“As you know, Ashton, Rimilia was chosen for the construction of the all-planets conference complex because of its location in space. With all member planets just about equally distant from it it was considered perfect, but it also had another attraction not as well publicized. With a population not far above the level of barbarism, Rathmore Hellman and the others felt that when the proper time came to deprive the other planets of its seasoned leadership, that very population could be pointed to as the perpetrators of the bloody-handed deed. In order to manipulate permission for the complex out of the Rimilians as well as gain control over them, we gave our backing and wholehearted support to a Rimilian leader named Tammad.
“From the very beginning Tammad appeared to be nothing more than our ally, and Terrilian here was sent to Rimilia to assist him in convincing the others of the Rimilian leaders to allow the complex. She was told by everyone involved that she would be returned to Central when her mission was accomplished, no one finding it necessary to mention that Tammad had indicated such a strong desire for her that he insisted on purchasing her in the accepted Rimilian way. Rathmore Hellman was amused by such naivete, that Tammad would believe Central would simply sell one of its best Primes to a primitive, but still allowed the insistence. Tammad’s price for her was his promise to unite as many of the diverse people of Rimilia under his own personal banner, so to speak, as possible, which was exactly what Rathmore wanted him to do. His own broaching of the subject made the arrangement much sweeter to Rathmore’s way of thinking, and through me Tammad’s offer was accepted at once. When Terrilian was returned to us at the embassy on Rimilia after the complex was approved at the Great Meeting she had been sent to attend, we all believed Tammad had changed his mind about keeping her. For that reason, I immediately returned her to Central on my own transport.
“No more than a small number of days passed before I learned of the misunderstanding we were all in the midst of,” Murdock said, pausing to sip at the kimla he still held. “Tammad appeared at the embassy with a large number of his warriors, offered me polite greetings, then asked to have his woman returned to him. It developed that he’d sent her back only because he’d given his word to her to do so, fully intending to reclaim her once he’d made good on that word. When he discovered she was gone he grew furious, and demanded that he be provided with the means to follow after and recover her. By the time my transport returned I discovered she was due to Mediate on Alderan, so I sent Tammad and some of his men off in the transport, telling the captain to give Tammad all the help and advice he was able to provide.
“The mission proved successful and Tammad returned to Rimilia with Terrilian, but in the interim there had been occurrences neither of them knew about. Word had come to me with Rathmore’s authorization behind it, stating that Terrilian was to be returned to Central for a highly classified and extremely important’ assignment. I had no doubt as to what that would be and immediately decided it was time Terrilian joined Your group, Ashton, but the step was never taken. Although Terrilian clearly had no desire to return with Tammad to the midst of his world, Tammad refused to release her. He spoke of our ‘returning the price he’d paid for her,’ a promise of the withdrawal of his cooperation and alliance which Rathmore most certainly did not want at that point. When I admitted my inability to return his price he simply turned and strode away, taking Terrilian with him.”
“I remember how frustrated and furious you were after that confrontation,” Ashton said, a faint smile on her face as she looked at Murdock. “No one in the entire community dared ask you what had happened, but we gathered we could forget about our supposed new arrival. Why didn’t you tell Tammad how dangerous it was for the girl to be away from our protection? ‘Highly classified’ assignments for female Primes have always meant the end of their lives as rational individuals, and if he really cared about her he wouldn’t have refused to let her go with you.”
“Speaking to him privately at that time was out of the question,” Murdock replied, a faint look of distaste flitting across his face. “Not only had he been angered by Terrilian’s refusal to accompany him—and another incident involving her which I won’t mention—but one of those who accompanied me was Rathmore’s man from first to last. I couldn’t speak out without betraying my own stance, and therefore had to stand there and watch Tammad walk away with Terrilian as well as the two people sent from Central who were meant to replace her. After that I used ill health as an excuse to leave all but one of my aides behind in the embassy, supposedly to rest in orbit while they awaited further orders from Central, and instead used a landing slip to visit the community and plan our next move.”
“Just a minute,” I interrupted, frowning down into what was left of the bowl of soup. I wasn’t precisely upset, not when everything I’d heard sounded as though it had happened to someone else, but something didn’t fit in with what I did remember. “You keep talking about a community on Rimilia, as though you mean a Centran community of some kind, but I can’t recall ever having heard of a Centran community on that world. All I ever heard about was the Rimilian barbarians.”
“That’s all anyone was supposed to hear about,” Murdock said, a faint smile on his face to match the satisfaction in his mind. “Our community on Rimilia isn’t a Centran -sponsored one, nor is it large enough or accessible enough for even the natives to know about. It’s made up almost entirely of empaths, mostly of Centran stock but well leavened with the addition of Rimilian blood, and was established generations before Rathmore and his cronies decided on the world as a site for their complex. When we first learned of their plans we nearly began an immediate campaign to sabotage their efforts, then decided wed be best off allowing them to continue. We were, after all, already there. What better position might we have to keep very close track of what they were doing?
“At any rate, quite some time passed before our agent in Tammad’s entourage contacted us frantically by radio. He had reported from time to time of the events transpiring around and about him, among which were Terrilian’s abduction by savages, her having been kept as a slave by the Hamarda, her escape from the Hamarda across the desert to Grelana, her forced assistance to the Chama of Grelana, her part in the breaking of the Chama’s power, her flight to Gerleth, her capture there, and finally her journey to Vediaster. When Tammad and Terrilian and Cinnan, another Rimilian, were taken prisoner by the then-Chama of Vediaster, Dallan, the fourth of their party who was also a Prince of Gerleth, sent back word to his father the Chamd that he and his companions were in dire need of assistance.
Cinnan’s l’lendaa from Grelana and Tammad’s l’lendaa joined the warriors of Gerleth and all rode as fast as possible toward Vediaster, but by the time they reached the city of Vediaster everything was over but the shouting. Those who had opposed the former Chama had attacked her palace in force and, with Terrilian’s assistance, had defeated the hated ruler. Everyone was safe and sound, and by the law of the land Terrilian was the new Chama, circumstances which should have pleased all concerned. It certainly pleased the Rimilians, but for some reason not quite clear to any of them, Terrilian wasn’t equally as, pleased. She had agreed to help out a short while until they chose someone else to be Chama, had seemed to be honoring the agreement she’d made, and then on the very day the small army of l’lendaa from Gerleth arrived, had suddenly disappeared. No one had any idea where she might have gone, and then they discovered shed taken a seetar and had ridden alone out of the city.”
Murdock sighed and used the pause to swallow down more of the kimla, but that wasn’t all he used the pause for. He also spent a short time studying my face, probably searching for some sign of returning memory, but there weren’t any returns for him to see a sign of. Everything still sounded as though it had happened to someone else, and when he saw that he shrugged inside himself and simply went on.