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Durga gave a guttural growl. “I am in command of this ship, General. I will give the orders here.”

Sulamar bowed in embarrassment and took a step backward. “My apologies, Lord Durga.”

Durga narrowed his huge coppery eyes, then turned to the navigator. “You heard the general,” he said. “Do as he says!”

As the Orko SkyMine expeditionary ship threaded its way through the colliding rocks, Durga eased forward. He blinked his thick-lidded eyes, trying to spot the metallic blip against the starfield.

As they approached, the mammoth ore-processing unit began to stand out, gleaming and sparkling, a flurry of motion. A magnificent machine, Durga thought as he saw the hulk—a giant cargo container with a front end of moving mechanical mouthparts and turbolaser turrets to blast asteroids to rubble. It stuffed the rubble into a giant processing maw, chewed it up, spit out the useless slag, and kept its precious ingots of worthwhile metals. The newly designed automated Mineral Exploiters had a simple mission: sophisticated sensors directed the behemoths to hunt down the highest and purest concentrations of metals out in the asteroid belt and to dismantle the rocks and exploit the treasure.

“They seem to be functioning perfectly,” Sulamar said, again snapping to attention after he studied the diagnostic screen. “You have every confidence in their abilities?”

Durga let loose a deep belly laugh. “Naturally! My pet scientist Bevel Lemelisk designed them. Perhaps you’ve heard of his other work?” The Hutt leaned forward so that his huge head was close to General Sulamar’s sallow face. “When he was bonded to the Emperor, Lemelisk was in charge of constructing both the first and the second Death Stars.”

Sulamar’s eyebrows shot up, showing how impressed he was.

“Bevel Lemelisk designed these Mineral Exploiters, and he will also be hard at work overseeing the construction of our new weapon.”

“Sounds like you couldn’t have found a better man,” Sulamar agreed, then faced forward, watching Mineral Exploiter Beta continue its work.

The machine finished devouring a medium-size asteroid and dumped the molten waste slag, which hardened into small flying shards in its wake. The machine’s sensors swept the asteroid belt for a new target.

“Beta is picking up a very high concentration of metal,” one of the Devaronian diagnosticians said. “It’s amazingly pure.”

The Mineral Exploiter altered course and increased speed toward its new target. Durga watched with growing glee.

“Must be even more resources out here than we anticipated!” another tech said. “Mineral Exploiter Alpha has found a rich source as well. The target seems to be moving on an odd course for one of these asteroids, but it registers as pure metal. Like nothing we’ve ever seen out here.”

Durga chortled with satisfaction. “If these Mineral Exploiters continue to find such wealth, we might not need the other two we have under construction.”

The pilot of the Hutt expeditionary vessel increased shields as they followed Mineral Exploiter Beta through the asteroid belt.

“Alpha is also headed this way,” the human technician said.

General Sulamar frowned. “Do you think they could have picked up the same target?”

“Uh-oh,” the Devaronian station chief said.

Durga sat up straight on his repulsorsled. He puffed his rubbery cheeks again. “I don’t like the tone of that, mister.”

“I don’t like what I’m seeing,” the horned Devaronian responded. He raised his clawed hands in panic. “Alpha and Beta haven’t picked up the same target—they’ve detected each other.”

“Well, shut them down,” Durga said. “An unforeseen programming glitch. We can’t afford to lose those two pieces of equipment.”

The Devaronian hammered instructions into his control panels. The other technicians worked frantically—to no avail. The Gamorrean guards stood dumbfounded, blinking at each other in confusion.

The Devaronian pounded his fists on the panel. “I can’t, sir! I don’t have the override code!”

Durga bellowed, “Well, who does?”

“Only