All The Weyrs Of Pern Part 46

"A heroic end for such valiant s.h.i.+ps," Robinton murmured.

"You mentioned nothing of this before," F'lar said.

"There were more urgent priorities," Aivas replied. "It is certainly a task that must be accomplished sooner rather than later when the orbits have decayed, and while the skills your riders have learned for the more essential task are still fresh in their minds."

"It would certainly ease the tension in the Weyr," Lessa said. "We hadn't antic.i.p.ated that."

"What exactly does this entail, Aivas?" F'lar asked.

"As stated, the dragons are to alter the direction of the two s.h.i.+ps and give a 'push'; that is, transport the s.h.i.+p between, between, all moving at the same cue. There are many handholds on the exterior of the s.h.i.+ps to give dragons a grip. Judging by what you were able to accomplish in transferring the engines, such a maneuver is well within the scope of your smaller creatures." all moving at the same cue. There are many handholds on the exterior of the s.h.i.+ps to give dragons a grip. Judging by what you were able to accomplish in transferring the engines, such a maneuver is well within the scope of your smaller creatures."

F'lar grinned. "You're no longer skeptical about them?"

"In no way, Weyrleader."

"What is the time frame on this?" Fandarel asked.

"Preferably within the next few weeks. There is no immediate danger, but do not let the dragons and riders lose the edge."

"I think that will be good news," F'lar said, nodding acceptance.

"Then you will set a time for this maneuver?"

"As soon as I can discuss it with the other Weyrleaders." Oddly enough, F'lar's spirits rose with the thought of another project. Flying Threadfall had become less exciting since the removal of the engines to the Red Star.

"It seems ungrateful to condemn those s.h.i.+ps to death," Lessa murmured.

"It's a crime to waste all the material," Fandarel added.

"These s.h.i.+ps were never designed for planetary landings, Master Fandarel," Aivas said.

"In one piece, that is," Piemur added.

"Yes, Piemur, the pieces could have lethal consequences if they were to enter the atmosphere without disintegrating entirely."

"I'll let you know," F'lar said. "Shall we go, Lessa?"

Watching the fireball soon lost its appeal for many on the Yokohama bridge that day. Shortly thereafter, when D'ram and the Eastern Weyr rider were ready to take the last watchers back to the Landing, Fandarel and Piemur cycled the life-support systems down to the holding mode.

"I'm glad we're able to keep the Yokohama," Piemur said. "I've gotten rather fond of this old girl." He let his fingers trail along the console.

"She has served long and well," Robinton said, sighing deeply.

"Why don't you write a ballad about her, Piemur?" Jancis suggested.

"You know, I think I will!"

As the last one entering the lift, Piemur palmed off the bridge lights.

Jaxom heard about the second expedition from N'ton, who dropped in to Ruatha Hall two days after the Red Star explosion. N'ton had been on the Buenos Aires Buenos Aires with half a dozen of his wingleaders. with half a dozen of his wingleaders.

"I feel an affinity to that little s.h.i.+p," N'ton said, with a wry smile. "I'll be sorry to see her go."

"I wonder why she needs to," Jaxom said. "Surely the solar panels..."

"Aivas said that there have been too many corrections and the panels can't handle them."

"Hmm, that's quite possible."

"He also recommended doing it while we're still accustomed to working in weightlessness. There is, I might add," N'ton said with a broad grin, "great rejoicing among the riders of browns, blues, and greens. At that, they know that there are only two hundred and some suits available, so they'll have to draw lots. But that's fair enough."

"Let's hope the helmets are with the right suits this time."

"Oh, we made sure of that." N'ton rolled his eyes. "What a mess that was! I tried on twenty helmets before I found one that would attach snugly to the collar. Then I had to get the wingleaders to check every rider to be sure all the b.l.o.o.d.y things fitted properly. Some riders were just cramming helmets on any old way."

"The important thing is that everyone did get rigged out and we got where we were supposed to go."

N'ton regarded him for such a long moment that Jaxom wondered if the Fort Weyrleader had somehow guessed what had happened. Considering his disoriented bronze riders, a man as intelligent as N'ton might extrapolate the truth. As long as Jaxom didn't admit it, N'ton would be kept guessing.

"Maybe that's what happened to those disoriented riders," Jaxom went on as if the thought had just occurred to him. "Maybe they had badly fitting helmets and lost air."

"I hadn't thought of that," N'ton replied. "You know, that would certainly explain a lot."

Jaxom nodded in agreement, saying nothing more.

"F'lar's not best pleased to have to wait, yet again, to be sure the blastings did the trick," N'ton went on.

"Aivas was evidently satisfied."

"Yes, but he always sounds certain."

"Everything he's sounded certain about has worked just as he said. He's never prevaricated. I don't think an AI facility can."

"You'd know better than I." N'ton grinned at Jaxom over his winegla.s.s. "We certainly can't fault Hold and Hall, then, for disbelief if the Benden Weyrleader is still skeptical."

"Again, Aivas has been right so often we have to trust him this time." Jaxom had a whimsical desire to confide in N'ton that he knew, incontrovertibly, that Aivas's great Plan had worked, at least as far as the orbit of the Red Star was concerned. That he had seen it with his own eyes-fifty Turns in the future.

"As he trusted our dragons?"

"Well, he did, in the end, didn't he?" Jaxom replied. "No, N'ton, don't fret. It'll be as Aivas has predicted. You wait, you'll see."

"Ah, but F'lar might not. And he's the one who wants to know for certain, or he will not have kept that promise!"

Maybe, Jaxom thought, he could just rea.s.sure F'lar.

I wouldn't, wouldn't, Ruth said. You'd Ruth said. You'd have to explain everything to him then. have to explain everything to him then.

Not necessarily, Jaxom replied. Jaxom replied.

Ruth's silence indicated complete disagreement.

"So," N'ton went on, "now that we've solved the world's problems, what do you intend doing with all that spare time you've got?"

"What spare time, N'ton? I've only just sc.r.a.ped the surface of the information in Aivas's files. I was in the process of organizing Hold affairs before I resume my studies-at an easier pace, now that the urgency is over."

"We've Threadfall in two days. Are you and Ruth rested enough to join us?"

"I'd better, what with all these misconceptions about the end of Thread."

"Indeed!" From that succinct but heartfelt comment, Jaxom knew that N'ton had been heavily criticized for letting Thread get through the Fort Weyr wings.

"I'll be there!" Jaxom promised.

"Master Robinton, it is good to see you," Aivas said as the Harper entered.

"I've been meaning to come for the last week," Robinton remarked with a droll smile. Even that short walk down the corridor had taken more breath than he had in his body.

"You are well?"

Robinton laughed softly and eased himself into the chair he had occupied for so many hours in the recent past. "Can't fool you, can I?"

"No.'

Robinton sighed and stroked Zair, curled asleep on his shoulder. "I did forgive them, then, you know," he began slowly, so his words would not come out at the end of a gasp, "at the trial. I'm not so sure now that I would."

"The effects of inappropriate fellis administration?"

"Yes, I must a.s.sume so."

"You have not consulted Master Oldive?" Aivas's tone was sharp.

Robinton waved one hand, dismissing the advice. "He has enough to do, teaching his healers all the new techniques he learned while doing your work. That will take him the rest of his life."

"You must consult-"

"Why? You can produce no cures for worn-out human parts, can you, Aivas?" When there was silence, Robinton went on, still stroking Zair's soft body. "Neither Zair nor I will recover from that abduction. Sometimes, I think he stays out of spite."

"Or love of you, Master Robinton?"

The Harper had never heard that particular tone from Aivas.

"Quite likely, for they can be exceedingly loyal, these fire-lizards."

Robinton had his breath back now, and being in this room brought back some of the excitement of the early days of discovery. He felt at ease here in the Aivas room as he did not at Cove Hold, especially when Lytol and D'ram kept treating him like an invalid. Which, he had to admit, he was. He heard the chatter of students changing cla.s.ses in the hall.

"The cla.s.ses continue?" he asked, well pleased that they did.

"The cla.s.ses continue," Aivas said, using that soft, almost rueful tone that had surprised the Harper before. "The machines now harbor all the information this world will need to build a better future."

"The future which you have given them."

"The priorities for this facility have now been met."

"That's true enough," Robinton said, smiling.

"This facility now has no further function."

"Don't be ridiculous, Aivas," Robinton said somewhat sharply. "You've just gotten your students to the point where they know enough to argue with you!"

"And to resent the superiority of this facility. No, Master Robinton, the task is done. Now it is wise to let them seek their own way forward. They have the intelligence and a great spirit. Their ancestors can rightfully be proud of them."

"Are you?"

"They have worked hard and well. That is in itself a reward and an end."

"You know, I believe you're right."

" 'To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven,' Master Robinton."

"That is poetic, Aivas."

There was one of those pauses that Robinton always thought was the Aivas equivalent of a smile.

'From the greatest book ever written by Mankind, Master Robinton. You may find the entire quotation in the files. The time has been accomplished. This system is going down. Farewell, Masterharper of Pern. Amen."

Robinton sat straight up in his chair, fingers on the pressure plates, though he hadn't a single positive idea of how he could avert what Aivas was about to do. He half turned to the Hall, to call for help, but no one who had the knowledge-Jaxom, Piemur, Jancis, Fandarel, D'ram, or Lytol-was near enough at hand.

The screen that had paraded so much knowledge and issued so many commands and diagrams and plans was suddenly blank, lifeless. In .the right-hand corner, a single line blinked.

" 'And a time to every purpose under heaven,' " Robinton murmured, his throat almost too tight for him to speak. He felt incredibly tired, overwhelmingly sleepy. "Yes, how very true. How splendidly true. And what a wonderful time it has been!"

Unable to resist the lethargy that spread from his extremities, he laid his head down on the inactive pressure plate, one hand holding Zair in the curve of his neck, and closed his eyes, his long season over, his purpose, too, accomplished.

D'ram found them there, for Zair had breathed his last as well, following the Harper as selflessly as any dragon followed his rider into death.

Tiroth lifted his head, his keening alerting all those at Landing and, indeed, broadcasting to every Weyr, every dragon, and every rider on Pern, and throughout the Halls and Holds, from mountain to plain, from sea to sea on both continents.

D'ram was so tear-blinded that he did not notice the opacity of the screen, or read the blinking message.

In Ruatha Hold, Ruth gave out a bellow of anguish that had everyone in the Great Hall rus.h.i.+ng to the door.

The Harper! The Harper! The Harper! The Harper!

Jaxom didn't think. He grabbed Sharra by the hand and propelled her down the steps to where Ruth had reared, head back, wings extended. Jaxom didn't think. He grabbed Sharra by the hand and propelled her down the steps to where Ruth had reared, head back, wings extended.

"Jaxom!" she exclaimed.

"The Harper! Something's happened to the Harper!"