I managed to scramble over the railing onto the deck of the Borealis with Barney's help and stopped to catch my breath. Alyx sort of stumbled over, still breathless from her harrowing climb. I looked up at her and smiled. We wouldn't have made it up if it weren't for her.

A look of confusion came on her face as she looked at us.

"Weren't there 8 of us?" she asked, and just as I was about to relay the details of what had transpired, Barney answered her.

"You crazy?" he asked, looking puzzled. "7 of us on the helicopter, 7 of us now."

Alyx still seemed confused but shrugged it off. I turned to look at Barney, confused myself, and I could tell from his expression that he had lied to protect her. The last thing she needed was the thought of another death on her shoulders.

As the rebels caught their breath, having jumped a 2 foot gap in heavy armor, I walked to Alyx and put a hand on her shoulder. She jumped a little, then turned to look at me, a smile on her face.

"For a second, I thought I wasn't going to make it. It was like something just… clicked and I saw the cable and I jumped just in time, but I wasn't really doing it… I was watching myself do it." she said, studying the gloves on her hands, which looked considerably worn after harrowing climb.

My eyes wandered around her body, memorizing her curves. She caught me, and we shared an awkward moment.

"I guess we should head to the bridge." She said, shattering the awkwardness, and sounding a bit deflated. I felt it too; I had thought that we would see what this weapon was as soon as we got onto the ship, as if some huge anti-combine warhead would just be jutting from the deck, asking to be launched.

We set off toward the bridge, meeting resistance from little but the slippery ice that seemed to coat everything. The deck wasn't populated by as many of the cargo containers as it seemed from the ice below- but even then it made a formidable maze to navigate. There was a headcrab every here and there, but the majority were dead- I figured the Combine had launched the headcrab missiles while the ship was en route to wherever it was headed, and it had simply drifted here when the crew was killed and zombified. By now, however, the zombies had surely all perished. I still didn't want to have to wander the corridors of this immense ship, though, as it looked easy to get lost in.

There was a railing around the bridge with a ladder that we used to climb up. We had to free ladder from its upright position, so we weren't wrong to assume the bridge was safe. The bridge seemed much bigger from the inside- it was empty, save for the stairs at the back. I led the way up them, and in the center of this room was a gray metal desk. On top was a large, flat monitor, hooked up to a small white computer that said 'Aperture Science' just beside it. On the other side was a small, chocolate-frosted cake, adorned with a few strawberries and a single candle. Below the desk was a small, comfy-looking office chair. At the front of the room, opposite the stairs was a giant window, the kind that replaced a wall rather than adorned it.

Barney headed to the large window and looked down at the deck while Alyx sat at the desk. I noticed the cake looked delicious but resisted the urge to eat it and kneeled next to Alyx to get a look at the monitor.

The screen was black- Alyx pushed the only button on the face of the computer, and it quietly whirred to life. I looked at the back and saw it wasn't plugged into anything. I tried to lift it to see if the cords were on the bottom, but it was heavy. I'm tempted to say that it was attached to the desk, but it didn't feel that way. It just felt heavy. It was strange that the computer turned on at all, though, considering none of the lights on the ship were working, at least topside.

The monitor flicked on and all it showed was a large blue circle in the center of the

now-white screen. Alyx looked confused and searched for a mouse or a keyboard, but none existed. The desk was more of a small table, and it didn't have any visible compartments.

She stood up from the chair and examined the desk for some hidden switch and I stared at the blue circle on the screen. It didn't look static- I moved closer and saw it appeared to be spinning. Like a lens coming into focus.

Not content that the computer might simply be broken, Alyx reached for the plate on which the cake rested, probably to cut herself a slice, I assumed. I would have to get a piece myself, as every moment it sat there it grew exponentially more appetizing. I managed to shake my focus from the cake and saw Barney was staring at it as well.

Just as her hand was about to touch the plate, a dark feminine voice, emitting from nowhere it seemed, began shouting. A white door sealed the stairs, and a little white turret jutted out from the ceiling in the corner of the room.

"What are you doing? That isn't your cake. That cake belongs to me. You don't deserve it. You've done nothing to deserve it. I should cut your dirty hand off. What if you had touched the cake with your filthy hand? You'd better watch your back because as soon as you're not expecting it I'm going to just cut it off. How does that make you feel? I bet it makes you feel bad." The voice said. It continued on, but I couldn't hear it over the growing panic in our group.

"What the hell?" Barney shouted, pointing his gun at the turret. The rebels seemed to follow suit, but the threats their gun posed seemed to agitate the turret, and I could see a ball of energy begin to form at the end of it's short, rectangular barrel.

Barney began shooting at it, and soon the room was filled with the sounds of shooting. Alyx ducked her head and moved the corner of the room, apparently unable to cope with the stress of the situation. I had an idea and pointed my gun at the monitor. It didn't stop the turret, and a shot of energy flew out of it and landed in the chest of one of the fake combine. He keeled over, clutching his chest and starting screaming that it burned.

I got another idea and, after turning the monitor toward the computer, pointed the gun at the small white box. The turret's energy dissipated.

"Okay. I give up. Just give me my cake and I'll let you go." The voice said. I was confused for a moment before I saw that the cake was, in fact gone. I felt a bit of anger. who had stolen the cake? I wanted it. So I could give it to the computer-thing.

I turned and saw the rebels were too occupied with their fallen comrade to have taken it. Barney was bent over trying to see if whoever had been shot was okay.

I turned to the other corner and saw Alyx there, on her knees with the cake, trying to deduce in her head how she should cut it to maximize its delicious flavor, as well as what to cut it with.

She snapped out of it for just a moment and stood up, a horrified look on her face. She backed up slowly as if the cake held the answer to the universe and she just couldn't handle it.

I walked over slowly, resisting the desire to eat the cake while picking it up. The circle on the monitor, which had turned red in the short firefight, was now literally green with envy.

I heard a noise outside that was never good- a combine troopship. I turned and saw, through the giant window, the cake still in my hands, as a squad of Combine elites, clad in white, jumped from the under-slung cabin and started running toward the bridge. There were at least ten of them, and while we could surely take them, all of us would not emerge from the fight unscathed, especially with the preoccupation of the cake in the back of our minds.

"Combine!" Barney said, noticing them. "Gordon, make that computer thing use its turrets on 'em."

"Get rid of them? They'll probably kill you and then I'll have my cake." It replied vengefully. As much as it pained me, I pointed my pistol at the cake. The way I lined it up, had I pulled the trigger I would have shot my own hand. The circle on the monitor, however, was fooled.

"No!" It cried, and the circle turned to red as the voice lowered to a near growl. "Just don't hurt my cake."

I turned and saw the Combine making their way through the containers in a different path than we had taken, and I saw it was much faster. Their path was much simpler and straightforward, and it made me feel a little stupid for leading everyone around in circles.

Then they stopped. Perceiving a threat, they raised their weapons. I could see the blue glow of a turret charging up below the outside portion of the bridge, and the Combines' attempts to shoot it down met with the same results as ours had.

I saw, out of the corner of my eye, another turret, and I realized it was much larger than the one we had encountered. This was confirmed when the turrets fired in unison, taking out the entire squad of combine in addition to the top layer of deck they had been standing on in an enormous flash of blue.

There was no time for us to marvel, however, as I knew more combine would be on the way. We had to find the weapon quickly.

"Computer, is there some kind of weapon on this ship?" Alyx asked, following the same train of thought as myself.

"Weapon? This is a science ship. There's lots of science. No weapons though." It replied.

"Except the turrets." Barney said angrily. The rebels had given up on their comrade, who had stopped breathing 10 minutes earlier, leaving Barney with a bit of resentment towards the computer. Sensing his anger might carry over to the cake, I held it a bit more protectively and eyed him warily.

"Um… yes. Except those. I just forgot to mention those." It replied. Alyx wasn't fooled however, and pointed her gun at the cake. Once again, had she fired it I would have been shot, but it fooled the computer.

"Well I know how to make lots of weapons. Some of them can also be used as a shower curtain, provided you are small and roughly gun-shaped. I guess some could be used as weapons if you put your mind to it, but not really." It replied.

"Look, is there a weapon on this ship that we could use?" Barney asked, growing impatient. The whirring blades of helicopters could be heard approaching from all directions.

"Not yet." It said. Alyx was about to ask it to continue when the sound of gunshots filled the air. It was a combine gunship, firing on the bridge. The bullets bounced off the metal walls until it swung around to the window- the first few bullets were stopped by the thick glass, but after that the glass shattered into a million pieces. I shoved the desk and it fell over, the white box making a loud thud as it hit the floor. The monitor broke as it collided with the floor, causing the colors on the screen to warp. I gently set the cake down and peered over the edge of the table to get a feel on the gunship's position.

The fake combine flew down the stairs when the gunship stopped to cool its gun. One had a laser-guided rocket launcher and needed to get in a more open position so that he could maneuver the rocket. The turret from the ceiling had descended again and was now pointed at the gunship. The next volley knocked it down, but I saw the energy was still gathering at the tip of the barrel.

I scrambled to grab it before the gunship filled me with bullets, but stopped momentarily when the entire Borealis seemed to shake. I peeked over the bullet-filled table again and saw the gunship sputter in the air after the explosion of the rocket. I took the momentary opening and jumped to my feet, leveling the smooth, white gun with the gunship. The energy had been charging for a good deal longer than last time, and I hoped it didn't backfire, or rather really needed it not to backfire.

Finally feeling like the shot was lined up, I pulled the trigger. The recoil propelled me backward, where my head collided with the wall.