All The Weyrs of Pern

12

The discovery of Honshu was partially eclipsed by S'len's discovery of eighteen usable space suits in the Yokohama EVA ready room. In Master Robinton's opinion, Aivas had received that news with a great deal more excitement than he had displayed when hearing about Honshu's state of preservation. Aivas said that the suits gave his schedule considerably more flexibility and dispensed with some rather awkward and possibly dangerous alternatives. However, some folk in the Smithcraft, and many in the Harper Hall, considered Honshu the more important, and certainly more immediately useful, discovery.

While Aivas was revising his plan, Jancis and Hamian were appointed by Master Fandarel to inventory the tools at Honshu and, if their use was not immediately apparent, to decide what function they had had. Aivas did take time to print out a manual for the sled, out of respect for the keen interest shown, but added the qualifier that any such investigations were esoteric since he could give no assistance in powering it. That provoked some resentment in those who felt that aerial transportation should not be restricted to dragonriders and "a chosen few."

Aivas's rebuttal to that accusation was to enumerate all the skills and technological improvements-which most of those same complainants objected to in theory-that would be necessary to produce powered aerial vehicles, including the development of an alternative and reliable power source.

"The settlers used power packs," Aivas reminded them. The subject had arisen before. "These units were rechargeable, but no recharging mechanism survived."

"But can't you tell us how to make the power packs?"

"There are two kinds of science," Aivas began in his oblique fashion. "Practical and theoretical. With practical, engineers use only what is known-and proved to work in the everyday world-to achieve certain predicted and predictable results. Theoretical science, on the other hand, pushes at the boundaries and laws that are known to work-and sometimes even steps outside of them. For the projects you have been working on, you already had enough background and know-how to learn the necessary science to follow my instructions. But for some things-such as the alien power packs-Pern, simply has not the technology or the science to understand the theories well enough to apply them practically."

"In other words, we're stuck with this world and what's in it?" Jaxom asked.

"Precisely. And it is up to you to work this out for yourself, or to gain help from Lytol rather than from this facility."

And that was as much time as Aivas would spend on Honshu. With additional space suits available, he initiated new projects, which, it was made clear, were much closer to the major task at hand: the destruction of Thread.

Now that the life-support systems on the Bahrain and the Buenos Aires were fully operational, Mirrim and S'len were sent on their green dragons to make the necessary links between the bridge consoles on the two smaller ships and the Yokohama link with Aivas. The Bahrain and the Buenos Aires had, however, sustained more damage over the centuries than the Yokohama, losing antennae, exterior optics, and considerable areas of the outside skin from impacts that the shields had been unable to deflect. But that damage, Aivas was quick to state, would not interfere with the Plan.

Terry, Wansor, three of the Glass-smith's brightest journeymen, and Perschar, the artist, were ferried up by green dragons for long sessions on the Yokohama's telescope, mapping the Red Star for any distinctive features. The vid-link down to Aivas was still imperfect; Aivas had been unable to discover the problem and so had to rely on human observations. They soon reported to Aivas that only one side of the planet was turned toward them. Perschar was to do large reproductions of whatever geographic features the surface of the eccentric planet presented. Wansor had to be peeled away from the console, so exhausted by his lengthy efforts that he actually fell asleep between on the return trip.

Teams made up of green and bronze riders-all transported by the smaller green dragons-explored the deserted levels of the Yokohama in case anything else had been left behind. But the ancients had stripped an amazing amount of material from the ship. The space suits-and the banks of coldsleep capsules-were all that had been deemed useless on the surface.

Then a team of Mastersmiths was sent to all three ships, starting with the Yokohama, so that all four could familiarize themselves with the cargo bays and engine rooms. The four-Fandarel, Belterac, Evan, and Jancis-were fascinated by the ship's construction, pausing to examine the way struts had been secured, how walls, ceilings and floors had been fitted into the skeleton of the ship. It was difficult for them to assimilate the fact that the Yokohama had been assembled in space at one of the old Earth's gigantic satellite shipyards, and that the heaviest portions had been pushed into position by single workers with computer-controlled machines.

Master Fandarel made full use of the Yokohama as a schoolroom, getting Aivas to explain the designs and the safety aspects of the compartmentalization. He was truly amazed at the rationale behind the odd design of the spacegoing ship and had many questions to put to Aivas about the apparent anomalies.

The main section of the Yokohama was a huge sphere of many levels, each of which could be closed off, as could sections of each level-to sustain life, Aivas told them, should the main hull be breached. Thus heat and oxygen could be maintained only where necessary, as was being done now, to conserve supplies. The bridge area, the environmental section and the lift accessing it, a small infirmary, and Airlock A were the most heavily shielded. According to Aivas, escape pods had once been attached to Airlock A, until the Yokohama had been recommissioned as a colony ship and those pod positions had been altered to access supply drones.

The huge matter-antimatter engines were housed on a long shaft, attached to the midsection of the main sphere but separated by the heaviest shielding on the Yokohama. Two great wheels on either end of the engine shaft had held the fuel and cargo pods that had been wrapped around the engines. Those had, of course, been emptied during the journey and launched to splash down in the seas off Monaco Bay. Retrieved, the basic metal had been smelted down and reworked. The ceramic fuel tanks had been put to different uses. Very little of the superstructure of the Yokohama and the other two colony ships remained. The narrower stern wheel on the end of the engine shaft still held its band of maneuvering jets which, powered by the solar panels and in conjunction with those around the main sphere, were what kept the Yokohama's orbit stable. One of the first checks Aivas had commissioned was to ascertain how much fuel remained in the Yokohama's main tank.

Fandarel, thinking about that fuel, wondered why the settlers had dared to leave the colony ships in an orbit that was ultimately destined to decay. Aivas replied curtly that that was not an immediate concern: So far, the orbits had not decayed, and the surface of Pern was not at risk-not, at least, from ship debris.

It was while Jancis was busy patching the main engineering board into Aivas while the others were examining the "readiness" run of the great propulsion units that one of the green riders activated the red alert from the bridge. Jancis's bronze fire-lizard, Trig, became so agitated that she had a hard time calming him down enough to make sense of his response. She could raise neither S'len nor L'zan on the com. And the red alert signal continued to blink in the engineering facility.

"Thread attacking the Yokohama?" Jancis got that much from Trigs chaotic thoughts. "It can't, Trig. It can't. We're safe here! No, don't you dare breathe fire in here!"

Jancis then bellowed directions through the speaker to the bridge until S'len hit the right sequence of buttons to make voice contact.

"It's Thread, Jancis, I'm sure of it," S'len replied. "Not space debris. There's this flood of egglike things of varying sizes streaming toward us. Looks just like the stuff Aivas described to us in his lecture. Space debris wouldn't come in a steady flow, would it? This stuff goes back as far as we can see from the window. Only none of them ever hits the window, and the pilot's board is all lit up and the engineer's station is beeping at us." His words came tumbling out in his haste to describe the situation. Then his voice became agitated. "Bigath and Beerth are demanding that we go outside. They say it's Thread. I never should have even thought what I thought it is!" Then in an explosive aside: "No, Bigath, we can't fly this sort of a Fall. It's not Thread yet, -if that's what it is! We haven't any firestone, and there's no air out there, and you wouldn't fly outside anyway you'd float, just like in here. Shards! Jancis, I can't make her understand!"

S'len didn't panic easily, and Bigath was not as erratic as some greens. In the background, Jancis could also hear Aivas's loud reassurances. If Bigath was not obeying her rider, she certainly could not be disciplined by the Aivas. Her bugling challenge at Thread took on a frantic edge.

"Tell them Ruth says they're not to go! They obey him!" she said, latching on to an authority the greens respected. She didn't know a green dragon who wasn't partial to the white dragon.

"When is Ruth coming, Bigath wants to know!" S'len's tone had altered from dismay to desperation. Aivas's calm voice continued to exhort the green dragons to listen to reason, but he was using reason that the dragons were not in a state to hear.

Jancis was scribbling a note to Jaxom to come at once when S'len, with a cry of relief, said, "Ruth's here and everything's under control!"

Jancis looked at the note and then at her fire-lizard, who cocked his head at her quizzically. She considered the matter for a moment longer and then made a decision. There was absolutely no way in which Jaxom and Ruth would have known to come to the bridge. He was in Ruatha today, and Aivas had no way of communicating with him there. She checked the exact time on her watch and wrote it down on the note. She added a final phrase in big letters: "TIME IT!" Then she sent Trig off to Ruatha and Jaxom.

"But if Ruth and Jaxom are here, why send the note now?" Fandarel asked.

Jancis smiled at her grandfather. "Trig needs the practice, Granddad."

Trig was back almost immediately, looking inordinately pleased with himself.

"He needs more than practice," Fandarel said, dismayed at the apparent disobedience.

"I don't know about you," Jancis said as a diversion, striding over to the lift, "but I want to see this 'attack.' I've never been allowed out of Hall or Hold during a Fall, so now may be my only chance. Aren't any of you interested?"

The reaction to her challenge was immediate, and when Jancis found herself crammed into the lift with three big smiths she was sorry that she had issued it.

Then the lift door opened to a curious bedlam: two green dragons, wings plastered to the window, were so fiercely hissing and spraying saliva that the view was largely obscured, while Ruth, his wing fingers on those of the two greens, putting him at full stretch, overlapped their bodies. He was loudly emitting some sort of croon that was only just audible through their angry sputters.

Jancis managed to grab Trig before he took off to join the dragons in their futile posturing. She pinned him firmly under one arm while she hung on to the railing lest his violent attempts to free himself send her into a spin. Ruth turned his redshot eyes in their direction and barked peremptorily. The bronze fire-lizard immediately subsided.

The view-or the part of it that was not blocked by green and white dragon bodies-was awesome: the objects blanketed the entire panorama. Jancis had to exert a firm control over an urge to recoil as the shapes, zooming straight at Yokohama, were deflected at seemingly the last moment before impact by the ship's shields. But gradually, she and the smiths became accustomed to the spectacle and could appreciate it with detachment. Not that any of them found it as amusing as Jaxom did. He was clutching the pilot's chair in one hand to prevent himself from floating off, but he was nearly doubled up with laughter. S'len and L'zan, hovering circumspectly out of reach of furiously swishing dragon tails, looked on in chagrin and embarrassment.

Being the tallest man there, Fandarel had a reasonably unobstructed view. "An amazing spectacle. Aivas, is this one of those meteor showers you've told us about?"

"What you are seeing is not a meteor shower," Aivas replied. "Comparing the present onslaught with reports made by Pilot Kenjo Fusaiyuki during his reconnaissance flights and pending examination of a sample, it is reasonable to assume that Thread, in its space-traveling form, is flowing past the Yokohama on its way to your planet."

"But where will it fall?" Jaxom asked, unable to remember which Weyr was scheduled to fly Fall next.

"On Nerat, in precisely forty-six hours," Aivas replied.

Jaxom let out a long whistle.

"This swarm has a long way to go yet to reach the atmospheric envelope of the planet," Aivas continued.

"Hmmm," Fandarel said, moving closer to peer out the window. "Fascinating! To be amid Thread and unharmed by it. Truly astounding. It's a great pity we can't do something to stem the tide here, before it reaches the surface."

S'len groaned. "Please don't even think that," he said, flicking his hand at the willing creatures whom Ruth was visibly restraining at the window.

"Thread doesn't look so dangerous right now," Jancis said thoughtfully as she watched the ovoids sweep in and abruptly disappear.

"In its frozen state, it is unlikely to be life-threatening," Aivas said.

"But you don't know for sure?"

"Attempts were made by Nabhi Nabol and Bart Lemos to secure specimens, but their ship disintegrated before they were able to return with them."

"We could get some now," Jaxom suggested. "There're plenty out there."

There was a significant pause, and Jaxom winked at Jancis. It wasn't often that Aivas was caught speechless.

"You fail to recognize the hazards of such a venture," the Aivas replied at last.

"Why? We could stash the thing in Airlock A, for instance, and it would stay frozen. As you keep telling us, it takes the friction of the atmosphere for Thread to metamorphose into its dangerous state."

Jancis was mouthing words at Jaxom, shaking her head violently. Under her arm, Trig struggled with renewed vigor to free himself from restraint.

"The Yokohama is moving at approximately 38,765 nautical miles per hour or about twenty thousand miles per hour relative to the Thread ovoids. To attempt to capture one would be an impossible maneuver even for persons trained in extravehicular activities. It would also be essential to have nonheat-conducting tongs."

Trig squawked.

I would capture a Thread egg for you, Ruth said, turning his head at an impossible angle over his shoulder to his rider.

Jaxom looked in alarm at his white dragon and regretted his spontaneous suggestion. "Oh, no, you don't." At Ruth's crestfallen expression, he added, "No one else can keep those greens under control."

"Did Ruth just offer to go get a Thread?" Jancis asked, holding more tightly to the writhing Trig. "Let Trig go."

"You heard what Aivas said about the velocities and nonheatconducting tongs."

"It doesn't look as if we're traveling anywhere near that speed," she replied. Then she sighed. "Even if I know we must be. Anyway, fire-lizard talons aren't exactly heat-conductive, are they? Trig seems to think he can."

"What!" Belterac demanded, his eyes bulging with horror. "Bring one of those-those things in here with us?"

"Not in here," Jancis told him. "Into the airlock, where we can examine it closely. In its frozen state, it poses no danger."

"Do you really think Trig would be able to manage?" Fandarel asked, his insatiable curiosity getting the better of an ingrained revulsion to Thread.

"If he thinks he can," Jancis said. She looked down at the struggling fire-lizard. "Letting him do something about Thread may calm him down." She looked out at the barrage.

"It has been noted," Aivas said, "that fire-lizards are particularly courageous in the presence of Thread. It has also been noted that, in both fire-lizards and dragons, the thought becomes the deed by some method which does not bear investigation. If Trig should think he can retrieve a specimen, despite the obvious difficulties, it would greatly facilitate a useful examination of the organism. Placing it in Airlock A would, of course, keep the specimen frozen, dormant, and impotent. Then it could be examined at leisure, a procedure your ancestors scheduled but did not implement. It would complete their biological investigations of this organism."

Jaxom looked warily at Jancis. All in all, he wasn't sure they should ask this of Trig. Didn't they know as much as they needed to know about Thread? And yet, to have a Thread impotent, at their disposal, locked in a primal form, would be subtly gratifying.

It wouldn't be at all hard to do, Ruth told Jaxom.

"Ruth!" Jaxom vetoed that with a sharp chop of his hands. "You stay out of this fire-lizard assignment. Show-off!"

To his surprise, Jancis laughed. "Does Ruth think he'd fit in Airlock A?" she asked, grinning at Ruth's reproachful expression. "First, let's see if Trig is certain he can manage. Now, dear..." She lifted Trig up level with her eyes, took his triangular head, and pointed it toward the window. "We want you to get one of those big eggs and put it in Airlock A. You remember where that is. It'd be like catching a wherry midair."

I'm telling him, too, in case he doesn't understand, Ruth said, turning a reproving eye on his rider. I'd be perfectly safe. I'm much bigger than the Thread eggs. I wouldn't be thrown off balance as a little fire-lizard would be. And it's no more than a jump between.

Trig gave a cheep, turned his head toward Ruth, and cheeped again, the whirling of his eyes speeding up with anticipation and resolve.

He understands. He says he can easily do that.

"Ruth has now briefed Trig thoroughly," Jaxom told Jancis.

"You're sure you can do this, Trig? You don't have to, you know," she said, but Trigs eyes were orange-red with challenge and confidence. With a sigh, she bounced him off her arm. He disappeared. A moment later they all saw him through the bridge window, catching an ovoid nearly as large as himself. Briefly, the force of the capture sent him spinning backward, but before he hit the window, he abruptly flipped out of sight again. Three heartbeats later, he reappeared on the bridge, chittering with satisfaction.

"His hide is so cold," Jancis said as she stroked him. "He's got stuff on his talons! Freezing! Ugh!" But, for all of that, she didn't dislodge him from her shoulder.

Everyone made much of him, including Ruth, with the notable exception of the two greens, who were sullenly rumbling their discontent at being kept inside the Yokohama.

"Apparently the extravehicular activity was successful?" Aivas asked.

Jaxom activated the optics in Airlock A and saw the ovoid floating gently above the lock floor.

Eyes widening in surprise, Jancis jiggled her finger at the screen showing the airlock. "Look!" she exclaimed. It took a moment for the others to realize that the ovoid was gliding across the lock. It hovered briefly by the wall and returned to approximately the same position in the center of the facility.

"Excellent demonstration of an incident of magnetic levitation," Aivas remarked.

"And congratulations from Master Robinton and D'ram. Warder Lytol is already mobilizing a team to examine the specimen."

"Is he indeed?" Jaxom asked flippantly, wondering who Lytol would tag with the unenviable task.

"The extent and density of this stream would be useful knowledge," Aivas went on. "Jancis, such readings can be taken from the navigator's console by activating the exterior optics, using title EXAM.EXE code."

"It occurs to me, Aivas," Jaxom began, winking at Jancis, "that this phenomenon was not on your agenda for today in space?" He was amused to see Fandarel regard him with astonishment for such an impudent question.

There was so profound a silence from Aivas that everyone on the bridge exchanged amused glances. Twice in one day they had confounded Aivas? Fandarel began to chuckle, a deep rolling sound, when an answer finally came.

"Regrettably, this facility did not compute that possibility, though calculations now indicate that the Yokohama and her sister ships have been in the line of Thread showers every fourth Fall."

"Well, imagine that!" Jaxom remarked, his eyes glinting with mischief. He had never thought to catch Aivas unprepared.

With what Jaxom decided was considerable aplomb, Aivas asked, "Is the shield destroying the ovoids, or is it deflecting them?"

"Deflecting," Jaxom replied. Then he absorbed the nub of that remark. "The shield has a destructive mode? We could destroy what's raining down on us? What an ingenious concept! There'd be just that much fewer to fall on Nerat. And that might persuade old Begamon that all this"-he gestured about the bridge-"is worth the effort."

"Jaxom, the destruct capability can be activated from either the captain's chair or the pilot's console. Call up the shield function program and alter DEFL to DEST."

"I hear and obey," Jaxom said eagerly, his breath quickening as he slid into the pilot's seat and activated the console. "Program altered." For a moment, he let his finger hover above the ENTER tab. "Engaged!"

In the next instant, the pellets streaking toward them dissolved in puffs, clearing a path so that the width and depth of the stream became all too visible.

"If you will activate the rearview screen, Jaxom, " Aivas went on, "you will see how effective the destruct mode is."

Plainly a wide swath of Thread had been eliminated.

"That's beautiful! Just beautiful! Charring Thread in the air is one thing! This is much better. Much better!" Jaxom muttered. He turned the forward view back on and continued to watch the visible destruction of Thread with intense satisfaction. The green dragons had stopped spitting and were rumbling in delight.

"Is there any way to extend this destruction beyond the Yokohama?" Master Fandarel asked.

"No," Aivas replied. "The shield's main function is to defect ordinary space debris. Considering the width, breadth, and depth of the stream, it would be analogous to trying to destroy a snow shower with a candle."

"Then how, Aivas, do you propose that we shall destroy this menace-as you promised we would?" Jaxom demanded.

"By removing the vector that brings Thread to Pern. That should have been obvious to you all by now," Aivas chided them. "The path of the eccentric planet must be altered sufficiently so that it does not come close enough to spin Thread into Pern's orbit."

"And how can we possibly do that?" Master Fandarel demanded.

"That will become apparent as you continue with the Plan. Everything you have learned, every seemingly simple exercise either here or on the ground is directed toward preparing you for that end."

No amount of wheedling or blustering could move Aivas to elaborate. "You cannot run before you walk," he repeated to almost every rephrasing of that question from Fandarel, Jaxom, Jancis, and Belterac.

Finally, Jaxom desisted and turned to the immediate situation. "Don't the Buenos Aires and Bahrain have similar shields?"

"They do," Aivas replied.

"Well, then." Jaxom rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"Now wait a moment, Lord Jaxom," Jancis said. "You're not going to have all the fun today. I want my turn at destroying Thread."

"And I," her grandfather said, a rapturous grin replacing his usual composure.

"It would be a dangerous task for a young woman, a young mother," Belterac said, glancing anxiously at Fandarel to support him.

"I will not be done out of my opportunity on those grounds," Jancis said, her stance so belligerent that Belterac nearly recoiled in surprise. "Besides, I fit into a space suit. You're much too big, Belterac."

"I'm not," Evan said, speaking up for the first time.

"I thought that life-support systems had been reactivated on both the smaller ships," Fandarel said. "Am I not correct, Aivas?"

"You are, Master Fandarel."

"Well, then, space suits are not required."

"A knowledge of the sequence is, Granddad, and you always leave console work to someone else."

Fandarel drew himself up to his full height, swelling his massive chest importantly. "It did not seem too difficult. A few pecks and then the enter." He threw a quizzical glance at Jaxom.

"Cease!" Jaxom said, throwing up his hands and nearly propelling himself out of the pilot's chair by mistake. "As Lord Holder, I outrank everyone else, so I will make the decision. Master Fandarel deserves the chance for many reasons, and Jancis, too. However, Bigath and Beerth brought all you Smithcrafters up here, so they can just haul you across to the other ships, as well. You-" He pointed at Belterac. "-can be trusted with switching the screen from deflect to destroy. And you-" He indicated Fandarel. "-can then engage. Jancis, you reprogram the shield, and Evan, you can hit the ENTER key. So you'll all take part."

"It must be pointed out," Aivas said, "that the amount of Thread that would be destroyed, even utilizing the destruct mode of the shields on all three ships, is only point-oh-nine percent of an average Fall. Is this trip necessary?"

"That's point-oh-nine percent the dragonriders don't have to worry about, Aivas," Jaxom said jubilantly.

"Then let us make this efficient use of the available technology," Fandarel said eagerly.

"It is apparent that such participation would give immense psychological satisfaction, far outweighing either the risk or the actual destruction ratio," Aivas said.

"Immense satisfaction," Jaxom agreed.

"Raising morale to a new height," Jancis put in. "And to think I can have a part in it!"

"That is," Jaxom said, turning to the green riders, "if you and your dragons are amenable..."

S'len and L'zan were more than amenable. Jaxom drilled everyone on the steps necessary to alter the shield to destruct mode. Aivas did insist that everyone was to take along emergency oxygen equipment. The atmosphere on the two smaller ships was only minimal, and oxygen deprivation could not be risked.

When the greens, well laden with riders, departed, Jaxom found the bridge remarkably quiet.

"Jaxom," Aivas began, "how much weight can the green dragons carry? Their burdens today weigh more than their body weight."

"A dragon is capable of carrying as much as he thinks he can," Jaxom replied with a shrug.

"So if the dragon thinks he can carry any object, irrespective of its actual weight, he will?"

"I don't think anyone's actually tried to overload a dragon. Didn't you tell me that the earliest ones were used to transport loads out of Landing following the eruption'?"

"That is true. But they were never, as you surmised, permitted to carry great weights. In fact, Sean O'Connell, the leader of those early riders, resented the fact that the dragons were used in such a capacity."

"Why?"

"That was never explained."

Jaxom smiled to himself. "Dragons can do a lot of inexplicable things."

"For instance," and Aivas's voice altered subtly, "arriving in very timely fashions?"

Jaxom chuckled. "That's one."

"How did you contrive such a serendipitous entrance?"

"Jancis was clever enough to put down the time. When I visualized the bridge for Ruth, I also visualized the bridge clock"-Jaxom pointed to the digital face-"at a minute before the one she gave. So, of course, we arrived-" He chuckled again. "-in time!"

Tell Aivas that I always know where in time I am, Ruth said, and Jaxom duly repeated the message to Aivas.

"A most interesting ability."

"Mind you, Aivas, that is for your ears only."

"This facility has no ears, Jaxom."

The discussion was interrupted by the jubilant return of the teams, the green dragons looking as gratified as their passengers.

"When Thread has passed by," Aivas said, "someone must return to the other ships and reset the shield to deflect. The solar panels do not supply unlimited power and will need to be fully recharged."

There was a unanimous agreement to that suggestion. By then, Aivas had accessed all the data he required, the Thread flow had diminished to a few stray globules, and the green dragons returned the teams to reset the shields.

"Aivas," Fandarel began when they were once again assembled on the Yokohama's bridge, "has the matter of our excursions to the other ships been mentioned on the surface?"

"Master Robinton was on duty and approved," Aivas replied.

Fandarel cleared his throat. "No students listening to the exchange?"

"Only Master Robinton was in the chamber at that time. Why?"

"We can count on his discretion, then. This interesting facet of the Yokohama should be discussed before it is made public," Fandarel said. "I found it most exhilarating to initiate the destruction."

"Wouldn't it serve to convince the doubtful that these projects are useful?" Jancis asked.

"That is the question that must be discussed," Fandarel told her.

Jaxom and Ruth made their farewells and left the bridge. As Jancis and the other smiths returned to the engine room and their disrupted tasks, she fleetingly wondered if he had timed it back to Ruatha...

Jaxom did not return immediately to Ruatha. He felt obliged to inform the Benden Weyrleaders of the incident. Ruth was thoroughly in favor of a Benden destination, as he always enjoyed visiting his native Weyr.

Ramoth and Mnementh are happy to see me, he told his rider as they circled in to land at the queen's weyr. Lessa and F'lar are within. Then he turned his head up to Mnementh, and the two dragons touched noses. Mnementh says that F'lar will be very pleased to hear what we did on the Yokohama. He and Ramoth are.

As Jaxom entered the queen's weyr, Ramoth was watching for his appearance and rumbled a greeting.

She greets you as the bearer of very good tidings, Ruth told him.

"How about letting me deliver my own surprise?" Jaxom muttered with mock irritation.

"And what surprise is that?" Lessa asked, looking up from reinforcing a join on a long strap. F'lar had his harness stretched from a peg set high on the wall and was rubbing oil into the thick neck strap.

These reminders of his near escape from cold-damaged leather sobered Jaxom. He had seen no further indication that the conspirators at Tillek were carrying out their threat against him. But then, he had been careful not to provide opportunities.

"Oh," he began casually, "just that the Fall over Nerat won't be as heavy as usual day after tomorrow."

"How's that?" F'lar swiveled about, giving Jaxom his complete attention. Lessa's stare suggested that the young Holder had better be quick with his explanation.

Grinning because it wasn't often that he could astound this pair, he related what had happened. When he had finished, and the two Weyrleaders had questioned him closely on details, Lessa looked less than pleased.

"I'd say we were very lucky not to have last two green dragons. And don't tell me you didn't time it, Jaxom."

"Then I won't," Jaxom replied. "Bloody lucky Ruth's so clever at it."

Lessa opened her mouth to remonstrate with him, but F'lar held up a hand. "And there can be a reduction in the density of Fall, using the destruct mode of the shields?" the Weyrleader asked.

"It certainly looked that way to us out the back window... as it were." Then Jaxom halted in dismay. "You know, if I'd had the sense of a fire-lizard, I'd've reprogrammed the telescope and gotten a good look."

"It takes time to become accustomed to using all this new technology. Anyway, we'll confirm it at Nerat," F'lar said, smiling as he pushed back his errant forelock. "This'll be heartening news, Jaxom. Fall's right now at its densest, and unless Thread can re-form-which I doubt-during its descent through the upper strata, the wings will have a brief breather. And that'll cut down on our casualties."

"It may increase them," Lessa said with a scowl. "If we decide to take advantage of this capability. Riders'll become inattentive, expecting a lull."

"Oh, come now, love." F'lar gave Lessa's long, thick plait an affectionate tug. "You can be downright ungrateful for a favor."

She paused, reconsidered, then gave a grudging smile. "Sorry. I do tend to be gloomy just before a Fall."

"In that case, Lessa, you'd best come up to the Yokohama the next time this happens. I found it tremendously satisfying to be able to destroy so much Thread without endangering Ruth or myself!" Jaxom paused, then added, "We also have a specimen of Thread on the floor of Airlock A."

"What?"

Jaxom grinned at her startled, horrified expression. "Oh, it's safe enough. Airlock's got no oxygen, and it's the same temperature as outside. Aivas assured us that it's impotent in this form, can't alter. At that, we managed what the settlers never could-we captured Thread in its dormant stage."

Lessa shuddered in revulsion. "Get rid of it!" she said with a dramatic gesture of her hand. "Get rid of it!"

"Lytol's already assembling a team to dissect it."

"Why?" Lessa flinched again.

"Curiosity, I suppose. Though Aivas could merely be responding to another of those earlier imperatives of his he's so determined to implement."

F'lar gave Jaxom a long hard look. Then he held up the klah pitcher, gesturing for the younger man to join him at the table for refreshment. Jaxom nodded gratefully and took the chair F'lar indicated while the steaming klah was poured.

"I don't care what Aivas is implementing," Lessa said. "I I don't like the idea of Thread on the Yokohama. Suppose-"

"Aivas would not expose us to danger," F'lar said, giving her a soothing smile. "I find Jaxom's comments on Aivas's mandates extremely perceptive." He settled in a chair and, cradling his klah cup, leaned across the table. "I'm curious, Jaxom, and you're more in Aivas's company these days than we are: This dissection business makes me wonder if Aivas's basic imperatives conflict with ours."

"Not where the annihilation of Thread is concerned. Though sometimes I don't understand at all why he has us doing some of those endless drills and exercises. Especially now that he has been revealed as fallible."

F'lar grinned. "Did Aivas ever say he was not?"

"He likes to give the impression that he's never wrong," Lessa said in a sharp tone, looking alarmed.

Jaxom grinned. "Good teacher image, and that's necessary when he has to pound all these radical ideas into our parochial heads."

"Is his fallibility a danger to us?" F'lar asked.

"I don't really think so. I'm just commenting on it since we are private today," Jaxom went on, "and because I was so surprised when Aivas did not know that Thread's descent passed so close to the Yokohama."

F'lar blinked, absorbing that information, and Lessa's frown deepened. "Surprised? Or worried?" she asked.

"Well, it's not his fault. The ancients didn't know it, either," Jaxom said with some satisfaction.

F'lar grinned back at him. "I see what you mean, Jaxom. Makes them more human."

"And Aivas not so inhumanly perfect."

"Well, it doesn't please me," Lessa snapped. "We've believed everything Aivas has told us!"

"Don't fret, Lessa. So far Aivas has not lied to us," F'lar said.

"But if he doesn't know everything, how can we now be sure he's guiding us in the right direction with this great plan of his that's supposed to destroy Thread forever?" she demanded.

"I'm beginning to figure out what that's going to be," Jaxom said so confidently that Lessa gave him a long look. "Aivas is obviously teaching us at the rate at which he feels we'll be able to absorb the revolutionary ideas; these exercises are what we have to perfect before we can achieve his goals, which are ours, and were our ancestors'."

"And will you let us in on your conclusions?" Lessa's tone was as caustic as Jaxom had ever heard it.

"It has to do with having a Thread in the airlock and being able to analyze it unemotionally, the way Sharra, Oldive, and the others can identify bacteria and develop ways of combating infection. It has to do with becoming accustomed to moving in free-fall or in airless space, in using sophisticated equipment as if it were a third arm or an extra set of brains. That's all Aivas is, you know. An extra set of brains with a phenomenal, and infallible, memory." As Jaxom spoke, F'lar regarded him with growing respect. "And possessing a knowledge of the advanced technology we have lacked, so we couldn't do more than hold Thread at bay. But it's the dragons, and their riders, that Aivas needs to demolish Thread."

"That's obvious, considering the questions Aivas keeps asking us," Lessa put in sharply. "I'd feel happier if we knew what he wants our dragons to do." Ramoth gave a crisp bark of agreement. "I'd also like to know when he'll let the larger dragons up on the Yokohama." Both Ramoth and Mnementh bugled.

Jaxom grinned at Lessa. "Now, Lessa, don't be mean. It's not often that the greens get the jump on their bigger clutchmates. Allow them their moment of glory. At any rate, your chance comes soon. Sharra and Mirrim are monitoring the oxygen levels in the cargo bay, and as soon as the atmosphere's at the proper consistency, you'll be very welcome. Of course, you can always ask a green to fly you up there."

Emitting an angry rumble, Ramoth turned to fix Jaxom with eyes that whirled with occasional flickers of red.

"There! You know what Ramoth thinks of that idea," Lessa replied with a glint of amusement. "As if I'd consider for one moment being conveyed by a green," she added to soothe her weyrmate.

"A white?" Jaxom offered slyly.

Ramoth rumbled again, but not quite so angrily, and sneezed.

I'll be exceedingly careful carrying Lessa, Ramoth, Ruth said. I fit on the bridge, which is warmer than the cargo bay, and Lessa would see much more on the bridge than in that dark cavern.

"I heard," Lessa said when Jaxom opened his mouth to relay the message.

"I know that Aivas wants all the bronze and brown dragons to get used to free-fall conditions. The bay's the only large open area that they'll fit in. The algae farm is developing beautifully, so it shouldn't be long now."

Lessa cocked her head at Jaxom, her expression thoughtful. "Does Aivas plan for the dragons to move those ships?"

"Move the ships?" Jaxom asked, surprised.

"Why? How?" F'lar asked.

"Remember, F'lar, when Aivas insisted that the dragons should be able to move things telekinetically?"

"Dragons can only move themselves, their riders, and what they carry," F'lar said categorically. "They cannot move things they're not holding. And what good would come of moving the ships? If his plan is somehow to use the ships to blow up the Red Star, I don't see what good that would accomplish. Not as I understand his lessons in spatial mechanics."

"No more do I" Jaxom took the last gulp of his klah and rose. "Well, I've delivered my report of today's surprise."

"For which you have our gratitude," F'lar said.

"If that kind of predestruction turns out to be beneficial, we can set up a regular schedule to switch the shields," Jaxom said. "You can even have a chance at programming the mode yourselves."

"I'm sure it will be feasible, Jaxom. Anything that destroys Thread is helpful," F'lar said, rising to accompany the young Holder to the ledge.

"You won't worry about Aivas's fallibility, will you, F'lar?" Jaxom asked in a lowered voice when they were in the short corridor beyond the weyr.

"Me? No, certainly not," the Weyrleader assured him. "We've learned so much already from Aivas that, even if his vaunted Plan fails, we'll surely find our own ways of ridding Pern of Thread by the next Pass. But, somehow, Jaxom," F'lar said, gripping Jaxom's arm hard to show his implacable resolve, "I know we'll manage to do it in this Pass! Make no mistake about that! We'll do it in my lifetime!"

When the Smithcrafters returned to Landing, thoroughly elated by their time aboard the Yokohama, there was some contention over who should be allowed the opportunity to initiate the destruct mode. And of a more immediate nature, who would have the opportunity to dissect the Thread specimen.

"You'd have to choose carefully," Lytol said, "for too many folk believe that just being in the presence of Thread is followed by a terrible death. I've sent quite a few messages off to find qualified persons to perform the task, and so far, there's been no response."

"You might not get one," Piemur said. He had been waiting for Jancis's return, a sleeping Pierjan limp in his backpack. "I suppose the knowledge would be useful even if it'll become academic by the end of this Pass."

Master Robinton held up his hand. "I'll go, if no one else will."

He was so besieged with protests that he grinned. "So long as I can visit the Yokohama at some point in the very near future. And don't"-he glared about him-"tell me that my health won't permit it. I found data in the medical files on how heart patients were frequently sent to free-fall wards on satellites to recuperate. A visit to the Yokohama would, therefore, be beneficial for my health, and it could do my heart good to stab a sequence that destroyed Thread! Did one of your messages go to Oldive or Sharra, Lytol? Well, then, they're both busy folk, but they'll get back to you in time. And if one of them goes, why, I'd have my healer at hand."

Considerable consternation was roused when it became more widely known that a Thread ovoid had been procured. Aivas obliged with scenes of it reposing in Airlock A. It remained there unchanging for several days, proving that in its present state it posed no danger to anyone.

More importantly, Lessa and F'lar reported favorably on the reduction of Thread density during the largest Fall over Nerat. There had been three long columns entirely free of the deadly rain. So Lessa and F'lar came to Landing to discuss adding that task to the on-board duties. Aivas had a tape of the incident so that Benden Weyrleaders could view it, which they did several times.

"Incredible to think Thread can be destroyed without dragon assistance," Lessa murmured in a low voice.

"Too bad there aren't a dozen more colony ships up there," Piemur said.

"Then dragons wouldn't have been needed, and that doesn't bear thinking of, " Lessa snapped back at him.

"I spoke as a harper, Weyrwoman," Piemur said courteously, "as I, for one, am very glad dragons do exist."

"I think, F'lar, that we should go to the Yokohama," Lessa remarked. "There's enough oxygen for Ramoth and Mnementh in the cargo bay by now. isn't there, Aivas?"

"There is. It is essential that the larger dragons become accustomed to the conditions of space," Aivas replied. Lessa and F'lar exchanged meaningful glances. "The next stream should intersect with the Yokohama's orbit in three days' time, at precisely 1522 hours ship time."

"That's late morning, isn't it, Benden time?" F'lar asked, turning to Lessa. "We'll go then, direct from Benden."

"Who's going to take me then?" Robinton asked, sitting straight up in his chair and looking aggrieved.

"I will," D'ram said. "Surely there's enough air for three big dragons, isn't there, Aivas?" The old Weyrleader's tone implied that there had better be.

"Certainly," was Aivas's prompt assurance.

"Well, then," Robinton said, brushing his hands together in complete satisfaction, "that takes care of that."