(no subject)

[acts_of_gord]

The toxic waters underfoot in the tunnel had been no better going out than coming in, but the medkits in the Vortigaunt's cave had given Gordon all the edge he needed to cross them and come out in one piece. There'd been a pair of dispensers on the wall in the building where the CPs had hidden, too, along with enough ammo to make him wonder why they hadn't tried to charge him earlier. Not that he minded. The more mistakes his enemies made, the happier it made him. He stocked up with what he could and continued on his way.

The sun was inching on towards evening when one slanting orange streak of light through clouds lit up a well-concealed lambda painted on the wall of what might very well be a former hydro plant. Good; the airboat's condition was starting to get a little precarious. He pulled up to the rudimentary dock, cut the engines, and clambered out to look for the door. There wasn't much searching to do, really; around the cart, up the inclined patch of concrete beside the building, past the mutilated propaganda posters on the wall, and... there. A fenced alcove with danger signs and barrels ringing the door. No sign of anyone on the premises, though, and no guards or surveillance cameras that he could see. That was odd. Dr. Kleiner's lab hadn't had any visible security, either, but at least it had windows. Frowning, he slid his crowbar loose from his belt and eased the door open.

No response. The lights were on, but nobody seemed to be home- was he too late after all? He stepped through-

WHAM.

The door slammed shut, the lights went out, and for half a second he was absolutely totally completely oh dear God no NOT AGAIN NO sure he could hear the breathing of Marines-

Comments

[acts_of_gord]

... whoops.

Crowbar's goin' back in the belt and he's not saying a word in response. Old habit: if there's the slightest chance that saying something would make him sound like a fool, he keeps his mouth shut.

[vance_prime]

It's difficult to suppress a laugh at the look on Gordon's face, but she manages.

"Come on, the kitchen is just up these stairs..."

[acts_of_gord]

"Thanks," Gordon says. "How long has this place been operating, anyway?"

[vance_prime]

"Black Mesa East specifically? Just short of six years now. The Resistance as a whole? We've been operating since just after Breen was installed in office."

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon nods slowly at that. "I think," he says carefully, "that I've missed out on a lot."

Talent for understatement, that man.

[vance_prime]

Alyx slows to a stop.

"What do you mean?"

[acts_of_gord]

He's going to have to tell this to Eli; he might as well start here.

"It hasn't been anywhere near twenty years for me, Alyx."

[vance_prime]

.

.

.

"What?"

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon runs both his hands over his face. "At the end, in Xen-"

He can't quite bring himself to mention the son of a bitch in the suit. Sometimes he's not even sure he was real, and not nightmare or hallucination.

"When the Nihilanth was dying. There was a portal... it didn't lead to Earth. It led to another borderworld."

One step at a time.

[vance_prime]

Makes sense so far... Xen is supposed to be connected to multiple universes, there's no reason it couldn't be connected to other borderworlds as well. And it's hard to get more out of the loop than being in another dimension.

"Okay..."

[acts_of_gord]

"The other one was a lot more like Earth. The viable region of it was a lot smaller than anything in Xen, but there was a human outpost there- an old one. Much too well-established to ever have had anything to do with Black Mesa. The portal that brought people there and returned them to their universes had an extremely variable fourth-dimensional component to it. Most of the time it returned people who entered it to the moment they'd left from, or a little bit after."

"The thing is that the portal wouldn't always function properly. It didn't always open onto the same universe from one portal usage to the next. Sometimes it wouldn't open at all. I was there for two months because it wouldn't function at all when I tried to use it."

"This morning it opened spontaneously and dumped me onto a train into City 17."

[vance_prime]

Alyx is silent for a long moment.

"So... the reason no one's seen you in twenty years is because you've been stuck in a borderworld with a malfunctioning portal."

It's not exactly a question.

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon nods. "For all of two elapsed months," he adds. "At the worst, I was expecting to wind up back at Black Mesa two months after the fact."

[vance_prime]

She lets out a long, slow breath.

"That's..." Impossible. Unbelievable. Absurd. Insane. Seriously fucked up. "...I don't know how many people are actually going to believe that."

[acts_of_gord]

Frankly, Gordon's not sure he'd believe it himself without a boat load of evidence. And he's kept it to the most simple and rational aspects of the Milliways experience, too.

He spreads his hands. "I'll tell your father," he says. "He can decide who else needs to know, and when."

[vance_prime]

"Okay."

A moment's awkward silence.

"So... uh... d'you still want to get something to eat, or...?"

[acts_of_gord]

"Please. I meant what I said about being a pint low."

[vance_prime]

Alyx recovers her composure enough to smile and gesture to the next flight of stairs with a flourish. "Right this way, Dr. Freeman."

Lucky man. You get to find out what broiled headcrab fillet tastes like.