"You're all very dull, aren't you?" Jess asked accusingly at the gang – mostly Elephantes, strangely – who she was stuck with in an annoyingly small room. This small room the nine – five of which were Elephantes – were enclosed in had nine bright orange, squishy, furry chairs and a strange exotic pot plant in the corner. There was a door next to the pot plant, and the room had rather the look of a doctor's waiting room – or it would, if it weren't for the fact that there weren't any other doors, or a receptionist's desk, or a TV for waiting patients to watch, or even a window.

"No," disagreed the only pet there who wasn't an Elephante, excluding Jess's own, who appeared to be a comparatively civilised Tyrannian Kougra, "you just ramble on too inanely for us to keep up with."

"I do not ramble on inanely," Jess protested defensively. "That's only if you ask my sister Emma, or Zoe, or my mum, or... well, quite a lot of people, actually, but they're all wrong."

"I don't think that helped you any, mum," Tigger told Jess quietly. Jess ignored him.

"Say, is there any food around here?" she asked suddenly. "I'm starving."

Two of the five Elephantes both turned their heads away, apparently in disgust.

"It was a polite enough question!" Jess yelled angrily. "It's not like there's a fridge, or a cupboard, or even a lolly jar." She sighed impatiently. "And why do they have to enclose us in such a small room? If the whole Station's under quarantine, surely we're allowed around the whole station."

Another Elephante turned his head away.

"This is so dreadfully boring," Jess complained, ignoring the fact that most of the others were ignoring her – or at least three of them. "You'd think they'd have some more entertainment for poor people stranded here." Jess suddenly jumped out of her chair. "I'm a genius!"

"How?" the Tyrannian Kougra asked before he could stop himself.

"Well," Jess explained, "what's keeping me here, anyway?"

"Security guards," was Tigger's grouchy response.

Jess clucked her tongue. "Now you sound like Saint," she reprimanded him. "You remember how dumb they are – fancy 'can you please speak coherently?' being on their checklist of questions!" Grinning, she strolled casually to the door and opened it. "Now before you -" Jess paused to actually look at the area surrounding the doorway. "Oh," she remarked, puzzled. "There's no one here."

She turned to look at the eight pets – five Elephantes, two Kougras and a Uni – who remained seated. "Coming?" she enquired.

Tigger continued his Saint impression. "No."

"Blanche? Will you?"

"I'm not sure it's quite wise," Blanche protested.

"Who cares if it's wise?" was Jess's award-winning argument. "It's not boring."

Blanche made an exaggerated sigh. "Someone's got to look after you, haven't they?" she asked, heaving herself out of her orange, fluffy chair. "I guess I'll see you soon, Tigger," she told her brother.

"Fine," Tigger grumbled, and so his owner and sister closed the door behind them and scampered away.

"This is very weird," Jess commented after wandering through several abandoned, although also in complete disarray, corridors. "Even our dumb guard friends have left us."

"Mmm," Blanche agreed vaguely, staring interestedly at pieces of sandwich lying at her feet. "Isn't it rather ridiculous to tear sandwiches, mum?"

Jess gained an indignant expression all of a sudden. "It makes them easier to bite into if you're trying to avoid crust," was her award-winning protest.

"But don't crusts give you -"

"No," Jess replied simply. "And even if they did, I don't want curly hair."

Blanche shrugged. "Where are we headed, anyway?" she enquired coolly, stepping over the sandwich with as much dignity as she could muster. "We've nearly gone in a full circle."

"So much for your sense of direction."

"You were leading," Blanche pointed out. "And where are we headed?"

"Where we were headed earlier," Jess explained unhelpfully. "Lift... lift..."

"I forgot what that was," Blanche protested. "I was suffering from space sickness, I believe."

"Amnesia isn't a side-effect of space sickness," Jess replied, scanning the walls beside each door for a tell-tale pair of arrow buttons.

"Enlighten me," Blanche instructed with controlled fury. "Where are we going?"

Jess beamed at a large yellow sign that read 'LIFT & STAIRS AT RIGHT'. "Sorry, what was that, Blanche?"

Blanche had a feeling Jess didn't really want to listen, as Jess was now strolling quickly along the corridor without her. That wasn't going to dissuade her, though. "I said, where are we going?"

"How many times have you asked that question in the last minute?" Jess asked, ignoring the actual question. Blanche decided Jess was just in a babbling sort of mood. "Four, isn't it?"

"Well, you won't answer!" Blanche explained angrily. "How am I meant to know the answer if you won't tell me?"

Jess, unseen by Blanche since she was actually looking for a lift, grinned. "I did," she replied. "Amnesia, wasn't it?"

"Space sickness," came the withering reply.

Jess couldn't resist a half-smile as she came up suddenly to a lift. "Hop in, Blanche," she invited her youngest pet as the doors opened. Blanche cast a suspicious glare at the human.

"I don't like the look of this," she muttered.

"You shouldn't worry so much," Jess reproved, stepping into the lift herself. "What can a lift possibly do? It's not alive."

"Neither are robots, mum," Blanche retorted.

"Well, no," Jess admitted, "but now you're just displaying a highly unusual phobia of lifts. Get in."

Still glaring at her owner, Blanche stepped into the lift and the large metal doors closed behind her. She carefully watched Jess's hands as they flicked indecisively over the panel of buttons before settling on a particular one - -12.

"Twelfth floor before zero?" Blanche asked sceptically as the lift started to move. "What's there?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Jess asked. "It's just a suspicion of mine."

"You and your suspicions," Blanche groaned.

Jess smiled smugly at her Uni.