She did not shriek when the bolt tore through her.
Then as she lay quietly on the thick, gilded carpet, with consciousness rapidly fading and returning with the regularity of her heart beats, she realized what had been calling to her. The piezo crystal in her waist-purse, still hidden in the shadows of her table, had been activated, and had brought into focus within the room the dim, transparent outlines of a small space ship.
Perat saw it too, and his eyes widened as they traced it quickly from wall to wall.
"It's real ..." whispered Evelyn between clenched lips. "Mentors wanted me ... return in it ... to Terra ... secret of pile...."
A strange light was growing over Perat's face. "Of course! So that's why your father tried so hard at the last to break through our blockade and get a ship through! If the secret of the strain-pile had ever reached Terra, all the Tharn suns—indeed, the whole Scythe federation—would be novae by now! By Karos, it was a narrow thing!"
There was a soft gurgling in Evelyn's throat.
He flung his pistol away and sat down beside her, lifting her head to his chest. "I'll call the physician," he rasped through contorted lips.