Andromeda Day and the Black Hole (16 page)

“There,” he said, climbing back under the
railing. It was growing warm already with no ventilation, and he was perspiring
freely. He wiped his forehead on his sleeve. “That will stop them getting the
wheel turning, and they’ll soon realize they haven’t got enough time to fix it
before the mine floods.”

“One more thing, Dad,” Andi said. “Will all
the Ruvalians know that the cell doors are open? Will they know what to do?”

Together, they both turned towards the
large switchboard on the opposite wall. Here, there was a speaker and a panel
of communicator switches. “We’ll tell them,” Deneb said grimly. They had both
heard the occasional announcement come through the system that fed the entire
mine.

They went up to the board. Andi rotated the
dial to turn it on. “It’s on the same circuit as the lights, luckily,” she
said. She pressed the communication switches for all the levels from the top to
the bottom of the mine. There was a hiss of static, and a whining noise as all
the speakers were activated.

Deneb handed her the mouthpiece. “Your
Ruvalian is better than mine,” he said.

Andi took it and cleared her throat. She
held it up to her lips. “Fellow Ruvalians,” she said loudly and clearly. “Please
listen to this announcement. Sphere is dead.” She ignored the gasp from the
operators on the floor beside her. “The generator that powers the prison has
been shut down. The water level is already rising, and the mine will soon begin
to flood. All your cell doors are open. The elevators are not working, so you
will have to climb out of the mine. Freedom is yours, my friends, if you can
overcome your guards. Good luck!”

Deneb turned off the communicator. “Well
that should do it.”

Together they dragged the injured operators
out of the room into the corridor to give them a small chance of escape. Deneb
then shut the control room door. Using the hammer, he bent the handle against
the wall. “They’ll not get into there very easily.”

The two of them went out of the room and
down the tunnels. “We’ve got to get to Lydia,” Deneb said. “She may be too ill
to escape on her own.”

“We need to get up the elevator shaft
first,” Andi said. “It’s going to take some time.”

When they reached the elevator, Deneb
forced Andi’s knife into the doors and together they pulled them open. “It’s
dark up there,” Andi said, looking up into the blackness.

“I borrowed this,” Deneb said. He showed
her a small torch that he’d found in the toolbox in the control room. He
latched it onto his coveralls. “It should provide enough light for us to climb
by.”

“It’s a long way, Dad,” she said. It was
also stiflingly hot, and her clothes were sticking to her back.

“We’ll do it a bit at a time, then stop for
a rest,” he said. “Okay?”

“Okay. Let’s go for it.”

Together, Andi and Deneb climbed into the elevator
shaft. A ladder ran up the walls, presumably for emergencies like this, and so
the climb was relatively easy, but incredibly long.

 After only about fifteen minutes, Andi’s
arm and leg muscles burned. “I’m going to have to stop,” she said, panting.

“The air quality’s terrible.” Deneb hung
just below her, wiping his forehead on his sleeve again. For a few minutes they
waited until they had regained their energy. Finally he said, “Ready now?”

“Yes.” She wasn’t, she still ached, but
more than anything she now wanted to escape this terrible place.

So they climbed again. Andi began to think
that she was in some sort of nightmare that was never going to end. The shaft
just seemed to go on forever, and there was no hint of light at the top. She
didn’t dare think of how far she had climbed, and how far she would fall,
should she happen to let go. She squeezed her eyes shut against the image of
Clios falling in the mine.

At one point, Andi became aware of a dark
gurgling sound far beneath them in the depths of the mine. Deneb looked up at
her. “Sounds like the water level’s beginning to rise,” he said. “Come on Andi,
it can’t be far now.”

In all, with four or five more stops, it
took them over an hour to climb up to the central cavern level. By the time
they reached the top, Andi was exhausted. “How are we going to open the elevator
doors?” she asked. “I haven’t got the strength to pry them apart.”

“We’ll find a way,” Deneb said. He was
panting, though, and she knew he must be exhausted too.

As they reached the top, a light shone down
on them. Andi’s heart plummeted. Had they come all this way just to be shot by
Hoshaens? However, as she climbed opposite the elevator doors, she saw a
welcome green Ruvalian face.

“Here’s another two,” he called behind him.
Another Ruvalian came forward and together they helped Andi and Deneb climb out
into the cavern.

They lay on the floor for a moment, unable
to believe they had actually made it. One of the Ruvalians bent over them with
a flask of water, and they sipped it gratefully. “Best to get out now,” he
said, nodding over to the far elevators. “Water level’s rising.”

“Have many Ruvalians come up from the
mines?” Andi asked.

“Hundreds. It was amazing. Once everyone realized
they actually had a chance to escape, they seemed to find renewed energy.” He
helped them to their feet. “Go on, the last climb’s not so bad.”

“We’ve got one last thing to do,” Andi
said. “Thanks, by the way.” Grasping Deneb’s hand, she led him across the
cavern to the interrogation cells. There were many dead Hoshaens lying on the
floor, overcome by the angry, freed Ruvalians. Andi tried not to look at them,
feeling responsible for their deaths.

The corridor was quiet. “I wonder if they’ve
found Lydia,” Deneb said, walking down the row of cells. The doors were all
ajar, the catches released when Andi closed down the generator. He opened the
one that was next to the cell that Andi had been in, and went inside.

Andi followed him. For a moment she
couldn’t see Lydia and she sighed in relief at the thought that the Keeper of
the Golden Star had escaped. But Deneb crossed the room with a curse, and it
was then that she saw the small form huddled against the wall on the other
side. Deneb bent down to her.

“Is she alive?” Andi asked, hurrying over.

“Yes, but I don’t know for how much
longer.”

At his words, Lydia raised her head. “Deneb?”
She looked over at Andi. Her face was very pale and covered with sweat. Her
arms were wrapped around her body and she seemed in pain. “Where’s Clios?”

Andi bit her lip. “She’s following later.”

Lydia nodded, but the tear that ran down
her face showed that she guessed the meaning behind Andi’s words.

Andi took her hand. “Look, there isn’t much
time. Did you hear the announcement? We’ve shut down the generator and the
mine’s flooding. We’ve got to climb the last shaft to the surface. Can you make
it?”

Lydia shook her head, tears spilling out
onto her cheeks. “I can’t do it. I… I haven’t got long.”

Deneb looked at her for a moment. Finally
he pushed himself to his feet, bent and picked her up in his arms. “Then I’ll
have to carry you.”

He walked past Andi out along the corridor.
She ran after him, following him across to the final elevator shaft. “How are
you going to climb if you’re carrying her?”

“She’ll have to put her arms around my
neck. You’ll have to rope her to my waist.”

“Dad, you’ve just climbed all the way up
from the bottom level. You’ll never make it.”

“I said I’d get her out of here, and I will
make it, Andi. You let me worry about that.” He lowered Lydia’s legs to the
floor. “Up on my back now.” He and Andi lifted her up until her arms clung
around his neck. Andi searched around, eventually finding some rope on the
floor by the wagons. She tied it around Deneb’s waist and Lydia’s legs. The
sick woman laid her cheek against his shoulder and closed her eyes. Her face
was pinched and she seemed somehow smaller. Andi sensed that the girl had been
right—she didn’t have long to live.

She walked around to face Deneb. “Will that
do?”

“It’ll have to.” Deneb stared behind Andi. She
turned to follow his gaze. Ruvalians were running across the cavern floor
towards them. Behind them a dark mass spread slowly out of the elevator shaft
through which they had just climbed.

“Is that water?”

“Looks like it.” Deneb swung himself inside
the passage.

“How did it rise so quickly?” Andi stared
at the water, which looked like thick black tar, creeping towards her.

“The pressure controlling it must have been
enormous.” He bent down and beckoned to her. “It’s trying to regain its natural
level. Come on. It’s time to go!”

Sighing, Andi climbed in behind him. This
shaft had a few lights on the walls, which made it easier to see. She began to
put one foot above the other, pulling herself up with her arms. After her came
the final Ruvalians, eager to climb to the surface.

She knew that this tunnel was shorter, but
somehow the climb seemed to take longer. Deneb above her was slow, too, made
heavy by the weight of Lydia on his back. He climbed rhythmically, though, his
feet sure on the rungs, and Andi felt a swell of pride at his strength.

After about ten minutes or so, however,
there was a yell from further down the elevator shaft. “What’s happened?” she
called down. Even as she spoke, there was a crack, and the few lights that had
adorned the shaft blinked out. Everyone exclaimed in fright.

“Keep climbing,” someone yelled from below.
“The water level’s rising really, really quickly.”

Deneb flicked on the torch he had attached
to his coveralls. In the meager light, everyone continued to climb hurriedly. Andi
could hear her father’s breathing, heavy in the heat of the chamber. Her arms
and legs were burning again, and she knew she couldn’t go on for much longer. It
can’t be much further, she tried to console herself. From below, she heard a
yell and hurried conversation from the Ruvalians, and she knew that the water
level had reached them. Surely she wasn’t going to die in this prison, deep in
a planet on the other side of the Galaxy from Earth. Even though they were
exiled from their home planet, Andi had always entertained a fantasy that she
would return there some day. She would like to be buried there, she thought, in
some green field under an oak tree. She didn’t want her final resting place to
be the deep, dark waters of the Black Hole.

Just when she thought she couldn’t go a
step further, however, Deneb gave a shout of relief and she saw his legs
disappear above the elevator shaft. Then she was there, and a strong pair of
green hands helped her off the ladder and onto the floor of the hall.

Andi lay there, gasping. Eventually,
however, she managed to push herself up on one elbow. She was back in the hall
where she and Clios had first been taken the day they had been captured. On
either side she could see through the glass windows to the outside world. It
was still dark because it was nighttime, but she could see the twinkle of stars
in the sky, and in the distance the solemn shine of Thoume’s twin moons.

Andi rolled over to look at her father. Deneb
lay on his side, looking at her, and he gave her a weak smile as he saw her
glance over. Behind him, still tied to his waist, lay Lydia, her arms around
his neck. Andi crawled over to them, groaning as her muscles complained, and
loosened the rope around Deneb’s waist. Lydia rolled over, curling up into a
ball.

“The water level?” Deneb asked, gesturing
to the shaft.

Andi looked over. “It’s slowing down. I
don’t think it will reach the top here.” She looked up as a Ruvalian came over
to check that they were all right. “Did everyone make it out?” she asked. She
looked around the hall, at the hundreds of green faces.

The Ruvalian’s eyes were wide and clear. “Not
all. But a good percentage.” He frowned suddenly, cocking his head at her. Then
his eyes widened. “Your voice. It was you on the loudspeaker.” He knelt before
her. “Was it you who shut down the generator?”

“Yes.” Andi’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m
sorry so many of your people died. Perhaps I shouldn’t have done it…”

He grasped her shoulders fiercely. “Everyone
here is glad that you did. And I suspect that those who have died down there
are glad that the torture is over. It was a terrible, terrible place. I am
Larnx, by the way.” He looked across at the Ruvalian girl lying on her side. “Lydia?”
His eyes widened and he looked at Andi for confirmation.

Andi nodded. “It is her.”

Larnx rushed over to her. He looked at
Deneb, who was just sitting up, rubbing his arms. The Ruvalian put a hand onto
his arm. “My deepest thanks, and the thanks of all our people.”

“You are welcome.” Deneb looked down at
her. “She is ill, though. I think she needs a doctor.”

Larnx bent and picked her up easily. “I
will take her to one of our healers. We are treating the wounded over here.” He
began to walk away. Then, suddenly, he stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Do
you want to come?” he said.

Andi and Deneb struggled to their feet and,
wobbly with fatigue, followed Larnx across the large hall to a set of rooms on
the opposite side. They had obviously been used for administration purposes,
but the Hoshaens who had been there had fled when the Ruvalians started exiting
the mines in large numbers.

Larnx spoke hurriedly with a group of
Ruvalians outside the rooms and a commotion broke out as everyone realized just
who he held in his arms. He was ushered through the crowd and into a room,
where Lydia was laid on a table, Ruvalians clustering around her.

Deneb made to follow, but, with an apology,
one of the Ruvalians closed the door in his face.

Together, he and Andi sat on the floor
opposite the door. They shared a flask of water, sighing exhaustedly as their
muscles ached. Deneb looked at the flask ruefully. “I’d do anything for a
double of Lagavulin in this right now.”

Andi smiled wanly. “Do you think she’ll
live?” she asked, letting her head fall back onto the wall.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with her. I
think maybe one of the guards kicked her in the stomach or something. Perhaps
one of her internal organs was damaged. I don’t know whether their Indigo
Quartz can fix that.”

The mention of the crystal made Andi think
of Clios. She reached inside her top and pulled out the chain with the pendant
hanging on it. Deneb looked down, surprised to see the glowing purple stone. “Where
did you get that?”

“Clios gave it to me when she realized that
Sphere was going to split us up.”

“Why did she do that?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps she had a glimpse of
her own future. Maybe she knew what the crystal would do for me.”

“What do you mean?”

Andi held it in her hand. It was cool now,
but she could still remember the way it had burned in her palm. “I’ll tell you
later.”

Deneb sighed. He stood up, walking over to
the door.

“Can you hear anything?”

“Just muffled moans.” He banged his fist on
the wall in frustration. “God, don’t they realize how important it is that she
lives?”

Andi thought that they probably did, but
she knew the question was rhetorical. “What do you think they’re doing in
there?”

“Trying to heal her, I suppose.” He stared
at the door. “Wait. What if I go in and ask her to tell me where the Golden
Star is? We can go and find it then before… Well, while they’re healing her.”

Excited by the idea, he banged on the door.
There was a muffled shout from inside, but it remained firmly shut. “Come on,”
he yelled, “let me in for a minute.”

Inside the room, there was a sudden scream.
Deneb stared at Andi, eyes wide. “She’s dying in there. She’s dying and the
knowledge of the Golden Star’s hiding place will die with her.” Putting his
shoulder to the door, he stepped back and then rammed it hard.