Nora and Kurt had gone pretty far down into the facility. Nora was convinced that they were lost and was giving up hope when Kurt asked if they could stop for a bit.
"I just need to stretch my legs," he said. "They're gettin' stiff."
"Sure, go ahead," Nora said.
Kurt detached himself from the management rail and dropped down to the floor. He cried out as he fell flat on his face. Nora gasped.
"I'm fine!" Kurt said. "Just been awhile since I used my legs to stand on."
Suddenly, a booming voice came up from under them. Then the floor beneath Kurt's spindly legs shook as something heavy fell to the ground on the level below them.
"Welcome, gentlemen," said the booming voice, "to Aperture Science. Astronauts, war heroes, Olympians: you're here because we want the best and you are it. So, who's ready to make some science?"
"I am!" said a woman's voice. She sounded young, pretty, and lively. The first voice introduced himself as Cave Johnson and presented the young woman as Caroline.
"Caroline?" Nora mused.
"It's just a prerecorded message," Kurt said, looking up at Nora. "Caroline has passed away by now. I remember her before what they did to her."
"You do?"
"Oh, yeah. She wasn't quite so pretty in her later years but she was a sweetheart. She was even kind to the cores."
"She sounds lovely."
"I wonder why that recording is going off," Kurt said. "The power down here hasn't been on for decades."
"How do you know so much about these sorts of things?" Nora asked.
"I was programmed to instruct humans on how parts of the facility work. I kinda learned about the older bits as a hobby. I'm sort of a history buff."
"Oh. Wait, then who turned on the power? Wheatley?"
"No way! I don't think there's any way he could reach all the way down here. And why would he want the power on down here anyway?"
"Then who…." It took Nora a second to realize who it was. "The lady! It must be her! I'm surprised she made it all the way down here!"
"I hope that little lady has an Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device," Kurt said. "She'll need it if she plans to go through the testing."
"Testing?"
"Yeah, judging by the prerecorded message, it sounds like she's in the lobby for the astro-nauts and ath-a-letes and such."
"I hope she was able to hold onto it," Nora said quietly. "She had it when she fell down the hole."
"Did she have on her Long Fall Boots?"
Nora nodded.
"Oh, she'll do dandy!" Kurt declared confidently.
"She's very smart, anyway," Nora chimed in. "Would you like to lead the way to the testing area?"
"Ma'am, I would be honored."
Kurt scuttled along the floor ahead and Nora followed. Kurt led her around for a long time until he finally stopped at a testing sphere and said, "I don't exactly know how to get into one of these."
"What do you mean?" Nora asked, concerned.
"Well, they're not really designed for a core to get inside. Cores were only a concept at the time so they never designed a way for a core to enter the spheres."
"Well, what do we do?" Nora asked.
"All we can do for now is follow Cave Johnson's voice. There are a lot of chambers, though, so we could be following her on the outside for quite a while."
This troubled Nora. What if the lady needed help? "Is there really nothing else we can do?"
"Nothing I can think of at hand, Miss," Kurt said apologetically.