She spent the entire weekend avoiding Barney. He had knocked on her door later on during the day of the little mishap, so she spent most of the weekend out of her dorm and away from any place Barney might be. She spent the weekend running errands and keeping herself busy.
Monday finally came around, and she was to report to the lambda complex that day. In order to avoid Barney, she left extra early, and took the tram to the main dining hall for breakfast instead of eating in the area 8 cafeteria like she normally did. There she saw Gina Cross, another scientist that she had become friends with during her short tenure at Black Mesa.
"Hey Jenna!" Gina said, "I heard you got transferred to the Lambda Complex. Pretty exciting"
"Yea, have you ever been there?" Jenna asked.
"No, can't say that I have, but hopefully one day," she said. "So what brings you here?"
"What do you mean?" Jenna replied.
"Well, I eat breakfast here every day, and have never seen you" Gina said, "So are you just exploring?"
"Actually, I'm kind of avoiding Barney" Jenna admitted, looking down at her breakfast.
"Why? Are you mad at him?" Gina asked, sounding concerned.
"No, it's just that…. Well, long story short, I was in his dorm and accidentally walked in on him in the bathroom… naked!" said Jenna, frowning.
"Ohhh yea! I heard something about that from Gordon," Gina said, looking up trying to remember something, "So, what was it like?" she asked, smiling.
"GINA!" Jenna cried incredulously.
"WHAT? A girl can't wonder?" Gina said, faking a look of offense. "C'mon, just a LITTLE detail. Was it… you know… big?"
"I am SO not answering that question," Jenna said.
"Oh, so it wasn't. Bummer." Gina said.
"No, it was" Jenna blurted out.
"Woah! Nice going, Calhoun" said Gina.
"Ugh! This conversation is over!" Jenna said, getting agitated as she buried her head in her hands again.
"Oh, fine," Gina said, defeated, "but can't avoid him forever. You don't want it to be all awkward and weird, do you?"
"ya, You're right," Jenna said while checking her watch. "Well, I'd better go. I don't want to be late. See you later, Gina!"
She rode the train to the central transit center. From there, a security guard made her show ID and scan her eyes in a retinal scanner before giving her access to the "secured access lambda sector transport train, which no other passengers were on. The tram ride was lone and bizarre, going deep underground.
She finally arrived at the main entrance. A security guard verified her identity again before letting her in. The main area had a small sitting area and some vending machines. An elevator with a sign that read "lab access" was next to the sitting area- she could already tell that this was nothing like the rest of the facilities. She rode the elevator down, where she was met by the smiling face of Doctor Kleiner.
"Good morning, Jenna!" said Kleiner enthusiastically, "I see you right on time! Great. I'll show you your office for this area."
"Wait," said Jenna, "I get another office down here?"
"Oh, most certainly yes! The work you will be doing down here is very different than the work you do in the sector E weapons labs or the sector C analysis labs. Thusly, you have an office down here for paperwork, reports and equipment that must never leave the lambda facilities. I not only have an office in sector C, but I have one down here as well. Fortunately, the office I am in down here is a retinal scanner lock so I don't have to worry about losing my keys."
He walked her to an office with a label on the outside that read "J. Brandenburgh." She tried the scanner and, amazingly, it actually opened the door. They both walked into her office.
"Now, let's get started," Kleiner said, "I was informed that the HECU briefed about our teleportation experiments in this complex, correct?"
"well, I knew that Black Mesa did teleportation experiments," Jenna said, "but I didn't know it was the lambda labs."
"Right" continued Kleiner, "Well, I know that you are familiar with short distance teleportation of non-living matter, correct?"
She nodded.
"Well, here is the background file of your assignment, it will be teleportation of living matter- humans, to be precise," he said, handing her a file with a large black mesa logo on it, labeled "TOP SECRET" in large letters. "You will be dealing with teleportation technology, preferably long-distance for military benefit."
She nodded again. She was secretly excited. "FINALLY!" she thought to herself, "Some REAL physics!"
"Well," Kleiner continued, "I have to get going for an experiment. I will be gone for about two hours. If you have any questions, I will be available after that." And with that, he turned and walked out.
Jenna began looking over the thick file. She couldn't believe it. Apparently, Black Mesa scientists had found a border planet, which they called Xen, that had a foreign power source that could act as a cosmic middle man of sorts to sustain long-distance teleportation. She looked at the analysis data of these orange colored crystals. Unfortunately, the samples came out imperfect, unstable and inconclusive.
Jenna's head was buzzing with questions. She wanted to know everything about the new planet, everything about how they discovered the power sources, everything about human teleportation. She was amazed at how casual Dr. Kleiner acted about human teleportation and space travel- Jenna's head was filled with questions, concerns, and conflicts while Kleiner acted as if it were walking to the store.
However, Jenna though of the possible implications of these crystals- she could harness the smaller ones to make a personal teleportation device, or better. Her mind began to race with possibility now. She could get started on the personal teleportation device, even with the imperfect samples and wait for better samples to finish it.
After reading every word of the file, she waited for Kleiner to come back. He took her into a room that had two glowing balls separated by a wall. One was orange and one was green. Kleiner went over the physics and calculations with her, and explained how the crystals were aiding in the teleportation of a human, which they had mastered. The whole thing took hours to fully explain, but Jenna was completely captivated by every bit of information.
When he was done with her lesson, she looked at him with intense interest.
"Can…can I try it?" Jenna asked sheepishly.
"well, yes, I don't see why that would be a problem" Kleiner said. He opened the door to the room with the green ball. Jenna stepped in hesitantly, avoiding the ball like an explosive mine.
"Well, Jenna," Kleiner said, "go ahead, step inside of the portal."
Jenna set one foot in, and then the other. Instantly she began to hear a rushing noise in her ear, and her body began to tense up. Suddenly, the room went black. For the longest three seconds of her life, she saw nothing but black and heard nothing but her own breathing. She felt as if someone was squeezing her entire body, and her breath was very labored. Almost as soon as the blackness came, it was gone, and instead replaced by the orange glow of the exit teleport in the other room.
"WOW!" Jenna gasped. She walked out of the room and saw Dr. Kleiner, standing in the exact same spot, smiling at her.
"You never quite get used to it," Kleiner said. He pulled out the papers that were falling out of an analysis machine printer at a rapid pace and handed the printed calculations to Jenna. "Feel free to look them over, get more acquainted with the physics and calculations of it. You'll need it."
Jenna spent the rest of the day pouring over calculations and physics before finally deciding to head home. She took the same secret train to the central transit station and to her dorm. Even though Jenna had to leave her calculations and papers in her office, her mind was still buzzing with all of the information she took in. She cooked dinner, watched a little bit of TV to unwind, and finally crawled into bed, excited for the next day.
"Finally," she thought to herself, "I'm STOKED to go to work tomorrow!"