Dolphins of Pern

by Anne McCaffrey

  "There's a healer here at Landing, isn't there?" Mirrim asked.

  "Oh, thank you, Aivas, for your time.”

  "You are welcome, dragonrider Mirrim."

  "My gratitude, Aivas, on several counts,” and he gave T'lion a reassuring grin. "That meeting with your dolphin friends took a most unexpected turn, lad. We thank you. Mirrim's lost two babes because she didn't know she was pregnant. We don't want to lose another. Come,” T'gellan said, one hand at Mirrim's waist, guiding her out the door. "We'll inform D'ram of this. He'll see that the Healer Hall is informed."

  "Yes, best coming from him,” Mirrim agreed, but she beckoned for T'lion to walk beside her on their way out.

  It took a moment or two for D'ram to absorb the astonishing news, then he rose from his chair and heartily shook T'gellan's hand, beaming at Mirrim.

  "It's always been a problem for Weyrwomen to know when they have conceived and stay out of between in the first few months. You'll have women flocking to the shores to speak to dolphins."

  "I'm not sure that's what we want,” T'gellan said, somewhat alarmed.

  "Oh, well, yes, but I shall inform the Healer Hall and they can make what arrangements they find useful."

  "If they believe the story,” Mirrim said.

  "Oh, I know a few who are open minded enough to investigate especially if Aivas has verified the matter. First I shall ask Aivas to give me what information he has on the diagnostic abilities of the dolphin. Nothing like the printed word to reassure. Then the old Weyrleader turned to T'gellan. "You were wise to confirm this with Aivas instead of dismissing the matter."

  "It was certainly worth the trouble of flying here straight,' T'gellan agreed, smiling fondly down at his weyrmate. "Though I won't deny I found it hard to credit. Sorry about that, T'lion."

  "Oh, that's all right, T'gellan,” T'lion could honestly say now that his friends were vindicated. "I didn't believe it myself, you know.”

  If T'lion found himself appointed as dolphin liaison ‑ a word Kib suggested to him from his revived vocabulary of Ancient terms ‑ for the sceptical medics who did come, sometimes with patients, more often not, he had no objections. It kept him out of K'din's way and made it less likely that any tale K'din might concoct would discredit him in the Weyrleader's eyes. Persellan, the Weyr's healer, a journeyman from the southernmost tip of South Boll, was nearly scornful as he announced that it was impossible to detect a pregnancy so soon after conception.

  But Tana neatly demolished his disbelief when she pinpointed yet another festering puncture wound in the arm of a weyrchild who kept complaining that his arm hurt. The headwoman had been sure it was an attempt to avoid his chores. Tana not only was correct about the infection but she touched her nose on exactly the point which the sceptical Persellan was to poultice.

  The next morning the infection had come to a head and in it could clearly be seen the needle fine thorn which caused the problem.

  Thorns from a variety of vegetation on the Southern continent were a constant problem to the healers. Most people wore little in the hot summers so there was more bare flesh which could be invaded by a casual brush against leaves and plants. Even tough dragon hide was not impervious to the problem though the protective layer just under the skin was rarely penetrated.

  More often it was the rider, scrubbing his dragon, who found a thorn imbedding itself in a water‑soaked hand.

  Not by any means thoroughly convinced of this method of ascertaining pregnancy, Persellan did bring women in various stages of a known pregnancy to test Tana and other members of her pod who seemed eager to prove their abilities.

  It was, however, a broken bone that persuaded Persellan. A broken bone, moreover, that had healed badly just below the elbow, inhibiting the free use of her right arm. The woman had come to discover if she was pregnant again, a condition she didn't wish to continue since she considered that three children were more than enough to saddle the Weyr with.

  "Bone broke. Healed wrong,” Tana told Persellan. "Here."

  "What about a baby, fish?" the woman demanded even as Persellan seized her arm, his trained hands finding the thickened joint. "I've had no bleeding in two months."

  "How long ago did that happen?"

  Durras jerked her arm out of his grip, scowling at the Healer.

  "I didn't come about the arm. I was a child when it broke.

  Fish, what about the baby?"

  "No babbee, but full womb. Not good. Needs cleaning out.

  "WHAT?" The woman backed out of the water and ran up the sands and away from the diagnostician.

  "What do you mean? Full womb? Needs cleaning out?" Persellan asked. He had been startled by Durras' reaction but, in his long apprenticeship, there had been not infrequent occasions of interrupted flows where the patient had later had severe and constant abdominal pains and several instances where the woman had died: where only heavy doses of numbweed had eased the resultant pain.

  "Growwwwsse,” Tana said, trying to enunciate a difficult word. "Bad things.”

  "Growths?" Persellan asked. Intrusive surgeries were not a facet of healing, though he now knew that specially trained healers were actually cutting into a human body to relieve some conditions. Aivas had had much to tell the Healer Hall but very few had actually undertaken operations. He'd heard that the Hall had authorized after‑death examinations. Even thinking about such intrusions made him shudder but valuable information had resulted. "Did the Ancients cut into a body to remove growths?"

  "No need. Opening is there. Clean out. Then have babbee.

  "How? What opening?"

  "Main one down below. Way babbee comes.

  Persellan shuddered again. The very idea of entering by that passage was repugnant. Still, a healer was often required to perform measures unpleasant, and even hurtful to the patient, to restore health.

  The next surprise Persellan had came later that eventful morning when T'lion came to summon him to the bay.

  "They're bringing in an injured dolphin. Natua and Tana say you'll need to sew him up.

  "Sew up a dolphin?" Persellan halted in the act of reaching for his healer's bag. "Really, T'lion! That's enough!”

  "Why?" T'lion demanded. "You do dragons when they're cut."

  "But fish?"

  "They are not fish, Healer, they're mammals, same as humans, and Boojie won't heal properly unless you stitch the wound."

  "Have you seen it?"

  "No, but Tana asked. She's helped you, now you help her.”

  Persellan could not fault that argument but he muttered under his breath all the way down to the beach about having to extend his practice to heal sea creatures. The moment he saw the long deep gash he was set to turn right about and return to his weyr.

  "There's no way I could close that. Why, the . . . creature would bite me or something. The pain would be intense."

  "Numbweed,” T'lion said, stubbornly blocking Persellan's path and sending Gadareth an urgent plea to come help.

  "How do I know numbweed would help? It might even be a dangerous”

  "Tana told me. She said Boojie's too young to die but he will if that wound is not closed."

  "How'd he gouge himself like that?" Persellan continued to argue even as T'lion pulled him toward the water and the swarm of dolphins clumped together in the shallower water. "I don't even know if stitching's the answer."

  "Sew Boojie,” Tana said, then daring water almost too shallow for her to swim, pushed the healer with her nose toward the injured dolphin which podmates kept afloat.

  "Come on, Persellan,” T'lion said, up to his chest in the water.

  "How can I possibly, It's so absurd,” the healer cried but a stiff nose in his crotch pushed him forward. "Stop that!” And he batted his free hand at Tana's importunate melon. "I simply don't know how to go about Shock from such a wound, not to mention suturing I mean, I've never done anything like this in my life."

  "Didn't they tell you life in a Weyr would never be boring?" T'lion said,
silly with relief that the healer was complying.

  He almost gagged when he saw the depth of the wound, the flesh laid bare to several levels. The moment of nausea passed because he was fascinated that any creature so badly injured had survived the journey here. Boojie was barely breathing, too exhausted to make so much as a soft squee. Only the gleam in the visible left eye, as intelligent as ever, despite the wound, was evidence that the bottlenose lived. T'lion placed a hand close to the lung, far enough away from the ghastly slice not to cause any additional pain, and felt the rumble of activity within the dolphin's body.

  "If you're going to do something, you better do it now, Persellan,” he murmured. "Boojie's just hanging on."

  "How on earth am I going to do any suturing in the ocean?"

  Seeing the problem, for the dolphin nurses had to prop the patient and that made it difficult for Persellan to reach a useful position, T'lion called Gadareth.

  "Dragon claws were made useful,' he told Persellan. "Gaddie will cradle Boojie, just enough in the water, but with his side turned to you."

  A flurry as the bronze dragon, perceiving from his rider's mind what had to be accomplished, entered the water and approached the group.

  "Gaddie'Il help, Tana. Tell the others to let him take Boojie. He won t harm him. You know dragons wouldn't harm a dolphin."

  Tana clicked, squeed and spouted water so urgently that the maneuver was deftly accomplished, though it took a bit to get Boojie angled just right for the repair.

  "By the first shell, will you look at this?" Persellan exclaimed and pointed to the thick layer of blubber lying just under the dolphin's rubbery skin. "I suppose it's normal? Would she know? Come to think of it a very fat herd beast has a fatty layer. I suppose it's all right. Oh, well, it can only bite me." Keeping up a running monologue ‑ which T'lion rightly had the sense not to answer ‑ and muttering darkly about a most unusual healing, Persellan began to smear numbweed on the lips of the wound. "Don't know if the stuff will penetrate enough to do any good but the Master Farmer always uses it on injured animals so I don't see why I can't use it on a sea creature." His dabbings were tentative at first, but his motions became more confident when his patient did not twitch or move during the procedure.

  T'lion helped when he saw what to do, and his smaller fingers managed to ease the paste all along the edges of the wound.

  "I've never done anything so bizarre in my life,” Persellan muttered as he paused, the long thin needle he used for dragon flesh poised for the first stitch. "I've never heard of anything so weird as suturing a fish

  "Boojie's not a fish,' T'lion corrected but he was grinning.

  "He's a mammal."

  "Put your hands on either side, would you, and see if you can't push the lips together?"

  It was not an easy job Persellan asked of T'lion and toward the end, though the healer worked swiftly, the young rider's muscles began to spasm in protest. But together the humans finished closing the gash.

  "Three hands long" Persellan said, measuring and shaking his head. "I doubt he'll live. Shock alone Although salt water wounds do heal well . . ‑ He shook his head again as he scrubbed the remaining blood from his hands before passing the brush to his equally gory assistant. He also washed the needle and replaced it in its leather and what was left of the fine strong thread he had used back in his wet healer's bag. He'd forgotten all about it during the procedure and now clicked his tongue.

  "So what do we do with this Boojie now, T'lion? Nurse him here, in the shallows? I'm water‑pocked from the waist down.

  "Afo, what now?" T'lion asked, seeing her in the circle of observant dolphins grouped on either side of Gadareth who still held Boojie in his talons.

  "You do good. Tell dragon to let Boojie go. We care him."

  Ordinarily T'lion would have corrected her phrase but he understood what she meant. With a sharp series of whistles, she organized her helpers, Gar, Jim and Tana among them, T'lion noticed, as Gadareth obediently and very carefully lowered his forearms into the water until Boojie's body floated free. T'lion was relieved to notice a slight motion of fins as Boojie wearily responded to his freedom. Then his podmates renewed their support and pointed him seaward.

  "T'ank you! T'ank you! T'ank you!" came the unexpected chorus as the group headed slowly out to sea.

  "Will he be all right, Natua?"

  She gave a little leap in an answer which he took to be affirmative. Both he and Persellan watched in silence until the dorsal fins of patient and nurses were no longer easily visible.

  "Never done anything like that before in my life,” Persellan muttered as he strode out of the water. He took no more than a few steps up on the sand before he collapsed, to spread out his length on the warm sand. "And I don't even know if it will be enough. But I tried."

  "You did indeed, Healer, and I'm very grateful you did,” T'lion said. Gaddie, you were great!

  I know it. I've never done anything like that either. But the dolphin lives. We all did well. Tell the healer.

  "Gadareth, too, says you did well, Persellan,” T'lion murmured, with a weary grin. A snore answered him. A nap seemed like a good idea but he had enough common sense remaining to collect two of the wide leaves they often used to shield the harsh sun rays. He put one on Persellan's head and face, and draped the second over himself.

  Gadareth, wings carefully tight against his back, rolled this way and that in the warm sands before he, too, settled his head on his front legs and relaxed in the sun.

  Chapter Seven

  Early the next morning Persellan joined T'lion and Gadareth on the strand when the young dragonrider rang the ‘report' peal. He had spent an anxious night, worrying about Boojie, and rather pleased to see that Persellan was also concerned.

  No sooner had the last note of the ring echoed across the waters than two dolphins leaped above the surface, a distant squeeing audible.

  "Hope that's a happy sound,' T'lion murmured.

  "Hmmmm,” was Persellan's reply as he shielded his eyes and peered across the dawn‑lightened waters.

  "They feed at dawn, you know,” T'lion informed him conversationally. "Best time to get them."

  "Am I likely to be on call to dolphins, too, now?"

  T'lion looked up to check the healer's mood. He didn't know the man well enough to judge whether or not his gruffness was genuine. Most people tended to be grumpy in the early hours of a day. Healers certainly had the right, called up at the most inconvenient of times.

  "Would that bother you?" T'lion asked apprehensively.

  "Hmmmm. Depends. I could see that the creature had to have that gash sutured. Are they often injured? How did that happen to it?"

  "I don't know about injuries in general. Most of the dolphins have scars here and there. I haven't asked how they get them, though. We haven't reached that sort of thing. Most of our conversations have been pretty basic. Maybe Master Alemi knows. I can ask him."

  "Who's Master Alemi?" Persellan asked, his gaze still on the incoming dolphins' progress.

  "Master Fishman at Paradise River Hold. He got me interested in the dolphins. Aivas asked me to continue."

  "Did he?" Persellan shot a glance down at his young companion.

  "Yes, yesterday wasn't my first visit to report to Aivas,” T'lion said in a tone he hoped wasn't boastful.

  "Indeed! Hmmmm, well."

  The squeeing was louder now and T'lion thought it sounded happy. Maybe because he wanted it to. He let out a sigh. Then, as the two dolphins neared the shore, he couldn't wait any longer and ran out into the water until he was waist deep.

  "Is Boojie OK?" he shouted through cupped hands.

  "Squeeee yes. Squee yes!'

  "Yes?"

  "Yesssssss, squeee yessssss!" The two dolphins made it a chorus and seemed to speed up. Their final leap splashed T'lion thoroughly but he didn't care. Natua pushed his face right up into the dragonrider's, and his ever grinning smile was deeper than ever. He dropped his jaw and squeed again.r />
  "Boojie best grateful. Ate well."

  "Swims little, is better."

  "Tell them,” Persellan called from where he stood at the water's edge, "Boojie must have the sutures removed Are dolphins aware of time? I mean I don't want to leave those stitches in forever. They could tear the flesh."

  "When d'you want Boojie back?" T'lion asked.

  "In a sevenday. Would they understand that?"

  T'lion nodded vigorously even as he repeated the instructions to the two dolphins. "In seven and T'lion held up sufficient fingers, tapping them in turn on Natua's nose, "dawns, Boojie is to come back to the Healer. Understand?"

  "Squeeee! Understand. Seven dawns."

  "We tell!" Tana added, clicking affirmatively.

  "Thanks for coming,' T'lion added.

  "You ring. We come. We promise. Thank medic." And Tana did her half‑stand, nodding her head vigorously before she gave a final tail swish and leaped sideways, over and under the water and swam off, Natua squeeing after her.

  "Did you hear, Persellan?" T'lion asked as he waded back out. "Boojie's very grateful. He ate and they understood to bring him back in a sevenday.

  "I must say, I'm gratified, since I hadn't a notion if I was doing the creature any good at all."

  "Oh, you did, Persellan, you did!'

  Amazing incident, actually. I must report now who would I report to? Not the Master Farmer certainly for the sea is not his province.

  "Master Alemi says that the Master Fishman, Idarolan, is interested in the dolphins."

  "Well, then, I shall report to him, and to T'gellan, as well as to Master Oldive. At least he will find this case interesting. Many wouldn't, but Oldive will." That seemed to please Persellan even more as they made their way back to the Weyr.

  T'lion hoped he'd have a chance to tell Master Alemi all about yesterday and dolphin sonar. Well, maybe he shouldn't talk about Mirrim's baby yet, but he could tell about Persellan's sewing up Boojie.

  It was several days before T'lion had a chance to stop off at Paradise Hold. He was on his way back from conveying Master Fandarel to Telgar Smith Craft Hall and saw no harm in stopping off that evening to see Alemi. The big yawl, the Fair Winds, was not at anchor, nor the other sloop or the ketch that fished from Paradise River. T'lion was about to tell Gadareth to go on to the Weyr when he saw a ship sailing into the next cove. The northern coast of the Southern Continent had many inlets. He thought it very odd that the ship didn't put into the Paradise River anchorage. Could they have mistaken their port of call?