"Brian Daley "Han Solo at Stars' End"" - читать интересную книгу автора

Chewbacca, pointing at Han's empty, holstered blaster, threw him the unusable gun. Hah threw back the riot gun in exchange and drew his own side arm, to charge it from the ruined pistol. Chewbacca, whose thick fingers didn't fit the human-sized weapon well, tore off the trigger guard, then began firing around the corner without lookingmhigh, low, and in between, at every angle.
Han mated the adapters in the pistol's grip to those in his own blaster's power pack, just forward of the trigger guard. He wound up with only half-charge ca-pacity, but it would have to do. Finished, he tossed the useless Espo pistol aside and joined the Wooldee. To frustrate counterfire, the two fired unpredictably, and they could be very unpredictable indeed. None of the Authority people seemed to want to emulate the major's heroism.
Suddenly the firing from above stopped. The de-fenders also stopped, watching for a trick. It occurred to Han that if Hitken had even one shock-grenade--- but no; he'd have used it already.
A flat, hissing voice called down, "Solel Vieeprex Hirken would speak with you?
Hah leaned back against the wall nonchalantly. Without showing himseN, he answered, "Send him down, Uul-Rha-Shan. What the hell, come on down yourself, old snake's Happy to oblige."
Then came Hirken's strong-sales-experience voice. "We'll talk from here, thanks. I know now just what it was you did."
Hah wished to himself he'd known, too, beforehand. "I want to strike a bargain," Hirken went on. "How-ever you're planning on getting away, I want you to take me with you. And the others with me, of course." Of course. Hah didn't even hesitate. "You got it.
Throw your guns down here and come down one at a
time, hands on your-"
"Be serious, Solo!" Hirken interrupted, depriving Hah of the chance to tell him where to put his hands. "We can keep you occupied here so that you won't be able to get out yourself! And Stars' End is at the top of its arc; we've seen that much through the dome. It'll be too late soon for any of us. What do you say to that?"
"No way, Hirken!" Han wasn't sure whether Hirken was bluffing about the tower's having reached apogee. but there was no way to check it short of leaning out one of the locks-a poor idea in view of the scarcity of spacesuits. "Hirken's dead center about one thing," he whispered. "They could pin us here if we let them make the rules."
The others followed him quickly down to the next landing, the last one before the tier-block level. They slipped around the comer and took up positions, wait-ing. Now it'd be the Viceprex's turn to sweat. From what Hah could hear, it sounded like the majority of the prisoners were still in the tier blocks, unsure of what they should do. Han just hoped they wouldn't panic and come his way.
He had his blaster raised, knowing a questing head must come around the comer they'd abandoned, but it was impossible to anticipate exactly when it would come.
A head did flick around the comer, Uul-Rha-Shan's, high up; he'd stood on someone else's back or shoul-ders. He flashed out, saw the disposition of the de-fenders, and pulled back with astounding speed. Han's tardy shot merely chipped a little more wall away; the pilot marveled at how quickly the reptilian gunman had moved.
"Is that how it is to be, Solo," came Uul-Rha-Shan's hypnotic voice. "Must I hunt you from level to level? Strike a bargain with us; we only desire to live."
Han laughed. "Sure, it's just everybody else that you don't want to live."
There was a noise from below, boots on the stairs. Doe reappeared, puffing. He threw himself down next to Ham his face composed in alarm. Han hand-signaled him to speak quietly so that those above wouldn't hear.
"Han, the Espos have come! Their assault craft is at the lowe's- lock, unloading a strike force. They've linked up with the Authority people who were hiding from us down there They drove us off the engineering levels; many were shot, and we were forced back. More died on the stairs before a rear guard was organ-ized, but the Espos are pushing a heavy blaster up, step by step. We're in it where it's deep, this time!"
A stream of prisoners was already pouring franti-cally up the stairwell. bound for the only shelter left, the tier blocks. "The F'sspos down there have spacesuits on," Dec said. "What if they bleed off our air?"
Hen abruptly saw that the men around him were looking to him for an answer, and thought, Who, me? I'm just the getaway driver, remember?
He shook his head. 'tm tapped out, Dec. Get your-self some machinery. we'll play them one last chorus."
Hirken's voice boomed down triumphantly. "Solo! My men just contacted me by corn-link! Surrender now, or I'll leave you here!" As if to emphasize that, they heard the oscillation of a heavy blaster some-where in Stars' End.
"Well, they'll still have to come through to us," Han muttered. He grabbed Doc's shirt, but recalling Hirken, spoke in a low, hard tone. "Don't sweat the air; the Espos can't bleed it off or they'll kill their Viceprex. That's why they hit the lower lock instead of the one at prisoner level; they knew they'd have a much better chance of getting in without having to burn and rupture the tower. Send up everyone you can, anyone who'll come. We'll rush Hirken, whatever it costs, and use him as a hostage."
Remembering the barrage the Authority people could lay down in the narrow stairwell, he knew that the price would be ten'ible. Doe did, too, and pushed himself off looking, for the first time, like the very tired old man he finally felt himself to be.
"Don't stop for anything," Han was telling the others. "If somebody falls, somebody else grabs his machinery, but nobody stops."
He caught Chewbacca's eye. The Weekfee peeled back his lips from his curved fangs, scrunching his black nose, and sounded a savage, appalling howl, shaking his shaggy head---a Wookiee's way of defying death. Then he grinned and rumbled at Hah, who smiled 1opsidedly. They were close enough friends not to have to make any more of it than that.


MORE inmates had come up to the landing, but they were unarmed. Hah repeated instructions about weap-ons and not stopping. His heart pounded when he thought how concentrated the energy beams would be in that stairwell. Goodbye, Old Spacemen's Home.
He rose to a half crouch, and the others emulated
him. "Chewie and me first, to lay down a cover. On
three; one, two"-he edged to the coruer-"th "
A small, furry form, vaulting over those behind Hah, landed on his shoulders, tugging at his neck. Its limber tail looped out to encircle the surprised Chew-bacca's wrist.
Han staggered, valor forgotten. "What the flying-" He identified his assailant. "Pakka!"
The cub swung down from Han's neck, bouncing up and down urgently, tugging at his leg. For a moment no fact seemed reliable. "Pakka, didn't you, I mean, where's Atuarre? Dammit, kid, how'd you get here?" He remembered then that the cub couldn't answer.
Doe was shouting from below. "Solo, get down
herel"
"Sit on things here; don't charge and don't fall back unless you have to," Han told Chewbacca. He pressed through his troops and raced down the stairs, trailing the fleet Pakka. Inside the emergency door leading to the tier blocks, he slid to a halt. ",4 tuarre!"
She was surrounded by Doe and the other prisoners. "Solo-Captain!" She seized his hands, her words tum-bling out on top of one another. She'd brought in the Millennium Falcon and clamped onto the cargo lock here at the tier-block level, on the opposite side of the tower from the Espo assault ship.
"I don't think they noticed me; energy fluxes in Stars' End are distorting sensors completely. I had to link up purely by visual tracking."
Han drew Doe and Atuarre aside. "We could never,
never fit all these people into the Falcon, not if we use
every cubic centimeter of space. How do we tell
them?" '
The Trianii broke in. "Solo-Captain, shut up! Please. And listen: I have a tunnel-tube junction sta-tion secured to the Falcon. I drove it right up against the ship and made it fast with a tractor beam."
"We can certainly fit inmates in the tunnel-tubes if we extend them," Doe began.
Hall's excited voice overbore him. "We'll do better than that. Atuarre, you're a genius! But will the tunnel-tube reach?" "It should."
Doe was looking from one to the other. "What are you two--- Oh! I see!" He rubbed his hands together, eyes bright. "This will be novel, for a fact."
One of the defenders from the upper landing poked his head through the emergency door. "Solo, the Vice,. prex is calling for you again."
"If I don't answer, he'll know something's doing. I'll send Chewie down to help you. Work fastl" "Solo-Captain, we have only minutes remainingl" He bounded up the stairs, though it left him huffing and heaving, and threatened to black him out. Air's going, he thought. In hushed tones he explained every-thing quickly and dispatched the Wooldee and most of the others down to join Atuarre and Dec.