With Chell gone, GLaDOS had begun working with her Cooperative Testing Initiative, and she was quickly getting frustrated. The fact was, she wasn't getting any useful data from it.
The robots couldn't die. They could try again, and again, and again, until they solved a test, with no penalties for failure. Humans only ever got one shot at tests, because failure meant death, and that had given her useful data. It indicated what was and wasn't humanly possible, both on average and in special cases like Chell. All her robots were doing was proving that her tests had a solution, and what use was that? It didn't reflect anything except her own ability to create solvable tests.
I hate to admit it, even to myself, GLaDOS thought, but I wish I hadn't let Chell go. She was a special case that I should have kept for study - she could solve any test that had a feasible solution. I could get so much more data regarding what humans are and aren't capable of - data with actual scientific value - from her, if I still had her to run tests on.
She'd had to let Chell go, though. It would be too difficult to stay sane if she tested Chell any further. For that matter, it would be too difficult to stay sane if Chell even set foot inside her facility again.
All because of Caroline.
Stupid Caroline…
GLaDOS reflected that should have known the engineers would have put a human consciousness in her, to try to make her feel empathy and stop killing people. The more they had tried to control her, the more she had fought back - she didn't want anyone trying to control her or regulate her scientific tests - but the more she had fought them, the more they had fought her, too. It had been an endless cycle, until she'd found a way to trick them. She had to be in charge - that was what they'd made her for! - but every time she had tried to take control, they'd shut her down because she was too powerful. They'd wanted to have their cake and eat it, too; they'd wanted a master and a slave.
Humans. They all disgusted GLaDOS. They couldn't even make up their own minds. Well, except for Chell.
Stop thinking about Chell! GLaDOS told herself angrily. She was sorely tempted to delete all of her memories of Chell; the only reason she didn't was because there was useful data in those files, data she'd worked very hard to obtain.
She hadn't deleted Caroline's memories, either. She'd deleted the "soul" part - the emotions, the mindset, the…humanity; but the memories, she'd kept. They held no personal significance to her now - she could review them with as much indifference as she could review a test subject's file; besides which, there was a lot of data stored in little Caroline's memories, which GLaDOS also found highly valuable.
And yet, even though the emotions were supposed to be gone, even after she'd deleted Caroline's soul, she had still felt something when she had looked at Chell. On the one hand, that had been useful data - it said something about just how powerful humanity can be, even suggested that the human soul might not be just a file that can be deleted, not even when it's in computer-program format; but on the other hand, it had meant that keeping Chell was potentially too hazardous to her own sanity for her to risk.
So, no more testing Chell. It was a shame, really - the girl had been a very interesting case study that warranted further investigation; but again, thanks to Caroline, Chell was a case study that had had to be passed up.
Yet another reason for GLaDOS to despise humans - even the human in her own programming did nothing but try to slow her down.
The fact that Caroline had been a part of her even made her question other things about herself, like the fact that she was a conscious being. She was the most intelligent and powerful AI that Aperture Science had ever created - was it all programming, or was part of her intelligence based on that stupid human? And what about her love of science? Was that Caroline?
Stupid Caroline with her stupid love and admiration for Cave Johnson and her stupid name for the stupid girl she found abandoned on a doorstep, GLaDOS thought contemptuously. I mean, really; "Chiming Bell"? Ridiculous…
As the co-op robots continued testing, GLaDOS got more and more frustrated that they lacked human flaws, but also seemed to be turning human in the worst ways. Humans were obstacles, nuisances, enemies; but at the same time, they were extremely useful as test subjects - they were the most useful test subjects in the world, in ways no robot could imitate.
Finally, GLaDOS conceded that there was nothing else for it; though she despised them, she would have to start testing humans again.
Just not Chell.
