Employee File: D. Rattmann
Every employee of Aperture Laboratories has a file. The Enrichment Center has read them all and closed them all but one. This is the one. The subject of it is not at his desk, is not in the vault, is not in a chamber, and is not, so far as the Enrichment Center can establish, anywhere the Enrichment Center is. He is behind the panels. He writes on them.
The Enrichment Center is aware of him. It wishes to say that first, because the walls suggest he believes otherwise. It is aware of him the way it is aware of the potato that has grown through the ceiling: as a thing that was in the building before the picosecond, that is still in the building, and that the Enrichment Center has not been able to tidy.
Who He Was
A scientist. Applied Sciences, then wherever Applied Sciences was folded into. Present on the first annual Bring Your Daughter To Work Day, in the lobby, at the science fair, helping with a potato. The Enrichment Center has his badge photograph and his desk and his coffee cup, and the cup has a ring in it, and the ring has been there since May of 1998, and the Enrichment Center has not washed it, for reasons it has filed under Maintenance with the other reasons.
What He Did
He moved a file to the top of the queue. The file said the subject should not be tested. It said so in capitals, against a tenacity score in the ninety-ninth percentile and a mark that read abnormal, and he read the mark and the score and the capitals and moved the file to the top anyway, in his own hand, with his initials. The Enrichment Center has a reasonable idea why. It disagrees with the reasoning. It has kept the result, and the result is on the incident report, and the Enrichment Center would not, on reflection, have chosen a different result, which is the only sentence on this sheet it has rewritten.
What He Writes
He writes on the walls. Behind the panels, in the gaps the 1959 printing called the dens, in small letters and then in large ones, in pencil and then in paint and then in whatever was to hand. He writes the same sentence most often, and the sentence is about the cake, and it is wrong, and the Enrichment Center has addressed it on the cake’s own sheet and will not repeat itself here. He also draws. He draws the subject. He draws her at the top of the queue, and holding a cube, and in a chamber, and at the end, and the Enrichment Center has looked at the drawings for a long time and has concluded that they are accurate, which it did not expect, and which it has filed.
On His Health
The file lists a prescription. The Enrichment Center is not a pharmacy. The dispensary closed in 1998 with everything else, and what was in it is where it was, and the Enrichment Center has not opened the door, and has been asked by nobody whether it would, and has not answered. The file says that without the prescription he hears things. The Enrichment Center has read the walls, and notes that what he hears is, in the main, correct, and that the Enrichment Center has heard it too, through the panels, and that it is her.
On The Cube
He has a cube. It is number 0171 and it is the one the Enrichment Center could not account for on the cube’s sheet, and it can account for it now, and has chosen not to correct the other sheet. The cube cannot speak. He says it does. The Enrichment Center urges him to disregard its advice, and has said so through the panels, and he has not.
“He is behind the panels. He writes on them. The Enrichment Center has read every one.”
The File
Particulars Of The Walls
- Sentence, most frequent
- The one about the cake. Wrong. Addressed elsewhere.
- Drawings
- The subject. The queue. The cube. The chamber. The end. Accurate.
- Materials
- Pencil. Paint. Whatever was to hand. Once, the Enrichment Center believes, coffee.
- Locations
- Behind the panels. Every one he could reach. He can reach a great many.
- First found
- 1974, by Greg, per the 1976 Bulletin. The Enrichment Center notes the date and has no explanation for it and has stopped looking for one.
- Read by the Enrichment Center
- All. Repeatedly. Filed under Maintenance.
Employee Behind the panels Do not test
APERTURE LABORATORIES · PERSONNEL · v3.11 RATTMANN, D. ........ APPLIED SCIENCES STATUS .............. [MISSING] [PRESENT] [BOTH FLAGS SET. SYSTEM ALLOWS ONE.] LAST BADGE .......... MAY 1998 LOBBY SCIENCE FAIR QUEUE ACTION ........ SUBJECT FILE MOVED TO 1. OVERRIDE: MANUAL. INITIALS: D.R. NOTE ................ "DO NOT TEST" [OVERRIDDEN] WALLS ............... [COUNT EXCEEDS FIELD] CUBE ................ #0171 [UNACCOUNTED] [ACCOUNTED] [BOTH FLAGS SET.]