"Michael Stackpole "The Krytos Trap"" - читать интересную книгу автора

down--but he refused to give in to fatigue. He let his pride in
the squadron and his friendship with Corran keep him up-
right.
He looked around at the crowd, then focused on the
mound of pseudogranite rubble before him. "Corran Horn
does not rest easy in that grave." Wedge paused for a mo-
ment, and then another, letting the silence remind everyone
of the true purpose of the ceremony. "Corran Horn was
never at ease except when he was fighting. He does not rest
easy now because there is much fighting yet to be done. We
have taken Coruscant, but anyone who assumes that means
the Empire is dead is as mistaken as Grand Moff Tarkin was

in his belief that Alderaan's destruction would somehow
cripple the Rebellion."
Wedge brought his head up. "Corran Horn was not a
man who gave up, no matter what the odds. More than once
he took upon himself the responsibility of dealing with a
threat to the squadron and to the Rebellion. Heedless of his
own safety, he engaged overwhelming forces and by sheer
dint of will and spirit and courage he won through. Even
here, on Coruscant, he flew alone into the heart of a storm
that was ravaging a planet and risked his life so this world
would be free. He did not fail, because he would not let
himself fail.
"Each of us who knew him has, in our hearts, dozens
and dozens of examples of his bravery or his concern for
others, or his ability to see where he was wrong and correct
himself. He was not a perfect man, but he was a man who
sought to be the best he could be. And while he took pride in
being very good, he didn't waste energy in displays of ram-
pant egotism. He just picked out new goals and drove him-
self forward toward them."
Wedge slowly nodded toward the rubble pile. "Corran is
now gone. The burdens he bore have been laid down. The
responsibilities he shouldered have been abandoned. The ex-
ample he set is no more. His loss is tragic, but the greater
tragedy would be letting him be remembered as a faceless
hero mouldering in this cairn. He was a fighter, as all of us
should be. The things he took upon himself might be enough
to crush down any one person, but we all can accept a por-
tion of that responsibility and bear it together. Others have
talked about building a future that would honor Corran and
the others who have died fighting the Empire, but the fact is
that there's fighting yet to be done before the building can
begin.
"We have to fight the impatience with the pace of
change that makes us look nostalgically on the days of the
Empire. Yes, there might have been a bit more food avail-
able. Yes, power outages might have been fewer. Yes, you