“End of Watch” - From a Certain Point of View

"End of Watch", by Adam Christopher, comes from the perspective of Pamel Poul (and is narrated by Janina Gavankar, who plays Iden Versio in Battlefront II). This story follows "Bump."

You can order this book from our sponsor, Amazon, here.

WARNING: This is a plot summary of the short story, spoilers ahead:

Commander Pamel Poul was nearing the end of her shift. She was responsible for one of only four command centers (hers being West) on the Death Star. She had hundreds of thousands of personnel under her command, which she shared with the other shift commander, Sheard. On this day, Poul was bothered by the lockdown in docking bay 327, marring an otherwise perfect shift. She stood behind two of the many junior officers in the room, who sat at control desks and spent their shifts monitoring statuses and mumbling into their communicators. Officers Slallen and Toos were commenting on the old YT-1300 freighter that was causing the problem. Pous wanted the dock problem resolved, but until the scanning crew completed their sweep, the lockdown was set. Poul looked at the freighter on the junior officers' small monitor, and noted the modifications that probably indicated it was a pirate or smuggler vessel. The officers marveled that the old ship was still spaceworthy.

Commander Sheard entered the command center to relieve Poul, but just as Poul was briefing him, some indicators went off at Slallen and Toos's stations, indicating a problem in Detention Block AA-23. Poul asked to be patched in, and an unidentified voice came through explaining that there was a weapons malfunction, but that everything was okay. When the person then followed up with a strange, "How are you?" Toos advised that a squad would be sent. Upon being notified that a dangerous reactor leak occurred, prior to the comms breaking off suddenly, Poul ordered a diagnostic scan of the area. When it came back negative, she ordered the squad to deploy.

Sheard reached over and called the overbridge and asked to be put through to Grand Moff Tarkin. Tarkin answered in his clipped tone, and Sheard informed him that there was a problem in AA-23. Tarkin acknowledged that it was where the princess was. Then everyone in the room, already a bit ruffled with the rare occasion of hearing Tarkin himself, fell completely silent when they heard a deep voice say, "Obi-Wan is here, and The Force is with him," before the comms were shut off. Sheard invited Poul to stay on, but she was more than happy to leave it to Sheard, as it was the end of her watch.

---

comments powered by Disqus