The Lab Rat

Preface

It was the early 90's. Doug Rattmann was working at Aperture Science Laboratories on the Aperture Handheld Quantum Tunnelling Device.

"For God's sake, Caroline, it's impossible!" Rattmann shouted at a long, greasy black-haired woman, probably in her sixties.

"It's Miss Caroline to you. And of course you can do it, you're the biggest brain here! And if you're not, well, you're fired." Caroline answered, then stalked away, slamming the door shut.

"Christ, if I keep working like that, I'll soon only be the Ghost Of Rattmann..." The scientist whispered.

"AND STOP USING CHRIST'S NAME IN VAIN!" Caroline shouted, as though she heard him.

For three month, Doug Rattmann worked day and night. He knew he could do it, but he knew he couldn't. By day 62, he started to make some progress. Then, one day, he shot a portal at the wall. And it stuck. Chills starting coursing through his body as he aimed for the opposite wall. His vision was blurred by tears, but he could see. The Handheld Portal Device worked. He immediatly reached out to call Caroline. A mechanical voice answered.

"Hello! Aperture CEO's office, how can we help you?" 

"I need to talk to Caroline!" He excitedly said to the voice.

"Excuse me, Miss Caroline is unavailable at the moment." The voice said before hanging up.

"No..." Doug collapsed to the ground. He might've been there for seconds, minutes, hours, days. Then, the door crashed open.

"hey, Doug! Haven't you heard? Miss Caroline is dying! She wants all of us to work on an AI to stock her mind, hurry!" the man told him before running off again. Doug got up, and a frenzy took control of him. He flipped the table over, took a computer and threw it to the ground. Then, he seized a chair and hurled it a the glass panel in front of him. It bounced, hitting his head, knocking him out cold. When he woke up, he could barely stand. His head hurt. He reached out to feel the bruise. When he looked at his hand, it was smeared with blood. He threw up. He trash and flailed. He was now only an empty shell. With all his might, he opened a drawer and took pain-killers. He put the rest of them in his pocket, took bandages in the emergency med-kit, rapped up his head in one and ran to Caroline's office.When he opened the door, every scientists were already there. Between coughs, Caroline talked to him.

"Doug... You're my only hope. Aperture's only hope to keep it's CEO..." then she fell asleep. Or, at least he supposed she was asleep. Maybe she was dead.

"I finished the Portal Device." He whispered. Maybe he dreamt it, but he could've sworn she said "Thank you".