Part 3 (1/2)
Destroyer Sartoris led the others up the stairs from the admin level to the barge's pilot station, walking across it up to the docking shaft. It was a cylinder that made his throat feel tight, particularly now that he was surrounded with nine men-Austin, Vesek, Armitage, along with four mechanical engineers and a pair of stormtroopers who'd swaggered in at the last second like they owned the place.
Kloth had sent the troopers along as an afterthought, ordering them to join the boarding party just before they'd started up. Sartoris wondered what had changed the warden's mind. If there was something aboard the Destroyer that they needed to worry about, two stormtroopers weren't going to help the situation much.
But there is nothing to worry about up there, Sartoris told himself, dropping the thought like a pebble into the deep well of his subconscious and waiting to hear some sort of telltale plink of response. The silence that came back wasn't particularly rea.s.suring.
The tube lift carried them steadily upward, and Sartoris watched the faint green lights strafe the faces of the other men, seeking any echo of his own apprehensions. But their expressions were pictures of bland neutrality, obedience as a rarefied psychological state. Sartoris supposed he ought to be thankful for guards that just followed orders as opposed to questioning them. He'd worked with both types in the past and had unfailingly preferred the company of the former-at least, strangely, until now, when some part of him could have appreciated a little back-and-forth about the nature of their destination.
It was Austin, predictably, who ultimately broke the silence. ”What do you think happened up there, Cap, that there's only ten life-forms still on board?”
”Warden says zero contamination,” Vesek said. ”So it's gotta be a malfunction on our end.”
”So how come they never acknowledged?”
”Maybe our communications suite got scrambled along with our bioscanners.”
”Negative.” One of the engineers, Greeley, shook his head. ”Communications are five-by. Ditto the scanners. It all checks out.” He flicked his eyes upward. ”It's just a ghost s.h.i.+p, that's all.”
Austin gave him a look. ”What?”
”A derelict, you know-s.h.i.+ps get scuttled, abandoned by the fleet, left behind. Empire doesn't like to talk about 'em, but they're out there.”
”So where's the crew?”
”Evacuated,” Greeley said. ”Or . . .” He moistened his lips and tried to shrug it off. ”Who knows?”
”Great.” Vesek sighed. ”A Destroyer that can't fly on its own and we're going aboard to scavenge parts. This one's got Kloth's name written all over it.” He rolled his eyes at Sartoris. ”Is there a greater plan at work here, Captain, or we just winging this one?”
”When we get up there,” Sartoris said, ”I want two groups of five. Vesek, that means you, me, and Austin will go with Greeley...” He pointed at one of the engineers, and the second man standing next to him. ” -and Blandings. The rest of you, Armitage, Quaterma.s.s, Phibes, stay with the troopers. We'll reconnoiter back at the docking shaft in an hour.”
”You want one of us to go with you?” one of the stormtroopers asked .
”Why would I want that?”
The trooper brandished his blaster rifle. ”Just in case.”
Sartoris was aware of Vesck and Austin looking at him, awaiting his reply. ”I think we'll be fine,” he said. ”Stay with Armitage's group and let me know what you find.”
”What exactly are we looking for?” Austin asked.
”I've uploaded a list of the parts onto each of your datalinks along with a detailed layout of the Destroyer's concourse and maintenance level. I don't have to tell you this is a big s.h.i.+p. Maintain strict comlink contact at all times. I don't want to be sending out search parties to look for my search parties. You follow?”
The platform stopped moving long enough for the hatch above them to unseal with a faint hydraulic hiss. Then it lifted the rest of the way up, into the landing bay.
At first n.o.body said a word.
Sartoris thought he'd been prepared for how big it would be, but after two solid months aboard the Purge, he was simply overwhelmed by what awaited him here. He'd never actually set foot on a Destroyer before, although he'd seen smaller Imperial wars.h.i.+ps and had a.s.sumed this would be like those, only bigger. But it wasn't. It was more like its own planet.
The docking shaft had delivered them into the durasteel cathedral of the Destroyer's cavernous main hangar, its vaulted ceilings and paneled walls soaring upward and outward in an ecstasy of forced perspective. As Sartoris stared down those long planes into some barely visible vanis.h.i.+ng point, he reminded himself that he was looking at less than a tenth of the Destroyer's actual sixteen hundred meters. He needed to keep that figure in mind if he didn't want to spend his entire rime aboard wrestling with the enormity of it.
He took in a deep breath-the cold air tasted like metal shavings and the sterile, out-of-the-box smell of long-chain polymers-and let it out. For a man with a horror of right s.p.a.ces, standing here should have been a tonic. But instead of relief he only felt some arcane new species of panic fluttering in the pit of his stomach, this time in reaction to the seemingly limitless rebate of pure s.p.a.ce. He grunted at the absurdity of it. Apparently he'd gone from claustrophobia to ballroom syndrome in one quick leap, without any time to appreciate the difference.
”Ah, Cap?”
Sartoris didn't bother looking over. ”What is it, Austin?”
”All due respect, sir, I think we're going to need more than an hour to look through all this.”
”Stick to the plan,” he said. ”We'll start with an hour and check back then. Report anything out of the ordinary.”
”Whole b.l.o.o.d.y place is out of the ordinary,” Austin muttered, and one of the engineers, Greeley, he thought, let out a gruff chuckle.
”Come on,” Sartoris said, ”let's go. We're wasting rime.”
”Hold up a second, Cap.” Vesek pointed off in the opposite direction. ”What's all that? Over there?”
Sartoris looked behind him and saw several of what looked like smaller attack and landing craft scattered across the hangar floor. ”s.p.a.cecraft,” he said. ”TIE fighters, from the look of them.”
”Yeah, but those don't all look like TIEs, chief.”
Sartoris took a closer look and saw that Vesek was right. There were TIE s.h.i.+ps there, but there were also four or five other craft mixed in- long-range freighters and transport shuttles, along with something that could've been a type of modified Corellian corvette.
”Captured enemy s.p.a.cecraft,” Sartoris said, masking his uncertainty with impatience. ”Who knows?” He snapped a glance at Greeley. ”Any of them have the parts we need?”
”Probably not.”
”Then...” He stopped.
They all saw it at the same time. Something across the bay was moving behind the TIE fighters, its shadow bulking forward, slanting across the deck toward them. Behind him he was aware of the troopers already going for their blasters.
”What's that?” Austin whispered.
”No life-forms registering in the loading bay,” Greeley said, voice trembling slightly. ”I don't...”
”Hold it.” Sartoris raised one hand without glancing back at them. ”Wait here.”
He took a step forward, wading deeper into the near silence, tilting his head to get a better look across the poorly lit hangar. His heart was beating too hard-he could feel it in his neck and wrists-and when he tried to swallow, his throat refused to cooperate. It was like trying to swallow a mouthful of sand. Only through sheer willpower was he able to avoid coughing.
Standing motionless, Sartoris narrowed his eyes at the things lurking in the shadows behind the TIE fighters. There were several of them, he realized now, stooping forward with gangling, flat-handed limbs, the familiar whine of servos accompanying their steady up-and-down gestures.
”Captain,” one of the guards murmured behind him, ”are they . . .”
Sartoris exhaled, and drew in a fresh breath. ”Binary loadlifters,” he said. ”Still going about their routines.”
Even as he said it, one of the CLL units stepped fully into view, facing them dully for a moment before pivoting and stomping back to the stack of crates rising up behind it. Moving the same stack from one side of the hangar to the other, Sartoris thought, back and forth endlessly.