"Karrde's gaze defocused, his eyes flattened with the memory. 'It was just over fifteen years ago,' he said, his voice distant, the thumbs of his intertwined hands rubbing slowly against each other. 'I was working as navigator/sensor specialist for a small, independent smuggling group. We'd rather botched a pickup and had had to shoot our way past a pair of Carrack cruisers on our way out. We made it all right, but since I hadn't had the time to do a complete lightspeed calculation, we dropped back to real-space a half light-year out to recalculate.' His lip twitched. 'Imagine our surprise when we discovered a pair of Dreadnaughts waiting directly in our path.'
'Lying dead in space.'
Karrde shook his head. 'Actually, they weren't, which was what threw me for those first few days. From all appearances, the ships seemed to be fully...