The room was dark. Everything was pitch black. There was only darkness, and, for the most part, silence. Not unless you counted the causal squawks from a family of crows nearby. But, for the most part, everything was silent.
The Cyro-Room started to move, very quickly. It crashed into many different rooms, some consisting offices, others labratories, and even some test rooms. The debris and movement of the room wasn't enough to damage the other Cyro-Chambers in the room, but it did do enough on one Cyro-Chamber, which was loose on some bolts that were no longer attached to the floor. It wasn't until the whole Cyro-Chamber fell out of the moving room, and continued to fall into the endless parts of the abandoned Aperture Labratories.
The Cyro-Chamber kept falling, and it was not until 56 floors underneath from where it came from, that it crashed onto 4 other floors before landing in a very old and abandoned office room. The Cyro-Chamber left a dent of the floor, and if that wasn't enough, there was a blinking red light coming out of it, indicating that it took damage from the fall, and that they are not as "bomb proof" as Wheatley described to Her while convincing Her to move the Cyro-Chamber room up to the surface.
"Hello?" said a voice. "I'm different..."
0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0
A very, very, long time ago
"Hey, Sister!" Shouted a voice. "Come look at the stars with me!"
"Okay Big Brother!" Said a younger voice. "I'm coming!"
12 year old Nina ran across the wheat field, to meet up with her older brother up the hill. It was nighttime outside, and it was very dark. Just the way Nina liked it. "Tonight's a perfect night to see some stars!" She said as she picked up the telescope from the ground. "Yup!" Said her older brother. He took the telescope from his sister's hands to adjust the lens. As he did, though, the gears screached, indicating the damage done to it from accidentally being left out in the rain the night before. "I'll go get the oil can," he said as he left the hill.
Nina sighed. She shouldn't have forgotten the telescope out in the rain. After all, it was the most precious thing that both the siblings own. It was really important to her bother, since it was the last thing that he ever received from their mother and father before they died during a house robbery. Her brother, being 15 at that time, took 2 year old Nina away from the house. He ran off with her, far and wide for hours before finding an abandoned dump in the middle of a clearing of a wheat field. Weak, with little to no food, her brother took good care of Nina. Ruining the telescope would be the last thing that Nina would want for her brother, after everything he has been through to take care of her for 10 years.
"Okay, I got it!" Said her brother, snapping Nina out of her thought. "Great!" She said. "Now we can be able to see them! " She watched as her older brother dipped the nozzle twice into the telescope's gears, conserving the last of the oil, until who knows how long when someone is going throw away another can. Her brother set the can down, and spun the telescope, easily being able to spin 360° without making a sound. He continued adjusting the telescope.
"I got some news," he said to Nina, his eyes glowing wide to the hopeful thought in his mind. "What kind of news?" Asked Nina, excited. Any news was intresting to her because it would always be boring in their dump. Nothing ever happened in the dump. Having something intresting in mind sometimes helps her cope with the immense boredom she would feel every day.
"I recently sent a resume for a job application!" He said excitingly. "A job? A real job?!" Said Nina excitingly. "What is it?" She asked. Her brother gave her sly smile. " A shower curtain factory," he said. Nina smiled. "Not bad for a job," She said. "What? You actually did belive that?" Her brother said. "Any job is as good as any" Said Nina, looking through the telescope. The stars were really bright this night. It was so vivid, that she was able to make out the big dipper constellation without using the telescope.
"What do you mean, I fell for it? Did you get a job or not?" She asked her older brother, annoyed. "I'm just pulling your leg. Of course I got a job. Except, it's a very unique one." He lied down on his back, and he stared at the stars with Nina. "That was partly true anyways. It used to be a shower curtain factory. Now, it's a science labratory." "Cool," said Nina, lying down beside her brother. "What's the name of this company?" "Aperture Science" told her brother. "That sounds cool!" Said Nina. "So are you going to be able to invent a bunch of new stuff for the world?" "Kinda. I was told that they are working on a big project right now, but it's confidential to the company until they accpet my resume. They said that they were kinda low on employees anyway." Explains her brother nervously.
"Then you'll be accepted 100%. No need to sound so nervous brother," said Nina, sitting up. She looked at her brother. He was staring at the stars very intensely. "It's just that they are looking for the best of the best. Astronauts, Olympians, but I'm neither of those things!" He exclaimed. Nina sighed "Not yet anyways," She said, cheering him up.
"That's true. Signing myself up for the job has opened up endless possibilities for me, including a path to follow into the steps my dream job!" Said her brother, sitting up. "You see, seeing the stars from here is amazing, but how cool would it be to be up there? Up in space? Being up there in the glories of space is my big dream!" As he finished, a shooting star flew by. Her brother noted that. "It would be amazing to see not only stars, but meteors too! Even be inside of a meteor shower!"
Nina laughed. It's normal for her older brother to be rambling about space a lot. "See? With that kind of potential, there is no way they would turn down your resume. You'll be fine!" She said. "Yeah!" Said her brother. They both laid down into the ground, and looked up into the sky, seeing the beautiful stars that shone above them. It wasn't until Nina and her brother dozed off, sleeping in under the starry skies.
0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0
System Scan
Scan Complete
System Damage: 87%
WARNING: All life Support Systems offline. Ending Cyro-Sleep Sequence.
"Hi, and welcome back to Aperture Science Labratories. You have been in Cyro-Sleep Suspension for 99999 days..."
As the door of the fallen Cyro-Chamber opened, a hand stuck out. "Ugh... ow..." said a weak voice. The hand grabbed the side of the Cyro-Chamber's glass door, and heaved itself out of it.
Nina stumbled out of the Cyro-Chamber. "Ow" She said, her face hitting the quartz floor. She slowly began to stand up. When she realized that she needed to practice a bit first, she grabbed the Cyro-Chamber and hoisted herself up. As she did, she looked around. 'Where am I?' She thought. There were a lot of documents and files on the floor. Everything seemed as if the people who were working in this area left in a rush. If that wasn't enough, there was even overgrown plants growing out of their pots around the office, as if it has been decades since they had been last attended.
'How long was I out for?' Thought Nina. 'Welp, it should have been very long, considering on how big the plants are getting. What was the number that Cyro-Chamber said? 9,9,9,9, what days? What even happened before any of this anyways? Well, I remember that-"
A voice in the dark snapped Nina out of her thoughts.
"Hello? Please don't leave me here... I'm different!"
Nina slowly turned around. To her horror, there was a turret sitting at the end of the wall, it's red eye looking directly at her. Still drowsy from the exposure of the Cyro-Chamber's chemicals, Nina could only just lay on the Cyro-Chamber. Running would be a useless option as well, for her feet still needed to get the gist of walking. "Don't shoot!" Screamed Nina. "I'm harmless!"
"You were lied to. They enjoyed it," said the turret. "He's not here,"
'Huh?' Thought Nina. "Who's not here? What happened?"
"The answer is above us... remember that." continued the turrent.
"What answer?" Asked Nina. 'Find who? Answers to what?' She thought. 'Being lied to?' "Please" said Nina to the turret. " Continue,"
"That is all I can say..." said the turret. "Thank you"
Nina slid off the Cyro-Chamber. "What do you mean? I don't understand!" Said Nina, crawling towards the turret. But the turret's red eye kept staring at her, saying nothing. It wasn't until when Nina sat down to notice the name tag she had pinned on her orange jumpsuit. 'My old name tag...' she thought. 'There seems to be something tapped on it...' Nina untapped the object from her name tag. 'A USB port? Maybe this should give me some clues.' Nina stepped up to her knees. Then, slowly, she put her foot up, and hoisted her other up as well. "Would you look at that!" Said Nina to the Turret. "I'm standing!"
"Get mad!" It said back.
Nina slowly began to put one foot next to the other. It wasn't until she got the gist of walking, that her legs then naturally moved from one step to the other.. "Look at that! Now I'm walking!" She said to the turret. But the turret said nothing this time. Nina walked over to the nearest computer, and tried to turn it on. 'If this place has been abandoned for years, then that means that no one was around to mess around with the computers. This should work.'
Unsurprisingly, the computer did work. Not as well, but, it was enough for Nina to plug in the USB port, and to have gained access to the information contained in there.
It was not the long fall, or the turret that scared Nina. All it took was a USB port to fully petrify her into reality.