Andromeda Day and the Black Hole (17 page)

The door flew open. Andi got to her feet
hurriedly and followed Deneb in.

“She’s got to tell us about the Star.” he
exclaimed. However, his voice tailed off as a thin, high cry cut through the
room.

Andi stepped around him hurriedly in time
to see Larnx hold back the Ruvalians who had rushed forward to evict them. In
front of them, Lydia was lying on the table, her legs bare. She was covered in
sweat, but she was alive, and she was smiling.

In front of her, someone was holding a
baby.

“You were pregnant?” Deneb gasped.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Lydia said
in a croaky voice. “But Clios said to keep it a secret.”

Why? Andi thought to herself as Deneb moved
forward to stand beside Lydia’s makeshift labor bed. She looked down at the
baby, wriggling gently in the Ruvalian’s arms, coughing a little and screwing
up its nose.

Deneb knelt by her side. “Do you want to
tell me where the Golden Star is?” he said gently.

“Dad?” Andi’s voice was soft.

Deneb ignored her. “I promise I’ll get it
for you and return it to your people.”

“Dad!”

Lydia reached out and turned his head
gently to face his daughter.

Andi stood there, tears running down her
face, the baby in her arms. It was a boy. She lifted him up to show him to
Deneb. “Look.”

Deneb stared. On the baby’s face was a
bright birthmark.

The shape of a golden star.

*

Eleven Days Later

The meadow was full of buttercups and a
scattering of tiny scarlet flowers that Andi didn’t recognize. The grass
smelled sweet, and far in the distance she could hear the sound of running
water as the Great River meandered through the Ruvalian countryside.

Jarl’s hands clasping her own were warm and
dry. They were seated facing each other on the grass, cross-legged, eyes
closed. Against her chest, Clios’s pendant rested, warm against her skin.

Her fingers were buzzing. It was as if Jarl
was a socket she had plugged herself into. Throughout her body she felt
something coursing through her veins, and it wasn’t just blood—it was energy,
white-hot, and she was sure that if someone was watching her now, they would
see her shining as brilliant as a light bulb.

This was Jarl’s passing gift to her. He was
a naturally gifted psychic, and the piece of Indigo Quartz that he wore on a
bracelet attached to his wrist honed his talents. He was the only person that
Andi had told about the image she had received of her mother in the Black Hole.
Jarl had nodded and told her that the Quartz had opened a channel to the
otherworld so that Sagitta could communicate briefly with her daughter. He had
offered to help her open the channel again before she left Thoume in return for
rescuing his people from the Hoshaen oppression. Andi had cried as she said
that she didn’t deserve it—that she had let Clios die. But Jarl had comforted
her, explaining that Clios wouldn’t have sacrificed herself unless there was no
other way, and she should not blame herself.

A sign
, Andi
breathed.
Just give me a sign, Mum, that you’re still there. That you’re
watching over me.

“Look.” Jarl squeezed her hands. Andi
opened her eyes. A brilliant butterfly had alighted on her knee. Andi watched
it, holding her breath. It was so beautiful, its wings an oil painting of
sapphires and scarlets and jades. Its antennae twitched briefly. Then it took off,
carried away by the light breeze, to dance in the meadow beyond.

“It is a sign,” Jarl said, releasing her
hands. “The butterfly is an age-old symbol of resurrection and rebirth.” As she
frowned, he continued, “A link between our world and the otherworld is very
difficult to maintain. The Ancients do not have the luxury of indulging in long
conversations, and therefore they have to speak to us in symbols that we must
interpret to understand their message.”

“It’s all right,” Andi said, getting to her
feet and helping him up with a smile. “I know what it means.”

*

Larnx, Jarl, and Lydia, as well as the baby
boy with the golden star on its cheek, were among the Ruvalians who gave Andi
and Deneb a big send off as they climbed into the shuttles, Andi into the
Concorde
,
Deneb into the
Sparrowhawk
, to head back to the
Antiquarian
. Andi
waved to them through the window before lifting the shuttle into the air,
turning it and following Deneb as he headed towards the sky.

She looked back down at the ground,
watching the Ruvalians grow smaller as the
Concorde
ascended. She could
see their city, empty now of Hoshaens. They had fled when the army that had
been hiding in the woods had received the news of the retrieval of the Golden
Star, and had been enthused to such an extent that they had mounted a final
attack on the enemy within their city. Many had died in the assault, but the
Hoshaens had been driven back across the Great River, and the Ruvalians were
now in their own town.

Andi thought about the moment that she had
seen the star-shaped birthmark on the cheek of the baby who had just left
Lydia’s womb. Suddenly it had become clear to her. The child was the dead
king’s only surviving heir, the last of the Ruvalian royal line, all of whom
bore the distinctive birthmark somewhere on their body. The death of the baby
would have meant that the link to their ancestors had been broken, something
that had never happened in a thousand years of their history. However, the
knowledge that the child had survived had given them something to fight for
again.

Andi had puzzled about the fact that she
had not guessed that Lydia was pregnant. However, Jarl had explained to her
that Ruvalian females’ bodies were slightly different to Earth women’s, their
wombs set much deeper inside them, so that when pregnant the baby did not
protrude as much as Andi was used to, and of course the loose prison clothing
had hidden the slight bump that had existed.

They had flown Lydia and the baby back to
the Ruvalian front line in the
Sparrowhawk
that Deneb had reclaimed from
the Hoshaens. Larnx had given Andi the baby to hold up to the troops to prove
that it had survived. Andi had considered this a great honor and did so with
pride.

However, she had been aware that Deneb was
uncharacteristically quiet as he watched her carry out the duty. He had said
little to her since their escape from the prison. True, everything had turned a
bit mad, and what with all the explaining to the Ruvalian captains about how
they had shut down the prison, there hadn’t been much time to talk. Still, Andi
wondered what Deneb was thinking, as she piloted the
Concorde
back
towards the
Antiquarian
, finally lowering it through the cargo bay doors
that she had scraped only days before. Was he angry with her? Well, she would
soon find out.

Andi glided the
Concorde
in behind
the
Sparrowhawk
and shut down the controls. Ahead of her, she could see
Jack, Caelum, Ioto, and Taurus waiting in the safety area as the bay doors
finally closed. She sighed, knowing that she was in trouble, especially with
Jack. Still, it was time to face the music.

She stepped down from the shuttle, seeing
Deneb doing the same further up the cargo bay. Before she could say anything,
however, Jack came bursting out of the safety area, running up the cargo floor
towards her, and enveloped her in the biggest, tightest embrace she had ever
experienced.

“Thank the heavens you’re all right,” he
said, his voice muffled against her hair.

“I’m fine,” she said, gently extricating
herself from his grip. She caught his wrinkled, leathery hands in her own. “And
I’m sorry for disobeying you and going off on my own.”

He waved a hand in the air. “That’s all
forgotten. And you did find him, didn’t you?” He walked over to Deneb, shaking his
arm enthusiastically. “So good to see you again.”

“Thanks.” Deneb and Andi embraced the
others. Finally, however, Deneb pulled back. “Well you must excuse us for a
while, gentlemen. We’re absolutely exhausted, and I think we both need to sleep
for a week.”

Laughing, they all made their way to the elevators.
The rest of them went back to their posts, while Andi and Deneb caught an elevator
up to their quarters.

Andi watched the levels pass slowly. She
smiled uncertainly at Deneb. “Beats the last time we were in an elevator?”

“Just a bit.” He gave her a tired smile.

She turned to him then, reaching out and
taking his hand. Her own was still green, but a much less vibrant color now,
and she had removed the strip of bark from her teeth. “I think we need to talk.”

Deneb looked at her for a moment, leaning
against the wall of the elevator. His gaze was unreadable. He studied her, his
eyes passing over her face, her hair, her slim build, until she could stand it
no longer.

“Are you very angry with me, Dad?”

For a second he said nothing. Then, as the elevator
came to a stop and the doors slid open, he said, “No. I’m just thinking how
much like your mother you are.”

Andi’s breath caught in her throat. He
walked forward, pulling her with him, and together they went down the corridor
towards their quarters.

“I’m puzzled,” he said, pausing outside his
door and pressing his thumb to the pad. “And a little startled at the things
that you’ve done over the past few days. But I’m not stupid. I know it’s got
something to do with your improvements. I haven’t given it much thought before,
that having a computer for a brain might make you different, smarter. It seems
stupid now. I guess I didn’t want to think about it, to consider that I might
have made things more difficult for you, just so I could keep you.”

They went into his quarters. He reached out
and stroked her hair, still a light apple green in color. “I suppose that’s why
you’ve left the classes. Have the children made things awkward?”

“In a way. They are uncomfortable with my
enhanced abilities and they have made fun of me.” Andi frowned. “But Dad, I
think the main problem was in myself. I was scared of what I had become. I
didn’t want the improvements, and I didn’t know how to tell you, because you’d
been through so much for me. I kept trying to pretend that it hadn’t happened.”

She reached up and touched his face. “But
now I know that I can make a difference. I can use my improvements to help
people. And I’m going to go back to school. I don’t care what the others say.
I’m proud of my abilities, and I’m going to use them.” That’s what the
butterfly had symbolized. A resurrection, a rebirth. A new beginning.

He kissed her lightly on the forehead. “I’m
very, very proud of you, Andromeda Day.”

“And I’m very proud of you, Deneb Day.” Andi
smiled.

Just then, however, a movement out of the
window caught her eye and she turned to see a large ship maneuvering beside the
Antiquarian
, shadowing them as they left Thoume’s orbit. “What’s that?”

Deneb looked over. For a moment he said
nothing. Then he sighed and looked back at her. “It’s the Ruvalians. They’re
accompanying us out of the star system.”

“Why?” she said, confused.

“Because I asked them to. I asked Clios for
an armed guard out of the system, the first day we landed on the planet.”

Andi remembered the conversation he had had
with the Ruvalian captain, the way he had pleaded. “I don’t understand. Why do
you want a guard?”

“Because we’re being followed, Andi. I’ve
known for some time, but I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to worry
you. But you seem so grown up now, I suppose you’ve earned the right to know.”

“Who’s following us?” she asked in
surprise.

He looked sheepish. “Someone from Earth. You
know how much money I stole, Andi. Well this guy… he wants his money back.”

“I see,” she said in a small voice. She
sighed and sat on the edge of his chair, staring out at the stars. “What an
adventure. And all because we wanted a few artifacts for the museum.” The
Ruvalians had given them a crate load of historical items they would be able to
display on board. But still, she knew that that wouldn’t help their financial
situation in the short term. “I’m sorry that things didn’t turn out better Dad.
But I’m sure we’ll manage.”

Deneb grinned. “I’m working on it, Andi.” And,
putting his hands into his pockets, he brought out two large handfuls of
glittering Indigo Quartz crystals.

Andi stared at him in shock. “Where did you
get those? You didn’t…”

Deneb shrugged. “Well, not from the
Ruvalians, of course. I acquired them in the Black Hole, while you were talking
to Clios.”

“Of course,” she said, remembering him
lagging behind in the mine. “Is it enough to pay this guy off?”

“No… not yet.”

She got the impression that he was about to
add something else, but he closed his mouth and just smiled.

She stood up and kissed him on the cheek. “Goodnight,
Dad. And don’t worry. We’ll sort it out.”