Follow/Fav The Turing Test. By: Nienna Nir. There's a point at which a machine becomes capable of thinking for itself. Beyond that point is one at which the line between machine and man becomes so blurred that one can no longer tell the difference. This chapter takes place roughly one week before 'Dubious Consent'.

AppID: 499520 savedata.savThis save file unlocks all chapters. Put it in The Turing Test/TheTuringTest/. LaunchDX12.batThe DX12 launcher in Steam is broken. You need to delete some cache files before each DX12 launch of the game.The.bat file does that.

Place it in the game's directory and use the following launch command: launchDX12.bat%command%Note: the game will now always start in DX12 mode, no matter what you select on startup. Optional-1-solution.txtSolution to Optional 1. Optional Puzzle LocationsOptional 1: Chapter 1 Sector 7Optional 2: Chapter 2 Sector 16Optional 3: Chapter 3 Sector 26Optional 4: Chapter 4 Sector 36Optional 5: Chapter 5 Sector 46Optional 6: Chapter 6 Sector 56Optional 7: Chapter 7 Sector 66.

Karen stared sadly at the locked door to the police car and pulled fruitlessly at her handcuffed hands behind her back. 'It's at times like this that I wish I was still a giant robot.'

She turned to Chell. 'You're good at breaking out of things. Got any ideas?'

'Not unless you've got a portal gun hidden on you somewhere,' said Chell.

Karen sighed and rested her head back on the seat. 'If only,' she said. 'Two of the greatest minds the world has ever known and we're trapped behind a mechanical lock.'

Chell raised her eyebrows but didn't argue with Karen's assessment of their mental superiority. In that direction lay only frustration and long semantic arguments about the precise meaning of the word greatest.

The two police officers who'd captured them didn't seem to be paying any attention to what Karen was saying, too focussed on driving and listening to the police radio. When the radio wasn't buzzing the car was eerily quiet, there was none of the engine noise she'd have expected. Before they'd been put in the back seat Chell had noticed some sort of unfamiliar technology retrofitted to the base of the vehicle, probably salvaged alien tech. It made Chell nervous. Even beyond the fact that they'd been arrested, there was a strong association in her mind between advanced technology and people trying to kill her.

Her eye was caught by a flash of sunlight glinting off a tall building, a twisted alien structure of glass and ceramic towering over the shops and houses lining the suburban street. The tower had been roughly hacked and painted to replace alien words and symbols with human ones. Despite everything Chell's heart lifted every time they passed signs of life, whether it be someone walking their dog or even just fresh litter on the streets. The city was alive. Marked by signs of battle and deprivation, and not exactly friendly right now, but alive.

Karen followed Chell's gaze out the window. She looked rather less impressed, and shifted her gaze back to glare at the police officers in front of them. 'What kind of post apocalyptic society even cares about speeding? Don't they have more important things to worry about?'

'It wasn't speeding that got us arrested,' said Chell. 'That's just what got us pulled over. It was the lack of identification that made them suspicious. And I don't think we were really in trouble until you started shouting 'Hey officer, look in the back of our truck, it has a bunch of stolen property in it from the guy we just murdered'.'

'That is the precise opposite of what I said!'

'Yes,' said Chell with a sigh. 'Exactly.'

Chell couldn't sleep. The police station cell was not well heated and the lightly padded bench made for a poor bed. She curled up against the wall and tried not to think about the way the police officers had looked at her. Like she was a criminal. Like it was only a matter of time before she was sent to trial, and then to jail. Before she was a prisoner again.

She looked down at her hands and noticed that they were shaking. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves. She would get out of this. She'd gotten through worse. She just had to sit tight, tell the truth and hope the New Republic of Minnesota looked kindly upon self defence (accessory to self defence?). And hey, maybe she'd be lucky. Maybe they'd get the death penalty and it would all be over soon.

It was never a good sign when she started wishing for death. Being locked up again was doing a number on her head. Chell found herself missing Karen intensely, though she was only a few feet away in the next cell. She even found herself missing the companion cube, though it had been months since she'd even thought of it. She wondered if it was still sitting in the field where she'd been forced to leave it during her escape from Aperture. She hoped it hadn't gotten damaged out there in the sun and rain.

Was she crying? Ok this wasn't healthy. Chell decided to give up on sleep and stood up, wiping her eyes and forcing herself to concentrate on her breath. She tried to forget the four walls enclosing her and her uncertain fate, focusing her mind on the motion of her hands and the angle of her legs as she started stretching and going through her exercises as she had so many times before.

And what if she did go to prison? There were other people in prison. There were books and educational courses, exercise yards and secure cells. She'd be safe there, as long as she didn't get on anyone's bad side. Safe and looked after. Just not free.

Chell wiped her eyes again, and kept moving.

She was facing towards the back wall, her arms above her head, when she head the lock in the door behind her click open. She slowly turned around.

'Hey!' whispered a voice. 'Look who just figured out how to pick a lock!'

'Karen,' said Chell, in surprise, and then stepped towards her. Karen was an indistinct shape in the shadow of the door, but there was no mistaking her voice.

'Anyone could have done it,' said Karen. 'Well, anyone with extremely high intelligence and the foresight to wear extra long hairpins. It's like they want people to..' Her voice was muffled as Chell pulled her into a hug.

Karen stiffened. 'Sorry,' said Chell. 'I just..'

'It's alright,' said Karen. She put her arms around Chell and kissed the shoulder where her head lay. Her hands were shaking a little too. Chell was reminded that she wasn't the only one who'd escaped imprisonment at Aperture. She gave Karen a squeeze and felt her soften against her. A tightness in Chell unfurled and she could feel her heart slowing down. 'It's alright,' repeated Karen. 'I've opened the door now, we're free.'

'No, we're not,' said Chell, though she didn't leave the warmth of Karen's arms. 'They took our photographs. And they have our truck, and all our things. We have to stay and prove our innocence.' It was bad enough that Karen's escape from her cell had probably been recorded on security camera, but there was nothing they could do about that.

'But you confessed,' said Karen. 'What were you thinking? I had a fantastic alibi figured out, you should have trusted me to take care of it. Now our only chance is to escape. I thought you'd be on board with this. Escaping is what you do best!'

Chell shook her head. 'Not this time,' she said. 'You can leave if you want, but I'm staying.'

Karen shook her head. 'No,' she said. 'I can't leave you. I tried before and..and I just can't.' This was the first time she'd referenced their conversation in Jeff's bathroom since they'd left his house.

'Good,' said Chell.

Chell still couldn't sleep. She was warmer now, Karen was a gently snoring comforter curled against her on the narrow bench, but her mind still kept going in circles and she couldn't get comfortable. She tried shifting to relieve the pressure of her and Karen's combined weight against her shoulder and was rewarded with pins and needles along her side and a quiet sound of protest from Karen. 'Shh,' said Chell, and gently ran her hand across the smooth fall of Karen's bangs across her forehead. 'Hmm,' said Karen happily. It was a comfort having her here.

Just as she was sure that Karen was asleep and Chell had started falling back into thoughts about mandatory sentencing and prison food, Karen shifted and said 'Chell.'

'Mmm?' said Chell.

'Why are you awake?'

Chell let out a ragged sigh. She didn't want to lie, but she really wasn't in the mood for talking. 'I don't..' She looked away, though Karen's eyes were almost invisible in the darkness. 'Bad memories. Bad thoughts.' She rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes.

'I'm sorry,' said Karen, tightening her arms around Chell.

'Mmm,' said Chell.

Karen's head lay against Chell's stomach, and the soft breath of her words pressed against Chell's skin. 'Why don't you hate me?'

'I don't know,' said Chell.

For a while there was silence, nothing but the sound of their bodies reflecting off the narrow walls of the cell.

'I wish I could undo everything,' said Karen.

Chell let herself briefly imagine it. Her parents alive. A normal adolescence, then moving on to college or a job. Friends, family, a life. Caroline dying calmly of old age, decades gone. No GlaDOS, no Aperture, no Karen. None of this.

But then Chell herself would have been an entirely different person. The kind of person who would probably have died in the alien invasion, terrified and powerless in the face of circumstances beyond her control.

'That's not how it works,' said Chell. She took a deep breath. 'I'll be ok. Go back to sleep.'

'No,' said Karen.

'Fine,' said Chell.

There was a squeak of fabric against plastic as Karen shifted to rest her head back in Chell's lap.

'If there's anything I can do, let me know. If you want to talk, I'll listen,' said Karen.

'I don't want to talk,' said Chell.

They didn't speak for a while after that. Chell stared into space unsuccessfully trying to ignore the awareness that Karen was staring up at her. The feeling of Karen's body against hers was a solid warmth that made Chell feel comforted and irritated at the same time.

'You really want to help?' said Chell.

'Yes,' said Karen.

'Have sex with me,' said Chell. 'I need the distraction.' Karen let out a choked cough and Chell immediately regretted saying it. '..or we could talk,' she added, reluctantly. 'Just not about anything serious, ok?'

Karen sat up and looked at Chell. She shifted closer and slowly put her hand on Chell's neck. Her fingers were cold.

Was she actually going to kiss her? Chell had just being trying to yank her chain.

Karen's thumb brushed against Chell's jugular. 'If I pressed down here long enough,' she said, exerting a gentle pressure, 'you would die.'

Chell opened her mouth to complain about Karen's choice of distraction, but it was distracting. All apprehensive thoughts about the future had vanished, her mind focussed with crystal clarity on Karen's fingers. So Chell just let out a half laugh. Karen moved her hand up to Chell's face and leaned closer. Her thumb brushed the underside of Chell's lower eyelid and Chell resisted the urge to blink.

'If I pressed here at the right angle I could pop out your eyeball,' said Karen.

'You could try,' said Chell.

'Do you want me to?' asked Karen, her breath soft against Chell's lips.

'No..' began Chell, and then Karen kissed her.

Karen wasn't desperate and needy like last time, but slow and deliberate. Her lips were soft and dry, brushing at first softly and then with a subtle insistent pressure against Chell's. Chell opened her lips slightly and leaned into the kiss, putting a hand on Karen's knee. Karen put her hand on top of Chells, her fingers lightly grasping her wrist, while her other hand cradled Chell's neck. Karen sucked at Chell's tongue and pushed her slowly backwards until her back was flush against the wall, the hand against Chell's neck shifting downwards to grab and push at her shoulder. Chell was well and truly pinned. Escape said a voice in her head. She could feel her heart beating faster.

'Mmph,' said Chell, disengaging from the kiss. Karen slowly pulled her mouth away before leaning back in to give her a soft close-mouthed kiss and then look questioningly into Chell's eyes. Chell didn't know how to express what she wanted to say so just stared back. 'I..' Karen waited, then ran the hand on Chell's wrist up towards her other shoulder and then down to her side, brushing so softly over Chell's breast Chell could barely feel it then tightening around Chell's side.

Having decided that Chell obviously wasn't going to say anything, Karen leaned her head down to kiss Chell's neck. 'You taste..' she began.

'If you say like cinnamon we are done,' said Chell.

'Like skin,' said Karen. 'And sweat.'

That would be all the fear thought Chell.

Karen pushed her hand between Chell and the wall and made a practiced motion with her fingers. Chell felt a sudden loosening of pressure around her chest. 'Oh look,' said Karen, her teeth subtly bared in a predatory grin, 'your underwear seems to be malfunctioning. We should remove it.' She ran her fingernails down the skin of Chell's back and Chell shivered.

As Karen leaned in to kiss her again Chell put her hand on Karen's chest. 'Let me go,' she said.

Karen took in a sharp breath, and her hands tightened for a moment before she pulled away, letting Chell's body go and shifting across the bench so that no part of them was touching. She crossed her arms, her fingers tensing into fists. 'I thought you wanted this,' she said.

'I did,' said Chell. She rubbed her face and tried to collect her thoughts. Her skin ached with an awareness of Karen's touch and it's absence. '..I do. I just..needed to know you'd let me go.'

'Always,' said Karen, but there was something in her voice like regret.

Chell looked at Karen, curled up away from Chell like she was too hot to touch.

'You don't want to, though, do you?' asked Chell softly. 'You want to hold me down and watch me struggle.'

Karen turned her head away quickly and made a sound somewhere between a sob and a groan. 'I told you I was a monster,' she said, head hanging low. 'You should have left me to face the police alone.'

'No, I shouldn't,' said Chell. 'We discussed this already.'

Karen's fists tightened.

'You think it's just you who's fucked up?' said Chell. 'I thought about killing you when I had you tied up in my bed, for what you did to me and to my family. But at the same time I kept thinking about how I wanted to do this..' She reached up to cup Karen's breast in her hand and Karen went very still. Chell shuffled closer, pressing her chest against Karen's side. Karen turned her head to stare at her silently as Chell shifted her hand onto Karen's stomach. 'And this..' said Chell, not taking her eyes from Karen as she shifted her hand lower still. Chell had no idea what she was doing, and couldn't feel much apart from the warm pressure of Karen's thighs and the seam of her pants, but Karen's eyes fluttered closed and her breath quickened. Chell shifted her hand and Karen gave a small moan, almost as if she was in pain. Chell thought of the many times she'd heard a moan like that before, from turrets and Caroline and all the pieces of GlaDOS's personality as Chell had thrown them into the fire. She pressed harder.

Karen put her hand on Chell's, and for a moment Chell thought she might pull it away, but she just rested it there, her thumb rubbing against the delicate veins above Chell's palm.

Chell leaned her head towards Karen's, lightly kissing her mouth, her cheek, her neck. She tasted of salt and skin. Chell pushed her hand up beneath Karen's sweater, but her shirt was too tightly tucked into her pants to pull out with one hand, and the two button clasp on her pants was too complex to figure out in the dark and from this angle.

Without moving, Chell said 'If I stop will you let me start again?'

Karen opened her eyes and looked at Chell. 'Yes,' she said.

Chell grabbed both sides of Karen's sweater and pulled it up over her head, dropping it on the ground. She could see Karen shivering and so only tugged Karen's shirt out of her pants before letting it fall back down to cover her. Chell leaned close again, her hands sliding up to touch Karen's skin. Her back was warm and smooth, her stomach soft and round. Chell had to think for a moment about how to undo a bra from this angle, but the sense of satisfaction as she felt Karen's breasts fall free was deeply gratifying.

She carefully slid her hand under the cup of Karen's bra to cover her breast. She could feel Karen's nipple, small and firm against the calloused skin of her palm, goosebumps and little hairs tickling the ends of her fingers.

Karen lifted her hand to Chell's cheek and let out a sigh. 'Ah. You are so beautiful,' she said, running her fingers across Chell's face.

'It's not like you can see me in this light,' said Chell.

'I don't need to see you to know you're beautiful,' said Karen, her hands cold and hungry as they reached under Chell's shirt. 'I've always known.'

They kissed, and Chell lost track of time.

At some point something made Chell come back to herself with a jarring shiver. A sound from beyond the cell, perhaps, or her body reacting to the cold. She remembered where she was, and what she was doing. Somewhere along the way they'd both lost the top half of their clothing and Chell's pants had fallen down to pool around her knees, one leg holding her up off the floor while Karen kneeled astride the other, kissing her way down Chell's stomach.

Karen looked up at Chell's shiver. The faint light of the fluorescent bulb made her look like an old monochrome photograph of herself fading into black.

'Come up here,' said Chell.

'Whatever you need,' said Karen then awkwardly crawled up to lie on top of Chell.

Chell put an arm around her and buried her head in Karen's hair with a sigh. 'I'm really glad you're here,' she said.

Karen kissed her neck. 'Good,' she said.

Chell woke to the sound of the light in the ceiling flickering to it's brighter daylight setting and the heavily bolted television in the wall beginning to cycle through it's program. In the hour or two it had run last night she had seen the full cycle three times, and if she wanted to Chell could have sung along to the Duluth Police Department official theme song and recited the number to ring in case of alien sightings.

Instead she covered her eyes with her forearm and tried to let herself wake up more slowly.

Karen had snuck back to her cell last night but Chell could still smell her on her fingers and she ached in all sorts of interesting ways (and some less interesting ones. This bench really was terrible to sleep on) The things I learned last night will be useful in prison Chell mused darkly but the thought didn't bother her like it had before. In fact, despite everything, Chell felt fantastic. She was probably just riding high on a temporary wave of endorphins and oxytocin but she wasn't going to complain.

So that was sex, huh. Not bad. And Karen had been..Chell found herself smiling soppily and thinking sentimental thoughts about how great Karen was.

Yes. She was definitely high on oxytocin.

The children of Lester Park Elementary School were going through their second reenactment of the heroic defeat of the alien invaders by human ingenuity and grit by the time there was a knock on the door and a tray of breakfast slid into the room.

It was some highly processed combination of eggs and beans, but there was something deeply appealing about food she'd had no part in preparing and Chell chewed the bland yellow-grey slop with enthusiasm.

Her good mood lasted her all the way to the interview with the police sergeant in charge of the investigation.

The room she was being interviewed in had seen better days. Stains on the wall had been covered over with paint of slightly the wrong colour and Chell's chair wobbled underneath her as she sat down. The sergeant looked tired, and her chair wobbled too. She stared searchingly at Chell over a neatly clipped plastic folder full of papers. Behind them was a tall window looking out over the patchy brown lawn at the front of the station. 'Says here you're Chell Garcia.'

'Yes.'

The sergeant raised one eyebrow. 'Aged forty one years old.' She looked to be in her late thirties, over a decade older than Chell yet born several years later.

'Yes. Technically.'

'And the reason you've been gone from our systems for twenty years is that you were..' the sergeant read further through the previous officer's notes. '..in cryogenic suspension. At this Aperture Science Enrichment Centre on the Upper Peninsula.'

'Yes,' said Chell, trying to sound sincere.

The sergeant gave a little nod and took her statement in stride. Did she actually believe Chell's story? Chell wouldn't believe Chell's story if she'd heard it from someone else. Then again, who knew what weird things this woman had seen in the last few years.

'You know, you're not the first person we've had come through the station claiming to be from this Aperture Science Enrichment Centre. I looked it up, and there's reports dating back to the sixties, people making crazy claims about being forced to make magical portals that let you jump through walls, and blue paint that makes you bouncy. Any of that sound familiar?'

'Yes,' said Chell. 'Very.'

'And you say this Jeff Anderson was one of the scientists working there, doing these experiments on people. That's a pretty big coincidence, you happening upon him like that.'

'Yes, it was.'

'Hmm.' The sergeant sipped at her coffee. Chell wished she'd been offered some.'Tell me again what happened.'

'I was driving down the road with Karen..'

'That's Ms Karen Smith. Aged fifty eight.' One thing Karen and Chell had agreed on was that it was better to not explain the full story of Karen's origins. The truth was outlandish enough as it was. That and the police might not be open to complex moral arguments about just how much choice GlaDOS had had about murdering all those people.

'..yes. And then we saw Mr Anderson waving at us. We went over to say hi. He invited us inside, but then he tried to threaten us. He had a gun.'

'The alien weapon we found in Ms Smith's possession.'

'Yes. We took it..later. After he threatened us I found a knife and picked it up, there was a struggle..and then he was dead. I don't know which of us stabbed him. It's possible he fell on the knife.' Chell's hope was that that if the police couldn't tell which of she and Karen had stabbed Jeff then they wouldn't be able to successfully charge either of them. She wasn't sure the law worked that way but it was worth a shot. Chell had tried explaining the logic of this approach to Karen but she had remained unconvinced. 'Then we washed ourselves off in his shower and took some of his things. We were desperate, it's..hard, up on the peninsula. Everyone is dead.' Chell tried to look vulnerable, but felt like she only managed to look constipated.

The sergeant opened a new file, and pulled out a piece of paper, carefully holding it so that Chell couldn't read it. 'Well Ms Smith says something different. Not about the peninsula, I believe you about that..'

Chell winced. After Chell had confessed the previous day Karen had started shouting that nothing Chell said should be trusted, that she had a history of paranoid delusions and probably had brain damage. (Which was true, but hardly relevant)

'Karen is just trying to protect me,' said Chell. 'She means well.'

'I'm sure she does,' said the sergeant. 'As a rule, when prisoners try to break out of one our cells they don't usually plan on locking themselves back up again afterwards.'

The sergeant stared at her levelly and Chell felt her face flushing. Of course there'd been security cameras. Did last night count as collusion?

'Right,' she said, keeping her tone flat.

The sergeant blinked at her, the hint of a smile at the corner of her lips, then continued. 'Now Miss Smith has changed her story from yesterday. She no longer claims to have amnesia, or that Mr Anderson stabbed himself in front of the two of you after luring you into his house with offers of cake and icecream.' For someone who lied so often Karen really wasn't very good at it. 'She now largely corroborates your story, except for one detail: she says that it was she who stabbed Mr Anderson, and that you had nothing to do with it.'

'Oh,' said Chell.

'Are you now going to claim that it was you who stabbed him?' asked the sergeant, as if it was a question of mild academic interest.

Was she? Was Chell willing to sacrifice herself for Karen? She would certainly cope with prison a lot better, Karen would probably pick a fight with the guards on the first day.

'Would you believe me?' asked Chell.

The sergeant sighed. 'Not really,' she said.

'Then no,' said Chell. 'I stand by my story. Karen is lying to protect me.'

'Possibly,' said the sergeant. She frowned at Chell. And then shook her head.

'You know, I've seen some messed up stuff in my time. Back when the aliens were in charge..it was pretty horrific. I thought nothing could shock me any more.' She sipped her coffee again and looked out the window at the sickly trees lining the building, and the invasion scarred city beyond. 'But then I saw inside that Anderson's lab. It's one things when aliens do it, but humans experimenting on other humans..that's sick.'

'Yes,' said Chell.

The sergeant gave a grim smile. 'Still, we've been digging around, and it looks like we'll finally be able to solve some old missing person cases that have been open for years. Mr Anderson had been pretty busy. You two are lucky you managed to escape.'

'Yes.'

The sergeant closed the file and tented her fingers, leaning towards Chell with a serious expression.

'Look, I don't know which of you two stabbed Mr Anderson, but the way I see it either way you were doing this city a favour. If I let you go, do you promise to try not to kill anyone else?'

'We'll do our absolute best,' said Chell.

The sergeant nodded and tilted her head at one of her officers and then towards the room where Karen was being held after being questioned. 'Let these two go,' she said. 'We've got too much important police business waiting to waste time hounding a couple of innocent people for speeding.'

The sun was warm and welcome on Chell's skin. She walked slowly back towards the truck, enjoying the breeze and looking at the two new IDs the sergeant had given her. One listed her actual birth year, while the other said she'd been born twenty one years ago. 'Less questions that way,' the sergeant had said 'But still lets you buy alcohol.'. Karen had tried to haggle her stated age from 26 down to 24 with no success.

'What reasonable people,' said Karen, counting out the money the police had given them along with advice on how to best settle into town. 'Maybe there's hope for human civilisation after all.'

'Not that I'm complaining, but I'm not sure letting confessed killers go because you don't like the person they murdered is all that civilised,' said Chell. 'Not to mention giving a minor a fake ID.'

'Then you have a flawed definition of civilisation,' said Karen.

Chell turned to look at Karen. Her pale cheeks were flushed a pretty pink and a lock of her hair had been swept across her face in the breeze. Chell put her arm around Karen's shoulder and looked out at their new home. Large chunks of Duluth had been demolished during the war and occupation, but the city was filled with scaffolding around new construction, and the remaining vacant lots bustled with market stalls and community gardens, brightly dressed people talking happily to each other and walking from place to place. There was a cheerfully painted sign on the sidewalk asking passers by to sign a petition to return the unpopulated regions of the state to American Indian hands. The people of Earth had been bowed, but not broken.

'Maybe I do,' she said, and smiled.