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

"Let me run this station."
"What?"
"Look, you have this station that's been a trade staple in this region for a
very long time. You've got the Republic thinking it's been destroyed, which
means your enemies think that, too, but ships that come in-system to make
navigational adjustments can still see it here. You're fooling no one, and the
fact that you've shut the station down to folks who have been here a lot means
you're making them angry. That, in turn, means that someone is going to sell you
out to Iceheart."
"We figured that."
"Well, you should also figure this: Pretty soon no one is going to want to be
trading with Thyferra. You're giving away what Vorru wants to charge for. His
only recourse is to cut off the bacta supply going to folks who deal with you.
Once he does that, you're dead." Booster pressed his hands together. "On the
other hand, if we open this station to trade, we start generating capital for
this operation and we have people bringing us information and equipment. We
develop suppliers who are in our debt because of this station-which means they
won't want to betray you-and who bring the material here to us instead of having
us go out and get it."
"And running the station would mean you'd be anything but bored."
"There's that, too."
Wedge closed his eyes and thought for a moment. He'd
known all along that the location of his base would get out, but Booster's idea
of making the secret's preservation valu-able to smugglers and traders did
suggest it might last longer. All the years the Empire searched for Rebel bases,
it wasn't our trade partners who sold us out. And the prediction of Vorru's
action was pretty much what Wedge had figured Vorru's response would be. Wedge
had been gambling that gratitude for the free bacta would keep trade channels
open, but he agreed that supplying a profit motive would go much further in that
regard.
He opened his eyes. "Okay, that works for me. What do we use as a cover story
for why part of the station is re-stricted?"
Booster shrugged. "Does it matter? We can start all man-ner of rumors, from your
desire to emulate Warlord Zsinj and carve out your own empire to your desire to
build a force to wrest Corellia away from the Diktat or even that you and Isard
are working a racket to spike the price of bacta. The greater the number of
rumors the better, quite frankly, since they will armor the truth and result in
folks bringing us infor-mation to further our plans-whatever they might be. As
long as there is some mystery here, and folks smell profits in trying to figure
it out, we'll be covered."
Wedge nodded thoughtfully. "I suspect that your taking this position means
you'll be pitted against Vorru in this war to control trade and information."
"And that won't be boring at all." Booster's smile broad-ened to the edges of
his face. "This will be grand."
"I hope you're correct." Wedge stood and stepped away from the station manager's
chair. "Booster Terrik, this station is all yours. May the Force be with you."
13
The shuttle ride down to Thyferra from the Mimban Cloudrider left Corran a bit
uneasy. A rising storm made the air turbulent and being strapped into a seat in
the back made Corran want to scream. He glanced over at Mirax and saw she was