Children of the Jedi Barbara Hambly

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." She wrapped her arms around herself, pulling close the thermalblanket he'd brought her, bowed her head until her cheek rested on her drawn-up knees."He was therethe whole time.He kept saying he loved me, he kept saying be brave, be brave.but he didn't do onedamn thing to stop them." With her chopped-off hair ragged and dirty and her face haggard withexhaustion and emotional ruin, she looked much younger than she had when Luke had seen her on Yavin,or in her home territory at the Institute, or in Nichos's hospital room.In all of those places, for all of her life, she had worn her perfection like armor, he saw.And now that, and all things else, were gone.Smoky light wavered from the crude lamp in the corner, the only illumination in the room.The air in thecul-de-sac of the quartermaster's office and the workrooms beyond it had gotten so bad Luke wonderedif he should take the time to wire the local fans to cannibalized power cells, provided he could find them.If there was time.Heart and bones, he felt there wasn't."He had a restraining bolt--”"I know he had a scum-eating motherless restraining bolt, you jerk!" She screamed the words, spatthem at him, hatred and fury a bitter fire in her eyes; and when the words were out sat staring at him inblind, helpless rage behind which Luke could see the fathomless well of defeat, and grief, and the endingof everything she had ever hoped.Then silence, as Cray turned her face aside.The nervous thinness that had advanced on her duringNichos's illness had turned brittle, as if something had been taken, not just from her flesh, but from themarrow of her bones.Over the torn uniform, grimed with blood and oil, the blanket hung on her like abattered shroud.She took a deep breath, and when she spoke again her voice was perfectly steady."He wasprogrammed not to obey anything I said.He wouldn't even get me food."Luke knew this--Nichos had told him.The tray Threepio had brought from the mess hall wasuntouched."Don't hate him for being what he is," he said, the only thing he could think of to say."Or for being whathe's not."The words sounded puerile in his own ears, like a half-credit computerized fortune-teller at a fair.Ben,he thought, would have had something to say, something healing.Yoda would have known how to dealwith the wretched ruin of a friend's heart and life.The mightiest Jedi in the universe, he reflected bitterly--that he knew of, anyway-the destroyer of theSun Crusher, the slayer of evil, who'd defeated the recloned Emperor and the Sith Lord Exar Kun, andall he could offer someone who had been disemboweled was, Gee, I'm sorry you're not feeling so well.Cray brought her hands up to her head, as if to press some blinding ache from her skull."I wish I didhate him," she said."I love him--and that's worse to the power of ten."She looked up at him, her eyes tearless stone."Get out of here, Luke," she said without animosity, herface like flash-frozen wax that would crack at a breath."I want to go to sleep."Luke hesitated, instinctively knowing that this woman shouldn't be left alone.At his side, Callista saidsoftly, "I'll stay with her."Nichos, Pothman, and Threepio were in the fabrication lab outside.Threepio was explaining, "They'requite the slowest and most deliberate race in the galaxy.To the best of my knowledge all of the Kitonaksare still grouped in the section lounge exactly where the Gamorreans put them, still discussing theirgrandparents' recipes for domit.It's most extraordinary.And yet during their mating season--during therains--they move with quite amazing speed."They all turned as Luke came through the office door, and Nichos stepped awkwardly forward,holding out one hand.Cray had taken the mold for it when he was in the hospital, accurate down to thebirthmark where the V made by thumb and forefinger came to a point.Accurate like the blue eyes, the mobile fold at the corner of the lips.Like the gigabytes of digitalizedinformation on family, friends, likes and dislikes, who he was, and what he wanted."She all right?" asked Pothman into the silence."Come on, Nic," said Luke quietly.”Let me get that restraining bolt off you."Nichos's eyes went past him to the shut door."I see."Luke drew breath to speak--though he didn't know what he was going to say, what he could say--butNichos held up his hand, and shook his head.”I understand.I expect she will not want to see me everagain."As he fetched the toolkit from the locker on the wall, and the old stormtrooper brought one of theflickering battery lights to illuminate his work, Luke honestly didn't know whether, given Cray's partingwords to him, she would want to see her fiancé again or not.He took refuge in the task at hand, whichwas more complicated than a simple pop-on, pop-off bolt usually employed with droids.This one wasdogged in with minute magnetized catches, and, Luke could see, programmed in a number of specificways.The Will had to have instructed the Klaggs in its installation.He ran a quick integral test on it tomake sure it hadn't been booby-trapped, then collimated the probe down to the smallest increment andbegan to pull the internal relays.There was a certain amount of comfort to be obtained from purely mechanical tasks.He told himself toremember that for another time."Luke."He looked up quickly, to meet the blue glass eyes.In the shadowy gloom the face that he'd known sowell was almost a stranger's, affixed monstrously to the silver cowl of the metal skull."Am I really Nichos?"Luke said, "I don't know." He had never in his life felt so helpless, because in his heart--in the secretshadows where the truth always lay--he knew that this was a lie.He knew."I was hoping you would be able to tell me," said Nichos softly."You know me--or you knew him.Cray programmed me to.to know everything Nichos knew, to do everything Nichos did, to beeverything Nichos was, and to think that I really am Nichos.But I don't.know.""What do you mean?" protested Threepio.”Of course you're Nichos.Who else would you be? That'slike asking if The Fall of the Sun was written by Erwithat or another Corellian of the same name."Luke?"Luke concentrated on pulling out the minutely programmed fiberoptic wires."Am I "another Corellian of the same name"?""I'd like to tell you one way or the other," said Luke [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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