The Black Fleet Crisis_ Before The Storm Part 19

"The answer might not be as long as the question-" Lando began.

"It could be longer, " said Lobot.

"That's not the point. Maybe the question only looks long and complex because we don't understand it. Human beings can remember incredibly long sequences if they have meaning, " said Lando. "I knew a smuggler who'd memorized the Hundred Prescriptions of Alsidas when he was a kid taking religious training, and he could still rattle them off thirty years later. My mother knew hundreds of songs and poems by heart. And there are species with much better memories than human beings. "

"I don't dispute that. There are many feats of memory recorded in the libraries, " said Lobot. "Even so, pa.s.swords and access codes, whether mathematical or linguistic, are not error-tolerant. No matter how long the expected response may be, it must contain no errors. "

"Well, that's always the problem, isn't it? " said Lando. "How do people remember all the things they have to remember? What do they do when there's something they can't allow themselves to forget? Some people have incredible memories, and others have trouble remembering their kids' birthdays, much less their ID numbers and the access codes for digital locks they haven't opened in years. So people cheat. "

"Mnemonics. "

"Yes, but they cheat in other ways, too, " said Lando. "They carry the pa.s.scodes with them-"

"But that compromises security. Anything that's carried can be stolen. "

"Right. So some try to disguise the pa.s.scode as something else-"

"That's little better. Anything that's hidden can be found. "

"Right again, " said Lando. "A pickpocket on Pyjridj once told me that four of every five belt pouches he saw had pa.s.scodes in them, and it rarely took him even a minute to find them. Sometimes the pa.s.scode was the only handwritten item in the pouch. "

"You could ask a droid to remember the pa.s.scode for you, " said Threepio. "A droid can be instructed to tell no one but you, does not make mistakes, and will not forget. "

"But droids can be stolen, just like pouches, " Lobot said. "Droids can have their memories read, or wiped. Droids will dump their memory data under sensor-torture. Droids also know what it is that they know, which can lead to erratic behavior. Droids have revealed criminal acts by their owners, refused orders from their owners, wiped their own memories, destroyed themselves-" To Threepio's seeming relief, Artoo interrupted the litany of failings with a trill.

"Artoo wishes to remind us that all combat astromechs have protected memory segments which can be used to store sensitive information, " said Threepio. "He says that in more than thirty years of operation, no captured R2 unit has ever revealed the contents of a protected memory segment. "

"That's fine, Artoo, " said Lando. "You can tuck something away in your memory where even you won't know what's in it, so you can't be forced to reveal it. But you can still be blown to bits or s.n.a.t.c.hed away from me-and then what am I supposed to do? A little better shooting by the Empire, and the technical readouts on the Death Star would never have reached General Dodonna at Yavin. "

"The key must be replicable, " Lobot said.

"Exactly, " Lando agreed. "Otherwise the key itself is the weak point. Like having all your riches in a vault, and only one guy who knows where the only key is. Too risky. " He stood and started to pace in the confined s.p.a.ce ofLady Luck's galley. "Come on, come on-we're getting close to something here, I feel it. What haven't we looked at? Where's the missing piece? "

"What about the fact that there are pairs of tones in the transmission? " asked Lobot.

"Good, good, " said Lando rubbing his hands together.

"But are they pairs, or is it two separate channels of information? Do the individual modulations count, or just the pairs? Pairs, long sequences, replications, securely concealable-what kinds of information fit that description? "

Lobot could no more have explained how he listened to the stream of data that pa.s.sed through his consciousness in the next few seconds than a blind man could describe fireworks, or a droid could describe giving birth. In the early days of his training, he had imagined himself creating a sieve to place in the torrent, a sieve that would catch only the information he sought.

But that crude metaphor no longer sufficed. Now he immersed himself in the flow and somehow let himself see all of it, not just the pieces of a certain size or shape that fit his preconceptions. Even the flow was under his control-the depth, the speed, the temperature, the colors.

But all metaphors ultimately failed. In the end, all he could say was that he sent out his thoughts, and brought back an answer.

"Long, unique nonrandom sequences are found in most genetic codes, " said Lobot. "The code for a single distinctive molecule would suffice to meet your conditions. "

"A genetic code? But it would only have four different pairs. "

"Only if it were human. The number of code pairs varies from one planet's life-forms to another. "

"How many pairs are there in the fragment? "

"Eighteen. "

"How many species have eighteen different molecular pairs in their genetic code? "

Lobot lowered his eyes for a moment, searching for the answer. "There are six recorded species with eighteen-pair genetic structures. But genetic information is not available for all known species, or for unknown species. "

"Do any of the six have a pitch-based language? "

"One, " Lobot said. "The Qella. I am pa.s.sing the genetic sample library marker to Artoo-Detoo for a.n.a.lysis. "

Attoo's dome rotated left and right as the droid aligned its processors for the task. Lights flickered on and off across the function panel.

After several seconds the droid responded with a single high-pitched beep.

"What? " demanded Lando. "What is it? "

"Master Lando, I believe the closest translation would be 'Bonanza. ' "

" Lando's face broke into a broad grin. "It matches? "

He clapped Lobot on the shoulder enthusiastically. "Son of a- You did it, old buddy! "

Artoo burbled electronically.

"What's he saying? " Lando demanded.

"Artoo says that there is a ninety-nine-point-nine percent certainty that the signal from the ship is a representation of a segment of the genetic code of the Qella, " said lobot. "But the sequence ends in the middle-it's not complete. "

"Of course not, " said Lando. "That's the answer they're expecting-the rest of the sequence. Is this thing a vocalization, or synthesized? Artoo, can you sing the next fragment? "

Artoo's coo in response sounded almost sorrowful.

"Master Lando, an R2 unit has only a simple vocabulator, " said Threepio. "But if I may offer my a.s.sistance-"

"Offer away. "

"Sir, in order to fulfill my primary function as a protocol droid, I was constructed with the capacity for polyharmony. I believe that I can sing the sequence, with Artoo's help. "

"Give it a try. "

For several seconds Threepio and Artoo huddled together and conversed silently over the droid transmission channel, pa.s.sing information in binary far faster than Basic or Artoo's own idiosyncratic dialect would allow.

Then Threepio straightened up, looked toward Lando, and c.o.c.ked his head.

Almost at once the room was filled by an eerie echo of the vagabond's hailing signal-distinctively different, but unmistakably the work of the same composer.

"All right, " Lando said, punching the air with a fist. "That's the key. We're going in the front door. Threepio, Lobot, tell me all about the Qella. Maybe we can get an edge. "

"Master Lando, for some reason I do not understand, I do not have any information on the language and customs of the Qella, " said Threepio.

"But now that we know the owners of this vessel, we must return it to them. It would be a serious breach of etiquette to enter it without an invitation. "

"Are you saying you'd refuse to send the response-"

"One moment, Lando, " said Lobot. "I have been accessing all records available to me, and I believe I know the reason, Threepio. The best-established fact seems to be that the Qella have been extinct for more than one hundred fifty years. "

"Extinct? " Lando said in surprise. "I guess we can't hang that one on the Emperor. What happened to them? "

"According to a report in the Galactic Survey, " Lobot said, "their planet appeared to have been struck by several large asteroids, and its ecosystem destroyed. "

"That doesn't make any sense, " said Lando frowning. "Any world that could build something like the vagabond should have been able to push an off-course asteroid or three out of the way. " He shook his head.

"One mystery just leads to another. "

Nodding, Lando said, "Perhaps the answers to all of them wait for us inside the Qella vessel. "

Lando's expression darkened. "Except there isn't going to be any 'us. ' The colonel's only giving me one ticket for the boat, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't come with a front-row seat. "

"I'm certain that if you tell him what we've discovered, he'll make room for all of us, " said Threepio. "It would be the reasonable thing to do. "

"Hortek are only reasonable when they don't have the upper hand, " said Lando. "And he thinks he does. "

He paced. The others waited.

"You know, there's only one way we're going to know if this really is the key, " he said finally. "Otherwise, we might just be believing what we want to. "

"I agree, " said Lobot.

"And Pakkpekatt's going to want evidence. It's clear that, to him, we're just baggage he couldn't manage to dump. I wouldn't exactly say he's been cooperative. "

"No, " said Lobot.

Lando nodded slowly. "Threepio, Artoo, it's been a long day-or I suppose it's night by now. And tomorrow could be a longer one. I want you both to power down, recharge, and run your system optimizers. Set your reactivation clocks for thirteen hundred hours. That will give us plenty of time. "

"Shouldn't we notify Colonel Pakkpekatt first, Master Lando? "

"I'll take care of that, " Lando said, with a glance at Lobot's impa.s.sive face.

"Very well, sir. Closing down. " The droid's eyes dimmed instantly.

A moment later Artoo rolled over to the power port, hooked up to it, and echoed the acknowledgment before its displays also went dark.

Lando slid easily back into a chair at the table and studied Lobot with one eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Are you sure about this? "

"It is our theory, " said Lobot. "It's right that we should take the risk. "

"All right, then, " said Lando, leaning back in his chair. "In that case, you and I'd better get some rest, too. Tomorrow's gonna be an interesting day. "

A few minutes before 1300 hours, Lando and Lobot slid into the c.o.c.kpit couches aboardLady Luck .

"I figure we have twelve seconds minimum before they try to get a lock on us, " said Lando. "I intend to be inside no-man's-land by then. He's been so scared to even ping the ship that no one on that bridge is going to be in a hurry to point a tractor beam in that direction. "

"That will require a very high rate of acceleration. "

Lando nodded, his lips pressed tightly together.

"Yeah, we just might end up blistering the paint on oldGlorious . So it goes. "

Lady Luckhad been flying with her engines cold, a parasite on the side of the cruiser, for more than a month. Respecting that fact, Lando went through an unusually thorough system check in the minutes that remained, bringing the engines to a state of readiness just one step below going hot.

At 1300 hours exactly, Lando thumbed the ship's com unit. "Threepio, are you there? "

"Yes, Master Lando. "

"How about Artoo? "

"He reactivated on schedule, " said Threepio. "Sir, what did the colonel say when you told him our news? "

"He wasn't exactly ready to hear it, " Lando said.

"Do you remember the song from last night? "

"Yes, of course, sir. "

"Then both of you grab something to hold on to, and, Threepio-you get ready to sing. "

The momentLady Luck disengaged from the docking ring, alarms began to sound on the bridge ofGlorious . In moments the yacht was roaring away from its mooring point and toward the vagabond, its fiery engine exhausts clearly visible from the bridge's forward viewports.

"What in white blazes-" exclaimed Lieutenant Herone. "Sparks, where's the colonel? "

"Down in Hangar Three, with Bijo and the foray team. "

"Call him up here, " Herone said, and took a deep breath. "Lady Luck, this is theGlorious . I order you to come about and bring your vessel alongside. If you do not come about immediately, I will order the weapons master to disable your ship. "

"You'd better think about that again, Lieutenant, " Lando answered breezily. "Blaster fire near the vagabond? Remember theBoldheart .

Herone sighed. "General, what do you think you're doing out there? "

"Research, " Lando said. "I'd make sure I was recording this if I were you. "

"Turn your ship about, General. This is your last warning. "

At that moment the bridge was filled with the sound of the vagabond's keening chorus.