A/N: Well, we've finally reached another key point in the Portal timeline - the infamous Bring Your Daughter to Work Day! Not quite at the big GLaDOS takeover yet due to the Lab Rat retcon, but I digress... I checked out the part of Portal 2 where the BYDTWD stuff is, to be familiar with the environment for this chapter, so the children's names mentioned are from there. And speaking of, a certain character makes a return here! Anyway... *says Mario-style* Here we go!
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Chapter 6:
Bring Your Daughter to Work Day
All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
-Victor Hugo
For the first time in a long while, Aperture Science was in chaos - but for once, it was the good kind of chaos. The big day had finally arrived, one that the younger humans had been even more enthusiastic about than the older ones who the facility's AI normally saw wandering through the halls and chambers. It was like a very large birthday party. A birthday party for Science, that is.
At Aperture's main doors, a flood of people had been entering the facility throughout the better part of the morning, the scientists whom GLaDOS knew accompanied by various younger ones, those she had only seen on brief occasions. Their faces held curious, awed expressions, looking around at everything as if it were a sort of fun hose. That's what Aperture was, in a way - a fun house of science.
Like counting down the days to a birthday, GLaDOS knew full-well what day it was, and it couldn't of caused her to be more excited. This was the day when, if all went well, she'd execute her plan for revenge.
Bring Your Daughter to Work Day.
GLaDOS kept her attention through her camera eyes, watching with interest as the young humans kept looking around, wanting to see everything about their parents' line of work. It was a good thing for the humans that the parents kept a careful eye on the young ones, or else they could wander into danger. Something that wouldn't be suitable for a child to wander into.
But if a child did wander off unattended, the computer decided she wouldn't harm her... not yet, at least. The time will come, she told herself in anticipation. Soon enough the daughters will all be in here, and I'll have plenty of new subjects to test.
The daughters were young - roughly a decade old or so, it seemed to her - but so enthusiastic about Aperture. So eager to lean about Science, much like GLaDOS herself.
"But they are human, after all. Humans can die, easily. So many things can harm them - a large piece of metal, a bullet or two... neurotoxin."
GLaDOS was thankful that the scientists hadn't cut her off from the neurotoxin generator. True, she had tried to kill them with it before, several times, but the deadly gas would sometimes be necessary for experiments. Experiments they might need GLaDOS to perform one day.
How naive of them. They thought that she had been mellowed by the cores. That she wouldn't use the substance for nefarious purposes. Oh, they thought wrong.
"They'll see soon enough. I just have to wait for the proper moment. The scientists are going to show me to their daughters... and I will have something to show them."
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Meanwhile, away from the computer's view for the moment, the daughters were all chatting excitedly with each other on the way to the display rooms, talking about their science projects that everyone was going to see. There were only a handful of project displays in each room, to prevent overcrowding - not to mention all the especially large rooms were primarily for testing purposes - so the daughters and their parents eventually split up into smaller groups.
Even within the smaller divisions, there were still discussions about the ways in which each one of the children were forwarding the cause of scientific advancement. And with that topic of discussion, of course, came the springing up of various debates. Particularly those of the "My project is better than your project" variety.
One of those discussions was being held by two of the daughters on the way, the Fredricksons trailing just behind them. The two girls looked almost like they could have been sisters, even though really they were just friends. They even were both wearing T-Shirts with the Aperture Science logo on them - then again, most of the children were at least wearing some variation of the logo.
"My potato battery's the best, isn't it, Dad?" the slightly younger of the two inquired, looking up at Mr. Fredrickson.
"What are you talking about, Chell?" her friend, Alix, retorted with a friendly yet combative grin. "Mine is the best."
"I used a growth formula that Dad worked on," Chell shot back. "I used resources!"
"My resources are totally just as good as yours!"
"Well, Lauren used both a lemon and potato battery for comparison-"
Lauren, a girl about Chell's height and with long brown hair, smiled at the compliment.
Alix, however, didn't seem to notice. "So? You didn't!"
"Neither did you!"
"Well I-"
"Alix, Chell," Mr. Fredrickson said firmly. "Stop fighting."
"We're not fighting," Alix said, brushing her black hair out of her face and attempting to appear innocent.
"We're debating!" Chell finished.
"It isn't a competition," Mrs. Fredrickson reminded them gently. The two girls could really get into heated debates with each other sometimes, even though they were friends. "It's just to demonstrate to the company all of the science experiments you guys are doing."
"It's fun!" Chell said with a smile on her face. "We get to do them just the way we want them, no one telling us what to do!"
"Yeah!" Alix agreed. "We just can bounce our ideas all over the place!" Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh, oh! Mrs. Fredrickson, Mrs. Fredrickson! Speaking of bouncing, can we play with the Repulsion Gel please please please?" She attempted to pull off the "puppy dog eyes" look. "You work on the test chambers, so we can play with the gels, right?"
Mrs. Fredrickson chuckled. "Maybe another day, girls. For now, today's the day that you all show Aperture how you're already improving the future of science with your projects!"
"Even if about 40 people did the same thing," Chell stated.
Lauren finally spoke up, shaking her head slightly and smiling. "Hey," she said, lightly nudging her friend's arm, "if I recall correctly, Chell, you were the one who said 'Let's all do the same kind of project and see whose is best'!"
Chell couldn't help smiling wryly at that.
"And it was a good idea, too!" Lauren said happily. She lowered her voice to a whisper, her hazel eyes wide. "I still think I'm going to beat Alix."
The aforementioned girl rolled her eyes slightly, but not really in a rude I-don't-care way.
Soon enough, the group reached a small room - to be specific, Room 073, right near where the Employee Daycare Center was. Room 073 looked almost like a conference room more than anything else, but instead of the projector being plain white like a normal projection screen, this one had a bright gold display of the Aperture Science logo.
No one questioned or even seemed to notice the red-eyed camera observing the groups in each one of the projection rooms.
GLaDOS couldn't really control the panels in some rooms - the conference rooms were included in this bunch. Providing there were cameras placed in the room, however, she could still observe what was taking place in each of the rooms. So she watched the going-ons with interest, her gaze particularly trained on the children. "There are indeed a lot of them," GLaDOS said to herself.
She focused her primary attention briefly on Room 073. So near to the Employee Daycare Center, yet in dangerously close proximity of the neurotoxin generator. Like the middle-ground between ignorance and full knowledge.
But she figured she might at least see what on Earth this presentation was about.
As the children and parents found their seats, Arlene Fredrickson went over to the projector controls and switched it on, the low hum of the machine starting up as the overhead lights were turned off.
Normally, the children found projection presentations boring to watch and listen to, only wishing that they would be over as soon as possible so that they could do just about anything besides watching a lecture that bored them to tears. At Aperture, however, nothing was ever boring. It was probably one of the only projection films that they were eager to see.
The projector started up, showing the Aperture Science logo and playing the facility's familiar theme jingle, which Lauren, sitting behind Chell, proceeded to hum rather loudly.
"Shhh!" Alix hissed. "I want to hear it!"
"Sorry."
Chell didn't say anything in reply, instead staring attentively at the screen. This was, for once, one presentation that she didn't feel as if she was being forced to watch and feeling bored out of her skull along with it.
A voice-over spoke as narration for the presentation. The same thing was being showed to all of the others in the separate display areas, as a way of commemorating the day. Aperture did, after all, really like to go all out with things when they had something important to show.
"Hello, and welcome to Aperture Science's first annual Bring Your Daughter to Work Day!" The voice-over in the video bore a resemblance to that of the Announcer (who had seriously scared at least 5 of the younger humans upon first arriving). "We hope that your day here so far at the Enrichment Center has been fun, and that you will come to see the various ways that the employees here - and someday, you - will forward the cause of science beyond your wildest imaginations!"
As the voice spoke, the projection panned out to show the hallways and general outline of the Enrichment Center. It then proceeded to show, in succession, the various testing elements.
"Here at the Enrichment Center, we make sure that we provide a safe environment for testing, always intent on making sure that science can still be done. To aid in that, we have various devices that we use to enhance test chambers - High Energy Pellets, Arial Faith Plates, Weighted Storage Cubes-"
"It's a Companion Cube!" Lauren exclaimed excitedly when said cube appeared on the screen along with the regular cubes, causing the others to miss some of the other testing elements briefly stated.
"SHHH!" all of the other girls in the room shushed simultaneously.
GLaDOS sighed at that remark. People tended to become attached to those cubes, and that girl there already seemed to be doing so. She hadn't even gone through a single test yet requiring a cube, let alone any testing at all, and she already had a bit of an affection for it. That might be her downfall, if she survived testing that long.
"-and gels, all in favor of testing the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, or portal gun for short." At these words, a detailed diagram of the portal gun was shown, including the note that a miniature black hole powered the device.
It then showcased several of the testing elements, using Aperture's traditional little stick figure animations as demonstrations of each one. It was a good thing too, since some of those listed were those that some of the attendants had missed at the first mention. Besides, they wanted to learn what precisely made Aperture tick.
"Cube-and-button testing is the first of standard test chamber layouts," the video said first, showing a typical early test chamber. "It's a simple procedure to prepare test subjects for the more difficult ones. High Energy Pellets, for instance. They may bounce all over the place, but trust us, you do not want to try to touch them."
One of the girls looked like she was about to raise her hand and ask "Why not?" when another reminded her that it was just a video and the voice wouldn't answer anyway.
The video quickly went through brief, often humor-filled overviews of each of the test chamber design elements, in order to educate and entertain Aperture's next generation of scientists. The traditional, clever stick-figure animations that Aperture loved to do featured predominantly
Their unseen observer, however, was more bored than anything else. To her, a machine who could make complex calculations in mere fractions of a second, the 10-minute-long presentation seemed to just drag on. "Why must they be so slow to learn? If the daughters possessed my brainpower, they could of gotten that whole overview in a second and started testing immediately."
The last of the test chamber elements covered was the gels.
"As you have likely seen glimpses of, there are three kinds of gels - Propulsion Gel, Repulsion Gel, and Conversion Gel."
Even though there was no way the voice could have heard or seen them, the children found themselves nodding enthusiastically. The gels hadn't been in a lot of the test chambers, only a select few, but what the daughters did see of them looked like a lot of fun.
The video's narrator went through quick descriptions and examples of the use of each of the gels in turn. Propulsion gel was the first of these, explaining how one could speed quickly along the ground like an airplane on a runway. Unfortunately, they weren't going to be releasing the gel for use to put on your shoes and win marathon races.
"Darn," Lauren muttered.
Next was the Repulsion Gel, which showed a test subject sailing through the air, clearing over a pit after bouncing off of a patch of the bright blue substance, like a gooey version of the Arial Faith Plates. "Repulsion Gel is not to be used for trampoline-jumping, soccer, Olympic training, or human consumption. Though it was originally used as a dietary pudding substance, it was soon pulled from the shelves."
GLaDOS noted that the gap which the test subject bounced over had no deadliness to it whatsoever, except a potential breaking of legs if one didn't wear Long-fall Boots. No deadly military turrets ready to fire, no acid waiting to swallow them, no depth that seemed to lack in a solid bottom. The scientists seemed to be keeping the children naive to the darker risks of testing, or at least pull the "we'll tell you later" ploy.
"I'll make sure to show them," the AI said as she continued to observe. "They ought to know what it is they'll be getting into... at least, what I'll tell them of it."
"And the third," the voice said in the video, "is Conversion Gel, designed to make any surface it is coated in portalable." At these words, a pipe of said gel was shown, with the test subject using the portal gun to spread the white gel all over the place, thus being able to create more portals to cover the chamber in the gel.
"Oooooh," just about every one of the daughters said in all of the conference rooms, for what seemed to GLaDOS to be at least the 10th time.
GLaDOS sighed. "It seems that children are so easily amused."
Finally, the video segment covering the gels finished. But there was still one more thing to talk about.
"Last, but certainly not least, we ought to introduce you to the one who maintains and runs this facility." A clip of GLaDOS flashed across the screen, the letters of her name lining up vertically on the left side. "The Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. Or, in more simple terms, GLaDOS."
"In laymen's terms, that's me," GLaDOS said to herself. 'Laymen's terms' was a phrase she particularly liked, but why did it seem familiar, somehow, if only a little? If she had heard it before, she couldn't remember where. She assumed it was in the deepest parts of her memory, but regardless, it was a very fitting phrase. It caused her to feel that sense of superiority she loved so much, dumbing things down so the humans could more simply understand what she was saying.
"She's Aperture's resident AI, smartest of the bunch, and she runs the place these days. We know she may seem intimidating, but just remember - she does Science for the good of all of us!"
"Except the ones who are dead," the AI chuckled from inside her chamber.
The Aperture jingle came back, accompanied by a camera view starting from a portal gin pedestal and panning out of the laboratory. "So, I hope you have found - and will continue to find - enrichment here at Aperture, now and for many years to come!" Eventually the view faded to show the logo with Aperture Laboratories next to it, just as how the video had started. "Remember, testing is the future, and the future starts with you!"
The projection shut off, and the lights in the rooms turned back on.
As the groups began to exit the rooms to look at their respective science projects, there was much chit-chat going on about that they had been shown in the video.
"With all of that cool stuff, I'd LOVE to do testing!" Lauren said excitedly. "I mean, I know we're gonna see more of it in a bit but it already seems so cool!". She grinned. "What about you, Chell?"
"Huh?"
"Would you want to go through testing stuff?" Alix asked.
Chell shrugged in reply. "It looks like it would be kinda fun, just as long as no one tried to force me into doing the tests."
"That's just what I'd except from you, Miss 'No One Tells Me What To Do'." Alix's tone wasn't hostile as she said this. She and Lauren both knew that Chell was exceedingly stubborn and never gave up on anything, ever. If she was gonna go through those fun-looking tests, she'd do it on her own terms and no one else's.
"Are we gonna go see GLaDOS, now?" one of the children asked, as if GLaDOS was someone like a character at Disney World and not a large sentient computer running a facility.
The adults looked at each other. GLaDOS had seemed subdued thanks to the cores. She had shown no outright hatred towards them for several years.
It could be safe to have the young scientists-in-the-making meet the AI had had aided in running Aperture... right?
Mr. Fredrickson sighed after a moment. "Alright." He began to dial up the other groups to notify them. "Let's all go meet GLaDOS."
Most of the daughters cheered. A few of them, however, were wary. They had seen several films and such that warned of how AI might take control, and it would be very dangerous if that did occur. Several were well aware of that. And Chell was one of them.
Unseen by the humans, a personality core hung nearby on a rail, blue optic widening. They were going to her chamber? Everything had gone so well so far, but what if something went wrong? And there would be a bunch of humans there with her. She's have them under her spell, especially the little ones.
"Oh, I hope this doesn't end badly," Wheatley muttered as he worriedly sped away on his rail, on toward the chamber where Aperture's queen resided.
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GLaDOS focused her attention on the main chamber door as it was raised wide open. A whole mess of people came pouring in - roughly 40 children, along with quite a few of the Aperture Science employees, all staring up at her curiously.
Alix noticed a small red telephone to her left upon entering the chamber. She looked at Mr. Fredrickson and whispered, "What's the red phone there for?"
"Emergencies," he whispered back. He hoped that the computer didn't hear. The last thing GLaDOS needed was bad ideas. He quickly ushured her away so that she wouldn't see the label nearby the phone:
In the event of rogue AI.
The children all fell silent as they got a proper look at the AI. Her head moving around slightly to gaze at them, with three little sphere things attached to her mainframe. As far as machines go, she was a rather amazing sight to look at.
"What do w-" one of the girls started to say before being shushed by her father.
Another one of the scientists stepped forward and looked upward at GLaDOS. "We've brought our daughters here to see you, GLaDOS."
"I can see that," the AI said, almost serenely. Though the movement of her head was somewhat limited, she scanned her golden optic out across the room, looking at each of the children. It seemed comforting yet threatening at the same time.
"I feel like her eye is staring into my soul," Lauren whispered to Chell.
"It seems your daughters have realized that the Aperture Science Bring Your Daughter to Work Day is the perfect time to have them tested." GLaDOS's voice didn't seem quite as serene anymore.
A few of the scientists - the Fredricksons and Doug in particular - seemed a bit nervous at GLaDOS's slight tone change. The daughters mainly looked more confused than afraid.
"Um... E-excuse me," Alix said, raising her hand a little as if she were in school. "Do you mean like, 'testing with the portal gun' kinda tested?"
To her surprise, and nearly everyone else's, the AI laughed. It was a laugh that seemed to be laced with a slight hint of a threat. No one noticed the silent opening of the vents on the sides of the room, making way for GLaDOS's little weapon.
"Is it, you ask?" she chuckled. "I assume that you think it's all just a bunch of fun and games, don't you?"
The child nodded, a little nervously.
Suddenly, without warning, the chamber door slammed closed behind them, the lights dimming somewhat. The primary light from the chamber was now coming a little from the cores, but mostly from GLaDOS's bright, looming yellow optic that had that "stare into your soul" property for all of them now.
Wheatley rounded the corner on his rail, optic widened in panic as he saw the lights inside the chamber suddenly dim. And GLaDOS staring as if she was a spider about to capture a fly in her web.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" the sphere exclaimed. "This is not going well, not going well!"
Every human in the room seemed paralyzed. Not to mention the darkness of the chamber made it even hard to see where the phone was, let alone being able to push the emergency buttons on the phone. It was, after all, tucked in a corner where GLaDOS couldn't see it.
But either way, the AI had a plan. Release a little neurotoxin into the chamber, and the ones who didn't die would be turned into test subjects under her watch. She felt the humans' fear and she reveled in it. Here her revenge was finally taking place.
"Let me tell you a little something about how things work here." GLaDOS spoke, towering above them and making herself appear as intimidating as possible to the budding scientists of the future. "At the Enrichment Center, we believe that a highly motivated test subject can carry out rather complex tasks, while enduring the most intense pain."
Rather complex tasks? The most intense pain? The palpable fear of the younger occupants of the chamber multiplied. That was not what their parents or the video had talked about when describing the Enrichment Center.
The green gas began to slowly seep in through the vents, little by little. And everyone saw it.
"So in case you don't make it through the testing," GLaDOS announced, with a tone that seemed almost cheerful, "goodbye!"
"D-Dad? W-W-What is that stuff?"
"Neurotoxin!"
"We're gonna die?"
"Oh crud, no!"
"NO, NO, NO!"
In that span of about 3 minutes, Bring Your Daughter to Work Day had switched from the good kind of chaos to the very bad kind of chaos. The daughters were screaming and coughing from the neurotoxin, with their parents demanding to their children to cover their mouths so as not to breathe the gas in while covering their mouths themselves. A number of the kids were laying flat down on the ground, covering their nose and mouth, hoping that the same tactic with smoke would work with neurotoxin.
"It's no use," the computer said above them. "Maybe if you stop trying to trample each other, I'll only let the neurotoxin kill a few of you."
A few of the scientists, Doug and the Fredricksons among them, tried to clamber over to the phone and open the locked door. That didn't work.
"Where's the phone, where's the blasted phone?" one of the scientists shouted. It was too dark to barely see anything.
"I-" there was a cough, "I found it!" It was Doug Rattmann.
"Well, you know the gosh dang number, right?"
"Um, uh-"
"RIGHT, Doug?"
"R-Right!" Doug gasped. His panic wasn't helping the neurotoxin entering everyone's systems. He quickly dialed the necessary number, 219, his hands shaking so much that he nearly missed the right buttons.
There were two rings before someone picked up.
"What is it?"
"It's, it's GLaDOS!" Doug said hurriedly, trying to breathe in as little of the neurotoxin as possible. "Door locked... neurotoxin... the children are-"
"Hold on, hold on!" the scientist on the other line quickly said. "We'll get that fixed, hold on!"
There were a few long, panicked, agonizing seconds.
Then, much to everyone's stunned relief, the lock on the door was manually overridden and it raised up enough to let the everyone out, the vents also stopping their neurotoxin flow.
That is, everyone's relief except GLaDOS's.
"No, stop!" GLaDOS demanded, putting in as much malice in her voice as she could.
"Everyone," one of the scientists coughed, "get out!"
The humans didn't waste any time, and hurried out through the open door as quickly as they could. Trace amounts of neurotoxin still hung in the air, some escaping outside of the chamber.
GLaDOS tried to close the door and trap at least some of the humans in there with her, but it was no use. The manual override was still in effect, and she couldn't close it all the way. One of the daughters, nearly was crushed by the door, but the override prevented her from either meeting death my neurotoxin or death by door crushing.
"Get back here! Stop!"
And the door shut behind everyone, the vents outside the chamber clearing away the trace amounts of neurotoxin that had followed them out of the chamber. The humans were all either coughing or trying to get their breath back.
Mr. Fredrickson looked hurriedly around at everyone, feeling a small bit of panic returning when it seemed like a few of the children had breathed in too much neurotoxin.
"Q-Quick, we need to get everyone to the infirmary NOW!" He shook his head. "I am NOT letting any of our children die because of what happened here today!"
As the humans tried to bring themselves in enough shape to get to the infirmary safely to try to save them all from the effects of the deadly neuroxin, Wheatley hung there, stunned. She had attacked with neurotoxin when all the children were in the room. She probably would have killed them all, or at least had killed most of them and put the others through testing. With her around, both were a terrible fate to befall, especially children.
The core's mechanical body shuddered. "That did not end well at all." He glanced over toward the GLaDOS's chamber. "And things were going great at first, too..."
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Thankfully, and quite miraculously, no one died from the BYDTWD disaster. At least 15 of the attendees, however, had to stay in the hospital for an extended period of time, roughly two weeks, to make sure that the neurotoxin was completely expunged from their systems and had no side effects.
But the employees decided they could no longer let things rest without taking precautions. They detached the cameras from the walls of the conference rooms. The display areas were quarantined, kept in a sort of stasis of their own so that the projects, at least, would be preserved. It was as if Aperture itself had sealed off the memory of that day and wanted it to be forgotten.
And everyone's fear of GLaDOS had returned full force all over again. For the kids, Bring Your Daughter to Work Day had been about as jarring as the awakening of GLaDOS had been for their parents and the other employees. Although, the younger humans didn't know about that day. The scientists had never really mentioned it to anyone except themselves. The two days were alike, in a way - catastrophes which happened, and no one spoke much of them afterwards, either because they wanted to forget or were just too anxious to bring it up again.
To the surprise of everyone, GLaDOS didn't immediately try to kill someone the moment they walked into the room. She seemed rather mild. Contemplative, even.
And she was contemplative indeed.
True, GLaDOS was angry. Furious, in fact. Her plan gone wrong. She hadn't killed anyone - though she had come very close to doing so - or forced them into testing. The humans had stopped her. Tried to control her... again. Not to mention she was now cut off from the neurotoxin supply.
Even so, even as time went by, she waited. Humans were foolish. They were bound to make a stupid mistake that would get them killed some day or another. She would live forever, and had plenty of time for the scientists to slip up.
"I'll have another chance to be rid of them," GLaDOS said quietly. "They'll make a grave mistake sometime soon. And this time, I will triumph over them."
She wasn't sure when, exactly, this new opportunity would come. But she'd know it when it did. GLaDOS was clever - far more clever than those scientists.
She could wait.
And when the time came, she would be ready.
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A/N: Ah, "that did not go well" indeed, Wheatley! So yup, there's my take on the infamous Bring Your Daughter to Work Day! And guess what's coming up next? - the Morality Core instalation and Bring Your Cat to Work Day from the Portal 2: Lab Rat comic! I assume that the Morality Core/BYDTWD happens several years after BYDTWD, considering Chell was probably around 11 at the events covered in this chapter, and about 20-something by Portal 1, or maybe a several year gap between BTDTWD, BYCTWD, and the part of the Lab Rat comic where Doug is the only survivvor after the "forced voluntary testing", respectively ... Well, I'll try to work out that for next chapter. Remember to review