staring at a hologram of the system he had gone
through in his mind a million times. Three droids entered ….a hull
droid, a duct droid, and one of the type used on engineering that
looked all too lifelike with their shining, buffed silver skin and
build; they looked almost like Hashons.
36 The ISD series droid made North more nervous than any other type.
This particular one stopped by his table, and stared down at the
different routes displayed in the hologram, then, without asking,
programmed an additional route consisting of three very long leaps.
37 North looked at it for a moment, then laughed. "Can't go that way,"
he laughed, "see that symbol? That system's a super nova. Can't pass
through the nova wall. Even if you could, once you're inside you can't
see the star patterns."
38 "Don't need to," answered the droid. "We never did. We used to go in
there with a freighter, calculated our entry point, then took a reading
on the black hole and white dwarf inside, calculated our exit bearing
from there, popped out wherever we wanted to."
39 "None of my people were ever in there," North argued. "I'd have
known about it."
40 "I didn't belong to any of your people then," the droid answered, "I
belonged to a smuggler who carried illegal drugs into The Empire. They
had a secret supply depot hidden in there." The droid straightened up
and began to walk off.
41 "Damn!" thought North, "Anything a freighter can do, a warship can
do!" He looked up at the retreating droid. "Security," he snapped ,
"Take that droid into custody. He just became part of my staff! No one
else is to come near him until I have a chance to question him further!
42 I think we've got it! By all The Holy Lords Of Hades, I think we've
got it! And they won't even be able