Dance Me to the End of Love

accessing certain areas to certain vehicles. The shield operator suddenly checked hismonitor with alarm; the view-screen depicted the battle station itself, the moon Endor,and a web of energy—the deflector shield—emanating from the green moon,encompassing the Death Star. Only now, the security web was beginning to separate,to retract and form a clear channel—a channel through which the dot that was theImperial shuttle sailed, unimpeded, toward the massive space station. The shield operator quickly called his control officer over to the view-screen,uncertain how to proceed. "What is it?" the officer demanded. "That shuttle has a class-one priority ranking." He tried to replace the fear inhis voice with disbelief. The officer glanced at the view-screen for only a moment before realizing whowas on the shuttle and spoke to himself: "Vader!" He strode past the view port, where the shuttle could be seen already making itsfinal approach, and headed toward the docking bay. He turned to the controller. "Inform the commander that Lord Vader's shuttle has arrived.