[Black Fleet Crisis(45)

But with the cessation of hostilities, the four oldest fleet haulers had been recalled-at the request of the Intelligence Section-from the combat groups they usually served. Equipped with dozens of specialized droids and with Intelligence officers supplementing the usual crew, the junkers were reborn as scavengers.

Their mission orders took them to the coordinates of major battles between the Empire and its enemies, where they searched through the wreckage for objects or information of potential value.

“Do you think we’re the first ones here this time? ” asked Captain Oolas.

Norda Proi studied the spectroscopic analysis of the objects being tracked. “Just possibly so, Captain. I don’t want to get my hopes up, though. We’ll know pretty quickly when we board the wreck if the mice have been here before us. “

Operation Flotsam had been launched when military artifacts, Rebel and Imperial, began showing up on the private collectors’ market. When further investigation showed that the artifacts had not been stolen but had been salvaged from battle zones by smugglers and other entrepreneurs, the Senate acted with unusual speed and unanimity.

The Historic Battle Site Protection Act established more than two dozen restricted areas and claimed ownership of all combat debris everywhere in the name of the Alliance War Museum. But security, not history, was the prime concern. Many observers credited the explosion of a thermal detonator in a wealthy residential zone on Givin and a Rudrig crime ring’s use of an Imperial interrogator droid on a kidnap victim with putting the fear into the Senate.

But a declaration of ownership by Coruscant only made the traffic in artifacts illegal-it didn’t end it. That took gunship patrols through the restricted areas, the arrest of the notorious Huttese smuggler Uta, and the seizure of weapons and other exotic collectibles from the upper-class customers of a well-known Imperial City art dealer. Even at that, the arrival ofSteadfast had twice sent would-be poachers running, and the debris fields it had surveyed so far had all seemed picked over.

“I have a positive identification on the wreck, Lieutenant, ” a junior Intelligence officer called out. “It’s the I-class Star DestroyerGnisnal , our registry number SD-489. Reported destroyed by internal explosions during the Imperial evacuation of Narth and Ihopek. The report is from Alliance sources. “

“All right, ” said Norda Proi, nodding. “Let’s move in. “

First aboard the wreck were half a dozen scanning and monitoring droids, which jetted across to it on their own power while theSteadfast held station a safe distance away.

Working in pairs, so that anything that happened to one would be documented by the other, the droids fanned out according to a search plan tailored to that class of vessel. The priorities were live weapons, known booby traps, and other possible hazards to the living, breathing search teams that were ready to follow.

The threats were not merely theoretical. The junkerSeloniahad been badly damaged when a poacher’s bomb disguised as a datapad went off in its hold. A year earlier, the ironically named surveyorForesighthad been destroyed by autofiring laser cannon when search teams tripped an alarm inside an abandoned Imperial cruiser.

But one rule of thumb had never failed the scavengers—if the droids found bodies aboard, there would be no bombs. Imperial guile did not extend to using the bodies of their own as bait for their enemies, and poachers-out of superstition or respect-always cleared the corridors and compartments of corpses.

Still, Norda Proi found that it made him uncomfortable to be gladdened by the sight of bodies aboard theGnisnal .

“Did you hear about the fellow Republic Security arrested on Derra Four last month? ” Proi asked, studying the images being relayed toSteadfast by SM-6. “He had eleven Imperial corpses in cryotanks in a hangar, all of them in full armor or deck uniform. Crazy. “

“I heard, ” said Captain Oolas. “Crazy and sad. Apparently he was keeping them until his son was old enough to be told what happened to his mother during the occupation. Seems he planned to hand his son whatever weapon he wanted and let him take his revenge. “

“I’m glad I had a normal father, ” Proi said, switching the display to the signal from SM-1.

Captain Oolas sat back and folded his hands on his lap. “I’m glad my homeworld was never occupied by the Empire. “

At that moment, SM-1 bumped against a floating body, sending it slowly cartwheeling away. But for just a moment, the face of a dead Imperial petty officer-burned by fire or explosion and blistered by decompression-seemed to hover in front of the droid’s optical scanner.

“You know, Lieutenant, ” said Oolas, “even a just war doesn’t look quite sogloriously heroic to those of us who have to pick up afterward. “