"Michael Stackpole "The Bacta War"" - читать интересную книгу автораthe galaxy would be denied to Thyferra in an attack as destructive as the one
she was mounting. Rocketing up through the hole in the shield, Erisi rolled out and began a long elliptical orbit over the breached shield. "Interceptor One reporting. No hostile antiship fire in evi-dence." "We copy, One. The Captain congratulates you on your run and requests you join him for the march through the colony." "I copy, Control. As ordered." Erisi smiled. We've shown Convarion that THDC pilots are not the incompetent nerf-brains he thought we were. Now he will show me how pow-erful stormtroopers are so I won't forget who is superior to whom. Not that I ever could, but I shall say nothing. Conva-rion would never believe himself to be my subordinate any-way. Gavin didn't realize it was an explosion that had awakened him until a second and third blast sounded. He threw off thick layers of blankets-his Tatooine upbringing guaranteed that he felt cold even in Halanit's hot baths-and snarled as he thrust his feet into cold boots. He fastened them, then stood and strapped on his blaster belt as Farl Cort appeared in the doorway of his room. "What's happening?" Before Cort could answer, Gavin's ears popped with the change in the colony's air pressure. Air began to rush out of the room, tugging at the hem of Cort's cloak. The little man's face went ashen. "They've breached the shield." Gavin grabbed him before he could fall. "Who's they?" "Imperials, I guess. There's a Star Destroyer in orbit." "Sithspawn! You should have gotten me up when it ar-rived." Gavin wanted to pound his head against the wall. He had been certain that he'd been careful enough to hide his trail so the Corrupter broken his flight and dove away from it. The Xucphra Alazhi's bulk shielded him from the destroyer's turbolasers. He knew he was dead unless he exercised the only option available to him, a jump to lightspeed, which he did blindly. He held the jump for fifteen seconds, which were the longest fifteen seconds in his life. Jumping blind into hyper-space was about as stupid as making fat jokes around a Hutt, and nearly always as fatal. Coming out of hyperspace, he made a quick read of the area and had his R2 unit plot an-other short jump. He put his ship through a series of seven such small jumps, doubling back and forth, then took a long jump out toward the Rim. He landed on a small planet, got into and out of some trouble there, and then began his run back to Yag'Dhul. Because astronavigation had never been his strength, he was limited in his choices of destinations. To make the trip back as quickly as possible, making a long run to Halanit was his best route because, from there, the trip to Yag'Dhul could be accomplished with several short hops. He also thought there might be an off-chance that Corran and Ooryl wouldn't have left Halanit by the time he got there. Traveling to Halanit would run him pretty much out of fuel. He hoped the Halanits would give him some in return for the bacta they'd been given, and with Corran being there he was certain they would fuel him up. Despite Corran's absence, the Halanits had been more than happy to give Gavin fuel, but the problem was that they needed to synthesize it first. The process of refueling his fighter was to take two days, during which they tried to make him feel as much at home as possible. On a world sheathed in ice, with abundant amounts of water and a cuisine based on fish, making a Tatooine native feel at home was not easy. |
|
|