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

36
By the time the Lusankya reverted to realspace, Captain Drysso had constructed a
complete rationalization for his ac-tions. He knew it was just that: a thin
fabric of facts, circum-stances and lies that would probably crumble under
Isard's scrutiny. The fact remained, though, that he needed an expla-nation, and
it was the best he could come up with.
It all started with the premise that Antilles's station would kill the Lusankya.
This he knew and had the sensor reports to back it up. Isard herself had made it
very clear that preserving the Lusankya was vital, so disengaging when given the
opportunity to do so was the only choice he had. With the station being as
heavily armed as it was, the only prudent course of action would be to cordon it
off and let the inhabit-ants starve until they chose to surrender.
Once disengagement had been mandated, the next course of action had also been
obvious. He had sensor reports to indicate Antilles, the War Cruiser, and dozens
of freighters had headed out for Thyferra. That was a much larger taskforce than
Isard had anticipated being used against Thyferra. Only by returning home at
flank speed could the Lusankya be in position to destroy that taskforce. In
fact, it
seemed rather obvious, that without the Lusankya's help, the Thyferran Home
Defense Corps would be overwhelmed.
He had no choice but to return to Thyferra.
He realized that abandoning his TIE fighters at Yag'Dhul could be criticized,
but he could even explain that away. The TIEs were meant to supplement the
Virulence's defenses-the fighters could track and shoot down missiles before
they could strike the Imperial Star Destroyer. He also expected them to get in
close enough to the station to destroy launch-ers and then complete the
destruction of the station. That his pilots were dead if both the station and
the Virulence were destroyed meant little to him-they had their duty to do just
as he had his. If he remained to pick them up, he would have been destroyed.
Standing before the bridge viewport, he anticipated re-version into a
battlefield. As the light tunnel melted away into a scattering of stars, he saw
the green-and-white ball of Thyferra above him. No X-wings swooped about. No
TIEs filled the void with green laser fire. He saw nothing out of the ordinary,
just freighter traffic and a few system patrols.
Drysso slammed a fist off the transparisteel viewport. He'd been had by
Antilles. The feint at Thyferra had drawn him off, causing him to sacrifice the
Virulence. The Rogues probably abandoned the station except for a handful of
vol-unteers who were willing to trade their lives for that of the Virulence. The
convoy I saw heading away from Yag'Dhul probably moved to another base-a base
we'll have to search out, all the while enduring more hit-and-run attacks by the
Rogues.
Lieutenant Waroen's voice cut through the cocoon of mortification closing around
Drysso's mind. "Captain, we have an Imperial Star Destroyer reverting to
realspace twenty-five kilometers to our aft."
How did Varrscha get the Virulence out of there? Drysso looked over at the
holoprojector pad. "Yesti, open a comm channel to that ship. Captain Varrscha,
how did you get away?"
It took him a moment to recognize the holographic image facing him, but when he
did he felt a cold hand tighten
around his heart. "Captain Drysso, I fear you've mistaken my Freedom for your