Contribute (Holo, #2)

by Kristy Acevedo

  The clear shield vanishes, my body able to move once again, and SIDEKICK’s voice prompts,“Say MAGPOD EXIT.”

  “Gladly. MAGPOD EXIT.”

  The sides of the vehicle automatically fold into themselves, freeing me from my metallic prison. I exit the music program on my bandwidth, grab my backpack, and plant my feet back on solid ground. My first few steps are so wobbly, Marcus holds me steady.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah, just need a sec.”

  “Take your time. That ride was surreal.”

  The magpod doors close before the empty vehicle speeds away. I wonder how it doesn’t run down pedestrians. Then again, I don’t see any people walking near the roads.

  SIDEKICK rematerializes outside the vehicle to lead us toward the closest LU community. “Please follow.”

  Benji and Marcus walk with SIDEKICK. I lean over and try not to vomit before the next phase of the journey. Deep breath, hold it, release. I let go of the dying petal and watch it drift to the ground.

  “We don’t have all the time in the world,” Benji says. “I have work to do.”

  I didn’t think this through. I volunteered to live with Benji without our parents? Are you kidding me? This will be like medieval torture: the sibling device. I came all this way to save human beings from holographic time traveling kidnappers, not to live with my strict brother. And Marcus is nice, but living with a former teacher is super awkward. Plus, with the Umbra to reorganize, Benji’ll be more stressed out. And when Benji’s stressed out, he takes it out on me.

  Come to think of it, maybe Benji has his own stress disorder. It runs in the family. He walks ahead with SIDEKICK while Marcus and I straggle behind him. Doesn’t he ever think to slow down? I don’t know how Marcus can stand him.

  The new Hub is much larger than the last Hub, probably half a football field in length, with two food and ration platforms on either end. I scan from end to end for the vances. Nothing. Only Earth humans. At least, they look like Earth humans. I want to break everything apart like Nolan tried to do and make the planet crumble like on the ship. But this world is real. Supposedly.

  Paranoid much?

  Watching other people smile, hug, and celebrate in the Hub strikes me in an envious place at my core. Life as leisure. I’ve never experienced that kind of relaxation. Not temporary or fleeting, but like an eternal vacation. The sense of just being in time without worry about what comes next. An escape from feeling responsible for everything. A small nagging part of me wants to relax into it, to finally tame the shaky feeling inside of me and tell myself to just let go of agenda. But underneath their smiles and hugs, I know they have hard truths they can’t escape, either. No one is immune. Even though my anxiety keeps me from feeling settled, it also keeps me searching for more.

  It’s time for me to find Dominick and Rita.

  SIDEKICK SHOWS US to our new LU on the seventh floor. It’s three times larger than my solitary one on the ship, empty except for a huge scenic window and a PSF. Benji and Marcus can design the LU however they want as long as I get a hammock.

  “I’ll be back later,” I say. “Gonna try to find people.” I step into the hallway before Benji can argue with me. SIDEKICK follows.

  “How do I find people?”

  “Hold your bandwidth and say SEARCH PEOPLE. Then state name and age.”

  I follow its directions. A holoscreen appears with the words SEARCH and PEOPLE.

  “Dominick Landen. Age 18.”

  A list of three Dominick Landens fills the display, but only one is 18. I touch the name, and a picture of him appears. Oh my God, it’s him. My eyes blur with emotion.

  Three choices float before me: COM, VID, or LOCATE.

  I choose LOCATE since I need talk to Dominick in person. I can’t tell him that the comet was a fake over a nanoholocom network. For all I know, it might start a massive sweep of FBI vance agents who consider me a space enemy.

  A holographic map of the region opens in front of me with a blinking light and QN25-50-22 under it.

  “How do I get there?” I ask SIDEKICK and point to the spot on the translucent map.

  “You may walk or travel by magpod.”

  No, not another magpod. The day has been so overwhelming, my body feels sore with exhaustion. But I will walk until my legs fall off if it will bring me to Dominick.

  I check the network for Rita. She doesn’t exist. I even check again using her full name, Margarita Bernardino, and still nothing. Did she use an alias like me in case her parents came looking for her? But they would never come looking for her. Too religious and anti-vertex. So where the hell is she? Did she not make it through? Did her parents catch her leaving and lock her in the basement? Did I abandon her?

  In a panic, I look up my grandmother, Penelope. Also missing. What’s going on? Do the vances collect women? Is this some sort of Handmaid’s Tale situation? Am I next to be captured and impregnated, to give birth to a future alien species?

  “SIDEKICK, how come some people aren’t coming up in the search?”

  “All humans in the nanoholocom network are included in search feature.”

  “Well, that didn’t answer my question. HOLOGUIDE EXIT.”

  It bows. “May your contribution lead to freedom.”

  I take a few deep breaths to shake the negative possibilities out of my head and try to focus my energy on Dominick for now. My black uniform needs an upgrade for a happy reunion, so I holofy the top to a deep cranberry and smooth my curly hair the best I can with my fingers into a ponytail. Following my bandwidth like a personal GPS system, I take the maglift back to the Hub and exit my new LU community. As I walk past other LU communities to the blinking light next to Dominick’s name on the holomap, I notice the design of the communities is not what I initially thought. Nine huge, circular LUs form each community, lined up in an X formation, not a V, with the building in the center taller and windowless. I hope that’s not a new punishment tower.

  I wonder how many of these linked housing systems are needed to house everyone who traveled through a vertex. Bigger question is still why. As I walk past, I swear some of the outside walls of certain LU buildings shift ever so slightly clockwise, like a flower following the sunlight. I pull off a yellow leaf from a nearby bush and carry it with me. I never know what will disappear anymore.

  Dominick’s LU community is identical to mine, Hub and all. My heart flutters with first date jitters even though I could probably map every freckle and scar on his body. Traveling through space and time to save someone you love really increases the pressure of the reunion. I just need to hold him again and never let go. The bright lavender sky shines through the prism dome and breaks into cascades of rainbows. As I walk through the Hub of strangers, all seemingly from Earth, two familiar faces catch my eye in the lounging crowd. Dominick’s little brother, Austin, taps on a holoscreen floating over his bandwidth, and Dominick’s mother watches nearby. My heart stumbles at the hope of seeing Dominick, but he’s nowhere in sight.

  “Ms. Landen?”

  “Alexandra?” She stands up from the ground and hugs me. “Oh my God, you made it. Dominick has been worried sick. Austin, look who’s here!”

  “Hi, Dominick’s girlfriend,” Austin says. He swipes his bandwidth’s holoscreen, barely making eye contact.

  “Hi, Austin.”

  “Alex, my hologuide is a Pokemon.”

  “You can modify your hologuide into a Pokemon?”

  “You can do anything here.” He taps and tosses forward from his bandwidth’s holoscreeen, and a miniature holographic Pokemon character emerges in the grass. Austin takes off running after it. I wonder what will happen to Earth children here if we don’t get them home soon.

  I turn my attention back to Dominick’s mother. “Where’s Dominick?”

  “He’s in the Holospaces with Rita. He’ll be thrilled to see you.”

  “Rita’s here? I couldn’t find her in the nanoholocom network.”

  “Really? That’
s odd. They should be in there.” She points to huge tower. “The Holospaces are not in the LU buildings anymore. The center building in every LU community is dedicated to Holospaces.”

  So entertainment buildings, not punishment towers. And Rita’s here, so I don’t have to track her down. Two birds, one stone. Isn’t that what they say?

  “Thanks.”

  Walking to the Holospace building, I imagine kissing Dominick again, feeling his lips on mine, spinning with my feet in the air as he swings me around. Then bear hugging Rita and telling her everything that happened after she left. I wonder how long it took for them to find each other. Without me. There are over thirty Holospace rooms per floor, each with a holoscreen on a white door with a list of occupants.

  They probably think I’m dead. Dominick probably thinks I betrayed him and didn’t keep my word. So they probably got together to reminisce our good times, turned to one another during a time of loss . . .

  I’m being silly. They’re my best friends.

  I walk faster and faster down each hallway, touching and scanning each list for their names, my excitement to see my best friends again bursting inside me. By the time I find the right door, I’m on the third floor and out of breath. Dominick Landen and R. Bern. is listed on the outside. Is that supposed to be Rita? I push open the door without tapping the screen to see an image of inside.

  Dominick.

  With Rita.

  Playing a holographic board game, side by side.

  Backs to me.

  Sitting. Touching. Her head on his shoulder. Him stroking her hair.

  Together. With her sweeping dark hair and big boobs.

  Like two love birds. Happy.

  Me, long dead and forgotten.

  I drop the yellow leaf.

  Rita glances over her shoulder first and makes eye contact with me. She taps his shoulder, and he turns to look at me.

  The guilt spreads across their faces as their smiles melt into shock.

  Oh, yeah, I’d like one stone, please. A heavy one.

  CHAPTER 13

  DAY 23: 226 HOURS TO DECIDE

  SOLBILUNA-8 GLOBAL HAPPINESS HAS INCREASED BY 19%

  HOLOSPACE USE IS UP 42%

  I'M SEETHING IN the hallway area, staring at the holoscreen on the door and trying not to hyperventilate. Dominick and Rita head toward the door, all smiles again. I can’t talk to them. Not in my current mental state. The BME would zap and shellack me again for sure.

  I race from the Holospace building and through the adjacent Hub at top speed, avoiding Dominick’s mother and brother. I need to hide in my LU and lock myself away from my universal mistake of thinking I was special to someone. I came all the way here to tell people the truth, especially Dominick and Rita, and especially Dominick since I promised him. I promised him I would come here, and we had wonderful, lovely, sheet flouncing, bodies floating kind of sex in the bedroom by the ocean, and here he is mucking it up with my best friend.

  And her! How could she do this to me? I’m like her hermana. We’ve known each other since we were little. She knows how I feel about Dominick, how he’s supposed to feel about me. How he said he felt about me.

  Big picture. Focus on what’s important. I came through the vertex spread the truth. Get us to fight back. Get us back to Earth if that’s possible.

  Were they flirting back on Earth? Did I miss something? A soft touch, a white lie, a subtle smile?

  My insides cannot handle the cosmic meltdown. There’s nothing to extinguish the horrible fire that is shame.

  My mission is stupid. Heroes aren’t supposed to care about themselves. Who am I kidding? I’m not a girl who came to save her world. I’m a girl who came to keep a promise to a boy. A boy who has forgotten about her.

  Being forgotten is a terrible, terrible ache at the core, tearing at the worthy parts of you and testing their strength. I am my worst nightmare. A girl unglued by a boy. I knew this would happen. That’s why I didn’t want to follow him to Boston for college. And instead I followed him to another galaxy. I am a cosmic idiot.

  Fleeing through the Hub, I avoid walking through a garden area and instead smack into a group of strangers.

  “Hey, hottie.”

  Four of them in their early twenties, maybe younger. Shirtless. Confident nipples and abs on display. Bored. Boredom is a dangerous thing.

  “I haven’t seen you in this LU before. I’d remember that ass. Where you heading, cutie?”

  “Home,” I say, but the irony of that word hits me like an arrow through the chest.

  “How ‘bout you stick around here for awhile. We have some homemade stuff stashed. Little party time?”

  “No, thanks.” I move off the glittering walkway to avoid them and crush soft grass under my boots. They follow.

  “Aw, come on. What else do you have to do? This place is paradise.”

  One of them grabs my shoulder. His touch makes me completely short circuit. I spin around and push him.

  “Let go of me!”

  “Chill, he didn’t mean nothing,” another says, touching my back.

  “Don’t touch me!”

  “Girl, relax. You really need something to get you on a perpetual vay-cay.”

  That’s when I explode.

  “This place isn’t a vacation. It’s a trap. Get away from me!”

  Other people gather closer at my outburst.

  An older man comes running first and asks, “Are you okay?”

  “No, I’m not okay.” I start sobbing. I give up. “They lied and kidnapped us and brought us here and I don’t know why.”

  “Who? These boys?” the man asks and points in their direction.

  I shake my head no and catch my breath. Dominick’s mother and Austin run over. Having them as witnesses won’t stop me. Nothing can stop me. I know it’s the wrong time but there will never be a right time anyway. I don’t care if the BME gets me. I have nothing left to lose. Dominick and Rita are no longer mine to hold on to.

  “The comet was a hologram. Do you hear me? It never crashed. The Earth is fine. The comet was a hologram! The comet was a hologram!”

  The four shirtless guys look at me like I’ve become the crazy lady. Maybe I have. Between their bare shoulders I spot Dominick and Rita racing toward me through the Hub.

  Traitors.

  Dominick’s mother speaks. “Alexandra, I think you might be stressed out. Confused.”

  I avoid looking at my former best friends. “No, I’m not. The comet wasn’t real. The holograms lied.”

  “Honey, scientists confirmed it. Remember? We all came before the comet crashed. That’s how you survived. That’s how we all survived.” She places her hand gently on the back of my neck.

  I flinch from her touch. “It’s not like that.”

  “Yeah, don’t touch her. She gets all feisty,” one shirtless guy says.

  “Why don’t you sit down?” Dominick’s mother offers. “Maybe we should call the HME.”

  “I’m fine. I don’t want to sit down.”

  The crowd begins to disperse at the lack of drama. The shirtless group shoulder bumps each other as they leave.

  I let the truth out, and it didn’t set me free. It didn’t set anyone free. Not a blip on a radar. No one cares. No one believes me. Not even a little. Not even a slight doubt. Even the BME didn’t activate and put me out of my misery.

  And my best friends are boinking each other.

  “Alex!” Dominick lifts me off my feet and presses my body to his like a drowning person to a life preserver. “You made it. Oh my God, you made it.” His eyes water as he smiles and keeps hugging me, patting me, touching me to make sure I’m real.

  Relief at his touch warms the muscles in my back, but the anger and fear and hurt and confusion remain.

  “So you made it with your parents?” he asks.

  I nod and try not to cry. I can’t tell him that I abandoned them for him. He doesn’t deserve it. “I see you found Rita.”

  “Yes, well,
she found me.”

  Rita grins. “I’m so happy you’re here!” She reaches out to hug me. I’d like to knock her teeth out of her head.

  “Aw, isn’t that nice? You two, finding each other.”

  Their expressions change as they look to one another and then back at me. Ha, caught ya!

  “I’ve been searching the nanoholocom network since I got here a week ago,” Dominick says. “I thought you didn’t make it.”

  Yeah, didn’t make it so you two got chummy. That was fast. I stall, then whisper, “I just got here. You wouldn’t be able to find me anyway since the system doesn’t know my real name.”

  “Why? And why are you whispering?” Rita asks.

  I shrug.

  “What name did you give them?” Dominick asks. I can’t explain Katherine and my tampered bandwidth and the Umbra organization right now. “I . . .er . . .River.”

  His familiar dimples return. I forgot how deep they go.

  “River, huh?” he says and grins. “Like the ‘Spoilers’ River from Doctor Who? Or the Firefly ‘I can kill you with my brain’ River?”

  “Does it matter?” I say, annoyed.

  “Yes. Yes it does.” He laughs, and Rita laughs, even though I know she doesn’t get the references.

  I let out a harsh, manic chuckle. What, I’m either the kick ass love of his life or a psycho? Sums up our whole relationship.

  “I tried to search for you, Rita, but you weren’t in the nanoholocom network, either.”

  “I’m with the Geotroupes. Off the grid. I’ll introduce you. I was hoping you had joined with the Geos, too, since we couldn’t find you. Didn’t know you were hiding under an alias as a top secret sci-fi agent.”

  Didn’t know you were a boyfriend stealer.