Star Wars - The Clone Wars - The Pengalan Tradeoff by Aaron Allston

Author:Aaron Allston [Allston, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2003-02-05T05:22:56+00:00

Tooth took the lead, moving as surely and silently as a jungle predator. They reached the outmost town buildings without incident, and, by ducking down dirt alleys, staying in shadowy patches, and keeping alert for the rare pedestrian, they remained unseen across the hundred meters or so between them and the spacecraft bays.

They stood in an alley mouth directly opposite the entry door into the smallest of the bays. The area was poorly lit. Joram could barely see the oval of the door itself, beside it, a security keypad glowed. “Can you decode or bypass that?”

“I think so, sir. I’ll have to look at it, but it appears to be a simple design.”

“Why three bays?”

“What?” Tooth looked at him, puzzled.

“Why does a one-nerf town like this have three spacecraft bays? That means at least three spacecraft are here routinely. The town probably just needs one big bay for cargo vessels, for export of whatever it produces… ” The numbers running through the back of his mind moved to the front, and he fell silent again.

“I don’t understand, sir.”

“This town has no evident industry. Its biggest buildings are the government center and the largest ship bay. There are no farms. No ranches. What purpose does the town serve?”

Tooth shrugged. “It’s where the factory workers lived before the factory was shut down?”

“No. That factory was shut down a long time ago. Reactivated just to serve as bait for our assault. Its workers probably lived at the factory. All these buildings were built since it was deactivated. So, what is this town for? What’s its economy?”

“It’s been here too long just to have been built as a trap.” Tooth looked around, eyes narrowed. “If it has too many spacecraft facilities, the purpose probably has an offworld significance.”

“Very good.”

“The answer’s going to be with the spacecraft. The biggest spacecraft. Let’s go there instead.”

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