'Okay.' Han took a last look out the viewport and keyed the cargo hatch release. 'Go.'
Luke craned his neck to look in the direction Han had indicated. At first all he could see was the normal scattering of stars, achingly bright against the total blackness around them. And then he saw them: the softer glow of a ship's running lights. His eyes traced the empty space between them, his brain forcing a pattern to the lights; and suddenly the image coalesced. 'It's a Dreadnaught, all right.'
'There's another one just past it,' Han said. 'And three more to port and a little below.'
Luke nodded as he located them, a strange tingle running through him. The Katana fleet. Only now did he realize just how little he'd really believed in the fleet's existence. 'Which one do we check out?' he asked.
'Might as well take the closest,' Han said.
'No,' Luke said slowly, trying to focus on the vague impression tingling through him. 'No. Let's try...that one over there.' He pointed to a set of running lights a few kilometers farther away.
'Any particular reason?'
'I don't really know,' Luke had to admit. He could feel Han's eyes on him. Then the other shrugged. 'Okay,' he said. 'Sure. We'll take that one. Wedge, you getting all this?'
'Copy, transport,' Wedge's voice confirmed. 'We're shifting into escort formation around you. So far it looks clean.'
'Good,' Han said. 'Stay sharp anyway.' He keyed the transport's intercom into the circuit and glanced at his chrono. 'Lando? Where are you?'
'Just inside the cargo hatch,' the other answered. 'We've got the sled loaded and ready to go.
'Okay,' Han said. 'We're heading in.' They were approaching their target Dreadnaught now, close enough that Luke could see the faint outline of reflected starlight that marked the edge of the hull. Roughly cylindrical in shape, with a half dozen weapons blisters arranged around its midsection and a bow that he'd heard once described as a giant clam with an overbite, the ship looked almost quaintly archaic. But it was a false impression. The Dreadnaught Heavy Cruiser had been the backbone of the Old Republic's fleet; and while it might not look as sleek as the Imperial Star Destroyer that had replaced it, its massive turbolaser batteries still packed an awesome punch. 'How do we get aboard?' he asked Han.
'There's the main docking bay,' Han said, pointing to a dim rectangle of lights. 'We'll take the ship inside.'
Luke looked at the rectangle doubtfully. 'If it's big enough.' His fears proved groundless. The entrance to the docking bay was larger than it had appeared, and the bay itself even more so. With casual skill Han brought the transport in, swiveled it around to face the opening, and put it down on the deck. 'Okay,' he said, keying the systems to standby and unstrapping. 'Let's get this over with.'
Lando, Chewbacca, and the four-man tech team were waiting at the cargo hatchway when Han and Luke arrived, the techs looking somewhat ill at ease with the unaccustomed blasters belted awkwardly to their sides. 'Checked the air yet, Anselm?' Han asked.
'It looks fine,' the head of the tech team reported, offering Han a data pad for inspection. 'Better than it should be after all these years. Must still be some droids on housekeeping duty.'
Han glanced at the analysis, handed back the data pad, and nodded to Chewbacca. 'Okay, Chewie, open the hatch. Tomrus, you drive the sled. Watch out for blank spots in the gravity plates-we don't want you bouncing the sled off the ceiling.'
The air in the bay had a strangely musty odor about it; a combination of oil and dust, Luke decided, with a slight metallic tang. But it was fresh enough otherwise. 'Pretty impressive,' he commented as the group walked behind the repulsorlift sled toward the main hatchway. 'Especially after all this time.'
'Those full-rig computer systems were designed to last,' Lando said.
'So what's the plan, Han?'
'I guess we split up,' Han said. 'You and Chewie take Anselm, Tomrus, and the sled and go check out engineering. We'll head up to the bridge.' For Luke, it was one of the eeriest trips of his life, precisely because it all looked so normal. The lights in the wide corridors were all working properly, as were the gravity plates and the rest of the environment system. Doors leading off the corridor slid open automatically whenever any of the group strayed close enough to trigger them, revealing glimpses of perfectly maintained machine shops, equipment rooms, and crew lounges. The faint mechanical noises of idling systems whispered behind the sound of their own footsteps, and occasionally they glimpsed an ancient droid still going about its business. To all appearances, the ship might just as well have been abandoned yesterday.
But it hadn't been. The ships had been floating here in the blackness for half a century ... and their crews had not left, but had died here in agony and madness. Looking down empty cross corridors as they walked, Luke wondered what the maintenance droids had made of it all as they cleared away the bodies.
