Andromeda Day and the Black Hole (8 page)

“I’m not stopping, Jack!” she yelled back,
increasing the shuttle’s velocity.

“I’m not going to let you go,” he snapped,
his voice crackling above the sound of the
Concorde’s
drive and the hiss
of the bay doors.

“It’s not up to you,” she said softly. She
was done with being told what to do. Her hand on the controls, she jammed the
thrusters down to maximum. The
Concorde
leaped forward like a sprinter
out of the blocks. It sped down the last bit of the runway as the cargo bay
doors passed the halfway level. Time to bring all her Astronaut training into
practice. She wasn’t a Polaris student for nothing, Andi thought, lifting the
nose of the
Concorde
to pass over the rising bottom door.

The shuttle slipped through the doors with
just a gentle scrape on the top wing, and then she was free, the twinkling
Galaxy splayed out before her like a scatter of diamonds on a black velvet
cloak.

“Andromeda!” Jack screamed into the
controls.

“Bye Jack,” she said coolly. “Next time I
see you, I’ll have Deneb with me.” And then she shut off the
Antiquarian’s
communicator, surrounding herself in the quietness of space.

*

Deneb had let Andi handle the controls on
the
Sparrowhawk
occasionally, and she had flown dozens of ships in the
VR Playdeck, but this was the first time she’d taken one of the shuttles out on
her own. Andi tried not to be nervous, however. She checked the controls
automatically as she’d been taught at the Academy, and pretended it was just
another routine practice flight on the VRP, watching the trajectory so she
wasn’t too shallow, adjusting the speed so she didn’t come in too fast.

With a firm but gentle hand that Professor
Watson would have been proud of back at the Academy, Andi set the
Concorde
down in the small field behind the forest to the west of the fallen Ruvalian
city. She turned off the shuttle’s drive and opened the hatch door and listened
for a moment to the quietness of the Thoume night. Although it had only been
sixteen-hundred-hours on ship, here on this side of Thoume—which had a
thirty-four-hour rotation cycle—it was already night-time.

Putting her bag over her shoulder and
resting it on her hip, Andi made her way stealthily down the shuttle steps and
jumped into the field of ripe yellowcorn. The rich earth beneath the plants
sucked at her boots as she crept towards the forest. After a few steps, she turned
and pressed a button on the small communicator device she held in her pocket. The
Concorde
began to emit its camouflage shield, a reflective device that
mirrored its surroundings back into the night. With a shimmer, the shuttle
disappeared.

Was the
Sparrowhawk
around here
somewhere, she wondered, camouflaged in a similar manner? Had Deneb landed
here, or had he flown straight to the heart of the enemy, intending to be
captured and taken into the Black Hole? Hopefully he hadn’t been killed before
he even had chance to set foot on Thoume.

She wasn’t going to think about things like
that. Andi gritted her teeth, focusing on the ground, and continued to creep
along towards the forest. Then she stopped, holding her breath. Was that a
rustling she could hear in the corn? She listened for a moment and then
continued, hoping it was her imagination.

Before long, she found out that it wasn’t. After
a few more paces, there was another, more obvious rustling from behind her, and
then something appeared out of the darkness and knocked her to the ground. She
fell heavily, her breath knocked out of her, and struggled as someone quickly
tied her hands behind her back.

“I’m a friend,” she snapped as she peered
over her shoulder and saw the distinctive green glow of a Ruvalian face. “I’ve
come to help.”

“Shut up.” The Ruvalian pulled Andi to her
feet. “Come with me.”

Andi stumbled along beside the soldier. “I
was here six days ago,” she said in a hushed voice. “I met with Clios, the
captain of the resistance. Is she still alive?”

Her captor stared at her for a moment. “Yes,
she is alive,” he said finally, or was it a she? “That is where I am taking
you.” But he still didn’t release her hands. Keeping one hand under her armpit
to stop her from falling over the undergrowth, he led her through the
closely-packed trees on an invisible path, until eventually they reached a
small clearing in the heart of the forest.

Another soldier carrying a rifle challenged
her guard, and then the second soldier stepped aside, allowing her captor to
lead her into the clearing. Several Ruvalian soldiers wearing yellow sashes
were gathered around a small fire in the center. Through the trees Andi could
just see other soldiers huddled in groups, scattered throughout the woods.

One of the soldiers stood as the guard
approached, half-dragging Andi with him. Andi saw the yellow sash, and the
captain’s lime-green hair, which she had rubbed with mud to try and dim its
luminosity. She wasn’t sure how she recognized her, but she was in no doubt. “Clios,
it’s me, Andi,” she said urgently. “Deneb’s daughter.”

Clios stared at her in surprise. She nodded
to the guard, who quickly untied her hands. “So it is,” she said, beckoning her
towards the fire. “What on Thoume are you doing here?”

“Deneb hasn’t returned from the Black
Hole.” She took a deep breath. “So I’ve come to rescue him.”

There was a ripple of laughter among the
soldiers gathered around the fire. Clios looked over at them and said something
harshly, but when she looked back at Andi, she, too, was smiling. “I see.” She
reached out and touched a green hand gently to Andi’s shoulder. “I’m very sorry
that Deneb did not return. I cautioned him about going into the Hole. I said
that he would not come back. But he was determined. I see that you are like
him, too. It is very brave of you to think about rescuing him.” Her hand
dropped to her side. “But it is a foolish notion. Why do you think that you
would have a chance where he did not?”

Andi lifted her chin as the soldiers all
stared at her, curious to hear her answer. It went against the grain for her to
admit the operations she had had, but she had no choice. “Because I am an
upgrade. It is what we call people on Earth who have had implants,” she
explained at their confused stares. “Sometimes if our organs break down, or we
have an accident, it is possible to replace the damaged part of the body with
synthetic materials. It has been done for centuries with limbs and even things
like eyes. But the technology has now been developed to replace the heart and
brain.”

She waited for them to show expressions of
revulsion and disgust. However, although they all looked startled, the general
emotion seemed to be interest rather than horror.

Clios frowned. “Are you saying that’s what
has happened to you?”

“My brain is half computer, yes.”

“So what does that mean?”

Andi shrugged. “I have many improved…
qualities.”

Clios tipped her head. “Like what?”

“I have a greatly expanded memory and I can
recall books word for word after only reading them once. I have a talent for figures
and patterns and I can break almost any code. I can fly any sort of ship. I
become fluent in a language after only hearing it spoken for a while. I am
talking Ruvalian to you now, am I not? And I only met you a week ago.”

Clios nodded.  She looked impressed. “I
see. Why did Deneb not take you with him? You would have stood a greater chance
of rescuing the Golden Star together.”

Andi bit her lip. “He doesn’t know about
my… abilities.”

Clios look surprised. “What do you mean? How
could he not know?”

“I was always fairly bright, even before my
upgrade. I’ve always been good with languages and gadgets and I think that
Deneb hasn’t really paid any thought to how much better I’ve got. The other
things I can do… Well, I don’t tell him about them.”

“Why ever not? He seems like an
understanding sort of man.”

Andi sighed. “Sometimes a gift can also be
a curse. I find it a hard burden to bear, and it would upset Deneb to know that
I wish I hadn’t had the upgrade.” She nodded at Clios’s Indigo Quartz necklace.
“You must feel the same about your abilities. Although it can be useful to
improve your talents, it is not always a good thing.” She was thinking of
Sphere.

Clios smiled wryly, indicating that she
understood. “So what do you propose to do now?”

“I thought I would enter Hoshaen territory
and get captured. Hopefully they’ll send me to the Black Hole. Once I’m there I
can find my way to Deneb and release him.” Andi spoke more confidently than she
felt.

Clios nodded. “Okay. I will come with you,
if you want me.”

Andi’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

Clios shrugged. “We are trying to maintain
a resistance in these woods but we have little chance of holding out for long. If
our people truly wish to survive these terrible wars, we must act now to bring
them some hope.” She took Andi by the shoulders and held her firmly. “But I
will only come with you on one condition.”

“What’s that?” But Andi already suspected
what it would be.

“That we try to rescue Lydia, and the
Golden Star, too.”

Andi nodded. “Okay. But Deneb comes first.”

“Agreed.” The two women shook hands. Clios
gave a little shiver of excitement, her eyes filled with hope for the first
time in days. “Let us prepare for our adventure.”

*

Andi watched as Clios got herself ready. “We
shall make our way towards the city, and will probably be picked up not far
from the walls,” the captain said as she strapped on a belt with a knife and
other weapons attached.

 “What if we become separated?” Andi asked
nervously.

“We will do our best to avoid that. The
Hoshaen, for all their faults, have a strong family unit. From what we
understand they keep families together in the Hole.”

Andi laughed. “Haven’t you forgotten one
thing?” She indicated her hands and face. “We hardly look like we’re related.”

Clios grinned, the strip of brown bone that
replaced her teeth hardly visible in the darkness. “We’ll have to camouflage
you, Andi. It will be safer that way.” She nodded to one of the other soldiers,
who came forward with a wooden bowl. “Thank you, Jarl,” she said softly. It was
filled with a dark earthy substance that slopped against the sides as Jarl
placed it on the ground.

“This is granala,” the male Ruvalian said. “It
is a mixture of a special type of Thoume earth and a chemical compound that
turns the earth to a viscous liquid. It will make your skin green in a matter
of minutes—but it will wear off, don’t worry.”

“How long will that take?” said Andi,
trying not to show alarm as Clios pulled her arm straight and began to spread
the horribly sticky liquid onto her skin.

“Several days. It will gradually fade.” Clios
pushed the sleeves of Andi’s suit and jacket up so that the mixture covered her
arms up to her elbows. Then she smoothed it onto Andi’s face and neck. The rest
of her was covered and, unless her clothes were removed, her white skin would
not be noticed.

The captain then accepted a bowl of water
from Jarl and proceeded to wash off the earthy mixture. Andi gasped as her arms
were revealed. They glowed a beautiful iridescent green, the phosphorus in the
soil interacting with the chemical compound to change the pigment in her skin. Clios
washed her face and neck, then stood back to admire her handiwork. “Only the
hair left to do.”

“Can’t I just wear my hat?”

“It might get taken or knocked off, and
your hair is very distinctive. Better to color it.” Clios made Andi kneel down,
and then gathered her blonde hair in one hand and began to ladle the earthy
mixture onto it.

“Your hair is a very strange color,” Jarl
commented as Clios covered the blonde locks with a smile. “Do all Earth women
have the same shade?”

“No. Very few, in fact. Most are dark brown
or black. Some used to be red, but that’s virtually extinguished now, too.”

Clios finished, waited a moment and then
washed the earth off. Andi watched her wet, shoulder-length hair swing back
around her face, startled to see it a bright lime-green, very similar to
Clios’s.

“There,” said Jarl. “You look like a true
Ruvalian!”

“One more thing.” Clios took a small strip
of thin bark from Jarl. On one side it was smeared with a sticky substance. “You
must put this on your teeth. It will feel strange, but it is quite effective. It
will cover up your enamel blocks.” Andi smiled as she realized Clios meant her
teeth. “To remove it, you must wash your mouth with an alkaline liquid.”

Andi slipped the bark over her teeth. It
felt very strange, but when she smiled the two Ruvalians nodded grimly and she
assumed that it must look authentic.

“What about that?” Jarl gestured to the
small clip on the front of her clothes that transmitted the translation of
other languages to the earpiece in her ear.

“I don’t need it now,” Andi explained,
lisping slightly. She removed it, placed it in her bag, and left it with Jarl.