They follow the corridor for two kilometers before finding a door. Luke palms the opener, his lightsaber in his hand. As the door hisses back, the room’s ceiling lamp activates automatically. Plascompound crates fill the room top to bottom.
“Just storage,” Luke says, stepping back into the corridor.
“What is that?” Sidney cocks his head. His ears slowly fidget.
“What?” Luke and Gideon ask simultaneously.
“The whine – coming down the corridor.”
“You’re hearing things,” Gideon responds.
Luke hesitates. Maybe he hears something too: A mechanical scream – but so faint he might be imagining it.
“It might be -“
“Repulsor motors!” Luke finishes, reactivating teh door opener. “In here.”
The sound grows louder at an incredible rate. Gideon, Sidney, and Artoo scurry through the door. Luke follows an instand later. A tiny dot has appeard down the corridor.
He closes the door, but uses the butt of his lightsaber to prevent it from closing entirely. An instant later, a black flash zips past. Luke punches the opener and steps out of the room. A black repulsor cart streaks down the corridor, already so distant the driver is barely visible.
Backing into the room once again, Luke reports, “It was just a repulsor cart. But it reminded me of something – this is a whole planet. If we don’t find out where Erling is, we’ll never get out of here.
“Perhaps this will help,” Sidney says. He pulls a black uniform from a crate.
“An Imperial uniform might keep ’em from nabbing us so fast,” Gideon says, “but how can we use it to get around this hell-world?”
Artoo whitsles from the other side of the crates. Luke follows the sound and finds him standing at a vidterminal. He has extended his electronic interface appendage so that it almost touches a computer jack.
“Artoo may have an answer.” Luke says. “Go ahead. See if you can locate Erling Tredway.”
Artoo plugs into the jack. Schematic diagrams flash across vidscreen so fast Luke cannot even count them. A minute later, a message appears on the screen: “Information classified. Enter authorization code.”
Sidney holds the uniform to Luke’s shoulders. “You can pass for the Imperial officer. If the R2 unit can find the Command Center, you can find out where they hold the Erling.”
“Can’t that good-for-nothing machine bypass the authorization?” Gideon demands. “I don’t want to get no closer to Sebastian Parnell than we have too.”
Luke considers both options. Artoo can certainly bypass the authorization code, but he has a good chance of alerting the Imperials when he does so. On the other hand, impersonating an Imperial officer may be tricky. If he blows a password or appears ignorant, he stands as good a chance of triggering an alarm as Artoo does bypassing the authorization code.
If Luke impersonates an officer, Click Here
If Artoo bypasses the authorization code, Click Here