Chapter 2        Rordak

One Week Later....

The mornings seemed to get earlier and earlier. Already the loads and mining work seemed to get heavier and heavier. Andromeda was accustomed to an early morning, but was not accustomed to the labor. She was used to the rigors of flying. She was missing it terribly.

She was bunked with other female prisoners who were rather hard characters. She found that she was the youngest amongst them and tried to keep to herself at first, but being the newbie, it didn’t happen that way.

The first night she was there she was given her cell assignment and housed with the other female prisoners. There were four other women in the same cell, all looking tough and mean. Andromeda was just plain tired and wanted to lie down and wallow in her self-pity. She found a top bunk that wasn’t being occupied and settled into it. No sooner than she had done so was someone yanking her out of it.

"Hey!" she found herself sprawled on the floor looking right at someone’s boots.

"That ain’t your bunk!" a hand yanked her to her feet next. She found herself facing an older woman, hardened and buffed up from working in the mines. She was just a little taller than Andromeda and was doing her best to look intimidating, but Andromeda had stood firm, not the least bit impressed. She gave a little annoyed sigh, crossed her arms and stared right back at her as if to say "You really don’t want to mess with me right now." This chick didn’t scare her one bit.

"And what if I want to make it my bunk?" Andromeda said boldly with an air of "How dare you!" as three other women had her surrounded in an instant, gasping in surprise and looking at the taller one for a reaction. She could see that these women were also older than she but shorter in stature. It was clear that the one who was trying to stare her down was the ringleader. No one spoke for what seemed like a long moment and the ringleader seemed a little surprised.

"Because it’s my bunk! The "Top Dog" gets the top bunk, see? And I’m the top dog around here. Seeing that you’re new, I’ll cut you a little break and only give you a little pounding, since you really don’t know any better," she glowered. "You haven’t earned yourself a bunk. You get the floor ‘cause that’s what you’re gonna hit when I get done with ya." She slammed her fist into her palm. The others moved to be out of the way in the confined space.

Andromeda took up a defensive stance with a smile of anticipation. "So you’re the Top Dog. Tell you what. I’ll make you a deal. Whoever hits the ground first gets the floor and whoever’s still standing gets the bunk."

"Pretty bold for a little girl! You honestly think you can take me?" she cracked her knuckles for emphasis. Andromeda suppressed a snicker and smiled broader, seeming to agitate the woman further.

"Better do something about it before I just take your bunk and your forfeiture. I would very much like to rest," Andromeda made a gesture to the empty bunk

"C’mon, Bats! Just kick her butt and get it over with! I’m tired!" one piped up.

"Shut up!" Bats snapped at her. "Let’s get to it!" Bats made a swing for Andromeda’s head but she ducked out of the way and landed a blow to Bats’ gut, winding her slightly. Bats seemed to have a look of surprise on her face that quickly gave way to a scowl as she tried swinging for Andromeda’s head again. Andromeda gracefully ducked and landed a punch to Bats’ ribs. Bats howled and swung for Andromeda’s gut but it was neatly blocked and it earned her a right hook on the chin from Andromeda’s fist.

The other women were trying to cheer Bats on and egg Andromeda. Bats got a lucky shot to Andromeda’s arm that sent her stumbling back a step or two, but Andromeda didn’t really feel like playing and ended the whole scuffle as quickly as it had begun. She struck out with a roundhouse, sweeping Bats’ feet out from under her, causing her to land flat on her back. Andromeda had pounced on her with a swift uppercut to the jaw.

"You hit the ground first. Looks like you get the floor," Andromeda tried to climb back into the bunk.

"Just what makes you think that you’re the Top Dog?" one of the other women piped up boldly and blocked her way.

"I was, I am and always will be the Top Dog," Andromeda replied in a voice that didn’t invite debate. In fact, she gave the woman a look as if to say "You want to make something of it?"

"That was just a lucky fluke of beating Bats," she snapped back. "Bet you couldn’t do it again!"

"I’ll bet Bats here couldn’t kick Bubba’s butt!" Andromeda snapped, indicating that the subject was now closed.

"And you did," the woman scoffed. Andromeda nodded with the most serious look upon her face. It was clear that she wasn’t kidding. The woman didn’t say another word as she moved out of the way and let Andromeda get into the bunk.

"So you’re the one! You really did take Bubba down!" another woman said in awe.

"Just what’s your name, anyway?" Bats asked from her position on the floor when she finally had her breath back.

"It’s Andromeda and I’ll thank you to remember it!" She rolled over and didn’t say another word.

Although they pretty much kept to themselves and barely talked at all after that incident, Andromeda was well aware of the whispers and the finger pointing.

"Heard tell that she’s in for treason. I’ve heard that she was this hotshot pilot up and coming in the navy, but she blew it. The Alliance corrupted her young mind."

"She’s a soldier of some sort, that’s for sure. She’s young, fit and even has the discipline of a soldier. Notice her manner and stance. Only a soldier would stand so straight without even thinking about it."

"I heard that she’s into that espionage-thing. Maybe she’s a spy sent in here to spy on us all and then report back to the Empire."

"Nah. Couldn’t be treason or espionage. They don’t send those criminals here. They send that kind to maximum security."

"Or maybe she’s here to be broken first with the heavy labor. They do that sometimes. Once they break her then they’ll ship her off again."

"It’ll be a long time then. She doesn’t look like she’ll break anytime soon."

"I always see her hanging out with Tolian. Rumor has it that he’s her uncle, or something like that."

"She’s only been here a whole week and she’s already got one hell of a reputation. I heard tell that she kicked Bubba’s butt and that’s what got him shipped out of here."

"Good for her. That got Bubba off our backs, didn’t it?"

"Sure. I think they were glad to see Bubba go. All they needed was an excuse. But you can bet that if she was able to kick Bubba’s butt, she can take down just about anyone! Also heard tell that she loves to fight."

"Maybe her brawling is what landed her here in the first place! For as young as she is, she sure kicked your butt!"

Andromeda didn’t bother with them. Let them think whatever they want. If they get their facts screwed up, then fine!

She had made fast friends of Gorr and Edmund Blackadder, who had been let out of solitary confinement just because they were short-handed in the mines. They worked side by side and stuck together, even covering for the other if anything went wrong. Just the fact that these complete strangers had come together to form a common bond kept Andromeda going. It gave her the strength to get up every morning.

Personal histories and tragedies were on a need-to-know basis, so as Andromeda didn’t know why Tolian was there, he didn’t know why she was there. She never bothered to ask Gorr or even Edmund. She figured she had wound up on Rordak due to some oversight—a blessing of some kind, if you asked her. As long as Admiral Maricson didn’t come looking for her, her little secret was safe from Uncle Tolian.

I just couldn’t tell him, she decided. I just couldn’t. After all, it was he who had sponsored her for the academy, and had the faith that she would do him and her family proud. And now being here, it was a sign to him that she had somehow let him down. No, he mustn’t ever know.

The morning bell blared as it always did, jarring everyone out of their exhausted sleep. But as Andromeda began to go about her morning routine and workout as she did every morning before breakfast, there was an air of tension about the place. Although it seemed odd, she didn’t think too much about it as she continued on and then took her shower.

Instead of heading for the mess hall to mull about before eating, everyone was headed out to the fields. Andromeda then noticed a heightened sense of tension as she stepped onto the fields and the prisoners seemed to bunch up onto it. She couldn’t help but share in the tense feeling as she began to frantically look about for Uncle Tolian, who luckily found her first.

"What’s going on?" she asked, not daring to get her voice above a whisper.

"Visca auction. Stick close to me," was all he said as he spied Gorr and Edmund in the distance and made his way over to them as she followed closely.

"The Viscas!" the whisper spread like a wild fire. Gorr jogged Edmund’s shoulder and pointed off towards the buildings. Andromeda followed Gorr’s finger to see a rather large group of aliens that she had never seen before. They were brown and short with wrinkly, leathery skin and huge eyes. Their mouths seemed big and they were all hunched over. They had wiry looking limbs and they wrung their little hands together in a kind of excitement. All Andromeda knew was that they looked very ugly to her, and she could only guess that these were the Viscas.

The Warden spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. "The Viscas have come for ten new slaves! Are there any volunteers?" The tension was so thick you could have cut it with a knife as the Viscas began to walk amongst the prisoners.

"They’re here for payment," a stranger spoke. "They let the Imperials use their planet for this colony and for payment the Viscas get slaves. But from what I hear, Viscas take prisoners because they have a taste for our blood." Andromeda looked up to see who spoke and was surprised to see that it was the technician she had seen the week before during her encounter with Bubba.

"And why haven’t you been taken away?" she asked.

"I’m too thin. I don’t look strong enough to them, I guess," he replied.

Andromeda looked him over. "I remember you. You watched the fight between Bubba and I. Who are you?"

"I’m Zaron Stargazer," he replied. "I’m on the maintenance detail around here. You’re Andromeda, aren’t you?"

"You’ve heard." She didn’t say it accusingly.

"Yeah. Who hasn’t? You kicked Bubba’s butt."

"Hush! You want the Viscas to hear?" Gorr hissed at him. They all seemed to tense up again as a Visca passed slowly by them, seeming to pause at Gorr, who was clearly nervous, inspecting him and looking him up and down. Another Visca came and joined him. Andromeda’s nose was suddenly filled with a terrible stench of rotting flesh as they began to speak.

"This one is big and strong," the first one said to his partner. "Just what blood type are you?" Gorr’s eyes went big and he remained speechless.

"New faces. Fresh meat! —er—slaves! And just how long have you been here?" the other one pointed a long, skinny finger at Edmund, who remained quiet as well.

"He’s only been here for about a week," an extremely nervous inmate squeaked from behind him as if to say, "Take him, not me!"

"That one will do," the second Visca pushed Edmund out of the way to get to the poor unfortunate who spoke up and yanked him away, screaming and kicking. The other had still paused looking Tolian over and barely gave Andromeda a glance, who seemed to be almost hiding behind him. The Visca sniffed and walked on, following the others out who had apparently gathered their new "crop" and were making a hasty exit. As soon as the last one was out of sight, the air of tension seemed to lift.

"As usual, this has taken up your breakfast time, so you are to report directly to the mines instead. That will be all," the Warden announced. Moans and groans mixed with great sighs of relief chorused as they all shuffled off to the mines. Andromeda’s heart was still pounding.

The day was going along as it always had, working under a sunless sky. One advantage was that the weather stayed at a constant temperature, and you could work the hottest part of the day and not get heat stroke.

Andromeda wasn’t saying a word as she helped to clear away rock for the new tunnel they were excavating. Tolian, Gorr and Edmund were working with the excavating tools. Suddenly, Edmund stopped working and was examining the hole he had just made. It looked as if he had broken through a wall and there was some kind of space beyond it.

Tolian noticed and wordlessly waved Edmund aside and with the laser, chiseled away at the hole until it was large enough to see through. Subconsciously, Andromeda had stopped working and so had Gorr, just to watch and see what was there. Unfortunately for them, the guards had noticed that they had stopped.

"You there! Why have you stopped working? What have you found?" he signaled over for three other guards to follow him over. "Back away from there!" Guns were drawn and they didn’t have much choice but to back away. One made a muffled report into a comlink about breaking into a natural cavern. After getting the muffled response, he turned to the working prisoners.

"Everyone back out. You all have the rest of the day off until a decision is made about this cavern," he announced. Everyone seemed to be more relieved if anything to have quit work for the day. It was actually a welcomed rest.

"What will happen now?" Edmund wanted to know.

"They’ll open it up and they’ll assemble a team to go and explore it. They’ll ask for volunteers and then with several armed guards, will go and explore the new cavern to see if it is mine-worthy. What’s dangerous about being on the exploration team is the dangers of the unexplored caverns. You never know if there will be a cave-in or a sudden drop or anything. That’s why they take prisoners along. We’re expendable," Gorr grunted. "It’s not exactly something you jump at the chance to do."

"Why not?" Andromeda demanded. "What if we can get out that way? I’d be jumping at it just to see if we can find a way out!"

"Remember the Viscas. What if when exploring the cavern you came upon a whole nest of them? You’d be a goner for sure!" Gorr visibly shuddered, remembering the near incident earlier.

"They don’t scare me!" Andromeda said boldly. "I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting on that exploration team!"

"Of course not. Nothing scares you," Gorr muttered sarcastically.

"Worry about it tomorrow. Let’s worry about dinner," Tolian soothed and put a hand on Andromeda’s shoulder to quiet her. "Aren’t either of you hungry?"

"I’d suppose," Edmund began almost reluctantly and turned to go. "You can bet that our little discovery will be the top topic at the dinner table tonight!" Andromeda and Gorr smiled and nodded in agreement as they turned to follow Edmund. Tolian shrugged and followed after them. Actually, dinner wasn’t sounding so bad.

But the cavern discovery was not what everyone was talking about. In fact, there seemed to be an entirely new and different rumor flying throughout the hall. Tolian had just sat down at the table when a prisoner was running by. Andromeda caught the running man’s sleeve and stopped him short.

"What’s going on?"

"What, haven’t you heard?" he was nearly breathless, he was so excited. It almost seemed as if he didn’t know whether to be excited, stunned or just flat-out confused.

"Heard what?" Tolian demanded.

"A huge thing the Imperials built called the Death Star. It just blew up Alderaan! Alderaan has been completely destroyed! It doesn’t even exist anymore!"

"What?!?" Andromeda yelped and let go of his sleeve. Tolian’s hand instantly flew to her shoulder again as if to calm her—but it was purely a reflex. He was silent though.

"I didn’t believe it myself at first," the man said excitedly. "But it’s true! The Empire has a weapon capable of taking out an entire planet!"

Andromeda’s spoon fell with a clatter into her dish and her hand went over her mouth and silent tears had sprung to her eyes. She barely acknowledged Edmund as his hand snaked across the table to retrieve her dinner that he and Gorr were now finishing between them. She looked over at Tolian for a reaction but he seemed to not have one.

"No. It can’t be. That’s not possible! Oh, Uncle!" she breathed as the silent tears began to slowly fall down her dirt-smudged face.

"Let’s hope not," Tolian said quietly. "Now there’s a real reason to get onto that exploration team tomorrow. Andromeda, we don’t know that it’s true. How could it be? But you need to be strong here. We’re looking to get out of here. We’ve got to see for ourselves." Andromeda silently pulled herself together and nodded. She mustn’t think about the terrifying what if…

"Uncle Tolian, you had family too, didn’t you?" she asked quietly.

"Yes. There was my daughter," he said barely above a whisper. With a new stab of pain, she realized that her entire family was there—brother, father and mother.

"My parents—" she breathed and suddenly felt it get caught in her throat. She was suddenly not feeling well. Quietly she excused herself and quickly left the mess hall. No one followed after her and she didn’t expect it of anyone, either.

It was just before lights out when the prisoners were herded back into the field. As usual, they were surrounded and the floodlights were bright upon them. The warden announced that there was indeed a new cavern that was uncovered and that he would need ten volunteers to go and explore it. Out of the twelve hundred prisoners, twelve of them stepped forward to volunteer. Ten to go on the team, two on stand by. The two that were put on standby were none other than Andromeda and Tolian. Gorr and Edmund were among the chosen and surprisingly, so was Zaron Stargazer. Upon having their volunteers and closing themselves to further questions, the inmates were sent off to bed.

"This doesn’t go over well for us, Uncle," Andromeda clenched her teeth and set her jaw. Her hands were balled into fists and she looked as though she needed to hit something.

"We’ll be on that team once breakfast is underway, I promise. You and I are going to put two of those team members into the infirmary. Meet me at our usual spot and we’ll take care of it together," Tolian gave her a vote of confidence before they went their separate ways for the night.

That night, Andromeda slept fitfully. Nightmares kept her tossing and the mere prospect of a hopeful escape gave her a new exhilarating feeling that she hadn’t felt in a over a week. There was a glimmer of hope that Alderaan hadn’t really been destroyed that also kept her going. She almost couldn’t wait for the morning.

The morning bell couldn’t come soon enough. She hurried with the shower and skipped her morning workout altogether just to make sure that she found Tolian and he was there early as well. He discreetly handed Andromeda a dull knife, who instantly hid it in her boot top. She wordlessly followed Tolian’s lead and found two of the men who were on the team.

In the middle of the mulling crowd no one was paying much attention to anyone and barely noticed when two figures fell to the floor with stab wounds. Of course they were rushed to the infirmary and the two conspirators separated and instantly mingled into the crowd, with no one suspecting them. It was at the end of breakfast that word was sent out to Andromeda and Tolian that they were to be going on the team and that it left for the cavern right after breakfast, so that they had to report to the entrance to the mine before everyone else.

No problem. They kept their cool and did as instructed, meeting with the rest of the team at the mouth of the mine. There were ten armed guards—all who flanked the prisoners to make sure that no one doubled back and if anything bad happened, it happened to the prisoners first.

The cavern seemed enormous. It was tall, and the flashlights that were used didn’t seem to even cut all the way through the darkness. There was about a good three hours of exploring when they came upon a split in the passageway. They were ordered to stop and rest because of the quality of the air. The guards were wearing breath masks as usual.

There was no talking allowed. The armed guards never seemed to let their guard down for a moment. Gorr, Edmund, Tolian, Andromeda and Zaron stayed close to each other. When the rest period was over, the guards decided to split up, taking five down one passageway and five down the other. They decided that there would be a fifteen-minute interval between reports and they proceeded onward.

The passageway seemed to lead downward, and it also seemed to become narrower. Gorr was leading the way, followed closely by Tolian and Andromeda. Zaron followed Andromeda and Edmund brought up the rear with the guards in tow. Andromeda threw Edmund a knowing look, who gave a quick nod. Tolian purposely slowed down to let a guard or two pass him. The lead officer took out his comlink and tried to make his report but for being underground and with the mineral-rich rock the radio transmissions were incoherent. It was not until the officer had put his comlink away did they spring.

In such close quarters it only took but a moment. Gorr lashed out with lightening speed and slammed his guard hard against the wall with a sickening crunch. Andromeda and Tolian took their guards on in hand to hand and managed to knock them senseless. Zaron surprised everyone by actually wrestling away a carbine from his guard and shot him clean in the head. Edmund had also knocked his guard senseless, but he also took the carbine from the hapless guard and used it on all the others, just to insure that they wouldn’t be followed right away. They wasted no time in trading clothing and gathering up the gear.

"Come on!" Andromeda darted forward leading the way down the passageway.

"What about the bodies?" Zaron asked.

"We’ll be long gone before anyone discovers them and that we are missing! We’ve got another fifteen minutes to get out of their reach, however," she argued. No one crossed her on it and followed her.

"I just hope you know where you’re going," Zaron muttered as he ran to keep up. After about a good ten minutes of running, they paused for a breather.

"Running water. I hear it up ahead," Edmund spoke up.

"Yes, Sitting Bear. What is your point?" Andromeda quipped. He threw her a sour look and there was laughter all around despite their situation.

"Where there’s running water, there’s an outlet to somewhere," Edmund said slowly as they all followed him down to the water’s edge.

"There they are! Laughing too soon! Fire!" came a voice from behind. The guards had found them sooner than they had realized. Laser bolts were suddenly flying and filled the air around them. At the waters edge the five began to return fire and a battle ensued in the darkness.

Tolian turned off his light so he could make it more difficult for the guards to shoot at him. There were only four of them, he noted.

Andromeda wasted no time in drilling one unfortunate guard in the chest and tried to fire at another. Gorr was doing all right as was Edmund, but Zaron was not having as good of luck. He missed the guard that was closest to him and the guard was able to return fire, wounding him seriously and sending him face down into the river. Tolian fired off a shot and nailed the guard. Another guard saw where Tolian was firing from and sent a shot flying in his direction, but it hit a big boulder that was stopping most of the water from rushing in. There was suddenly a new torrent of water cascading down from the waterfall at a greater speed, carrying Zaron downstream. Edmund fired off one last successful shot before jumping into the river himself. Gorr wound up firing off a couple more shots before following suit. Andromeda and Tolian made sure that the other guards were indeed dead before jumping into the water.

Just as they did, the last boulder gave way letting an even bigger torrent come through, threatening to just flood the place. In the pitch darkness they rode the current, silently praying that it would indeed take them outside into the open.

Just when they thought they could no longer bear the freezing chill of the water, the river bore them out the side of a mountain where they were all able to drag themselves out onto a beach. By the time Andromeda and Tolian had dragged themselves onto the bank, Edmund was already hard at work on Zaron with a med-pak.

"That was close," Andromeda breathed.

"Almost too close," Gorr agreed as he helped her onto the dry land. "We’re still under the night cloak. We sure could use the sun to dry off with!"

"Let’s find some shelter. We’ll have to have some kind of vantage point if they decide to send someone after us," Tolian said wearily. "That big tree will do just fine." He indicated a mature weeping willow-type tree that was a little ways off and they all headed for its umbrella-like cover carrying the unconscious Zaron with them.

"So what are we going to do now? We can’t do anything with Zaron in this condition. I’ve got him stabilized for the time being, but he needs as least a week to heal," Edmund said as he set Zaron down.

"We don’t have a week!" Andromeda snapped as she sat down wearily and tried to wring the excess water from her long hair.

"Sure we do. With all these backpacks we’ve picked up you all have a change of uniform. We have eight medpacs and about a week’s worth of rations here. We’ve even got plenty of water!" Gorr said helpfully.

"We can’t stay here. We’ve got to find a way to get off of this planet," Tolian argued and shook his head. "If we stay out here we’re begging for trouble with the Viscas." He left the fears of the Viscas unspoken. He didn’t want to scare Andromeda.

"We’ll have to stay here tonight," Edmund said with finality. "We have to make sure that they aren’t following us. We can’t have that."

"I agree," Andromeda made herself comfortable against the trunk.

"So how are we getting off this planet?" Gorr asked the million-credit question.

"This is a penal colony. Penal colonies are put on planets that have little to no technology," Andromeda said. "The only technology is inside the compound."

"Inside? You mean—" Gorr began.

"We’ve got to sneak back in somehow and hi-jack us a shuttle craft," she replied and a strange glint seemed to appear in her eye as she said it.

"Easy for you guys. You’ve all got uniforms but what about me? Remember that there are no alien guards, not to mention that I don’t fit into any of their clothes!" Gorr began to panic.

"Take it easy! We’ll be alright. We won’t leave without you!" Andromeda soothed. "Get some sleep. We’re going to take a big hike to find the base again and we need our strength."

"She’s right. Unfortunately, you’ve all lost your breath masks so conserving your strength is important," Tolian sat down beside Andromeda who was beginning to fiddle with the equipment that was hanging off of her belt. She found the communicator and flipped it on to see if she could pick up an any transmissions concerning them, but all she got in return was static, so she turned it off again.

"We’ll have to get to the other side of this mountain. It’s not doing a thing for this communicator," she said to anyone who was listening.

"Worry about it in the morning," Tolian said drowsily. Andromeda looked over at him who was pretty much asleep already. She smiled to herself, glad and secure in the fact that he was there. She looked over at Gorr who had volunteered to take the first watch. Edmund was already passed out and beginning to snore loudly. She looked over at Zaron’s inert form and sighed. Poor guy. He was just a technician. Did he have any idea what he was getting himself into? Well, he had no choice now.

For the first time in over a week there was no bad dinner, no guards, no whispering and best of all, no early morning schedule. Despite the outside conditions and being a little damp, Andromeda didn’t care. She began to feel a peaceful feeling settle over her as she knew that there would be no rising at four thirty in the morning, no having to hurry to fit in a cold shower, no workout, no yucky-tasting slop that was called breakfast, no Visca auction, no warden, no guard barking out orders, no heavy loads, no having to avoid fights. Just the thought of sleeping in without any interruptions whatsoever made her feel so suddenly tired. Her eyelids refused to stay open a moment longer and she let herself stretch out fully along the ground beneath the tree and instantly fell asleep, her head rested in the crook of her arm, joining the others in the best, most sound sleep she had experienced in well over a week.

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