The Knight's Move

The first thing Bait Camero heard in the morning, what woke him from his unsteady sleep, was an alarm. A rising and falling tone, emitted by four sirens positioned around the little hut he called home, made the thin wooden walls vibrate. Bait Camero, farmer and recluse, cursed audibly, when he threw his blanket back to look after the source of the alarm. Wearing only thin cloth pants he shambled over to the control room.

"Activate." he said sleepily and with a silent hum the man-sized droid in charge of his alarm system awoke to life.

"Good Morning, Mister Camero. I am inconsolable, but there has been an alar..."

"Yeah yeah, C8, I noticed." he interrupted the droid's friendly voice. "What is going on out there?"

A brief look out the tiny window only revealed the familiar Alderaan landscape, silent and peaceful as ever. Nothing unusual anywhere to be seen.

"It appears that the water levels are rising, Mr. Camero. The tide is coming."

"And you woke me for that? Just raise the platforms, what's the big deal?" Bait turned to go back to sleep.

"I already did that, Mr. Camero." The durasteel smile on the droid's face was as filthy as ever.

"Great. Then let me sleep, for heaven's sake." He was almost about to leave, when the droid with the factory mark C8-PKT raised his crystal clear voice again.

"We are approximately three hours and nineteen minutes out of schedule, Mr. Camero."

Bait Camero stood at once. Slowly he turned back to the droid.

"We are what?"

"We are approximately three hours and nineteen..."

"Yes, I heard what you said!" He was almost shouting in anger. "But how is that possible? Check your internal time chip. Connect to Aldera City if you have to. For heaven's sake, do something! This has to be a mistake!"

With three large steps he hurried to the small window and peered at the sky. Nothing but a few white clouds to be seen. In the far distance, the crescent moon was hanging in the sky, where it didn't belong.

"The synchronisation is complete. We are three hours and eighteen minutes out of schedule. I would urge you not to open that door, Mr. Camero." the droid added. "Your security is..."

"For the love of princess Organa, C8. Shut up!" Bait yelled and pulled open the door out onto the platform. The sun was shining bright and only a soft wind was blowing over his head. Just like the alarm had indicated, the water of the sea was rising. Slowly but still noticeably. Already his fields were flooded, despite C8's best attempts to raise the platform. Something had brought the tides out of schedule.

"C8, prepare the speeder."

"Mr. Camero, the repairs on the speeder are incomplete. The probability of a terrible event taking place are 1 in 35."

"Just prepare the goddamn bike, C8! The odds of a terrible event taking place when I stay here are a lot higher!"

As quickly as he could, he gathered his most important belongings and stuffed them into a small backpack. With his foot he kicked open the door while he plucked a photograph off the wall. His trusty but worn down speed bike was prepared right by the side of the road, leading up to the city.

"I'll wait for your return, Mr. Camero." were the last words he would ever hear from C8. He could never stand that droid, but if he hadn't known better, the droid's words would have sounded fearful.

The wind disturbed Bait Camero's uncombed hair as he hurried across the street beside his fields. The giant platforms holding Aldera city grew larger and larger as they came closer. In the sky, the moon slowly grew larger.

Carelessly, Bait left his bike just standing in the middle of the road. Without hesitation he hurried down the narrow streets, while the city slowly awoke on this Summer morning. With one arm he pressed his bag to his chest, with the other he pushed people aside, that got in his way. There was no time to be considerate.

The space port was located towards the south of the city. Two construction workers entered the hangar and the hatch closed behind them. The Controller by the door greeted Bait happily.

"Good morning, Sir."

"Open the hatch, quickly."

"Unfortunately that is not possible right now." His calm voice made Bait Camero furious. "Due to repairs on the launching trajectory beacons, no ships are allowed to start before noon."

"I will gladly fly manually, I don't need beacons. Now open the hatch!"

The Controller frowned over Bait's loud voice.

"It appears you are in an inappropriate hurry. I must ask you to identify yourself, Sir."

With an angry bristle, Bait reached into his bag to get his ID card, but a black batch dropped from between his belongings, falling to the floor. It showed a black circle, with a black star inside it, radiating six stripes. An emblem only found on harnesses of the Galactic Empire. Immediately, Bait covered it with his foot, but the Controller had already seen it.

"What was that? Identify yourself, immediately!"

Instead of reaching for his ID, Bait's hand wrapped around a cold piece of metal. He pointed the blaster directly at the controller's head.

"You better open this hatch, or regret it."

"You won't get away with this." The controller's voice was trembling as he pressed down the Button. "I will report this incident to the council!"

"You do that."

The hatch pulled open with a brief whiz and Bait vanished into the hangar, plucking the imperial batch off the floor as he ran. In the cockpit of his ship, his fingers danced across the controls like every other time before. He flicked switches, pushed buttons and pulled levers back. The slow stutter as the engines roared up felt like an eternity, but finally a jerk brought the ship to life and off the ground. While the sleek shuttle slid across the city, he was already programming the Navigation Computer for a jump to hyperspace. The moon was now uncomfortably close.

The ship's computer signalled the completion of all necessary calculations, just as he left Alderaan's atmosphere. From the corner of his eye, Bait Camero saw the moon slowly turning, and when a green flash struck across the sky, he jumped to hyperspace.