I had a dream that I was aboard the Death Star. In my dream, these things were true: the Death Star was intended to be “at sea” for many many many months at a time without shore leave; Not nearly all of its space was required for military operations; It was considered to be impregnable and completely safe. Therefore, soldiers were allowed to bring their families aboard, and there was a sizable civilian population aboard. There were schools and malls and homes. I was one of the people who had family in the army and lived with them on the Death Star. So was P’arry.

One day, word was getting around that there was supposed to be a big battle that day. The civilians really weren’t supposed to hear that type of stuff, but we always did. It didn’t affect our lives that much. Inside the Death Star, you don’t really feel any of the battles. You notice a generally above-normal level of activity, but not in any particular way you can put your finger on.

On this day, P’arry and I had arranged a little classroom, with a computer lab and projectors. I was going to teach some people about Linux and stuff. There were about 10 people in my “class”.

Just as I was about to begin the class, we heard a rumbling, and felt a quaking.

This did not usually happen. Even on days when there was a rumored to be a battle.

I interrupted class and said “You guys, I think we ought to get out of here.” Everybody was all “What? Why?” I explained that I didn’t like the sound of that quake. People thought I was paranoid. P’arry gave a little ground: “How ‘bout we just finish up this class, and then we’ll go to the cafeteria and see if somebody has any bulletins on what’s going on?”

I was like “No, you guys. Seriously. Let’s get out of here.” Eventually, the intensity of my concern was enough to start to get some other people concerned. I told them we should get on a shuttle and get down to the planet. We could get a pizza there or something.

I convinced them, and we headed for the shuttle bay.

Apparently, we were in orbit above Coruscant. We took the shuttle down to the surface.

It was there that we saw the large, looming Death Star above us, cracking apart. It painted the sky orange, as the sunlight was filtered through the raining debris. It was a bittersweet sight. On the one hand, I knew that this was a terrible thing, and that it should not exist. It was too destructive, and it was going to be used for evil. I was glad to see it go. On the other hand, I still had friends and family aboard.

A lot of people died that day. I counted my blessings that I was not among them.