The Aperture Laboratories are the headquarters of Aperture Science and the main location of Portal and Portal 2. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA,[1] the facility is monitored by the computer GLaDOS.
History
Before GLaDOS Was Activated
From Humble Beginnings
Built in Cleveland, Ohio, USA sometime after the founding of Aperture Science in 1953,[1] the Aperture Laboratories is the main headquarters for the company. It is unknown if the same complex is used during the time Aperture was a shower curtain manufacturer.
The Mercury Posining
After contracting mercury poisoning in 1974, both of Aperture CEO Cave Johnson's kidneys fail in 1976. He then lays out a three-tier plan for the future of his company:[2][3] the Heimlich Counter-Maneuver, the Take-A-Wish Foundation, and most notably, the 'Portal' project, which gives birth to the development of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Testing for the 'Portal' project calls for the construction of the Enrichment Center, a large area of the Aperture Laboratories consisting of Test Chambers and offices, where Test Subjects test the ASHPD.
The Competition Begins
In 1986, Aperture Science hears of similar portal technology being developed by Black Mesa. To counter this, construction of the first Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System (GLaDOS) begins in Aperture Laboratories, with the aims to accelerate the 'Portal' project.
GLaDOS' Activation
A True Start
In 1996, the Disk Operating System parts of GLaDOS are completed, and work begins on the Genetic Lifeform component.[2] During that time, the Aperture Science Red Phone plan is implemented in case GLaDOS appears to become sentient and godlike, requiring an employee to sit by a red phone on a desk in GLaDOS chamber's entrance hall.[4] GLaDOS is fully completed in May 200-,[2][3] and is switched on during the Aperture Science's first annual bring-your-daughter-to-work-day.
A Black Day
Within one picosecond of being active, GLaDOS becomes self-aware, locks down the entire facility, hoping to seize control, and floods the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin. Quickly, the Aperture employees fit her with a Morality Core to insure she is kept under control. GLaDOS still manages to wrestle control of the facility from her now trapped creators however, and is soon in full control of the Enrichment Center, with several Test Subjects as her rats, including Aperture employee Doug Rattmann. GLaDOS aims to beat Black Mesa in the race for portal technology. However, she effectively loses this race when the Black Mesa Incident occurs mere days later.
Twenty Years Later
Chell Comes Along
Just over twenty years after GLaDOS's takeover, Chell is awakened in her Relaxation Vault, and guided as a Test Subject by GLaDOS, utilizing the completed Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Chell finds the facility showing clear signs of decay and neglect, with GLaDOS showing signs of instability. Chell later comes across hidden alcoves in the chamber walls, where desperate messages are written on the walls by Doug Rattmann, who seemed to have gone slightly mad during his testing. At the conclusion of Chell's testing, instead of the cake that was promised, she is met with an incinerator, which she narrowly escapes. It is here that GLaDOS reveals her true murderous nature, but attempts to convince Chell to return to the testing area and wait for the planned "party associate". Chell ignores her, and makes her way through the decaying maintenance areas of the facility, where none have clearly been for years. After many ambushes by GLaDOS and her Sentry Guns, Chell finally finds herself in GLaDOS's main control center. After destroying GLaDOS's Morality Core, the robot, now free of her murderous restraints, begins to once again flood the building with neurotoxins. However, Chell manages to incinerate the A.I.'s Personality Cores before being consumed by the toxins, and GLaDOS is seemingly destroyed while Chell is transported outside to the parking lot, where she is dragged away by the previously mentioned party associate, and brought back inside in stasis.[5]
Despite her apparent destruction however, GLaDOS files a letter to Chell, claiming to be "still alive" and that she is not angry with her. GLaDOS then activates a series of Personality Cores and re-captures the laboratories, which were heavily damaged after GLaDOS's explosion.
A Century Later
'G'LaDOS is Miraculously Alive
Hundreds of years pass while the facility is falling apart, with Test Chambers crumbling and foliage rampant throughout. The Personality Cores become restless, showing concern for the ruined state of the complex, and new Test Chambers are built. One such core, Wheatley, awakens Chell from stasis, and convinces her to escape the facility, bringing Wheatley with her. Chell agrees, and the two set out across the building complex. After navigating through the maintenance areas, with Wheatley babbling incessantly, the pair find an elevator, which the core attempts to activate. It begins to ascend however, and before Wheatley can stop it, the two find themselves facing GLaDOS, who sits in ruin in the remains of her chamber. GLaDOS, bitter towards Chell, forces her to resume her tests with the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Due to the state of the facility however, GLaDOS is trying to keep the Test Chambers stable at the same time, so reluctantly forces Chell to proceed into the maintenance areas to pass, where the latter is free from GLaDOS's watch for the first time.