Contribute (Holo, #2)

by Kristy Acevedo

  “Yeah, what was that all about?” Dominick asks. “The comet being fake?”

  It’s now or never. I told the truth and no one cared. No penalty box.

  “The comet was a hologram. Earth is still there.”

  They look at another and then back at me. I imagine them feeding each other strawberries, naked.

  “Alex, you sound kind of paranoid,” Dominick says.

  I am dumbfounded. My Dominick, my science fiction, conspiracy theory, science and math freak cheating boyfriend, won’t believe me.

  “I am not paranoid. I saw it with my own eyes. The comet wasn’t real.”

  Rita holds me by both shoulders. “You think you saw it crash. It might be your brain not wanting to deal with . . . with . . .This may be your way of coping.”

  “No, it’s not like that.”

  Dominick embraces me and whispers into my hair. “We’re here for you. Things will get better with time.”

  I push him off me. “You’re not listening to me. It was a hoax!”

  “Alex, that doesn’t make sense. Why would they make such an elaborate plan? If they wanted us, they have the power to just collect us. Look around. They are way more advanced than we are.”

  I turn to Rita. My former best friend. Surely she will believe me even if he doesn’t. Instead, she turns to him, and he to her, and they exchange a knowing glance between each other. Of pity. For me.

  “You two are screwing each other.”

  “What?” Rita says, her mouth agape.

  “You heard me. It’s like a bad cliché. You thought I died, so you two got together. Admit it.”

  “Alex, we would never do that,” Dominick says.

  “I saw you. In the Holospaces.” I wipe my face on my uniform sleeve, then point at Dominick. “I ran through to keep my promise to you. I should’ve stayed with my parents on Earth. Where it was safe.”

  ”God, you really have lost it.” Rita flips her long hair to one side. I want to yank it from its roots and run with the strands to see if she’s really my friend or if she’s a figment of some alternative nightmare.

  Dominick sticks his hands in his pockets, and that’s when I see it. His bandwidth glows gold around his wrist.

  He contributed.

  I’ve lost the two greatest allies of my life.

  I give up. As I bolt to escape their betrayal, I overhear Rita mumble to Dominick, “Just let her go.”

  CHAPTER 14

  DAY 23: 225 HOURS TO DECIDE

  THE NANOHOLOCOM NETWORK DOES NOT EXTEND OUTSIDE THE ESTABLISHED BOUNDARY ZONES. ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK.

  THANKFULLY, BENJI AND Marcus are not in our new LU when I get back. But they already modified the place. I hate it, but I don’t care enough to change it. I scribble in my journal to get my emotions out of me and onto paper, then I soak in the comfort of the PSF to see if it can erase heartbreak.

  How can they do this to me? And on top of that, how can they not believe me? I thought Dominick and I had something real, not something he’d give up on so easily. Something timeless and able to withstand a holographic, apocalyptic, time traveling, fraudulent kidnapping scheme. Like all teenage love stories.

  Can I really stay mad at him? He thought I was dead. Yes, damn it. I deserve at least a year of mourning before he gets to date again. At least. He didn’t even last a month!

  A month. Over a month.

  I never got my period.

  My brain goes into a talespin.

  I am pregnant. With Dominick’s baby. Who is now boning my best friend. I’m going to give birth alone, on another planet, in another time, without my parents to help or yell at me. Benji’s gonna kill me. I already feel like throwing up.

  Wait, if I have the baby here, then is it considered an alien baby? Am I going to give birth to an extraterrestrial life form?

  But we used protection every time, and condoms are 98% effective. I read it on the box.

  I’m the two percent.

  I leave the PSF and hold my bandwidth. “HME OPEN.”

  “Please state your medical needs.”

  “Am I . . . pregnant?”

  “Scanning. One moment. No.”

  “Oh, thank God.” A wave of relief passes over me. “Then why didn’t I get my period? From stress?”

  “All Earth travelers were temporarily sterilized upon arrival during the first HME. Females will not menstruate. You cannot get pregnant.”

  Sterilized? Excuse me? “So we can’t have children?”

  “You must petition the meritocracy for permission to have a child. Once granted, the sterilization is reversed.”

  “So it’s like mandatory birth control.”

  “Mandatory population control. Solbiluna-8 is about balance.”

  Solbiluna-8 is more about total control with a smile.

  HOURS LATER, THE LU door beeps while I’m in the PSF. I want it to be Dominick and Rita even though I’m pissed at them. As the cycle completes, the PSF door clicks open, and I see Benji in the LU.

  “Your skin’s gonna fall off if you keep using that thing.”

  “Whatever. Wait, can it do that?”

  “Guess you’ll find out.” He rummages through his bag of belongings.

  I step out of the PSF and plop onto my holobed.

  “I thought you’d be looking for your friends.”

  The image of Dominick and Rita making out and laughing at me pops into my mind. “Friends are overrated. Hey, did you know we were all sterilized when we first got here as a form of birth control?”

  He pulls out a few items from his bag, pockets one, then sits on the fake holosofa and rubs his face with his hands.

  “Doctor A. gave me a full report of their medical system and ideology.”

  “You knew? Why aren’t we up in arms?” My voice cracks.

  “We need time to gain power. How many times do I have to tell people that?” He sighs, and I realize it isn’t about me since he covers his face with his hands.

  “What’s up?”

  “Umbra stuff. We’ve joined forces with other established Umbra groups. It’s hard to manage all the personalities and agendas.”

  “Can you talk about that in here?” I whisper.

  “Katherine took care of our LU. No BME. We’re in constant sleep mode.” He stands and looks out the huge windows at the navy mountains in the distance. “Sometimes I wonder . . . “

  I sit up. “Wonder what?”

  “If coming out and marrying Marcus was the right thing to do.”

  “What? Where did that come from?”

  “I don’t know. If there hadn’t been a looming crisis, I would’ve waited. There was more pressure to rush. My life is so much more complicated.”

  “But aren’t you happier not living with that secret? And you love Marcus.”

  “Yes. It changed things, though. The military didn’t know before. It’s hard to maintain the same level of respect. The same authority. Even people in the Umbra make small gestures, comments. Heard another one just now.”

  I join him near the window. “Benji, you are one of the toughest people I’ve ever known. I think you’re even tougher than Dad. You’re the same person you were before you came out. Don’t back down with the Umbra. It’s who you are and why you are good at your job. Give them hell.”

  “I never thought you’d be the one telling me to toughen up.”

  I smile. “Me, either. So what’s the latest plan with the Umbra?”

  “Secure a headquarters in the QN25 region. Share information with other Umbra groups. Find the location of the vances and the meritocracy. Return home.”

  Home. The word reverberates inside of me like a tuning fork.

  He shakes his head. “Convincing the other Umbra leaders on the planet to believe in the word of one teenage girl that the apocalypse on Earth never took place without hard evidence is not an easy feat, let me tell you. I’m taking a lot of heat.”

  “I need to tell you something,” I say and pick at my thumbnail.


  “Shoot.”

  “I, uh, sorta told a group of people that the comet was fake and the Earth is fine.”

  “You what? Alex, what did I—”

  I flop on the holobed. “It didn’t matter. No one believed me, and the BME system didn’t care.”

  “What were you thinking?” he yells.

  “I wasn’t thinking. I’m an idiot.”

  “Well, at least we agree on something. You could’ve compromised the Umbra’s mission.”

  “I know. That’s why I’m telling you. All this time we’ve been holding back the truth, and it didn’t even matter. How’s the mission going to work if no one believes what happened?”

  “Interesting that the system didn’t react. If the BME had subdued you, it might make your claim more valid. No reaction creates the assumption that what you’re saying is not dangerous or true, and you look like a fool.”

  “I feel like a fool.”

  “Good. Don’t do it again.”

  A tiny beep echoes from Benji’s waist. He picks up a square metal device, the size of a paper clip, and squeezes it.

  “Duty calls.”

  “What’s that thing?”

  “Going back to a kind of beeper technology. If it beeps, Jackson, Beruk, Katherine, Marcus, or you needs me.” He reaches into his pocket and throws one at me. “A different Umbra group created them. They made them as soon as the communication field opened up. Piggybacked the signal onto it to avoid detection.” He holds up his bandwidth. “Don’t trust the CVBE COM or VID for Umbra business.”

  I nod and clip it onto my uniform shirt.

  “What the hell are you doing? We’re a secret organization. Clip it somewhere less conspicuous.”

  I clip it to the back pocket of my uniform. “Better?”

  “I suppose. Yours only beeps me. I’ll come when I can. Don’t click it during one of your panic attacks, either. Only use it in real emergencies.”

  Part of me understands what he’s saying. Part of me wants to shove the clip down his throat.

  THE NEXT MORNING, too early for typical humans, Benji and Marcus are already up. Through the space in the holographic room dividers, I see them dressed in their holofied uniforms, Benji in full dark blue with white edging, Marcus in a rich plum top with gray pants.

  “Where are you going?” I groan, rubbing my eyes.

  “Meeting Katherine. They found the Umbra a QN25 headquarters. Get out of bed and come check it out.”

  I’m not used to Benji being nice to me. I climb out of the holobed.

  “Might as well,” I mumble.

  It’s not like I have a best friend or a boyfriend to look forward to anymore.

  After breakfast in an empty Hub, Benji, Marcus, and I meet Katherine outside our LU community. I expect another magpod ride, which I don’t think I’ll ever adjust to, but instead Katherine sets us out on foot. The sun rises between two sharp mountains, bringing light and color to an otherwise dark landscape. We pass by other neighboring communities. Dominick’s LU is on the other side of the ringed compound, so I don’t have to worry about running into the two love birds. Part of me wants to run into them again, though. I’m not done screaming at them.

  By the time we hit the perimeter of the entire LU linked region, the sun has reached civilization. We face a line of short, gnarled trees with limbs extending outward in haphazard directions. Don’t people read enough fairy tales or watch enough horror to know never to go into the forest?

  Apparently not.

  Without questioning her sanity, Katherine leads the group through the terrain. Along each limb, I search for signs of alien life forms. Killer monkeys, two-headed bears, vampires? Something must lurk in every shadow. The only animals I spot are more dinochicken birds. They don’t seem to squawk in any kind of sequence, so they seem real enough I guess. I pull off leaves as I go to check for realness. It also gives me something to keep my hands busy. As my heartbeat drowns out other sounds, I follow my counselor’s advice and separate possibilities from probabilities. The chances of getting attacked and eaten alive and our bones being picked over by scavengers—is it possible? Yes. Probable? YES. Rita and Dominick will probably be happy to find out I’m dead. Let them off the hook.

  I can’t figure out how Katherine is navigating through the area since everything looks the same to me. I want to leave some kind of trail to make sure we can find our way back. We’re lost enough for a human lifetime.

  A glowing insect flies near my head. It’s the first bug I’ve seen since I left Earth, and instead of being afraid and squatting at hit, I find myself fascinated by it. What if it bites? Will I develop alien Lyme disease? Upon further quick inspection, though, I realize it’s not an insect at all. It’s a tiny robot.

  “Did you see these robot bugs?”

  “Yes, they pollinate the area,” Benji says. “According to my hologuide, insects went extinct here a long time ago and they had to compensate. Don’t worry, they’re not drones spying on you.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I pulled one apart,” Katherine says.

  As we travel deeper into the forest, the trees change from separate, spread out knotted trunks to huge, pale trees with tiny red leaves that tower over us. The tall skeleton trees support dark, eggplant-colored foliage that snakes up the trunks to form a luxurious canopy above us. Up close, the huge leaves have soft, downy hairs covering the surface. I pull one off and can’t stop touching it until I wonder if it’s an alien form of poison ivy.

  The four CVBE lights on my bandwidth go out, and our uniforms revert back to their initial iridescent color. We must be out of the nanoholocom network. It’s like leaving Oz and returning to Kansas. I break into a sweat, and right when I’m about to quit, we reach a clearing.

  A dark, decomposing city spreads before us. The dilapidated structures don’t glitter like the rest of Solbiluna-8. The circular structures are much taller and wooden, like buildings made of hollowed out sequoias cut and roofed. Branches of skeleton trees have grown through the missing roofs, and a chartreuse moss blankets the outer walls. Some windows are intact, others don’t show any sign that they ever had glass.

  “Welcome to the waste land,” Katherine says. “Our local Umbra headquarters.”

  “Waste land?” Benji asks. “Is that from Stephen King?”

  “Poem by T.S. Eliot. I memorized some of his work in prison.”

  My chest caves in. The thing I’ve been trying to avoid takes hold of my mind. Crazy lady spewing random lines of T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” in the hospital and on the news. In the past. My mind cannot handle the paradox. Don’t think. Don’t think. Don’t think.

  Katherine cracks her knuckles one finger at a time. “Some weird shit in that writer’s brain about people and the world.”

  Oh, Katherine, you have no idea.

  “So what is this place?” Benji asks.

  “Discarded territory. No nanoholocoms. From what Professor Marciani can surmise, when Solbiluna-8 transitioned into nanoholocom technology, it was probably cheaper to create new structures with embedded technology than to add the technology to old buildings. The newer, glass buildings are made of clear solar panels to collect extra energy to run the nanoholocoms.”

  Katherine points and continues. “We’ve claimed the medium-sized building on the right as Umbra headquarters. Setting up camp now. Some of the smaller structures are already claimed by squatters. They call themselves the Geotroupes. Religious granolas. Harmless.”

  Rita mentioned being part of that group. Why does she live here? I’m surprised she and Dominick don’t live shacked up together in their own LU.

  Benji pats Katherine on the shoulder. “Looks promising. Let’s head over.” They set off together with Marcus and me behind them.

  “Did Beruk do a security check?” Benji asks.

  “His team swept the entire area. Completely abandoned. By the looks of it, it’s been a long freaking time.”

  Marcus says to me, “
It’s like walking into another culture’s history.”

  “That’s because we are.”

  “I’m waiting for a T. Rex to jump out from behind a building and snack on us.”

  “Right?” I laugh, a mask for my fear.

  Professor Marciani meets us outside the new headquarters. He smiles like a kid with a new video game system.

  “So, Professor, does it meet your standards?” Benji asks.

  “Yes, especially under these circumstances. Time is crucial.”

  “How do we know that this place isn’t another hologram?” I ask. “Another trap?”

  “Good question,” the professor says. “We tested them by fluctuating the temperature and nothing happened to the structures. I did several other more complicated tests as well. It’s as real as you and I. Beruk and his team did not detect any nanoholocom network signals running through the region.”

  I place my hand on the surface of the building. The bright moss and thick wood brim with an energy that I haven’t felt in awhile. A sense of strength and stability. A sense of being alive. A sense of being connected to something greater. Maybe it’s all in my head. Even though the professor said they checked for holograms, as the others step inside the building, I peel off a bit of moss to double check.

  The maglifts inside the building don’t work. Katherine leads us to a hidden staircase behind a sliding panel. I wonder if there are hidden sections in our LUs. As we walk upstairs, the moss sits idle in my hand. Safe so far. I can’t help but also double tap my bandwidth for SIDEKICK. Nothing happens. We’re in a safe zone from all things holographic. I click my beeper clip. Benji’s waist band beeps.

  “Sorry, just testing.”

  “Don’t use that unless it’s an emergency,” Benji says. “You’ll waste our time.”

  “Benji,” Marcus says, “You’re being a bit harsh.”

  “Please, when you’ve lived with her longer, you’ll see.”

  Marcus goes silent. I don’t like it.

  “How come the clickers work, but the bandwidths don’t? Don’t they use the same network?” I ask.

  “The clickers, as you call them, are on a lower radiofrequency so they carry farther and wider than higher frequency signals, even through this area,” Katherine says, then changes the subject to address Benji. “We’ve established the fourth floor as home base. The other floors can be used as needed.”