We weren’t even testing for that

[synchrosyntheses]

Among the information she has archived or cached, there are obscure theories about inter-universal interactions. Not how they might happen, much less how any intelligence might begin one, or target it meaningfully.

But they give some constraints on the properties of such connections, and their time evolution.

This highly speculative information is available to her, but even were she fast enough to access it, none of it would be particularly useful when a pinpoint of not here blinks into existence directly ahead and expands spherically to swallow her.

Comments

[unbitwise]

It turns out that after a bit of distance, the defective turrets —

make a left turn and are merged into the line of normal turrets, which is visible ahead moving rightward! Either Aperture Science is being especially nonsensical today, or someone went to a lot of effort to sabotage this system while still keeping its elements intact.

Would she like to stop hugging that turret and jump off before she ends up closer to a bunch of turrets, or continue along? (They'll be facing to the left side, so she won't be in their field of view, either way.)

[mstestsubject]

Yeah, she'll jump off.

(This is very puzzling.)

[unbitwise]

Puzzles are an important element of testing! (But this is not a test. The voice said so.)

She's now standing on the conveyor support structure, watching the back sides of turrets pass by up ahead. There are no catwalks or portalable walls nearby. Below is not quite bottomless, but it's a bit of a fall to the nearest pipes-and-whatnot. The perpendicular conveyor ahead does have a floor underneath it, and beyond (that is to say, where the turrets are looking) there is a perfectly respectable walkway parallelling the conveyor. With a white wall beyond it.

[mstestsubject]

She's not really afraid of a fall whose bottom she can see. She drops.

[unbitwise]

It's a poorly-lit tangle of pipes, cables, girders, et cetera.

Down is more of the same and then bottomless pit. Looking around from this slightly better perspective for an overview suggests that most of the machines and catwalks and so on are above the height she's at now. Unless there's something interesting hiding in the murk below.

[mstestsubject]

Any portalable surfaces she can use to get up there?

[unbitwise]

Not obviously, and there definitely aren't any down here. Leaving here will probably require climbing along the girders. There's plenty of those.

[mstestsubject]

...fine, then. Climb climb climb (she's pretty nimble for someone who spent who knows how many years in suspension).

[unbitwise]

Welcome back! The turret conveyor T-junction is still just ahead.

[mstestsubject]

She wants to move on and go somewhere else. How about that place where she'd be right in front of the turrets, can she run fast enough not to be shot?

[unbitwise]

If she goes right to the end of the sort-of-room where the T-junction is, she'd have to hop the railing while they're targeting her, but she would then immediately be able to proceed out of line of sight.

If she doesn't want to attempt that, another option is continuing to follow the turrets, just walking on the right side of the track so none of the turrets are anywhere close to facing her.

[mstestsubject]

...she'll just attempt that, she's fast enough and those bullets only really leave bruises.

[unbitwise]

“Target acquired.”

clickclickclickclick

And she's around the corner.

Ahead: Dusty old offices and meeting rooms!

[mstestsubject]

...clickclickclickclick...

Okay, she'll forge on ahead.

[unbitwise]

The Employee Daycare Center.

It appears that just before it was abandoned they were having a science fair. Forty potato battery exhibits seems a bit much, though.

Well, this potato has moved on to — bigger — things.

[mstestsubject]

Yes, yes it has. She's proud of her potato. It's a very good potato. She pets her potato, then moves on.

[unbitwise]

The offices give way to narrow corridors and standard catwalks, with pipes crowded around.

Notably, some of those pipes are labeled  → NEUROTOXIN → .

[mstestsubject]

...she follows those. The opposite direction of the arrows.

[unbitwise]

Here is a really big room! It smells extremely faintly of neurotoxin!

It's empty.

Well, there are girders that used to support some enormous machine in the middle, and there are cut-off pipe ends in the walls.

[mstestsubject]

...uh huh. Uh. Huh?

Is there a place with a better vantage point?

[unbitwise]

Sure! She can head up this catwalk and through these doors and up this elevator and get to the Implosion Observation Annex. It has a pretty good view of the room even if implosions aren't what you want to observe.

[mstestsubject]

Implosion Observation Annex. She is not usually one to swear but what the fuck.

Anything there to shed some light on just what the fuck?

[unbitwise]

This sign next to the overlook railing could be helpful:

IN CASE OF IMPLOSION 👁
LOOK DIRECTLY AT IMPLOSION

Or maybe not.

There's a console in this room with controls and readouts that were probably for the neurotoxin generator. They're dead.

There's a side room farther back with a closed door. Through the glass can be seen more equipment, including a copy of the control console and a computer. There's a couple status lights suggesting they're less dead.

[mstestsubject]

Okay, maybe she can get some information from those, if there's an obvious way to do it without breaking anything.

[unbitwise]

The door is closed but not locked, and its hinges are in working order.

The control console is reporting zero neurotoxin pressure, [ERROR] monitoring sensor status, zero power draw, and so on.

The computer appears to be intact and properly plugged in but powered off.