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

Durga had already begun searching for links be-tween Jiliac and the Malkite Poisoners. Now he would ‘also search for links between the Desilijic leader and Teroeuza ....
Surely he'd find something . . . some record. Ship-ping records, deposits of credits, withdrawMs, records of purchases... somewhere there would be evidence that would link both Teroenza and Jiliac to Aruk's death, and he, Durga, was going to find them.
He knew that the search would require both time and credits. His own personal credits, unfortunately. Durga didn't dare jeopardize his admittedly precarious position as leader of Besadii by spending huge amounts of the kajidic's money on what would be called a per-sonal vendetta.
Zier and his other detractors were already watching him, just ready to pounce on unjustified expenses.
No, he'd have to pay for it himself... and it would strain his personal resources to do so.
Durga thought for a moment of Black Sun. A word to Prince Xizor, and he'd have all of Black Sun's impres-sive resources at his command. But that would be open-ing the door to a Black Sun takeover of Besadii, and possibly all of Nal Hutta.
Durga shook his head. He couldn't risk that. He didn't want to wind up as one of Xizor's vassals. He was a free and independent Hutt, and no Falleen Prince was going to give him his marching orders.
Durga left Aruk's smashed office, and went to his own. He had a long session of work at his datapad be-fore him. He couldn't let his work for Besadii suffer, so most of his search would have to be done at night, while most Hutts were sleeping.
Grimly, Durga reached for his datapad, and began keying in requests for information.
He had found his parent's murderers, he was sure of it. He knew the how, and the why. Now to gain the proof that would allow him to challenge Jiliac and de-mand persona] satisfaction for a blood-debt.
Durga's tiny fingers began racing over his datapad, and the greenish tip of his tongue protruded from the corner of his mouth as he concentrated ....
Teroenza paced slowly down the hallway in the Yle-sian Administrative Center to meet with Kibbick. The Hutt "overlord" had requested his presence almost twenty minutes ago, but Teroenza had been busy. In the old days he'd never have dared to keep a Hutt lord waiting, but things on Ylesia were changing, slowly but surely.
He, Teroenza, was taking over. That idiot Kibbick was just too stupid to realize it.
Every day he was making plans, hiring the additional guards Durga had authorized, and fortifying the planet. Instead of hiring mostly Gamorrean guards, strong but even dumber than Kibbick which was saying something!--Teroenza was carefully choosing tough-ened mercenary fighters. They cost more, but they'd be worth it in battle.
And Teroenza knew there was going to be a bat-tle .... The day would come when he'd have to openly declare his break with Nal Hutta. Besadii would never take such a bid for independenee lying down, but Teroenza planned to be ready. He would direct his troops in battle, and victory would be theirs!
The High Priest was already making arrangements to bring the mates of the t'landa Til priests to Ylesia. His own mate, Tilenna, would be one of the first to arrive. Kibbick was such an idiot that he probably wouldn't even notice for some time. The differences between male and female t'landa Til were most readily appar-ent to t'landa Til. To most other species, except for the male's horn, they appeared virtually identical. Teroenza was also planning on increasing the defenses, even if he had to sell off part of his collection to do it. He'd checked the price of a ground-mounted turbo-laser and been horrified, but perhaps Jiliac would help him out with the credits he needed. After ‘all, he, Teroenza, was the only one who could implicate her in Aruk's murder. It made sense that she'd want to stay on his good side.
When Teroenza reached Kibbick's audience cham-ber, he hesitated before the port'd, consciously sum-moning up enough of a servile air to pass. He didn't want Kibbick to be aware of his contempt. Not yet. Soon, though ....
Soon, Teroenza comforted himself. Play your part. Listen to him babble. Agree with him. Flatter him. Soon you won't have to do this any more. Only a few more vwnths to put up with his foolishness. Soon ....
One of the first things Han Solo did ‘after getting the Millennium Falcon was challenge his girlfriend, Salla Zend, to a race. In the smaller, unreliable Bria he'd never had a hope of defeating her swift Rimrunner, but nOW...
Whenever the two of them happened to have cargoes bound for the Kessel Run, the two smugglers would race through that dangerous area of space. They fre-quently ran spice and other contraband to the Stenness System, and the Kessel Run was the fastest way there.
One time Han would win... the next, Salla. The two ships' were very evenly matched. Neither of the two smugglers liked losing, and their friendly competi-tions became increasingly fierce. They began taking chances... dangerous ones. Especially Salla. An expert pilot, she flew her ship alone and was proud of her skill at getting the last bit of power out of her vessel.
One morning Han and Salla left her apartment to-gether, kissed each other goodbye, and promised to meet on Kamsul, one of the seven inhabited worlds in the Stenness System. Hah grinned at Salla. "Loser buys dinner?"
She smiled back at him. "I'm going to order the most expensive thing on the menu just to spite you, Hah."
Han laughed, waved, and they parted to go to their respective ships.
The run to Kessel was uneventful. Han managed to beat Salla in by nearly fifteen minutes, but one of the loader droids assigned to his ship developed a malfunc-tion, and slowed the loading process. Salla's Rimrunner came swooping down for a reckless landing while he was still loading up, and Hah was barely five minutes ‘ahead of her in lifting off.
He was flying with Chewie as copilot and Jarik in the topmost gunner's mount. Imperial patrols in the Kessel region were becoming more and more prevalent these days.
Hah keyed his intercom as they went blasting into the Run. "Look sharp, kid," he told Jarik. "I don't want any Imp patrols catching us by surprise."
"Right, Hah. Just keep a lookout on those soupod-up sensors of yours, and I'll blast ‘em before they know what hit ‘era."
The first obstacle to be faced once they left Kessel was the Maw-a treacherous, roughly spherical region of space containing black holes, a few neutron stars, and scattered main-sequence stars. From a distance, the Maw appeared in Kessel's nighttime sky to be a rounded, fuzzy, vari-colored glow, much like a nebula. But as a ship drew closer, the spherical shape became clearer. The Maw glowed with the light from the suns within it, the ionized gas and dust trails snaking throughout in bands of color. And, seemingly looking back at Hah, were the accretion disks of the black holes.
The accretion disks resembled white, watching eyes against the dimmer regions of the Maw. Depending on their angle relative to the Falcon, those eyes were slit-ted, narrowed, or wide open. In the middle of each "eye" was a pinprick black "pupil" marking each of the black holes that were sucking in the trails of starstuff.
Almost like the jungle on an Ylesian night, Hah thought. Black nights with watching predator eyes ....
Navigating the perimeter of the Maw at normal sub-light speeds was a tricky proposition, and racing around it at full throttle was asking for disaster. Han glanced at his sensors, and saw that Salla was gaining on them. He increased speed, pouring it on, until he was going faster than he ever had before on a run.
"She won't catch us now," Hah said to Chewie. "I'm gonna hold this lead until we're into the Pit and then we'll be far enough ‘ahead that we'll make our jump to hyperspace at least twenty minutes ahead of Rimrunner."
"The Pit" was a perilous asteroid field encased within a wispy gaseous arm of a nearby nebula. To-gether, the Maw and the Pit made the Kessel Run the dangerous proposition it was. Hearing Han% boast, Chewie gave an unhappy moan and made a suggestion.
"Whaddaya mean, let her beat us?" Han demanded indignantly, his gloved fingers flying over the controls as they went screaming past the first cluster of black holes. The gas and dust from nearby stars was being pulled into the accretion disks in long, attenuated streamers of blue-white and rose. "You crazy? I ain't buying dinner! I'm gonna win a nerf tenderloin with a broiled ladnek tail, surf and turf special, fair and square!"
Chewie eyed the Falcon% speed indicator nervously, and voiced another suggestion.
"You'll buy everyoneg dinner if I slow down?" Hah gave his copilot an incredulous glance. "Hey pal, mar-riage must be makin' you soft these days. I can handle this. The Falcon can handle it. We're gonna win this one !"
Even as he spoke, his instruments registered a strange sensor signature from the recklessly acceler-ating Rimrunner. Han stared, eyes wide, at his board. "Oh, no . . ." he whispered. "Salla, you crazy? Don't do it!"
Moments later Rimrunner's royhock-shaped form elongated, then popped out of real space. Chewie howled. "Salla!" Han yelled, uselessly. "You crazy fool! Tryin' a microjump near the Maw is just asking for trouble!"
Chewie fretted as Han tYantically increased speed even more, checking his sensors to try and find the Rimrunner. "Where'd she go? Crazy woman! Where'd she go?"
Ten minutes passed, then fifteen, as the Falcon sped ‘along, hugging the perimeter of the Maw. Hah consid-ered trying a microjump himself, but he had no way of discovering what course Salla had followed. The only thing he could be sure of was that she wouldn't have tried jumping straight from one side of the Maw to the other. The deep gravity wells from the black holes and neutron stars would have yanked her out of hyperspace in short order-and probably straight into a black hole's event horizon, the point of no return.
No, she had to have jumped along the perimeter, perhaps to get a straight shot at the Pit ....
Chewie whined and stabbed a hairy finger at the sen-sors. "Thatg her!" Hah said, studying Rimrunner's read-ings. Salta was still moving, but she wasn't headed toward the Pit. She was...
"Oh, no . . "Han whispered, feeling horror wash over him. "Chewie, something must have gone wrong. She ain't goin' in the right direction... "He checked his instruments again. "She came outta hyperspace within the magnetic field of that neutron star up ‘ahead!"
Rimrunner was still moving, but no longer in a straight path. Instead S'alla's ship was within a thousand kilometers of a neutron star, looping up in a high orbit. Han's sensors showed jets of deadly plasma spewing out both sides of the flattened accretion disk that marked the neutron star's location.
"Either the gravity well or the magnetic field must have disrupted her navicomputer, and she came out of the microjump in the wrong place... "Han breathed, feeling as though his chest were being squeezed by a gi-ant, invisible hand. "Oh, Chewie... she's a goner .... "
Within minutes, Salla's ship would reach apastron, or the highest and slowest point in her orbit around the dying star. Then, scant minutes later, Rimrunner's orbit would pull it looping back around, and Salla's ship would pass through the edge of the plasma jet. The deadly radiation levels there would fry her in moments.
A hundred memories of Salla raced through Han's mind between one heartbeat and the next. Salla, smil-ing at him in the morning... Salla, dressed in a glam-orous gown, taking him out for a night in the casinos... S'alla, her face smudged, fixing a hyperdrive as easily as most people would fix breakfast . . . except that Salla never had learned to cook ....
"Chewie . . "he whispered hoarsely, "we gotta try and save her."
Chewbacca shot him a look, then pointed a. hairy fin-ger at the sensors and growled.