Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.

The Black Mesa Incident

Chapter Four: Insecurity

Barney sighed as he saw Gordon's tram go around the corner. He returned his attention to the door. He waited for a few seconds with his ear to the locked entrance before he resumed slamming his fist on it. Since all the doors in the Black Mesa facility were made of reinforced materials that Barney couldn't even begin to understand, normal knocking wasn't likely to catch anyone's attention soon.

He tried once again to get the laser scanner next to the door to recognise his pass ID badge.

No response.

With a low growl, Barney kicked the door. He jumped when a muffled voice came from the other side.

"Hold on a minute. The door's not recognising your pass ID. Let me see if I can get it open on this side."

He recognised the voice as Richards. Beeping came from the other side as he tried to open the doors. With a smile, Barney banged on the door again a few times.

Richards seemed oblivious to the noise. "Okay. I think I got it."

The door slid open obligingly, and Barney stepped through, a 'what the hell is going on?' ready on his lips. Richards sighed out a weary explanation before he had the chance.

"Sorry about that, Calhoun. The whole facility's been having trouble this mornin'. System crashes, equipment failures… it's a wonder the whole place hasn't shut down yet."

Barney tilted his head to the side. "Long shift?"

The security guard nodded and rubbed his eyes. "These things've been drivin' us crazy down here. And that's not to mention how… nicely the big brains are takin' it."

"Oh, well as long as they're blaming it on the right people."

Richards nodded and smiled wryly. "Oh yeah. They can't get their coffee with two sugars from the dispenser, so obviously it's a security problem."

Barney shrugged sympathetically. "Hey, your shift can only last so long, right?"

"Right. Some of the guys are goin' to Benicia's tonight. You interested?"

"Count me in."

"As long as you're not buyin', of course."

"You know me all too well, buddy. See ya later."

He gave a quick salute and went on his way down the stairs, following the colour coded directions on the wall to the main security foyer. The doors slid open obligingly as he reached them, and he looked around at the unusually sparse room with a cocked eyebrow. Barney walked to the front desk where his supervisor Burton was tapping away at his computer.

Burton glanced over at him out of the corner of his eye. "Hey," he said, keeping his eyes firmly locked on the monitor in front of him, "nice of you to show up this morning, Calhoun."

Barney opened his mouth to protest, but Burton beat him to the punch.

"I know, I know… trouble with the access system. We've been experiencing problems all over the facility." He tapped in a few more commands before looking over at Barney. "I hope you're ready for a long shift."

"Cheerful as always, I see," Barney muttered as he headed off, increasing his pace when he heard Burton's chair swivel menacingly.

As he continued on his way to the locker room, Barney noted that it wasn't very busy; hardly surprising, considering how late everyone had been made by the electrical glitches and crashes all around the facility.

But that didn't make it any less strange to see it empty.

The door to the locker room slid open without protest, and Barney made his way to his locker, hoping that Reynolds, the resident prankster of his security unit, hadn't put some kind of surprise in his locker. Hopefully he would have his hands as full as everyone else in the facility.

He punched in his code and wrapped his hand around the locker's handle. His eyes firmly shut, he opened the door, expecting anything from rotten eggs to feathers to shoot out at him.

Nothing.

One eye opened, then the other. His locker was refreshingly prank free.

Of course, it wasn't as if Barney was the poor, defenceless victim. Truth be told, he had pranked perhaps more people than even Reynolds, the butt of his jokes usually being Gordon. But the bespectacled scientist would always smile and easily shrug it off, which just seemed to invite even more attempts. But Gordon was a slippery devil, and only the most accomplished pranksters could catch him without becoming the victim of some horrible practical joke themselves.

Still feeling slightly wary, Barney checked over his locker's contents. The two books on the top shelf, 'The Truth about Aliens' and 'Government Conspiracies', were both intact, although that didn't really surprise the security officer. Very few of his colleagues shared his interest in government conspiracies, and even less about extra terrestrials.

Some pictures of his girlfriend Lauren hung on the inside of the door, with a small note hastily scribbled beneath that read 'Buy flowers for Lauren'. He groaned and rubbed his eyes, remembering the somewhat fraught circumstances that had led him to the need to buy his girlfriend of several months some flowers. While it wouldn't buy her forgiveness totally, it would help him lead into the grovelling on his knees part of the equation.

And at the bottom of the locker lay a closed box that contained the source of the agitation; a stuffed toy called a 'Chumtoad'. Although Barney had never displayed any affection for the toys in the entire time he had been with Lauren, she seemed to think that he would like one, and had bought it for him.

That had been several months ago, and the toy had remained unpacked for all of the intervening time. And when Lauren had come by for a visit a few weeks ago, she had seen the Chumtoad neatly packed away in his locker and become… irritated.

Hence the need to buy flowers.

A sigh escaped his lips, and, after checking it for any hidden 'surprises', he put on his armoured vest. He grabbed his helmet and turned, kicking the locker shut behind him and waiting for the clicking sound of the locking mechanism as he headed back to the main area for his assignment. He plonked the helmet on his head and tied the chinstrap as he made his way out of the locker room and into the corridor.

He exchanged a nod with a passing scientist as he entered the foyer area, but he simply ignored him. Barney scowled and shook his head. Besides Gordon, Dr Vance and Dr Kleiner, all the scientists in the facility were… disagreeable, to say the least. So much so that a workplace relations officer had been called in to address the hostilities between the science and security divisions.

True, it had been a very amusing day for himself, but everyone else didn't seem to agree.

"Oh, now what…"

Barney's attention was brought back to Burton, who was now quite angrily tapping away at his computer. With a polite and serene smile, Barney leant against the desk.

"Problem, sir?"

His supervisor glared up at him. "Looks like some people are having some problems with the main access elevator in Sector G." He smiled. "Why don't you go over there and see what you can do?"

Barney's expression remained frozen. "Why, of course, sir. Why wouldn't I want to go all the way over to Sector G?"

"That's the spirit." He gave a little wave. "Have fun."

His supervisor returned to his typing, and Barney pushed off from the desk, knowing that if he remained any longer it would most likely lead to another of the many 'incidents' that he was well known for beginning when it concerned authority figures.

Dr Kleiner called it an attitude problem.

Gordon called it 'the experience that is being Barney Calhoun'.

Barney called it speaking his mind.

With a sigh and a shake of his head, he headed for the firing range to collect his sidearm.

There were actually people using the firing range, which surprised him. Considering how busy everyone he had seen so far seemed to be, it looked odd to see people just relaxing. Not that Barney considered target practise relaxing.

He walked to the firearm collection booth, where a blonde security guard was idly thumbing through a magazine. Barney only vaguely recognised her, but he had an idea in his head that her name was Jenny, but he didn't know why. She looked up at him, her blue eyes slightly dulled by the boredom of her post.

"How's it goin'?"

A dainty hand slothfully reached under the desk and out of Barney's sight, and emerged with a 9mm Beretta handgun.

"I know you're not scheduled on the range for another few days, Calhoun, but if you want to squeeze in a few shots…" she waved a dismissive thumb towards the observation window that led to the firing range. "…there's plenty of room."

Barney tried not to let his alarm register. Damn it! She knew his name. Why didn't he know who she was? They'd probably only met once. What was it with women knowing names?

"You okay Calhoun?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine… um… you."

Holstering his weapon, he turned on his heel and made his way out as quickly and inconspicuously as he could manage.

Which wasn't very much.

Barney continued on his way to the tram station for his sector, nodding to both security personnel and scientists as he went, although only getting any real response from the former.

The sheer scale of the Black Mesa facility still astounded Barney as he walked through it, seeing scientists busy at work on control panels of such varying degrees of complexity and importance it boggled his mind. With how much they had to occupy their minds with, Barney sometimes thought that it wasn't any wonder that scientists felt they were so above everyone else.

He stepped out onto the station platform and groaned when he saw no tram. It was a matter of course at the facility to always have a tram at every platform at any given time. However, with the recent computer and access system malfunctions, it wasn't really much of a surprise.

Barney heard the rustling of a newspaper being turned, and looked over at the bench beside him. An off duty scientist sat there looked up at him. "If you're waiting for the tram to sector G, you're probably better off walking it. I heard someone say that all the trams in this end of the facility are having problems."

The security officer sighed and nodded. "Okay. Thanks."

A sign on the other side of the platform read 'maintenance access', and Barney headed over to it, letting out another heavy sigh as he realised he would have to negotiate his way through part of the canal area. The slimy, slippery and smelly canal area.

He loved this job.

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Barney pushed the button to lower the bridge across the surprisingly loud miniature river beneath him.

A red light blinked on and off above the large button, and Barney looked down the tunnel and noticed a tram coming around the corner. He crossed his arms and impatiently waited for it to cross out of the way.

As it went by, Barney couldn't help but notice the sole occupant of the tram. A man with an unhealthily pale complexion and entirely too neat suit stood deadly still, his only movements to brush some dust from his jacket or to readjust his immaculately knotted tie. He seemed completely ignorant of Barney. All of the references to the 'men in black' from his government conspiracy books rushed back to him, and Barney desperately tried to get a better look at the man as the tram turned the corner and travelled out of his sight.

The red light turned to green, and, defeated, Barney pushed the button to allow the bridge to come down. Already wanting to sit back with a nice cold beer, the security officer continued on through a door and up several flights of stairs before coming out at the sector G tram station. He followed the colour coded directions on the wall to the waiting elevator, where a scientist was impatiently tapping his foot. Another scientist accompanied him, but he didn't seem too interested in what was going on.

"Well, it's about time. We don't pay you people to mosey about at your own convenience. Make this thing work so we can all get on with this miserable day."

And with that, he turned around to look out the thin view port of the elevator.

"Maybe you can kiss my ass," Barney muttered, looking at the control panel for the elevator.

"What did you say?" the haughty scientist gasped.

"I said 'maybe it's your security pass.'"

The scientist's bearded colleague chuckled, but quickly stopped under the glare that was shot his way.

Barney pushed a few buttons and inserted his ID card into the waiting slot. The panel beeped a few times, and the doors promptly closed.

"There. All better," he said, being as patronising as humanly possible.

The offending scientist just turned around to once again look out the view port as the elevator groaned to life and slowly began to descend.

The bearded scientist gave Barney an apologetic smile. "Don't mind Philips. He's always like this."

Barney frowned. "How the hell do you live with him?"

"I don't. I just work with him."

He grinned.

The elevator came to a halt, and the lights suddenly blinked out.

"Oh, no…" Philips muttered.

Barney pushed a few buttons on the control panel, but came up with nothing.

"It's probably those Anomalous Materials people again," Philips snorted derisively. "Pushing their equipment too hard, dabbling in who knows what… I'd be surprised if there's one good brain among them."

A wry smile crossed Barney's lips.

I might know one or two.

The elevator started up again, although the lights continued to flicker incessantly.

"There. Nothin' to worry about."

Philips didn't seem to believe him.

Once again, the elevator stopped.

And then continued on again.

And, then again, it came to a halt, this time leaving them overlooking a loading dock through the view port.

The lights then completely shut off, replaced by the red glow of the emergency lighting system. The overhead system came to life.

"Warning. Extreme electromagnetic field detected in Sector C."

Barney frowned. Gordon?

He looked over at Philips and saw a smug look on the scientists face. "What did I tell you? Sector C is Anomalous Materials. Those idiots. Who do-?"

The wall next to him exploded, sending shards of metal into and through him, throwing him violently across the elevator before he came to a stop on the floor, his body twisted and contorted horrifically.

Philips' companion fell back in fear. "My God!"

A strange noise assaulted Barney's ears, almost like a small explosion, and he turned to see an orb of green light appear before his very eyes on the dock. Just as suddenly, it vanished, replaced by a strange small creature that could only be described as a three legged eye. Two legs at the front and one at the back, it looked like some kind of horrific mix between a snake and a dog.

It was quickly joined by three more of its kind, and they all headed off to parts unknown, heading towards the tunnel through which supply trams would be driven.

A door beside them opened, and a security officer opened fire on them. They quickly turned and ran from the wildly firing officer.

He turned to look up the tram tunnel and waved his hands frantically. Barney heard him yell before he leapt to the side as a tram crashed through, derailing as it came out of the tunnel and flying through the air, tossing its several passengers across the dock and into the walls. Some were crushed by falling debris, while others were killed upon impact.

Barney ached to get out and help. A whimper from behind him reminded him of his duty, and he headed back over to Philips' companion, who was now huddled in the corner of the elevator, well and truly horrified by what had happened to his friend.

Barney wasn't too crazy about it either, but he had to get them out of the elevator; he had no idea how long it would be before-

A series of small explosions above them rocked the elevator, and Barney heard the sound of metal groaning against metal.

A slow, ominous creak echoed down the shaft.

He closed his eyes.

"Shit…"

A loud snap rang in his ears, and the elevator plummeted. All light blurred as they fell faster and faster. Barney looked up at the roof to see if there was a vent. He smiled desperately as he spotted his quarry. He grabbed the scientist by the arm.

"C'mon, we've gotta-"

The elevator crashed to the ground, the impact crushing and compressing it into half its size.

The alarms rang on.

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(A/N: Folks, while I appreciate the sentiment, no more telling me that I'm 'overdue' for an update, okay? There's encouragement and there's encouragement, you know what I mean?

Mark my words, I will finish this story. You have my solemn promise on whatever deity you please. Just don't expect it to happen overnight. ; )

That said, keep them reviews coming!

Next Chapter: Unforeseen Consequences)