The indicated door led into a room about ten meters long and four wide, with a pair of tables equipped with bench seats arranged down the center. Along the right-hand wall stood various music and vid stations; along the opposite side was a waist-high counter with a gleaming SE-5 service droid waiting behind it.
“Good day, fine sir,” the droid said brightly as Luke stepped into the room. “May I be of assistance?”
“You got any tomospiced karkan ribenes?” Luke asked, glancing around. There were no exits that he could see that might lead from this room into the rest of the complex. Not surprising, really, considering the sort of visitors the snack area catered to.
“Yes, fine sir, I most certainly do,” the droid assured him, shuffling over a few steps and producing a package from beneath the counter. “It will take only a few moments to prepare them.”
Luke grunted. “Fine.”
It took just under four minutes, in fact, for the droid to heat the slab of ribenes and arrange them artistically on a plate. Luke spent the time wandering around the room, ostensibly looking at the vid stations, actually hunting for hidden spy cams.
He’d spotted three of them by the time his meal was ready. Even in a completely isolated room, the Cavrilhu Pirates weren’t taking any chances.
“May I provide you something to drink?” the droid asked as he presented Luke with the plate.
“Don’t bother,” Luke said. “I’ve got better stuff on my ship.”
“Ah,” the droid said. “Will you need a set of utensils?”
Luke gave him a scornful look. With spiced ribenes? You must be kidding.”
“Oh,” the droid murmured, looking a little nonplused. “Well… do enjoy, fine sir.”
Luke turned away, suppressing the out-of-character reflex to thank the droid. Tearing one of the ribenes off the end of the slab, he munched on it as he headed back out into the landing bay.
The pirates hadn’t been idle in his absence. They’d gotten the Y60’s wide cargo ramp lowered and were beginning to bring the big transport boxes out on repulsorlift floater carts. “I hope you’re watching the corners with those things,” Luke warned one of them, jabbing toward the floater cart with his ribene. “I don’t want my restraint rings getting all chewed up.”
“Tuck your teeth in,” the other growled, flipping his head to toss a short braid back over one shoulder. “Nothing’s gonna get chewed up. Cept maybe your skin if you give us any static.”
“Yeah-you and who else?” Luke fired back, heading past him up the ramp. “You don’t mind if I check for myself.”
“Just don’t get in the way.”
There were two other pirates in the cargo hold, one just settling his box into place on his floater cart, the other already starting for the ramp with his load. Luke crossed to the side bulkhead, stretching out with the Force as he pretended to examine the restraint rings for damage. In the near distance, somewhere down one of the asteroid’s corridors, he could sense two more of the pirates returning for their next load. He estimated the timing yes. He should just be able to make it.
The last of the two pirates was almost to the ramp now. Grunting with apparent satisfaction as to the safety of his equipment, Luke changed direction, crossing the hold toward the access door leading into the freighter’s living section. The pirate maneuvered his cart down the ramp and turned around the side of the ship.
And for perhaps the next ten seconds, Luke was alone.
There was no time to waste, but he and Artoo had had plenty of time to practice on the flight here and had gotten the drill down to a science. Whistling softly, Luke stepped to the box the two of them had prepared, at the same time getting a Force grip on his ribene plate and sending it flying smoothly across the hold. Artoo had heard the whistled signal, opening the access door as the meal neared it. Luke took another moment to ease the plate as far into the living section as he could see, then set it down on the deck and pulled open the side panel on the box beside him.
Inside, well packaged against random bumps, was Wesselman’s fancy SB-20 security breach droid. It wasn’t going to do the pirates any good now, not with most of its insides cut away, but the shell that was left would make an ideal hiding place for a quiet infiltration of their base. Curling himself up, Luke squeezed into the narrow space and pulled the box’s side panel closed again.
Just in time. Beneath him, the deck vibrated slightly as the returning pirates climbed up the ramp. Luke stretched out with the Force, sensing as he did so their sudden suspicion. He ran through his sensory enhancement techniques&mdash “Control, this is “Grinner,” a murmured voice came to Luke’s ears, as clear as if the pirate had been standing right beside him. “You see our smuggler anywhere?”