The Virgin and Child with St Anne

As soon as the troops had passed, Artoo finished removing a socket cover andhurriedly shoved his sensor arm into the opening. Lights commenced a wild flashingon his face and smoke started issuing from several seams in the small 'droid before afrantic Threepio could pull the arm free. Immediately the smoke vanished, the undisciplined blinking faded to normalcy.Artoo emitted a few wilted beeps, successfully giving the impression of a human whohad expected a glass of mild wine and instead unwittingly downed several gulps ofsomething 180 proof. "Well, next time watch where you stick your sensors," Threepio chastised hiscompanion. "You could have fried your insides." He eyed the socket. "That's apower outlet, stupid, not an information terminal." Artoo whistled a mournful apology. Together they hunted for the proper outlet. Luke, Solo, Chewbacca and the Princess reached the end of an empty hallway.It dead-ended before a large window, which overlooked a hangar, giving them asweeping, tantalizing view of the freighter just below. Pulling out his comlink and looking around them with increasing nervousness,Luke spoke into the pickup. "See Threepio…do you copy?" There was a threatening pause, then, "I read you, sir. We had to abandon theregion around the office." "Are you both safe?" "For the moment, though I'm not sanguine about my old age. We're in themain hangar, across from the ship." Luke looked toward the bay window in surprise. "I can't see you across thebay—we must be right above you. Stand by. We'll join you as soon as we can."He clicked off, smiling suddenly at Threepio's reference to his "old age."Sometimes the tall 'droid was more human than people.