Chapter Fourteen
Tina saw her daughter only briefly.
Her face was pale, with dark smudges and a bruise on her cheek. Her uniform was ripped at the shoulder, showing a red graze on her pale skin, and her hands were tied behind her back. Her weapons had been removed from her belt, but she held her chin high. She looked straight ahead, ignoring all the people who stood on the side, and who either cheered or jeered at the prisoners. She marched past with the column, disappearing into the passage on the other side of the hall.
“Mum, what’s going on?” Rex said. “Who are these people? Why is everyone cheering so much?”
Tina said in a low voice, “The pirates have captured one of the Federacy’s major warships. Those prisoners are Federacy troops.”
The entire group had passed, and everyone had
