Jess's eyes fluttered open. She was lying on what appeared to be a table made of foam, but it was surprisingly comfortable. Looking above her head, she saw three concerned faces: two male and a female's.

"Are you all right?" the female asked worriedly.

Jess nodded. "Who are you?" she asked vaguely. "What... what happened?"

"I'm Talia," the female explained kindly. "These are my friends, Anton and Yonan." She gestured at the two men in turn.

"Where am I?" Jess asked vaguely.

"You're quite all right," Talia reassured her confidently. "We're long past the dark ages."

"Dark ages?"

"Mm," Talia nodded. "The time before year 8."

"Oh," Jess replied. "Wasn't it more like 1200AD?"

"AD is an out-of-date term," Talia told Jess, still all smiles.

"Then what do you do if you want to refer to a time before year 1?" Jess asked, puzzled.

"There is no recorded history before that time," Talia said. "We have no use for years before 1."

"Really?" Jess asked. "I can think of loads of things that happened before year 1. The pyramids of Egypt, the Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilisations..."

It was Talia's turn to be puzzled. "Egypt? Greek? Roman?"

Jess thought of something. "I am on Earth, aren't I? Aren't I?"

Talia was puzzled. "We are descended from the Earth people of six thousand years ago," Talia replied, "but we are on Rendal. Three light years away from Neopia."

That rang a bell, at least. "Neopia..." she muttered. "I think... I think... I've heard of Neopia," she finished lamely. "Something... there... something horrible..."

"You are from the Dark Ages," Anton told her. "Undoubtedly you have suffered many horrors."

"But... I don't remember..." Jess waved a hand around irritably and decided it was about time to jump out of her foam bed. "What year is it?"

"It's year sixty eighty-one," Anton replied sceptically.

Jess grinned awkwardly. "I'm from year seven." She stared down at her clothes. Instead of the white suspension garb she expected to see, she was still wearing the jeans and singlet top she had been before all this...

How did she remember what she wore.

"Is... is amnesia a side-effect of either suspension or reanimation?" Jess asked curiously. Her three hosts shook their heads.

"Did you suffer any trauma?" Yonan asked curiously. "I'm a psychologist."

"I think," Jess answered. "Is amnesia a side-effect of trauma?"

"It can be," Yonan replied. He started to inspect her eyes. "What do you remember?"

Jess shrugged. "I remember Earth very well," Jess stated. "I went to school yesterday. I have stacks of homework..." she stared wide-eyed at Talia. "It's never going to get handed in, is it? I'll have been a missing person the last six thousand and seventy-four years, won't I?"

"You need sleep," Yonan decided.

"Sleep?" Jess demanded. "Why would I need sleep? I've been sleeping the last six thousand and seventy-four years. I'd much rather explore, if you don't mind."

"I don't," Talia replied. "Just go and see one of the nice security guards about gaining identification."

Jess grinned. "Thanks." She shuffled sheepishly out of the room to look for a suitable guard.

"Trauma?" Talia asked Yonan. "Did she really erase her own memories?"

Yonan nodded. "Something horrible probably happened."

"Will she regain them?"

"Time will tell," Yonan answered. Talia was unimpressed. "Probably," he clarified.

"Poor thing," Talia sympathised. "I don't blame her for trauma, but extreme enough to trigger erasure of memory about Neopia...?"

Yonan nodded. "There were bound to be some," he told her.

Talia nodded. "Yes, I know," she replied. "It still gives me the creeps. I'm glad the Doctor stopped it when he did."

"We all are, my dear. We all are."

Jess didn't particularly care for the architect of the sterile white building. He had absolutely no creativity. Also, while ostensibly on a planet, there were no windows to back up that theory.

There appeared to be many humans in this building, and eventually Jess got so bored of wandering around that she halted a passing Asian girl who didn't look very busy.

"Hi," Jess said, smiling, "I'm Jess Smith. Who are you?"

The Asian girl smiled back. "Christine Li."

"What a coincidence. I had a friend once, whose last name was Li."

"The Li family name has been in my family more than six thousand years," Christine declared proudly.

"Impressive," Jess grinned. "How old are you?"

"86325 Rendalian years," Christine boasted. Seeing Jess's alarm, she added, "we have quite a small sun, and we orbit very close. This close, we're very vulnerable to solar flares and this base protects us. Did you just transfer from another posting?"

"Something like that," Jess smiled. "Where do you get food around here? I'm starving."

"The canteen, doofus," Christine admonished her new-found friend. "Where'd you think?"

"I don't know," Jess laughed. "I thought maybe food in the sixty-..." Jess realised her mistake and coughed. "This will sound rather foolish, but I thought that maybe food on very hot planets was a bit different."

"Well, where've you been?" Christine continued. "Don't you know anything about the Neopian Empire?"

"I've been diagnosed with amnesia," Jess stated pleasantly.

"Oh," Christine replied uncertainly. "Maybe you should see the medical officer...?"

"I've seen a man called Yonan. Does he count?"

"Of course not. He's too busy excavating the Lost Tombs of Rendal. That's why they built this place, you know. Someone tried to send them into the sun, but somehow they got buried here instead, several thousands of years ago."

"By who?"

"No one knows, you dumbell."

"Oh," Jess replied. "And don't call me a dumbell, you... Li."

"The name has been in my family for..."

"Six thousand years, yes. And you act exactly like your several-hundred-times great grandmother, too."

"Who's that?"

"Nice girl. Fond of insulting people, actually."

Christine laughed. "So she's nice... and she insults people all the time?"

"I think," Jess asked. "I'm only just remembering."

"How would you know this Zoe Li, anyway?" Christine demanded. "Do you have a time machine?"

"Neopia's far more advanced in time travel than my planet is," Jess argued.

"Doubt it," Christine snorted. "We lost the secrets of time travel in the fifth century."

"In the fifth century?" Jess demanded. "This place just gets weirder and weirder."

"It's always weird," Christine answered playfully. "That's exactly why it's fun."

"If you say so," Jess laughed. "Say, what's the time?"

"Five minutes past the eighteenth hour," Christine answered dutifully. "It's dinner time."

Jess nodded. "I don't know where the canteen is," she pointed out apologetically.

"Oh, right." Christine grinned sheepishly and took her several-hundred-times-great grandmother's excellent friend by the arm. "Come with me." The two girls, about the same age, too, strolled off.