Star Wars_ X-Wing 04_ The Bacta War - Michael A. Stackpole [118]
“Listen to me, Booster—and you’ll listen because you don’t want to find yourself in the situation of having Mirax say this to you: Corran Horn here is one of the smartest, skilled, and courageous men it’s been my privilege to know. He escaped from a prison that makes Kessel look like a resort world with hourly shuttles in and out. He’s gone and done things on missions that put him at risk because those things save the lives of others. If not for him, Coruscant would still be in Imperial hands and I, as well as your daughter, would be dead or Isard’s slaves.
“When you arrived on this station, you said you thought I would have protected Mirax from the likes of Corran.” Wedge shook his head. “The real story is that I was overjoyed when they became friends. Mirax needed someone as stable as Corran because she’s never really sure where you are or what’s happened to you. And Corran, he needed someone with Mirax’s curiosity and fervor for life because he’d been cut off from everyone he knew and trusted. Both of them were gyros that needed to be spin balanced, and they did that for each other.”
Before Corran could begin to grin triumphantly, Wedge whirled and stabbed a finger into his chest. “And you, my friend, need to get some perspective here. You’re seeing Booster as your father’s old enemy, and your father isn’t here to put him in his place. Well, you aren’t your father. Their fight isn’t your fight, and you can’t stand in for your father in it. And you should be smart enough to know Booster doesn’t have a problem with you because you were Hal Horn’s son—he’s got the same problem with you that every father ever had with any man romancing his daughter. She’s the best thing that ever happened to him.”
Corran nodded. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to me, too.”
“Right, which means the two of you have more in common than either one of you would admit. Now the both of you better think on this: Mirax loves both of you, so unless you think she’s got no taste or character judgment at all, you better figure you both are worthy of each other’s respect.” Wedge folded his arms and positioned himself so he could see both of them easily. “I don’t expect you’ll ever get to the point where you actually like each other, but, when you’re both acting like adults, you’ll be above this sort of bickering.”
Corran looked up and met Booster’s stare openly. Waiting to see if I break, aren’t you? Waiting to see if I knuckle under. In a nanosecond Corran resolved never to give in, never to change his opinion of Booster. While all Wedge had said was true—and made damned good sense—Corran had been raised with his father’s rivalry with Booster Terrik. If I do give in, I’ve betrayed my father.
Or have I? Corran frowned as he thought about his father and the life his father had led. Hal Horn had lived for years with the knowledge that he was really the son of a Jedi and subject to the extermination policy the Empire had put in place concerning Jedi. His father could have done anything to make himself safe. He could have retreated to the hinterlands of some backwater world and become a hermit, but he chose not to absent himself from the duty his father—fathers, really—had acquitted. A Jedi helped maintain the peace and uphold the law. Hal Horn did the same thing as best he could by working with CorSec, no matter that his duties might expose him to the Emperor’s Jedi hunters.
Corran suddenly realized that his father’s rivalry with Booster Terrik had not been personal. Hal Horn had pursued Booster because Booster broke the law. Yes, the fact that Booster evaded him repeatedly did frustrate him, but the basis of his pursuit was always the same. He didn’t let it get personal. I have and in that I’ve betrayed my father. He glanced down for a moment and thought about some of the exercises Luke Skywalker had urged him to try out. By making things personal—Kirtan