Chapter Text
April 18th, 1998 - Crystal Resonance Test
Dr. Freeman wasn't feeling well, that morning. He'd had the worst flu of his life for the past two weeks, and was finally recovering. He knew that the exposure to samples he worked with could cause lowered a immune system, but he figured it was more that someone else at the facility had gotten him terribly ill. Probably Calhoun the last time they saw each other, with his traveling all over the complex, and his insistence on talking nonstop during the morning tram rides.
But he was recovering now, no longer contagious and cleared to return to work. Despite the test results, he still felt weak and fatigued, sipping at a flavorful soup from his usual coffee thermos. Calhoun had heard from someone, who heard from someone, who got lectured by some 'health food connoisseur' that 'bone broth' would cure all ills. Apparently, it wasn't soup. He didn't care enough to correct himself.
So here he was, sitting in a chair in the observation room, unable to run his own test. If he was honest, he felt a bit bitter about it. He'd spent his college years on his theory, and his two years at Black Mesa designing this test, and now...the first real test wasn't even being done by his own hands. He knew the restriction was for his own safety, due to the risk of radiation exposure when he was still recovering, but...still. It was the principal of the matter.
Instead it was a coworker, Professor Bailey, in the HEV suit downstairs. He had nothing against Bailey, the man was great to work with, but he'd never trained for this. It was so much more than just pushing a sample into a test laser. There were failsafes, safeguards, protocols in place that had to be followed, and Bailey didn't know most of them. His coworkers told him he was just being paranoid. But as he watched the crystal enter the laser down below, he could tell even before the alarms went off that he was right to have worried. The sample went in too fast. And it shouldn't be that shade of green.
He ignored the panic of the scientists around him, focused entirely on what he was doing, as he lunged forward to grab the intercom. "Bailey! Drop the cart and get to the door!" He shouted over the noise, watching as the helmeted man looked up to the window. "Now!"
"Dr. Freeman!" Someone was yelling at him now, and he turned to look at who it could be. Dr. Birdwell, apparently. Didn't he see he was busy? "We need to-"
Both their chairs were quickly yanked back, as the damage resistant glass in front of them shattered. He watched in awe as he heard the tones from the room on the other side, and as the shards seemed to vanish into thin air. He'd been right, about resonance based teleportation. What a scientific breakthrough. It took him a bit too long to realize that the blast had also destroyed the main console.
"We definitely can't shut it down now!" Birdwell's voice rang out through the din.
He blinked slowly, looking from the window to the door. He'd argue with them later, laugh at them for calling him paranoid. But for now...he pushed himself to his feet, arms flying out to balance as the floor shook. "Evacuate Sector C." His tone gave no room for dismissal. "I'll shut it down."
"B-but-" God, Birdwell seemed to have almost a compulsive need to argue. "Dr. Freeman! The console-"
"Is not damaged inside the chamber!" He glared back at the older man. "Go, and start evacuating everyone you can. I'm sending up Bailey and the others. Once they're through, seal the doors." Just in case. A final safety precaution. As he'd fucking demanded be included. Seriously, why did people only listen to him before starting tests? He was twenty seven, not a child.
He ran out of the room before anyone else could argue. A thermos rolled across the floor, contents spilling out across the tile.
-
He was really glad now that he'd run track in Uni. He'd been teased about it initially after his hiring, but it certainly helped in an emergency. He'd sprinted down the halls, vaulted overloaded computer terminals, and sent every panicking scientist that he could find up to safety.
As he ran, he wondered how he was able to take this all in stride. Was it because he'd expected such failure, and planned accordingly? Was it because Calhoun's conspiracy bullshit had finally gotten to him? ...Actually, now that he'd thought about it, it was probably the Tylenol he'd taken earlier. Or at least the Black Mesa Tylenol equivalent, this felt way stronger than any time he'd had to take some before he worked there. Another test maybe? Damn, he really needed to start reading the consent forms they made him sign.
He shook his head. Right, back on track, the failing test. He couldn't help but feel grateful that at the very least, they hadn't changed his test plans, other than the swapping of the person doing it. They'd shown him several crystals, and he'd chosen the smallest one available, wanting a first true test to have the smallest chance for failure, but you can never account for human error. At least he could look at the data later, confirm that's what went wrong.
Oh right, paying attention. Someone was yelling at him, pointing at a wounded scientist being carried away by a security guard. He should probably...listen. "-and I can't open the door alone!"
Oh shit. Bailey. "I've still got clearance, right? I'll help you open it."
The man seemed relieved, hurrying through the broken door to the closest scanner. "We'll need to shut the doors again immediately- there's no guarantee this will be contained, otherwise!"
He crossed the room, scanning his eyes before turning to watch the door open. He saw Bailey run into the 'airlock', but was much more caught up in the events happening behind him. For all the destruction this cascade was close to causing, and had caused, it was almost...beautiful. Shades of light, from orange through to green, accompanied by the tones he felt more than heard. It was haunting. It was awing.
...He was being yelled at again. "Dr. Freeman! We have to go!"
Right. He had other plans. "Take Bailey and any others, and evacuate Sector C." He turned to Bailey as he reached up and pulled off his ID, handing it to him. "Once you all get through the observation room, scan this outside the door."
Bailey tilted his head at him. "But, what about-"
"Don't argue, Bailey. Please." The stress of the situation was starting to sink through the pain medication. "Trust me."
Bailey stared at him through the helmet, before he nodded. He knew the weight behind the words. He was a smart man. "...Godspeed, Freeman." Without another word, he turned and slammed his fist into one of the scanners, shattering the glass.
As the doors shut, Dr. Freeman stepped into the test chamber, closed his eyes, and felt the crystal's tones echo through the room. Through him. He felt his lab coat whip in the wind caused by the failing reaction, the same wind that ripped his hair tie away as he tossed away his necktie.
When his eyes opened again, they were the clearest they'd been all day, and his mental state matched. He had a job to complete.
He sprinted across the room, stopping at the lower console. The shutdown safeguard he'd insisted on was that not only could the experiment be shut down from the observatory, but also that it could be shut down from the chamber.
But this kind of resonance? He'd heard cries upstairs about being unable to shut it down. Which meant he'd have to do a manual override. Normally that would be done from both the outer console and the inner upper console. To do this himself, he'd have to run both the upper and lower console through the procedure.
He took a breath to try to steady himself. He'd known as he ran down that he'd be risking his life. He wasn't afraid of that. But only now, as he stared up into the crystal's lights, did he realize exactly what he'd lose if he failed. This wasn't about his work, but his coworkers. Bailey had mentioned his granddaughter's recital coming up. Eli and Kleiner laughing as they entertained baby Alyx. Calhoun's overconfident grin as he talked to anyone who would listen.
...But it wasn't just them at risk, was it? A full cascade would damage worse than just that part of the facility, putting his friends in other departments at risk too. He thought of the look in Bubby's eyes when he'd finally seen the stars for the first time. Tommy's laugh when the strangest things amused him. Dr. Coomer, his mentor, with a spark in his eye and a smile on his face as he debated theory.
If he failed...they could lose everything. He could lose everything. Failure was not an option, even if success seemed impossible. But that was his job. To see the theory, even if impossible to prove. To find a way to prove it. To make it show itself.
He hadn't failed yet. And he wouldn't fail here.
He set the sequence to start on the lower console, scaling the ladder to do the same on the top. He had little time to think, as he hurried back down. He had to do his best to focus.
"Five." He spoke, feeling his voice more than hearing it, as he went up and down, going through the motions.
"Four." He would succeed, and the crisis would stop. The resonance would quiet, the cascade would slow.
"Three." They would never approve this project again. But they'd already proven everything he'd set out to find. In this one chaotic moment.
"Two." The tones changed, the lights moving away from green. The air itself was changing, returning to normalcy.
"One." He stood behind the upper console, and threw the final switch.
He slowly moved down the ladder, walking across the rubble to reach the front of the machine. The glow was back to the yellow it should be, the only echoing through the shaking room being that of the laser itself. He glanced up to the broken window, turning his attention back to the machine. He rested his hands on the sample cart, waiting for the machine to start to slow.
It was only as he pulled the cart backwards that he realized he'd been too slow, that he'd fallen out of sequence. The machine rumbled as it finished shutting down, but the crystal itself, so close to him, began to sing.
With a loud electrical crack, and a flash of green, the machine shut down. It was silent. The crystal was cracked. And the room was empty.