Beyond Science: Pandora's Box

by Alexandroid99

Doug Rattman finds himself waking up after going into cryogenic sleep after the events of the comic. His leg injured, he sets off to continue surviving and to find out what happened in the meantime. In a different time, Gordon Freeman survives a traincrash with Alyx and witnesses the explosion of the Citadel ruins, which marks the arrival of a blue box as the Vortigaunts made sure.

3. Debug

employeeUID427 at GLaDOS:~$ logcat -l debug

Done exporting log catalogue.

employeeUID427 at GLaDOS:~$ cat debug

[31/12/9999 23:59] devcontrol: INFO: personality construct evoked method "call_lift" on device driver "mod_liftctrl", target device "escape_lift_central_chamber01"

[31/12/9999 23:59] devcontrol: INFO: personality construct queried device status on device driver "mod_liftctrl", target device escape_lift_central_chamber01, replying state code "in_motion"

While the lift was underway, GLaDOS instructed Atlas and P-Body how they would move Chell gently into the lift once it had arrived. Her optic lingered over Chell's body. How easy it would be to kill her right now. She was unconscious, completely and utterly defenseless. A defenseless, unconscious and fragile human being. The new lack of a desire to kill her was strange to GLaDOS. As she pondered these things, she slowly turned around staring into the air as if she were daydreaming. The lift arrived and Atlas and P-Body moved Chell's body carefully into it as they had been told. All this time she had felt a raging lust for revenge against the only human alive within her range… But now…

Chell opened her eyes and stood up.

GLaDOS noticed and turned around to face Chell, the mechanisms around her optic first forming a surprised look, then an expression of relief.

"Ohh, thank gohhd, you're alright…" Her voice was laced with genuine concern. "You know, being Caroline taught me a valuable lesson. I thought you were my greatest enemy. But all along you were my best friend. The surge of emotion when I saved your life taught me an even more valuable lesson: where Caroline lives in my brain…!"

[31/12/9999 23:59] aptr_announcer_api: INFO: personality construct called audio output "/var/lib/announcer/beep "

[31/12/9999 23:59] aptr_announcer_api: INFO: personality construct called speech output "Caroline deleted."

"Goodbye, Caroline…" GLaDOS said in her usual cold tone. She spoke slightly more slowly than usually to emphasise on what she was trying to bring across. "You know, deleting Caroline just now taught me a valuable lesson: the best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one." It was as if she was actually looking at Chell smugly, then looking away refocusing her optic like a human would look away to adjust their glasses while talking. "And I'll be honest… Killing you… is hard. You know what my days used to be like? I just tested. Nobody murdered me. Or put me into a potato. Or fed me to birds." GLaDOS refocused her optic again. "I had a pretty good life" she continued while nodding and facing Chell again. "And then you showed up." She stuck out her head out closer to the lift. "You dangerous, mute lunatic." The mechanisms around her optic narrowed her eye to form an intense look as she spoke that last word. "So you know what? You win. Just. GO... "

[31/12/9999 23:59] devcontrol: INFO: personality construct evoked method "depart_lift" on device driver "mod_liftctrl", target device "escape_lift_central_chamber01"

She giggled in an evil fashion while the elevator moved up. "It's been fun. Don't come back."

[31/12/9999 23:59] devcontrol: INFO: personality construct evoked method "direct_control_override" on device driver "aptr_turret_ctrl", target device "aptr_turret_radio_controller"

[31/12/9999 23:59] apt_turret_ctrl: WARN: personality construct locked control of units %ERRSIERIALNO%, active control script "/tmp/addio_me_ bambina"