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

The brow over Booster's artificial left eye rose. "It's im-portant in this
business for you to be able to tell fable from fact and wishing from thinking.
From what I've heard, about six months before I got out of Kessel, just after
the Imps hurt the Rebels at Derra IV but before they ran them off Hoth, some
treasure hunters searching the Alderaan graveyard found Another Chance and
turned the ship and its arms over to the Rebels. That's fact. The location of
the shipyard that built the Death Star is likely a fact as well, but it's one I
don't know and it's my wish that it's a fact that went to the grave with the
Emperor. I don't think that's likely.
"Now it's Iceheart's wish we won't break the cartel and destroy her power."
Booster smiled coldly. "I think-no, I know-she's not going to get her wish. Her
fall will not be fast, and it won't be bloodless, but it's coming. Count it as
fact."
Tapper raised his hands. "Sorry, I meant no offense."
"And none was taken." Mirax patted her father on the arm and felt the tension
begin to flow out of him. "My father just wanted to make sure that you knew
betting against Wedge was a mistake."
Karrde pressed his hands flat against his desktop. "A les-son we have all
learned, I am certain. Now let us attend to the details that make sure we all
profit from it."
23
Corran Horn felt tired enough from the recent raid and run home that he knew he
should just turn in, but the idea of hitting the small suite of rooms he shared
with Mirax didn't appeal. On his approach back to the Yag'Dhul station he'd
gotten a message she'd recorded saying she was taking her father out on another
trip to finalize arrangements for supply shipments. She expected to be gone for
three days.
Which means I'm alone when I could use a good hug and some sympathy. Corran knew
what was happening to him, and he wanted to fight against it, but even by trying
some of the breathing exercises Luke Skywalker had recommended to him, he had a
hard time putting a dent in his downward emotional spiral. It's like flying into
a fireball. You have to hang on and hope you come out in one piece on the other
side.
The fourth anniversary of his father's death had snuck up on Corran and ambushed
him. A lot of hydrogen had been melted into helium in a lot of stars since his
father's death, but the memory of holding his father's dead body in his arms had
the immediacy of an event that had occurred moments before. Corran could still
feel his father's weight pressing
against him. The man's stillness, the stink of blood and blaster-burned flesh,
the screams of those in the cantina, in-cluding his own, all pounded in on him.
The previous year, things had not seemed to be so bad to him, but he'd just
started with Rogue Squadron at that time, so he had a legion of distractions to
dull the pain. He also realized that his liaison with Mirax and meeting her
father made it tougher on him. Though he loved her and wouldn't give her up for
anything, Corran couldn't help feeling that his father would have felt betrayed
by his love for Mirax. While he knew his father would have accepted her
eventually, the fact that he didn't have his father's approval gnawed away at
him.
Getting to see Booster and Mirax together compounded the problem. Corran was
happy for Mirax that her father was around because the love they shared was