"The New Rebellion (Kristine Rusch)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

Ben's comforting presence had left him before the Jedi Academy, before Grand
Admiral Thrawn.
Luke closed his eyes, feeling for the location of the disturbance. He
found a great emptiness where a moment before there had been life. The residue
of pain, the deeply held surprise, the shock of betrayal, remained like an
echo of a shout over a canyon rim.
"Master Skywalker?" The voice belonged to one of his most promising
students, Eelysa, a young woman from Coruscant. "Master Skywalker?" He waved
his right hand at her. His back hurt from the force of his landing, his chest
ached from the lack of oxygen, and his heart ached from the magnitude of the
loss. Somewhere in the distance, R2 whistled, a mournful sound.
He had to sit up, to show them everything was all right, even though it
wasn't.
"Master Skywalker?" Her voice merged and blended with the echoes in his
head. He opened his eyes. In the shade of his shaking hand, he saw Leia's
face, scorched and blood-covered. He reached toward her, and then she was
gone.
It is the future you see.
The destruction did not come from Coruscant. He would know if Leia died.
Or Han. Or the children.
He would know.
R2 whistled again, impatient this time.
"Find R2," he said. His voice sounded haunted, shaky, preoccupied, like
Ben's had after the destruction of Alderaan.
Feet snapped twigs around him as three students left in search of R2.
Or as they ran from Luke and his sudden, startling loss of control.
"What happened, Master Skywalker?" Eelysa was crouched beside him, her
small, slender body hunched against an unseen enemy. She had been a surprise,
a native of Coruscant, born after the Emperor's death, her Force abilities
untainted by the poisons around her. She was young. So very, very young.
"A million people died a moment ago, all in great pain, and with great
suddenness." He pushed himself up on his elbows. A vast evil had returned to
the galaxy. That much he knew.
And it threatened Leia.
He knew that too.
For now, the days of teaching were over. He and R2 had to leave
immediately for Coruscant.


Leia Organa Solo, Chief of State of the New Republic, adjusted the belt
on her long white gown. She took a deep breath. Mon Mothma placed a hand on
her arm. Leia smiled distractedly at her, much as she had as a young senator,
facing Palpatine and his followers in the Imperial Senate.
She let the breath out. That was the emotion she was feeling, something
she hadn't felt since she was a teenager. A sense of loss, of defeat, of the
life changing without her permission or control.
Mon Mothma dosed the golden carved door and turned the lock. They were in
a small dressing room that had been added during Palpatine's days as Emperor,
a room just outside the Senate Assembly Chamber. The room had been used as a
secret communications area, but it masqueraded as a dressing room. The walls