Andromeda Day and the Black Hole (11 page)

“You’re going to have to help me, Clios,”
she whispered. “I can’t read it. Can you?”

Over the top of the snoring guard, Clios
came forward to read the screen. “It’s similar enough to Ruvalian, just a few
vowel differences.”

“Can you type in ‘Deneb Day’?”

Andi held her breath as Clios did so,
pressing her green fingers on the screen. Andi’s throat tightened with tension.
Would Clios be able to translate the awkward Earth name well enough to locate
him? She bit her lip as the computer processed the information. In seconds she
would know if her father was dead. But what if he had given a different name to
the Hoshaens? There were other ways in which she could identify him in the
computer, but these would take too much time.

It did not take long, however, for the
results to show. The Hoshaen for ‘Deneb Day’ flashed on the screen, under a
code number. “It’s a solitary cell, several levels down,” Clios said, her eyes
shining triumphantly.

Andi’s heart—albeit made out of metal—lifted
with joy. She wanted to scamper down the corridor immediately and find Deneb,
but she saw the eagerness on Clios’s face and knew that they had another job
first. Quickly she programmed Deneb’s location into the card. Then she knew it
was time to look for the Keeper of the Golden Star.

Clios typed in Lydia’s name. The Ruvalians
didn’t have surnames, which made it more difficult, and the computer threw up
several Lydias. However, there were sub criteria for locating individuals and
Clios accessed the menus to search for the one with the correct age and
birthplace.  One name flashed on the screen.

“She’s here!” Clios let out the breath she
had been holding.

“Check the cell number.”

“She’s several levels down from Deneb. Near
the mines.” Clios cleared the screen. “Okay, let’s get going.”

“One more thing,” Andi whispered. She
pressed the button on the computer that had a diagram on it. As she was hoping,
it brought up the plans of the prison. As fast as she could, she programmed
them into the card.

“Andi…” Clios warned. The guard had
twitched, and was showing signs of rousing.

“One more minute…”

“Now, Andi!” Clios slipped into the tunnel
opposite the station. Andi snatched the card out of the computer and joined
her, just as the guard’s eyes opened. He cleared his throat and looked around
to make sure that nobody was aware he had been napping, then picked up the
notepad of files he was supposed to be updating.

Sighing with relief, Andi beckoned to Clios,
and they went deeper into the tunnel. “Do you think he will miss his card?”
Clios whispered as they jogged along in the murky half-light.

“Hopefully not for a while, maybe not even
until he has to unlock the doors when it’s time to go to the mines.” They
slowed as they came to a junction, the metal box visible on the wall.

“Where are we going?”

“Back up to the central cavern, then we’ll
have to take an elevator down to Deneb’s level.” Andi slid in the card. The
light above the right-hand tunnel came on, and the two young women continued
down it.

After a while they found the central
cavern, and here they had to wait a few minutes to find an elevator that was
empty. The cavern was still quite busy with Hoshaen guard and prisoners who
were busy transporting Indigo Quartz over to the cargo elevators. It didn’t
seem that there was a ‘lights out’ time in the Hole, and Andi guessed that
everyone worked on a rota, so that the prison was never officially closed. Eventually,
however, they managed to slip into an empty elevator, and Andi swiped the card
to descend to Deneb’s level.

When they exited the elevator, they entered
a similar set of tunnels to those on their own level. It was a long and
complicated way to Deneb’s cell. Andi’s brain was processing the Hoshaen
language but her vocabulary was not yet complete and she had to hope that the
card would lead them to the correct destination. Down they went, down and down,
left tunnels and right tunnels, some of which seemed to double back on
themselves. Clios was soon terribly lost and clung to Andi’s hand, desperate
not to lose her. It grew warmer the deeper they went into the prison, and at
regular intervals Andi saw ventilation shafts with spinning fans, trying to
keep the air moving.

Eventually they came to a tunnel junction
with a computer station. They flattened themselves against the tunnel wall and
Clios peered around the lip, looking for the guard.

“There’s no one there,” she hissed.

“Where’s the guard?”

“He must be patrolling.”

“What shall we do? Shall we wait?”

Clios shook her head. “We’re wasting
valuable time. Come on, let’s try and find his cell.”

They slipped out of the tunnel and through
the computer station to the cells beyond. Andi looked at the Hoshaen symbols on
the doors. She was starting to recognize some of the letters and numbers, and
as she had memorized Deneb’s cell destination, it was not long before she
located the correct room.

“He’s here.” She felt taut with tension and
excitement. Carefully she slid the card through the slot on the outside of the
door and the light turned green. Cautiously she opened the door.

“I’ll stay here and keep a lookout,” Clios
said. “Be quick.”

“Okay.” Andi slipped into the room.

There was no light in the cell, and for a
moment Andi couldn’t see anything. She stood there for a moment to let her eyes
adjust. After a few seconds, she began to make out the dim shape of a man on
one of the beds.

“Deneb?” She walked over to the figure,
wondering if they had the right cell. What if it wasn’t him? “Deneb?”

Suddenly an arm shot out and grabbed her around
the wrist. “Come to beat me again?” a hoarse voice snapped as the figure sat
up.

Andi almost cried out, his grip was so
tight. “Deneb?” she whispered, staring at him. “Is it you?”

The figure sitting on the bed looked so
different to her father that for a moment she didn’t recognize him. He had a
week’s growth of beard, which looked so odd because he was always clean-shaven,
and it gave his face a wild, angry appearance. This was echoed in his eyes,
which blazed in the small amount of light that glimmered dimly just outside the
door. He had a large wound on his forehead that was covered with a rather dirty
bandage, and from the way he moved so stiffly, and his words as she entered the
cell, she guessed that the guards had beaten him.

“A Ruvalian?” Deneb said suddenly, spotting
the color of her skin and hair, and the strip of bark across her teeth. He
released his grip on her arm and frowned.

Andi rubbed it and whispered, “Dad, it’s
me.”

He stared at her for a moment. Then,
slowly, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud, realization set in. “Andromeda?”

“It’s me, Dad.”

“Andi?” He ran his hands over her skin and
touched her hair, as if his fingers could tell him the truth that his eyes
denied him. Suddenly she was enveloped in his arms. To her relief he smelled
like Deneb—a rather unwashed and dirty-clothed Deneb, but still with the same
underlying musky aftershave. She threw her arms around his neck and for a
moment they clung together tightly.

Then, just as suddenly, he released her. His
eyes were angry again, blazing like supernovae. “What are you doing here?” he
snapped. “I thought you’d be well on the way back to Earth! It’s been the only
thing that kept me sane here, knowing you were safe.”

“I’ve come to rescue you, Dad.”

“I don’t need rescuing. I would have
escaped on my own,” he insisted stubbornly.

“Yes Dad.” Andi smiled. She knew him well
enough to know not to argue with him, even though it was clear to her that
there was no way he could ever have got out by himself. “Clios is here—she’s
waiting outside.”

“Clios?”

Andi helped him stand up. “The Ruvalians
have been overrun. I think she realized that I might just have a chance at
rescuing you—and Lydia.” She put an arm around him. “Can you walk?”

“I’d do an assault course if it meant
getting out of here.”

“Dad…”

“I’m fine, Andi. A bit stiff. But I’m
better now you’re here.”

Andi smiled and opened her mouth to say
something, but suddenly outside the cell there was a loud shout and a scuffle,
a sound like a piece of meat being slapped onto a table, and then the door
opened and Clios appeared. “We must go,” she urged. Behind her, they could see
a guard lying on the floor. She grinned at Deneb. “Hello again.”

“Hello too. Thank you for rescue me,” he
said in his stilted Ruvalian.

“I’m only here for Lydia,” she said, but
her smile belied her words. “This guard will be out for a while, but we’d
better get a move on in case anyone comes and finds him.” She flexed her
fingers, her knuckles a bright red from the contact with the guard.

Deneb put his hand up to his forehead as he
stumbled out of the cell. Clios looked at the wound, covered with the dirty
cloth. “Is it painful?” She mimed a wince as she touched her own forehead.

“No,” he lied.

She smiled. “Come here.” She went up to him
and put her hands on top of the wound. He winced just as she had done, but
didn’t move. She closed her eyes. Deneb’s blue ones met Andi’s for a moment in
question, then he, too, closed them.

Andi watched, breathless, as the Ruvalian
girl concentrated. Clios was still wearing her Indigo Quartz necklace. The
guards had forgotten to remove it from her. Andi had never asked Clios what her
skill was that the Quartz improved. She had assumed it was something to do with
fighting talents, but now she realized it must be some form of healing skill.

Clios took her hands away. “That’s all we
have time for. I could take away your other pains given time, but I’m afraid
the guards might return. But you can take off that filthy cloth now, at least.”

Deneb peeled the bandage off the wound,
grimacing. However, as he put his hand up to feel his skin, his eyes widened in
surprise.

“There’s nothing there,” Andi said,
touching his forehead with light fingers. “Just a bit of a red mark. It’s gone,
Dad.”

His eyes met Clios’s. “Thank you.”

“You are welcome.”

He caught her hand. “Now let us try and
rescue your friend. Do you know where Lydia is?” he asked Andi as they left the
room and walked down the tunnel.

“Sort of—I know she’s in a much deeper
level.”

“That would make sense. I think they move
you lower as you become more attuned to the atmosphere. The air gets very dense
down in the mines and it’s hard to breathe, but it becomes easier the longer
you’re here.”

 Andi held her father’s hand as they walked
in the half-light. “Are you going to be alright, Dad?” she asked, aware that,
in spite of his wound disappearing, he was limping slightly. She recalled
Clios’s words: I could take away your other pains, given time. “Do you want us
to come back and get you when we’ve found Lydia?”

“I’m not letting you out of my sight now
you’re here,” he said, squeezing her hand. “I’ll be all right, love. I’ll be
even better when we’re out of here.”

Once again they began to make their way
back to the central cavern. It was a long process, as Deneb seemed quite stiff
and sore, although he didn’t complain about his aches and pains. Andi tried not
to hurry him, but she kept thinking about the injured guard, and worried that
someone might raise the alarm. She sensed that she would only have one chance
at rescuing Lydia. If they were found, and the Hoshaens realized that Andi had
somehow worked out a way to escape, she would be imprisoned in a special cell
under continual guard and they would never find a way out.

At one point she thought she heard
something in the corridor behind them. They stopped, staring back into the
gloom, waiting for a guard to appear, but no one came and eventually they
continued along the tunnels.

Soon they reached the central cavern. Once
again they were lucky in finding an empty elevator. This time the descent to
the lower levels took an interminable amount of time. When the elevators
opened, however, the three of them gave a small gasp, surprised at the view
before them. Here the tunnels weren’t carved out of the same gray stone as the
levels above—the rock was a strange light purple color, and it glittered
faintly in the semi-darkness.

“We’re nearing the mines,” Clios said,
confirming Andi’s thoughts. Even as she said the words, however, a huge figure
loomed up before them, taking them all by surprise.

“Get down!” Deneb yelled to Andi, who
ducked behind her father. There was a scuffle, and Andi heard her father say
several words that would have earned her a severe reprimand had they come out
of her mouth, and then the large figure was lying on the ground, and Deneb was
also nursing a set of bruised knuckles.

“He took me by surprise,” Clios said. She sat
on the floor, rubbing her temple.

Andi rushed over to her. “What happened?”