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

"Well, I did. Han Solo escaped Ylesia in a stolen ship, with much of TerOenza's treasure in its hold, and the High Priest's pet slave. Her name was Bria Tharen, Aunt. This same woman! She has a personal grudge against Ylesia! She will stop at nothing to shut the Be-sadii slaving world down."
Jiliac was still frowning. "So what if she has a per-sonal score to settle? How can that benefit us, Nephew?"
"Nothing could suit Desilijic% needs better than the destruction of those accursed spice factories! Think of it! Besadii, humbled and impoverished! This is a bargain!"
Jiliac rocked back and forth on her massive belly, staring goggle-eyed into space as if trying to picture in her mind% eye how it would work. "No," she said finally. "It is a bad plan."
"It is a good plan, Aunt," Jabba insisted, "and, with a little refinement, can be made to work." After a pause, he added, "With all due respect, Jiliac, I don't believe that you have thought the matter through."
"Oh?" Jiliac reared back until she towered over her relative. "Nephew, your judgment is flawed. I have been very careful, over the years, not to compare you with your reckless parent, who nearly bankrupted Desilijic with his grand schemes, then was foolish enough to wind up on that mudball pfison planet, Kip. However..."
Jabba didn't like being reminded of Zorba and his profligate ways. "Aunt, I am nothing like my parent, and you know it! I respectfully submit that you have grown soft and your analysis weak. We must deal with Besadii soon or, most assuredly, we will be ruined. What are your specific objections?"
Jiliac rumbled, and a bit of green phlegm appeared at the corner of her slack mouth. "Too fisky, too many uncertainties. Humans are not intelligent enough to be able to accurately predict their behavior. They're just as apt to take our credits, then betray us to Besadii."
"These Rebels are too committed to their cause," Jabba said. "You are fight, you don't understand hu-mans, Aunt. Commander Tharen's group is just dedi-cated enough and stupid enough to risk themselves over those wretched slaves. Humans are like that. Espe-cially this human."
"And I suppose you understand them?" Jiliac snorted. "Where do these masterful insights of yours spfing from, Nephew? From watching them cavort around scantily clothed?"
Jabba was really getting angry now. "I do understand them! And I understand that this offer is not one to toss aside!"
"So you would have us arrange to kill some thirty t'landa Til for the Corellian Resistance," Jiliac said. "What if that was ever discovered here on Nal Hutta? Tile t'landa Til here would raise such an outcry! They are our cousins, Nephew. Humans are nothingV Jabba hadn't thought of that. He remained silent, mulling her objection over. "I still think it could be arranged," he said. "We've gotten away with multiple assassinations before, after all."
"Besides," Jiliac said, sulkily, "I don't want the Yle-sian enterpfise destroyed. I want to take it Over. What good will it do us to best Besadii if the spice factofies are destroyed?"
"We could build other factofies," Jabba said. "Any-thing would be better than having Besadii warehousing that spice and dfiving the prices up and up!"
Jiliac shook her head. "I am the clan leader, and my decision is no. That is the end of it, Nephew."
Jabba tried to expostulate further, but she waved him to silence, and, with a bellow, summoned K8LR and the Rebel Commander. The droid quickly shepherded the young woman back into the room, solicitously com-menting on her bravery the whole time.
Jiliac shot an exasperated glance at Jabba, and har-rumphed loudly. "Girl, as I was saying before, when I was interrupted---" she glanced at Jabba meaningfully, "we appreciate your offer, but our answer is no. Desili-jic cannot risk allying with the Resistance in this matter."
Bfia Tharen's features betrayed her disappointment, Jabba noted. She sighed, then squared her shoulders.
"Very well, Your Excellency." She reached into the
pocket of her fatigues and took something out. "If you
should ever change your mind, you can reach me-"
Jiliac waved aside the proffered datacard, then glared at her nephew as he reached for it. Jabba gazed at Bria, holding the datacard. "I will keep this," he said. "Farewell, Commander."
"Thank you for the audience, Your Excellencies," she said, and bowed deeply.
Jabba watched her as she walked away, and found himself thinking that she'd look maguificent in a danc-ing girl's costume. All that reddish hair spilling down over her bare shoulders. Nicely muscled shoulders. This human was fit, exquisitely so, and her height was impressive. What a dancing girl she'd make! Jabba sighed.
"Jabbad" his aunt said, "I did not appreciate the way you appeared to disrespect my decision just now. Never forget that we Desilijic must always present a united front when conducting business with inferior species."
Jabba did not trust himself to speak. He was still bitterly angry over his aunt's refusal to see what a great opportunity Bria Tharen had offered them.
If I were the leader of Desilijic, he thought, I wouldn't have to listen to her paranoid conservatism. Sometimes you have w take chances to make large gains. Mother-hood has made her stupid and weak ....
It was only then that Jabba realized, for the first time, that if Jiliac were out of the picture, that he, Jabba Desilijic Tiure, would be Desilijic's next leader. He would have to answer to no one.
Jabba lay there, his tail twitching thoughtfully' then glanced sideways at his aunt. Suddenly her belly rip-pied, and her baby slithered out. "Mama's precious!" she exclaimed. "Jabba, look! Getting bigger every day!"
She cooed at her baby. Jabba grimaced, belched, and then wriggled rapidly out of the room, unable to stand the sight of either of them for one second longer.
Bria Tharen picked up her glass of wine, sipped it slowly, appreciatively, then smiled at her escort. "That's wonderful. Thank you so much, Lando. You don't know how long it's been since I had an evening where I could just relax."
Lando Calrissian nodded. Bria had returned to Nar Shaddad aboard the shuttle from Nal Hutta today, fol-lowing what she'd said was a "disappointing" interview with the Desilijic leader. To cheer her up, the gambler had promised to take her out for a nerf tenderloin dinner at one of the Smuggler's Moon's finest hotel-casinos, the Chance Castle. Bri5 was wearing a softly draped gown of turquoise that matched her eyes, and Lando was wearing his black and scarlet outfit, "for old time's sake."
"How long?" Lando asked, twirling his own Wine-glass slowly in his fingers. "Well... I imagine being a Rebel commando leader is fairly time-consuming. Al-most as time-consuming as being the mistress of a Sec-tor Moff."
Her eyes widened, then narrowed. "How did you find that out? I never told you .... "
"Nar Shaddad is the criminal nexus of the galaxy," Lando said. "An information broker owed me a favor, and I called it in. Commander Bria Tharen, right?"
Her lips tightened, and she nodded curtly. "Hey," Lando said, reaching out to touch the back of her hand gently, "didn't I tell you you can trust me? You can. I have no love for the Empire. If I weren't such an arrant coward, I'd join the Rebels myself. I know lots of se-crets, and I'm good at keeping them."
She smiled faintly. "Whatever you are, you aren't a coward, Lando. Nobody who stood up to Boba Fett like that could be called cowardly. You should think about joining the Resistance. You're a good pilot, you can think on your feet, and you're smart. You'd be an officer in no time."
She hesitated, then added, more seriously, "And about Moff Sam Shild... all I can say is that appear-ances can be deceiving. I was on assignment for the Re-sistance, but I was nothing more than a social hostess and aide for him, though he wanted everyone to think otherwise."
"But you were ‘also spying on him."
"'Gathering intelligence' is a nicer term."
He chuckled. "So where 's you go tomorrow, ‘after you leave Nar Shaddaa?"
‘TII head back to my squadron, and my next assign-ment... whatever that may be. I'm missing two of my senior officers now... plus an excellent combat trooper." Her expression ‘darkened. "Fett killed them with no more thought or caring than you or I would step on an insect."
"That's why he's the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy," ‘Lando pointed out.
"Yes .... "She took another sip of wine. "He's hke a one-man army. Too bad he's loyal to lhe Empire. I could certainly use him in combat!"
ъ Lando looked at her. "It means everything to you, doesn't it? Defeating the Empire?"
She nodded. "It's my life," she said, simply. "I would give anything I have-or am-to further that dream."
Lando picked up a piece of fiatbread, drizzled Kashyyykian forest honey on it, and took a bite. "But you've already devoted years to that goal. When does Bria Tharen get a chance to have a life of her own? When do you just say, ‘enough'? Don't you want to have a home, a family, someday?"
She smiled sadly. "The last person to ask me that question was Han."
"Really? When the two of you were on Ylesia? That was a long time ago."
,"Yes," she said. "It's been wonderful to be able to talk to you, find out what he's been doing. Do you know, Lando, in just a few months it will be ten years to the day since we first met. I can hardly believe it... where did the time go?"