[Black Fleet Crisis(44)

“Wherever it’s going, Colonel, it’s not in a hurry, ” Lando said easily. “Just like us, eh? Have you made a final decision on when to send in your ferret? “

“I intend to establish an observation baseline before making any approach, ” Pakkpekatt said. “Have you and your staff made any progress on the signal fragment from the Hrasskis contact? “

“Colonel, you know our hands have been tied by your blackout orders. We’ve had hardly any bandwidth available to us on the HoloNet. Lady Luck doesn’t have the kind of data capacity you have here onGlorious . We depend more heavily than you do on access to records located elsewhere. “

“I will take that as a report of ‘No progress, ‘ ” Pakkpekatt said. With a light touch on the main viewport’s controls, he increased the gain on the photo-amplifiers until the outline of the vagabond sharpened and the body of the vessel brightened enough to show the gross detail.

“Look at it, General, ” he went on. “For all we know, it may be five hundred years old, or fifty thousand. It may have been roaming space since both our species were too young to raise our eyes to the stars. Perhaps the only reason we can get this close is that the work of some ancient engineer has at long last begun to decay and fail. “

“The odds favor a shorter history, ” Lando said, surprised at the Hortek’s sentimentality. “There are many dangers in space. “

“Yes, ” said Pakkpekatt, “and to the vagabond, we are one of them. Do you know, General, that no ship like this, no plan or design, appears in any registry of any New Republic world? No shipwright we’ve found will claim it as his handiwork, though all seem to admire the craft evident in it. If the vagabond was built by any species we know, no other like it was ever made. “

“Our catalog of everything that ever was is a long way from being complete, ” said Lando. “The odds favor a less exotic history. “

“How can a gambler post the odds without knowing the game? ” scoffed Pakkpekatt. “Perhaps this ship before us is home to a species which has no other home. Perhaps it’s a new and curious visitor to this part of the universe, from places for which we have no names. Or perhaps it comes here from deep in the Core, where we have vanishingly few friends. All are possible-as are a universe of possibilities beyond our present imagining. “

“Yes, possible, ” Lando admitted. “Not likely. “

“But reason enough to be cautious, wouldn’t you agree? ” Pakkpekatt said pointedly. “Reason enough for patience, even to the point of pain. Even to the point of boredom. We will watch them for a while, General. We’ll let them watch us for a while as well. And I’ll tell you when we’re ready to do more. Can you live with that, General? “

Lando’s skin prickled to hear echoes of his private conversations in Pakkpekatt’s words. It seemed more than a coincidence, and yet he had, on many occasions, seen charlatans perform even more convincing feats of mind reading through trickery.

“For now, Colonel, ” Lando said. “I just hope whoever or whatever’s inside that thing isn’t busy making plans to destroy it to keep it out of our hands. That’s part of your universe of possibilities, too. I hope you won’t forget it. “

Pakkpekatt’s expression was unreadable. “I will ask the communications officer to allot what slack time there may be in our HoloNet queue to your staff. Perhaps that will allow you to make faster progress. “

“Thank you, Colonel, ” Lando said with courtly politeness. “That’d be a step in the right direction. “

“What a

mess,

” Lieutenant

Norda

Proi said,

studying

the high-resolution scan of space directly ahead of theSteadfast . The three-D display showed more than twelve thousand objects, from hundreds no larger than a stormtrooper’s combat boot to one that promised to be the aft third of an Imperial Star Destroyer.

“Must have been one wild party. “

Captain Oolas nodded. “We’ll be here a month, at least. Where would you like to start, Lieutenant? “

“The big piece of cake, of course, ” Proi said, pointing. “But we can launch droids on the way in, and let them start picking up the crumbs. “

For nearly a year the fleet haulerSteadfast had traced a solitary course through some of the most famous regions of what had once been Imperial space.

Known in Fleet Office slang as a junker, Steadfast had served in the Battle of Endor, in the defense of Coruscant against Admiral Thrawn, and in the pursuit of the Knight Hammer.