Cara Mia

Wheatley looked around him, and jumped as he noticed the scientists watching him closely. "Argh!" He yelled in shock. "Who are you! Where am I? Uh, thanks for saving my life... if you did..." Wheatley felt his speech trailing off sooner than it normally would. Somehow, he felt drained. He felt... tired.

"Would you look at this!" One of the scientists exclaimed excitedly. "It has a personality! It has an Artificial Intellegence!"

"Genius," Another one replied in awe. "We must look more closely at this thing."

"No no no no no no!" Wheatley panicked as one of the scientists picked him up. "Please don't dissassemble me! Do you know if you could let me go, just let me escape? I don't know where I am, but I have been trapped in a lot of different places recently... so I would be very grateful... if you could just let me..." He felt too exhausted to finish the sentance. He wasn't meant to feel like this, it was a human thing! What was going on here... Perhaps he'd been more damaged than he thought when that space shuttle landed...

"We'll use our duplication system so you won't be put into any harm," A woman in her early to mid thirties told him kindly. Who did she remind Wheatley of? She looked familiar somehow...

"We don't need to worry about it when we've got what we need from it, we can incinerate it," Another scientist replied gruffly. "After all, it's Aperture's equipment..." He said the name in discust.

"Please, please don't incinerate me!" Wheatley begged. "I can help... work around the Facility... I can do anything! If...if... you don't kill..."

"We could modify it, use it as a worker," Another scientist replied, adjusting his glasses on his nose. "It is the origianal after all... Wait! I just had a thought! If we can use these robots to work around the facility... if they have an intellegence... we could actually modifiy one to run the entire facility!"

"No! No, you do not want to do that... whoever..." Wheatley replied half-heartedly. "That's... that's... how She came about... bring your daughter to work day..."

The scientists ignored him and turned their backs on him to discuss something. One woman didn't, though. She left the crowd to walk over to Wheatley. It was the woman who had talked to him kindly earlier. Ah... who was she? She looked so familiar, but so different...

"Who - who are you?" Wheatley asked, trying to sound polite. "Thanks for... deciding to use the duplication system instead of... of... dissassemble..."

"I'm Cara-Mia Johnson," She replied in her surprisingly hoarse voice. "Just a regular old scientist at Black Mesa."

"Black Mesa?!" Wheatley panicked. "Oh no! Uh... no offence..."

"I understand, you are from Aperture," Cara-Mia replied. "I'll make sure they don't incinerate you though. Aperture's not that bad, is it?"

"Well... apart from the place being run by a power-mad AI... no," Wheatley replied, his speech slurring. "I... I've... never been anywhere else..."

Cara-Mia looked surprised. "A power-mad AI? Is that what you were talking about earlier?"

Wheatley nodded in reply, too tired to talk. He felt his shutters starting to droop but fought to keep them open.

"What's the problem? You look almost... tired," Cara-Mia laughed, "A robot can't be tired, can it?"

"I don't... know..." Wheatley replied weakly. "I feel tired..."

"Johnon! JOHNSON! Get over here! We need to talk to you!"

"Well, that's me they're talking to," Cara-Mia told Wheatley. "I'll see you later."

Johnson, Johnson... where had he heard that name before? It must be very far back in his memory... He searched through his local files.

"What is that thing, anyway?"

"Just the latest AI Inhibition technology. You can think of it as a conscience."

"If that's all you use to control Her, it won't be enough."

"Why's that?"

"You can always ignore your conscience."

Wheatley listened to the voices argue amongst themseves as he watched silently. He had just woken up, for the first time...

Suddenly a loud voice echoed throughout the Facility; "Cave Johnson here - What did I say about yappin'?" The man who was talking broke into a voilent coughing fit. "Now get to work..." He croaked. "Fix Caroline for me..." A surge of emotion rushed through the man's voice.

Wheatley paused the memory. So that's where he had heard that name... Was it anything to do with Cara-Mia? Maybe she was distantly related to Cave Johnson... Why did she look so familliar though?

Wheatley's train of thought broke of as he was suddenly grasped roughly by his handle. "Put me down!" He yelped, opening his shutters. His optic shrank in fear as he saw the man that had suggested to incinerate him earlier staring right at him. "Can you - please - put me down - that would be great..." Wheatley begged helplessly as he was carried into the crowd of scientists.

"So, it is decided," one of them declared loudly. "We'll dissassemble it tomorrow."

"Tomorrow!" Wheatley cried in panic. "No! Please! I've... I've... never done anything to you..."

"Oh, shut up, you little moron, no-one cares what you did," The man holding him smirked.

"Argh! I am not a - a - moron!" Wheatley whimpered. "No... Please... please... don't do that- ARGH..."

The man holding him struck him hard across his faceplate. Wheatley hung by his handle silently, his shutters half-closed.

"Stop! Stop it! Don't do that! You'll hurt him!" He heard a harsh voice cry out shrilly.

"Him... I see you've taken a liking to this talking ball of metal. It's just a robot, who cares if it feels pain."

"You won't dissassemble him! You can't! Just because he's a robot-"

"Someone get her out of my sight! Now! I said now!"

"Argh! I will stop this!"

"No..." Wheatley mumbled as he looked through his cracked optic to see Cara-Mia being dragged out of the room by two people.

"Shut up," The man replied spitefully to Wheatley. "I'll deal with you later. You're going the Enrichment Center, Johnson, where you belong!"