[Contributor 01.0] Contributor Page 10

  "You're a true professional," Jonathan said. She could hear the admiration in his voice, and it made her hold her chin up a bit higher.

  Once inside, she introduced him to Chen, Walters, and Andersen. Chen fidgeted, looking over Jonathan's shoulder as if waiting for someone more important to come along. Walters greeted him with a warm smile and a firm handshake, and Andersen was very cordial, which Dara took as a good sign.

  "We should head for the transports. We don't want to be late," Chen said, the moment Jonathan walked away.

  "I'm never late," Andersen replied. Chen's mouth twitched and he seemed to be on the verge of responding, but Andersen began walking toward transport, Walters on his right. Chen hurried to position himself on Andersen's left.

  "Remember, now is your time," Letizia told Dara under her breath as they followed.

  "I won't let you down," Dara murmured.

  "Don't." Letizia picked up her pace, forcing Dara to scramble after her.

  Despite her annoyance, Dara's excitement got the better of her, and she couldn't be bothered to worry about Letizia's off-putting behavior. Never in her life had she left the Magnum dome, and she had always been curious about the other domes. Did they look just like Magnum's? What were the people like?

  When Dara and her classmates were younger, they had posed such questions to their instructors, who were of little help. Many of the instructors had never been outside of the domes, and those that had quickly reprimanded the students, calling their curiosity ungrateful. Did they think another Job Creator might be superior to Magnum? This question always immediately made the students back off. None of them wanted to risk offending Magnum.

  Fortunately, the weather proved reasonably cooperative. The sun hung low on the horizon, vaguely visible through the haze. Dara watched the parched earth stretching before them, bearing the remnants of the old civilization: obsolete black asphalt roads crumbled beyond repair, collapsed houses in which single families had once lived. Some of these houses bore the traces of backyards that had obviously been pleasure grounds. Dry, crumbling pool walls mingled with rusted poles and the desiccated remains of fallen trees.

  "As I reviewed Zhang Agritech's schematics last night, I noticed that..." Chen's voice broke into her thoughts, and she realized with a jolt that she had been so focused on the shattered remnants of the world outside that she hadn't been paying attention to the conversation. Her throat constricted as she darted a couple of quick glances around, trying to discern if anyone had noticed her lack of attention. Fortunately for her, it didn't appear that anyone had.

  Unable to help herself, she glanced outside one last time. What had it been like to live in those days, back before the Job Creators had saved them all from themselves?

  Chapter 19

  It was difficult not to gape openly as a smart-looking blond woman clad in the Zhang Agritech Systems uniform led them on a tour of the dome. Dara's eyes roamed over every inch. Though the domes' exterior structures were all the same, their interiors were unique to each Job Creator. When contrasted against the innumerable shades of green draping Zhang's interior, Magnum's sleek lines and high-tech machinery seemed to belong to an alien planet.

  Row after row of crops stretched off into the distance, and their guide pointed out various public experiments the Creator was conducting. They were all so spectacular that Dara couldn't help but wonder what the top secret experiments looked like. Her eyes felt like they would fall out of her head as she took in the sight of tomatoes in every shade of the rainbow imaginable, some growing from vines planted in plots of earth, others hanging upside down from elaborate planters, and still others growing in hydroponic gardens that created the illusion of fruit floating in midair. Dara didn't think she'd ever look at tomatoes in the same way again.

  By the time they reached the conference room, Dara had a serious crick in her neck from craning it in every direction, trying to take in all the sights she possibly could. She could hardly wait to tell Jonathan that, while the Zhang Contributors suffered from a serious lack of straw hats, their dome was certainly something to see. Even their conference room left her gaping, its walls decorated with murals of various Zhang products. A variety of potted plants covered the surface of the conference table, and a rich, earthy smell suffused the air. It could not have been more unlike the austere glass and steel conference rooms at Magnum.

  The meeting was cordial but serious. Andersen gave a presentation detailing how Magnum's innovations could enhance Zhang's experiments, and the Zhang Contributors seemed impressed. However, the best was yet to come: as Andersen smoothed his suit and sat, he glanced over at Dara and gave her an approving nod. She lowered her gaze and, out of the corner of her eye, saw that Letizia looked pleased.

  The meeting extended into dinnertime, but Dara could hardly eat a bite of the lavish dinner Zhang provided, she was so busy taking notes. At midnight, the details still hadn't been entirely resolved, and Andersen and his Zhang counterpart agreed that a couple of Zhang's Contributors would go to Magnum's dome, where they would be guests for the next two days.

  They were delayed at transport because the addition of the two Zhang Contributors necessitated a second vehicle. Unfortunately, all other transports were in use, and none would be available for at least an hour. Andersen was visibly annoyed, and the Zhang Contributors didn't look any happier.

  "Please, go on ahead, sir. Dara and I will wait," Letizia told Andersen.

  "Very well," Andersen said approvingly. "We'll see you in the morning, Letizia, Apprentice Morrow." Dara and her master exchanged brief pleasantries with the Zhang Contributors before they boarded the transport with the rest of the engineering staff.

  "Let me have a look at your notes," Letizia said. Dara handed her tablet over, content to sit and look around while her master read.

  "These are very good," Letizia complimented, about an hour later.

  Dara's shoulders relaxed. "Do you think Head of Engineering Andersen will be pleased with them?"

  "I think they'd be better if you made a few tweaks."

  Suppressing a sigh at the thought of the sleep she'd be losing, Dara listened as Letizia detailed the changes she felt Dara should make. It was a relief when they were told their transport was ready.

  As they boarded, weariness settled over Dara like a heavy, wet blanket. It had been a very long day, and now that she was away from Andersen at last, the nervous tension that had kept her going evaporated. She had to fight to keep her leaden eyelids from closing as they exited the port and began their journey back to the Magnum dome.

  The third time her head lolled and her eyes snapped open, she saw Letizia looking at her, and she felt her cheeks burning. "I'm sorry, I'm just—"

  "No, it's fine." Letizia took a deep breath, and in the dim light Dara could see that her master was coming to a decision about something. Curious, Dara continued to study her, wondering what Letizia had to say. Just as Letizia opened her mouth to speak, the transport began to emit a series of beeps that quickly became shrill alarms.

  "What's going on?" Dara asked. The transport gave a sudden, sickening lurch, and Dara braced her hands against the side of the vehicle as it began to jolt violently.

  "Some kind of mechanical failure," Letizia said, her voice calm and controlled as her fingers moved rapidly over the vehicle's console.

  "What kind of failure? Can we fix it?" The vehicle began to lose speed and Dara looked nervously outside her window. Between the night sky and the haze that had thickened since they'd been in the meeting, the darkness was impenetrable.

  "I don't know." Dara heard the frustration in Letizia's voice. "The transports are controlled remotely, so there's limited functionality within them. We'd have to go outside in order to access any of the important systems."

  "It's pitch dark out there," Dara replied, feeling a rising sense of panic. "And we don't have any tools."

  "Let's just hope it doesn't come to that then. Maybe—"

  A loud clunking sound drowned Le
tizia out, and the vehicle suddenly dropped to the ground, the force making Dara's teeth slam together. The internal lights snapped off, plunging them into darkness. Dara's mouth felt gritty, and she realized she must have chipped at least one tooth.

  Stunned by the abrupt descent, Dara probed her chipped tooth with her tongue, jolted out of her stupor only when Letizia let out a slight moan. Dara couldn't even see her hand in front of her face, forcing her to grope around, looking for Letizia.

  "Letizia, are you all right?" Dara's panic lent a shrill note to her voice, and she winced. If Letizia were hurt, the last thing she needed was for Dara to lose control.

  Dara heard a groan and then a gasp of pain. She continued feeling around until her fingers brushed the fabric of Letizia's suit, but she had no idea which part of Letizia's body she was touching. Disentangling herself from her seatbelt with her free hand, Dara held onto Letizia's clothing and slowly made her way over to the other woman, bumping into several unknown objects as she went.

  "D...Dara?" Letizia asked. Her voice sounded thick and strange, and Dara's sense of panic increased exponentially.

  "Are you hurt?" Gingerly, Dara felt her way around the fabric and figured out that she had managed to grasp Letizia's right sleeve. She moved her hand up Letizia's arm until she touched her master's shoulder.

  Letizia responded with a groan, and Dara paused for a few seconds, taking several deep breaths in through her nose and letting them out through her mouth. This took the edge off her panic, and she moved her fingers up Letizia's neck and cheek. When she neared Letizia's hairline, she felt something warm and sticky.

  "Hold on, Letizia. You're bleeding. I'm just going to—"

  "Head," Letizia grunted, and then she cried out in pain.

  "Yes, your head," Dara confirmed, feeling a small shimmer of hope at her master's apparent lucidity. Awkwardly, she began shrugging out of her jacket. She didn't want to move her hand away from Letizia; she feared she'd never again find Letizia if she stopped touching her master.

  "Hurts," Letizia said, but this time it wasn't so much speech as an exhalation of breath.

  "Stay awake, Letizia," Dara instructed, trying to speak firmly despite her shaking voice. "I need you to stay awake."

  "So tired." Letizia's words sounded thicker, and Dara realized that her master was on the verge of losing consciousness.

  Not knowing the extent of Letizia's head injury, Dara was afraid to shake her. Though she hated to do it, she knew she would have to raise her voice.

  "I'm sorry Letizia," she said quietly, before continuing in a louder tone. "I don't want to cause you pain but you must stay awake." She spoke the last several words with increasing volume and inflection, and Letizia let out a weak cry of protest.

  "You cannot go to sleep now," Dara nearly shouted. She felt terrible, but knew there was nothing else she could do at the moment. "I need you to think for me. What happens if a transport breaks down?"

  "My head," Letizia groaned.

  "Letizia, what happens if a transport breaks down?" Dara repeated, even more loudly this time. In fact, she was speaking so loudly it made her throat hurt, and she began to worry that her voice might not last.

  "Retrieval...sent..." Letizia obviously labored over each word, her breathing becoming shallow.

  Dara finally managed to disentangle herself from her blazer and, reluctantly, she let go of Letizia so that she could try to tear the fabric apart. She would need it to staunch Letizia's bleeding.

  "Listen to me," she said forcefully, ignoring Letizia's mews of protest. "You need to breathe deeply. I know you're hurt, but you have to stay awake, and you have to take deep breaths—if you can." A horrifying thought struck her. What if Letizia's head injury wasn't her only injury? What if she'd punctured one of her lungs? What if she had massive internal injuries?

  Stop panicking, stop it right NOW, she commanded herself, once again pausing for a few seconds to take some deep breaths.

  To her relief, she heard Letizia trying to take deeper breaths, and Dara's hands stopped shaking quite so violently. Her fingers scrabbled over the surface of the blazer, trying to find a loose stitch, some gap in a hem, anything she could use as a starting point for tearing the cloth. After what seemed like ten minutes but was probably no more than a few seconds, she gave in to her frustration.

  "I need to stop the bleeding from your head," Dara said. Though her eyes had begun to adjust, the oppressive darkness made it difficult to see, and she once again had to do a lot of groping to find her way back to Letizia's head wound. "I'm sorry, Letizia, but I'm going to need to apply pressure."

  "Do it," Letizia whispered. Dara had to strain to hear her, but Letizia's increasing lucidity made Dara feel calmer.

  "Here I go." She pressed the blazer against Letizia's head. She heard her master suck in a quick breath through her teeth, and Dara winced. "I'm sorry."

  "'Sokay. Thanks, Dara."

  Even though Letizia couldn't see her, Dara nodded. Her throat felt thick with the tears she tried valiantly to fight back.

  "You said a retrieval team is sent when a transport fails?" Dara asked.

  "Yes," Letizia responded. Dara felt a sudden motion, and she almost leapt away until she realized it was just her master's hand. Letizia's fingers moved up Dara's now-bare forearm until they came to rest on Dara's hand.

  "Do you want me to press harder?" Dara asked, as she felt Letizia's hand exerting a weak pressure against her own.

  "Yes." Letizia spoke through gritted teeth. Sucking in a deep breath, Dara pushed more forcefully against the other woman's head.

  "How long does it usually take the retrieval team?"

  "Depends...how far we are."

  "I have no idea where we are. It's impossible to see anything outside, the haze is so thick."

  "They use...trackers. Do you...see red lights?"

  "On our transport? Emergency lights, you mean?"

  "Yes." Letizia had begun panting, and Dara could tell it had taken her master everything she had to carry on the conversation.

  "I don't know. I was so worried about you, I didn't think to check. Let me look."

  Keeping one hand pressed against Letizia's head, Dara used the other to feel around in front of her, until she came in contact with the glass of the windscreen. The icy coldness of the glass made her jump in surprise; indeed, as she moved her fingers around a bit more, she felt that a slight rime of frost covered its surface.

  She swallowed, hard. Never in her life had she had to worry about a thing like temperature. The latest and most advanced in temperature and environmental sensors monitored every floor of the domes, and they were meticulously maintained. A sudden, abrupt change could cause catastrophic results not only to whatever projects the Job Creators were working on, but also to the delicate ecosystems that had been replicated within the domes. The technicians responsible for the environmental controls were some of the most prominent Contributors in each dome, and they were fanatically careful about their work. For the first time in her life, the elements had Dara at their mercy, and she was extremely ill-prepared for it.

  Pushing those thoughts aside, Dara craned her neck as she wiped her hand over the glass, hoping that doing so would give her a clearer view outside. Try as she might, she could see nothing but blackness.

  "I don't see any lights," she said, her heart plummeting straight into her stomach. What if the tracking system had also failed and no one could find their transport until daybreak? Would they survive the exposure? What if they died, stranded in the middle of the wasteland?

  "That's...not good."

  "No, not really," Dara replied, fighting back the insane urge to laugh.

  "You're...doing...fine," Letizia said, as if sensing Dara's thoughts.

  Feeling around with her free hand, Dara found the transport controls. She hit every button she could find, hoping one would lead to a communications link. No matter what she did, nothing in the transport responded.

  "The coms have also faile
d," Dara reported, her voice tight. "Looks like we might be here a while. Is there an emergency kit?"

  "Back...wall."

  "I won't be able to reach it from here."

  "Let go...of me...Get kit."

  "I don't know, Letizia. If I let go, your bleeding may start up again and—"

  "Blankets, light...in kit. Go."

  Though she was loath to move away from Letizia, she knew that they both needed the blankets. It wouldn't be long before they'd feel the full brunt of the cold, and she needed a light so that she could assess Letizia's injuries.

  "Hold onto this and don't let go," Dara replied, guiding Letizia's hand, pressing it firmly against the wound. Relieved her master seemed able to apply an adequate amount of pressure, Dara released Letizia's hand.

  "Back wall on my side or yours?" Dara asked.

  "Yours," Letizia grunted.

  Though the transport had seemed roomy and comfortable when Dara had first entered it all those hours ago, she now had the sense that its walls closed in around her. She had never known such oppressive darkness in all her life. It was both an absence and a presence.

  Gingerly, she moved through the vehicle. Though she thought the ceiling was probably high enough for her to walk upright, Dara was terrified of bumping her own head. Despite the protest in her thighs, she remained squatting as she moved. She waved her hands before her, banging them several times and cursing at the pain. After what seemed an eternity, she managed to find the back hatch.

  "I'm at the back of the vehicle," she called softly to Letizia. "Are you doing all right?"

  "Fine," her master responded in an exhausted tone.

  "Try to maintain the pressure on your head wound. I'll bring the kit as quickly as I can."

  "'Kay." Though Letizia had tried to hide it, Dara heard the sound of the other woman's teeth chattering, and she knew she would have to move quickly. She hoped that Letizia was just cold, that she was not going into shock.

  Sweat drenched her, even though her physical exertions had been minimal. Her heart raced and her breath came in rapid bursts. It felt as though the blood in her veins had been entirely replaced by adrenaline, and she fervently hoped it would continue to flow. She wasn't sure what might happen when it wore off.