PROLOGUE: Orbit

Space, was boring. Really, really boring. At least, it was if you were trapped in orbit around one lunar body circling endlessly with no sign of going home anytime soon, or anytime at all for that matter.

There's the sun again, bloody bright, isn't it? Too bright. There's Earth, and its moon. There's 8 other planets, not sure what their names are, never bothered to program that into him, not that had cared, before. He had never even considered that he might see the planets one day, the stars, the sky. He'd only wished it was on better terms.

He'd pictured his first time seeing stars a bit different really. The main difference, was that he thought he'd see them from Earth. He thought he'd see them with her. They'd walk of the lift, out the door, and look up at the sky together. Hand in handle, having escaped from hell itself. Not like this.

He'd had plenty of time to think about it. Every single stupid thing he'd done. He wanted more than anything just for a chance to talk to her again.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly to himself. "I'm so, so sorry." His optic lids scraped closed. He'd wanted to help her. His first and only friend. Not an angry AI yelling at him for failing a simple task, not a brick wall conversation from a turret, a human. The kind of living thing you couldn't quite make sense of unless you were one.

Humans, smelly as they were, were such a curious thing for Wheatley. They did things without explanation, stupid, life-endangering things. And in some insane work of magic, or divine interference, it usually ended up producing something incredible.

A human didn't need to be programmed to do something, they just decided to. What had persuaded them to create half of the things in the facility, Wheatley didn't know. Especially not Her.

An innate curiosity and too-intelligent-for-their-own-good scientists had created Her. Had created him. Had created everything he'd ever known before getting sucked through that portal.

And funny enough, Wheatley couldn't pin down any significant human in his memory besides her. He hadn't the foggiest idea who created him. All he had were faded voices and faces, and an unanswered question. "What exactly am I to be doing?"

"Space!" A high voice interrupted. Right, still there, are we, Spacey? Despite being far out of earshot, the radio device connecting them was still functional. Sound didn't travel in space anyway. He'd thought about disabling the radio before, until he realized he wasn't really sure how. He'd not even been sure he wanted to do it in the first place. Inane blabbering was better than deafening silence after all.

"Stars, galaxies." Wheatley had tried his damndest to talk to Space Core. About anything really.

"You got any favorite constellations, Spacey?" Wheatley asked.

"Lightyear." Space Core spouted.

And any attempt at conversation tended to go the same way. Whether or not he actually had any substance to what he said, though, it was something. Some sort of noise he could use to ground himself in reality, much needed when floating through space.

Sleep-mode could only pass so much time before he was automatically woken up. He wanted to curse whoever installed emergency solar power recharge, and whoever's bright idea it was to require an administrator password for a manual shutdown. He was told dying would hurt, but hurt would be better than nothing.

"Orion." His mind wandered off to her a lot. What was she doing down there? Was she still testing? Did she manage to escape? Were there other humans still alive on the surface? He stopped for a moment, questioning if he was even allowed to wonder. Does she ever think about me?

"Satellite." He shuddered. No. She wouldn't waste her time thinking about you. She's moved on. She hates you. She never wants to think about you again. His optic was pressed shut, and he shook lightly.

"Moon rocks." He could picture her down There. She could still be trapped down there, testing, with Her. He tried to push the thought away. Nothing he could do about it. God there was nothing he could do about it. He felt so utterly powerless in every way. He couldn't help her, and he sure as hell couldn't help himself.

"Crater." He compressed his handles. Every time horrid thoughts would invade his mind, it was all he could do to cope. He would shrink. Become as small as he felt. He felt cold, colder than usual. Maybe he was passing behind the planet's shadow again. He couldn't bring himself to look. He could bring himself to do anything but shrink and stew and wish he wasn't such a failure and that he was a better friend and that he did something and that he could've-

"Portal." His optic flew open.

"What'd you just say mate?" He questioned. Out of Space Core's limited space-themed vocabulary, he'd never heard him say portal before.

"Portal. Portal." He repeated, seemingly as fascinated as Wheatley was confused. He turned his optic to face behind him, scanning the surface of the moon. There was no way that…

"Portal." Orange. A glowing, bright orange, tear in the world. And behind the shimmering orange, gray. Dark, uniform, gray tiles.

"Portal." Wheatley repeated. "That's...a...p-portal." He stammered.

"Portal!" Space Core cheered. "Space is too big. Too big, wanna go home." Space Core blathered. Wheatley hadn't been sure Space Core had even comprehended what the portal had meant. He began the vacuum of space would reverse, pulling him through, taking him back down There where he was useful and where he could ask is she alive is she okay can I tell her I'm sorry.

A clean, white and grey robotic arm slinked out from the portal. A red, rotating optic on it's wrist.

"No. No. No. Home is scary. Wanna stay in space." Space Core panicked.

[I.D. CORE-IDENTIFIED]

"Uh, yep, that'd be me, uh, mysterious...arm...thingy" It gripped his entire body firmly.

[UNIT RETRIEVED]

The arm began slowly pulling backwards, into the portal.

"Are we, uh, going home then? Because, man alive would that be the height of irony right there."

[UNIT FUNCTIONAL]

"Ah yes! Very good on you for noticing that! Very well done. Don't seem to really be answering the questions I'm actually asking though."

[COMMENCING OVERRIDE]

"Commencing what now? Uh, might wanna run that by me because in the past I have NOT enjoyed the context of that word." A graphic of a smiling lady sleeping in a bed flashed into his vision. At the top read 'Sweet Dreams!' and in the corner hid an Aperture logo.

[OVERRIDE COMPLETE]