The British Are Coming

Lined with power cables and circuitry conduits that rose from the depths and vanishedinto the heavens, the service trench appeared to be hundreds of kilometers deep. Thenarrow catwalk running around one side looked like a starched thread glued on aglowing ocean. It was barely wide enough for one man to traverse. One man edged his way along that treacherous walkway now, his gaze intent onsomething ahead of him instead of the awesome metal abyss below. The clackingsounds of enormous switching devices resounded like captive leviathans in the vastopen space, tireless and never sleeping. Two thick cables joined beneath an overlay panel. It was locked, but aftercareful inspection of sides, top and bottom, Ben Kenobi pressed the panel cover in aparticular fashion causing it to spring aside. A blinking computer terminal wasrevealed beneath. With equal care he performed several adjustments to the terminal. His actionswere rewarded when several indicator lights on the board changed from red to blue. Without warning, a secondary door close behind him opened. Hurriedlyreclosing the panel cover, the old man slipped deeper into the shadows. Adetachment of troopers had appeared in the portal, and the officer in charge moved towithin a couple of meters of the motionless, hidden figure. "Secure this area until the alert has been cancelled." As they began to disperse, Kenobi became one with the dark. Chewbacca grunted and wheezed, and barely succeeded in forcing his thick torsothrough the hatchway opening with Luke's and Solo's help. That accomplished,Luke turned to take stock of their surroundings. The hallway they had emerged into showed dust on the floor. It gave theimpression of not having been used since the station had been built. Probably it wasonly a repair access corridor. He had no idea where they were. Something hit the wall behind them with a massive thunk, and Luke yelled foreveryone to watch out as a long, gelatinous limb worked its way through the hatchand flailed hopefully about in the open corridor. Solo aimed his pistol at it as Leiatried to slip past the half-paralyzed Chewbacca.