Sangqina's leather gloves still retained the warmth of operating a mech, while her deep-blue leather armor gleamed coldly beneath the Transport Ship deck's emergency lights.
She had just finished the initial count of the prisoners and was raising a hand to smooth her wind-tousled hair when a violent palpitation suddenly struck her heart without warning.
It was a pull from the depths of her bloodline, as if an invisible thread were gently tugging at her, making her feel for no reason that someone immensely important was somewhere within this space.
"How strange..."
She murmured to herself, pressing a hand to her chest. She could clearly feel her heart pounding within her ribcage, even more fiercely than when she had been piloting a mech in battle.
Sangqina looked around, her gaze sweeping over the mech units standing by in the distance, the busy team members, and the tightly shut hatch at the edge of the deck, yet she found nothing unusual.
But the palpitations did not fade. Instead, they surged ever more fiercely like a rising tide, leaving even her breathing somewhat hurried.
Her gaze turned involuntarily toward the densely packed prisoners before her.
These people came from different planets, with different skin colors. Most wore tattered clothes and frightened expressions, while the arms and ankles exposed beneath their thin prison uniforms still bore dark marks rubbed raw by shackles.
Sangqina's gaze slowly passed over the crowd, from the elderly curled up in corners, to children clutching tightly at their mothers' hems, to numb-eyed young and middle-aged adults.
Every face was etched with suffering, yet none bore the familiar outline her subconscious had been expecting.
"Could I be too sensitive?" Sangqina frowned, about to withdraw her gaze, when a faint palpitation ran through her fingertips once more.
Just then, her gaze