"Truce At Bakura (Kathy Tyers)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tyers Kathy)

Star Wars

The Truce at Bakura

by Kathy Tyers


CHAPTER 1

Above a dead world, one habitable moon hung suspended like a cloud-veiled
turquoise. The eternal hand that held the chain of its orbit had dusted its
velvet backdrop with brilliant stars, and cosmic energies danced on the
wrinkles of space-time, singing their timeless music, neither noticing nor
caring for the Empire, the Rebel Alliance, or their brief, petty wars.
But on that petty human scale of perspective, a fleet of starships
orbited the moon's primary. Carbon streaks scored the sides of several ships.
Droids swarmed around some, performing repairs. Metal shards that had been
critical spaceship components, and human and alien bodies, orbited with the
ships. The battle to destroy Emperor Palpatine's second Death Star had cost
the Rebel Alliance heavily.
Luke Skywalker hustled across one cruiser's landing bay, red-eyed but
still suffused with victory after the Ewoks' celebration. Passing a huddle of
droids, he caught a whiff of coolants and lubricants. He ached, a dull gnawing
in all his bones from the longest day of his life. Td--no, it was yesterday--
he had met the Emperor. Yesterday, he had almost paid with his life for his
faith in his father. Yet a passenger sharing his shuttle up to the cruiser
from the Ewok village had already asked if Luke really killed the Emperor--and
Darth Vader--single-handed.
Luke wasn't ready to announce the fact that "Darth Vader" had been Anakin
Skywalker, his father. Still, he'd answered firmly: Vader killed Emperor
Palpatine. Vader had flung him into the second Death Star's core. Luke would
be explaining that for weeks, he guessed. For now, he merely wanted to check
on his X-wing fighter.
To his surprise, it was overrun by service crew. Behind and above it, a
magnacrane lowered Artoo-Detoo into the cylindrical droid socket behind his
cockpit. "What's up?" Luke asked, standing to catch his breath.
"Oh. Sir," answered a khaki-suited crewman, disengaging a collapsible
fuel hose, "your relief pilot's going out. Captain Antilles came back on the
first shuttle and went on patrol immediately. He intercepted an Imperial drone
ship--one of those antiques they used for carrying messages back before the
Clone Wars. Incoming from deep space."
Incoming. Someone had sent a message to the Emperor. Luke smiled. "Guess
they haven't heard yet. Wedge wants company? I'm not that tired. I could go."
The crewman didn't smile back. "Unfortunately, Captain Antilles touched
off a self-destruct cycle while trying to release its message codes. He is
manually blocking a critical gap--"
"Cancel the relief pilot," Luke exclaimed. Wedge Antilles had been his
friend since the days of the first Death Star, where they'd flown in the final
attack together. Without waiting to hear more, Luke spun toward the ready-