Nighthawks Hopper

Nighthawks Hopper
Nude on the Beach
One Moment in Time
precious time
Something began to buffet his ship, almost as if he were back in his skyhopperagain, wrestling with the unpredictable winds of Tatooine. He experienced a badmoment of uncertainty until the calming voice of Blue Leader sounded in his ears. "We're passing through their outer shields. Hold tight. Lock down freeze-floating controls and switch your own deflectors on, double front." The shaking and buffeting continued, worsened. Not knowing how tocompensate, Luke did exactly what he should have: remained in control and followedorders. Then the turbulence was gone and the deathly cold peacefulness of spacehad returned. "That's it, we're through," Blue Leader told them quietly. "Keep all channelssilent until we're on top of them. It doesn't look like they're expecting muchresistance." Though half the great station remained in shadow, they were now near enoughfor Luke to be able to discern individual lights on its surface. A ship that could showphases matching a moon…once again he marveled at the misplaced ingenuity andeffort which had gone into its construction. Thousands of lights scattered across itscurving expanse gave it the appearance of a floating city.