My Little Portal

by Daylight Shadows

Chapter 5: The Research Paper

Twilight made her way into the next test chamber. Test Chamber 13 was cold and much like the previous chamber, but with more toxic sludge. As if that wasn’t enough, turrets were scattered on high-raised platforms standing in the sludge. Twilight aimed and fired her portal gun at a nearby energy ball in order to send energy balls right at the turrets. Each one was struck by the blazing ball, and all of them fell into the toxic sludge. Twilight smirked at the thought of them ascending into android hell.

She finished the puzzle, having to struggle to get the energy ball into the target; especially with the sliding glass doors blocking it. That took her twenty-two minutes. Twilight advanced into the elevator. The elevator creaked and groaned as it made its way to the next test chamber. Twilight was bored.

‘Way too many puzzles, not enough excitement,’ she thought. ‘And that’s odd for me, because I love puzzles.’ Twilight decided to cure her boredom through investigation. She was going to investigate EVERYTHING about Aperture Science, and write a research paper. Just the thought of it made her squee with excitement.
GLaDOS finally spoke since Test Chamber 12. “Once you finish this test, and its ‘friends’ then you will be thanked. And then we will have cake.”

Something was wrong.

Twilight knew the moment GLaDOS said that line and the fact Test Chamber 14’s sign actually said “Test Chamber 16,” that something was wrong. Maybe GLaDOS was rushing to finish testing? That didn’t sound like her.
Nonetheless, Twilight was determined to do her research. Once the elevator made it to “Test Chamber 16,” she walked off it and made her way to a broken wall panel, with a space big enough to squeeze through to the maintenance sections of Aperture. She slipped in through the gap, nearly breaking her ankle in the process. She walked on the iron walkway to a set of stairs that lead to a set of small offices. The offices were obviously deserted and damaged; there were no scientists of any sort inside and there was broken equipment rusting on decks, musty office supplies scattered all over the floor, and mold caked on the walls.

Celestia’s student studied the environment. She made her way to the only working computer, and without any thought, she began to press keys on the broken keyboard, aching for information. The keyboard was only missing its number pad, which made it easy for Twilight to use the Aperture search engine. She typed “GLaDOS” in the search bar and hit “enter.” Documents surrounding the GLaDOS Project came up: blueprints, scientists’ notes, and death records.

Twilight frowned. “Death records?” she said to herself. “Who died during the installation of an artificial intelligence computer?” The Element of Magic clicked on the death record folder, pulling up hundreds of the death records of scientists; though one stood out. Twilight clicked on the earliest recorded death, which was of a woman:

**APERTURE SCIENCE DEATH RECORDS**
*We are not responsible for the deaths of employees, test subjects, or family members in any case. Each individual has signed a waiver saying they cannot sue Aperture Science Laboratories in any case of injury or death. Remember: if you died during testing, you did it for science.*

NAME: Caroline <REDACTED>

Twilight tensed. ‘Wasn’t that the name of the woman GLaDOS mentioned she was before…?’ The unicorn-girl kept reading.

AGE: 58
MARITAL STATUS: <REDACTED>
FAMILY STATUS: <REDACTED>
OCCUPATION: Aperture CEO, successor to Cave Johnson

The hair on the back of Twilight’s neck stood on end when she read the cause of death.

CAUSE OF DEATH: Given immortality. Served as base for GLaDOS Project, read File 82-CJLR for details.

“They forced Caroline to be GLaDOs?!” Twilight was mortified. “That poor woman! Unless she actually consented, of course; but still! No-pony , or human, should be forced to be a computer.” Twilight had something she could use for her research paper, but it was only a name and it was who served as the brain and personality for GLaDOS. Other than that, Twilight still had questions: Who was Caroline? Who was Cave Johnson? Why was Caroline chosen for the GLaDOS project? Who was the girl in the painting downstairs? How is she significant to Aperture?

Twilight knewshe was going to have to wait until later. In the meantime, she still had to satisfy GLaDOS, and needed to somehow teach her what friendship really meant. “But how?” she asked herself.

Comments

[dukesofhazzardftw]

Throw her aaaaa PARTY!!!

[That One Hunter]

3410906 Eeyup

[Daylight Shadows]

3591115
It nis believed that Caroline, the woman uploaded into GLADOS was Chell's mother.

[Daylight Shadows]

5740389
Thank you!