Author's note: so I finally got around to updating this :) Been busy working on other projects, but here is Chapter the Second of 'Do Not Submerge The Device'. I've also gone back and made a couple of changes to the beginning, nothing major, just cleaning up a few little things that were bugging me. Enjoy :)

Isaac divided his attention equally between the strange contraption he was currently dismantling and the strange woman who seemed positively riveted by the 'Peng' ad inside the tram. Honestly, she was gawping at the thing like she'd never seen one before; she must have been living under a rock or something, because their ads were everywhere. He shook his head slightly and turned back to the thing he was meant to be fixing.

The turret wasn't as complicated as it first looked; apart from the firing mechanism, which for some reason fired the entire bullet, casing and all, it looked like a pretty standard automated gun. The workings seemed intact, but there was some kind of sensor in it that had been deactivated. He pulled it out to take a closer look. "Here's the problem," he muttered, more to himself than anything else. From the looks of it, the sensor he was holding detected whether the turret was upright, and if it wasn't, it shut down, meaning these things stopped working if they were knocked over. It seemed pretty stupid, but then so did a lot of designs. He reconnected everything and switched it back on.

"Hello?" came a sweet, high-pitched little voice. The woman jumped, dived out of the way and practically slid down the tram to get behind it. She just made it in time; the turret rapidly sprayed that half of the car with bullets, its' red laser sight flicking around. "Are you still there?" it asked, before going quiet again.

The woman frowned at him. "Don't point that at people you don't want killed!"

"Right, sorry. Didn't realise it'd go off like that," he apologised. "Usually this kind of thing needs re-calibrating after maintenance." At least the other stuff he worked on did.

She sat on one of the seats, careful to avoid being spotted by the turret again. "They just target anything that moves, I think." She stared at him for a second. "I'm Chell."

"Isaac," said Isaac. This had to be one of the strangest acquaintances he'd ever made, but hey, the situation he'd found himself in was pretty damn strange too. The tram slowed, and the two of them stood. "This thing better go in front of us, hadn't it?"

Chell gave him a small smirk. "Probably a good idea." She picked it up using her device, which she had kept clutched to herself all along, and stepped off the tram.

Wheatley inched forwards. He had, by trial and error, found the spot where his human friend had vanished. There was a rainbow portal stuck on a wall, leading to someplace dark. Typical, he'd thought, she found a way out and, and just moseyed on through, not bothering to come get me, or look for me, even. Didn't leave me any sort of message, either. She, she can't have gone far, though… doesn't look like there's much through there, anyway, shouldn't take long to find her. He'd dithered for a while on his rail, not sure how to get through and go after her, then figured he could probably disengage from the rail again and just kind of – roll through, hopefully; assuming he landed properly, got a bit of momentum going, didn't fall down any vents or gaps or anything… nono, no, not going there, not thinking about what could go wrong, just go, just drop off your rail, roll on through there, and hope she's waiting, around the corner and can pick you up. So he'd dropped, and rolled a bit, and stopped, optic down, balanced on his handles.

"Rrrrgh!" he exclaimed at the floor. "Why doesn't anything ever go right for me?" He narrowed his optic, drew his handles together… and moved slightly. "Oh, what? Wha… hey, I just moved myself, how did I do that?"

Eventually he worked it out, and by flexing his handles in just the right way, he managed to 'walk' (at least as close as a small metal sphere could ever get to walking) towards the portal. Granted, he couldn't really see anything apart from the floor, but the glowing light got brighter, which he took as an indication that he was actually getting closer to the portal. Several minutes later, a bright line of light passed underneath him, and he rolled forwards into a wall.

"Whoahwhoah… ow." Upside down, but finally looking at something besides the floor, Wheatley looked around. "Oh great, I got through! Hold on, though, where am I? Because it is pretty dark around here, someone needs to turn a light on, be nice if I could use that flashlight setting, actually, but… hello? Is anyone around, at all? Hellooo," he called, hoping for a response.

"Who said that?" came a nervous, somewhat paranoid voice from his right.

Wheatley blinked and craned his optic towards the sound. "Hello! Just me, little ol' Wheatley, down here on the floor. Um, listen, whoever-you-are, would you mind picking me up? Only I'm kind of stuck here; stuck, upside down, on the floor, not the greatest position to be in if I'm honest. Also, I'm, er, looking for someone, hard to find someone if you can't move, as – as you can probably guess; ohhh, oh that's a thought, maybe you've seen her!" he said, peering at the human he could just about see in his peripheral vision. "She's, um, kind of short, dark hair, white and orange clothes… and a really serious kind of face, like she's properly 'on a mission', that kind of look – seen her, at all?"

The human shuffled closer, staring as though he wasn't entirely sure Wheatley was actually there. There was a slightly deranged look in his eyes, like someone who'd been seeing a lot of strange things recently and was finding it difficult to tell hallucinations apart from reality. "You're… an eyeball." He stared a bit more. "A big, talking… metal eyeball."

"Um, well, personality core, actually, is what I am; that's what they said when they made me, anyway, but I can see how you might be a little confused on that, since I do look a bit like an eye, I know," Wheatley babbled, starting to feel a tiny bit disconcerted by the way the bloke kept staring at him. "Would – would you mind, maybe, not staring, so much? It's just, you know… getting a little uncomfortable here, what with the staring, and the whole 'upside-down' thing, as well, not helping…" He trailed off, blinking hopefully at the human.

Kyne stared at the eyeball. He didn't know what it was doing there, if it was really there at all, and he couldn't remember why Amelia had wanted him to come down to the flight deck in the first place. Something about a shuttle, and… the eyeball was talking again.

"Look, mate, could you just stop staring? I mean, I'm not that impressive, am I? Just, just look someplace else, for a bit, yeah?" It was a blue, glowing eyeball, and looked like it had rolled through that weird hole in the wall. Weird hole in the wall? Surely that hadn't been there before? Oh god, was the ship falling apart? He turned his attention to the hole, hoping it was just another of those things that vanished after a good long stare. "Great, yeah, not staring at me now, that's… um, much appreciated, thanks. But, oh, you-you're not thinking about going through there, are you, because that, that would not be good. For you. Or for anyone, really, because… well, it's just not a good place to be. Lot of nasty stuff through there, you know, bullets, and neurotoxin, and tests, and, and… just nasty stuff, really. Probably better off here, I mean yes, it's kind of dull, not a lot going on here, but still, not much chance of getting killed, right?"

He turned back to the eyeball, which seemed to be incapable of shutting up for more than a minute. Neither it nor the weird hole had gone away, which probably meant they were both real. That meant he should do something about them. What he should do, he didn't know. "You said you're looking for someone?"

"Uh yeah, yeah I'm er… I'm looking for a friend of mine, think she came through here. She's, um, well like I said she's dark-haired, and shortish, and… well, I suppose she's sort of pretty, by human standards, I mean. Doesn't talk much, actually not at all, that I've heard," it babbled.

Kyne supposed whoever this woman was didn't get a chance to talk, if the eyeball was always this vocal. "Come on, then," he said, reaching down and picking it up. It seemed to have a couple of handles specifically for this purpose.

Chell eyed the hole in the wall with no small amount of apprehension. It looked fairly innocuous, but then so had the hard-light bridges. Her shin still tingled where she'd slipped and burnt herself on the edge of one. Back in Aperture, things weren't usually what they seemed; little innocent-looking things were often lethal, and the stuff that looked dangerous… well, that stuff was lethal as well. But Isaac had just come out of there, looking perfectly fine and with a fancier suit on. And she probably could use some more protective clothing while she was here; a beaten-up old jumpsuit did nothing to stop those weird mutant alien things getting at her. Mentally shrugging, she placed the portal device in the holder provided and stepped into the machine.

Instantly, she regretted it. She was pinned into place by some force, the opening closed, sealing her in, and little mechanical arms started wrapping her up in a combination of metal and cloth. It took all of her willpower to remember Isaac telling her to keep still and let the machine do its job. Seconds later, a helmet slid over her head, the front of the compartment slid open again, and little blue holograms popped up in her vision. She stepped out and picked up the portal device again.

"What did you call this again?" she asked, most of her attention focused on the holograms.

"It's a RIG – Resource Integration Gear – it lets you access most things on board," Isaac replied. "The store should have synced it with the ship already, but let me just check it for you," he said, fiddling with something on her shoulder. "Yep, you're good to go."

Chell nodded, too fascinated by her new equipment to reply properly. Considering how small the slits in the helmet were, her peripheral vision was as good as ever, which she was pleased about. She was also glad to find that her fancy new suit wasn't as restrictive as it appeared, and had even managed to fit itself around her long fall boots. She didn't know if she'd need them here or not, but she preferred to be prepared for any eventuality. She jumped a couple of times to test the springs.

"What are those weird things, anyway?" Isaac asked, pointing to them.

"Long fall boots," she replied. "One of the least deadly things to come out of Aperture."

Isaac shook his head. "This Aperture place sounds insane."

Chell smirked at that. "Insane doesn't come close." She picked up the turret carefully. "Where now?"

"This way," he replied, consulting the locator on his left wrist. He walked one step ahead of her, just out of the turret's line of sight.

Isaac couldn't help but feel curious about the woman he'd picked up. She obviously hadn't come out here as part of the Ishimura's crew, and he knew she wasn't part of the repair mission, so what was going on? As far as he could tell, she'd jumped through that weird hole from a place she called Aperture. Whether that was a town, a planet, a ship or something else, he had no idea. He glanced back at her frequently, wondering if she'd be able to tell him more about the device she carried. He'd never seen anything like it before, and he'd seen pretty much every tool and weapon out there over his career.

"I see you," said the turret he'd repaired. It began firing again, blasting the corridor ahead, mowing down one of the alien-mutant-things that had dared to stick its head around the corner. "Gotcha," it said before falling silent once more.

He stared at it. "Whoa. That thing's good."

"Only if you're not the one in front of it," Chell remarked dryly.

Isaac could see her point. It had made mincemeat of the alien; he wouldn't want to get caught in its firing line. He had just started forwards again when his RIGlink gave out a burst of static, followed by Hammond's anxious face.

"Clarke! You got out of there! What's going on down there? We're getting all kinds of crazy readings," he said.

"I found a... there's someone here," Isaac started to explain.

"Someone? What someone? Who is it?"

Kendra appeared. "Ask them what happened here, what are these things?"

Isaac shook his head. "I don't think she's from the Ishimura. She keeps mentioning a place called Aperture, either of you heard of it?" He figured it was another ship, or maybe a space station or something.

All he got in response were a pair of bemused expressions. "Look, never mind that now. Just get the Captain's RIG, and get back to us," Hammond said.

The link cut off with another round of static, and he turned to Chell. "Right, I gotta get to wherever the Captain is. We should probably stick together," he told her.

Chell simply nodded, adjusted her grip on her weird gun, and focused on the corridor ahead.