Subject 3281; Chell's Story

Bring Your Daughter to Work Day

Subject 3281 woke with a start, and realized two things nearly simultaneously. One, the room she and her partner were currently occupying was descending at a rather leisurely pace; and two, there would be no morning sanitation break.

Maybe, she thought as she sat up and heard her partner do the same, just maybe I pushed that man—may his name be cursed for all of eternity—a bit too far this time. Then, her thought completed, the girl turned to face her schedule printer, and stuck her forearm into it. She half-expected nothing to happen, for no sustenance to be given to her as a further reprimand, but—luckily—she was soon proved wrong on that score. The girl withdrew her arm upon the printer's completion, and looked to her schedule:

Subject 3281
810: Begin testing
2100: Hygienic break; sleep

"I thought it was strange that we were going down," The girl looked to her partner in surprise. He held up his left forearm and tapped the schedule printed there. "No hygienic break. Ominous. D'you reckon that means anything, '81?" Subject 3281 made a point to ignore his little ironic smile and his use of the hackneyed nickname, but her lips tightened in spite of herself; she'd grown quite used to his name for her, and—apparently—rather fond of it.

She did indeed 'reckon' that the lack of their sanitation break that morning meant something. Something very ominous indeed. It confirmed, she believed, what she had suspected before; the fact that she had gone a little bit overboard the day before. Yeah, she thought, her lips tightening once more, just a bit.

As the Subject 3281 was processing this last thought, the room ground to a halt around them, and the girl reached for her ASHPD, nearly forgetting to put on her boots in her haste. A low curse—no more than a whisper, really—escaped her list as she set her yellow-striped gun on the floor beside her feet, and pulled her boots on. From the clanking at the other end of the room, it was apparent that her partner was doing the same.

As soon as the last strap on her Longfall boots had beam tightened sufficiently, The girl grabbed her gun, and rose to join her partner who had finished before her, and was at that moment standing before the chamberlock.

"So," he said, as they waited for the door to open, "Big day, huh? Bring Your Daughter to Work day, Wonder how it's going to turn out?" The girl made no reply, and the door opened in due time. The girl looked to her partner who gave her a half-smile, and lead them out into the open.

As the circular port shut behind her, Subject 3281 made a quick assessment of the chamber they now found themselves in.

There were two platforms; one they were currently standing on, and one of the same level as them across the way; separated from them by a vat of frothing greenish-brown liquid. She had a horrible suspicion that it was some sort of flesh-eating acid. And so the stakes are raised, the girl thought as she continued to examine her surroundings.

On the platform with her directly to her left stood a little freestanding wall made of portal panels, as well as a Thermal Discouragement Beam emitter on the wall behind it, shooting its side with a red-orange stream of hot energy. The wall behind them appeared to be made out of portal-panel as well.

On the platform across from the duo stood the exit door, with two floor buttons that, when simultaneously activated—or so she assumed—would serve to open the door. None of the walls nor floor of that side were made of portal panel, but—right in line with the freestanding wall and the Beam emitter on their side—there was an Thermal Discouragement Beam receiver that powered what looked to be a flipping panel—That is, a panel that would flip to reveal a portal surface.

Subject 3281 blinked. Could it really be that easy? Even with the added danger of deadly acid, this test seemed laughably simple. Why—

"Hello and, again, welcome to the Aperture Science Computer Aided Enrichment Program," The sound of Her voice repeating Her opening line stopped the girl's thoughts in their tracks.