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

invited back to resume our rightful place at the head of the Empire."
"Interesting analysis, and accurate, I think, except in one thing."
"And that is?"
Vorru's dark eyes shrank to bare slits. "Antilles, Horn, and the others. They
have the freedom the Rebels once had. They are a problem we will have to deal
with and deal with swiftly."
"Or else?"
"I was in a position to see them render Imperial Center defenseless." Vorru's
voice hardened. "If we don't deal with them I fear they will become a problem
with which we cannot deal."
4
It didn't surprise Corran Horn to find Iella Wessiri in the Corellian Sanctuary,
but the expression on her face threat-ened to crush his heart in his chest. Her
light brown hair had been pulled back into a single braid and her broad
shoulders were hunched forward. She sat on the front bench in the small chamber,
leaning over and balanced precariously enough that he expected her to fall at
any second. The way her grief pulled at her face, arching the corners of her
mouth downward, made it seem as if gravity would, in fact, tug her to the floor.
Corran hesitated in the doorway of the small domed building. Because of the
hostile relationship between the New Republic and the Corellian Diktat,
repatriating Corellians who died away from the planet of their birth had become
impossible. The Sanctuary had been created by exiled Corel-lians to give their
dead a resting place. Unlike Alderaanians, who often sealed their dead in
capsules and shot them into orbit within the Graveyard, allowing them to float
forever amid the debris that marked where their planet had once been; Corellians
cremated their dead exiles and used industrial-grade gravity generators to
compress the carbon
residue into raw synthetic diamonds. This imparted a physi-cal immortality to
the dead. The diamonds were then brought to the Sanctuary and imbedded in the
black walls and ceiling to create a glittering series of constellations as seen
from Corellia.
The sheer number of diamonds glinting in the ceiling sent a shiver through
Corran. We've given a lot to the Rebellion, though other worlds have given as
much or more. As beauti-ful as this display is, it is also horrible. The
Imperials who wished to make the galaxy over in their own image have, in fact,
created here a small galaxy that is entirely given over to mourning.
Corran walked forward and slid onto the bench next to Iella. She didn't look
over at him, but melted against his shoulder and chest as he put an arm around
her. "It's going to be okay, Iella, really."
"He never hurt anyone, Corran, never."
"I don't imagine Kirtan Loor would agree, but I'll con-cede the point."
He felt her chest convulse once, then she looked up at him with red-rimmed brown
eyes. "No, you're right." Her mouth made a weak attempt at twisting itself into
a smile. "As much as he admired your drive, Corran, Diric really ap-preciated
your sense of humor. He said it marked your resil-iency. He thought that as long
as you could laugh, especially at yourself, you'd always heal from any trauma."
"He was a wise man." He tightened his embrace a bit. "You know he'd hate to see
you like this, to think he was causing you this much pain."
"I know. That hasn't made it any easier, though." She dabbed at tears with a
handkerchief. "I keep thinking that if I'd seen something there, I could have