Andromeda Day and the Black Hole (7 page)

 I love you very, very much. Your father,
Deneb.

Andi put the notepad on the table. An image
flashed through her mind—a knight of Old-Time England, dressed in armor, riding
astride a large white destrier. Off to rescue a princess. Off to save the
world.

“Waiter!” she yelled.

“Yes, Andi?”

“Where is Deneb?”

“In the cargo bay, Andi.”

She ran out of the door and down the
corridor, pulling her warm robe closely around her pajamas. He must have
awakened her just as he left his room, so she should still have time to catch
him. She sprinted down to the elevator and, once inside, shouted: “Cargo Bay! Please!”

“Yes, Andi.” The Waiter closed the doors
and the elevator began to sink slowly through the levels.

“Faster, Waiter!”

“Safety regulations state that the optimum
rate for an elevator to descend is one level per every six seconds.”

Andi said something rude. The Waiter seemed
to think about it. “Is that an order, Andi? I’m not sure I follow.”

“Override safety regulations, clearance
code Alpha November 239. Get this elevator down!”

“Yes Andi.” The levels began to flash by as
the elevator sank rapidly down to the bottom cube of the ship. It slowed as it
reached the cargo bay, and Andi stood by the doors impatiently, waiting for
them to open. When they did so she ran out and down the corridor to the bay
that housed the
Sparrowhawk
.

The internal doors to the cargo bay were
shut. She waved her hand over the sensor, but they didn’t open. She looked
through the glass windows into the bay and saw that the
Sparrowhawk
was
already moving, heading down the bay for the large cargo doors at the end.

“Waiter, open these doors.”

“I cannot do that Andi, Deneb has coded the
doors red.”

“Override it, Waiter, clearance code Alpha
November 239! Quickly!”

There was an almost dramatic pause before
the Waiter replied: “I cannot do that, Andi. Your access code will not work on
this lock.”

So, Deneb had known about her special
clearance code. He had let her use it to get down here, but had known that she
would try and override his red privacy code on the door.

“Waiter! Open the doors and let me in!”

“I cannot do that, Andi.”

But she already knew that—the doors
wouldn’t open while the bay was decompressed, even if she managed to break the
code he’d used. Palms pressed against the glass, she watched the
Sparrowhawk
exit the cargo bay and drop into space. The doors shut slowly, blocking out the
dazzling light from Thoume’s sun.

Stupid Deneb. Stupid, stupid Deneb. Sliding
down the wall, Andi put her face in her hands and wept.

Five Days Later

Andi sat at the head of the table, head
bowed, listening to Jack, who was talking to the officers of the
Antiquarian
crew that he had called to the meeting.

“Deneb’s instructions were quite clear,” he
stated, tapping the notepad on which Andi’s father had left his message. “If he
didn’t return in five days, we were to take Andi back to Earth.”

“I know.” Caelum, the Earthman who ran the
Engineering section, lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “It’s just so
difficult to take in. I can’t believe he’s not coming back.”

“Me neither.” The next speaker was from the
planet Michabo, several star systems away from Earth’s. His name was Ioto and,
although humanoid like the others at the table, he was the crewmember who
looked least like an Earthman. His skin had a strange, translucent quality to
it, so that his veins and muscles were just visible, due to the fact that his civilization
lived beneath the surface of the planet, in cities constructed from caves and tunnels
under the ground. His eyesight was thus not one of his most important senses
and his eyes were small and weak—like a blind man, Ioto found everything by
touch and his people had developed long hairs on their hands to increase their
sensory awareness. Because of this, Ioto was in charge of the museum artifacts,
as he was so gentle with the many fragile items. “What’s going to happen when
we get back to Earth?”

“I don’t know.” Jack looked troubled. Andi
watched him mutely. His brown, wrinkled skin looked even more parched than
usual. “We’ll have to talk about that on the way. But I really think we should
get going. Now the Hoshaens have overrun the Ruvalians, it’s possible they may
turn their attention to the skies, and the last thing Deneb would have wanted
was his ship—and Andi—to be taken.”

Another Earthman called Taurus, who was the
ship’s chef in charge of food and other supplies, leaned across and squeezed
Andi’s hand. Like the animal after which the constellation was named, he was a
large man, with huge shoulders and muscled arms. His touch on her hand,
however, was gentle. “You know that we would help if we could, don’t you Andi? But
there’s nothing we can do. We’re not soldiers, and we can’t risk losing you or
the ship.”

“I understand.” Her voice was very small. “If
he couldn’t get out of the Black Hole, then no-one can.”

“That’s right.” Jack seemed cheered by her
submissive attitude. “Right then, what’s the time? Nearly
sixteen-hundred-hours. We’ll aim to leave at eighteen-hundred-hours—that’s
enough time to finish the repair, Caelum?”

“More than enough. It should only take an
hour.” They had taken some stray fire from the planet and, after retreating a
little out of range, Caelum’s crew was in the process of fixing it.

“Okay.” They all looked at Andi, who was
sitting quietly in her seat, staring at the table. Jack cleared his throat. “We’re
all very sorry about your father, Andi.”

“Thank you.” She lifted her head then, and
there were tears in her eyes. “At least he died doing what he loved—taking part
in an adventure, playing the hero.” She stood up and put her hands on the
table. “Thank you for your support. Once we’re underway, we’ll call another
meeting to talk about what we’ll do when we reach Earth.” And she walked out of
the cabin, head high, but not before one of the tears had found its way down
her cheek.

Outside, in the corridor, Andi leaned
against the wall for a moment. Had it worked? She placed her ear against the
wall. She could just hear the voices inside.

“…must be terribly difficult for her,” said
Ioto’s clipped tones. “…handling it very well…”

“…always count on Andi to do the right
thing…” came Jack’s low voice.

Andi gritted her teeth and began to walk
down the corridor towards her quarters. It had taken all of her stamina to sit
meekly at that table and not protest at their decision to follow Deneb’s
orders. She knew that Jack was not a coward and that he just wanted to get her
to safety, but still, she was angry and disappointed that the others had not
tried to mount their own rescue party to save her father.

So, she was going to have to do it instead.
She wiped the tear away that rested on her cheek. Little did the others know
that it was a tear of frustration and anger rather than sadness. Andi was so
cross with Deneb that she wanted to scream. Firstly he’d left without telling
her, to try and rescue the stupid Golden Star, and then he’d gone and got
himself captured. To demand that she leave him there was just the blueberry
icing on one of Taurus’s special cupcakes. She had waited five days, as he had
stipulated, but that was as far as she was going to follow his instructions.

It was possible he was dead already, she
made herself consider as she reached her cabin. If that was the case, this
secret trip down to Thoume’s surface was pointless, and was only going to land
her in unnecessary trouble. But somehow, Andi didn’t believe that her father
was dead. Deneb had always told her that he had nine lives, and she didn’t
think they were all used up yet. Three or four, maybe, but not nine, not yet.

She went into her cabin and dressed in a
warm, fleece-lined, dark-green suit and donned a thick, dark-brown jacket over
the top. She packed her bag with a change of clothes, her Wordbox and some
food, and then stood and looked at herself in the mirror. In the shadows cast
by the Waiter’s reproduction of late daylight, she was barely visible against
the dark carpet and walls. Her blonde hair stood out like a halo, however,
shining in the darkness, and so she took a black cap and jammed it down over
her hair. Nodding with satisfaction, she left the cabin.

Now was the most difficult time, because if
she was spotted there was no way that the others would allow her to go down to
Thoume alone. She crept along the corridor, ducking into a small utility room
as she heard voices and pressing herself against the cleaning utensils as the
footsteps went past the door. Just a couple of the crew, off to the mess for
dinner. After they’d gone, she slipped out again and continued along the
corridor, making her way to the elevators at the end. Luckily, when she got
there the pod was empty, so she dashed in and asked the Waiter to take her to
the cargo bay levels.

She felt nervous and jittery. Several times
she opened the bag on her hip, wondering if she should have put a weapon in
there, or some tools at least. But if she were captured, her bag would be taken
away, so there was little point. What she needed was something innocuous that
she could keep on her, which could double as a tool if necessary…

“Waiter!” she said suddenly, “stop the elevator!”

“Yes, Andi.” The elevator slowed and then
stopped. They were halfway through the elevator levels. She passed her hand in
front of the elevator sensor and the doors swished open. An idea had formed in
her head. The museum was quiet, closed as it was to visitors, and none of the
cleaning or security staff were in sight.

Quietly she made her way along the passages
to the pre-Coalition Earth exhibits. There she headed for the statues that
modelled Old-Time clothing. She had always found the items fascinating—trousers
made out of a thick, coarse material known as ‘denim’, indecently short skirts
that would have got you removed from the Academy before you could bat an
eyelid, and very oddly shaped undergarments that must have been extremely
uncomfortable to wear. Quickly she appropriated an item from a female mannequin
and then, glancing about her and hoping that Ioto wouldn’t miss it, she
returned to the elevator. As it descended into the bottom cube of the ship, she
put the item on hurriedly under her clothes, thinking that it might come in
useful in her attempts to rescue Deneb.

It wasn’t long before the elevator entered
the cargo bay. Although Deneb had taken the
Sparrowhawk
, the
Antiquarian
still had one other shuttle aboard. Called the
Concorde
after a famous
Old-Time plane, it was a small shuttle, hardly used and not in very good
condition. However, Andi had been popping down to the cargo bay over the five
days since Deneb disappeared to check on the shuttle and make sure it was in
good working order. Her basic maintenance training with the Astronaut Training
Academy had come into its own as she carried out a few minor repairs on the old
Anti-Matter Drive, and she had also put the doomed star systems lesson to good
use as she programmed in Thoume’s solar system, with its huge red sun and
scatter of planets.

Unfortunately, as the elevator doors slid
open to reveal the cargo bay, she stepped out and was immediately spotted by
the chief technician, a human called Pavo born on one of Jupiter’s moons. Her
heart began to thump in her chest as he walked across the floor of the large
hanger to her. Was her plan about to be foiled?

“Still working on the old
Concorde
?”
the chief technician asked.

Andi slid her bag around her back so that
he couldn’t see it, stifled her impatience, and gave him a sad little smile. “Yes.
Because of course, now Dad’s taken the
Sparrowhawk
, the
Concorde’s
the only shuttle we have left.”

“Ah, yes.” His broad grin sobered at the
thought of Deneb’s disappearance. He coughed uncomfortably. “I’m sorry that
he’s gone. I understand that we’re leaving soon, too. It’s such a shame…”

“Yes.” Andi’s lip quivered. “I’d really
rather not talk about it. Do you mind if I just get on with my work? It takes
my mind off... my loss.”

“Yes, of course.” He stepped back awkwardly
and Andi walked by him to the shuttle steps, head down.

Once she was inside the shuttle, she blew a
loud raspberry at him, which he couldn’t hear but made her feel better, shut
the door and locked it securely, then made her way through the small cabin to
the flight controls at the front. The shuttle was already facing the main cargo
bay doors, and through the LCD screen she could see Pavo sweeping the floors,
casting the occasional eye over at her.

She gritted her teeth. There was nothing
she could do about him. He was going to have to find out about her escape. As
long as she made it out of the
Antiquarian
, there was little that Jack
could do about it, as the Waiter had no control over the shuttles. He wouldn’t
risk setting the main ship down on a planet still scarred by war, and there
weren’t any other shuttles on board.

Glad that she had done as much preparation
as she had, Andi began to power up the controls. She quickly plotted in her
destination: a small field behind the forest several miles to the west of the
Ruvalian city that she and Deneb had visited the week before. She had watched
the fall of the city from the
Antiquarian
following his disappearance,
and Andi knew that she had to see if there were any Ruvalians still alive
hiding out in the forest, in case any would volunteer to help her.

Everything ready for take-off, she finally
engaged the Anti-Matter Drive. Pavo’s head snapped round in shock at the loud
hum and he dropped the brush and put his hands over his ears. He looked up as
the
Concorde
began to move slowly and shook his head, mouthing something
at her. Andi put up her hands helplessly and pointed to her ears. “Can’t hear
you!” she mouthed, moving the shuttle forward.

Surprisingly stubborn, Pavo stood in her
way and refused to move. Presumably he realized what Jack would have to say to
him if he let her go. His hands still over his ears, he stood there and glared
at her.

Andi continued to pilot the shuttle
forward. She flipped the switch to activate the speakers in the cargo bay and
leaned forward to talk into the microphone. “I’m going to decompress the bay,
Pavo, whether you’re here or not.”

Still, he refused to move. He didn’t
believe that she would really go ahead with it. She bit her lip, but she had to
do it. She just couldn’t leave Thoume without at least attempting to rescue her
father.

Enough talk. She flipped off the
communicator switch and then pressed the button to decompress the cargo bay. Pavo’s
head snapped round as he heard the deafening hiss of the air beginning to
escape out into the atmosphere. He looked up at her in alarm. Andi continued to
pilot the shuttle forward. He turned back to look at the bay doors and then, realizing
she was calling his bluff, raced past the shuttle and out into the main
corridor. Andi watched him disappear through the safety doors just in time
before they locked, disallowing anyone to come through while the cargo bay was
being decompressed. She smiled grimly. Deneb would not be pleased to hear that
she had escaped using his own sneaky methods.

The doors were open wide enough now for the
Concorde
to pass through. She pushed the flight controls forward and the
shuttle picked up speed, moving through the hangar.

The control panel bleeped. She cursed as
she saw the
Antiquarian’s
communication link flashing. She pressed it,
her hand still on the controls. It was Jack.

“Don’t do it, Andi,” he yelled.

“I’m going, Jack, and there’s nothing you
can do about it.”

“We’ll see about that!”

With alarm, she realized he’d overridden
the cargo bay door controls from the bridge. Why hadn’t she thought of that
five days ago? The doors had ceased to open, and were now beginning to lower
once again.