Chapter 3 – Interrogations and Revelations

Shane kicked a rock, watching the fillies play in the park. Sure, things were going great for him. But every time he

thought of his former compatriots at Black Mesa, a stab of pain was felt, deep in his heart. Still, that Josh had

gone through the same thing. All of his friends were dead. He had been trapped in a universe beyond his

imagination, but did the guy just lay down and die? No, Shane had heard. He made things work for him. He

punched a Manticore in the face. Why couldn't Shane be that cool?

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Josh certainly didn't feel cool at the moment. He was picking up several orders for hundreds of integrated circuits,

diodes, and assorted laser-cut steel parts. The money had been given to him by Sara, who insisted for him to get

started on the gateway. Josh smiled. She was demanding, but in a friendly way.

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A few hours later, he was soldering and welding components together. The gateway had been vastly improved

from the previous designs, now resembling a typical circular Aperture door, with a portal in the center. It had been

designed to link to a point in space just outside the Equestrian Enrichment Center. The designs had been

finished, but the project was not transitioning well from paper to reality. Half the time, Josh or Sara found some

flaw in the blueprints, or worse the machine itself, which they quickly corrected. "How does this thing run?" Sara

asked, surveying their work. So far, only the very bottom portion of the door had been completed, not counting

the inside circuitry and mechanics. "Same way portals work, but with a different 'link'. You know how each portal is

linked to the other in a typical portal device?" Sara nodded. "Instead, we program coordinates and specify a

universe, and the portal in the doorway gets linked to that instead." They heard a knock on the door. Sara

immediately went to get it.

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"Ma'am, we are here to inquire as to the presence of an illegal alien," a suited and tied official was speaking. Josh

thought fast, and dug out his old passport from his scientist's coat. He walked up to the front door. "Hello, do you

mean me?" Josh asked, holding out his passport for the apparent inspector to verify. The man took one look at it

and sniffed disdainfully. "I'm afraid this will have to be verified with our department," he said. "If you'll come with

me, I'm sure we can work this out," Josh raised an eyebrow, but followed. "I'll come back. Keep working," he

whispered to Sara on his way out. Sara nodded.

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The official led Josh to his car, a sleek black car (the windows were also tainted black), and they got in. The man

drove, and Josh passed the police station. "Hey, that was the-" he began, but stopped when a second man who

was in the passenger's seat shushed him. "You are now under service to the United States Government, and we

are going to ask you some hard questions later. For now, go to sleep." The last thing Josh felt was a noxious gas

being sprayed in the car, and a window between him and the other two sliding up, cutting them off from the gas.

"Dammit…" Josh said as he gave in to unconsciousness.

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Sara was concerned. It had been six hours, and she had kept working on the gate for only three of them, the

other spent anxiously watching the roads. She was afraid for Josh, as being new to this world could easily get him

in trouble. She still wasn't convinced that he had been to the pony universe, though. He might just be making a

portal to get somewhere else, maybe even in this universe. She was an avid brony, but it seemed unlikely that

such an event would not have affected the show in some way."

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"Where am I?" was the first thought Josh had when he woke up. Unfortunately, this was out loud. He looked

around. He was sitting in a conference room, handcuffed to a chair. A murmur was heard outside, and Josh

twisted his neck to see who it was. Another man in a suit (with no tie, however) came in, and sat in a seat next to

him. "Hello. You might be wondering where you are, but do not worry. You are in our office building in New York

City." Josh narrowed his eyes. His memory hadn't faded somehow, so he remembered the hostility with which

these men had treated him.

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"Whatever you want, the answer is very likely to be NO," he said without hesitation. The man regarded him with

a look of mild surprise on his face. "Your voice isn't slurred," he remarked. "Looks like I'm better than you, then,"

Josh said while grinning. He could see this irked the man. "We'd like to ask you some questions regarding how

you got here," the man continued, trying to keep his voice smooth. "Chances are I'll lie to you, of course," Josh

replied airily. "Who are you?" the man inquired, without noticing.

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"Josh Stevenson," Josh replied without missing a beat. "How did you get into this universe?" the man queried

next. "I… was already in it?" Josh said, pretending to laugh at him. The man's eyes narrowed. "Don't play games

with us, Josh. We know you worked for the fictional company Aperture Science, that you are from another

universe, and that you possess the secrets of said company. Are you willing to advance science by three centuries

or not?" Josh thought about it. "Can I punch that into a calculator? I'd like to make a happy face," he answered.

The man's response was swift and immediate, punching Josh directly in the face. Josh's neck whipped back to

stare at the man. "You're not a scientist," Josh spat. "You're nothing but a government lackey. I bet you don't

even know how to calculate the position of electrons. Or Higgs Bosons. You suck." The man was furious, and left

the room.

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Trixie was fairly happy. She could devote all her time to the portal to the other Earth, now that the production of

the other devices Aperture produced had been rendered completely automatic. Given that she had a vast army of

manufacturing devices at her disposal, this new one was going to be relatively easy. One of the mechanical arms

in front of her looked like it was malfunctioning. It dropped a Portal Device that was being disassembled, and it

broke, generating a small explosion and firing a portal. The portal landed in midair somehow, and even stranger

still, opened to reveal a human female standing in a small room, a similar gateway to her own seemingly in

progress. "Who are…?" the human questioned, looking up at Trixie. "I'm Trixie," she responded, and the portal

shimmered and closed as she finished. Darn it! Trixie yelled in her head. She had wanted to know who that was,

and why they were constructing a gateway. Luckily, now that she had gotten a fix on the technology in that room,

she could cross-reference it to figure out exactly where and what universe it came from. The answer astounded

her.

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It was the exact same universe Josh had been seen in last.

He was alive!