At first, Kate wasn't sure of what she should do. Although it made perfect sense that no lights would be on in this place in hindsight, Kate had thought there would at least be something to illuminate the area. An indicator light on a fuse box, maybe, or a light switch within easy reach. Perhaps even an old flashlight could be conveniently sitting on an empty chair. But Kate shouldn't have expected convenience because the room was completely dark, and Kate couldn't see anything at all.
After standing in the dark for a minute, Kate realized that she could use the Portal Device to aid her sight. So she began tentatively firing the portal gun in front of her.
As the bolts of quantum energy flew through the air, the light radiating off temporarily illuminated Kate's surroundings.
Kate realized she was in a somewhat short hallway, with a ceiling not too far above her head. She could barely make out the silhouette of some exposed plumbing pipes running along the wall to her left. To her right, there was a small wooden crate, empty.
After firing the device a few more times at the floor (which was diamond-plated metal flooring, unable to conduct portals), She began to walk towards the end of the short hallway carefully. The hallway turned to the right, and around the corner, She could see a circuit breaker box with its panel ajar, to her relief. So, with a couple more flashes from the portal gun, Kate found the fuse labeled "Hallway towards Misc. Science" and flipped it to the on position. The lights in the hallway flickered on, revealing the area. Within a few footsteps in either direction, Kate found two doors. One, labeled "Control Room," was welded shut- an old notice was taped to the door, which read: "Experiment Discontinued." Below the text was a pictogram of a geodesic sphere with cement being poured into it- a graphic that Aperture had used to indicate a condemned testing area for more than thirty years. Neither Kate nor her colleagues understood the symbol's meaning, but they hadn't questioned it. Behind Kate, the other door was labeled "Superconductor," along with several small stickers warning about electrical exposure hazards and radio waves. She wasn't keen on entering a condemned experiment room that apparently involved massive amounts of electricity whenever it was in use, but Kate didn't have any other way forward. Unfortunately, the door remained locked after trying her employee ID on the keypad in vain. Kate gave a frustrated sigh-
Oh, great. My only way out of here is the locked door into a who-knows-what godforsaken experiment from the 90s, and nobody is around to help. Super, Kate internally rambled.
Ironically, as if in reply to her thoughts, a voice unexpectedly spoke from the other side of the door.
"What- Hold on, did I- Is there somebody there!? Why? Th- That can't be right. Uh, hello! Hold on, I cant see you; let me get the door for you."
The voice sounded friendly enough, but Kate was quite surprised. It couldn't be a human being trapped here for the last decade, could it?
The keypad emitted a gentle "Beep." Then the lock disengaged. Kate opened the door and walked into the lab on the other side, which seemed to be an extremely dusty old control room for an enormous machine visible through a large broken window to her left. The room was unremarkably devoid of any human beings. For a moment, Kate was confused- where was the voice coming from? Then the voice spoke again- This time, it was much clearer. It seemed to be coming from a speaker in another room on the other side of the giant machine.
"Ah, dang it- I thought I might be able to Identify you from there, but it looks like the cameras are all rusted out... why wouldn't they be, though? That area has been locked down for a while, hasn't it? I...might need to update my schematics again."
The voice was that of a young adult man, possibly in his mid-twenties. He spoke with a typical midwestern accent, slightly unsure of himself. Kate wondered why he kept asking things with a curious tone and had a question of her own -
Who are you?
But kate wasn't able to ask.
Unfortunately, in a rare occurrence some time ago, Kate's voicebox was injured when she stepped through a Material Emancipation Grid. Most Aperture personnel often referred to the Material Emancipation Grids as "fizzlers" because they served one particular purpose: to "fizzle" any unauthorized equipment passing through the electric-blue particle field produced from the emitters at either side. This is to say, if something wasn't allowed into an area, it was indeed about to cease existence as well- disintegrated into a fine powder at best. Unfortunately for Kate, the fizzlers weren't perfect. Although it was somewhat rare for the fizzlers to mistakenly identify parts of the human body as equipment that wasn't authorized in the area, it occasionally did happen, which resulted in Kate permanently losing her voice. After her recovery, she had to learn sign language and often found herself writing messages to her colleagues on whiteboards or notebook paper whenever she couldn't communicate directly.
In the present, Kate's thoughts were interrupted by the unfamiliar voice.
"Alrighty, so... I don't know how you got into that place or how you might have survived this long, but I might be able to help you out. But you will have to find a way to get in front of a working security camera. Is that alright?"
Kate nodded in vain.
"...hello? Hmm, maybe you can't hear me..? wait- why can't I hear you?"
Kate smirked. How will I tell this guy I am mute if he is blind?
'Mr. Curios' spoke once more:
"..I guess the microphones aren't working either... Okay, so. If you are in the room I am 90% sure you are in, You should see a sizable machine through the observation window. I would like you to try breaking the window, and if you have a Hand-held Portal device with you, Please use it to enter the room on the other side of the machine. If you don't have one, though..uh... I'm gonna have to figure something else out."
Whoever this voice was, Kate felt that he genuinely wanted to help her, although she wasn't sure why. She remained cautious.
Kate aimed the portal gun through the already-broken observation window. She landed a portal on a wall inside the room opposite the mysterious machine, which was illuminated only by an ominous red light somewhere inside its chamber. She placed another portal on the grimy wall beside her and walked through to the other side.
Inside the other room, a reclined chair faced the ominous machine in the dark room beside it. Behind the chair, a large device was recessed into the wall that resembled a satellite dish. Kate could see a similar large satellite dish affixed to the giant machine, and she got the uneasy feeling that she knew what this was for.
There had been rumors that, in the early years of Aperture, there had been an experiment where subjects had to sit in front of a superconductor machine while it was aimed at them and turned up full-blast, forced to endure the pain. Furthermore, the highly unethical test was revisited in the early 90s when one of Aperture's scientists envisioned a new design for the equipment- the result of the test was kept highly secretive by all those involved, which made the entire story even scarier to think about.
Kate shuddered at the horrible realization that she was standing in front of that machine, and she was now even more eager to find an exit. The speaker on the wall emitted another sentence from the nameless voice:
"Okay; I think you might be in the test room now. I'm picking up some very slight electrical interference on the receiver dish. Is that a hand-held portal device? Is that what you used? ..I hope so cause I think You might need it again soon."
