"Ann Crispin "Han Solo. Rebel Dawn"" - читать интересную книгу автора

All the while that he was installing weapons and armor, Han, Shug and Chewie worked on the Falcon's engines and other systems. The Falcon already boasted a military-grade hyperdrive. Together Hah and Shug tinkered with both the hyperdrive and sub-light engines until they were even more powerful, and the Falcon was making faster and faster times on Han's smuggling runs.
They also installed new sensor and jamming systems. The new jamming system had a less than auspicious first trial, however. When Han triggered it, the pulse was so powerful that it also jammed the Falcon's own internal communications, disrupting the signals from the cockpit to the ship's systems! The incident hap-pened at the worst possible time while the Falcon was ducking into a planet's gravity well in an attempt to shake off an Imperial frigate. As their ship hurtled down, grazing upper atmosphere, totally out of control, Han and Chewbacca stared at their instruments in dis-may. Only the fact that the new jammer was so power-ful that it burned out almost immediately saved them from being incinerated in the planet's atmosphere.
The day came when Han looked at the Falcon with satisfaction, and threw an arm around Shug Ninx's shoulders. "Shug old pal, you are one master mechanic. I don't think there's anyone better with a hyperdrive in the whole galaxy. She's purring like a Togorian kit-cub, and we've increased her speed another two percent."
The half-alien master mechanic smiled at his friend, but shook his head. "Thanks, Han, but I can't claim that title. I've heard that there's a guy in the Corporate Sec-tor name of ‘Doc' who can make a hyperdrive dance a jlzz-j'sg with one hand tied behind his back. If you want her to go even faster, you'll have to hunt him up."
Han listened with some surprise, but filed the infor-mation away in his mind as potentially useful. He'd .al-ways had a yen to see the Corporate Sector, and now he had a reason to go there.
"Thanks, Shug," he said. ‘Tll have to consider con-tacting this guy if I ever get there."
"From what I've heard about Doc, you don't contact him. He'll contact you, if he decides it's a good idea. Ask Arly Bron about him. He'S spent time in the Corporate Sector, he might know how you'd go about contacting Doc."
"Thanks for the word," Han said. He knew Arly Bron, as he did most of the smugglers who hung out in the Corellian Sector of Nar Shaddaa. Bron was a stocky, aging smuggler with a genial air and a sharp tongue. He enjoyed needling fools, but he was fast enough on the draw to still be among the living, which said something for his speed and accuracy. He flew a beat up old freighter named Double Echo.
Now that Han had the fast and (comparatively) reli-able Millennium Falcon, he could take on the most challenging jobs. He still worked mostly for Jabba, who was basically running the Desilijic kajidic these days, but he also took jobs for other employers. The Corellian and his Wookiee sidekick became ‘almost a legend on Nar Shaddaa as they broke speed records for the Kessel Run and flew rings around Imperial patrol vessels.
Han had never been happier. He had a fast ship, friends in Chewie, Jarik and Lando, an attractive, savvy lady friend in Salla, and credits in his pocket. True, money had a way of slipping through his fingers, no matter how he tried to hold on to it, but to Han, that was only a minor worry. So what if he liked living high, gambling and expensive flings? He could always make more!
But even though Han's personal life was going splen-didly, dark clouds were gathering on the horizon. The Emperor continued to tighten his grip, and his reach was extending even into the Outer Rim these days. There was a massacre on Mantooine in the Atrivis Sec-tor, and the Rebels that had managed to capture an Im-peri.al base there were wiped out practically to the last defender.
There were other massacres as object lessons to in-ner Imperial worlds. Gunrunners had to be increasingly wary and fast, in order to deliver their cargoes. When Han had first begun making the Kessel Run, it was un-usual to even pick up an Imp craft on ship's sensors. Now it was unusual to not spot one. To support his fleets and armies, Emperor Palpatine levied taxes that had citizens of the Empire groaning beneath the finan-cial burden. These days, the average citizen of the Em-pire struggled just to put decent food on the table.
(Han and his friends, naturally, did not pay taxes. No tax collectors came to the Smuggler's Moon-collecting taxes from the motley denizens of Nar Shaddaa was such a daunting task that the moon was simply "over-looked" each tax time.)
In the past, Han had paid little attention to news-vids about the struggle between the Imperials and the underground Rebel groups. But now, knowing that Bria might be involved in those actions, he found himself lis-tening to the news-vids with undivided attention. Pal-patine must be crazy, Han found himself thinking, on more than one occasion. He's askin'for a wholesale re-bellion with these tactics... massacres, murders, citi-zens hauled out of their homes in the middle of the night, and never seen again ....You ,asss over people bad enough, long enough, you're askin'for revolt .... Dissent in the Imperial Senate was growing by leaps and bounds. One of the more prominent Senators, Mon Mothma, had been forced to flee not long ago, ‘after the Emperor ordered her arrest on charges of treason. Mon Mothma had been a prestigious member of the Senate, and the Emperor's high-handed move caused demonstra-tions on Chandrilla, her home planet-demonstrations that resulted in yet another ruthless massacre of Imperial citizens.
The Emperor's attacks on financial well-being and personal freedom had another effect, one that Hah found particularly disturbing. More and more down-trodden, poverty-stricken people were chucking their old lives and heading for Ylesia to become Pilgrims-or, as Han knew, slaves.
Many of the new Pilgrims came from Sullust, Bothu-wui, and CoreIlia, worlds that had recently suffered reprisals for civil unrest and anti-taxation demonstra-tions. Han arrived home one day from a smuggling run to discover that, for the first time, the t'landa Til had held a revival on Nar Shaddaa. As a result, a number of Corellians from the Corellian sector of Nar Shaddaa had packed up and were waiting to board a ship bound for, among other places, Ylesia.
When he heard this, Han grabbed a tube over to the disembarkation point, and raced up to the line of hollow-eyed, weary looking Corellians waiting to board the transport. "What do you think you're doing?" he shouted. "Ylesia is a trap! Haven't you heard the stories about it? They lure you there, then turn you into slaves! You'll wind up dyin' in the mines of Kessel! Don't go!"
One old woman looked at him suspiciously. "Shut up, youngster," she said. "We're going to a better place. The Ylesian priests say they'll take care of us, and we'll have a better life... a blessed life. I'm sick of scratchin' here. The cursed Empire is making it too hard these days to earn a dishonest living."
The others muttered similar imprecations at him as he moved up and down the line, expostulating with the Pilgrim-candidates. Hah finally stopped and stood there, wanting to howl aloud with rage, like a Wookiee. Chewie did howl in frustration.
"Chewie, short of setting my blaster on stun and shooting them all, there ain't no way of stoppin' them," the Corellian observed, bitterly.
"Hrrrrrrrnnnnnnnn," Chewie agreed, sadly.
In a last ditch effort, Han tried talking to some of the younger people, even going so far as to offer one or two a job. None would listen to him. He soon gave up in dis-gust. This had happened to him once before, on Aefao, a remote world at the opposite side of the galaxy from Nar Shaddaa. There had been an Ylesian revival, and Han had tried to warn those who were heading for the ships, but he found he couldn't compete with the Pilgrim-candidates' wide-eyed memories of the Exulta-tion. Only a few of the small, orange-skinned, hu-manold Aefans had listened to him. Over a hundred had boarded the Ylesian missionary ship ....
Hah watched the line of Corellians shuffling into the waiting transport, and shook his head. "Some people are just too dumb to live, Chewie," he said.
Or too desperate, the Wookiee rejoined.
"Yeah, well, just another reminder to me that stickin' your neck out is a good way to get your head chopped off," Han said, disgustedly, as he turned his back on the doomed Corellians and began walking away. "Next time I think about doin' that, pal, I want you to give me a Wookiee love-tap that will put me on my butt. You'd think ‘after all these years I'd learn .... "
Chewie promised, and, together, they walked away.
Despite the fact that he had his undersized hands full running Besadii, Durga the Hutt refused to give up his search to find his parent's murderer. Six members of the household staff had died under rigorous interroga-tion, but there was absolutely no indication that any of them had been involved.
If the household staff was innocent, then how had Aruk been poisoned? Durga had another conversation with Myk Bidlor, who confirmed this time that there were traces of X-1 in Aruk's digestive tract. The lethal substance had indeed been eaten.
Durga terminated the communication, and went for a long undulation, roaming the halls of his' palace, thinking. His expression was so forbidding that his staff already highly nervous, and understandably so- fled before his approach as though he were an evil spirit from the Outer Darkness.
In his mind, the young Besadii lord was going over the last months of his parent's life, mentally ticking off every moment of every day. Everything Aruk had eaten had come from their own kitchens, prepared by the staff of chefs-including the ones now deceased. (He made a mental note to hire two new chefs .... )
Durga had had the entire kitchen and the servants' quarters scanned for any trace of X-1. Nothing. The only place that they'd picked up even the smalle's hint of the substance had been on the floor in Aruk's office, not far from his usual parking spot for his repulsor sled. And that had been just the barest trace.
Durga frowned, contorting his birthmark-stained features into something resembling a demon-mask. Something was higgling at him. A memory. Niggling... wiggling... niggling...
Wiggling... wriggling! The nala-tree frogs/ Suddenly the memory was there, sharp and clear. Aruk, belching as he reached for yet another live nala-tree frog. Up until now, Durga had never considered the possibility that the poison could have been deliv-ered by means of a living creature-after all, it seemed only reasonable that the creature would die from the poison long before it could be ingested.
But what if nala-tree frogs were immune to the ef-fects of X-l? What if their tissues had been filled with ever-increasing amounts of X-l, without affecting them?
Aruk had loved his nala-tree frogs. He'd eaten them every day, sometimes as much as a dozen of them every day.
"Osman!" Durga bellowed. "Fetch me the scanner!
Bring it straight to Aruk's office!"
The Chevin appeared briefly, acknowledged the or-der, and then vanished. The sounds of his running feet faded into the distance. Durga began undulating at top speed toward his parent's sanctum.
When he reached there, he was only seconds ‘ahead of the panting servant, who was carwing the scanning device. Durga grabbed it from his hands, then rushed into the office. Where is it? he thought, looking wildly around.
Yes, there! he realized, heading for the corner. Stand-ing in the corner, forgotten, was Aruk's old snack-quarium. He'd used it to keep live food fresh, and, the last few months of his life, that live food had mostly been nala-tree frogs!
Thrusting the scanher's probe-tip into the snack-quarium, Durga activated the instrument. Moments later, he had his answer. The mineral deposits on the globe's glassinc sides contained sizable amounts of X-l!
Durga let out a bellow of rage that made the furniture rattle, then went berserk, smashing the snackquarium with one mighty blow of his tail, slamming his bulk into furnishings, crushing and destroying everything in his path. Finally, hoarse and panting, he halted in the ruins of Aruk% office.
Teroenza. Teroenza sent the frogs.
Durga% first impulse was to fly to Ylesia and person-‘ally smash the t'landa Til to a bloody pulp, but, after a moment's reflection, he realized that it would be be-neath him to soil his hands and tail on a lesser being. Besides, he couldn't just do away with the High Priest. Teroenza was a good High Priest, and would be hard to replace. The Besadii lord was uncomfortably aware that if he had Teroenza killed, the t'landa Til on Ylesia might well refuse to continue their charade as priests in the Exultation. Teroenza was well-liked by those who served under him. He was ‘also an able administrator, who had brought Besadii ever-increasing profits from the spice factories.
I'll have to have a trained replacement ready to step in before I act against him, Durga thought.
Also, Durga reflected, the evidence against the High Priest was purely circumstantial. It was remotely possi-ble that Teroenza was innocent. Durga had kept a close eye on Teroenza's expenditures, and no large sums of credits had left his account. He could not have pur-chased the poison unless he did it in a very clandestine way... and he did not have the kind of credits it would take to purchase large amounts of X-1.
Unless he sold that wretched collection of his .... Durga thought, but he knew that hadn't happened. He kept close watch over all the shipping manifests going into and out of Ylesia, and Teroenza had, in fact, been adding to his collection for the past nine months.
The Besadii lord resolved to begin training a new t'landa Til that very week. He'd continue his investiga-tions, and by the time the new High Priest w'sts ready, he'd hire a bounty hunter to bring him Teroenza's horn. Durga envisioned the horn, mounted on the wall of his office, right next to Arnk's holo-portrait.
Teroenza might not be the only one who deserved to die on Ylesia. Someone had had to capture the nala-tree frogs, put them into shipping containers, and load them onto ships. Durga resolved to investigate the situation from all angles before placing his bounty.
Of course the real murderer was the individual who had purchased the X-1 and masterminded the entire operation. Jiliac was his prime suspect. She had the credits, she had the motivation.