Aperture Tardis (Doctor Who X Portal)

Prologue

Cave Johnson's Office,3 / 26 / 1982

Just the smell of dust was enough to make you cough. It collected over months now, not to mention the overflowing file cabinets that desperately needed to be organized. You'd think, even if Johnson was in critical condition, he could at least hire someone to clean up in here...or maybe Caroline. After all she was Johnson's assistant, it was basically her job. Even someone he already had, it just needed to be clean.

Yet, the two scientists kept to themselves and just glanced at each other when they entered the room. The seemed to have the same idea...just nod and when asked directly answer in his favor. These days...Johnson wasn't the same man when they first started this job. Of course he was always an out there guy but now he was just...delirious. As the days went on, you could just tell he was worried. Not only has he been...well...dying, but Aperture was still bankrupt among other things.

Johnson sat at his desk sadly as he coughed and cleared his throat. Cave looked dreadful these days. He was so pail it was almost like all the life was sucked out of him, leaving him empty and broken. His hair line was fading and his eyes...they were just. Sad.

The first scientist was a buff man with a scruffy beard and a rat nest of hair, it looked like he hadn't brushed it in months. He had large bags under his eyes while the rest of his face seemed to be frozen, not to mention his coat was the dirtiest thing in the office. The second scientist had all the classic scientist attire. Very clean coat, (hardly a stain at all), nice suit and tie. He wore square glasses that just didn't want to stay on his nose so he had to keep pushing them with his finger.

Cave looked up at the two of them and straightened himself out. The scruff scientist reached into his coat pocket and pulled out one of those energy shots. Those things were too expensive to get sent down here, so naturally Cave said to make their own instead. It occurred to the second that he must have been awake for days. (Even though he could have sworn that it was still in testing phase). Then he remembered that some of the workers were put in the testing areas since they couldn't get test subjects for cheap.

Cave had sent them both out after he yelled about lemons and burning your house down with' em. After he regained his senses, the two of them were beaconed back in. The red light on the microphone was blinking, meaning it was still recording since they left. The clean one decided to say nothing about it.

"The point is: If we can store music on a compact disc, why can't we store a man's intelligence and personality on one? So I have the engineers figuring that out now." He spoke into the microphone so he knew it was on, then looked at the two of them. Oh, they were engineers.

The clean one coughed and Cave paused the recording. "Uh sir, that takes resources. Do you mean coping you personality? Or do you actually mean downloading? May I remind you we are in a bit of a pinch money wise". Ok, that was a lie. They weren't in a pinch, they didn't even have a dollar.

Cave pressed the button again starting up the recording."Brain Mapping. Artificial Intelligence. We should have been working on it thirty years ago. I will say this - and I'm gonna say it on tape so everybody hears it a hundred times a day: If I die before you people can pour me into a computer, I want Caroline to run this place."

The scruffy one's jaw hung open. The clean one sputtered for words that didn't seem to want to come out. Caroline? Really? I mean, sure she was devoted to science but she wasn't really qualified and not nearly experienced to run the whole facility. Not to mention she was a bit...

"Now she'll argue. She'll say she can't. She's modest like that. But you make her. Hell, put her in my computer. I don't care." His face, no his eyes were filled with determination. There was no way to persuade him other wise. The two looked at each other and knew that artificial intelligence was their next project...no way around it.