I'm so sorry for how long it took me to write this, I was lacking in motivation this week. Anyway, here it is.
Chapter 6
The elevator began ascending. The trip back to the main chamber was going to take a good five minutes and the elevator - which was designed for just a single human test subject (in true Aperture fashion) - was jam packed. Chell and GLaDOS stood less than a foot apart, facing each other as they had done on the way down, but this time they had a 3rd, non-living passenger too. The deceased mantis man.
The creature was propped against the wall facing the human and the android. GLaDOS was using her working arm to keep the thing against the glass and not falling over onto herself and Chell.
"What happened to your arm out there?" the woman asked.
"It was lacerated by mantis forceps down to the wires which is why it is currently not functioning"
Chell raised an eyebrow."You mean one of the maitis hacked through the silicone with its giant pincer?"
"In layman's terms, yes." GLaDOS answered.
"Can it be fixed?" the woman quizzed.
"You seem to care a lot for someone who murdered me once and then put me into a potato and fed me to birds."
"Ok, first of all, I did not put you into the potato, that was Wheatley. And second, I did not feed you to birds, the bird carried you away when we fell into old Aperture."
"Well, as I recall, you pressed that button, and you let that bird carry me off. Therefore, you tried to kill me twice." the android said pointedly.
"Can we drop the whole 'you killed me' thing? It's getting old." Chell crossed her arms.
"Oh? I see how it is. I'll drop the 'whole you killed me thing' if you drop the whole 'you tried to kill me' thing. Perhap an apology is in order." GLaDOS looked expectantly down at Chell.
The former test subject looked offended. "You want me to apologize? If anyone should be apologizing, it's you. I was always acting on self-defense. The other option was fall into an acid pit, get shot to death by turrets, or be killed with deadly neurotoxin!"
"Oh please, you don't have to go and make things so complicated. Just say 'sorry' and maybe we can put all of that behind us."
Chell rolled her eyes. "For science, I'm guessing?
"Yes. For science." GLaDOS agreed.
Chell thought for a moment about what she had seen on the surface. There had been no signs of human life. If she wanted the company of another intelligent lifeform, it seemed that making peace with the AI standing inches in front of her may be her only option. Afterall, if she didn't GLaDOS might kick her out again, kill her, or maybe even worse, throw endless passive aggressive snark at her for the rest of her '60 years.'
She let out a big sigh. "Fine. I'm sorry I killed you."
"And?"
Chell glared. "And put you in a potato."
GLaDOS smiled. "And?"
Chell rolled her eyes. "And fed you to birds."
"Apology accepted."
"It's your turn, you know." the human pointed out.
"I will not apologize to you because I was doing my job; furthering science with testing."
"You can do that without attempting to kill me."
GLaDOS said nothing and the rest of the ride in the elevator was both silent and incredibly awkward.
Finally, a few minutes later, the elevator made it to the main chamber. Chell stepped out first, and then GLaDOS, dragging the mantis behind her. The mantis body was temporarily left strewn on the floor as GLaDOS went to the core transfer receptacle. Chell just watched the whole thing thinking it was best to let the AI speak first.
The cheerful male announcer voice rang out over the speakers in the chamber; "Genetic lifeform and disk operating system, are you ready for core transfer?"
"Yes." GLaDOS answered.
"Core transfer in process. Do not move from Aperture Science Core Transfer Receptacle." GLaDOS gently shut the optics on her android body, and the next thing she knew, she was back in the chassis. The single optic glowed to life.
Though she didn't say so out loud, Chell was awestruck by GLaDOS' ability to transfer her consciousness between 2 different bodies. Watching it in action was rather amazing.
Tiny robotic arms appeared from the core transfer receptacle and got to work fixing the arm on the android body. It all looked like a blur to Chell, but before she knew it, the arms had finished their work, and the GLaDOS' arm looked good as new.
The woman sat down criss-cross style on the floor with her elbows resting on her knees and her chin resting in her hands casually watching the supercomputer do what she assumed were tasks that needed attention around the facility to keep it running and not exploding that she couldn't do in her android body. The screens in the chamber flickered to life revealing various test chambers which were of course overrun with the oversized insects. There were various beeping and booping sounds as GLaDOS did what was necessary to keep Aperture Science in working condition.
10 or so minutes later, the announcer came on again asking the same question. Before Chell knew it, 2 yellow android optics opened again and the robot walked out of the core transfer receptacle flexing her newly repaired arm, making sure it was indeed working.
The woman perked up as GLaDOS strode towards her. "I'm sorry for trying to kill you." She offered a hand to help Chell get up. "Now, what do you say? Shall we do some science?"
Chell smiled. "Thank you. Are we analyzing the mantis?"
"Yes we are." GLaDOS answered. "We're going to extract some deoxyribonucleic acid from the creature's cells.
The android first put on some black gloves -which Chell thought was rather unnecessary considering her hands were made of silicone - and then picked a scalpel off the lab table next to the examination table with the lifeless mantis and sliced into its chest. Next, she scooped out some of the creature's guts and put them into a blender.
"Why on earth are we using a blender?" Chell questioned. And what is one doing on your lab table to begin with?
"This will separate the cells so that DNA can be extracted." GLaDOS turned on the blender and green mantis goo and organs spun round and round into a gel like consistency. Then, She poured some of it into a test tube which already contained a clear solution. "This is a sodium solution which. Positively charged sodium ions will attract the negatively charged phosphate ions of the DNA backbone."
Chell yawned and GLaDOS noticed that the woman was staring off into space. There is no yawning in science," the AI crossed her arms.
"What? Oh sorry, you got a little too sciency for me to understand."
"There is no such thing as too scientific. Pay attention unless you'd rather I send you on a far less pleasant errand that would involve dealing with hordes of mantis. Where was I? Oh yes, the detergent. This will break down the lipids in the cell membrane."
The science lesson went on with Chell pretending to pay attention while she was really just daydreaming about this and that, remembering what life was like before she became a test subject, fell asleep for possibly thousands of years and awoke to being quite possibly the last of her species…
Eventually, GLaDOS asked the woman to grab the DNA precipitate with a pair of tweezers and place it onto a slide. The slide, much to Chell's surprise, was inserted into GLaDOS' forehead through a slot under her bands which remained closed and concealed most of the time. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You just casually jammed something into your head!"
"I was built to do science. Analyzing DNA samples is an important scientific activity." The android went into a stiff position, arms at her sides, head looking slightly upward, optics glowing yellow and unblinking. "Oh this is very interesting. Very interesting indeed…"
"What is it?" Chell tilted her head inquisitively.
"It appears that these mantis have terrible vision and smelling capabilities. Additionally, they are far less intelligent than humans. Their hearing, however, is excellent. In theory, we just need some sort of disguise, to blend into the background and we could feasibly sneak past those morons and do more research…"
"What if we hid inside hollowed out cubes?" Chell offered.
GLaDOS snapped out of her very scientific trance. "That's a pretty good idea," the human's face lit up - this was the highest praise she had ever received from the supercomputer. Of course, the AI wouldn't let her former test subject stay that pleased. "For an orphan, of course" she added. Chell's face fell into an expression of irritation again.
A panel turned around revealing a pipe from Aperture Science's extensive pipe network and out popped two weighted cubes. "They will be easy to hollow out." GLaDOS gently twisted the round center part of a cube and it popped off. Sand poured out of the hole in the cube.
Chell's jaw dropped. "Wait, those things were weighted with sand this whole time?"
"What did you expect, diamonds? Aperture Science couldn't afford seven dollars worth of moonrocks, much less seven million. We bought them anyway."
Thanks again for reading, the next chapter will be much more exciting!