"Michael Stackpole "The Bacta War"" - читать интересную книгу автора

Star Wars - X-Wing - The Bacta War


1

Somehow the dead of night amplified the lightsaber's hiss, allowing it to fill
the room. The blade's silvery light frosted the furniture and gave birth to
impenetrable shadows. The blade drifted back and forth, prompting the shadows to
waver and shift as if fleeing from the light.
Much as criminals would flee from the light.
Corran Horn stared at the blade, finding the argent en-ergy shaft neither harsh
nor painful to his eyes. He lazily wove the blade through joined infinity loops,
then, with the flick of his right wrist, snapped it up into a guard that
pro-tected him from forehead to waist. Relic of a bygone era, it still can
conjure up images and feelings.
He hit the black button under his thumb twice, and the blade died, again
plunging the room into darkness. The light-saber did conjure up images and
feelings in him, but Corran doubted they were at all the images and feelings
commonly felt by most others on Coruscant. To everyone, including Corran, Luke
Skywalker was a hero and was welcomed as heir to the Jedi tradition. His efforts
at rebuilding the Jedi order were roundly applauded, and no one, save those who
dreaded the return of law and order to the galaxy, wished Luke anything but the
greatest success in his heroic quest.
As do I. Corran frowned. Still, my decision has been made.
He'd felt it the greatest of honors to be asked by Luke Skywalker to leave Rogue
Squadron and train to become a Jedi. Skywalker had told him that his grandfather
Nejaa Hal-cyon had been a Jedi Master who had been slain in the Clone Wars. The
lightsaber Corran had discovered in the Galactic Museum had belonged to Nejaa
and had been presented to Corran as his rightful inheritance. Mine is the
heritage of a Jedi Knight.
But that was a heritage he had only heard of from Skywalker. He did not doubt
the Jedi was telling the truth, but it was not the whole truth. At least not the
whole of the truth with which I grew up.
Throughout his life Corran Horn had come to believe his grandfather was Rostek
Horn, a valued and highly placed member of the Corellian Security Force. His
father, Hal Horn, likewise was with CorSec. When it came time for Cor-ran to
choose a career, there was really no choice at all. He continued the Horn
tradition of serving CorSec. His grandfa-ther had always admitted to having
known a Jedi who died in the Clone Wars, but that acquaintance had been given no
more weight than having once met Imperial Moff Fliry Vorru or having visited
Imperial Center, as Coruscant had been known under the Empire's rule.
Corran found it no great surprise that Rostek Horn and his father had downplayed
their ties to Nejaa Halcyon. Hal-cyon had died in the Clone Wars; and Rostek had
comforted, grown close with, and married Halcyon's widow. He also adopted
Halcyon's son, Valin, who grew up as Hal Horn. When the Emperor began his
extermination of the Jedi order, Rostek had used his position at CorSec to
destroy all traces of the Halcyon family, insulating his wife and adopted son
from investigation by Imperial authorities.
Since exhibiting any interest in the Jedi Knights could invite scrutiny and my
family would be very vulnerable if its secret were discovered, I probably heard