Part I: How it Started
Chapter Thirteen

Chelsea sat up on her crate. "Wow. That's a really unusual way for one's life to play out."

Wheatley looked over at her. "How do you mean?"

"Changing moving plans because of an airplane fire, being hired on the spot by someone after being found uninvited in their establishment, doing multiple lines of work in different fields of expertise,... that's a lot to take in."

First Officer Grison smoothed out the inside of his pants pocket. "Yeah. I'm surprised he actually got on another plane after escaping that fire. Which would beg the question why he didn't board a ship or something."

Wheatley polished his glasses. "It's just that I'd read about the Titanic growing up, and it's made me never want to set foot near a harbour."

Victor stretched his legs out. "And that was enough to make you book a flight to a different place instead of trying different means of transportation to Australia?"

"The flight from London to Toronto was a direct flight, with no stops in between, as opposed to the flight from London to Sydney having stops in Zurich and Singapore."

Captain Murphy rubbed his eye. "With the time it'd take to travel by train and/or boat or something, you could've thought out an arrival plan for Australia or Canada."

"I'm a man with a tendency to lose track of thoughts that aren't at the forefront of my mind."

Chelsea changed the subject. "I still don't get how you could've done so many fields of work beyond construction."

Sam shrugged. "Well, given that Aperture employed mainly people with incomplete college education (if any at all), they do possess the capacity to do work outside of their primary studies."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

A flight attendant responded. "You wouldn't expect a plastic surgeon to know how to repair a bus engine, would you?"

"I guess not."

GLaDOS let off an inaudible yawn. "A human brain has a relatively small storage capacity for knowledge and memories, and therefore tend to concentrate their expertise in one particular area. However, they can possess bare-bones understanding in several areas under certain conditions."

Victor nodded. "Yeah. Though I can't really say where my dad would be on that spectrum."

"At some point in their lives, one in six children will be abducted by the Dutch."

A handful of awkward stares were cast upon Walter, and Wheatley called the spotlight back to himself.

"Right. Let's continue with the storytelling, shall we?"

Rick flashed a smile. "Go for it, Wheaters."

"Okay..."