Andromeda Day and the Black Hole

by Charlie Jackson

  Andi swallowed again. She was determined that she wouldn’t show him how nervous she felt. She would not give him that control over her. “Magic,” she said.

  His lips twitched. “Hmm, I doubt that somehow. I guess it probably had something more to do with the wire in the undergarment that you left behind.”

  Andi said nothing. She made herself stare at him boldly.

  He seemed pleased, if somewhat curious, by her attempt to stand up to him. “You are very young to be so confident,” he said, linking his hands and tilting his head at her. “There are not many prisoners down here who have the stamina to maintain a resistance to me.”

  Andi shrugged. “I believe that most people feel that even when they are physically beaten, their minds remain their own, a part of them that they will never have to give to another. But you take that away from them, so that they have nothing of themselves left.”

  “And yet you keep yours from me.”

  Again, Andi said nothing. It was true—she did feel some small amount of relief that at least her mind was something he could not touch.

  “I wonder what it is that makes you so different,” he said, softly, as if to himself. “Your father is not the same, or else I would have said that it was something to do with your race.”

  “What have you done with him?” Andi asked, hoping her voice didn’t sound too pleading.

  Sphere grinned. “Given him a scar in return for this one.” He touched the fresh line along his cheek tenderly. Then he smiled at Andi’s alarm. “Don’t fret, little one. He is still alive—for now. Although he might not be once I have finished with him.”

  Andi’s cheeks grew hot with fear and anger. “What right do you have to take other people’s lives?” she snapped. “Do you think you are God?”

  His smile faded. He bent closer to her. “No, I am not a god. I am just a man who intends to right all the wrongs done to his people over the years, to take revenge for the injustices wreaked on them.”

  Andi stared at him incredulously. “How can you say it’s just revenge after what you have done to the Ruvalian people? After what you did to Clios’s parents?”

  Sphere said nothing for a moment. Then, to Andi’s surprise, he stood and, hands behind his back, walked away from her. “The Ruvalian girl told you that I murdered her parents,” he said flatly, still facing away. “But did she explain to you why I killed them?” He turned round as she said nothing. “She told you that there was no reason—that I am a cold-blooded killer, a psychopath, didn’t she? Well she was wrong. That Ruvalian village was home to a group of militants who engaged in secret missions to attack and destroy Hoshaens. They planted a bomb in our central government buildings that destroyed our town center. They were also responsible for a bridge that collapsed across the Great River, killing over two hundred of my people.” His eyes seemed to darken. “My wife and children died in that blast. Yes, I led the attack on the village. Yes, I killed all the adults there, including your friend’s parents. But I did it for a reason.”

  Andi was startled at the pain and anger in his eyes. Now, she understood why he wanted revenge. She felt a deep sense of shock at the knowledge that there was more to his actions than sheer delight in killing. But that still did not make what he had done to Clios’s parents right. “Are you certain that her parents were part of the militant group?” Andi asked.

  “We did not know their names, only their location.”

  “So you probably took the lives of many innocent people too?”

  Sphere’s impassive face showed no hint of regret. “Civilians die in war. It is unfortunate, but it is a fact of life. They have to realize that they cannot get away with annihilating the Hoshaen people.”

  “So where will it stop?” Andi got slowly to her feet until she stood facing him. “They kill one of yours, so you take out ten of them. They respond with a bomb that destroys a city—do you plan to obliterate them completely in return?”

  “If that’s what it takes.”

  “Then I pity you. I feel sorry for your losses, and to some extent I understand you better now. But that doesn’t make what you’re doing right.”

  Sphere came right up to her, until she had to crane her neck to look up at him. His eyes were hard as green glass, his mouth set in a line. The loss of his wife and children, she thought suddenly, had made him insane. He reached out a hand and grasped her chin firmly. His fingers dug into her jaw so hard that she couldn’t help but let out a little cry of pain.

  “I don’t want your pity,” he snarled. “I don’t need your blessing to do what I am doing. The Ruvalians will pay for what they have done to my people, and I won’t stop until they are all dead!”

  He looked deep into her eyes. “And as for you… I am very interested in finding out just what is inside your head that makes you blank to my gaze. And I will find out… even if it means cutting open your skull myself and looking inside.”

  He let go of her face abruptly and strode out of the room. The door shut with a bang behind him.

  Andi’s knees shook. She sank onto the chair, trying to control her rapid breathing, her chest rising and falling sharply. How stupid she was to have responded to his words. She should have just sat and said nothing. Now she had made him angrier than ever. She had touched the small piece of him inside that knew he had done wrong in killing innocent Ruvalians. And for that he would not forgive her. He would probably kill her for making him feel emotion again.

  For a moment Andi wondered if the circuitry that controlled her mechanical heart was failing, because she had a sharp pain in the depths of her chest. It felt as if someone had reached inside her ribcage and was squeezing the organ with both hands. Never had she felt this defeated, this low. It was as if there was a black hole deep inside her, too, sucking away all her energy, all her hope. It would have been better if she had not come to the prison. Maybe Deneb would have found a way to escape. And at least then Clios would have been free, and Lydia’s secret would have remained intact. The tears ran freely down her cheeks.

  She sat there like that for a while, too despondent to move. Occasionally she heard the low murmur of voices from outside the cell, but no one else came in to talk to her. So she sat there, eyes closed, feeling the black hole inside her drain away her emotions.

  It was only gradually that she become aware that the pendant she still held in her hand was changing.

  It was a smooth stone, highly polished, about half the size of her palm. When Clios had placed it in her hand, it had felt cool, like a pebble taken from the bottom of a stream. Now, however, it began to grow warm.

  For a moment, Andi didn’t open her eyes. She concentrated on the Quartz, feeling its heat gradually increase against her skin. Her heart began to beat a little faster. The crystal grew warmer and warmer, until it almost scorched her fingers. Then, two things happened simultaneously. She felt the touch of a hand across her forehead, so light she thought she might have imagined it, as if someone had brushed away a stray hair. And at the same time, she received in her mind’s eye a flash of an image. A person.

  It was her mother.

  Andi’s eyes flew open and she gasped. She looked down at the piece of crystal in her hand. Whereas before it had been a light purple color with flecks of silver, now it glowed a deep indigo, and the silver flashes glittered like stars in the night sky. The image of her mother seemed burned on her brain. It was a picture that she could not recall seeing before. Sagitta Day had been smiling gently, her hazel eyes filled with concern, as she reached out a hand towards Andi. Her dark hair had been blowing around her face, as if in a breeze.

  Andi ran a thumb over the Quartz. The Plions had said that it helped an individual to channel his or her power of thought. It increased your psychic powers.

  Was it possible that the crystal had somehow enabled her to communicate with her mother?

  Deneb would scoff at that. He would say she was feeling low, feeling needy, and some part of her brain had drawn on the images of someone
it knew would bring her comfort. But why not Deneb, then? Or Jack, or someone else on board who she loved and trusted? Why her mother, whom she had not seen for over a year?

  Andi clutched the crystal tightly. It was a sign, she knew it. Whether or not her mother had really just visited her, or whether it was all in her mind, Andi knew that she was being told not to give up.

  It was ridiculous to think that she should never have come to the Black Hole. Okay, so now Sphere knew about Lydia—the Ruvalians were pretty much finished anyway regardless of whether he recovered the lost artifact. Yes, Clios had been taken to the mines, but she had known of the dangers before she agreed to come and had considered the risk worth the possibility of actually rescuing Lydia and the Golden Star. And Deneb—although her father liked to think he could talk his way out of any situation, Andi knew that he could not have escaped from his cell without her. No, it was a good thing that she had come to the prison. It was a good thing that she had tried to rescue them.

  And she wasn’t going to give up now.

  Chapter Eight

  Andi stood, feeling a rush of adrenalin through her body as she fastened the pendant around her neck, where it hung, warm against her skin. The first thing she had to do was escape from the cell. How was she going to do that? There was no way she could get the lock on the door to open, and even if she did, there was probably a guard outside. She had to find a way to get him to open the door, and then she had to get rid of him…

  A few moments later, Andi put her face close to the door and yelled, “Help! Somebody help me, I think I’m bleeding to death!”

  The view slit at the top of the door opened to reveal a pair of Hoshaen eyes. “What?” he snapped.

  Andi held up a hand, which was smeared with blood. Then she pressed it against the back of her head. “Sphere hit me hard when I answered him back, and I banged my head on the table. It won’t stop bleeding.”

  “So?” The guard drew back and went to close the slit.

  “He is very keen to find out why he can’t read me,” Andi said. “I don’t think he’ll be too pleased with you if he comes in and finds me dead on the floor.”

  The guard hesitated, and she sensed that he was afraid of what his superior might do to him. Then, grumbling under his breath, he closed the slat and fumbled at the lock.

  Andi moved quickly to the place behind the door where she had left one of the chairs. She lifted it over her shoulder. It was made of some sort of metal and quite heavy. As the guard came in, she threw it at him with as much strength as she could muster. He was unprepared for an attack by the young prisoner and did not have time to defend himself. The chair struck his head soundly and he slumped to the floor, unconscious.

  Andi dragged his legs inside the room quickly and pulled him close to the wall, so that he was out of sight if anyone looked through the view slit. Then she rifled through his pockets for his metal pass card. Finding it, she took a deep breath, and then stuck her head out of the cell.

  There was nobody in the corridor. Quietly she slipped out and pulled the door shut behind her. Quickly she walked along to the next cell. She peeped in through the window to make sure that Deneb was alone, and then, seeing him sitting on one of the chairs, swiped the card through the lock.

  She opened the door and stepped in quickly. “Come on,” she said, “let’s get out of here.”

  “Andi?” Deneb jumped to his feet. He came over to her, lifting up her hand that was covered in blood. “What have they done to you?”

  “I did it with a piece of metal from the table. It’s just a small cut, Dad—I lured the guard with it. How are you?” She touched the fresh gash on his face that Sphere had told her he had given him.

  He winced, but smiled. “I’m fine. Rescuing me twice in one day, Andromeda? This is getting to be a habit.”

  “I hope it’s the last time. Come on, we won’t have long.”

  They peered around the door. “Lydia?” Deneb asked.

  Andi hesitated. “I don’t know. I think we ought to get Clios first. Lydia’s not well, and I don’t think she’ll make it down to the mines. We’ll come back and get her later.”

  Deneb caught her wrist as she slipped past him out of the door. “We could go now,” he said. “Just the two of us. We’ll probably be able to make it on our own.”

  Andi smiled. “I know you don’t mean that.”

  “Your safety is of paramount importance to me.”

  “I know. But we can’t leave Clios in this place. We came here to rescue Lydia, and all four of us will be leaving.” Her voice was firm.

  “Okay.” He didn’t argue with her. They walked down the corridor quietly until they came to the central cavern. A guard stood at the front of the entrance, facing out, making sure that no one entered the interrogation area.

  “My turn,” Deneb said. He tapped the guard on the shoulder. The guard looked round. Although he was taller than Deneb, he wasn’t expecting a fist in his face and he fell heavily to the floor. Deneb picked up the rifle that he’d dropped.

  “Get up,” Andi said to the guard who had frozen when the weapon was turned on him. The guard rose slowly to his feet. “You’re going to lead us across the cavern to one of the elevators—and make sure it’s an empty one,” she demanded. Deneb slipped the rifle inside his prison jacket so that the barrel was pointing straight at the guard. “One sign to the others, and he won’t hesitate to fire.”

  Deneb just raised his eyebrows as the guard’s eyes flicked to him. The guard swallowed and nodded meekly, obviously deciding they meant business.

  Her father prodded him forwards. The guard walked out of the corridor into the cavern. He led them across the large floor to the elevators on the far side, choosing one that was empty. The three of them walked into it, and the doors slid shut.

  Deneb withdrew the rifle and pointed it straight at the guard’s chest.

  “Don’t kill me,” said the Hoshaen, eyes wide in alarm.

  “Okay.” Deneb swung the butt of the rifle up abruptly. It met the guard’s chin with a resounding crunch and the guard crumpled. Deneb looked across at Andi. “What? I said I wouldn’t kill him, and I haven’t.”

  She grinned. Retrieving the card, she went over to the control panel. “We’ve got to work out how to get the elevator down because these central ones don’t have buttons. The card should be programmed, but we didn’t have time to do that.”

  “What can we do?”

  “Watch and learn, Dad.” Andi felt around the unconscious guard’s belt and found a knife tucked into a small holster on one side. She pulled it out and used the blade to pry off the cover of the control panel. Inside was a mesh of wires, leading to the elevator mechanism. Without hesitating, Andi took several of them, cut them in half and then twisted them together. The elevator began to descend slowly.

  “How did you know how to do that?” Deneb asked, puzzled.

  Andi stood, tucking the knife into her pocket. “I guessed.”

  “You guessed.”

  “No, Dad. It’s a long story.”

  Deneb leaned against the elevator wall. It was growing warmer, and the lights flickered as the metal box sank slowly into Thoume’s heart. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?” she said as nonchalantly as possible.

  “All this. Flying the Concorde down to Thoume—I assume that’s how you got here. Getting captured. Escaping from the cell. How did you do that, by the way?”

  “I took a bra from the museum and used the wire from the cups.”

  Deneb blinked at her ingenuity, but was too puzzled to smile. “Finding your way to me. Escaping from the other cell. Fixing the elevator. This isn’t the Andromeda Day that I know.”

  “Are you sure?” Andi smiled softly. “Perhaps you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

  Deneb looked at her for a moment. She couldn’t read what he was thinking. Then he looked up as the lights flickered again. “Now’s not the time,” he said. “But if
we ever get back to the Antiquarian, I expect a full report. No lying, Andi.”

  “Yes, Dad.”

  Together, the two of them sat on the floor facing the doors, keeping one eye on the motionless guard. It took an age for the elevator to reach the bottom levels. Andi even found herself nodding off at one point, and it was only when Deneb started to get to his feet that she woke up and heard the now-familiar squealing of the elevator mechanism and realized they had at last reached the mine.

  “Get ready,” he said, raising the rifle in case someone was waiting to come into the elevator. Andi pulled the knife out of her pocket and waited breathlessly as the doors slid open.

  Outside, however, was only the semi-darkness of the prison depths. They stepped out, noticing immediately the dull purple glow of the rock around them.

  “How do we find her?” Deneb asked as they began to walk down the tunnel.

  “I don’t know. Find a computer station, I guess.”

  At the end of the tunnel was a junction. There was no point in using the card, as it wasn’t programmed to lead them to a destination. Instead, Andi looked up at the Hoshaen symbols above each tunnel. Closing her eyes, she recalled the copies of the plans of the prison that had flashed up on the screen as she had programmed them in when she and Clios had first tried to find Deneb. Although she had only seen them for a fraction of a second, she could remember them exactly.

  “This way,” she said, proceeding down the furthest tunnel. Deneb said nothing, following her silently along through the gloom.

  It was very warm in the lower levels. Andi looked up at the ventilation shafts that occasionally punctuated the walls. The fans spun swiftly, but didn’t seem to get the air moving much. For the first time she wondered how the electricity that ran the prison was generated. Gas? Oil?

  Water. The answer came to her instantly. On the plan of the level at the absolute bottom of the prison there had been a double line of blue snaking through the mine. There must be a diverted underground river, she thought. And the flow of the water must be generating the electricity that runs the lights, the fans, the computers, and the locks on the doors.