Dome 7, Midwestern Prairie

The environment of Dome 7 was made to mimic the Midwest and its' climate. The place was regarded as one of the least interesting of the domes, but was one of the most profitable for the institute. The only plants one could find here was corn and prairie grass, the lab dedicated to improving yields of corn. Oftentimes new fertilizers and genetically modified corn would be tested here to see if they in fact did improve yields. Dr. James Taylor was in charge of the dome, and was known as an incredibly ambitious and results-driven researcher. Several times an ecological disaster occurred within, destroying all plant life, but thankfully the situation was contained inside the building. With the materials to rebuild the environment being rather cheap, Dr. Taylor was able to push the envelope many times and learn things that resulted in improvements in yields in already optimal growing conditions going as as 5%. The most recent project was a new fertilizer, which was labelled as mixture F, version 12, often shortened to F12. The F series were incredibly unpredictable, either certain features of plants would become incredibly exaggerated, or the plants died. They had only produced failures, but had potential that was rather promising. Sometimes the corn stalks would grow until they hit the roof of the dome, or the leaves would become large enough to fashion a cape out of them, however the mixture had yet to have an effect on the ears or kernels, which was the most important part of the research. F12 had been recently used in the last week, and so far it did seem to have the desired effect on the plants. The ears were large, twice as long, and considerably thicker. The only thing Dr. Taylor needed to do was wait until he was sure they were mature, and hope that they didn't fall apart before then.

Alison walked into the airlock, the first set of doors opening automatically.

"Please wait for decontamination."

Alison was then gently hosed with a soft mist, which felt pleasant. The process lasted for 20 seconds, after which the next set of the doors opened. The dome was practically a farm. There was corn as far as Alison could see. Walking through a path that cut its way through the center of the dome, she noticed that the husks of the plant were larger and longer than the supermarket types, and seemed somewhat phallic in nature. It raised some questions within Alison, but her priority was to find her professor, assuming they were in this dome. The path wasn't too long, and she ended up at a laboratory at the end, a little rectangular module set up against the wall of the dome.

Why can't they just put the labs in next to the decontamination?, Alison wondered. Sure, it was nice to walk past the densely packed plants, relaxing. But it just seemed inefficient. If something could go wrong, it would be difficult to get out.

The lab was open and lit, and Alison walked in , only to find traces of someone that was present but had left. Alison looked around closely on the benches, looking at a set of loose papers hanging around a fresh cup of hot coffee. She noticed the names on what looked like a research paper about growing corn, and found that none of the names seemed familiar, especially not Dr. Taylor, whose name was at the very front. Alison became nervous, and started talking to herself.

"I'm in the wrong place. I shouldn't be here."

She turned around and headed out of the lab. As the door closed behind her, she saw that the path that she had entered had become thinner as a result of the corn stalks bending towards it. Questioning it would hardly do her any good, she needed to get out before she got caught trespassing