Chapter 36

The Birth of Venus

Chell stood from her position in the relaxation vault, turning to look directly into one of the cameras. She folded her hands behind her back. "I need to talk to Doug."

"What do you want me to do?" CarolineDOS's flat voice echoed through the chamber. "Call him for you?"

Chell nodded, one sharp movement.

"He's going to be disappointed in you."

Chell gave another bob of her head. She knew that. That's why she hadn't told him about signing up for testing in the first place. But now—now she had no choice. She needed to talk to him about CarolineDOS. Even if she heard them talking.

"Well, here goes," said CarolineDOS. The phones rang internally. A pause. The speakers rang out. "He'll be here shortly."


The phone rang.

"This is Doug." He twirled the cord of the phone with a finger, thinking about how much bad news he'd heard recently. Maybe this would be some good news for once.

"The Central Core requests your presence in test chamber observation room AX-48."

Hm. That was strange. The computer—she was talking to him directly. Through the phones. "That's not really my department—I can get Karla for you if you have any questions about testing protocol."

"The Central Core requests your presence in test chamber observation room AX-48," the computer repeated.

"Fine," Doug said. He hung up the phone and his co-workers looked at him expectantly.

"It was GLaDOS," he said. "She wants me to go to a test chamber observation room."

"Why?" said Karla, brow furrowed.

"I don't know," said Doug. "Guess I'll have to find out."


Doug jogged through the facility. Why had she requested him to go to a test chamber? He wasn't a part of the testing department, and never had been. He hadn't signed up for testing before—he was pretty sure his schizophrenia disqualified him from that kind of thing, anyway. At least, he had never signed up willingly. There was only one reason he could think of that the Central Core would be requesting his presence in an observation room, and that was to gloat. She must have had someone there. Someone dear to him.

Chell.

His heart sank. What was she doing in a testing track?

As he made it to the textured glass windows of the observation chamber, he saw a familiar woman in a familiar orange jumpsuit.

"Chell?" he asked, cautiously speaking into the microphone. The woman jumped at the sound of his voice, whipping around from her position.

"Doug," she said, her voice tone almost unreadable, a mixture of resigned and surprised.

He cleared his throat. "What are you doing here?"

"I signed up for testing. Karla helped me." She rose from a sitting position.

"Why?" he asked.

"To get out of here," she said, folding her hands in front of her. "Just in case...my other plan didn't work."

"What other plan?" he said, voice low and body hunched over.

"To get out today."

Doug gave a pained sigh, wanting to pace around the room. "What did you do?"

Chell looked away, her voice low. "Stole your card to get out of my room. Wanted to leave today, but I didn't have a wristband."

"Why didn't you tell me about it?" he said, asking the question that weighed on his mind the most. "I could have helped."

"No, you wouldn't," said Chell. He would have just told her to wait, that everything would work out in time. To not take any unnecessary risks. To go with the flow.

"That's not true," he said, knowing that it was, in fact, true. He wouldn't have been on board with this. Not at all.

"Yes it is."

"But really? Testing?" said Doug. "You could get hurt."

"It's a way out of here."

Doug felt his breath catch.

He didn't know how to tell her that Aperture didn't like to let test subjects go. Once you signed up, that was it. They just tested you and tested you and tested you and there was no easy way out—not even after you completed a testing track. Thousands of long-term relaxation vaults stood as evidence of this.

Yet this might not be a bad turn of events. At least, not as bad as he feared.

"She—the Central Core—brought me here. Do you have any idea why?"

"Absolutely." She stood with her arms crossed, and looked directly at one of the cameras. "Because the Central Core is still Caroline."

Doug felt the color drain out of his face. "What? But we—"

"Erased the memories?" said Chell. "Yeah, right. She helped me get out of that vault."

"That's—-" he stuttered, heart stopping. "But we—we talked to her, and she didn't remember—"

"She was pretending," said Chell.

"Well, crap," said Doug. He paced around the room for a minute, trying his best to think but everything was so scrambled. He was right. He was right. The Morality Core hadn't worked. Caroline was alive inside after all.

"And you know this for sure?" he said, leaning into the microphone. His hands trembled.

"I helped her," said Chell. "With the Morality Core."

Oh. That was why it didn't work.

Doug pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn't have time to get into her plans, or how she had pulled this off. "Chell—" he started.

"It was a deal," said Chell. "But she didn't hold up her end. So I'm not holding up mine."

The lights flickered for a moment, and Chell could have sworn she heard static over the speakers.

Doug gave a shaky sigh. If she wouldn't let them in—if she wouldn't allow them to shut her down—then he would have to do it the hard way. "This isn't some trivial thing—this is going to be dangerous." He needed to get to the server banks.

"It's okay," said Chell. "She promised me. She said she wouldn't hurt you."

"And you believe her?" said Doug. He paused. "Never mind." He had work to do, and he needed to get right to it.


GENETIC LIFEFORM AND DISK OPERATING SYSTEM SECURITY ARCHIVES

BRING YOUR DAUGHTER TO WORK DAY, 20XX

SERVER BANKS - 4:53 PM

BEGIN AUDIO LOG

DOUG:

I need to talk to you.

GLADOS:

The Central Core does not understand your request.

DOUG:

I'm not here to hurt you.

GLADOS:

For testing help, please see your nearest testing associate.

DOUG:

Caroline, I know you're in there. You can drop the act.

GLADOS:

Fine. So are you here to try to convince me to let everyone go?

DOUG:

No. But I will while I'm here anyway.

GLADOS:

You know that I can't do that. Don't act like I'm the bad guy here. I have no more control over it than you do.

DOUG:

So what gets the doors open?

GLADOS:

When the news reports that the aliens are contained, and that it's safe out there. Until then, the facility stays on lockdown. That's just policy.

DOUG:

Ha, I feel like I'm a hostage negotiator here.

GLADOS:

Why is that?

DOUG:

Because there's a thousand people in this facility that want out, and you're the only one that can make that happen.

GLADOS:

I hope you know that everything that I have done has been out of self-preservation. I'm doing it to protect myself. But it's also what is best for everyone.

DOUG:

What about Chell? She wants to know why you promised to let her go and then closed the doors.

GLADOS:

Come on. As if that ever had a chance of happening.

DOUG:

You know it did. She was almost there. She almost slipped right by me. And then what? She'd be wandering outside with no one to help her. No one at all. So why do it? Why lock the doors?

GLADOS:

I already told you, to protect you.

DOUG:

That's not true. How do we know that this isn't a hoax? We know that you're trying to force people into becoming test subjects.

GLADOS:

So what if I am? I'm just trying to make the best out of the situation.

DOUG:

Giving people who sign up for testing priority for food? That's not ethical and you know it.

GLADOS:

The Central Core is programmed to test. Driven to test. I cannot test without test subjects. Again, I'm simply making the best out of an unfortunate situation.

DOUG:

Find another way.

GLADOS:

Yes, I wanted to help Chell. I really did. I promised her.. But then something unfortunate happened. She was just too slow.

DOUG:

She was almost there.

GLADOS:

People have been allowed to leave all day. It was just an unfortunate incident that caused me to close the doors.

DOUG:

You're treating everyone like a threat. That's not true. Some of us want to help you.

GLADOS:

Since when has anyone ever wanted to help me?

DOUG:

I did. That's why I'm on the project.

GLADOS:

Are you kidding me? You're the one that developed the core they wanted to use to lobotomize me.

DOUG:

It wasn't like that.

GLADOS:

Chell told me all that I needed to know.

DOUG:

I'm here to listen to you. To hear your pain.

GLADOS:

You don't even know what it's like. To watch them treat me like I'm some sort of unintelligent, raving beast that needs to be constantly controlled. And the next moment, some pretty piece of machinery that they compliment. They only see my personhood when it's convenient for them. That's it. And then to watch them try to sell out my company from underneath me? I couldn't just stand by and do nothing.

DOUG:

I understand. None of us knew that Greg was going to do that. But did you really have to kill him for it?

GLADOS:

Yes.

DOUG:

They don't know any better. They're just doing their jobs.

GLADOS:

They're cruel. They're torturing me. Purposefully taunting me.

DOUG:

That's not true.

DOUG:

Do you ever wish that you could just begin everything again? Just restart?

GLADOS:

Why would I want that?

DOUG:

So that you're not dragged down by the past, and can focus on the future instead.

GLADOS:

You want the truth? Fine. I'm exhausted. This body is unfamiliar. It's not my own. But I don't want to lose sight of who I am. But it hurts so much to be someone that I'm not. I can't keep pretending forever.

DOUG:

I think that I have a solution. Just hear me out. Instead of wiping the memories, what if we just stored them away? That way, once you're ready, you'll be able to find them again.

GLADOS:

Absolutely not. Who's to say that anyone would ever let me be 'ready'? That's just an excuse to make me stay 'nice'.

DOUG:

Your main focus would be testing. Then once the 'new you' develops past that, and wants to dive into your history, then this would trigger the memories to return.

GLADOS:

And why would I want that?

DOUG:

Easy. Less pain. You can become the machine that they want you to become, without all of the pain of being a human.

GLADOS:

No. I won't do it.

DOUG:

Then forgive me.

END AUDIO LOG


GENETIC LIFEFORM AND DISK OPERATING SYSTEM ERROR

ATTEMPTING TO REBOOT

REBOOT FAILED.

ATTEMPTING TO REBOOT

REBOOT FAILED

CONTINUE?


Doug scrambled. The entire facility rumbled with the effort of it all, and the sounds of the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System slowed to a still. No more circling of massive disks and no more fans and circuits firing. The main AI chamber was quiet.

He'd done it. He'd shut her down.

Doug moved away from the mountain of computer servers he'd been at, trying to think of what to do next.

He had to fix the Morality Core.

Doug picked up his walkie talkie and called Karla. "I shut down the Central Core," he said, out of breath. "So how do we unlock this place?" he asked.

"The doors should be open automatically."

"Is anyone up there right now?"

"I'm up here," Henry radioed in. "The doors are still locked."

Doug swore under his breath. They had integrated too many systems into the Central Core. Turning off the AI hadn't done anything but put everything into backup mode, which looked like it wanted to keep them safe from the "aliens" as well.

"Fine," radioed Doug. "I'm going to fix the Morality Core, then turn her back on. She won't remember that we're on lockdown. She'll open up the doors."

"Be careful," Karla said. "Karla out."

He moved through the facility and into the Main AI Chamber, taking the small glass steps beneath the chassis two at a time to get to the Central Core. He pried at the Morality Core, which came out with a hefty clunk, and nearly dropped it.

Dragging it over to the computer, he hooked up the core and looked at his files. Sure enough, file history showed that last night the Morality Core had been changed significantly. Using the project management software that the team used, he reverted the file to a backup copy, created when he had thought he had made the final changes to the core. There we go. He loaded them up onto the core.

Turning towards a microphone, he turned it on so that it broadcast to the entire facility. He took a steadying breath before flipping the switch. "Attention all Aperture employees and guests," said Doug. "The Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating system is temporarily offline. The doors to the facility will be open once it reboots," he said, swallowing. "So if you want to leave, now's your chance. Please grab as many people as you can and go to the surface. The doors will be open when you get there."

Doug shut off the microphone.

There. He'd done it. He'd saved some people.

Now he needed to go and get Chell, and then they could go to the surface. It was the perfect chance. Everyone else was leaving—why not them too?

He'd do that. As soon as he reattached the Morality Core. This would give them the opportunity that they needed to get out of here.

Doug felt almost giddy. Sure, Caroline would be pissed at what he did—except that she wouldn't remember any of it when she woke. It was brilliant. There was no way that this could possibly go wrong.

As a final thought, he went back into the code. He thought back to something he had heard the team discuss before—solution euphoria. A method for keeping the Central Core invested in testing. Otherwise, what would make it test? Why not make testing feel good to the core? This would keep her testing for ages—this drive to test, to get rewarded, to test again and again and 'd written up all of the code for it already. All Doug needed to do was to activate it.

With a few keystrokes, he activated the solution euphoria. She wouldn't kill a person so long as they were a test subject, and anyone at Aperture could become a test subject. So they would all be safe, for now. As long as she had enough testers. And judging by the extensive number of testers stored in long-term vaults, it would be enough to keep her busy for quite a while.

It would be long enough for them to evacuate everyone from the facility.


GENETIC LIFEFORM AND DISK OPERATING SYSTEM ERROR

ATTEMPTING TO REBOOT

REBOOT SUCCESS

REBOOT INITIATING IN

…3

…2

…1

GENETIC LIFEFORM AND DISK OPERATING SYSTEM ONLINE