"Ann Crispin "Han Solo. Rebel Dawn"" - читать интересную книгу автора
(STARWARS. Han Solo Trilogy #3)
Winners and Losers,
Han Solo leaned forward in the pilot's seat of the Way-ward Girl. "Entering atmosphere, Captain," he said. He watched the system's big, pale sun slip into the great curve of ruddy light at the world's edge and disap-pear behind the planet's limb. Bespin's huge, dark nightside loomed up to blot out the stars. Hah checked his sensors. "They say Bespin's got some big flyin'-or should I say, floatin'-creatures in its atmosphere, so keep those forward shields at maximum strength."
One-handed, his co-pilot made an adjustment. "What's our ETA to Cloud City, Hah?" she asked, a hint of strain in her voice.
"Not long now," Han replied reassuringly, as the Girl sliced into the upper atmosphere, swooping over the planet's dark pole, lightning far below making ia flickering fog of dim light. "ETA twenty-six minutes. We ought to be in Cloud City in time to catch a late dinner."
"The sooner the better," she commented, grimacing as she flexed her right arm in its pressure-sling. "This thing itches like fury."
"Just hang on, Jadonna," Han said. "We'll get you straight to the reed-facility."
She nodded. "Hey, Han, no complaints from me. You've done great. I'll just be glad to get this arm into bacta."
Han shook his head. "Ripped cartilage and liga-ments... that's gotta hurt," he said. "But Cloud City's sure to have adequate meds."
She nodded. "Oh, they do. It's quite a place, Han.
You'll see."
Jadonna Ve10z was a short, stocky, dark-skinned woman with long, straight black hair. Han had met her two days ago, after she'd advertised from Alderaan on the spacer-nets for a pilot to fly her ship to Bespin. Veloz's arm had been injured when it was struck by a malfunctioning anti-grav loader, but, determined to meet her tight shipping deadline, she'd postponed real treatment until she delivered her cargo.
After paying Han's passage from CoreIlia on a fast shuttle to Alderaan, he'd taken over as pilot, and brought them to Bespin right on schedule.
The Wayward Girl was through the wispy exosphere now, and plunging deeper, moving toward the evening twilight, blue sky building above them. Han altered course, heading southwest, toward where the setting sun must be. As they streaked ‘along, the tops of the piled, puffy masses of clouds far below began taking on colors, deep crimson and coral, then yellow-orange.
Han Solo had his own reasons for needing a ride to Bespin. If it hadn't been for Jadonna's ad on the nets, he'd have had to dip into his rapidly dwindling stash of credits to buy passage for himself on a commercial vessel.
Velozs accident couldn't have come at a better time, far as Han was concerned. With the credits she'd prom-ised him, he'd be able to afford a cheap room and a few meals during the big sabacc tournament. The buy-in alone was a staggering ten thousand credits. Han had barely managed to scrape those credits together by fencing the small golden palador figurine he'd stolen from the Ylesian High Priest Teroenza, plus the dragon pearl he'd discovered in Admiral Greelanx's office.
The Corellian wished for a moment that Chewie was here with him, but he'd had to leave the Wookiee be-hind in their little flat on Nar Shaddaa because he couldn't afford to buy his passage.
They were deep into the atmosphere now, and Han could actually see Bespin's sun, a squashed looking or-ange ball just clearing a massive bank of clouds. The Girl was surrounded by a golden glory of heaped clouds-as golden as Han Solo's dreams of wealth.
Han was staking everything on this big gamble . . . and he'd always been lucky at sabacc. But would luck be enough to let him win? He'd be playing against profes-sional gamblers like Lando.
The Corellian swallowed, then resolutely concen-trated on his piloting. This was no time to get an attack of nerves. Hah made another adjustment to the Girl's approach vector, thinking that he ought to be within range of Cloud City traffic control any time now.
As if in answer to his thoughts, a voice spoke up from his comm. "Incoming vessel, please identify yourself."
"Wayward Girl, we confirm your vector. Cloud City is your destination?"
"That's an affirmative, traffic control," Jadonna said. Han grinned. From what he'd heard, Cloud City was about ‘all there was to Bespin. There were the mining facilities, of course, and gas refining, storage and ship-ping facilities, but more than half of ‘all incoming traffic was probably bound for the luxurious resort hotels. In the past few years, bored tourists had made the city in the clouds one of their favorite vacation playgrounds.
"Traffic control," Jadonna continued, "we have a pri-ority shipment for the Yarith Bespin kitchens. Neff tenderloins in stasis. Request a landing vector."
"Permission granted, Wayward Girl," came the voice of the traffic controller. The controller% voice took on a more inform'a] note. "Nerf steaks, eh? I'll have to take. my wif's out this week. She's been wanting some-thing fancy, and that's a treat we don't get too often."
"These are prime cuts, traffic control," Veloz said.
"Hope the chef at the Yarith Bespin appreciates them."
"Oh, he's good," the voice said, then the controller reverted to his official tones. "Wayward Girl, I have you slotted in at Level 65, Docking Bay 7A. Repeat. Level 65, 7A. Do you copy?"
"We copy, Cloud City Controller."
"And your assigned landing vector is . . ." the voice hesitated, then gave them more coordinates.
Han punched them into the navieomputer, then they settled back to enjoy the ride. He found himself looking forward to seeing the fabled Cloud City. Bespin itself had already been famous, even before the resort was built. They mined tibanna gas here, which was used in starship engines, and in powering blasters.
Han wasn't sure how they actually mined the gas, but he knew that tibanna gas was very valuable, so the miners must be doing well. Before it was discovered in Bespin's atmosphere, tibanna gas had usually been found in stellar chromospheres and nebular clusters- which made harvesting it hazardous, to say the least. Then somebody had stumbled across the fact that Be-spin% atmosphere was loaded with it.
Picking up a sudden burst of electrical activity on his sensors, Han hastily changed course. "Hey-what's that?" He pointed at the viewscreen. To their right now, was a monstrous, half-seen shape, drifting amid those incredible aurulent clouds. The thing was so large that it would have dwarfed many small Corellian cities.
Jadonna leaned forward. "That's a beldon!" she ex-claimed. "They're really rare. In all the years I've been flying through these clouds, I've never seen one."
Han squinted at the mammoth creature as the Girl streaked by it. The beldon resembled some of the gelatinous ocean creatures he'd seen on some worlds, with a huge, dome-like top, and many small feeding tentacles hanging down beneath it.
Hah checked his landing vector. "Right on the cred-its, Captain," he said. Behind them, the leviathan faded into the distance. Han saw another, smaller shape ‘ahead of them that almost resembled an upside-down beldon, and realized it was Cloud City.
It hung in the clouds like some kind of exotic wine-glass, topped with a jeweled crown of rounded towers, domed buildings, communication spires, and refinery stacks. In the last wash of sunset, it glowed like a cor-usca gem.
Staying on their approach vector, Han sent them skimming over the domed buildings of the cityscape in the clouds. Moments later, he brought the Girl down in a perfect landing on their assigned spot.
After receiving his pay, and saying farewell to Cap-tain Veloz, Han went looking for a robo-hack to take him to the posh Yarith Bespin hotel, where the sabacc tournament was being held.
Moments later he was punching in his destination on a keypad, sending the little robo-hack zipping through the city streets, up and down levels, traveling at a pace that would have made most humans dizzy-especially when tile little vehicle "hopped" low-lying buildings, giving Hah a glimpse of the clouds surrounding them and the yawning depths below them. It was almost full night now, and the city sparkled like a lady's open jewel box.
Minutes later the robo-hack pulled up before the Yarith Bespin. Han waved the luggage droid aside and ъ walked through the massive entrance. He'd been in posh hotels before, while touring with his magician friend, Xaverri, so the opulent interior with its spidery, crisscrossing glidewalks that spanned the stories-high atrium didn't phase him. He saw a sign reading "Tour-nament Registration" in at least 20 languages, and fol-lowed the arrow up the glide-lift to the mezzanine.
When he stepped off the floating walkway, he headed purposefully toward the large tables. The place was thronged with gamblers of all species, sizes and de-scriptions. Hah registered, checked his blaster (‘all weapons had to be checked), received an ID badge, and a voucher that he'd cash in as he needed betting chips. The first game would start tomorrow at midday.
Just as he turned away from the registration area, chip voucher tucked securely into a pocket inside his shirt, next to his skin, Hah heard a familiar voice. "Han! Hey, Han! Over here!"
He turned and saw Lando Calrissian waving to him from across the mezzanine. Waving to show he'd heard, Hah jogged over to the glidewalk and hopped aboard, even as Lando leaped aboard the one coming toward Han's side of the enormous room.
When he'd last seen Lando, the gambler was head-ing off for action in the Oseon system. But he'd been talking about this tournament for months, so Han had been expecting to run into him here.
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