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

and placing his hands on the table. His lekku flopped over inside his elbows.
"You deserve more than this for your great victory." Wedge raised an eyebrow.
"Great victory?" The Twi'lek chuckled in a manner that seemed almost menacing.
"You took from Iceheart a convoy of bacta." "It wasn't exactly defended very
heavily." "It matters not. You did what no one would dare to do- you struck at
the Bacta Cartel. What you did is memorable and worthy of praise."
"Thank you." Wedge glanced at the serving droid that approached the table.
"Corellian whisky for me, Whyren's Reserve, if you have it. Tal'dira?"
"This Whyr'rensreserve will suffice for me as well." The droid beeped an
understanding of the order and rolled away. Wedge smiled at the Twi'lek. "You
did not come here to tell me what you thought of the raid against Iceheart."
"Ah, but I did." Tal'dira leaned forward and raised his hands so his chin could
rest on his outstretched thumbs. "The galaxy is changing. I am not old enough to
remember the prior Republican era, but I have heard tales of the Clone Wars.
Since its birth, the Empire sought to maintain peace, but there was much
conflict that they ignored, conflict in which a warrior could find a career and
build himself into a legend. And then there was the Rebellion . . ."
The Twi'lek fell silent as the droid returned with their drinks. Wedge plucked
the tumblers of the amber liquid from the serving tray and set one before his
guest. Hoisting his own glass aloft he offered a toast. "To warriors and their
legends." Tal'dira nodded and added, "And to those skilled enough to become
living legends."
Wedge touched his tumbler to Tal'dira's and drank. He let the whisky linger on
his tongue for a moment, then let it
trail fire down his throat and into his belly. He gave himself a moment to
consider what Tal'dira had said and he thought he had a glimmering of where the
Twi'lek meant the conversa-tion to go. The thought that he might be right
threatened to plant a smile on his face, so he deliberately narrowed his eyes.
"The Rebellion was very much a place where warriors were able to build
reputations. Too many of them have be-come posthumous legends, but that was one
conflict that fa-vored the courageous and devoured the weak." Wedge kept his
voice even, but found his words surprising him. It felt natural to refer to the
Rebellion in the past tense, as if it were over even before the last bits of the
Empire had been smashed. He realized that this thought was not wholly wrong, for
the conquest of Coruscant had elevated the Rebel-lion from being a movement to
being a government almost overnight. That's a transformation I never thought I'd
see.
Tal'dira's black talons clicked gently against the duraplast tabletop. "It is my
profound wish I had been pos-sessed of the foresight to join the Rebellion."
Wedge shrugged his shoulders. "You had responsibilities as a Twi'lek warrior. I
had no such responsibilities and could therefore join the Rebellion."
"True, but to acquit my duties to my people I should have opposed the Empire."
Wedge frowned for a moment. The political makeup of the Empire had been such
that the nonhuman populations always knew they existed at the sufferance of the
Emperor. For many of them, remaining unnoticed by the Empire seemed the best way
to make sure they were not destroyed. Historically, the Twi'leks found
negotiation and deal making preferable to direct confrontation, and this
preference had served them well during the time of the Rebellion. They seemed to
view both the Empire and the Rebellion as rival heat storms that would
annihilate each other, leaving the Twi'leks in a position to thrive afterward.