Some people even speculated that they were able to read minds. As empaths, Temerns were infallible in assessing people’s emotions. “Miss Makeba is not a threat.” My jaw dropped while the guard frowned. “The shackles are not necessary,” the Temern said to the guard. Why the heck would they take me there? Had they caught Gabe? Had my name been linked to some random other crime they wanted to grill me over before I left? Did…? My brain froze when the door of the room opened, and instead of the brutish face of some Obosian inspector, a wise and noble-looking Temern rose from his seat to greet me.

To my shock, instead of taking the left turn at the junction towards the ship hangar, the guard took a right towards the interrogation rooms.

Frankly, that might have been more merciful than the long ride aboard the prison transport ship that would take me to the hellhole I’d call home for the next two decades. I might as well have been a dead woman walking, on my way to a lethal injection. I felt faint as he led me out of my cell. I was but another convict getting shipped out of his detention facility.

Lifting my arms before me, I let the guard cuff me. I rose from the uncomfortable cot I’d been sitting on, the only thing beside a toilet and a sink in the tiny holding space. I silenced my instinctive urge to plead for mercy and ask for an appeal. My heart leapt at the sound of the thick metal door of my cell unlocking. Assuming I even survived to see the end of my sentence, I’d be a shadow of myself. Of all the places he could have sent me to serve my sentence, he chose the prison planet Molvi-the most brutal and depraved penitentiary of Obos. Judge Wuras had gone all out on my ass, too. Saying I was screwed would be the understatement of the century. Twenty years… Only seven years less than my entire life so far. Instead of spare parts, we got busted for illegal arms trade on the planet with the strictest anti-armament laws in the Obos sector. Even if we’d gotten caught, they would have let us off with a slap on the wrist, maybe a fine depending on how stuck-up the enforcers were and, worst case scenario, the interdiction to land on Grubrya for a few months. It had been a simple deal for some black-market replacement parts and electronics. Sadly for my sorry butt, Gabe got greedy, lied to me, then bounced when things got hairy. Sure, as a smuggler and bounty hunter, I’d always traipsed on the shadier side of the law. Twenty years… Twenty fucking years I would be spending in jail because my no-good associate had made me the fall guy. Sitting in my cell, I stared at the gray walls without seeing them.

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