==CH5: The Tunnel==
Kate stood in the cage-like elevator as it moved along a rail above her, wondering how many more of these she would have to board.
Like the last, this elevator had entered a tunnel next to the enormous mainline and was now traveling through near-perfect darkness. Unlike the previous elevator ride, however, this ride seemed longer. It had felt like over a half hour had passed. In reality, Kate knew that the feeling wasn't based on the actual time this was taking but was instead caused by her anticipation of what lay ahead. The elevator had only taken off from its station a few minutes ago, and a handful more minutes would see the elevator arrive.
The elevator took a slow turn, and soon, Kate saw a dim warmly-colored light at the end of the tunnel.
David then confirmed the destination aloud.
"Alrighty... it looks like you're about to land at the midpoint waiting room for the test course. According to my schematics, that room should be close to the condemned section's other exit. Your almost out of there! "
Just then, the elevator arrived, and Kate stepped out of it. She went through a door as the elevator began to return to its origin and found herself in the waiting room.
Aside from a few scattered folding chairs and more faded posters hanging on the walls, the room was bare. Kate noticed two doors out of the room, both labeled.
The one directly ahead of her was labeled "Next Test Chamber This Way," while the other was labeled "TUNNEL CR-01 - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY."
Kate recalled the mainline's signage indicating it passed through "Tunnel CR-01" and figured this was the right door.
After entering the tunnel, Kate found herself on a walkway a few feet above a huge metal pipe, which she immediately recognized as the mainline.
Although the tunnel was unsurprisingly dim, Kate could see light coming through an air vent further down the tunnel. As Kate approached the vent, she saw a large sign stenciled onto the tunnel wall: "TUNNEL CR-01."
Kate squinted her eyes toward the vent, wondering why the light was coming out of it when she realized there was a small room on the other side.
Kate shot a portal inside the small room, then searched for another surface to place a portal beside her. She couldn't find any. All the tunnel walls were smooth, slightly-curved concrete. It was all slightly damp as well. As she continued looking, she was reminded why she knew what to look for.
As one of her many small research projects back in the misc science lab, Kate had decided to research different types of portal-conductive surfaces to see what they might have in common, as well as several surfaces that didn't conduct portals. Aperture had posted the need for such an experiment on the company-wide BBS over a decade prior. Still, nobody paid attention to it- all of them under the same assumptions that they hadn't bothered to challenge, despite being scientists. Kate's findings blew those assumptions out of the water. While most of her colleagues throughout the company believed all portal surfaces needed to be painted with lunar sediment, Kate's research showed that portals only required a surface to be crystalline in nature- essentially, for a quantum tunnel to open, it already had to be full of holes on a more-or-less microscopic level. This was a trait all portal-able surfaces held in common. Dry Concrete, perforated metal sheets, plywood, painted walls..and many others. Unfortunately, another scientist had taken the credit for her discovery. Although Aperture saved millions of dollars that day, Kate had yet to gain a cent of a raise for her efforts, which she initially felt quite angry at. In fact, the memory still made her angry.
Those selfish fools, Kate thought to herself. There were good people in Aperture, but also some bad ones.
Soon, Kate found a flat and dry portion of the wall. It was a barrier of cinderblocks that had once been a door to an unknown area on the other side. She placed her other portal on it and entered the vent room through it. Once inside, she noticed a doorway leading into a short hallway, which she traversed. Kate was now in a large, dimly lit control room.
There were control panels everywhere, but none were active, Kate realized.
The room had huge windows sloping outwards over a dark void, which Kate assumed was some kind of long-abandoned test chamber that reminded her of the superconductor test. Kate shuddered.
She wasn't sure what to do, and it dawned on her that David hadn't spoken for a while. Kate looked around the room until she found a breaker lever on the wall, which she flipped upwards.
The room vibrated slightly, and soon the room became much brighter as the equipment came to life. The void on the other side of the glass became visible with a bright flash as overhead lighting burst on, and Kate saw a gigantic machine within. Unlike the superconductor, this machine had no ambiguity: it was unmistakably a massive generator, laying dormant. There was also the mainline, which came through an opening in the wall and abruptly split into hundreds of individual cables connected to the generator.
Suddenly, David's voice crackled through a speaker on one of the control panels.
"AH! There you are! Good... I was starting to worry that you had gotten lost. Theres no cameras or speakers between the waiting room and here, so I didn't have a way to communicate. I'm glad you found the way!"
Kate nodded, and David continued.
"So uh... let's see...what do we do now?" He paused for thought, then said, "Right. So, There is an elevator somewhere in that control room that you will need to activate, and once you're on board, you're on your way up to where I'm at!"
Kate was eager to find the elevator and the right switch to activate it. She had been trapped in her lab, and then this old facility, for seemingly ages. She could hardly wait to return to the main facility and discover what had happened.
After a brief search, Kate found the elevator. It was a simple platform elevator that ran on a rail up through a hole in the ceiling of the control room. All Kate had to do was step onboard and press the red button, and she knew she would be on her way.
Kate stepped onboard the platform and turned to take another look towards the huge generator. After a brief pause, Kate pressed the red button to ascend.
She was startled by a shower of sparks from the button, followed by the lights dimming momentarily. As the elevator motor began to wine and slowly ascended, the room rumbled, and Kate felt electricity in the air. Then, several showers of sparks and arcs of wild electricity flew through the air in the generator room as the ancient machine started itself up.
Kate silently cursed to herself. She should have known that a malfunction like that could happen, and now she hoped that the elevator would speed up. She didn't want to be in this room if the gigantic unstable machine were to explode.
As if on cue, the elevator motor finally engaged the rail properly, and Kate was whisked toward the modern main facility above, leaving behind the dusty, decrepit 90s facility for good.