One by one, the lights of Black Mesa East shut off with a hefty kerchunk. Hallways went dark, bedrooms turned pitch black, and the kitchen became lit only by the green numbers on the microwave's clock. Barney saw all of this as Eli Vance and he descended into the bowels of the base together, Barney leaning a little heavier than he would like on the doctor.
"We have tea in the breakroom," said the doctor as they neared the bottom, giving Barney a worried glance. Barney just smiled and nodded. The few parts of him that didn't feel the waves of exhaustion cresting over the horizon were numb from the cold of his sodden clothing. "Hmm. Let's get you out of those clothes first."
"Sounds good, doc."
The elevator came to a rickety halt at a lit room – this deep underground there was no point cutting the power, especially given the sensitivity of the equipment. Two figures greeted them on exit; the hunched over form of a vortigaunt (still a somewhat unwelcome sight) and Judith Mossman (always a welcome sight.) Of course, Barney could distinguish between the warm look she gave the doctor and the more guarded expression she gave him. Eh. Why do the guys with PhDs get all the luck?
"Barney! It's so good to see you're all right." She gave Barney's shoulder a swift squeeze, only to wrinkle her nose as the water welled up and out over her white knuckles. Her hand retreated swiftly to her pant leg. "Eli, we're going into lockdown and I've been hearing the most godawful noises. What's going on?"
"We are in the playground of giants," murmured the vortigaunt. "In time, we will see clearly the dark visage these titans bear…"
"It's a UFO, Judith," replied Eli hurriedly, as Barney sagged a little harder against his shoulder, making the doctor stumble. "Look, we need to get some food in Barney, and these clothes off of him."
"He can change in the security room." Judith gestured to a door behind her. "I can grab some spare clothes from the hazard shower."
Judith hurried off, while Eli escorted Barney through the door and into a swivel chair. Barney stared, eyes only half-open, at the collection of screens before him. From the glow, he could tell they were on. There was just nothing to see with the lights turned off. Barney shifted in place, and the chair made squishing sounds.
"Getting your chair wet. Sorry, doc." He meant to turn to the doctor and thank him, but for some reason he could not turn away from the screens. Something silhouetted in the darkness, making Barney dizzy. For a few moments, the world turned to a cold but safe place, a place where he could do no harm, and no harm could come to him. Then he came to abruptly, finding himself standing next to a very shaken Dr. Vance.
"Doc?" asked Barney, not sure what had just happen, but Eli just backed away from him. "Sorry, I guess I blanked out there for a second. Is something wrong?"
"Not again," muttered Eli, head shaking twice, his gaze fixed on the floor. One hand went to his brow, then to his chest, then to either side of his chest. Barney could not remember what the word for that was, but he knew what it meant. "No, I know what that means."
Light spilled into the dimness of the security station as Dr. Mossman strolled inside, pressed an folded civilian clothes in her arms. Her expression immediately changed to one of concern.
"Eli? What's wrong?"
Eli stiffened, as if coming out of some kind of trance. His head snapped up to Barney, then to Dr. Mossman, then the screen. His expression softened, but some panicked fire still danced in his eyes.
"It's – it's nothing. Sorry, Judith. Barney – it's fine. Let's get you dressed. We'll wait outside." Eli put a hand on Dr. Mossman's back and steered her out of the room. The door shut. After a moment, it opened again, and Dr. Mossman sheepishly handed Barney the clothes. It's been a long day for everyone, feels like. What the hell was that about? Barney glanced back at the security screens. Funny, he hadn't noticed them turning off. The room was now almost black as pitch, the only light coming from the bottom and sides of the door.
Barney stripped his soaked clothing and flung into the corner with a squelch. Part of him hoped someone would burn the damn things, but he doubted the stuff would ever catch fire. Plus, it would be a waste. He donned his fresh set of clothes – jeans, an undershirt, and a scratchy white woolen sweater – and swung the door open. Eli now leaned against the wall, with Dr. Mossman resting a hand against his upper arm. He still gave Barney a bright, if tired, smile as he emerged as a much warmer mess.
"You're sure you're okay, Eli?" asked Dr. Mossman, but Eli waved her off gently.
"It's not me we should be worried about," said Eli, standing from the wall. "How does it fit, Barney? Not too snug, I hope?"
"Nah, it's good. Thanks doc." Barney glanced curiously to his right. Wires crisscrossed the ceiling and ran to the machines that lay before him. A series of monitors adorned a handful of cluttered desks, all of them still turned on. And between the desks, a familiar and unwelcome sight. Blue ribbons of steel surrounding a small blue platform. The other end of Kleiner's teleport. "Man. Part of me almost hopes you get that thing working so I don't have to make that trip back."
"Heh, I can hardly believe my ears, Barney. Especially given what happened with that cat." Eli's brow furrowed. "I know this isn't the most important, but … you didn't tell Alyx about that, did you?"
Barney lifted his right hand. "Scout's honor, doc. Far as she knows, Lamarr's the only pet we ever kept at that lab." Actually, why don't we send her through the teleporter? "I heard something about tea?"
"We have brought the beverage," murmured a voice from beyond the closest door in front of them. The vortigaunt emerged with a single steaming cup of tea. "We who weave the Vortessence have communed and discovered, with some difficulty, that the Barney Calhoun takes sugar."
"Knew there was a reason we kept you guys around." Barney accepted the piping hot mug gratefully. "Thanks, uh…?"
"This one requires no name, for the moment." The vortigaunt inclined his head and brought his hands together. "The Eli Vance should attend to the Vahlen Doctor. She is protesting her inability to dissect the specimens without a source of light."
"That's what she's worried about?" asked Eli, sounding incredulous. Barney and Dr. Mossman exchanged glances behind his back. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me in the least. "All right, stop her from doing anything too crazy. I need to talk to these two, and then I can get back to the thick of it."
"We will depart and restrain the Vahlen Doctor from performing any acts that lack overt sanity." The vortigaunt inclined his head once more. As he turned to leave, he sniffed once, and then cast a look back at Barney Calhoun. His lip turned upward, revealing pointed teeth.
"Something secret-"
"We'll discuss that later," said Eli sharply, making Barney wonder what the hell was going on. I'm missing something here. Might be because I'm tired. He took a sip of his tea. Holy hell, that's just the right amount of sugar.
"So Eli," said Dr. Mossman weakly, "a UFO?"
"Is it so difficult to believe, Judith, given the world we live in?" Eli sighed and rubbed his temples. "These … damn, I don't know what else to call them, these "grays" have been hounding Barney up and down the canals. When they finally caught him in the open, they sent in a flying saucer, maybe sixty feet across. The Combine didn't like that – hit it with a suppression device from the Citadel."
"They must have set it to the artillery configuration." Barney slumped back against the security room door. "Jesus. And if that's active and we have a spy-"
Eli swept a hand in front of him. "They could wipe us out at any given moment. We've already packed up the Railroad. We might have to do the same here."
"But where would we go?" Dr. Mossman shook her head. "Eli, the vortigaunts have lost contact with the Coast, and White Forest is just as vulnerable to a strike from the Citadel. We'd have to start all over. We've already been living with the Combine's Sword of Damocles dangling over our head…"
"It's just something to consider, Judith," said Eli, giving her a knowing look. "Believe me, I'd rather not go through the headache of trying to get our people through the wastelands. Or, God forbid, Ravenholm."
"Rather the teleport than Ravenholm," said Barney, meaning it. He took another sip of his tea. "Still, might want to perform a few evacuation drills. Make sure people know where the deepest and thickest parts of the base are. And the escape routes." A short silence descended between the three of them.
"This is a good thing, though, isn't it?" asked Dr. Mossman hesitantly. "These invaders – we don't know if they are on our side, or amenable to being on our side, but they're fighting the Combine. That's good, isn't it?"
Eli gave Barney a knowing look before answering the doctor. "When the HECU stormed Black Mesa, Judith, they fought the Xen invaders. That was a good thing too, wasn't it?"
"From your perspective, perhaps not-"
"No, Judith," said Eli, swiping across the air again with the flat of his hand. "No, it was not. The damage could have been contained if they had cooperated with the science team, instead of going the path of least resistance and trying to deny all accountability. That is why I am drawing this comparison: they tried to kill Barney. They hunted him like an animal. They did not try to establish any dialogue. If and when they do, I might be amenable. But until then, I am not willing to assume that any enemy of the Combine is an enemy of ours. They clearly have their own agenda, here."
"But it could be a good thing, doc," said Barney, feeling a stab of anxiety as the two doctors turned to look at him. Hell, at any point in my life did I ever picture inserting myself in an argument between two hard science PhDs? "Allied or no, these guys have given the Combine something else to shoot at. And maybe we could learn something from them, find some kind of weapon?"
"Or, alternatively, these aliens have poked the hornet's nest and are only now realizing that the air has filled with buzzing." Eli shook his head. "Do you think these invaders have brought seven billion soldiers with them, Barney? And if they did, do you think it would be enough? They brought in a UFO, yes, very impressive, but the Combine shot it down in mere minutes after it made an appearance."
"They do have mind control, doc," said Barney, shrugging. "I dunno. You asked me a week ago how we were gonna kick the Combine off the planet, I would have told you we couldn't. Now, I would say … well, I would say I dunno, but if that there is a way, a war between the Combine and E.T. would be our opening."
"No. A full-scale war would be the end of us." Eli rubbed his chin. "But … something smaller, something Dr. Breen felt he could control for his puppetmasters…"
"The Combine have not opened a superportal since the Seven Hour War's conclusion," added Dr. Mossman. "Their tunneling method is inefficient; we know this. So long as the alien operations remain small – and if we keep our own operations small – they should see no reason to trouble the homeworld."
"This is just supposition." Eli rubbed his temples, but still looked up to the two of them with a grin. "All right, you two. You've both given me a lot to think about, but it's getting late. Barney, you've already pulled an all-nighter, so you need to get some rest." He pressed his palms together and put them under his chin before looking to Judith pleadingly. "And … could you help me with Moira?"
"The woman knows her operating suite is not the priority here," snapped Dr. Mossman, and she marched to the elevator. Eli hung back for a second. "We've prepared quarters for you, down the hall and to the right." Eli gestured to the door the vortigaunt had disappeared through. "Should be some stew on a hot plate in there, if you're hungry. There's a hazard shower across the way as well, if you want to wipe off the rest of the river's gunk."
"All sounds good to me, doc." Barney pulled Eli into a one-armed hug, making the man chuckle. "All right. Don't let Dr. Vahlen drive you crazy, now."
"It's too late for me," called out Dr. Mossman from the elevator. Barney and Eli parted with shared grunts of laughter. As soon as Barney closed the door behind him, he staggered against a wall, head spinning a little. No more adventures for a little bit. Jesus.
He found his "quarters" easily enough – a repurposed storage closet that likely once stored tinned Cold War rations. Bare concrete walls and a bare concrete ceiling, from which a lightbulb on a spindly wire dangled, filling the room with a dull and flickering light. A cot sat in the corner with a dirtied mattress and threadbare blanket slumped over it. A hot plate filled with bubbling brown gruel steamed atop a small folding table alongside it, a grubby bowl and spoon laid neatly before it. Barney downed the rest of his tea and set the cup down on the table before digging in to his meager meal, which he was delighted to find had some meat floating in it. You know, despite what they're called, they really don't taste like crab.
No sooner had Barney finished the last spoonful and wiped the film from his mouth, his head drooped again. This time he had a place to rest it. He collapsed gratefully on top of his bed and felt sleep edge into his consciousness almost immediately.
If Barney dreamt of anything, he forgot about it once he woke up. Someone was shaking his arm and saying his name. For a moment he thought it was Kleiner.
"Hell, doc, lay off, would-" He stopped, blinking. A man with a wispy beard and dressed in full lambda gear, bulletproof vest and all, stepped back apologetically. "Ah. Not a doc, sorry." He stood from the bed, shedding the blanket.
"Hey, you don't know that!" replied the soldier, winking. "Plenty of docs in this base. This is just my, ah, part-time job."
The way the man said it, Barney could tell he was not nearly old enough to have been an adult prior to the occupation. Jesus, how are we gonna rehabilitate the whole planet after this? A stupid question, really. There were a few other steps to cover in the plan before they got to the "how do we recover" stage.
"Right. Believe me, I know. Used to work security at this one place, Black Mesa?" Barney shook his head. "Man, that place had the worst workplace safety. I had one coworker who said his daily commute took him over a toxic waste spill, can you believe it?"
The soldier laughed, but nervously. Barney could tell he did not know how much of what he had just said was true. Is it still funny if he knew I made none of it up?
"Anyway, there a reason you waking me up on my day off, pal?" continued Barney. The soldier shifted uncomfortably, still not sure if Barney was joking.
"Uh, sorry Calhoun, didn't know. The docs want to speak to you upstairs, in Vahlen's playground." He jerked a gloved thumb back behind him. "Second floor, up the elevator. I think they're doing an autopsy of those things that followed you down the dam."
"Oh goody," said Barney, trying and failing to muster any kind of enthusiasm. "Look man, I'm not a doc either. What the hell do they think I'll get from any of this?" Barney glanced longingly back at his rumpled blanket.
"I dunno. Maybe they just need a security guard?"
Barney shook his head. Swear to God, it's like the day of the incident. Fucking Sector C scientists not even able to operate an elevator without my help.
"You may as well take me, man. I don't remember where it is." Plus, I like staying out of Dr. Vahlen's way. What little he knew about the woman suggested she would have been right at home in the Resonance Cascade control room, cheerfully suggesting they push the equipment past 105%, just to see what would happen.
The soldier shrugged and stepped outside, leaving Barney to follow, yawning.
"How long I been out?"
"Ten hours," replied the guy, making Barney snort. Okay, never mind, I got enough sleep. "We've powered on some of the upper levels of the facility, since we don't need the lights to see right now. Heard tell that there's a big old crash site a ways off from us, but the Combine are crawling all over it. Don't think we're getting any pieces."
"Do we need any?" asked Barney as they entered the open elevator. The soldier pounded the second floor button. "We got corpses to work with, you'd think that would be good enough."
The soldier shrugged. "That's for the docs to say. Way I see it, I don't want to go anywhere near where the Combine have taken an active interest. When they actually give a fuck about something, they don't usually hold back from making sure they get it."
"Yeah, no kidding." Barney thought back to his CP days. Yeah, when it's time to escalate, they never hesitated about sending in striders. Still, it usually took a lot to make them want to escalate.
The elevator came to another rickety halt. The soldier continued onward, gesturing to the rooms on his right. It looked like a classroom – no, a high school science lab – dressed up to give it some semblance of propriety. The alien corpses, laying flat against gurneys, or several gurneys in the case of the bigger pink-skinned fuckers, definitely helped in that regard. Trays of surgical instruments lined each corpse, and a short woman with brown hair, dressed in blue scrubs stood over … one of the E.T.s, but not Barney's find. Eli and Dr. Mossman glanced up as Barney stood at the entrance, but she remained intent on her work, her rubber gloves coated in a sickly green color.
"Doc, is there some scientific reason all the alien bastards who come to our planet bleed green or yellow blood?" asked Barney. But Eli just pressed a finger to his lips and motioned for him to come over. Barney obeyed. Dr. Vahlen gave no impression of having heard him.
"Heavy muscular degeneration," reported the doctor in slightly accented English. "There is a single lung here, similar to a bird's. Consistent with the primary specimen. With one significant difference." Dr. Vahlen removed her hands from the alien's torso and instead reached for its skull. Barney grimaced as she widened a hole she had apparently made earlier and angled it for the audience's viewing pleasure. "There. See? The cranium of the primary specimen is noticeably distended, while this one is smaller, reflected by the relatively smaller size of the brain."
"So, the bigger brained creature is some kind of leader?" asked Eli, brow furrowing.
"Tough to say. Complicated by the blood samples." Dr. Vahlen removed her hands from the hole. "According to our DNA test, they are all the same individual. Genetic clones."
"Begun, the Clone Wars have," intoned Barney, making Dr. Mossman giggle before catching herself. The other two plainly did not get the reference.
"Clones?" asked Eli. He pointed to Barney's E.T. who did, Barney suddenly noticed, have a much larger skull than the other ones he had seen. "Moira, if these are all the same individual, why has this one's brain and cranium experienced a 40% increase in mass?"
"Post-birth operation," said Dr. Vahlen, sounding quite certain. She glanced to the corner, where, to Barney's shock, a vortigaunt he had not even noticed stood – carrying a clipboard and wearing a lab coat! "Igor, bring up the slides."
"Igor?" asked Barney weakly. Eli shook his head slightly. Dr. Vahlen again ignored him. Igor slid a projector from the wall and pressed a hand against it. Green light flowed from his fingers and into the projector, which lit a shaky image on to the room's blackboard. X-ray scans of a skull and brain shone from its surface.
"Surgical scars – not mine – here, here, and here," said Dr. Vahlen, each "here" punctuated with a click as she shone a laser pointer on parts of the screen. "The brain is structured differently than ours or a vortigaunt's, but retains the same familiar patterns of decision-making, autonomous life functions, and personality." Dr. Vahlen circled each area with her laser pointer. "There are two areas, however, that appear to be severely underdeveloped in our, hmm, "non-gifted" specimens."
"Decision making and leadership capability," said Dr. Mossman, plainly following something that Barney could not, "and … what?"
Dr. Vahlen developed a glint in her eye. That, Barney could pick up on. His heart gave a start as she rounded on him.
"I am told you procured the primary specimen, yes?"
"E.T.?" asked Barney, trying not to stutter. Dr. Vahlen tutted.
"Are you going to reference every single pop sci-fi film while you are here, Calhoun? Yes, "E.T.," the larger-brained specimen."
"Yeah, I brought him in. Had to waste him with a high caliber pulse rifle mounted on an APC."
"And he exhibited, for lack of better vernacular, mind control capabilities over a Civil Protection officer?" asked Dr. Vahlen.
"Yeah, made the guy waste another officer. I think it also spoke through him. But yeah, it definitely got ahold of the guy's brain and puppeteered him."
"But the lesser specimens have not exhibited this behavior." Dr. Vahlen gestured to her latest subject, as well as the other one. "Psionic aptitude, let us call it. Igor, would you concur?"
"These bonds they weave, they are not of the Vortessence," murmured Igor, casting a red eye to those assembled. "Nor are they kin with Shu'ulathoi. Their bonds are of a different nature, honed to be a weapon. A crueler, simpler means of sharpening the mind into little more than a dagger." The vortigaunt coughed. "But yes, the Vahlen Doctor asks, and we answer. Psionics, as we understand the term, is applicable."
"Psychic powers then?" Barney shrugged. Really, what else could he call what the vortigaunts did? And hell, it made the whole "E.T." thing even more appropriate. Score one for Calhoun, science. Suck it!
"I prefer psionics. We might be trapped in an austere scientific environment, but that is no reason to lapse into overly general terms." Dr. Vahlen gave another smile. "But what is especially important to note is that this part of the brain, its neural map? Is not entirely absent in humans."
Dr. Mossman and Eli donned expressions of mixed interest and shock. Igor growled a little, but it was tough to tell if it was out of anger. Barney, flashing back to his own struggles in high school chemistry, politely raised his hand.
"Doc, gotta be honest, not sure why you wanted me up here. But since you did, you know, drag me out of bed, mind telling this humble former community college student what you're saying?"
"She's saying that humanity might not be entirely cut off from these kinds of abilities, as improbable as that might sound," said Dr. Mossman, frowning. "But, given that we manifestly do not have human psychics running around…"
"Human psionic users," insisted Dr. Vahlen with a wagging finger, making Dr. Mossman's face turn stony. "No, we do not at present have access to these kinds of abilities. However, neither did the original cloned specimen." Dr. Vahlen pointed to one of the smaller-skulled E.T.s. "We have reason to believe that some kind of surgical procedure or stimulus can endow these, to be frank, pathetic creatures with an incredible power. There is a possibility, if an outlandish one, that we might be able to accomplish something similar with our own people."
No one spoke for a few moments. Eli was the one to eventually rest a hand on Dr. Vahlen's bloodstained shoulder. "Moira," said Eli, "if we can give ourselves a weapon the Combine have little or no defense against, I would be fully on board with that. However, whatever tests we conduct, whomever we conduct them on, it must be safe enough that an internal review board back in the States would accept it. That's my request. Do you understand?"
"Humanity is in the throes of enforced mass sterilization," replied Dr. Vahlen stoically. "I would be foolish to waste test subjects, doctor."
"Plus, you know," said Barney stepping forward with arms stretched to either side of him, "it would be wrong."
"Yes. Obviously."
"Well, this has my support, at least," said Dr. Mossman. "Moira – what did you have in mind?"
"I will need to run more tests on the bodies before I can begin postulating what might be done." Dr. Vahlen glanced to Igor. "I would appreciate your peoples' help with this. There is some, however small, similarity between your brain's own link to the Vortessence and this alien's psionic brain center. I fully admit I am out of my element."
"These powers are useless in absence of discipline," growled Igor, removing his hand from the projector, which died immediately. "We will do what we can. If the worst does not come to pass, we will ensure your warrior's capabilities will be almost … vortal."
"So, you see no problem with humans developing these kinds of abilities?" asked Eli. The vortigaunt shook his head.
"Would that we had an endless sea of time, to eventually draw you and yours up from the eddies of rank ignorance and into the shallows of enlightened Vortessence. But the Combine and these … pretenders at wisdom, demand a swift response. We are willing to permit the unthinkable and draw you at long last to our side."
"You are certain there will be no unforeseen consequences?" asked Eli, with a strange sharpness that made Barney's neck hair prickle.
The vortigaunt gave Eli a long, drawn out stare.
"If these consequences are unforeseeable, then how would we foresee them? The Eli Vance must draw his own conclusions. We have said our piece."
"Right." Eli rubbed his chin. "I … I think we should continue, assuming we can do so safely."
"I am, however, going to need more specimens," said Dr. Vahlen. She gave Barney a long look. Barney soon began to understand why she had called him up here. "Preferably live ones."
Barney gave Dr. Vahlen the largest, and most insincere smile he could humanly muster.
"Of course you do, doc."