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

"She's waving, Han!" A moment later, the kid said, "Okay, Han, she's inside! Closing the airlock!"
Chewbacca's roar came over the intercom a moment later. "Right!" Hah said. "We are getting outta here!"
Hah ‘altered course and increased speed, pulling out of the neutron star's gravity well. Checking the schematic, he saw that Rimrunner was just passing through the plasma jet and accelerating in its orbit.
That was close/
"How is she?" Han said over the intercom. "Talk to me, guys?
A moment later he heard Salla's voice, hoarse but recognizable. "I'm okay, Han. Just a cut on my head. Chewie's fixing me up."
"Jarik, c'mon up here and take the controls," Hah said. "I want to see Salla. Chewie, don't forget to check her for radiation exposure .... "
"Arrrmnnnnnnnnghhhh!" came the exasperated roar.
"That's goodff
"Han," Jarik said, "she's coming up. Stay where you are.
A minute later, the three joined Han in the cockpit. The Corellian slipped out of the pilot's seat, and Chewie and Jarik took over the pilot's and copilot's seats. Salla sat down in the passenger seat, scowling. There was a bandage on her forehead, half-covered by her wiry mop of black hair. Hah bent over her solicitously. "Hey... honey..."
She pulled away from him, and for a second he thought she was going to swing at him. Her eyes flashed with anger at the universe in general. Taking the hint, Han stepped back. "Hah... that blip..." She pointed. "Is that Rimrunner?"
Han turned and looked at the schematic, then the viewport. Rimrunner was still in the plasma jet, visible only as an orange glow. "Yeah," he said. "She's really picking up speed .... "
Silence reigned in the cockpit as the four watched the blip that was Salla's pride and joy speeding through the last of the plasma, accelerating faster and faster, heading for the accretion disk as the neutron star's gravity pulled the freighter into an ever tighter, closer orbit.
Minutes later, a tiny flare blossomed for a second on the edge of the accretion disk. Salla stood up. "Well, that's that," she said, flatly. "If you gentles will excuse me, I need to use the ‘fresher."
Han stood aside as Salla walked back into the Fal-con's interior. He thought about how he'd feel if it was his ship that had just bought it, and could understand the pent-up anger that she was barely controlling.
Minutes later, he heard muffled thuds and cries com-ing from the ship's small lounge area. Hah glanced at his friends. "I'll check it out."
When he arrived back in the lounge, he found Salla standing with her back to the hologram game board, beating her fists against the Falcon's bulkheads and cursing a blue streak.
"Salla..." he said.
She whirled to face him, amber eyes blazing. "Han, why didn't you just let me die?"
For a second he thought she was going to punch him, and got ready to duck. But she restrained herself with a visible effort. "Why, Han?"
"Satla, you know I couldn't do that," he said, holding up his hands placatingly.
She stamped around the Falcon's lounge, obviously on the verge of going nova. "I can't believe I tried that microjump! I can't believe the Rimrunner is gone! How could I have been so stupid?"
"We'd raced before, Salla," Han said. "This time was just... bad luck."
She slammed a fist into a bulkhead, cursed again, then stood cradling her abused hand. "That ship was my life! My living! And now, just... gone!" She snapped her unbruised fingers.
"I know," Han said. "I know."
"What am I going to do now? I can't earn a living. I worked so hard to get that ship!"
"You can ride with me and Chewie," Han said. "We can always use extra crew. You're a hot pilot, S'sla. You'll find work. Good pilots are always in demand."
"Ride with you?" she scowled. "I don't need charity from you or anyone, Hah."
"Hey!" he said, in injured tones, "I am not in the charity business, Salla, you know me! It's just that . . . hey... I need the help."
She stared at him. "You... need... me?"
Han shrugged. "Well... sure. I couldn't do without you, honey. I don't risk myself'sor my ship-for just anybody, you know."
"That's true," she muttered, staring at him intently. Hah wondered what was going through her mind, but decided it wasn't a good time to ask. Cautiously, he moved toward her, wondering if she'd push him away again, but she didn't.
He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her wiry form against him, kissed her cheek. "I know how you must be feelin', Salla. I lost a ship not too long ago, too, remember."
"I remember," she whispered. "Hey, Hah... I forgot to thank you."
"For what?"
"Saving my life, what else?"
He chuckled. "You've saved my hide a time or two in tight spots, Salla, don't forget. Remember that time the Nessies tried to pull a fast one on us? If it hadn't been for you spottin' those bogus datacards, I'd have lost a bundle."
She began to shudder violently. Her teeth chattered. "D-don't buh-beee n-nice ttto mmmeeee, Hhhan," she managed, shivering. "Wh-what's h-happening?"
He stroked her hair. "Adrenaline letdown, Salla. Hap-pens ‘all the time after battles. You get the shakes, and you feel stupid, because by the time it happens, you're safe."
She managed a nod. "I'm ss-such a ff-fool."
"But you're a live fool," Han reminded her. "That's the best kind."
Salla laughed shakily.
alla Zend was very quiet over the next week-so quiet that Han worried about her. He'd never seen her the way she was now. She refused offers to ac-company Hah and Chewbacca on a couple of Runs, even though Hah wasn't kidding when he said he needed her help. Jarik had recently found a girlfriend in the Corellian section of Nar Shaddaa, and was spending ъ all available time with her. The kid had also hired on with Shug because the master mechanic was upgrading the hyperdrives on many of the Desilijic smuggling ves-sels. It was a big job, and Shug needed all the help he could get.
Salla began hanging out at Shug's spacebarn every day, working on the hyperdrive upgrades, too. But when Han returned home from a run, she was always there to greet him, smiling, with an affectionate kiss. Her behavior toward him was... different... somehow. She had a way of looking at Han as though she were some-how... evaluating... him. It made the Corellian uneasy.
The most unnerving thing of all was that Salla asked him to teach her to cook. Having been raised by Dewlanna, Hah was a fair cook, though he didn't bother preparing meals just for himself. But, since he and Salla were together almost every night, Han had fallen into the habit of fixing a meal for them.
Suddenly, out of the blue, Salla wanted him to teach her. For some reason Han had a bad feeling about that. He couldn't say why that worried him-after all, it wasn't a big deal, learning to cook, right?--but it did.
He began with easy things... breakfast, stews, soups, then graduated to menus such as boiled traladon steaks with tubers on the side, imush-roots chopped and sauteed with hot sauce, Wookiee fiat-biscuits with forest-honey glaze.
Salla paid strict attention and approached cooking with all the seriousness she'd have given to tearing down and rebuilding a faulty motivator matrix. She was so earnest about it that Han grew more and more troubled.
He considered asking her what was going on, but he didn't want to pry. Salla had just lost her ship. That was reason enough for some eccentric behavior, he told himself.