[A/N]
Now, this is where it gets really exciting. Post your theories now, people! Now's the chance!
Reviews are greatly appreciated, and, well, I'm pretty sure you're going to enjoy this one.
The girl slowly woke. She was always confused at that stage. The more awake she was, the brighter the lights shined. The brighter the lights shined, the faster she woke up.
Thus, it only took minutes before the test subject sleepily opened her eyes.
Good morning. You have been in suspension for; -50- days.
The girl immediately shot up. Was this a dream? She pinched her forearm, and mild pain shot through it. No. Definitely not a dream. She started looking for other signs.
Whilst the announcer rattled on about mandatory physical and mental exercises, the test subject started looking around, until it hit her.
No sarcastic remarks over the intercom.
Change of plans; it had to be a dream. She was afraid now, to return to the bed. If this was truly a memory, she knew what was going to happen next.
If she was going to return to the bed, she'd wake up in a deserted room, and-
Wait a second. She started in surprise at the little round object on her nightstand. Her companion bit.
She searched around the room frantically, determined to find some sort of camera to shot a glare to. This wasn't a dream. It couldn't be.
A slow, dark chuckle could be heard of the intercom.
The test subject now wore a frown, waiting for an explanation.
"What?"
"Why?", she croaked.
A muffled, slightly distorted recording now played.
"You just got pranked."
The girl's own voice, on the day she'd pranked the AI with edgeless cubes and gel. The girl smiled now, remembering that day.
"On the plus side, you're awake."
An annoyed huff. "Can the testing wait?"
"I already put it on hold. I have something to tell you first."
That caught the test subject off-guard. In all the months she'd been here, this never happened. What had she broken? The microwave?
She put her boots on, and made her way to the elevator, waiting outside her room. She never rarely her jumpsuit off, knowing the AI would be spying on her, whatever the case.
Sure, they were both women, but in the AIs case, were was the keyword here.
When she arrived at the Central AI Chamber, she was greeted with the android, seated on top of her chassis. She'd apparently built some kind of 'throne' on top of it, covering up a big part of the machinery.
The android jumped off it upon her arrival, and when she did, the white 'throne' folded back into the chassis.
The girl appeared to have a hard time closing her mouth back up, so the android helped her a bit. By smacking it closed.
"Ow! What's with the throne?"
"I thought I'd make a permanent place for this body. Well, apart from the machine storage area, of course."
"Right. Is this what you wanted to tell me?"
"You're wrong. After scanning your blood, multiple times, I might add, I have concluded something even I have a hard time coming to terms with."
"..Okay," the girl said, slowly, "What is it, exactly?"
"You're related to him."
"Cave?"
"Correct."
The test subject sat down onto the floor, which came up to catch her.
"I'm…"
"You could be anyone in his family tree."
"No, no. Have you seen the tape? He had a daughter. A single daughter. You can probably guess who that is."
"You."
"That's my best guess."
The pair stayed silent for a while.
"But then there is a problem."
"Inbreeding."
"Indeed. Inbreeding."
"The main cause of deformations among offspring."
"I know, I know. Now what are we going to do?"
"There is one solution."
The test subject immediately piped up.
"What is it?"
"Every advanced Aperture AI is allocated a digital string of virtual DNA, an experiment among the former scientists."
"Which means?"
The panels in the upper side of the chamber moved out of the way, revealing the familiar monitor. It showed two strings of DNA, side-by-side.
"Every string of DNA has a disturbing amount of deformations. Usually, the two strands of DNA given from each parent patch each other up, resulting in a healthy human being."
"…Right. I understand. But what does this have to do with-"
"Hush. If the two strands of DNA are almost identical, as seen in close family members, little to no impurities are cancelled out, resulting in deformed offspring."
"That… makes a surprising amount of sense."
"It's science. What did you expect? Now, if somehow we could take an Aperture AIs digital DNA, and recreate it in a format that is accepted by the human body, we could patch up the… Genetic material."
"Right. That shouldn't be a problem, given all the corrupted cores you have lying around! Right?"
"As always, you're wrong."
The human made a confused face, waiting for an explanation.
"When an Aperture AI corrupts, which describes every single one of them apart from me, or the announcer, the DNA adapts along with it, essentially corrupting it in the process."
The girl now stayed silent, foreseeing to be proved wrong yet again.
"The corrupted cores aren't an option, the announcer isn't advanced enough, and I, well. I am Caroline, your apparent mother figure."
"Wait, you didn't tell me that!"
"Your DNA and my synthetic DNA match up, which is… utterly disturbing."
"So you could say, we're… sisters?" She said, very carefully.
The android blushed, now wishing she was back in her chassis. "I… suppose so. Again, which is quite disturbing."
"…Okay, let's change the subject."
"Agreed."
"How are we going to fix it? We can't just… take animal DNA, or something. Can we?"
"Obviously not."
Silence.
"…Well."
"What?"
"I see only one way, but you're not going to like it."
"Which is?"
"I know only one non-corrupt Aperture AI. Guess who…?"
"…NO."
"Yes! He's the only one!"
"...I guess we don't have a choice, then."
[A/N]
Again, now's the time for theorizing! This might be a tiny bit seriously cliché, but, what do you think is going to happen? One chance only!
Onto the next chapter thirty-three!