44 BBY
Location - Alderann (Evening-Sunset)
In the far off country side of Alderann many miles away from Alderann's gilded capital laid the rural lands of the noble house of the Qel-Droma's.
The domain covered a rather vast region of land, reflecting the family's rank of 'Count' in noble society. But despite this the lands were mostly under developed when compared to territories located closer to planet's capital city. This was due to the fact that most of the domains focus being directed towards agriculture and raising live stoke. Serving as the territory's main specialty.
The Qel-Droma family's manor itself was moderate in size if looked at by the standards of Alderannian nobility, the main mansion was of traditional Alderannian design and style. Being three stories tall, and having a length and width comparable to that of a small baseball stadium.
And situated near the manor was a exceptionally large forest which took up nearly quarter the Qel-Droma's governed territory. The other third consisted of mostly flat plains and fields, which homed many villages and a few small towns were the territory's citizens lived. Who made a living working the bountiful fields of crops. And raising livestock animals on ranches.
As for the population of the land, it was fairly small, with a meager total of about 15,000 permanent residents. The people lived relatively decent lives with little difficulties.
*****
Inside the main office of the Qel-Droma estate, in front of a large heavily decorated desk sat Helmac Qel-Droma, patriarch and head of the noble house of Qel-Droma, succeeding his father several years prior.
"This paper here shows the progress being made on the repairs for the damages to the near by towns vineyards, due to the recent massive insect infestation outbreak. And this sheet shows current state of this years up coming harvest, along with the expected profit projections from their sales. Sadly I'm sure you can tell from looking my lord, but they are going to be significantly less than last year I'm afraid. Also the date of the seasonal spring gala hosted by House Organa has been announced. We just recieved your invitation early today"
At present Helmac was preforming his role as an Aldrannian noble to dutifully. listening to and reviewing various reports given to him by his 42 year old secretary and butler, Raims. Reports that cover the affairs and statue of his family's domain, as wells as topics of interest regarding Alderann's government and noble society.
Since becoming the family patriarch Helmac had worked tirelessly to consolidate his families power and authority under himself, and see to it his people prospered.
And after his brother's departure, Helmac vowed to put an end to the infighting that threatened to devastate his family's lands due to selfish powerplays and self serving schemes. For years He tried using diplomacy and reason to reunify the nobles under his banner and ending this foolish conflict, but even with Vinik absents for several years, the Reformist still didn't back down.
In fact they simply came up with even more ridiculous reasons with twisted logic on why Helmac was unfit to lead.
With his patients eventually reaching it end, Helmac made a drastic decision.
So five years ago Helmac subtly expanded his house's private army and quietly strengthened alliances with the vassal houses that he was sure were loyal to the Qel Dromas. And once he was ready he lead a massive purge of the vassals who were part of the Reformists, who sought to replace him and use his brother as a puppet.
The purge ended successfully with minor collateral damage. Thanks to several well executed night surprise strikes on the vassal families that were the main instigators behind forming the Reformist faction. . Which Helmac had ordered, wanting to avoid open war, as such a thing would undoubtably pulled the common people into their fighting.
Having delt with them and smaller families who were part the faction quickly surrendered without a fight, fearing their own destruction should they resist as well. And the unrest that had plagued the Qel Droma's finally ended.
"Very good Raims, thank you. Now, let's move on to military budget suggestions that were discussed with the surrounding vassals. Then after that tell me more about the upcoming ball, are the Organa's still insisting we of co host with them"
Helmac asked in irritation, from just imaging himself having to give a sort of opening speech, at ball along side Bail Organa. An idea that really annoyed him. There was no animosity between the two families, but Helmac saw this invitation as a shrewd political move. A way to make the other families picture the two houses as being close.
Though in reality the Qel-Dromas and the Organas were not friends by any means, they did respect each other greatly, given both houses long and notable place and contributions in Alderann's history. But Helmac despised Alderannian politics and the back door dealings and backstabbing that came with it. So he was and was never in any hurry to interact with the nobility. The Organas included.
"As you wish, but please my lord. I highly advise you to consider attending the Gala this time. After the recent purge your House is still in quite a fragile state. And until it recovers, you should every opportunity you can to build bridges and make allies. Less we fail prey to our enemies"
Another hour slowly passed as he finished listening to the reports from Raims.
"And that's it for todays reports. Will that be all my lord"
"Yes Raims, thank you, you are dismissed for now"
Raims half bowed to his master's words before walking towards the office's door to leave and see to his other duties.
"Wait Rails, one more thing before you go, has there been any developments on ---, that other front"
Rails stopped in place and turned to face Helmac, and in response to the question Raims could only shake his head with a sorrowful look.
"I see--- then you may carry on"
After Rails left Helmac got up from his desk and walked to the nearby widow and gazed out at the setting sun as it slowly dipped beneath the horizon. Thinking back on his fruitless search over the last few years.
He reminisced mentally how years age his younger brother had left their home due to the foolish internal strife their family suffered at the time.
******
After his brother left Helmac tried his best to respect Vinik's wishes of not wanting anyone to come looking for him. But worry and concern quickly took root deep within him. Three months after his brother's departer Helmac ordered several squads of his families most loyal and skilled guardsmen, roughly 20 men and women in total, to secretly track down his brother and make sure he was safe.
They were under strict orders to located him while remain unnoticed and not to interfere with him we-hen located if all was well, and were to help him only if he was seen to be in danger or in need of aid. This way Helmac, could keep some small degree of his promise to his brother. But in contrast they were also ordered that if they discovered Vinik was facing calamity, then they were to bring him home immediately, by any means, even against his will.
But sadly to this day the assigned guards would find confirming their lord's brother's fate an impossible task. As they have been unable to even a hint as to his whereabouts.
At first they attempted to simply re trace Vinik's step, by finding the ship that was meant to take him to Ord Mantell. But due to it being an independent transportation shuttle, it was not aligned and registered with any know travel or transport companies or agencies, so trying to find any record on it let alone it's current location proved fruitless.
Little did they know, the very shuttle they sought had been the victim of a violent pirate attack, and never even reaching Ord Mantell.
After the ships attack and subsequent rescue, the ship's captain and owner were discovered among the known decease from the incident. That, coupled with the ship being deemed beyond repair and shortly after being decommissioned and scraped, the judicial management personnel who were handling the aftermath of that case saw no point in releasing an official report on the attack to the general public. Seeing as pirate attacks were so common.
Meaning there were no official reports on the galactic databases. So no matter how hard the guardsmen looked, they ultimately found nothing.
Eventually the search teams went to Ord Mantell directly on belief Vinik made it there. In hopes of locating some clues that could lead to him. The guardsmen spent weeks furiously questioning countless ship captains, flight control officers, and smugglers, looking for any signs that showed him charting a ship off world.
Sofisa to say, them trying to find a single ship that didn't even exist, since Vinik had perished long ago was truly dishearting goal.
Months of pointless searching continued but with little progress made, they would eventually be notified by their lord to stop searching and return home.
******
As Helmac watched the final light of the day fizzle out as the sun's orange aura disappeared over the horizon, a calm quit twilight slowly creeped over the sky to take its place. Some the stars of the night sky start to glitter into sight.
Watching this beautiful shift from day to night the Patriarch of House Qel Droma took a second to enjoy this spectacle of nature, before turning around to return to his desk. To complete the last bit of work he had for the evening.
While filling out paperwork he still fret over on the unknown statues of his long missed brother.
"Damn it Vinik, where the hell are you"
He said to himself leaning back into his chair
"Please just----- just be safe."
With mournful eyes his hand went back to signing the various documents that laid in front of him. But as his body moved, his mind still remain on that which was not here.