Chrissie's home, Frontera, July 2392

Jenny stood in the entrance hall of Chrissie's house, having just completed a circuit of the entire structure, top to bottom, even the cellars. There was no sound in the house that every time she'd been there, had always been full of people, food and love. Now, all she could hear was the faint ticking of an antique clock in a nearby room, and her ragged breathing sounded unnaturally loud in the otherwise silent room.

Something, she thought, fighting panic, was very wrong here. She knew she should immediately go out and tell one of the agents, but for some reason she felt she ought to wait, because in her increasingly frantic solitary rush from room to room, she knew she'd seen something that was important.

She went into the dining room, where she knew there was a drinks tray and poured herself a few fingers of single malt, even though it was not even noon, downing it in one swallow. Where and what, she wondered, trying to think. There were a lot of rooms in this house, most of which she'd never been in before, and she had felt increasingly uncomfortable as she searched for her friend once she realised Chrissie was simply not there.

Calling on her Academy training on how to clear a structure, she went from room to room, checking in closets and bathrooms, even under beds, every inch of floor space. Chrissie might have fallen, be unconscious, but there was nothing at all, the entire place immaculate as always. Except, she thought, one thing that had been ever so slightly out of place.

Closing her eyes she tried to take herself back to wherever that had been and eventually it came to her – Chrissie's bedroom.

Taking the stairs two at a time, she winced when halfway up there was a loud creak, as if someone was going to come out and ask her what the hell she was doing there. If that happened, she'd happily explain, but all remained unnaturally quiet. Up here, the clock was no longer audible, and the only sound was the beating of her own heart.

At first glance, nothing seemed out of place. There were no clothes trailing from the backs of chairs or lying on the floor. There was a brightly patterned shawl on the bed, as if it had been placed there so it would not be forgotten, but other than that, all was as it should be.

Jenny didn't think she'd felt so frightened since the war, although this was different. It was not something she could fix with a tool or remedy at all and the otherness of it made her feel a little lightheaded. Without realising it, she called out to Graham, somewhere on Frontera on his pick-up rounds, a wordless cry of fear.

What had it been that she'd seen? Her feet seemed to know where to go because they took her to the dressing table, above which hung an ornate mirror she remembered Krang had brought back from one of his trips to Earth. Chrissie had asked her advice on where to hang it and they'd settled on the location it currently occupied.

The chair was not pushed back as it would have been if Chrissie had got up after readying herself for her afternoon out, but was in exactly the same position she herself would have put it if it had been her sitting there. She almost pulled it out to sit in it and see if she noticed anything from that position, but realised that would be a very bad idea if a forensic team had to be called in. Instead she stood behind it and crouched down a bit to get her to the right height.

Chrissie had obviously been nearly done with whatever she was doing and there was no make-up or jewellery strewn on the surface of the small table. Except, she noticed, the bottom half of a tube of lipstick that had rolled to the back, stopped from rolling off by the ballerina music box. Jenny smiled, wanting to reach out and wind it, because she'd had one of those as a girl and loved them, but pulled her hand back just before she closed her fingers around the little key. Evidence, she reminded herself.

Where, she asked herself was the top of the lipstick? It was nowhere to be seen. Straightening up, she took a few steps back and taking a small pen-like light from her handbag, she directed the surprisingly bright beam around the dressing table and chair. There, under the chair, resting against the right rear leg, as if it had rolled off when abandoned suddenly.

"What were you doing?" she asked aloud. Her gaze focussed on the mirror, which she thought had a slightly yellow cast to the glass, which made her uneasy. It was as if what she was seeing was somewhere else, a place where golden, afternoon light was shining in when here it was noon and the sun was overhead. She glanced towards the window. There was no sun today; outside, the sky was overcast and cloudy, threatening rain. Turning back to the mirror, she realised that what she was seeing was a completely different room, a smaller, far more modern room. Through an open door, she could see a bed covered with a deep green bedspread and a number of multi-coloured cushions. There were a few items of feminine clothing on it and a small handbag with a gold chain. Someone had been dressing for a special event.

Then she noticed the strangest thing of all that made the breath freeze in her lungs and a shiver run throughout her entire body – and now that she'd seen it, she couldn't understand how she'd missed it. Her reflection was not visible. Her hands flew up to cover her mouth and keep from screaming out loud.

"GRAHAM!" The silent cry of terror came as the recipient was approaching from where he had been about to begin the trip back to the station.

Jenny reached out a trembling hand, wanting to touch the mirror, but again pulled back, not wanting to put her fingerprints on it. She backed away slowly until she was at the door and turned to go back downstairs. From outside came the impossibly loud noise of a shuttle coming down to land. She knew the sound of that engine well; Graham was here. And how he'd got here so quickly, she didn't know… oh yes, he'd said something about going up to the Starbase for the lunchtime shift; their home wasn't all that far by shuttle, and he must have just lifted off when he'd heard her mental scream.

Oh, thank God! Graham would know what to do, he always did; she'd run out of options, but ran down the stairs and flung open the front door, not wanting the security agents to shoot him as he came out of the ship. Just clipping the edge of one of Chrissie's flower beds and sending a shower of pink rose petals everywhere, the shuttle had come to rest in the middle of the lawn. Chrissie would not be pleased by that, Jenny thought irrelevantly, but she was not here to see it, and…

Both agents were in front of the house now, weapons drawn, ready to fire on the unscheduled intruder.

"No! Stop!" Jenny shouted, but their attention focussed on the apparent threat in front of them (and to be fair, that was not where shuttles were supposed to park), neither turned around. "Simon!" she called out to the one she'd waved to on her way into the house. She couldn't remember the other one's name. "SIMON! It's not an intruder, it's my husband! Please! You've got to listen! Chrissie is NOT in the house! She's missing!"

She saw him stiffen, but obviously deciding to deal with the errant shuttle first, he still did not turn or acknowledge her in any way.

Luckily, the door to the shuttle did not open, because, she thought with relief, Graham was not an idiot and was well trained enough not to come charging out into an uncertain situation, no matter how worried about her he might be. He'd be watching, would know there were agents on guard at the house since Krang's kidnapping the year before and would act accordingly.

"Graham!" she called to him, using the Jedi Mind Trick or JMT as they'd always jokingly called their ability to communicate telepathically. "I don't know if you're listening and watching, but the two agents have weapons trained on the hatch. If you can speak to them somehow, do it, otherwise they're going to shoot you."

"Are you all right? You screamed!" He sounded frantic.

"Not exactly. Chrissie is missing. You've got to find a way to get out here without getting killed. Any ideas? They won't even turn their heads to look at me!"

"I think I do. Hang on." No more than a minute or so later, although it seemed like a lifetime to the anxiously waiting Jenny, someone's combadge beeped – not Simon, the other one, whose name Jenny still couldn't remember. Keeping his eyes and weapon focussed on the shuttle, he tapped it. It was Colonel Kahsil from FedKIN, and his voice was clearly audible, telling them both to stand down and let the occupant of the shuttle exit his vehicle. He also admonished them to listen to Jenny because she had important intel. The one called Simon glanced at her, and she suddenly became nervous about facing off with two highly trained agents who were confused and alarmed by what was going on, because she did not want to be an unnecessary casualty.

"Yes, sir," Simon said eventually, lowering his weapon and the other man did the same.

Jenny was nearly startled into a bark of laughter, only managing to keep it in by clapping both hands against her mouth again, when one of them called out loudly for whoever was in the shuttle to come out slowly with their hands up. Had they all been transported to the ancient west? This made her think of the other room in the mirror, and she shivered.


Note: Jenny featured briefly in 'Long Dark Night'. She is a recent Starfleet Academy graduate who was in the same year as Chrissie's daughter Kally, and was assigned to the engineering team on Starbase 24. She is now married to a mysterious restaurant owner named Graham who on occasion does independant work for FedKIN. She and Chrissie have become quite good friends.