[Black Fleet Crisis(77)

“General, I strongly suggest you drop the limpet and get your people out of there, ” Pakkpekatt said forcefully.

“No! ” said Lando. “I want to know what’s happening on the rest of the hull, the part we can’t see. Where do the lights go? Is there a beginning, an end? Lobot, where are those other video feeds? “

“I am monitoring, ” said Lobot. “The light streams originate at a point aft of our position and diverge into two streams which wind forward along the hull, following the surface contours. Both streams end at separate points on the far side of the ship. “

“Threepio, can you make anything out of this? We’ve got two streams again. Is this another duet? “

“I do not recognize this as any form of language known to me, Master Lando. But perhaps it is not linguistic, but symbolic communication. “

“What are you talking about? “

“Sir, perhaps they are pointers, not streams. “

“Pointers-so which one do we follow? “

“Master Lando, might I suggest that you follow them both, back to the point of divergence? “

“That’s backwards! “

“Sir, the conventions of symbolic communication are not universal. You have been conditioned by the customs of your culture to extrapolate in the direction of movement, rather than to look for the source. “

“Threepio’s right, ” said Lobot. “You can follow a stream to its origin or its destination. Perhaps we’ve taken so long since we first signaled them that they’ve decided we missed the portal, or don’t know how to find it. “

Lando raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Backwards it is, ” he said, and reached for the thruster controls.

Watching the streaming lights flicker by and disappear in the direction of the bow, Lando could not help feeling they were going the wrong way.

But when they reached the spot from which the light seemed to appear, a dark hole irised open there, and the streaming lights vanished.

“They’re inviting us inside, ” said Lobot.

“Well, I’ll be the last pup of an ion storm-” Lando breathed in delighted wonder. “So they are, Lobot. So they are. What kind of atmosphere did the survey ship record on Qella? “

“Nitrogen seventy-five percent, carbon dioxide thirteen percent, oxygen nine percent, water vapor one percent, argon one percent, traces helium, neon-“

“That’s enough,

” Lando

said, puttingLady

Luck on

automatic station-keeping. “The droids won’t mind, but it’s a bit thick for my lungs. It’s suits for us, pal. Let’s go get prepped. “

The yacht’s outer airlock and the opening in the vagabond’s hull were mismatched in both shape and size. The solution was an old invention, elegant in its simplicity, which Lando had made standard equipment on all his vessels-an extensible cofferdam.

Flexible yet vapor-tight,

the cofferdam could telescope out from the hull ofLady Luck and attach itself to the other ship, forming an enclosed tunnel between the airlocks.

Lando locked the helmet of his suit in place with a twist and looked across the compartment at Lobot.

“Everything all right? ” he called, more loudly than necessary. He’d spent as little time as possible in spacesuits and still had the neophyte’s reflex of trying to shout through the faceplate.

“Everything is fine, ” said Lobot. “I have nominal pressure and temperature, and there is minimal interference. “

“All right, then. Extending the cofferdam. “

Lando pressed the switch, engaging a specialized autopilot which not only controlled the movement of the tunnel of rings, but took over thruster control forLady Luck as well. The autopilot reported its progress in relentless detail, which Lando ignored until just before contact.

“Beginning cofferdam attach sequence. Attempting magnetic lock, ” the autopilot announced.

“Testing. Magnetic lock failed. Attempting negative pressure lock.

Testing. Pressure lock failed. Attempting Chemical Lock One.

Testing. Chemical Lock One failed-“

“What’s that hull made of? ” Lando demanded.

“We may have to free-fly over there, ” said Lobot.

“You sound almost hopeful. “

“I’ve learned that it’s something many people try on their vacations. “

“-Attempting Chemical Lock Three. Testing. Chemical Lock Three failed. Attempting Mechanical Lock One. Testing. Mechanical Lock One holding. “

Mechanical Lock One consisted of thousands of tiny composite barbs attached to monomolecular threads. The barbs were driven into the hull like so many anchors, and then the slack was taken up, pulling the cofferdam’s ring seal snug against the surface.