A month later
In late September, summer faded into fall, bringing a chill to the desert of New Mexico. Jenna had grown weary of teleporting around the facility, never getting it right. One morning, Jenna was waiting for the lambda tram and saw Kleiner nowhere in sight. The lambda tram finally arrived, and Jenna was just about to board it and leave without him when suddenly, she saw him on another tram just seconds before the lambda tram was to depart. It stopped at the platform and Kleiner quickly ran to the lambda tram to make it in time.
"Morning, Doc," Jenna said, "Cutting it a little close, are we?"
"Morning, Jenna," doctor Kleiner said, "Yes, I am a little late. I just got back from talking with Dr. Breen and I have some exciting news! He has allowed me to see to it that you get to Xen. We have set up a reception point there, where we have been exploring for crystals. You can go there and coordinate the receptor with your device, which will enable you to use Xen as a slingshot for teleportation, as we have been doing. It might fix the problems with your device."
"GREAT!" Jenna exclaimed. "When can I go?"
"Today, if you wish," Kleiner answered.
"Absolutely," Jenna said, smiling "should I send for my PCV and mask from my room? Because of the atmosphere?"
"That would probably be a good idea," said Kleiner. "I will have Azian Vance escort you to Xen at 10:00 a.m. sharp. You can also help her find some more crystal samples."
Ten o'clock couldn't have arrived any slower. Ten minutes before her departure, Jenna put on her PCV gear and dashed to Dr. Kleiner's lab. Azian was waiting there, smiling at her when she came through the door.
"Hi, Azian," Jenna said.
"Greetings, Jenna" said Azian.
"Alright, ladies, let's go up to the main Xen teleport and we can get started." Kleiner said
They walked down the hall, around the corner to another elevator, one Jenna had never used before. They took the elevator up, and Kleiner led them to a large laboratory, like the one in the anomalous materials lab in sector C.
"Alright, when I start the teleport, Azian, you go first. I will re-start it, and Jenna, you can go after that."
"Ok" said Azian and Jenna together.
Kleiner climbed up a ladder (which was a funny sight Jenna had never seen before) to a large platform attached to the wall. He started fiddling with buttons and the computers, and the large teleportation machine whirled to life. While the machine warmed up, Azian put on her HEV helmet and Jenna put on her HEV mask. After warming up, there was a bright flash, and an orange teleport ball appeared in the middle of the reactor.
"Go, Azian" Kleiner yelled. Azian immediately ran up the ledge and jumped into the ball, disappearing.
The machine started up again, and after a while, the orange ball appeared again.
"Go now, Jenna" Kleiner bellowed.
Jenna, very nervous swayed on her feet for a split second before starting to sprint as fast as she could. Once she reached the edge, she jumped directly into the middle of the orb. The same black surrounded her. And she again only heard her breathing….
She finally came to in the strangest place she had ever seen. They were on a large, rocky looking platform in the middle of a blue, misty sky. She saw other platforms around the one she was on, but this one was the largest. She landed in front of what looked like 3 different caves leading to who knew where. She looked around, and saw an HEV-suit clad figure. She had landed exactly where Azian Vance did. "How were they so accurate?" she wondered.
Azian walked over to Jenna and filled her in on the basics- the gravitational change, the climate, the features of the ground, etc. Jenna was allowed to explore a small section, but was told not to go too far, because of unpredictable terrain. When she finished exploring, she coordinated her device with the teleport machine laying in her landing area. She hoped that she could use this teleportation machine to slingshot herself longer distances.
"Jenna, can you come here and help me get this crystal?" Azian bellowed from the left cave.
Jenna jogged over, through the cave. It was lit by strange plants that retracted when Jenna came near them. There was organic matter on the wall, and the walls themselves were made of a rocky substance that she had never seen before. Azian was looking down at a large crystal. It was only slightly marred by imperfections. It was certainly the purest they have seen yet.
"It's too heavy for me, can you help?" she asked Jenna.
Jenna nodded at put her gloved hands underneath it. Azian followed suit on the other side.
"Alright, ready? One….two….THREE" she said, and the two women hoisted it up. They carried it out of the cave, to the machine that was just outside.
They set it down, and Azian began working on a ride home. After a while, a ball of light appeared, and Azian looked over at Jenna again.
"Alright, we can both take it through, but we have to be sure to enter at the same time"
"That's comforting," said Jenna
"I'm sure there won't be a problem, just wait for three," Azian reassured her.
On three, they hoisted it up again, and slowly walked through the teleport simultaneously.
Within three seconds, they were back at Kleiner's lab, the crystal- and all of their body parts- still intact. She was actually getting use to this teleportation feeling.
For a month, Jenna busied herself with two things: the teleportation device and Barney. She spent most of her days in the Lambda Labs, where she had gotten really far in finishing her device. She was able to teleport long distances, and would frequently teleport to crystal bases that she set up in deserted, far reaching areas of the compound (the areas that were approved by Breen, of course). Unfortunately, she was still having accuracy issues and if she set coordinates for areas right outside the base, she would sometimes teleport herself to odd places in Xen. Once day, she accidentally teleported herself into the middle of nothing and began falling through space. To avoid being killed or sent through space forever, she quickly recharged the gun and fired it again, teleporting herself back to Black Mesa. However, she teleported back to a locker room. No one saw, fortunately, but Breen screamed at her for three hours straight and forbid her from trying distances that far again.
When Jenna wasn't working, she spent her free time hanging out with Barney. They hang out every day, being mutually flirtatious. They were practically inseparable- she watched Barney repeatedly beat Gordon in vent challenges, they ate together, they hung out in each other's dorm rooms to just watch a movie or talk, they even picked back up with Hazard Course races (Jenna taught Barney the correct way to handle the SMG's grenade launcher). Jenna usually won the races, unless she was tired or injured from teleportation accidents.
However, one day, Barney kicked her ass pretty severely in a race, surprising even him.
"Hey, what's going on?" He asked her, "You usually embarrass me! But today I felt like I was racing a kid in a wheelchair. Is something up?"
"No, I'm fine" Jenna said, taking off her PCV (Barney finally conceded to letting them race in their own armor, since it was what they were used to).
"You're lying. And you're a lousy liar so it's almost insulting to my intelligence that you thing I'd buy that" he said, smiling at her.
"Let's go to your room and watch a movie," said Jenna.
Barney picked up on her cue "Fine," he said, pretending to be reluctant.
When they reached his room, she looked at him, worried.
"Sorry, I didn't want to say anything in front of the cameras, the thing is…." She began
"WAIT!" He yelled, causing her to jump. "SHHH!!" He said, silencing her. He ran to his TV, turned it on and cranked up the volume.
"Barney, you're so paranoid it's scary," said Jenna.
"Whatever, when you realize that this protected our privacy, you'll thank me!" he said.
"Whatever" she said, shaking her head, "I can't tell you everything, but you know those crystals that have been tested on in sector C?"
"Yea" he answered
"Well, they come from the lambda labs. Don't ask how" she said, noticing the curious look on his face. "I have been….working with them, but any time I ask a question about them, they yell at me. They say I am not high enough clearance to know. But the thing is, I got a sample that had some sort of toxic ooze on it, but it was mixed with organic material. I asked about it, and got the same results: a face full of pissed off Breen."
"What do you think it is?" said Barney, his interest highly peaked.
"I don't know. Let's just drop it, I've probably said too much already. It's just got me rattled." She said, shivering slightly. "Let's change the subject- did you buy those flowers for your sister?"
"Oh, Lauren? Uhm… not yet." Barney said, looking down at his feet.
"You know, she'll never forgive you if she thinks that you didn't care about her getting into a car accident! Just send them!" she said, pushing him on the shoulder.
