If it hadn't been for your report, we'd never know as much as we do."
It was his first time seeing her in four days, since he'd first requested the report. She'd told him everything – her arrival at City 04, the way the Combine had processed her, the escape, the threat of Nova Prospekt. All of it, save for her nightmares. Those were her burdens and hers alone.
Walking past him, she sighed against the glass, frowning at her friend within it. Her fingers twitched nervously against her crossed arms, and Doug could see her chewing her lip in her reflection.
"Do you want to say good-bye?" he offered quietly. With a barely-audible sniffle, Chell nodded.
The chamber doors whooshed open, and Orion sparked awake. His optic bobbed up and down happily, sending a smile across Chell's face and painful pangs across her heart.
"Io, Io!" he peeped. "Finally! Going to space! Off to spaaaaace!" He rolled completely around a few times before slowing to a stop, looking over her shoulder at Doug. "Hiiiii, Lab R-Rat! Oh!" The 'pupil' of his optic shrank. "Where is Io going to sit?"
Chell froze with a gasp. The color drained from Doug's face. He stepped slowly forward, a saddened smile forming on his face.
"Chell...Io...she can't come with you."
Chell bit her trembling lip and gulped hard, trying to fight back her tears. The thought of Orion, away from her. The week itself had been nearly insufferable, but to think of being forever apart...
Orion let out a small, worried grunt, trying to wrap his circuits around the idea. "But...space suit? She could -"
Doug's smile faded. "I'm sorry. She has to stay with us."
She rubbed her wrist and stared at the floor, already feeling empty and substantially more alone.
No, this was right. This was necessary. The way it had to be. He...he would be happier in space.
The yellow starburst darted back and forth between Doug and Chell, ceiling and floor, left and right. His excited whimpers had turned into nervous ones, louder and louder.
"Io!" he finally choked.
She couldn't take it any more. With a strained cry, she pushed past Doug and nearly tackled the orb, embracing Orion in a tight hug. Orion rolled against her, pressing his optic to her face in a motion that could almost be described as an affectionate nuzzle.
Gripping him tighter, she let out a choked sob. He didn't have to leave. He could stay. He could! And then they wouldn't have to be apart. Then...
"Chell."
Doug's voice brought her back to vicious reality, and she buried her face defiantly into Orion's orb, clutching him tighter. She heard Doug sigh impatiently, and she added a stubborn grunt to her rebellion.
"Orion, remember: you're our star."
Within her arms, Orion grunted, wriggled. "Oh...yes. Io." His panicked voice turned gentle, and Chell pulled back to look at him. She wasn't crying; she wouldn't allow it this time. But it was a struggle keeping her tears back.
"Io," he continued, "I'm gonna be your st-star, okay? S-so don't w-worry about m-me, okay? I'll always be k-keeping an eye o-on you."
She slowly withdrew, nodding, squeezing her eyes tightly to prevent the tears. Doug ushered her toward the observation room, careful as always not to directly touch her, but she whirled around again as a gentle song poured from Orion's core, his own voice singing the lyrics:
"Then the traveler in the dark,
Guided by my tiny spark,
She could not see which way to go,
If I did not twinkle so."
Doug urged her away, and slowly she crept into the observation room, pressing her hands against the cold glass, breathing hotly and fogging it as her tears stung her eyes. Orion kept his optic on her, and even through the glass she could hear his voice.
"In the dark blue sky I'll keep,
And watch over while you sleep,
For I'll never shut my eye,
'Till the sun is in the sky."
A familiar, high-pitched whirring nearly overpowered the song. Above him, the giant portal device was starting to glow, starting to power on. A room-quaking pulse told her the first portal had already been shot; all that was left was the product of the shining blue light above the satellite's body.
"As your bright and tiny spark,
I'll light your path in the dark.
I'll be near though I am far,
Twinkle, twinkle, little-"
The portal shot, flooding the chamber with sharp blue light and a boom. A vast noise, like a great wind, rose up, and as an equally-loud whoosh closed the portal, the light faded.
The chamber was clear.
Orion was gone.
"SPAAAAACE!"
The satellite rocked through the emptiness, giggling wildly at the cold void before him. Suddenly, he struck something, and turned just in time to see a familiar gray sphere. The collision sent the sphere spinning as it ricocheted, heading rather quickly towards the atmosphere.
"...Space Buddy?"
Chell gulped, bracing herself against the observation room door, dizzied and somewhat awestruck. He'd really left. And somehow, she felt all right with it. Deep inside – or, perhaps, not so deep – she knew he was happier, knew everything was going to be just fine.
"You aren't going to cry?" GLaDOS jested from her speakers. "Aw, aren't you going to miss your boyfriend?"
Chell blushed, frowning. Whoever said anything about Orion being her boyfriend?
"Oh, don't get angry. He has a link back to us, you know. You can talk to him at any time, so rest assured you can continue your little long-distance relationship."
With a huff, she whipped around, making a less-than-polite hand gesture to three of GLaDOS's cameras. Presumably ignoring her, the AI went on:
"He's going to break your heart, you know. After all, there are plenty of other large, spherical, pale heavenly bodies out there. Ha ha."
Doug suddenly burst out in laughter, just as suddenly clamping his hands over his mouth as Chell glared daggers at him.
"Ack! N-no, wait! I wasn't laughing at the joke! She said-" He cut himself short, turning a nice shade of red. "It was...what she said. Excuse me!" He brushed quickly past her and down the hallway.
As it dawned on her, Chell's gray eyes went wide, and she also turned a lovely shade of bright pink.