[Black Fleet Crisis] - 02(18)

“I had a friend in the yard at Atzerri who showed me scanning holos of the ships that’d come through there—microfractures in the hyperdrive cage, the inner stringers, even the keel of a Dreadnaught.

“No, even if we had all the oxygen, all the water, all the hot cafe food we could eat, all the time we could ask for, I don’t think I’d want to hang around here long enough to hear that growl too many more times. Because someday soon, no matter how well the Qella tightened the nuts, this old crate is going to turn herself into a deep-space junkyard.”

Artoo cooed worriedly.

“I wonder where Glorious is now,” said Threepio. “That I won’t think about,” said Lando, and laughed. “I don’t want to get depressed.” He released the hand line and floated free. “You rest if you want. Show me the map, Artoo. There’s still a lot of ship to explore.”

They found the coupling panel in the seventy-first hour of their imprisonment. It was pure luck that they did, since it appeared in a section they had already passed through twice and would not have returned to if a new passage they were marking had not brought them there.

Nearly two meters long and more than a meter wide, the round-cornered panel was inset flush in the “ceiling” of the passage. (Lando had established by flat that the hand lines defined the “right” face of the pas sage and all other directions derived from it.) The panel was liberally decorated with sockets and projections of various heights, depths, and diameters, with the sockets clustered symmetrically in the center third and the projections flanking it.

“Master Lando, what do you think it is?”

“Some sort of intelligence test, maybe,” Lando said, trying to peer through one of the larger-diameter sockets.

“Anyone feel up to taking it?”

“Why, it does bear some resemblance to the busy box Ambassador Nugek gave to Anakin Solo,” Threepio said. “My, how he enjoyed spinning the wheels and pushing blocks through the holes—” “Shut up, Threepio.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lobot was carrying out his own examination of the artifact.

“Twenty-four sockets, in two sizes. Eighteen projections. I can see no obvious moving parts. The metal has a high sheen and reflectivity, and no protective finish. Yet there are no scratches or scars, even in and around the sockets.”

“It looks like some sort of bus port to me,” Lando said. “Like the diag rack on the Falcon, or the maintenance cabinet on Lady Luck. Plug in here and you have access to the ship’s systems.”

“That is what you have been looking for,” said Lobot. “How likely is it that you would find it?”

“It’s the only mechanism we’ve seen in nine klicks of passageway.”

“It is the only mechanism we have been able to recognize,” said Lobot.

“But the design of this vessel apparently provides for mechanisms to be concealed until they are needed. I ask you to consider why this mechanism has appeared now.”

“You tell me.”

“Most likely because the ship will shortly need whatever function this mechanism serves—” “Which gives us a chance to slip in and take care of ourselves,” Lando said. “These couplings weren’t designed for us, but maybe we can make use of them anyway.

Energy is energy—Artoo can cope with thermal, plasma, or electrical ports. And data is data—if Artoo can read it, Threepio can interpret.”

“Lando, you have no basis for concluding that this is a system port,” Lobot pressed. “It is more likely that the function of this mechanism is related to the function of these passages.”

“Which is what?” Lando snapped. “Holding cell?

Ventilator? Rodent maze? A fungi farm? Are you saying we’re not supposed to touch this, either? Blast it all, how long are we supposed to wait before we do something?”

“You have not had more than two hours’ sleep in nearly three days,” Lobot said. “Your sense of urgency has been heightened—” “That’s right,” Lando said. “I haven’t had anything to eat in so long I’d cut a friend dead for a fracking cracker. My water supply tastes like it’s gone around half a dozen times already. Are you more machine than man?

Doesn’t any of this affect you?”

“I am as human as you are,” Lobot said. “I doubt that you could be any hungrier than I am. My water supply is as disagreeable to me as yours is to you. But I do not understand the discoveries we have made—” “Then don’t you want to learn more? I want the droids to try to interface with this port. That’s all. No blasters. No creative structural renovations,” “Please listen,” Lobot said earnestly. “I do not understand why structures as extensive as these have been inert throughout our tenure on this ship, or why we have been permitted to move about in them unimpeded. These questions trouble me. And I am concerned that the appearance of this artifact may signal the end of either or both of those conditions—” “All the more reason for us to make the first move,” Lando said. “Artoo, Threepio, come on up here.