The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
Page 28
Had the Erica completed the course correction? Or had the engines stopped untimely? The margin was so damned slight! And the proof would be the appearance of the comforting bulk of the Amherst any time now. If the maneuver had been completed before the fuel was exhausted.
Like the two officers beside him, Benden instinctively leaned forward, peering out into the endless space in front of them.
“I’ve got a radar reading, Lieutenant,” Nev said, and there was no denying the relief in his voice. “It can’t be anything but the Amherst. I think we’re going to make it.”
“All we need is to get close enough for them to shoot us a magnetic line,” Benden muttered.
Nev uttered a whoop. “Thar she be!” He pointed. Benden had to blink to be sure he actually was seeing the running lights of the Amherst. He was close to adding his own ki-yi of relief and victory.
Just then the comunit opened to a sardonic voice. “That’s cutting it fine indeed, Lieutenant.” The blank screen cleared to a view of the captain, her head cocked and her right eyebrow quizzically aslant. “Trying to match your uncle’s finesse?”
“Not consciously, ma’am, I assure you, but I’d be pleased to hear the confirmation that our present course and speed are A-OK for docking?”
“Not a puff of fuel left, huh?”
“No, ma’am.”
She looked to her left, then faced the screen squarely again, a little smile playing on her lips. “You’ll make it. And I’ll expect to have reports from both you and Lieutenant Ni Morgana as soon as you’ve docked. You’ve had time enough on the trip in to write a hundred reports.”
“Captain, I’ve got the passengers to settle.”
“They’ll be settled by medics, Ross. You’ve done your part getting them here. I want to see those reports.”
And the screen darkened.
“Got yours all ready, Ross?” Ni Morgana asked with a sly grin as she swiveled her chair around.
“And yours?”
“Oh, it’s ready, too. I said that I believed Kimmer suicided.”
Benden nodded, glad of her support. “It would have had to have been self-destruction, Saraidh. He would have been far more familiar with airlock controls than Shensu or his brothers,” he said slowly, considering his words. “It’s really far more likely that he did suicide, given the fact that he had failed to bring along all that metal. Damn fool! He must have known that he was dangerously overloading the ship. He could have murdered us.” That angered Benden.
“Yes, and nearly succeeded. I think he was hoping that his death would have brought suspicion on the brothers, as the most likely to wish his demise,” Ni Morgana went on. “He would have liked jeopardizing their futures. And discrediting another Benden if he could.” When she heard Benden’s sharp inhalation, she touched his hand, causing him to look at her. “You can still be proud of your uncle, Ross. You heard what Shensu said, and how proud he was of the way the admiral marshaled all available defenses.”
Benden cocked his head, his expression rueful. “A fighter to the last . . . and it took a wretched planet to defeat him.”
“Poor planet Pern,” Saraidh said sadly. “Not its fault, but I’m recommending that this system be interdicted. I did some calculations—which I’ll verify on the Amherst computers—and rechecked the original EEC report. That wasn’t, the first time the Oort organism fell on the planet. Nor will it be the last. It’ll happen every two hundred and fifty years, give or take a decade. Furthermore, we don’t want any ship blundering into that Oort cloud and transporting that organism to other systems.”
She gave a shudder at the thought.
“There she is,” Benden said with a sense of relief as the viewport filled with the perceptibly nearing haven of the Amherst. “And, all things considered, a successful rescue run.”
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Anne McCaffrey was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College, majoring in Slavonic Languages and Literatures. Before her success as a writer, she was involved in theater. She directed the American premiere of Carl Orff’s Ludus de Nato Infante Mirificus, in which she also played a witch. Her first novel, Restoree, was written as a protest against the absurd and unrealistic portrayals of women in science fiction novels in the 50s and early 60s. Ms. McCaffrey is best known, however, for her handling of broader themes and the worlds of her imagination, particularly in her tales of the Talents and the fourteen novels about the Dragonriders of Pern.
McCaffrey lives in a house of her own design, Dragonhold-Underhill, in County Wicklow, Ireland. Visit the author online at www.annemccaffrey.org.
Books by Anne McCaffrey
Decision at Doona
Dinosaur Planet
Dinosaur Planet Survivors
Get Off the Unicorn
The Lady
Pegasus in Flight
Restorree
The Ship Who Sang
To Ride Pegasus
Nimisha’s Ship
Pegasus in Space
THE CRYSTAL SINGER BOOKS
Crystal Singer
Killashandra
Crystal Line
THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN® BOOKS
Dragonflight
Dragonquest
The White Dragon
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
Nerilka’s Story
Dragonsdawn
The Renegades of Pern
All the Weyrs of Pern
The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
The Dolphins of Pern
Dragonseye
The Masterharper of Pern
The Skies of Pern
By Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough:
Powers that Be
Power Lines
Power Play
With Jody Lynn Nye:
The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern
Edited by Anne McCaffrey:
Alchemy and Academe
A Del Rey® Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
Copyright © 1993 by Anne McCaffrey
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. “Rescue Run” originally appeared in Analog.
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Del Rey and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Map courtesy of Christine Levis
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-10079
eISBN 0-345-45399-9
v1.0
eBook Info
Creator:
Anne McCaffrey
Identifier:
mcca_0345453999
Title:
Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Timeline
Maps
The Survey: P.E.R.N. c
The Dolphins’ Bell
The Ford of Red Hanrahan
The Second Weyr
Rescue Run
About the Author
Books by Anne McCaffrey
To learn more about other great ebook titles from Ballantine
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