All The Weyrs Of Pern Part 45

Jaxom held the image of where they were going vivid in his mind. Give Monarth and N'ton my compliments and ask Monarth to take our destination from you. Give Monarth and N'ton my compliments and ask Monarth to take our destination from you.

N'ton threw Jaxom a salute, but Jaxom couldn't see the Fort Weyrleader's expression, obscured as it was by his faceplate. He gave N'ton a deferential salute. N'ton threw Jaxom a salute, but Jaxom couldn't see the Fort Weyrleader's expression, obscured as it was by his faceplate. He gave N'ton a deferential salute.

Monarth says we go! Monarth says we go!

They went. The cold of They went. The cold of between between seemed to penetrate Jaxom's s.p.a.ce suit, and he could hear his breath coming raggedly. He forced himself to slow down. seemed to penetrate Jaxom's s.p.a.ce suit, and he could hear his breath coming raggedly. He forced himself to slow down.

I'm here, I'm here, Ruth said in encouragement. Ruth said in encouragement.

As always, As always, Jaxom replied, and continued to count his inhalations. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two. Jaxom replied, and continued to count his inhalations. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two.

And then they were hovering inches above the southern tip of the Rift.

Monarth says where's the crater?

Tell him that Aivas picked this spot, so here's where wed better deposit the engine. We don't have time to find that b.l.o.o.d.y crater!

Jaxom turned toward N'ton, who was looking at him, arms raised in query. Jaxom gave him an exasperated shrug in reply.

Monarth says N'ton understands. They proceed.

Mon was signaling to the auxiliary dragons to begin their task of sowing the zebedees. Then he turned all his attention to the lowering of the ma.s.sive engine into the Rift. The maneuver went well, even better than Jaxom's, taking just ten minutes.

Mon waited another few moments, allowing the dragons a chance to rest. Then he called in the auxiliaries.

I have told Monarth that everyone must return to their own Weyrs. But to keep the right helmets with the right suits this time, Ruth told Jaxom. Ruth told Jaxom.

We're not likely to need two hundred slightly used s.p.a.ce suits again, Jaxom said, trying to contain his elation until they were safely back. Jaxom said, trying to contain his elation until they were safely back. We must go back to the We must go back to the Yokohama. Yokohama.

I have told Monarth. N'ton says he is grateful and apologizes for the delay.

Tell him that it all worked out well in the end.

It did, didn't it? Ruth added. Ruth added. Shall we return now? Shall we return now?

Please yes!

Once again, the return seemed longer than the outgoing journey, but it wasn't. Finally the comforting dimness of the big cargo bay of the Yokohama Yokohama surrounded them. And they were immediately attacked by Ramoth and Mnementh. surrounded them. And they were immediately attacked by Ramoth and Mnementh.

Where have I been? Ruth exclaimed, rearing back away from Ramoth's savage expression and dodging Mnementh's ma.s.sive wings. Ruth exclaimed, rearing back away from Ramoth's savage expression and dodging Mnementh's ma.s.sive wings. I'm fine. I in fine. So is Jaxom. He didn't tell me not to go! I'm fine. I in fine. So is Jaxom. He didn't tell me not to go!

" "Jaxom!" F F'lar was bellowing the moment he stepped out of the lift, with Lessa on his heels.

Jaxom loosened his helmet. "So we went, too," he said, raising his voice to top the angry ones of the Benden Weyrleaders. "Ruth's not even a trifle off color. Not his fault. I forgot to tell him not to follow Monarth. But the job is now completely done!" He glared back at F'lar and Lessa and slid down Ruth's side, patting his foreleg. "I could certainly use another pull at that wineskin, Lessa, if you wouldn't mind..."

He spoke with no trace of regret or apology, and he felt rather too battered to bother with the deference the Weyrleaders deserved from him. He undid the first of the suit's fastenings, knowing that they were still angry with him and hoping they would give it up.

"Here, I'll help," F'lar said unexpectedly. "Lessa, this Lord Holder deserves another swallow of that 'sixteen!"

Jaxom gave F'lar a sharp look and then grinned back. By the first Egg, so he had finally come into his own in the cargo bay of the Yokohama. Yokohama.

20.

A FEW RIDERS in the third group suffered some physical attrition. M'rand, one of the older bronze riders of High Reaches, returned long after the rest of the Weyr and in terrible condition. He was tormented by bad dreams, insisting that he had returned to his Weyr but it had not been his Weyr. Tileth had been frantic, recognizing none of the other dragons there and finding a strange bronze asleep on the ledge of his Weyr. M'rand couldn't understand at first, but he had heard that bronzes could slip through time. He kept his wits and had tried to get home again, giving Tileth the most vivid images of their favorite view of High Reaches, with the blue M'rand knew was that day's watchdragon. That time they had emerged in the right place and the right time.

"Sloppy visualization," Lessa said when she and F'lar had also spoken with M'rand and the others: two in Fort Weyr and another in Igen. "And they're all older riders, leaving more up to their dragons than they ought."

Jaxom noticed that Mon was regarding him with a quizzical expression, and he responded with a perplexed grin. He himself had felt woefully tired after the exertions of that momentous day, pausing only long enough to let Ruth feed on a juicy buck before returning home, and no one thought it odd that he slept nearly a day. Sharra was equally exhausted by her last few days in the laboratory, churning out zebedees.

Despite the fact that Aivas had repeatedly told everyone that the explosion would not take place for several more days and then would not be immediately visible due to light speed-which he had to explain again to some-a twenty-four-hour vigil was kept on the Yokohama. Every screen in the various areas on the ships where air was available was adjusted to the ships' main screens and the big telescope, aimed at the Red Star.

"Jaxom, aren't you going to watch?" Sharra asked. "You of all people ought to have the right!" She was baffled by his apparent indifference to the event.

"Frankly," he said, "I have a lot of more important things to do here in Ruatha than floating about on the bridge, waiting for the thing to blow. Unless, of course," he added considerately, "you really want to see it."

"Well..." Sharra paused, then smiled at him. "I've got those cultures going right now and..."

Jaxom grinned at her. "If there's enough warning, Ruth'll get us there in time."

Sharra gave him a startled sideways glance.

"All in a good cause," he said, trying for nonchalance, "and a minute or two isn't going to disrupt the universe. I'll ask Ruth to keep an ear open, if you like. There's always some fire-lizards or a dragon or two up at the Yokohama these days. Easy enough."

"If he can stay awake long enough to listen," Sharra replied, having noticed that Ruth seemed to be taking an unusual amount of sleep.

"He can sleep with one ear open," Jaxom said, and then they each went about the concerns of the day.

Brand had also observed Ruth's somnolence, and while he and Jaxom were checking the brood mares, he mentioned it.

"I don't think it's so very unusual, Brand," Jaxom said easily. "N'ton said that all the bronzes who went with us are also sleeping a good deal. I suspect none of the dragons care to admit that they had to work pretty hard to transfer those engines." Then Jaxom noticed his Steward's hesitation. "Why? What's wrong?"

"It's just that there have been some complaints about Fort Weyr."

"What do you mean, Brand?" Jaxom and Ruth had not flown the most recent Fall with the Fort wings. "Have I missed something?"

Brand had shrugged expressively. "Well, because the bronzes are a big logy, they haven't been as, well, diligent in chasing airborne Thread. There have been a lot of unhappy groundcrews. And that's the other problem."

"Tell me."

"Somehow-" Brand paused to frame his explanation. "A lot of people thought that there'd be no more Thread now. now. That once the dragonriders had done this explosion thing, Thread wouldn't fall again." That once the dragonriders had done this explosion thing, Thread wouldn't fall again."

"Oh!" Jaxom made a face. "b.l.o.o.d.y shards, Brand. Don't they ever listen? Harpers have been explaining for the last four Turns that we can't stem this this Fall, but there won't be any more!" Fall, but there won't be any more!"

"They don't see it that way, I'm afraid, from the accounts I've heard. And Holder Grevil isn't a stupid man, as you know, but he he hadn't understood and feels aggrieved, especially when a clump of Thread came down on his best field." hadn't understood and feels aggrieved, especially when a clump of Thread came down on his best field."

"I can appreciate his annoyance. Did you manage to soothe him?"

"I did, but he's sure to approach you on the matter the next time he can. I thought I'd warn you. And you should know that he blames the Aivas."

Jaxom compressed his lips against rash words, momentarily defeated by this news: especially coming from Grevil, who was usually a moderate man. "I thought wed straightened all that out at the trial."

Brand shrugged, holding his hands up in an impotent gesture. "People will hear what they wish to hear, and believe what they want to. If they put the blame on Aivas, however, that absolves you, Jaxom, and even the Weyrs to a certain extent."

"I can't really count that as an advantage," Jaxom replied. "Why should Aivas bear any blame after all he's done to help Pern?"

"Ah, but the help is not so visible to some," Brand said. "It'll all sort itself out, Jaxom. But I did feel you should know current opinion."

"Hmmmm, yes, I should. How many has that new stallion covered of this lot?" he asked, welcoming the chance to change to matters less complicated.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt obliged to let the Harper Hall know, and those at Cove Hold. He hated to disrupt the mood of euphoria and triumph they would be feeling. He sent Meer, who had been shadowing him constantly while Ruth slept, with a message to Lytol, who could mention the report at an appropriate moment. slept, with a message to Lytol, who could mention the report at an appropriate moment.

"What I don't understand," Sharra said when he mentioned the matter to her over their midday meal, "is that with all that has been explained so carefully to everyone who would listen, how they can possibly misconstrue what you and the Weyrs were doing, and its immediate consequences."

Jaxom grinned. "They probably stopped listening after the words 'Thread will be forever destroyed.' " He sipped his klah pensively.

F'lar and Lessa are up on the F'lar and Lessa are up on the Yokohama, Ruth said in a sleepy voice. Yokohama, Ruth said in a sleepy voice. Ramoth says Aivas thinks the explosion wilt be any time Ramoth says Aivas thinks the explosion wilt be any time now. now.

Sharra politely c.o.c.ked her head at Jaxom, knowing that Ruth had spoken to him. "What woke him up?"

"It should be any moment now. The explosion. Want to go?"

"Do you want to?"

"Let's not play the you-first, no-you-first game. Do you want to go?"

She blinked rapidly, considering, and looking so like Jarrol that he grinned. "No," she said with a sigh. "I think I've seen quite enough of the insides of the Yokohama Yokohama to last me the rest of my life. And everyone will be crowding about up there. But you want to go..." to last me the rest of my life. And everyone will be crowding about up there. But you want to go..."

He laughed, reaching for her hand and bringing it to his lips. "I think I won't. This moment should be F'lar's."

Sharra eyed him long and thoughtfully, her eyes beginning to sparkle. "You're a good man, but I do not concede that it is all all F'lar's triumph." F'lar's triumph."

"Don't be silly," he replied. "It took all the Weyrs of Pern to do it."

"And a white dragon!"

As she turned back to her soup, Jaxom wondered exactly what she meant by that. Could Sharra have guessed Ruth's unusual role?

After so many long days of watching the round ball that was the Red Star, the explosion, when it became visible, was an anticlimax. An orange-red fireball blossomed on the side of the wanderer planet.

"Only one?" F'lar exclaimed, feeling a certain chagrin that half the planet had not exploded, too, after all Aivas had told them about the awesome power of the antimatter.

"That is how it would appear at this distance," Aivas replied.

"It is rather spectacular," Robinton murmured.

"Then all three engines went off at the same time?" Fandarel asked.

"It would seem so," Aivas said.

"Well done, Aivas, well done." Fandarel beamed, evidently not bothered by a tinge of disappointment. "That junction was successful."

"And efficient," D'ram said, unable to resist the opportunity to tease Fandarel.

"It's odd, you know," Piemur began, more to Jancis than the others. "You work your b.u.t.t off to achieve an end, and suddenly you've done it! And all the excitement, frustration, sleepless nights, and involvement are over! Gone!" He snapped his fingers. "In one large and impressive fireball! So what do we do with all that extra time we have on our hands now?"

"You," Robinton said, pointing a stern finger at the journeyman, "will now have the unenviable task as a harper of explaining the true facts of the achievement to those who didn't understand that this effort would not alter the path of Thread during the remainder of this Pa.s.s."

To Lytol's surprise, Robinton had not been at all dismayed by Jaxom's report. In fact, the Harper had seemed to expect such disgruntlements.

"Menolly's already composed one ballad," Robinton went on, "with a chorus to hammer home the point that this is the Last Pa.s.s for Thread, that Pern will be forever free from the end of this Pa.s.s."

"A point!" Piemur said. "Is that certain, Aivas?"

"That is now guaranteed, Piemur. You must realize, of course, that an immediate alteration of the Red Star's...o...b..t will not be perceived," Aivas said, "for some decades."

"Decades?" F'lar exclaimed, surprised.

"Naturally. If you consider the size of the object you were trying to move," Fandarel said, "and the scale of this solar system, there is no such thing as sudden change. Even chaos takes time to develop. But in several decades, that alteration will be measurable."

"Rest a.s.sured of that, Weyrleader," Aivas added in a tone so laden with certainty that F'lar's consternation eased.

"It's too bad Jaxom and Sharra didn't come," Lessa said, slightly irritated by their absence. "I knew that Ruth would strain himself, taking part in the second lift."

"Jaxom is quite capable of making his own decisions now, my dear," F'lar said, amused at her proprietary concern for the Ruathan Holder.

"There is one more minor adjustment to make, however," Aivas said, "which it is recommended to be undertaken by the lesser colors."

"Oh? What?" Lessa and F'lar were very much aware that the brown, blue, and green riders were somewhat aggrieved by their exclusion from the project. "All the Weyrs of Pern" had been limited to most of the bronze dragons and only a few of the other colors, even if it had been obvious that there wasn't s.p.a.ce enough on the spars to accommodate every dragon who wished to take part, much less s.p.a.ce suits to protect their riders in s.p.a.ce.

"The matter of the Buenos Aires Buenos Aires and the and the Bahrain." Bahrain."

I 'What about them?" F'lar asked just as Fandarel emitted an "ah" of comprehension. I 'What about them?" F'lar asked just as Fandarel emitted an "ah" of comprehension.

"Readings on the orbits of the two smaller ships have shown a marked increase of frequency of adjustments. The adjustments take more and more power, and the prognosis is that their orbits are likely to decay over the next decades to the critical point. The Yokohama, Yokohama, of course, has the fuel to remain in a stable orbit and must be maintained as long as possible, since its telescope will be used to track the Red Star. But the other ships ought to be moved." of course, has the fuel to remain in a stable orbit and must be maintained as long as possible, since its telescope will be used to track the Red Star. But the other ships ought to be moved."

"Moved?" F'lar asked. "Where?"

"A slight alteration in their speed and alt.i.tude will break them out of orbit and send them coasting harmlessly off into s.p.a.ce."

"Eventually to be captured by the sun's gravity and pulled into it," Fandarel added.

"Burned up?" Lytol asked.