It has been almost 18 hours since Nina has left the abandoned office area. So far, Nina could only conclude one thing: Aperture was completely abandoned. As she was walking down the long, dark halls of the abandoned facility, everything was either left in a mess or looked the same. Any sign she read made her only more clueless on where she is, mostly because of the memory loss that prevents her from remembering what the rooms actually were.

She was very much more than lost at this point.

Nina held the bag tighter. 'Whatever caused everyone to evacuate the facility must have been really strong...' she thought. 'A regular shooting would only cause a lock down in one of the floors, considering how big this place really is. That's the worst possible case that I could think of at this point...' Nina sighed. 'What caused all of the employees to leave like this?'

It wasn't until she came up to the end of another hall, that she finally found something. A vending machine. 'Hmmm...' she thought. 'The food could be more that spoiled, but I'd rather be having a stomach bug than dying of starvation.' She walked over to the vending machine. 'At least the lights are sorta working...' she thought, noting the flickering light coming from the vending machine.

The vending machine was about the same size as Nina. A little taller than her. The door was in the image of the Aperture Science Labratories logo. The machine had no glass to see what food was in store inside it. Nina sighed. 'I really hope there is some food here...' she thought. 'But I don't have any money...' she stared at the machine, thinking throughly.

She decided that it would be alright to just take the food, since of course, no one else was going to be using it, and because no one is around to scold her for stealing. 'Plus, it's a matter for survival, really.' She thought, as she kicked the vending machine. But it didn't budge. 'Okay, I gotta kick harder then,' Nina kicked at the vending machine again. She heard clanging inside the machine. 'Cans? What kind of machine has cans inside? Didn't they used to have, like, cookies or granola bars in these things?' She thought.

Nina kicked the vending machine once more. This time, on the latch. The door finally opened, revealing... beans. Cans and cans of beans. 'Huh. Okay then, as long as it's edible...' Nina grabbed one of the canned beans, bit the can, and manged to open a little bit up. Out came a handful of beans. Nina looked at them under the vending machine light. 'They look okay...' she thought. She ate them. 'Pretty tasteless if you ask me, but, who is there to ask?' She packed the rest of the cans into her bag until it was full.

She closed the door of the vending machine, and then left, eating the beans along the way. 'Seriously, all I need is to find the Personality Spheres Unit, find that Core, and put its conscience into my brothers brain. Then I'll be on my way. I really don't want to meet with whatever did this to the facility..' she shook her head. That's was technically one of the many unsolved mysteries here at Aperture. Only this one didn't really much involve her.

Nina continued walking down the hallways for a few more hours. It wasn't until she found a door that actually managed to give her some intrest. On the door, there was a big sign up at the top of the frame, but it was too high up and Nina couldn't read it well. There was a smaller sign underneath, which Nina was able to read. "Restricted Area. Employees with ADVANCED ACCESS only." Read Nina out loud. 'This could be important, and it may hold some clues... I'll go in. It's not like anybody would mind anyways...' she thought. She tried to open the door. It was locked. Nina grumbled. She kicked the door. It fell open.

Inside the room were a couple of doors, leading to a different section of the area. ' I feel like I remember this...' she thought, entering through a door labeled, "Section 6 A." In one of those rooms, there was many screens and monitors. Just like in any room, this was just as messy. There was even a broken coffee mug on the floor, and a turned-over chair.

'Wait' thought Nina, observing the monitors and computers. 'I really DO remember this.'

0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0

September 14, 1987

'Excuse me? Have you seen this guy?' Asked Nina, showing a picture of her brother to an Aperture Employee. The employe shook her head. "Sorry Miss, but I haven't seen him. Never did. Hey, do you work here? People who don't work here aren't allowed in this area." She replied. Nina scowled. "My brother works here. I was given standard access." She said. The worker frowned. "You can't be here. Please exit or we would have to call in Security." Nina left the area. "Thanks for nothing." She mumbled.

It has been almost 3 months since her brother went missing. This happened right after the "Big Promotion" that he was supposed to be having. Nina knew that he would never be in Aperture for so long without giving her a call. His supervisor would always tell her that he would be somewhere in the facility. Nina knew he wasn't telling the truth. None of the employees are. That employe she just talked to was actually one of the workers who was there during the Material Emancipation Grill incident. She had explained to Nina how her brother got the hearing issues. Nina shook her head.

'I'm getting nowhere with this.' She thought. 'Everyone here lies. All they are doing is throwing me off track. I know something happened HERE that they are trying to hide.' She walked down towards the supervisor's office. 'That's it.' She looked at the door to his office. 'I'm going to confront this guy. He is in for a treat. No one ever sees me this mad.' She knocked firmly at the door. "Come in!" He said. Nina stormed inside the office.

"Oh! Nina! How can I help you?" He asked her. He was sitting in his desk, reading the newspaper that came out a week ago. Nina set down the picture on to his desk. "Mr. Logan. You already know what I want." She said harshly. "I'm done asking nicely. I know you guys did something to him here and hiding it won't fool me." Mr Logan sighed. " He's busy in his new promotion. I'm sure he'll come back soon enough." He said. "It's been 3 months. I haven't heard any word from him." Said Nina. "Did I forget to say that he was busy?" Asked Mr. Logan.

Nina growled. She took a deep breath. "What did you do to him?" She asked. Mr Logan looked at her. "He's really busy Nina. Please understand." But Nina didn't understand. But she was smart. She wasn't going to be pushed out of his office like she was many times ago as she was for the past month with the words, "He's fine." or, "Don't worry,". "Okay," She said. "Then where is he? I would like to pay him a visit." Mr Logan sighed. " He's in the gel room, trying out the new Mirror Gel that we are working on. Happy?" "Funny. I was just there a few hours ago." Said Nina.

That's when she noticed it. The Advanced Access Key at the corner of the desk. Still attached to the tie that Mr. Logan could never have been able to put on himself without his maid doing It for him. She still hasn't been called in yet so it was just sitting there. Out in the open. Nina walked over to that corner and eyed Mr. Logan until his eyes met up with hers. "So?" She said. "Where is he?" She could feel Mr. Logan's urge to scream, "Security!" out of his lungs. He took a deep breath.

"I already told you where he should be. " he said. " And quit testing me. If you like to do that, then join in on our new 'Testing' unit this fall. It would be perfect for you." This just made Nina even angrier. "We are talking about a serious crisis going on, and you are promoting me to one of your events? Honestly it's unbelievable. I'm going to leave, since you are that worthless of my time. But keep in mind, Mr. Jacob Logan. The second I find out that he is dead, or that he is in critical comdition, I swear on the living gravestone of Cave Johnson, that you won't forget what I'll do to you next." Threatened Nina.

"Fine! Just go." Said Mr. Logan, sighing. Nina frowned at him. She took her picture and left the office. She slammed the door behind her. Mr Logan let out a deep breath. "I thought she was never going to leave...' He thought. Soon his maid came in, and handed him his afternoon coffee. She adjusted the tie for him. Mr Logan admired the maids work on his tie, not noticing the missing keycard.

Nina ran as fast as she could to the lift. She clutched the keycard into her hands tightly. 'What have I done?' She asked herself. 'WhathaveIdonewhathaveIdonewhathaveIdone?!' She knew if that she wère to be caught right now, then she would loose all chances of finding her brother. She punched the up button. The lift went up. 'I'll head into my brother's office. Then I'll figure out what to do next.' She told herself, paranoid.

The doors to the lift opened, revealing a hallway. One side had metal doors. Those doors led to the New Gel Testing Materials Unit - which was mostly an area to test out the proto-types of the different gels Aperture was working on. On the other side of the hallway, there wère wooden doors. Those doors led to the offices, which belonged to many data collectors from the Unit. Nina headed in there.

She went into one of the wooden doors marked Section F-98A. Her brothers old office area. Inside there was a picture of her brother and Nina, holding out their telescope and pointing at the milky way they had seen. 'Space...' Thought Nina. 'He always wanted to go to space. He loved Space. But he's gone and now there is no one that I can ready enjoy looking at the stars with...' Nina clutched the key card. 'I will find you brother. What ever it takes.'

For the next few days, Nina plotted out what she needed to do. First off, her plan would take her down to the Main Security Room. She would gain access to that room by using the Advanced Access key. Second, she would have to enter the correct room that displays the security cameras in the area of Mr. Logan's office, where the "promotion" was held. Third, she would have to look at the video capture from June 13, to see where her brother went. Lastly, she would download the footage, and use it to help her find her brother.

'It's flawless,' Thought Nina. 'Nothing can go wrong... right?"

0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0

Present time

'It went horribly wrong...' remembered Nina. 'I remember that I managed to download a good chunk of the footage from the camera, but it also triggered the security alarms since the computer was an unauthorized one... I was scared so I hid in the cabinet behind the desk...' she moved the fallen chair. Sure enough, there was a moved shelf inside the cabinent that was inside the desk. She hid just in time before the security escorts came in. There were scratch marks in the wall. 'That's all I did for 9 hours, scratching that wall.' She remembered.

Nina decided to turn on the monitor. Most of the computers inside the room turned on. Nina looked into the camera footages. None of the cameras were fully functional. Nina rewinded the footage. There was a lot of rewinding to be done, so Nina waited, in the dark, as the undefined date lead back to her time a few millennia ago.

An hour later, Nina had finally found the footages from the month of September of 1987. She looked at the glitchy screen. The footage was so spazed out, that she couldn't make any visuals from it. 'I'm sure that if I download it to the computer I took from the office, I could be able to make out most of the footage from the file...' she thought. She took out the computer, and plugged it into the monitor. The other screens spazed out a bit, but, at least, the alarm didn't ring out like it did before.

Relived, Nina took her time setting up the computer to take out the footage during that same month, to at least get some clues on her brothers whereabouts. She set the limit to one month after the incident from the office. 'This should be enough...' she thought. 'I'll try to save the rest of the storage space in the computer for other things If it gets to that point...' she was about to hit the file transfer option when suddenly, she heard something move from the side of the hallway.

"Thank you for assuming the party escort submission position." Said a voice.

Nina's legs began to grow weak. The fear of being caught returned to her. 'What was that?' She thought, her head hammering with ideas. 'It doesn't sound like a Security Escort Bot, but I'm not going to stick around to find out...' She hid the computer as quickly as she could behind the monitor, not caring if she squished all the keys, and then threw her bag in the cabinet. She ran inside it, and used the extra shelf to block herself from the room.

Slowly, a robot flew inside the room. It had a pink optic, and apparently, it had arms at its sides. "Please remain in your area at this time. I shall escort you to the exit." It said. Nina held her breath. As much as she wanted to leave this place, she couldn't. She couldn't leave knowing that somewhere, her brother is alive, and that there is a possible chance that she could bring him back. The bot moved from one side to the other, looking around for someone to escort back. Nina didn't dare to make a move, or even peaked at the bot for too long. 'I'll say here for as long as I need to' she thought. 'Just like I did way back then for 9 hours. Even more than I have to.'

Suddenly, two more robots appeared. One seemed to be a tall, skinny, robot with a orange optic. It also had limbs, like the escort bot, but it also had legs. The second one was not much different from the orange bot, except it was shorter and had a blue optic. Both the robots chriped at each other. Nina looked at what they had in their hands. Guns.

Nina forced herself to stay as low as possible. They had guns. She doesn't know what type of gun it was, but it was glowing. She feared that it was an electronic gun to stun her if they actually found her .

The two robots chirped at each other again, and then the strangest thing happened. The blue bot fired the gun to a wall. Out came a life sized hole, and, like the color of his optic, it glowed light blue. On the other side of the hole, there was a big room, and from there, it was out of Ninas point of view to see any more. The orange and blue bot both jumped into the hole, and then, they disappeared. The party escort robot left the room, and Nina sat inside the cabinent in bewilderment.

'A gun that shoots portals?' She thought. 'A Portal Gun? Since when did Aperture had the notion to create that?' She slowly stopped thinking for one moment to listen for any other movement from the party escort bot, hoping that the coast was clear.

Suddenly, and idea popped into her head. 'Both the blue and pink robot... they looked like cores!' She thought. She removed the shelf, exposing herself back into the room. Then, she grabbed her bag, and then, she unplugged the computer. "FILE_TRANSFER COMPLEATE." It said, on the screen. Nina sighed. 'Good,' she thought. 'The files actually managed to transfer. This buys me time to follow that core.' She put the computer in the bag, shut down the monitor, and ran out of the room... meeting face to face with the party escort bot.

"Thank you for assuming the party escort submission position." It said, it's hands reaching out for Nina. She screamed. "AHHHHHHH!" She ran out of the room, clutching the bag in her hands, the sound of the clanging cans of beans echoing down the hall.

The robot followed her. Nina ran back into the abandoned hallway, and then, she saw it: a lift. She ran into it, and prayed that it's still functional. She pushed the big red button. 'Up' she thought. 'Anywhere but here but please just go up!' The glass door closed. The bot crashed into the door. Nina let out a sigh of relief. "Sayonara sucker!" She said to the bot as he slowly dissappeared underneath her. She didn't know where she got the phaise from but she was at the most, relived from being captured.

It wasn't until a couple of minutes passed that the lift finally stopped, it's glass door opening up to a new hallway. Nina looked into the hallway. Some of the lights were actually functional. Nina walked around the hallway, looking at all the signs and rooms. It wasn't until she stopped in front of two big doors, with a big sign in front of it.

PERSONALITY SPHERES UNIT. ADVANCED ACCESS REQUIRED.

With that, Nina cried in delight. She pushed the old doors open, and ran inside the unit.

0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0

Deep in the vast expanse of space, peices of metal were flying in orbit around earth. No one knows where they came from. It could be litter, from Astronauts a long time ago, or peices from a space ship. Or maybe, just maybe, peices from a robot who was smashed to bits some months long ago.

There, in the midst of the broken peices of metal and glass, was an Aperture Science Recovery Facilitation Signal.