Twenty years for one day

"We are here, at last."

occurred Alyx, when she together with Gordon and Judith entered the Bootstrap Device room. She had enough already. Helicopter crash, in which she almost lost her legs, journey through the snow plains on snowmobile, where she almost froze, imprisoning by Breen in a grub form and now run through the ship pursued by Combine soldiers, not to mention intermingling of realities and meeting herself as a wraith from another dimension. She was wounded, dirty, sweaty and exhausted. Empty stomach alerted her to hunger, but she was more worried by a gash on her left leg that was hurting her more and more. She didn't really have a cheerful mood, her optimism disappea red, let alone joking. She smiled a little when she realized that she could finally sit down. She sat on some crate, took off her cap and looked at Gordon and Judith. Since when she first met Gordon, their appearan ce also changed a lot. She couldn't believe it has been a week since

–

not counting an extra week for the outside world. She wouldn't think how far she will get with Gordon. It seemed fast and infinitely long simultaneously. Like a life story compressed in a few days. She lowered her head, closed her eyes, and felt a special calm. She realized that what they are going to do is no matter how they look, no matter whether they are exhausted or full of energy. After all, it doesn't matter if they succeed or fail. She was sure they wouldn't get out of this ship alive. This was a suicide mission from the beginning . But from which?

May 13, 200-, Black Mesa Topside Dormitories "That Freeman looks like a nice guy. But he is a man of few words." said Azian. Eli replied "What you expect? Phlegmatic and on top of that theoretical physicist." laughed Eli "But on 27, he has extensive knowledge about teleportation. No wonder that Kleiner chose him. He'll be famous one day." "You think?" "Definitely. Wait for twenty years. About what we do here, will once be written in textbooks." "Well, we'll see. I don't think it's much safe. You spoke about that resonance cascade, which could happen. The sample you now have is the most unstable of all." "Look, such fears have been here. Right here in New Mexico. When the nuclear weapon was tested for the first time, there was a fear that it could ignite the atmosphere of entire Earth. We have resonance cascade as a scarecrow. I admit that this is a legitimate threat and it could happen. It would be resonant waves of energy that would cause uncontrollable rifts between dimensions." Azian sighed, bowed her head and went aside. Eli came to her, hugged her from behind and kissed her. "But that will not happen. We have devices and systems with which we can safely control the flow of energy. Unless the Anti-Mass Spectrometer will not be overload over 100% capacity, there is no danger. And it will not be because I'll be there." Azian wasn't much calmer by his answer. "Well, hopefully the others will have the same opinion." "They will, don't be afraid." said decisively Eli, trying to convince himself that he believes what he says. "Eventually, I have the right to interrupt the test at any time" he added. They both were silent for a moment, and then Eli asked "What Alyx, sleeps already?" "Yeah" "

Our little girl. A great future is waiting for her." Eli paused "Perhaps s he will study at MIT once and Dr. Gordon Freeman will be teaching her." T hey both looked at each other and laughed. They had no idea that Alyx was listening them all the time from her room.