The Senate, in the person of Ledora, gave the Trade Federation the mining concessions they wanted, subject to there being no sentient beings in occupation of the planet. Then Ledora picked up a hint, a whisper, a thought, from Palpatine, that a previously unknown species had been seen by pirates. Suspicious of the source, but needing to acting upon this, Hanshara was secretly dispatched alone to investigate.

Also secretly, Palpatine went himself to the leader of the R'ill and told him to expect an emissary from the Jedi. He told the leader that she was Sarin's, that they were not to reveal themselves until the planet had been scanned for sentient beings, and that she could then be taken for their amusement or killed, as they wished. The leader of the R'ill smiled at this, thinking he would now have his revenge on the Aide who had killed one of his people.

In due time, Hanshara arrived at Nurius III, scanned for life forms, and after many painstaking days, sent communication to Ledora that the planet appeared to be barren. Then the R'ill sent several of their band on patrol.

Seeing the patrol, Hanshara landed the ship near the fortress to make contact, was captured, and was brought in front of their leader. Meanwhile, the R'ill sabotaged the ship communications.

She was brought before him and interrogated, then taken back to a dark cell guarded by a theta wave field, which caused a state of anxiety and fear to always prevail in her mind, and disabled her use of the Force beyond its perimeter. The R'ill took such memories she expressed and changed them, returning them to her distorted and evil. She quickly discovered this and meditated upon abstract things, sometimes she gave them a vision of something she was prepared to lose, something she could sacrifice. Eventually her captors grew bored, and kept her out of habit.

One night she screamed in rage and frustration, becoming angry. Then she calmed herself, rage and hate were not the way of a Jedi. She wanted Khameir. Why should he not find and fetch her? She calmed herself again.

Time passed, and Lord Sarin went about his Master's business. Nothing was heard from Hanshara. Becoming uneasy, he searched for her using his power with the Force, but found nothing. The feeling of unease continued and grew, quickly, until he was minded to ignore it no longer. Then.....

Khameir started. The echo of the angry scream fell away and disappeared, then was replaced by a whisper of his name, a fallen tear, a lost sigh, a feeling of abandonment. Then nothing. Hanshara's gem was calling him, but such a call! This was not a matter for waiting.

"Madam Jedi," Khameir hissed. "Where is my Lady? I would know where the Lady Hanshara Sinn-Tau is, NOW!" He stood over Ledora, staring at her, using all the power of the Force at his disposal to find out what he could. Ledora used pacifying gestures and words to try and calm the angry warrior, but to no avail.

"Lord Sarin, she is on a most delicate mission, her whereabouts cannot be divulged for fear of compromising the negotiations"

Khameir took hold of the collar of her tunic with both hands, pulled her roughly towards him, and said, in a low menacing whisper, "If any hair of my Lady's head is compromised, Jedi, then all Jedi will pay dearly. Now, where...is...she!"

Startled at this unaccustomed physical assault, Ledora momentarily let slip a thought, a picture of a barren deserted place, a destination, a name, Nurius III.

"You sent her where?" screamed Khameir. "With how many support troops? Ten? A hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand would not be enough for her protection in that place."

Ledora paled, unsure, her suspicions of Palpatine taking form. "She is an accredited ambassador. Ambassadors do not have support troops."

Khameir threw her roughly to one side, turned swiftly on his heels and ran to the Interceptor docking bay. There he prepared for take-off, checking the environment suits, the supplies, and the ship's readiness for battle. He stored Hanshara's spare light sabre in the armoury, informed his master of his destination, and departed.

The Infiltrator was cloaked on its approach to Nurius III, and landed in a deserted valley many miles from the fortress. It was not his intention to keep it cloaked while landed; he knew the R'ill did not have observation satellites on this planet. It was only necessary to keep the ship out of view of the R'ill and the patrols they had instigated.

Checking that the speeder was fully fuelled, Khameir made his way to the gully just outside the main gate, hid the speeder, and walked to the strengthened gate to summon the door guardian. When the side gate was opened, the small stunted R'ill which answered bowed, gave him a nasty smile, and bade him enter. The R'ill was casually slaughtered for its trouble as Khameir entered the courtyard.

The Abyssin hounds howled in their kennels, and there was what appeared to be an honour guard of R'ill leading to the leaders audience chamber. Abandoning all thoughts of subterfuge, Khameir strode to the centre of the courtyard as the R'ill turned towards him in unison, and looked at him. The helmets of their environment suits were filled with a blue gaseous substance that swirled about, now obscuring and now revealing their faces. Sometimes a green multi-faceted eye could be seen, sometimes a cluster of sticky tendrils encircling what was possibly a mouth. One jumped forward like a scuttling spider and assaulted his mind, testing the strength of it. Khameir used his control of the Force to create a shield and buried his most precious memories deep within his sub-conscious. The R'ill swayed, again in unison, as he killed the emissary.

Then there was such an assault on his mind he could barely remember his purpose here. He feigned a robot mind, following programmed instructions which were unchangeable. He ignored the images of Hanshara the R'ill sent him, of her bound, tortured, and raped, writhing under unnameable instruments of terror amid mindless torments.

Looking for strength in the midst of these abominations, he let slip a memory of Hanshara laughing on a river-bank. It was returned cruelly distorted. She snarled at him and raked his face with her claws. Claws? He threw the memory away and buried the rest even lower.

He focused totally on his purpose. He used the Force to melt the fastenings of the helmets and environment suits the R'ill wore, one by one, while he killed them, writhing in the atmosphere which was poisonous to them. Those R'ill which had blasters, he returned the bolts to them with inhuman speed, using his light sabre to deflect them.

Even as they died, they returned images of Hanshara being the willing pawn and lover of their leader, fawning upon it, stroking it sensuously then offering herself to it. He screamed with rage at this and nearly lost control, but redoubled the killing. Pools of sticky blue ichor stained the ground and dismembered R'ill tried to crawl away, their minds now concentrated on death rather than the subversion of the memories of their enemy.

When the last of them was dispatched, Khameir went to the audience chamber and prepared to battle with the leader, who was powerful in his control of sentient beings, and who enjoyed subtle and particularly unpleasant means of coercion.

Not hesitating lest he be diverted from his purpose, Khameir hurled a Force bolt at the head of the monstrous creature his Master had recruited to guard this planet. Ignoring the swirl of foul images and vile emotions the thing conjured up for him, he hurled at it everything loose in the chamber, distracting it from recognising his intention. When he was close enough, he killed it, cutting it in half, listening with satisfaction to the horrendous screams as it died.

Finding only unthreatening and faraway disturbances in the Force, Khameir now put his mind to finding Hanshara. Sitting cross-legged on the floor of the audience chamber, back to the wall so he would not be approached unawares, he meditated upon the gem. Its reply to him was dull and dark, but it was enough to guide him to the source of its power. Making his way through the maze of halls and corridors, he found a dark passage and a wooden door behind which was Hanshara. There were no guards, no sentries. He was puzzled by this, thinking that such a prisoner should have been carefully guarded, if only to use as hostage, or for ransom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"And which of my tormentors are you!" she demanded of him. The gem at her throat pulsated a little brighter even so.

"It is Khameir," he said, holding out his hand. "Come to me my Lady."

The gem burned even brighter as Hanshara drew herself up. "Prove yourself my Lord!"

He walked towards her, holding out his hand, and then he felt the theta wave field sending tendrils of fear into his mind. He stepped back, raising his hand to tell Hanshara to stay where she was. It was a strong field, it would have taken more than his or her strength in the Force to defeat it alone, but two? That was a different matter.

"Hanshara, use the Force with me! Reach for me now!" Holding out their hands to each other, they focused their minds into a unified force and Hanshara walked through. She went cold and clammy from the shock, but she was free. He supported her for a moment as she recovered from this, then with a smile, silently handed her her spare light sabre. Laughing quietly, she hefted the weapon in her hands, switched it on, then off again.

"Now, let us do battle with R'ill," she said as the gem burned brighter than it ever had before. She took Khameir's hand and they proceeded almost gaily down the dim lit passageway.

Khameir considered what a pleasure it would be to destroy the detestable R'Ill and their pack of equally disgusting dogs, then they came to a junction in the passageway.

"The quickest way is left, my Lord," she said. "Even though it seems to slope down, we must move up and towards the light. They play tricks with gravity here and I marked the route well."

Still holding hands, they proceeded cautiously down the new passageway alert to any untoward sound or movement, but there was nothing. As they appeared to descend deeper into the bowels of the fortress, Khameir had doubts. He voiced these when they came to a shadowed bend.

Pulling her close to him, he asked, "I know these R'ill. Are you certain they have not changed your recollection of this path?"

"Beloved. Some things have I sacrificed to keep them amused, but other things they could not take to return to me distorted and degraded. Neither the way out, nor memories of you and our times together."

Then Khameir truly realised the awfulness of her imprisonment. No sweet memories to sustain her during the dark hours in her cell, no pleasing thing to dwell upon unless she wanted to lose it. He was awed at the strength of mind she had to be able to do this, and wondered whether, strong in the Force though he was, he could have endured the same for so long.

"Yes," she said drily. "It has been a hard time, but now I see you here and it is ended."

Smiling, she pulled him closer by the collar of his tunic, and kissed him for a long time, inhaling his breath and tasting his sweet mouth. Khameir pulled her closer to him with his free hand and returned the kiss in full, ending it by kissing the side of her neck in the Zabrak manner. He buried his head in her shoulder, inhaling her scent, breathing in every bit of its intoxicating musk that he could.

"I have missed you, beloved. These snatchings of time that we have together are not enough."

"No," she said. "They are not." And they clung to each other, rejoicing in their reunion.

"Now, let us deal with R'ill," said Khameir, switching on his light sabre and pulling her with him.

The first pack they came across were telling each other stories over a fire, which was cooking something looking strange and vile. As they giggled and laughed, they were made short work of. The next group were a small pack of sentries, standing around chewing some narcotic, weapons stacked against the wall. They were quickly dispatched also.

The last group was a different matter.

This last group did not engage the two in any combat. They had already sabotaged the Jedi ship, which now had no communications. Instead, they thought to use the hounds to exact a final revenge and to destroy all traces of Khameir and Hanshara.

Once out of the fortress it was dark. The Jedi ship was closest to them, so they agreed that they would rest until the dawn, then depart Nurius III in the Interceptor. Meanwhile, the last of the R'ill released the hounds near Khameir's ship, and instructed them to wait for their prey.

The Refuge

The Jedi ship was used as a refuge so they would be rested and ready for the dash to the Interceptor at first light. They prepared a simple meal of protein and preserved fruit, and Hanshara used covered torches to create a dim and restful atmosphere in the cockpit. The accommodations were sparse but more than adequate - Jedi do not often need to travel in style.

After they were refreshed, Khameir sat in the pilot's chair with Hanshara in his lap, and they talked and kissed into the night. Until Khameir buried his head in her neck saying, "Enough of talk! Take my body within yours Tai Shan, I have need of you, Beloved," feeling her over-control, her over-restraint, still not feeling safe.

He took her hand, pulled her into the centre of the cockpit, and stood her in front of him. He looked at her, drinking in how she was, how she looked and how she felt after their time apart, after her time with the R'ill. He removed her garments one by one, slowly, gently, caressing and stroking, shaking with the effort to control how he did this, controlling his own urgent need for her. Wanting violence, he restrained, knowing that it would come later from both of them.

When they were naked, he drew her to him and put her arms round him, then stroked her neck, her back, and her flanks in a circular and curiously hypnotic and healing motion, while kissing and gently nibbling her neck and shoulders. He enfolded her within his mind and used his power with the Force to heal hers. He laid her upon the floor on top of his dark tunic, restraining her hands while he kissed and stroked, bringing her mind and body fully back to life, murmuring that she was safe now, that such long partings were ended, that he loved her beyond everything. He gently kissed and caressed every bit of her, wrapping her in a cocoon of love, safety and drowsiness.

When he judged her ready, he picked her up and carried her to her cabin, lay her on the narrow bunk, wrapped them both in a light cover and watched while she slept.

When Hanshara stirred, feeling rested and new, she found she was spooned with Khameir behind her holding her against him, arm around her waist, his hand on her breast. Finding her awake, he leaned over her and turned her face to his, studying her.

Hanshara grinned at him. "Warrior, healer, and lover! Until we leave, I would have the last," as she swiftly turned, pulling him with her onto the floor in a flurry of arms, legs, and the cover. Laughing with delight at her recovery, she bit his lips and teased his mouth, she drew her nails down his back and caressed his head and horns until he was delirious with the pleasure of it. She sat astride him, his maleness deep inside her, hands gripping his, riding his thrusts and making soft and delicious pleasure sounds, losing herself totally in him.

She looked wanton and inviting, which aroused him even more and his need for her re-doubled. He violently moved her underneath him and he became more frenzied as he held her head in his hands and kissed and bit and screamed.

When he was spent, he lay across her chest, shielding her head from the hard floor with his hands. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked at her, flushed from her exertions, looking wanton and inviting yet again. He did not want to leave her, to depart her body, her closeness. He drove himself into her again, desperately wanting to quench his need of her, to stem this sudden feeling of foreboding and menace.

To be continued...