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

lightspeed. Once she gets clear, it's just level flying and she's out of here.
Corran slowly smiled. Upgraded that thing, did he, Iceheart? The Corellian pilot
flipped his weapon's-control over to proton torpedoes and dropped it on the
shuttle's out-line. Whistler began to beep as he tried for a firing solution.
Out ahead of the X-wing the shuttle began to juke, broaden-ing Corran's smile.
Yes, he supplied the shuttle with a missile targeting lock warning system. Only
good thing you've done in your black life, Vorru.
"So your shields won't stop a proton torpedo, eh, Iceheart?"
"You'll find out if you ever get a lock on me, Horn."
Corran glanced at his monitor and saw Tycho's X-wing eight kilometers back and
closing slowly. As long as you keep dancing, Iceheart, you can't run up to
lightspeed. That means we can burn you down. "I'll get a lock on you, then
you're done."
He painted her with a target lock again, but allowed her to break it. He
reacquired it again and shifted his ship around to herd her back toward
Thyferra's mass shadow. The shuttle rolled in the other direction, breaking the
lock, but Corran came in and got it again fairly easily. "You can't escape me,
Iceheart."
Isard's reply came almost languidly voiced. "I've stopped trying, Horn. You're
bluffing. If you had torpedoes, you would have used them already." The shuttle
leveled out and prepared for the run to lightspeed.
"I was hoping to take you alive, Isard. I'll shoot if I have to."
"Please, Horn, do your worst. Know that when we meet again, to you I shall do my
worst!"
She can't get away. I can't let her get away! Corran punched his comm unit with
a closed fist. His mind reeled as fury and a fear of failure raged through him.
My lasers can't get through her shields and I don't have any missiles to batter
them down. There's nothing I can do . . . nothing . . . wait, maybe there's
something . . .
"Quick, transfer all power to the forward shield!" Cor-ran smiled grimly and
reached for the throttle. "Hang on, Whistler, we're going to ram her."
The droid began hooting loudly, but Corran ignored him and focused on the
shuttle. "Your logic boards are fried. There's a chance we can survive, but that
doesn't matter. If we cripple her ship ... we have to cripple her ship . . ."
Before Corran could jam the throttle full forward, two blue darts streaked past
either side of his cockpit. The first exploded against the shuttle's aft shield
and collapsed it. The second drilled through the engine housing, skewing the
ship to port. The proton torpedo detonated inside the shuttle's fuselage. Corran
saw the angular ship puff up and out before fire lanced out the cockpit
viewports, then a golden fireball ripped the ship apart from the inside out.
Corran's X-wing passed straight through the center of the explosion and by the
time he brought his ship around the sparks from debris hitting his shields were
the only indication that the shuttle had been there at all. Consumed by fire.
Somehow fitting.
Corran keyed his comm unit. "Who did that?"
"Seven here, Nine. Thanks for giving me the target lock."
"What?" Corran glanced over at the transponder switch and saw it was lit. When I
punched the console, I must have hit it by accident. The image of Luke Skywalker
came to mind. He'd tell me that wasn't an accident, wasn't luck, just the Force.
Corran slowly nodded. I prefer to believe it was justice.