"Michael Stackpole "I, Jedi"" - читать интересную книгу автора

The Jedi Master groaned. УWhat now?Ф
I patted him on the shoulder. УI wouldn't worry too much, Master Skywalker.Ф
УAn Imperial Star Destroyer shows up here and we shouldn't worry?Ф
УNope,Ф I said, letting a smile grow on my face, Уthat's just my ride.Ф
Fore far enough away, the Er-rant Venture looked like an Imperial Star Destroyer. There was no mistaking that daggerish shape or the tall bridge. The ship's stark bone-white color and sheer size invoked memories of the days when the Empire's need for discipline often dispatched such ships to punish worlds that harbored Rebels. It was truly a sight to behold, and one from which I would have flown as fast as possible if I did not know what the E2rant Vetzture really was.
I brought the Headhunter up and around in a loop over midships on the ImpStar. Its normal complement of weapons had been stripped down, leaving it two tractor beams, ten ion cannons and ten heavy turbolaser batteries. That amount of firepower left the ship well defended, though as I did a flyby I noticed a couple of the laser batteries were not tracking that well and at least one froze in the middle as it followed my flight.
Coming over the top, I rolled the Headhunter and chopped the throttle back. I keyed the corem unit. УThis is Headhunter 079 requesting permission to board and land.Ф
У079, this is Errant Venture control. Please state the nature of your business.Ф
I rolled my eyes. УYou tell Booster Terrik that he lets me park this fighter on his ship, or he's going to be down more than just three turbolaser batteries.Ф
Silence reigned on the corem channel for a moment, then the controller's voice returned with a degree of weariness edging into it. У079, you are clear to land in docking slot 1127. Make sure your weapons are powered down.Ф УWhat?Ф
УThat is the message, 079.Ф
УI copy.Ф I brought the Headhunter in toward the egress bay and powered up the repulsorlift coils. I throttled back to ten percent of thrust, and slowly worked the fighter into the dock-ing bay. Slot 1127 was back against a bulkhead and would force me to take a long walk around the bay itself to reach Booster's office. If he knew I'd broken my leg, I'd be parking back in the garbage hold and hiking even fitrther.
As I closed in on my parking place, the only unusual thing I noticed was that no other ships were parked near me, and the few people on the ground were scurrying away. I ignored them-no one wanted to be caught in the backwash from en-gine thrust. I concentrated on setting the ship down easily, which I did-giving Booster no reason to complain about my scratching his precious deck. I quickly went through an engine lockdown and provided a security passcode for engine restart. It wouldn't stop anyone from stealing the ship, but it might slow them down.
I smiled and keyed in a message on the ignition screen. УThis Headhunter is the property of Mara Jade.Ф Anyone nuts enough to steal it now deselves what he gets.
I popped the cockpit hatch, which is when I noticed some-thing rather out of the ordinary. Booster's security detail wore Imperial style uniforms, but they had light green torsos on the tunics and bright yellow sleeves, bright yellow trousers and green caps with yellow buttons. The effect was a touch unset-tling, especially with such a crowd of them around ship.
Their blasters, which were nowhere near as colorful as their uniforms, all pointed in my direction.
A Weequay whose face looked as if it were made of flaking ceramics motioned for me to come out of the Headhunter. As I stood and my lightsaber came into view, half the guards crouched while the others moved behind convenient cover. I looked around at the dozen of them and shook my head. УNo trouble, no trouble.Ф
For the first time I really wished I had skill in the area of Jedi levitation because trying to get out of a fighter that had me a good three meters off the deck while my hands were in the air was not an easy thing to do. I would have just jumped out, but my left leg still wasn't one hundred percent, and I didn't want to be limping around on the Errant Venture. What I ended up doing was sitting on the side of the cockpit and sliding down toward the floor, catching my weight mostly on my right leg.
The Weequay jabbed me in the back with a truncheon which, 1 imagined, could deliver a nasty jolt to me if he only pushed the red button near his thumb. УBoss Booster wants you.Ф УGood, I want to see him, too.Ф
УSurrender lightsaber.Ф
I turned slowly on my heels and faced him, setting myself.
УNot going to happen, quark-for-brains.Ф
He poked me with the truncheon again and hit the button. I felt the tingle of the electricity, but just absorbed it. I smiled as I did so. УPower cells are dead. Really. I don't feel a thing.Ф
The Weequay hit the button again, but my smile did not fade. I bled the energy off into the decking, which raised the fur on the head of a passing Bothan, but none of the guards seemed to notice. The Weequay looked at the stun baton as if it had be-trayed him, then pressed his free hand against the tip and hit the button.
I snatched the truncheon from the air before it could hit the floor, and looked past the Weequay's twitching form. I reversed the baton and offered the handle to another of the guards. УClearly, it's defective. Now if you will take me to Booster . . .Ф
I turned back to head toward his office, when I dis-covered my quarry had come to me. This wouldn't have been a bad thing, but the flesh of Booster's face was as red as his artificial left eye. He grabbed big handfuls of my green flight-suit, hoisted me up off the deck and slammed me into a bulk-head.
УWhere's my daughter?Ф His short, bristly white hair and the goatee he'd taken to wearing made him look more like me than I even wanted to think about. УWhat have you done with Mlrax.
I groaned, less from the impact than the sheer fury in his words. УLet me explain.Ф
He jammed me into the wall again. УYou think you're that persuasive, CorSec?Ф
Booster released me and I fell to the floor. He looked at his guards and shook his head. УFyg and Kruqr, escort him to my office. Now.Ф
Another Weequay and a fairly scrawny human grabbed my arms, jerked me to my feet and Rybet-marched me off to the wardroom that Booster used as his docking bay office. It felt odd for me to be conducted to his office in the same manner I'd hauled so many prisoners along ill my day. I knew that even without using any Jedi techniques I could break their grips and get rid of them. Because of the unseemliness of being hustled along that way I ahnost did make a break.
I didn't because I realized there was no purpose to my doing so. Yes, I might feel embarrassed at being manhandled so, but what difference did it make? Was my pride worth injuring someone? No. They were conducting me to where I wanted to go anyway. What they or anyone else thought of me was really immaterial.
I smiled. Some of that Jedi training got through.
Reverting to type, I studied my surroundings. The docking bay had plenty of room for ships and approached capacity. The old TIE fighter launch racks still had a few TIEs in them, but many of them were missing parts. Other smaller ships had been fitted with unusual suspension collars that allowed them to hang from the racks as well. In that way Booster was able to fit a lot more ships into his hold.
The vast majority of ships in the docking bay were freighters, though few were as big as Mirax's Pulsar Skate or the Millen-nium Falcon. Most ships of that size couldn't afford docking space on the Errant Venture anyway. The ships present were those of smugglers who dealt in rare, exotic and high priced items, or the idle rich who found slumming on the Elfant Ven-ture something of a thrill. Most of the ships bringing goods for trade and transshipment on the Errant Venture just offloaded their items into one of the supply holds and left a crewman or agent on board the EV to handle the transactions.
Booster's people brought me to his office, tossed me inside, then shut the hatch. I had to hit a glowpanel switch, and when I did, I shuddered. Clutter filled the room-cracked duraplast boxes leaking streaky red, viscous fluids, piles of datacards lean-ing precariously one against another, chairs filled with cast-off clothing and in the corner stood a deactivated 3PO droid fes-tooned with a dozen gunbelts complete with blasters. Booster's desk dominated the room and appeared neat in comparison to the rest of it. The single layer of datacards, datapads, wires and odds and ends had been cleared back from a small cube pro-jecting various holographs of Mirax.
I shifted stuff from the chair in front of the desk to the floor and sat, watching the ever-changing display. Though Booster would deny having a single sentimental bone in his body, his projector cube had arranged the images by chronology and sub-ject. They flashed up every ten seconds or so. The display might follow a theme, like images of Mirax working on the Skate, then move along through her life, forward or back, until it shot off again on a themed tangent. It wove a web of her life-a web in which I felt fully ensnared.
In watching the display I realized the detachment I had felt before, when she vanished, had finally faded. The Уflash-blindnessФ Luke had diagnosed had lifted, and I might have noticed it sooner, but on Yavin 4 I had so little to remind me of her. It was probably just as well that the detachment existed while I started my training because I would have gotten no-where while distracted.
Now, though, watching her images, the full weight of her disappearance crashed in on me. I had felt her presence that night in the grotto, and Exar Kun had showed her to me, but I knew I could not trust what I had seen through his power. The fact that I had sensed her when Luke took us on a sojourn through the universe helped sustain me, but now I realized just how alone I felt.
And how alone she must be feeling. She was out there, some-where, waiting for me to find her, to help her, and I had done nothing. I sighed. Perhaps Booster should have smacked me against the wall even harder.
The hatch to the office slid open and Booster stalked in. He looked hard at me, then sat down at his desk. Fire burned in his brown eye just as brightly as in the electronic one. He watched me, then his head slowly nodded as he pressed his hands flat against the top of his desk.
Like a mute referee, Mirax danced from image to image be-tween us.
УIt is for her sake that I don't just twist your head off, Cor-Sec.Ф He kept his voice low and barely under control. УShe's been missing for how long?Ф
I swallowed hard. УTen weeks.Ф
УTen weeks!Ф His right fist hammered the desk, making the holocube bounce and the datacards ripple like loose tiles in a groundquake. He caught himself and slowly opened his hand. УTen weeks, and you didn't come to me and tell me.Ф
I calmed myself, just barely bringing my racing heart under control. My mouth felt dry and tasted like I'd been licking a bantha. УOne, I knew then and know now your daughter is alive. In consulting with a variety of people it was determined that keeping knowledge of her disappearance quiet would be the best course.Ф
Booster arched a pale eyebrow. У'It was determined?' By whom? What coward decided I shouldn't know my little girl was missing?Ф
I raised my chin. УI made that decision, Booster.Ф
УDid you, CorSec, did you now?Ф Booster sat back. УNot your General Cracken? Not your Luke Skywalker? Not Wedge? You made it?Ф
I nodded. УI weighed their opinions. I went over the scenar-ios they suggested and how best to handle the situation, then I made the decision.Ф