"The Courtship Of Princess Leia (Dave Wolverton)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolverton Dave)

his orders.

"The Hapans are not firing, and they are broadcasting as friendlies," Onoma
answered, swiveling a large golden eye at Han. The Calamarian cruiser ceased its
crazy headlong dive and slowed.

"Friendlies?" Han asked. "They're Hapans! Hapans are never friendly!"

"Nevertheless, they've apparently come to negotiate a treaty of some sort with
the New Republic. The accompanying Star Destroyers are theirs, captured from the
Imperials. As you can see, our planetary defense forces are still intact."
Captain Onoma nodded up toward a Star Destroyer in another quadrant, and Han
recognized its markings. Leia's flagship, the Rebel Dream. It had seemed so
huge, so vast when they'd captured it from the Imperials, but here beside this
Hapan fleet, it looked small, insignificant. Huddled around the Rebel Dream, he
saw a dozen smaller Republic Dreadnaughts, their hulls still painted with the
markings of the old Rebel Alliance.

The first time Han had seen a Hapan warship, he had been smuggling guns with a
small convoy fleet under the command of Captain Rula. Since the Hapans hadn't
yet fallen to the Empire, the smugglers had been using an outpost in neutral
territory near the borders of the Hapan star cluster, hoping that their
proximity to the Hapans would keep the Empire off their back. But one day they
came out of hyperspace and found a Hapan Battle Dragon hovering in their path.
Even though they were in neutral territory, even though they made no aggressive
moves, only three of the twenty smuggler ships managed to survive the Hapan
attack.

A communications officer said, "General Solo, we're receiving a call from
Ambassador Leia Organa."

"I'll go to my quarters and pick it up there," Han said, and he hurried to punch
up the call. Leia's image appeared on the small screen.

Leia was smiling, euphoric, and her dark eyes had a dreamy look to them. "Oh,
Han," she said in a breath, her voice mellifluous. "I'm so glad you're here."
She wore the pure white uniform of an Alderaanian ambassador, and her hair was
down. In the past months it had grown longer than Han had ever seen it. In her
hair she wore the combs he had given her, made from silver and opal mined on
Alderaan before Grand Moff Tarkin blasted the planet to cinders with the first
Death Star.

"I missed you, too," Han said huskily.

"Come down to Coruscant, to the Grand Reception Hall," Leia said. "The Hapan
ambassadors are about to arrive."

"What do they want?"

"It's not what they want, it's what they're offering. I went to Hapes and spoke