All The Weyrs of Pern

by Anne McCaffrey

  "So you say!" Then Piemur fixed Jaxom with a fierce stare. "So you're going to do it? Without checking with anyone?"

  Jaxom glared right back, anger rising. "I don't need to check with anyone, Piemur. I've been making my own decisions for a long time, This time I get to make it without anyone else's interference. Not yours, or F'lar's, or Lessa's, or Robinton's."

  "Sharra's?" Piemur cocked his head, his eye contact unswerving.

  It doesn't seem to be a hard thing Aivas asks us to do, Jaxom, Ruth said. It is no more dangerous than going between, where we have nothing to hold on to. My talons are strong. My grip will be secure for both of us.

  "Ruth sees no problems. If he did, I would certainly listen to him," Jaxom said, very much aware that Sharra would undoubtedly share Piemur's reservations. "I don't know why you're upset about an EVA. I thought you'd want to be first."

  Piemur managed a flicker of a smile. "One, I don't have a dragon to reassure me. Two, I dislike being trussed up in this thing." He flicked his hand at the space suit. Then his expression changed to a cocky grin. "And three, it's just likely I'm one of those humans who'd panic out there with solid earth a million dragon-lengths away from my feet. So," he finished, rising to his feet and reaching for Jaxom's helmet, "since I can't talk you out of it, go and do it. Now! Before I get myself in a knot!"

  Jaxom gripped his shoulder. "Don't forget that Aivas cannot endanger human life. And we've seen tapes of spacemen doing EVA drills."

  So let us go. Ruth pushed himself away from the window with just enough force to arrive by Jaxom. He peered down at Piemur's scowling face. Tell Piemur that I won't let anything happen to you.

  "Ruth says he won't let anything happen to me," Jaxom said.

  With a roughness born of anxiety, Piemur adjusted Jaxom's helmet, securing the fastenings, checking the oxytank unit, and gesturing for him to turn on the helmet's audio.

  "Keep up a running commentary, will you, Jaxom?" he asked.

  "Nod if you can hear me all right." The sound of his own voice echoing in the confines of the helmet still sounded unnatural to Jaxom.

  Piemur nodded, his expression carefully blank.

  "Aivas, show us where we're going so Piemur can watch." Jaxom gave his friend one more buffet and then, pulling first one foot and then the other free of the deck, he floated up to Ruth. Hauling himself into position, he attached his riding straps to the toggles that had been designed to hold snap-on equipment for EVA.

  "You wearing the right riding harness?" Piemur asked acidly.

  "That's the second time you've asked me that today."

  "Bears repeating. Can you see the screen perched up there?" Piemur's tone was even more acerbic. Jaxom wished the harper wouldn't worry so much. But that was yet one more difference that only another rider would understand: the supreme confidence one could have in one's dragon's abilities. And Ruth had more than most.

  "I can see it," he said, his voice high and tinny to his ears.

  Do you know where we're going, Ruth?

  Certainly. Shall we go?

  Jaxom was accustomed to very short passages between, but this must have been the shortest they had ever taken. One moment they were on the bridge; the next, they were surrounded by a different sort of darkness. For one heartbeat, Jaxom tasted as deep a fear as he had ever known. But Ruth's head, erect and swinging around as he surveyed the scene. was all the token of reassurance Jaxom needed. Then he became aware-unlike the total lack of sensation in between-of his legs pressing against Ruth's neck and even the tug of the straps against his belt.

  I won't let go, Ruth said as calmly as ever. I could hang by my claws. The metal is so cold it feels hot.

  Jaxom peered down over the lower edge of his helmet and saw that Ruth had, indeed, curled his talons about the spars-two different spars. Carefully the white dragon had extended his forepaw talons to grip the upper bar and had arranged his hind feet on tiptoe, one in front of the other, for a purchase on the lower one, stretching comfortably between the two levels.

  I'm holding my breath, but I am in no discomfort, Ruth continued as he gazed alertly around. His left eye was whirling ever so gently in the blue of interest. Above, Jaxom could see more horizontal spars, a longitudinal framework that circled the engines. Their mass was behind the grid, an immense rectangular boxlike structure in which the matter/antimatter drive provided propulsion for interstellar travel.

  "Are you all right, Jaxom?" Aivas asked.

  "Perfectly," Jaxom replied. He would have been unwilling to give any other response, but in truth, he felt his muscles relax just a trifle even as he spoke. After all, nothing had happened.

  "Ruth suffers no discomfort?"

  "He says not. He's holding his breath."

  I wish to climb higher, for a better view. There is nothing to be seen here but the engines. They are uninteresting. Before Jaxom could forbid him, Ruth had reached for the spar above his head.

  Whatever you do, Ruth, don't let go entirely, Jaxom said urgently.

  I'd only float.

  Jaxom wondered at his dragon's nonchalance in this new and dangerous environment. But then, didn't dragons meet danger head on every time they flew Thread? At least there was none of that here to score the white hide or pierce a fragile wing-or his space suit.

  See? And Ruth did begin to float, rather than climb, upward. Jaxom was so surprised by his dragon's initiative that he could think of nothing to say. And it doesn't matter if I float, Ruth went on, because all I have to do is jump between wherever I need to go. Is it not beautiful up here?

  Jaxom had to agree. Ruth had them perched on the topmost rail, and before them, the globe of Pern glowed in brilliant greens and blues: He thought he recognized the Paradise River Hold estuary and, just at the curve of the horizon, the purple hills of Rubicon and Xanadu. Above were the stairs; behind him, shining far too brightly, was Rukbat's blaze. He thought he caught sunlight glinting off one of the other ships-the Bahrain, no doubt. And far, far above him, at an impossible distance, was the Red Star and the Oort Cloud that the erratic planet would penetrate yet again in another hundred or so Turns.

  Abruptly Meer and Farli appeared floating beside Ruth, blinking out a moment later only to reappear, hanging on to the spar with their claws, daintily keeping their flesh from contact with the absolute chill of the metal. Their eyes began to whirl into excited reds.

  We're not staying much longer. You d better go in. You can't hold your breaths as long as I can, Ruth told the two fire-lizards. They say space is much too big, he said to Jaxom. It is also colder than between. I think we will go in now. I feel the need to breathe.

  Once again, before Jaxom could direct the proceeding, Ruth had executed his intention. Almost without ally sensation of transfer, they were back on the bridge of the Yokohama.

  That was splendid! Ruth exclaimed, chirping happily.

  Piemur's complexion, Jaxom noted, was noticeably pale under his southern tan, and his expression was unusually grim for a man who traversed the Southern coasts for months with only a gold fire-lizard and a runt runnerbeast for company and never lost his sense of humor.

  "Did you have to make Farli and Meer come?"

  "They came of their own accord. Ruth says they think space is too big." Jaxom laughed at their understatement. "Ruth thoroughly enjoyed it," he went on, realizing even as he said it how inadequate the comment was. "And so did I," he added staunchly, picturing again that vision of grandeur and immensity, "once I got used to it." He undid his helmet and grinned down at Piemur. "No difference really, from between, and not really as dangerous. As Ruth pointed out, all he has to do is go between wherever he wants, so we'd never really be in any danger in space."

  "You sound to me a bit like a man convincing himself against the evidence of his own senses," Piemur said, regarding his friend through narrowed eyes.

  "Well, it does take getting used to," Jaxom repeated, running his fingers through sweat-damp hair and grinning in what he hoped was a more convincing
fashion. He wouldn't admit to Piemur that he had been apprehensive, though he could now appreciate the sour smell of sweat rising from his suit.

  "I wonder," Piemur went on, "just how Sharra, and Lytol, and Lessa, and F'lar, and Robinton will view your latest escapade."

  "Once they've tried it, they'll see that it's not really dangerous. It's just... a different aspect of travel on a dragon!"

  Piemur let out an exaggerated sigh. "And if you and Ruth can do it, every other dragon and rider on Pern will feel required to follow your example. Is that what you wanted, Aivas?"

  "The result is inevitable, given the friendly competitiveness of dragonriders."

  Piemur raised both hands in a gesture of resignation. "As I said, with a friend like Aivas, you don't need enemies!"

  Jaxom had let himself in for a series of harangues once they got back to Landing.

  "True harper instincts!" he remarked acidly to Piemur, when the journeyman bellowed the news to Lytol on the duty desk. His old guardian turned pale and stern, and Jaxom had the satisfaction of seeing Piemur blanch. "Just let's keep this all in perspective, shall we?" he added, striding to Lytol. "I'm all right, really I am. Ruth wouldn't put me in danger any more than Aivas would. Someone!" He raised his voice. "I need some help here!"

  Jancis came running down the hall, halted as she took in the scene, and darted into a side room. She was back in a moment with a hot bottle and poured Lytol a cup of klah.

  "Just don't stand there, Piemur, get some wine. Some of that fortified wine would be best," she called after him as he scurried for the kitchen. "And just what have you been up to?" she demanded of Jaxom.

  "Nothing as dangerous as springing news on-" Jaxom caught himself before saying "old man." "-someone with no advance warning or preparation. I gather Aivas did not mention what he had planned for us today."

  "How could emptying fuel sacks be dangerous?" Jancis asked, her pretty eyes wide with astonishment.

  "I'm perfectly all right," Lytol insisted. After he had obediently taken several sips of the hot klah his color had improved.

  Piemur burst back into the hall, a wineskin in one hand and several glasses in the fingers of the other. He set these down on the table with more force than needed, but he could see that Lytol was recovering. "I need a drink as much as anyone else," the harper said, splashing wine into the first glass so sloppily that Jancis, uttering a protest, took the skin from his hand.

  "Thanks. I needed that!" And Piemur downed the glass he had filled and held it out for a refill.

  "You wait your turn," she scolded.

  Jaxom gestured for her to pour wine into Lytol's cup and for the older man to drink again.

  "Now, whatever made you attempt such a dangerous maneuver?" Lytol demanded.

  Jaxom sighed. "It wasn't dangerous. Aivas asked Ruth and me to do an EVA, and we did. Ruth and I were quite safe. He had his claws hooked on that framework around the engine section and I-I was hanging on to him." Jaxom grinned at the consternation on Jancis's face.

  "Dragonriders!" In that tone, Jancis's single word was a profound condemnation.

  "Wouldn't you agree, Lytol, that a dragon won't endanger his rider? That a dragon can take himself and his rider anywhere between to safety?" Suddenly Jaxom realized that this was the first time in many Turns that he had asked Lytol to verify draconic abilities. He could see the muscles along his guardian's jaw clench, and wondered if he had overstepped the bounds of tact.

  Lytol exhaled. "On occasion I have thought that Ruth acted too much on impulse, but you, Jaxom, have always been cautious; thus the two of you balanced each other. He would no more endanger you than you would put his life in jeopardy. But your extra vehicular activity should have been discussed beforehand."

  Piemur shot Jaxom a righteous glare, and Jaxom shrugged.

  "We did it, and we have proved that it can be done with no harm."

  I am going to sleep in the sun, Ruth told him. You're going to be talking for hours. I'm glad we didn't talk about doing it first. It could have taken days to arrive at permission. We might never have gotten to do it.

  Jaxom did not repeat Ruth's less than diplomatic remarks or his appraisal of talk to come-talk that grew into harangue as Lessa, F'lar, Robinton, and D'ram were informed of the EVA.

  "One more incidence of Aivas's obsession," Lessa said, not at all pleased to be summoned to the hastily convened meeting.

  "I wish you would all address the meat of the exercise,"

  Jaxom said with more irritation than he had ever before betrayed in the Benden Weyrleaders' presence. "The important fact is that it can be done, has been done, and that Aivas says that EVA by dragons and riders is crucial to his plan."

  They were not in the Aivas chamber, but in the conference room.

  "Why on earth would he want dragons clinging to that bloody framework, thousands of miles above Pern?" F'lar demanded.

  "To accustom dragons to being in space," Jaxom replied.

  "That's not all," Robinton said in a slow, thoughtful tone.

  "No." D'ram sat erect and alert. "The dragons must move the Yokohama."

  "Why?" Lessa asked. "What good would that do?"

  "To ram it at the Red Star," D'ram said.

  Jaxom, Piemur, and F'lar shook their heads.

  "Why not?" Lessa demanded. "That must be why he wanted the fuel in the tanks."

  Jaxom smiled wryly at her ignorance. "That drop of fuel would not explode on impact, and ramming the Red Star with the Yokohama, ponderous as it is, would not alter its orbit one bit. But I grant you, he needs the dragons to move something."

  "Let's ask him!" Robinton suggested, standing and starting for the door. When the others did not move, he turned back at them. "Well, don't we want to know?"

  "I'm not so sure I do," Lessa murmured, but she rose and followed the others as they trooped down the hallway to Aivas's room.

  Jaxom, Jancis, and Piemur closed the doors into the various rooms occupied by students and, when all were inside Aivas's chamber, that door was closed. Piemur leaned back against it.

  "What do the dragons have to move and where?" F'lar asked with no preamble.

  "So you have perceived part of the plan, Weyrleader."

  "You mean to use the Yokohama to ram the planet?" Lessa asked, still sure that she had the answer.

  "That would be totally ineffectual, and the Yokohama is needed as a vantage point."

  "Then what?" F'lar insisted.

  A picture came up of the Red Star, with details gleaned from Wansor's patient study of the face the planet presented its viewers. A deep chasm could be seen running diagonally across one hemisphere-an unusual feature caused, Aivas had said, by an earthquake of incredible force.

  "You all see this fracture. It is entirely possible that the chasm goes deep into the planet. It is probable that an explosion of sufficient magnitude at this point would have the desired effect of altering the planet's orbit. Especially when the planet is already perturbed by its proximity to the fifth satellite of this system." The visual altered to the familiar diagram of the Rukbat system. "Ordinarily an explosion of this magnitude would be impossible to effect. Not only because of the difficulty of amassing the elements required to make such a blast, but because it is nearly impossible to prevent chaotic elements from entering the equations of motion of the Red Star and even of the other planets.

  "It is apparent from Master Wansor's investigations that the fifth planet is devoid of atmosphere and life. It is also at its farthest distance from Pern. There will be some perturbations throughout the system, but these have been calculated as negligible in the face of the desired result, the relief from any further incursions of Thread on this planet."

  For a very long moment, no one spoke.

  "We have no such exploding capability," Jaxom said.

  "You do not. The Yokohama, the Bahrain, and the Buenos Aires do."

  "What?" F'lar demanded angrily.

  "The engines," Jaxom said. "The bloody engines. Oh, y
ou are devious, Aivas!"

  "But the engines are dead!" "There's not enough fuel!" "How would we get them there?" Everyone tried to be heard.

  "The engines are dormant," Aivas said over the uproar. "But it is the material in the engines that will provide the explosive power. If antimatter is allowed to contact matter without controls, the result will suit your needs."

  "Now wait a moment-" Jaxom called for order over the babel of questions. "You specifically stated in those engineering lectures to Fandarel that the antimatter is held out of contact with matter in the densest metals Mankind has ever forged. We don't have the equipment to penetrate those casings. Or is Fandarel working on something we don't know about'?"

  There was a little pause, and Jaxom found himself agreeing with master Robinton that Aivas seemed to laugh to himself sometimes.

  "It is true that the safety factors built into the great interstellar engines were immensely sophisticated, and that schematics for their design are not available in the engineering data," Aivas said at last. "But it has long been the case that complex things can be attacked best by simple methods. This facility must also obey the stipulation that you are not to be instructed in levels of technology beyond that of your ancestors. Fortunately you already have an agent that will provide the penetration. You have used it in every Fall for many centuries."

  "HN03!" Piemur said in a gasp.

  "Correct. The metal casings of the matter/antimatter drives are not impervious to its erosive effect." The visual of the Yokohama's engine shaft reappeared, but now there were large extraneous tanks placed on the drive cube. "It will take time, which is why there is a wide window of two weeks for this part of the activity, but the acid will penetrate the casings, and once the magnetic chamber is broached, matter and antimatter will self-destruct, causing the cataclysmic explosion necessary to shift the Red Star's orbit. Any further questions?"

  Jaxom broke the silence that time. "So all the Weyrs of Pern will be needed to take the engines, not the ships, between to the Red Star. To drop them into the chasm?"

  "To drop them might displace the HN03 tanks."