All The Weyrs of Pern

13

Lessa was just a trifle put out when Ruth, with Jaxom, Sharra, and Oldive astride, joined the three big dragons the morning of their first ascent to the Yokohama.

"Sharra and Oldive volunteered to dissect the Thread egg," Jaxom said without apology, "and I'm to man the telescope and give Aivas fore and aft views of the Thread stream."

What Jaxom did not say was that Ruth might need to give the big dragons a few helpful hints on how to manage themselves in free-fall. So far, none of the green dragons had experienced any difficulty with the unusual sensation of weightlessness. The fire-lizards had been totally fearless and almost casual about coming up to see what the dragons, especially Ruth, were doing on the Yokohama. Mirrim was scheduled for algae-farming on the other two vessels that day, so that would give the party two dragons suitable for bridge-to-bridge transfer.

Going between from the brilliant sunlight and balmy air of Landing to the big, dimly lit cargo bay on the Yokohama brought exclamations from all the initiates.

"Jaxom, I thought you said there were lights," Lessa said.

"There are," he replied, agilely dismounting and expertly pushing himself toward the main switches on the wall by the lift. He was rather pleased that, with such an audience, he arrived effortlessly at the exact spot. Being well aware of the load soon to be taxing the solar panels, he activated only the ring lights, not the power-eating overhead globes.

"Amazing!" Master Robinton exclaimed, staring around the immense, empty facility.

Ramoth made an odd little noise in her throat as she viewed her surroundings, her eyes idly whirling. Mnementh lowered his head, sniffing at the scarred deck plates, peering into the corners, his eyes calm. D'ram's Tiroth stretched his neck until his head reached the ceiling. At that point, his feet lifted slowly from the floor, startling the big bronze into a bellow of protest.

You are in free fall, Tiroth, Ruth said casually. Every action has a reaction. Gently push yourself back to the floor with your snout. See? That was easy.

Then Ramoth swung her head too rapidly about to see what was happening to Tiroth and started to drift.

Don't fight the motion, Ramoth, Ruth said, just relax and let yourself go with the movement. Now, easily swing your head back. See, it's not hard at all. Look at me.

"Ruth!" Jaxom said repressively, "don't you dare show off."

I'm not showing off, I'm showing! Ruth executed a slow backflip, careful to keep his wings tight against his spine where they would not interfere with his progress. We weigh no more than a fire-lizard up here! And then he twirled around on his tail end.

"Ruth!" Jaxom bellowed, his voice echoing off the walls of the bay.

"I think you've made your point, Lord Jaxom," F'lar said, a ripple of suppressed amusement in his voice. "Easy does it, right?" Moving carefully, F'lar swung out of his accustomed perch between Mnementh's neck ridges and found that he had propelled himself deckward. "An incredible feeling! Try it, Lessa. I know you don't weigh much under any circumstances, but I just drifted down! Amazing sensation! No strain for you, Robinton."

There were a few misjudgments as the passengers experimented. Sharra, discreetly assisting Masterhealer Oldive to the deck, made for the lift to start their day's project: a close examination of the egg in the airlock. Aivas has recommended that they take the Thread to the medical station on the top coldsleep deck. Laboratory facilities were still in place there, including a microscope more powerful than anything they had yet managed to build. The section had sufficient air but was not yet too warm, Aivas assured them. For an unemotional piece of machinery, Aivas was exhibiting an odd insistence for what Sharra would have thought a relatively unimportant element of the total project.

When the others had grown somewhat accustomed to the vagaries of free-fall, Jaxom escorted them to the bridge. Certainly he was as eager to show Lessa, F'lar, Robinton, and D'ram his familiarity with the Yokohama's bridge as Ruth was to discreetly supervise the big dragons. Standing in the open lift, Jaxom's novices did not disappoint him: they were as genuinely awestruck by the view of Pern as he could wish. He gave them time to absorb the wondrous sight of the sunlit continent and the brilliantly blue sea, then gently shooed them into the room so that the lift door could close. They clung for a while to the guardrail, coming to terms with their experience.

Propelling himself smoothly to the captain's chair, Jaxom fed the telescope program, checked the ready room, where Sharra was helping Oldive into a space suit, and tuned one of the ceiling screens in to the laboratory.

F'lar dragged his gaze away from the riveting view of Pern to eye the specimen. "It's not as big as I thought it'd be," he said.

"No, it's not. That's why it'd be interesting to see how a big, long Thread fits into such a confined envelope," Jaxom replied.

Lessa shot one glance at it before turning back to the more compelling panorama. "Can we go to the window?" she asked.

"Just push yourself off gently-don't worry," he added when she started to float and tried to stop herself. "Just flow. Don't struggle." She went by him, rotating, and he reached up and halted the motion. Then, with a gentle shove, he aimed her at the window.

Robinton, having observed her mistakes, did not repeat them, and shortly he was beside her at the window, his feet dangling a handspan above the floor. D'ram gave a grunt and went handover-hand down to the nearest console, where he strapped himself into the chair.

"How long before the stream starts to intersect the Yokohama's path?" he asked.

Jaxom set D'ram's screen at its highest magnification and called up the appropriate sector. As D'ram's screen refocused, the old bronze rider reared back in his chair, his expression blank with shock as the ragged beginnings of the wave appeared so immediately in front of him.

"It's not that close to us yet, D'ram. I just gave you an enhanced image. Here, I'll give you the actual perspective." Jaxom altered the magnitude so that the incoming stream was merely a sunlit smudge dropping toward them from the fourth quadrant.

"How near is it?" D'ram asked, his voice dry and cracking.

"Proximity monitor suggests we've a good ten minutes before contact," Jaxom said.

F'lar cautiously made his way to D'ram and hung on to the chair back, his legs almost horizontal to the floor. Then he levered himself into the other station and strapped in.

Are you all right down there? Jaxom asked Ruth as privately as he could so as not to be overheard by Ramoth.

She's far too busy enjoying free fall, Ruth replied, his tone amused. She's better at it then Mnementh and Tiroth, for all she's bigger. She's not using as much shove. I think they are doing much better without their riders watching. Watch your wings, Ramoth! Not much room in here!

Jaxom grinned, then froze as he caught movement in the lab. Sharra and Oldive were entering the room, Sharra moving as gracefully as the magnetic boots allowed, one gloved hand guiding Oldive's jerkier progress. Jaxom watched, rapt, as they attempted to penetrate the hard shell of Thread. Then Mirrim, on green Path, arrived on the bridge.

"Who'm I taking to the Bahrain?" she asked, grinning at the sight of Lessa and Robinton stretched across the window.

"Whoever will go with you," Jaxom said. "Lessa? F'lar?"

Lessa made an injudiciously sharp movement of her head and flattened herself against the window. "I'll go with you, Mirrim." No, Ramoth, it's perfectly all right. I assure you that you would not fit on the bridge here, much less on the Bahrain's. You learn to keep your balance down there in the bay where you have some space to maneuver.

Jaxom asked Ruth to oblige F'lar, and the white dragon jumped between to the bridge.

"You know the drill?" Jaxom asked the Benden Weyrleaders.

Lessa gave him a hard stare as she floated across to Path, but F'lar chuckled and replied meekly, "I assure you, we've been practicing hard, Jaxom. My thanks, Ruth, " he added as he glided up to the white dragon's back and settled himself.

"Bit easier to bestride than that great hulk of yours, isn't he?" Jaxom replied, grinning at the mild surprise on the bronze rider's face. "Have a good destructive time! You've got three minutes before contact."

"Where do I sit, Jaxom?" Robinton asked eagerly, pushing himself off from the window.

"Where F'lar was."

Much as Jaxom's fingers itched to insert the command, he found it equally gratifying to watch the expression on the Harper's face as he performed the task. As the smiths had on the previous occasion, Robinton and D'ram both recoiled as the ovoids hurtled toward the window. D'ram grunted as the first puffs signaled the destruction, then sat with arms folded across his chest, eyes narrowed, a look of deep satisfaction on his face.

"You know, D'ram, we really ought to get Lytol to come here one time," Robinton said. "It might ease his heart to destroy Thread. He never had the chance as a rider."

"Might do him some good at that," D'ram remarked thoughtfully.

"Aivas?" Jaxom opened the channel to Landing. "Are the pictures coming in clearly enough?"

"Yes, Jaxom, and the density is up by seven percent or more on the previous Fall."

"Then this predestruction will be welcome."

Jaxom turned his attention to the coldsleep laboratory, where the two healers were having trouble penetrating the shell of the Thread with the instruments they had brought with them.

"We've pounded, we've chipped, we've scraped-and we've not so much as scratched the surface," Sharra told Jaxom in disgust, waving a chisel in frustration.

"So much for those who fear it would leak out and devour us," Oldive said. He sounded more amused than frustrated. "Amazing envelope. Impervious to everything we thought would easily cut through it."

"Diamond cutters?" Jaxom suggested.

"You know, that might be just the thing," Oldive said, pleased. "Well, I certainly won't mind coming up here again. I've never felt so mobile." Although he generally paid no attention to his physical handicaps, his hunched back and crushed pelvis had given him uneven leg lengths and a crabbed gait. In weightlessness those problems were neutralized.

"This is an instance," Aivas said blandly, "when the teleportational abilities of the fire-lizards would come in exceedingly useful."

"Meer and Talla wouldn't know a diamond cutter if it bit them, " Sharra said ruefully. Then Jaxom heard her ruffled breath of a sigh. "I doubt if even that sort of an edge will have any effect on this thing. Its casing is impervious."

"Not to heat," Jaxom reminded her.

"There is no way, Lord Jaxom of Ruatha," Sharra said, settling her hands on her hips in a characteristic posture, "that you will get us to heat that thing up to simulate the friction of an ovoid's passage through atmospheric levels! Not that one could use a flamethrower in such a confined space as this lab."

"You do not have the technology necessary to produce a narrow heat beam such as a laser that would be effective on such a casing," Aivas added. "Another area in which you will have to make great progress over the next Turn."

"Oh? Why?" Jaxom asked, noting the quick interest of both Robinton and D'ram.

"There is no point, at this juncture, to elaborate on device or need," Aivas replied. "It is a matter that has been placed in the Mastersmith's hands but does not have priority over other, more essential, projects."

"Haven't you any helpful suggestions for us?" Sharra asked Aivas caustically.

"The diamond-cutter edge will be effective."

"Then why on earth didn't you suggest that we bring one along on this trip?" she demanded.

"The question was not put to this facility."

"The trouble with you, Aivas," Sharra continued with some asperity, "is that you only tell us what you think we should know: not necessarily all we need to know or what we want to know."

A long silence ensued, during which she and Oldive left the laboratory, sealing the door behind them.

"Sharra's right, you know," D'ram remarked at last.

"Indeed," Robinton said.

"But would we have thought that a diamond cutter would be necessary, considering the selection of edged tools Sharra and Oldive did bring with them?" Jaxom asked, though he agreed completely with his mate and was rather proud of her for speaking so bluntly. It was significant, too, that Aivas had not refuted the accusation.

Robinton shrugged in answer to Jaxom's question. D'ram, however, pulled at his lower lip.

"Diamond cutters are used for gemstones and glass etching. Why would we think to use them to cut open a Thread capsule?" the old Weyrleader asked. He lifted his hands, expressing inadequacy.

"Master Fandarel would have," Robinton remarked. Then he sighed. "We have so much still to understand, to learn, to appreciate. Is there ever an end, Aivas?"

"To what?"

Master Robinton turned a wry smile to Jaxom. "The question was rhetorical, Aivas."

From Aivas, there was silence.

Later, when the group returned to Cove Hold, the consensus was that the sojourn on the Yokohama had been eminently successful. The dragons had become comfortable in free-fall; the humans had had the gratifying experience of cutting ship-shaped tunnels through incoming Thread at no risk to themselves or their dragons. Once their riders had dismounted, the dragons headed for the warm water of the Cove lagoon; and the humans, themselves, were by no means averse to a relaxing swim. Fortunately, Lytol had anticipated these needs and arranged for the meal he had ordered to be delayed until everyone had been refreshed.

Ramoth had become so accustomed to fire-lizards by now that she did not object when wild ones came to assist the riders in scrubbing their dragons. In fact, she insisted that because she was the largest, she needed more to help Lessa scrub her, Lessa being not as big as the other riders. And Ruth has Jaxom and Sharra to bathe him, she added imperiously.

When a laughing Lessa repeated Ramoth's remark, Robinton announced that he was more than willing to scrub a queen. Then D'ram said that there were far too many fire-lizards helping Lessa, whereas Robinton had been flown to the Yokohama by Tiroth and so the Harper ought, out of courtesy, to wash the bronze. In the end, all the apprentices and journeyfolk working at Cove Hold, save Lytol, waded into the waters and helped bathe the five dragons.

After a very pleasant evening meal spent in most congenial company, Jaxom, Sharra, and Oldive reluctantly departed for Ruatha. Jaxom was growing as accustomed to these long days as Sharra. Making use of the extra hours allowed him to acquit his Hold responsibilities while continuing to indulge himself in the Aivas schedule. While Sharra and Oldive dealt with the patients in the Hold infirmary, he located Brand and oversaw the enlargement of the beasthold at Riverside, and checked over the improvements to two more minor hold properties.

Having put in a twenty-hour day, he was not best pleased then to be awakened in the black of the night by an urgent message from F'lessan, relayed to him by Ruth.

Golanth says that the roof of Honshu caved in and something very curious, and quite possibly very important, has been discovered in a secret room, Ruth said, faithfully repeating what he had been told. Golanth has informed Lessa, F'lar, K'van, and T'gellan. Messages have also been sent to Master Fandarel, and for Master Robinton, to relay to Aivas.

Jaxom did not move for a long moment, though his mind actively considered the information. He resented being roused from much-needed rest and yearned to go back to sleep.

Golanth does not ever bother us unnecessarily, Ruth added almost contritely.

I know that! Jaxom replied wearily. Any indication of Aivas's response to this message?

If you are not in Aivas's presence, I can't hear what he says.

Ruth was silent for a long moment while Jaxom argued with himself about leaving the warm bed and his sleeping wife and making an adequate response to this new summons.

Tiroth is bringing all three from Cove Hold with him, the white dragon went on at last. He says that Lytol believes this could be very important. Aivas was insistent that these sacks be investigated as soon as possible. Ramoth and Mnementh will come. Everyone who was asked is coming.

Stifling a groan, Jaxom eased himself out of bed, careful not to disturb Sharra. She needed the sleep as much as he did. Maybe this wouldn't take long and he could get back before she discovered him gone again. She and Oldive were keen to return to the Yokohama with a diamond cutter. He would hate to disappoint them because he had been called elsewhere.

He dressed, putting on light clothing under his riding gear in anticipation of the warmer weather in Honshu. He was pleased that, sleepy as he was, he could remember such details. But he did not, as he frequently did, check the riding harness that he always left openly on the peg in Ruth's weyr. With the deftness of long practice, he rigged his covert gear on Ruth and, throwing open the wide doors to the weyr, followed the white dragon out to the courtyard to mount. The watchdragon, the watch-wher, and some of the Hold's resident fire-lizards silently observed their departure, bright eyes gleaming blue or green spheres in the night.

What a time to send for folk, Jaxom thought as Ruth leaped skyward.

What time is it in Honshu? Ruth asked.

"Sunup, probably!" Jaxom replied testily, envisioning the facade of Honshu Hold that F'lessan had vividly described to him.

Between, Jaxom shivered despite his fur-lined riding jacket. Two breaths later they were hovering above a sea of mist, with dawn just breaking. Around them were other dragons, clinging to pinnacles that rose above the obscuring vapor. Ruth descended to the nearest vacant spire and nodded greetings to the other dragons.

"And where is Honshu?" Jaxom asked.

Ramoth says it's obscured in the river fog to our right. I knew where I was going. It just isn't visible yet, Ruth replied. Today begins beautifully, doesn't it? he added unexpectedly, gazing eastward, where the sky was a lighter blue.

Grudgingly, Jaxom agreed as he contemplated the view. To his left, both moons were visible, half full, hanging in a sky of an unusual clear and cloudless blue as night retreated westward-where he should still be in his bed, he thought ruefully. He suppressed the urge to lean forward in his saddle, rest his head on Ruth's neck, and go back to sleep until the mist cleared. But the longer he looked on a day so beautifully beginning-he hadn't known that Ruth could be so lyrical-he found it increasingly difficult to look away.

More dragons arrived, hovering in surprise to discover their landing site so totally obscured and eventually settling wherever they could.

Golanth apologizes, Ruth informed Jaxom. The mist rolled up from the river just as day broke. He says that once the sun is up this will clear away. He says he will go stand near the place where the roof collapsed. The white dragon turned his head in the appropriate direction, and Jaxom spotted Golanth's bronze shape rising out of the mist to settle on a still invisible surface. Golanth says that there is hot klah and porridge waiting and so few of us have seen Honshu that we have a nice surprise coming. He says there is very good hunting in the valley-when it's visible.

Ruth's qualifier touched Jaxom's sense of humor, and he chuckled himself out of irritability just as the sun rose, shooting bright, hot rays across the mist. Then a breeze picked up energy and very shortly the mist cleared away, revealing at last Honshu's cliff face and Golanth, perched on the heights.

Golanth says for us to land you on the upper level by the hold's main door. There should be enough room for all. More of the roof might collapse, and on the lower level, the beasthold hasn't been completely cleaned out yet. F'lessan doesn't want anyone entering that way.

Almost as one, the waiting dragons lofted themselves. Perhaps it was the downdraft of great wings wafting away the last tendrils of mist, but by the time the dragons were ready to land, the vapor had cleared right up to the second tier of window slits.

F'lessan and the other weyrfolk who were making Honshu livable were waiting in the wide doorway, cheering the arrivals.

"Thanks for coming so promptly," F'lessan said, grinning broadly. "I don't think you'll be disappointed. Sorry to get you out of your bed, Jaxom, because I know you had a long day, but you'd hate me to leave you out of this." The young bronze rider threw a companionable arm about Jaxom's shoulders, his expression so uncharacteristically anxious that Jaxom felt obliged to reassure him.

"It's thoughtful of you to have food and klah laid on, F'les'san," Lessa said as she crossed the entrance hall, "but I'd rather see your discovery first."

F'lessan pointed to plastic sacks on the long table in the main room. "You can see the secret room, too, if you don't mind a long climb up winding stairs."

Everyone but Jaxom hurried to the table. He stood on the threshold, staring up at the amazing murals, their colors as brilliant as the day they had been first applied. Vaguely he recalled Lytol and Robinton talking about the decorations at Honshu, but he had not expected anything nearly so magnificent.

"Rather spectacular, isn't it?" F'lessan asked, turning back to his old friend. He spent a long moment admiring it, too. "The place is not really big enough for a Weyr, though Golanth says that there're plenty of good ledges to lie on. And good eating."

"Southern Weyr had less than this originally," Jaxom reminded him.

"True. But it's arranged as a hold. I just don't want anyone lording it in here," F'lessan said with unexpected fervor. "People know they can come and go freely in a Weyr. C'mon, you'll want to see the stuff I found. And now that I've got you here at last, you're going to see the whole place. It is remarkably well preserved and full of the most fascinating tools and equipment. All the smiths are drooling over them."

"I've had the complete inventory from Jancis," Jaxom said with a wry grin.

F'lessan's find was most unusual: liquid carefully stored in plastic bags. Each had been tied shut around the neck by rigid strips that ended in wide tabs, which were inscribed with strokes in odd patterns, the like of which neither Robinton nor Lytol had seen in all of Aivas's records.

"I opened one," F'lessan said, pointing to the sack sitting in the bowl, its mouth carefully peeled back so that its contents were accessible. "I thought at first it had to be water, but it's not. It's got an odd sheen to it, and anyway, water would long since have evaporated, I think. It smells funny. I didn't taste it."

Lytol and Fandarel nearly bumped heads as both leaned over to sniff the liquid. Fandarel dipped in a finger and smelled it, grimacing.

"Definitely not drinkable."

"We should take this sack to Aivas for examination," Lytol said. "Is this all there were?"

"No," F'lessan replied blithely. "Thirty-four more, plus the six here. They don't all contain the same amount of whatever it is. There were a few empty sacks in the attic so some leakage occurred. Or maybe tunnel snakes chewed their way through. They'll eat anything."

"You said something about a stairway?" Lessa asked.

"Well, the steps weren't completely cut. Just a toehold up the final curve. We didn't bother to explore that level-until Benmeth crashed through."

"You didn't say whether she hurt herself or not," Lessa said almost accusingly.

F'lessan grinned, rarely affected by his mother's moods. "Scraped her right hind leg, but J'lono's slathered numbweed all over her. She's down in the workroom."

"Show me where the stairs are, F'lessan," F'lar said, and when the young bronze rider had indicated the doorway, the Benden Weyrleader led the way, followed closely by Fandarel, Lytol, K'van, and T'gellan.

"Oh, no, you don't," Lessa said, grabbing Robinton by the arm. "Free-fall's all right but stairs are not, Robinton. And you won't have eaten yet if I know you."

Not fancying a long hike, Jaxom added his persuasions to Lessa's, and F'lessan insisted that Robinton would insult the weyrfolk if he didn't sit down right that moment and enjoy Honshu's hospitality.

"It is fuel," Aivas said, and Robinton could have sworn he heard jubilation in his voice. "Fuel!"

"Yes, but is it any good after so many centuries?" Fandarel asked.

Jaxom had a brilliant vision of the three shuttles lifting off the ship meadow, but canceled it almost immediately as a total impossibility. Those ships would never fly again. Pern hadn't the technology necessary to repair them properly.

"The fuel does not deteriorate with age, nor does the sample you brought appear to have suffered any contamination. Since this discovery is in Honshu, Kenjo Fusaiyuki's Stakehold, it is logical to assume that this is part of the fuel he had diverted for his personal use. Mention was made of this cache in Captain C. Keroon's records; a search for the fuel cache was conducted at Honshu, but it was never found."

"But the sled was so well preserved, couldn't we-" Fandarel began excitedly.

"The sled used power packs, not fuel. The forty sacks that have been recovered will be put to excellent use," Aivas said.

"Where? Why? In what?" Jaxom demanded. "I thought you said the Yokohama used matter/antimatter engines."

"For interstellar travel only," Aivas explained. "This fuel was used for propulsion in-system."

"The shuttles in the field?", Piemur asked, his face flushed with anticipation. And Jaxom realized that he was not the only one who had had dazzling visions.

"Even were you technologically more advanced, they have deteriorated past repair," Aivas said. "This unexpected dividend will be put to very good use when the alternatives have been thoroughly reviewed."

Jaxom and Piemur exchanged expressions of disgust.

"Let me guess, Aivas," Jaxom said. "We could put all the fuel in the Yokohama's tanks, or split it up between all three ships. There'd be enough to give us half-grav, some maneuverability-that is, if we wanted to go anywhere in those ships..." He finished on a querying note.

"There is insufficient fuel to reach the Oort Cloud," Aivas said. "Or to follow the direction of the Thread stream and use the destruct capability of the shields to reduce the density of the ovoids."

Trying not to let his frustration show, Jaxom made himself grin at Piemur. "Well, he thought of one course that I didn't."

"Who are we to outguess Aivas?" Piemur asked, but Jaxom noted the suppressed anger in the harper's eyes.

"One of these days..." Jaxom said just loud enough for Piemur to hear, and Piemur nodded.

"But, Aivas, since there is this sample," Fandarel said urgently, "can you not analyze its composition so that we can duplicate it? Surely we can make enough fuel to take at least one ship to the Oort Cloud."

"For what reason?"

"Why, to blow up the Oort Cloud! Destroy the Thread organism that is generated there!"

Another of Aivas's curious silences ensued, and then suddenly the Rukbat system came up on the screen, the sun dwarfing its satellites. Abruptly the picture altered, the brilliant sun diminishing to a pinpoint of light, the planets reducing out of visibility on the new scale, and the swirling nebulosity of the Oort Cloud appearing to flow across the screen, blotting out even the distant Rukbat. As in so many previous demonstrations, a red line began to describe the orbit of the Red Star, moving through the Oort Cloud and back into the system, swinging around the primary, inside Pern's conventional path.

"Aivas certainly knows how to cut us down to size," Piemur murmured.

"Oh!" Fandarel said, resigned. "It is indeed difficult to appreciate the massive scale of the Cloud and the insignificance of our tiny world."

"So what do we destroy to be rid of Thread?" F'lar asked.

"The best way to reduce the threat of Thread is to alter the orbit of the eccentric planet that brings it into Pern's system."

"And when will you tell us how we accomplish that?"

"The research and technology required will shortly be completed."

"Then finding the fuel makes no difference?" F'lessan slumped in disappointment, his usually merry expression glum.

"It may make a difference in another area, F'lessan. It is always good to have alternatives. You have all done exceedingly well." That, from Aivas, was praise indeed. "Do not succumb to apathy."

"What should I do with all these fuel sacks then?" F'lessan asked dispiritedly.

"They should be transferred to a safe storage facility in Landing.

"I shouldn't put them into anything else? Those sacks are old."

"If they have lasted 2,528 years, they will suffice for another." A chart appeared on the screen. "Now, here is the schedule for bronze and brown dragons to jump to the cargo bays of all three ships. The latest readings indicate sufficient oxygen levels to allow every dragon and rider some experience in free-fall."

"Why?" F'lar asked.

"It is essential for the success of the Plan that all the dragons of Pern learn to handle weightlessness."

The schedules were forwarded to the Weyrleaders of all eight Weyrs, and there was a good deal of jubilation from all but a few-and those were mainly riders of elderly dragons for whom even hunting was becoming difficult. The weyrlings were ecstatic, and Weyrlingmasters hard put to maintain discipline.

Each group was sent up with someone experienced in free-fall; even Jancis, Piemur, and Sharra were sent as monitors.

There were often full fairs of fire-lizards tagging along, and though that occasioned complaints, Aivas approved of their interest. A new enthusiasm swept through all the Weyrs, overcoming the mid-Pass apathy.

Three days later, fires were set among the fuel sacks, but firelizards gave the alarm so no harm was done. On hearing of the near disaster, Aivas was unperturbed and, in an offhanded tone, informed the agitated Lytol and D'ram that the fuel was nonflammable. The relief was palpable, but when Fandarel heard, he immediately wanted to know exactly how such fuel provided the desired effect. Aivas responded with a lecture on the intricacies of seven kinds of jet engines, from the simple reaction engines they had learned about, which made little sense even to Master Fandarel, to more complex multistage affairs.

That evening Master Morilton dispatched his fire-lizard with an urgent and horrified message that someone had destroyed all the lenses his Hall had ready to be installed in microscopes and telescopes, ruining months of hard and patient work. Later the next morning Master Fandarel found that the metal barrels he had been producing to house the lenses had been thrown into the forge fire and distempered overnight.

It was as well that the orientation program for dragons was going so well, or morale would have hit a new low. Then Oldive and Sharra at last were successful in penetrating the shell of the Thread egg with a black diamond cutter.

"I'm not much wiser," Sharra told Jaxom when she returned home that evening. "It's a complex organism, and it's going to take us time to analyze it. We have to work so slowly. I think that may be why Aivas taught us how to culture bacteria. Good training for this investigation."

"What did it look like-inside, I mean?"

"The most astonishing mess," she said, frowning in perplexity. Then she gave a disparaging chuckle. "I don't know what I thought it'd look like. In fact, I never thought about it at all. But the ovoid is coated in layers of dirty, rock-hard ice, with all kinds of pebbles and grains and-and junk mixed up. It's sort of whitish, yellow, black, gray... Is the yellow helium? Were you there for those lectures on liquefying gas? No, that was Piemur and Jancis.

"At any rate, there are rings that wrap round and round. You can separate the rings from the other material. There are tubes, and patches of bubbling stuff. Aivas said it was a very disorganized life-form."

Jaxom laughed in surprise. "It certainly disorganizes us!"

"Silly! He doesn't mean it that way. But we couldn't do much today because we don't have the proper tools to work in threedegree absolute temperatures." She grinned in reminiscence. "The tools we brought sort of went brittle and disintegrated in the cold."

"Metal? Turned brittle?"

"Good Smithcraft steel, too. Aivas says we have to use special glass."

"Glass, huh." Jaxom thought of all the time Aivas had spent with Master Morilton and grinned. "So that was why. But how could Aivas have known then that we'd capture Thread when he didn't even know we could?"

"I'm not sure I followed all of that, Jaxom."

"I'm not sure I did, too, lovey. I wonder who's getting the bigger surprises? Aivas, or us?"

The next morning, Sharra asked Jaxom if he would mind letting Ruth convey her to Master Oldive to confer on who else they would need to assist them in their study. Ruth was always glad to oblige Sharra, so Jaxom was free to remain behind in Ruatha to preside with Brand over a long-delayed Hold disciplinary meeting.

He was just taking his seat in the Great Hall when he caught a glimpse of Ruth departing with Sharra on his back. He bounced back to his feet in alarm.

The harness, Ruth! Which harness did Sharra use?

At the same moment that Ruth replied, She's safe, her two fire-lizards screamed so loudly that Lamoth, the elderly bronze on Ruatha's heights, bugled a warning. As Jaxom watched paralyzed by shock, he saw Ruth slowly descending, Sharra clutching him tightly about the neck; Meer and Talla hooked their talons in the shoulders of her riding jacket. The main riding strap dangled loosely between Ruth's legs.

Trembling in fear for what might have been, Jaxom forgot dignity and duty as he tore out of the Great Hall. In his wish not to worry her with an incident he had almost forgotten, he had nearly cost her her life. As Ruth delicately landed in front of him, his hands were still shaking as he helped Sharra down from her precarious perch and embraced her tightly.

I should have asked which harness she had with her, Ruth said, his tone remorseful, his hide tinged gray with anxiety. I could have told her where you hide the harness you're using now.

"It's no fault of yours, Ruth. You're all right, Sharra? You didn't hurt yourself? When I saw you hanging-" His voice broke and he buried his face in her neck, aware that she was trembling nearly as much as he.

Sharra was quite willing to be comforted, but soon enough she became aware of the audience and, with a weak, embarrassed laugh, struggled to be free. He eased his hold but did not let her go. If she had not been such a skilled rider... if Ruth hadn't been such a clever dragon...

"I thought you'd mended that harness," she said, anxiously looking into his eyes.

"I had!" He couldn't tell her the truth, not with so many within earshot, and despite the bond between them, she did not apparently realize he was not being entirely candid.

"I've got to go, Jaxom," she said, duty warring with fright. "Would Ruth be totally offended if I went with G'lanar on Lamoth?"

"You'll go on?" Jaxom was both amazed by and proud of his wife's courage and resilience.

"It's the best thing I can do, Jax, to get over this shock." She leaned across him to stroke Ruth's nose. "I know it wasn't your fault, dearest Ruth. Please relax! That shade of gray is not becoming!"

I felt the strap go as I leaped, Ruth told Jaxom. I should have asked her which straps she used. I should have.

"It's all right. You saved Sharra," Jaxom repeated, never more grateful to his dragon than at this moment. "She still has to get to the Healer Hall. On Lamoth with G'lanar."

Ruth eyed his rider, the orange of panic beginning to recede. He's all right for an Oldtimer, Ruth allowed grudgingly. I wish that Dunluth and S'gar were back.

"You know that pair can't fly Thread now. G'lanor's failing and Lamoth can barely chew his food anymore, much less firestone." Jaxom didn't think more of Ruth's comment then but tactfully called to the elderly dragon and rider to convey Sharra to the Healer Hall. He stripped off the dangling harness and rolled it up until he could examine it.

He watched the three until Lamoth went between, Meer and Talla following without fuss. Then he retraced his steps to the Great Hall, while Brand and the understewards gestured for those attending the court to settle themselves.

"You never told her?" Brand murmured in Jaxom's ear as they sat down.

"I will now. That was too close." Jaxom saw that his fingers were trembling as he sorted the papers he had scattered in panic.

"Indeed and it was. Does this... obvious attempt on your life have anything to do with all the recent incidents?"

"I wish I knew."

"You will speak to Benden now, won't you?" Brand's look was severe and implacable.

"I will," Jaxom agreed with a faint smile, "because I know that you intend to."

"So long as that's understood." Then in a louder voice, Brand went on. "The first case concerns the alleged misuse of Hold supplies..."

That evening Jaxom told Sharra every detail of the incident at Tillek Hold and the investigations that Brand had set in motion, investigations that had produced no results at all, for Pell professed himself to be quite content working in his father's craft. No one had asked him about his Ruathan Bloodlines, he assured them. And he was only a second cousin at best.

After Sharra had torn strips out of him for "sparing" her anxiety, they went over the entries in the Hold visitors' book and could find no one in the least bit suspicious. Ruth could not even be encouraging, for he was not always in his weyr when Jaxom was at home. He usually joined whichever dragon was on duty on the heights.

Even old Lamoth, he added. I scratch his itches; he scratches mine.

Both Sharra and Jaxom were due at Landing the next day for a meeting concerning the vandalism.

"If you don't come clean about this incident, Jaxom, I will," Sharra said, her expression fierce.

"That was about succession, Sharrie," he objected. "The destruction is a different matter entirely."

"How do you know that?" she demanded, clenching her fists on the armrest and shooting him an angry and reproachful glare. "Especially when you're the leader for all of Aivas's plans."

"Me? The leader?" Jaxom stared at her in complete surprise.

"Well, you are, even if you don't realize it." Then her severe expression softened. "You wouldn't." She gave him a sweetly condescending smile. "You are, though. Take my word for it, and everyone on the planet knows it."

"But I-I-"

"Oh, don't get fussed, Jax. It's one of your most endearing traits that you don't get puffed up with importance and irritate people with an inflated self-consequence."

"Who does that?" Jaxom rapidly thought of all those working so diligently with him.

"No one, but you'd have the right to." She came to sit on his lap, coiling one arm about his neck and stroking his frown smooth. "That's why you might well be a target for the dissidents. You certainly can't hide from the fact that dissatisfaction about Aivas's far too long-term project is increasing."

Jaxom sighed, for it was but one more thing he had tried to play down. "I'm all too aware. In fact, it's almost a relief to know they've come out in the open."

Sharra stiffened in his arms. "You know who they are?"

He shook his head. "Sebell knows who's likely to be involved, but none of his harpers have been able to produce any evidence. And you can't really accuse a Lord Holder without pretty substantial proof."

She murmured agreement and laid her head down on his shoulder. "You are being careful, aren't you, Jax?" she asked in a low and anxious voice.

He hugged her to him. "More than you are. How many times have I told you to check the riding harness before you use it?" he asked. He met her outraged reaction with a grin.

When the meeting convened the next day in Landing, Aivas took charge, first ordering the building cleared of all but those immediately involved.

"While these incidents are clearly directed at the new technology you are developing," Aivas said, "none, so far, threatens the success of the main drive of your efforts."

"Not yet," Robinton said darkly.

"I disagree," Sharra said, and fixed Jaxom with a steady glance. When he hesitated, she added, "Someone's trying to kill Jaxom."

When the commotion subsided, Jaxom gave a full and concise report.

"That is disturbing," Aivas said, raising his voice over the babel of questions. "Is not the white dragon protection against such attempts? Can he not prevent them?"

"Don't get so upset, " Jaxom said, annoyed at the fuss, though he wanted to set his mind at rest over any further threat to Sharra. "Ruth knew the moment the leather went, and he saved Sharra's life. I left those riding straps right out in the open, and hid the set I use. It was only-"

"He was trying to keep me from worrying," Sharra said in an acid tone. "Brand is trying to find out who could have sliced the leathers. It was done very cleverly by someone who knew exactly what stress would be put on riding straps."

"A dragonrider?" Lessa's voice rose to a near shriek, and outside half the dragons on the heights bugled in alarm. "There isn't a dragonrider on Pern whod endanger Jaxom or Ruth!" And she glared at the young Lord Holder as if he were at fault. He glared right back.

"Nor any way a dragonrider could do so without his dragon's awareness," F'lar said emphatically.

"Nothing would be gained by-" Lessa faltered. "By disposing of Jaxom."

"Could it have been as protest to my involvement with Thread?" Sharra asked.

Jaxom shook his head violently. "How could it? Who would know that you'd want to have Ruth fly you to the Healer Hall?"

"Since it is usually Jaxom who flies Ruth," Aivas's calm voice said, "it is logical to assume that he was the target. No further attempts on his life must be permitted."

"Meer and Talla have their orders," Sharra said resolutely.

"What about Ruth?" Lessa demanded, and was silenced by a cacophony of bugling from the massed dragons at Landing. She blinked in surprise at their belligerence. "And, it would appear, every other dragon on Pern!" Then she leaned across to lay her hand on Sharra's arm. "We're alert to the danger now." She swung her glance to Jaxom and radiated rebuke. "We should have known much earlier, young man!"

"I have not been in danger," Jaxom protested. "I have been very careful."

"You would be wise to increase personal vigilance, Jaxom. Also, proper security measures must be promptly inaugurated to prevent further vandalism in every Crafthall that has undertaken to do specialized work," Aivas said sternly. "The recent destruction certainly delays the completion of useful equipment, but the vandals were, fortunately, not aware of the true significance of other crucial projects: the space helmets, the oxygen tanks, and the additional space suits which are vital to the success of our endeavour."

"All that work is divided among several Halls and different locations," Fandarel said with an air of relief. Then he shook his head, his expression doleful. "I find it very hard to believe that some member of my Crafthall could so wantonly destroy the hard work of his colleagues."

"Your society is a trusting one," Aivas said, "and it is sad to see that trust betrayed."

"It is indeed," Fandarel agreed, his voice heavy with sadness. Then he straightened his shoulders. "We will be vigilant. F'lar, would there be any riders available for extra guard duty?"

"Watch-whers would be more effective," Lytol said, entering the discussion for the first time. He had turned very pale, despite his southern tan, during the disclosure of Jaxom's peril. "They would be most effective, and I am of the opinion that the Weyrs are stretched as far as they should be right now."

"Watch-whers and fire-lizards," Fandarel said. "Many of the Craftmasters involved have fire-lizards, and once they know that they are to be vigilant, they will be."

"My brother Toric had had good luck using some feline cubs," Sharra put in. "Of course, they have to be caged in the daytime, for they are ferocious beasts."

"Recruit whatever guardians are necessary, but do not permit the essential manufacturing to be damaged," Aivas ordered. "Tomorrow the dragons assigned to exercises in the Yokohama are to transport the fuel sacks. Master Fandarel, you will see that the sacks are emptied into the main tank. That will eliminate one security problem."

"Would that we could remove all the vulnerable materials to the Yokohama!" F'lar said. "Could we?" he asked Aivas.

"Unfortunately that is impossible, for a variety of reasons.

However, as soon as certain items have been completed, they should indeed be transported to the safety of the Yokohama."

"Is there any guarantee that they'd be safe there'?" Lytol wanted to know. He ignored those who regarded him with anger, dismay, disbelief, or anxiety as he waited for Aivas's reassurance.

"This facility can efficiently and easily monitor the Yokohama as you cannot your individual Holds, Halls, and Weyrs," Aivas replied.

"And the guardian guards himself!" Lytol added in a low voice.

"Q.E.D.," Aivas said.

"Cue ee dee?" Piemur asked.

"That has been demonstrated."