Star Wars_ Episode VI_ Return of the Jedi - James Kahn [34]
Chewbacca, hearing this, took his own longing look at the Falcon. Leia put her hand on Solo’s shoulder. She knew he had special love for his ship and was reluctant to interrupt this last communion. But time was dear, and becoming dearer. “Come on, Captain,” she whispered. “Let’s move.”
Han snapped back to the moment. “Right. Okay, Chewie, let’s find out what this baby can do.”
They fired up the engines in the stolen shuttle, eased out of the docking bay, and banked off into the endless night.
Construction on the Death Star proceeded. Traffic in the area was thick with transport ships, TIE fighters and equipment shuttles. Periodically, the Super Star Destroyer orbited the area, surveying progress on the space station from every angle.
The bridge of the Star Destroyer was a hive of activity. Messengers ran back and forth along a string of controllers studying their tracking screens, monitoring ingress and egress of vehicles through the deflector shield. Codes were sent and received, orders given, diagrams plotted. It was an operation involving a thousand scurrying ships, and everything was proceeding with maximum efficiency, until Controller Jhoff made contact with a shuttle of the Lambda class, approaching the shield from Sector Seven.
“Shuttle to Control, please come in,” the voice broke into Jhoff’s headset with the normal amount of static.
“We have you on our screen now,” the controller replied into his comlink. “Please identify.”
“This is Shuttle Tydirium, requesting deactivation of the deflector shield.”
“Shuttle Tydirium, transmit the clearance code for shield passage.”
Up in the shuttle, Han threw a worried look at the others and said into his comlink, “Transmission commencing.”
Chewie flipped a bank of switches, producing a syncopated series of high-frequency transmission noises.
Leia bit her lip, bracing herself for fight or flight. “Now we find out if that code was worth the price we paid.”
Chewie whined nervously.
Luke stared at the huge Super Star Destroyer that loomed everywhere in front of them. It fixed his eye with its glittering darkness, filled his vision like a malignant cataract—but it made more than his vision opaque. It filled his mind with blackness, too; and his heart. Black fear, and a special knowing. “Vader is on that ship,” he whispered.
“You’re just jittery, Luke,” Han reassured them all. “There are lots of command ships. But, Chewie,” he cautioned, “let’s keep our distance, without looking like we’re keeping our distance.”
“Awroff rwrgh rrfrough?”
“I don’t know—fly casual,” Han barked back.
“They’re taking a long time with that code clearance,” Leia said tightly. What if it didn’t work? The Alliance could do nothing if the Empire’s deflector shield remained functioning. Leia tried to clear her mind, tried to focus on the shield generator she wanted to reach, tried to weed away all feelings of doubt or fear she may have been giving off.
“I’m endangering the mission,” Luke spoke now, in a kind of emotional resonance with his secret sister. His thoughts were of Vader, though: their father. “I shouldn’t have come.”
Han tried to buoy things up. “Hey, why don’t we try to be optimistic about this?” He felt beleaguered by negativity.
“He knows I’m here,” Luke avowed. He kept staring at the command ship out the view-window. It seemed to taunt him. It awaited.
“Come on, kid, you’re imagining things.”
“Ararh gragh,” Chewie mumbled. Even he was grim.
Lord Vader stood quite still, staring out a large view-screen at the Death Star. He thrilled to the sight of this monument to the dark side of the Force. Icily he caressed it with his gaze.
Like a floating ornament, it sparkled for him. A magic globe. Tiny specks of light raced across its surface, mesmerizing the Dark Lord as if he were a small child entranced by a special toy. It was a transcendant state he was in, a moment of heightened perceptions.
And then, all at once, in the midst of the stillness of his contemplation, he grew absolutely