Aperture Science Enrichment Center and Testing Sphere Facility

Notably different between the 'real world' and Rookery Earth (probably other dimensions as well) is that the salt mines' physical location varies between this northern Michigan version, and southern in Detroit. There certainly would be plentiful salt available, as the entire area used to be a salt-water sea millions of years ago. However, this location was likely purchased by Cave on the cheap - because it's literally right next to the water table. That makes actual mining quite difficult. His company drilled considerably farther down than those who had owned and run the failed mine before him, and broke into the natural caverns that filter all that water even farther down. These caverns are where most of the Testing Spheres are constructed, and not in any mine drilled out. Rookery Earth's facilities were nearly complete, nine shafts worth of Spheres, four of which were still in use by the time the Resonance Cascade down in Black Mesa threw everything sideways.

Home of the Color Guard, the salt mine facility in Munising, Michigan that Cave Johnson bought in the late 1940s grew into a major research facility in short order, and almost as quickly fell into mediocrity as the Rookery Earth's Keenan Lane gingerly stepped aside to change investment strategies. One thing that Rookery and Repurposed Lane can agree upon, is that Cave Johnson is always insane. They'd both had to deal with their respective Caves doing things like poisoning military commanders with mercury, attempting to institute robotic control units in employees brains, and creating inexplicable armies of mantis men.

All that said, though, the science done within the Rookery's Test Sphere facility in Michigan churned out a massive amount of experiments. Some successful, others not so much. Their Portal technology was and still is the focal point of the company's value. However a major difference between the experimental centers on their respective dimensions, is that in one, GLaDOS was not the absolute terror that she is in numerous others. Once that dimension's Cave had died from mercury poisoning, some version of GLaDOS is created (on all Earths), they rarely if ever overlap in eras. Though still clearly Cave's work - insane in ways but not necessarily homicidal - the Rookery's GLaDOS suggested numerous courses of action that proved far more successful overall than anything Cave ever did on his own. One significant event was a 'bring your daughter to work' day, wherein most of the employees who had children did bring them in for 'testing'. The facility had on-site day care and even some school classes, just like in Repurposed Earth's Aperture-Armacham Enrichment Center, however no one's kids were actually killed in the process of testing them.

Because in the Rookery's dimension, Armacham simply doesn't exist at all, some of the 'slack' of their biological and military experimentation was taken up by both Aperture and Rapture. Rapture's reign didn't last as long as Aperture's, and fell to internal strife rather than external forces or financial ruin. After Rapture ceased Plasmid production, experimentation on psychic powers dried up as well - but the technology allowing people to 'respawn' had been stolen (by Cave) (or maybe even by Lane, who knows) and was put into use at Aperture. GLaDOS decoded some of the technology, and developed full cloning machines... Into which she put many of the samples gained by those kids' tests.

Even after the world ended thanks to the Portal Storms and the subsequent Combine incursion, testing inside the Enrichment Center continued. Some cloned children, some still-living employees and their descendants, many robotic assistants, and some number of weird alien arrivals participated, all of them protected from the outside forces by virtue of being deep underground. (The irony of it being around the same depth as Rapture, only 'on dry land', did not escape either Lane, as they discussed this. Neither of them enjoy being that deep underground or under water.)

The rivalry between Black Mesa and Aperture still causes a little friction. Rookery GLaDOS knows about the end of the world, and about its subsequent revival as time goes on. She and Repurposed Lane have had some ... discussions... regarding how best to move forward, however. As she had taken her dimension's (Rookery) Lane's 'samples' left behind (those ubiquitous coffee cups? Yeah, she wasn't above snatching cell samples from those) to create the original Color Guard, she knows that this 'other, Repurposed' Lane is quite different from him. More... actively participating, and therefore much more fun to mix in with the clones.

Repurposed GLADOS was not, however, built from Lane's former friend and occasional lover Caroline. In fact, the current Rookery GLaDOS is not technically speaking the same one that created ARRISA. Something... happened between several dimensions. It seems that while they share a lot of commonality, the more caustic creator of ARRISA was overtaken or even absorbed (as a virus?) by a newer iteration. It may have been from 'Dimension X', where Ruby Lane and the currently-bonkers Cave are from, as she suggests "his energy is ... familiar". This GLaDOS-mashup then assembled Boy10 and the other simulated-life-forms that attended Carramba before the Color Guard was made. Overall, both Lanes and ARRISA are considerably happier with this outcome, though none of them trust any GLaDOS as far as they could throw her... (Of note: Dimesion X's lunatic Cave, as well as the extremely dire situation that X's Lane found himself in, as 'opposite world' mirror-universe types, seem to indicate that GLaDOS there would have been an incredibly kind, generous, and 'good' type - modified by the 'normal' one found in the Rookery's universe to begin with. So she's still 'pretty intense', but she isn't 'completely awful'. The complication of when exactly this happened? Well, it is possible that it was years before, when the Borealis went missing. All that technology aboard it, vanishing from its underground dry dock may have alerted Dimension X's Cave straight up.) Repurposed GLADOS has nothing to say about any of this: 'she' is a program and a structural control core, not a person, albeit one originally designed by Caroline there.

Around RY5 though some prior interaction has been done around GLaDOS's chambers and the Color Guard's creation area, more people are starting to work on getting the place back into shape. By RY7 at least one full Shaft is cleared and ready for actual refitting and habitation. As time goes on, more and more people are funneled here, first because there's a great need for strong arms and backs, but also because it's huge, everyone knows this will be where the Rookery will actually house most civilians when it's all said and done. Numerous Color Guard members have become parents here, and after the Hallowed Silk nests are finding bonds among the population, North Aperture becomes a haven for new families and research alike.

Also of very, very important note: This is not Aperturth's version in any way. That facility is gone. It did bear quite a few similiarities to this one, but it's a smoking crater that occasionally spawns portal storms and mantis outbreaks. Because of the Resonance Cascade that occurred on Aperturth, there are quite a few stray people from there showing up after around RY10, and they are eagerly welcomed into the fold of Rookery folk. Some are a little perturbed to discover their workstations and Spheres aren't there... They should know better. This isn't even their dimension!

Notably in RY12, Hoyle's Enclave is relocated to the top of Shaft 8, and the full renovation of the location is underway. It has its own surface entrance about a quarter mile from the main EC's parking area and is visible only as a series of covered, landscaped window openings.

The Rookery's Testing Shafts are not fully fitted with GLaDOS-control systems. Only Shaft 9 has those sensors and reflexes. The other Shafts as well as the Enclave inserted into them, are monitored by Argent and others to make sure that nothing goes wrong there. They do report to and communicate with GLaDOS, but none of them really trust her, still.

Testing Shafts and How To Use Them, Rookery Year 12+

Notably some Shafts are still also being used for technological Research and Development. While about half of them will be converted to some form of habitat for refugees and future generations, the others are being scoured for useful items, laboratory equipment and space, and undergoing strong safety renovations for further experimentation. The Sphere numbering is approximate, as many of the actual Testing Spheres have been demolished or completely removed in order to build much larger and less specific structures in their place. Their former locations and depth readings are approximately '200 meters per Sphere', with each Sphere being anywhere from 70 to 120 meters high, and the rest being space padding, resources, and mechanical equipment needed for the Sphere's operations. Some Shafts have or had more than 9 Spheres, and some had quite a bit more distance between each, while others had considerably larger Spheres overall. Comfortably 9 per Shaft at 200 meters is as good as an estimate as any, with whatever is leftover being 'below' any lowest constructed Sphere.

*Name = out and about, Name* = this is where they roost, ^ = Hoyle's group, # = Multiple Dimensions

Seen from above, the Enrichment Center's upper facility is a nondescript set of buildings, including a parking lot, gate house, and an office complex with a simple courtyard.

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The bulk of the administrative and publicly accessable structure is a three-story building, however only one level is above ground and visible. Below, numerous offices are found under the bright lighting and cheery 'outer face' of the facility.

There are a number of linked complexes, reached by underground trams and freight elevators. The elevator shafts are reworked from older salt mine structures, the trams are reasonably new (built in the 1960s). Obviously with renovation in RY10+ comes portal walls for quick access, however all other forms of transportation are encouraged in order for people to familiarize themselves with the facility. (Or perhaps, to get lost and have something to do with themselves before asking on the intercom or pinging Vortally for help out...)

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On the descent into the mines, there are plenty of views of what's to come...

(artto?)

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One of the resident Vortigaunts, Igor, and his dragon Strut, have decided that Shaft 5 will be their 'masterpiece'. Since the Shafts are quite similar in nature to the original Vortigaunt Homeworld's hive-like building structures under their desert-world's surface (or upwards as termite mounds and anthills), Igor is hoping to work with the other engineers on site to create the dragonry that they deserve here. Lane thinks this is a fantastic idea, but it's up to the engineers to make sure that the whole thing would work. Once they get approval, and things are a little more settled above - when the Combine are gone... This Shaft is getting a real makeover!