Double Helix 06_ The First Virtue - Michael Jan Friedman [51]
Normally, a Melacron purchased a new scarf every year and wore it only for the period of Inseeing. Then it was burned in accordance with the ancient sacraments. She and her team, however, had already been stuck at their outpost two years longer than they had planned. As a result, they had been unable to purchase new scarves.
Tradition held that it was bad luck to preserve the scarves and not burn them. But Kirnis had always held a sneaking suspicion that “tradition” had been started by scarf-makers. Besides, she couldn’t bear the prospect of having no scarf at-Behind her, the colony’s advance warning monitor began to beep. Apparently, she told herself, the sensor mechanisms orbiting the outpost had detected the approach of something.
Adrenaline flooded Kirnis. She hadn’t expected a Melacronai vessel to show up for several months yet. Whirling, she checked the monitor. Then her eyes went wide as she read the information couched there-the impossible, heart-stopping and yet undeniable information.
Status: vessel approaching. Bearing: two six four mark two. Vessel type: Cordracite warship third class, weapons systems armed.
“No,” she breathed. Of course there had been a history of bad blood between the Melacron and the Cordracites, but that was no reason for an armed warship to bear down on an isolated outpost.
“There’s nothing here,” she complained, though none of her colleagues was in the room to hear her.
Gritting her teeth against panic, Kirnis flipped a switch on her communications console. Abruptly, the image of the approaching vessel appeared on her screen. It was indeed a Cordracite warship, bristling with weapons ports and full of terrible purpose.
She would contact them, she decided. She would convince them that they were making a mistake.
“Master Scientist Lir Kirnis to Cordracite vessel,” she said in a voice that shook. “This is a Melacronai research outpost populated only with scientists and their families. Repeat, this outpost is populated only with scientists and their families. The results of our research are available to all. There is no need for an attack.” She swallowed in a painfully dry throat “Please respond and we will discuss the situation further.”
Then Kirnis punched a brightly lit button on the console and waited for the Cordracites’ answer. To her horror, none came.
Trembling, her two hearts thumping, she repeated the message, adding, “We have no weapons here, no tactical systems. Ours is a purely scientific venture. Please respond, Cordracite vessel. Your orders to attack this facility must be in error.”
There was silence across the vastness of cold space. Nor did the ship turn away. It continued to bear down on them.
Kirnis glanced at the main thoroughfare, where her colleagues and their families continued to make their way from place to place. Clearly, they were oblivious of the danger facing them.
She wondered if she should tell them what was about to happen. She wondered if she would want to know, if their positions were reversed-and decided not to say anything.
If these were their last moments, as seemed increasingly likely, why tear them apart with fear? Why not let the Melacron there go on as though nothing were wrong, enjoying each other to their last breath?
Kirnis turned to the monitor again. Numbly, disbelievingly, she watched the vessel’s weapons stations flash a bright green-and being a scientist, knew what that meant
“This can’t be happening!” she shrieked into the console’s communications grid. “Hold your fire! Cordracite vessel, you’ve made a mistake! There are no weapons here, nothing of value.” She felt her stomach muscles clench. “There are children … children, damn it! Come down and see for your-“
Then it was too late to protest, too late for anything, because the sky was ablaze with a hideous emerald fire. The last thought that went through Kirnis’s mind was, absurdly, that not burning her Inseeing scarf for two years in a row had