[Black Fleet Crisis(78)

“Any change, Colonel? ” asked Lando.

“No change, General. “

“She doesn’t seem to have felt it, ” said Lando to his companions.

“Pressurizing the cofferdam. ” They could not hear the hissing, but the transfer pumps made the deck under their feet vibrate. “Looks like a good seal. Pressure is holding. “

“Good luck, General, ” said Pakkpekatt, reduced now to the role of spectator. “I envy you. “

Lando drew a deep breath and offered a jaunty grin. “I might trade places with you if I could, Colonel, ” he said. “Lobot, if you lose contact with me, take the ship out of here. Don’t come in after me. “

Lobot cocked a questioning eyebrow. “Do you really expect me to follow that order? “

“Well… ” Lando said, and the grin returned. “At least wait until I yell twice. “

“Good luck, Lando, ” Lobot said, and opened the inner airlock.

“Do be careful, Master Lando, ” Threepio called after him.

The cofferdam’s rigid rings had handholds spaced at intervals, which Lando used to pull himself along through the five-meter-long tunnel between the ships.

He paused outside the vagabond’s portal to switch on his suit and helmet spots, as the chamber beyond was still lit only by the overspill from the lamps atLady Luck’s airlock.

With his own spotlights on, Lando’s shadow no longer led the way for him. But the lights revealed little detail inside the Qella vessel-only an empty space en closed by blank walls of the same mottled color as the hull itself.

Grasping the upper rim of the opening, Lando raised his feet and floated himself through, twisting to look in all directions. He had half expected lights to come on as he entered, but that did not happen.

But the lights he wore were enough to assure him that he was alone.

“All right, I’m in, ” said Lando. “This chamber is about twice my height in every dimension-plenty of room for all four of us. No response to my presence yet. There’s no light, and there doesn’t seem to be another doorway. But then, I can’t see any mechanism for the hatch I came through, so maybe I just can’t recognize the exit. “

“Watch your assumptions, ” said a new voice-Bijo Hammax. “Just because you came out through a double-hatch airlock doesn’t mean that’s what you’ve entered. “

“Hey, Bijo! I thought you’d be sore at me for stealing your date. “

“I decided to wait and see what happened, ” said Hammax. “If she kills you, I plan to forgive you. “

“Thanks, buddy, ” said Lando, turning. “Wait, here’s something-that’s oddre” Looking back toward the outer hull, Lando thought he could see the attachment ring through the wall of the chamber, encircling the opening as a faint gray shadow. He turned off his suit lights, and the ring became more distinct.

“Why have you turned your lights off, General? “

“Can you see this? ” Lando demanded. “I don’t know why or how, but I can see the attachment ring through the bulkhead. There’s a gray ring, a shadow, exactly that size, visible on the inside. “

“Not visible on the relay. Are you saying that the hull is translucent, Lando? ” asked Lobot.

“Well-yes. Where’re the ship’s spots? Can you sweep them across the outside? “

“Coming up. “

WithLady Luck’s brilliant spotlights trained on the hull, there was no mistaking the sight-the whole bulkhead glowed faintly, and the ring darkened to a sharp-edged black shadow. When Lando brushed his gloved fingertips across the surface, he could feel that the shadow was slightly raised.

“It’s almost like a bruise, ” he said. “Like the hull is swelling where those thousands of tiny grapples have grabbed on to it. Artoo, come in here. I want you to scan and record this. “

“That could be a self-repair function at work, ” said Hammax. “Mechanical One does do some microscopic damage to the attach point. As for the translucent hull-General, you may have discovered why the ship has so few surface features. We’re not seeing the true hull, just an outer membrane, probably differentially transparent to radiation. All the sensors are concealed underneath. “

By the time Hammax finished his speculations, Artoo appeared at the portal. He chirped at Lando, then entered when Lando waved him in.

The lack of handholds in the chamber was not the problem for the droid that it was for the general. Thanks to the array of small gas thrusters built into all astromech droids, Artoo’s motions were far more controlled than Lando’s-who found he kept drifting into one bulkhead or another, slowly twisting from side to side and turning end over end.