“Move Prisoner! You want the Tribune to hear your case, don’t you?” One of the jailers exclaims as he pushes Salacia through the lower deck halls of the detainment starship on her way to hopefully meet her deadline.
Salacia knew the intergalactic law as well as any. She had only 36 Star Cycles before she would be ineligible for the Tribune’s ability to review her case. If she were to miss her deadline, she would then be sent to Alcarye 9, a prison planet 6 lightyears away from her home, and deep in the reaches of the Nethersystem; A dwarf galaxy consumed by a massive black hole and inhabited by criminals and warlords. A place in which no one dares travel to rescue her, should she be incarcerated there.
As her deadline draws near, Salacia can feel her heart beat more rapidly. Her palms begin to sweat inside the transport mittens she’d been forced to wear by her captors. She fights with her shackles but they are locked onto her wrists and ankles much too securely. Reaching the Tribune in time is her only chance for freedom and the only way her captors would be required to release her from her restraints. But as time coasts forward, Salacia’s chances for freedom slip further away with each passing second. She and her captors are cutting it very close. At this point, any second of delay could mean the difference between a life of freedom or a life of certain imprisonment.
