Wincing, doubled with pain, she twisted. "What do you mean?"
Jarl laughed, and the sound came out less mirth than anguish. "Did you forget that Wassreck's own daughter, Sais, is at Ceresta? Would he cut loose your father's Federation fleet, arm his deadliest foe with a new weapon, knowing that Sais and the raiders would die together?"
The girl's face paled. "No—! No, it can't be—"
"It can't be, but it is. Sais came to me there, to beg me to try to save her father!"
Ylana swayed. Her lovely face was a mirror of shock. Helpless, grey eyes tear-brimming, she twisted in mute appeal to the other raiders.
Ungo said: "It's true, woman. I was there with him."
"But it can't be...." The words came out almost a whimper.
Across the room, the viziscreen's communicator bell rang shrilly.
Jarl let the girl's arm fall. Muscles stiff, belly tight with tension, he strode to the screen and spun the dials swiftly to the cross shown on the communicator unit.
A room took form upon the screen, a bleak, bare, metal room where blue-uniformed Federation crewmen moved to and fro.