Dolphins' Bell

by Anne McCaffrey

  Under them, the Cross responded to the sea's agitation. The comunit buzzed.

  "Kaarvan here. Dolphins report it'll be short and sweet but a bit heavy. You ready for it?"

  "As we'll ever be." He switched off and turned to Theo, absently catching his cup of klah as it slid toward the raised edge of the table. "Would you be more comfortable in a bunk? It might be rough on that healing skin of yours."

  She gave him an odd look and an odder smile. "It might at that."

  She eased her way across the cushions to the end of the table. He joined her, slipping one hand under her elbow as the ship gave a convulsive rock. They could now hear the wind rising, the slap of lines against the mast and feel waves slamming into the starboard side of the Cross.

  Her good hand balancing her against the increased pitching, Theo made her way to the forward cabin where the double bunk in the space under the bow allowed her just that much more room than the narrower singles. Jim followed, anxious that she didn't get thrown against the walls, banging arm or legs. He had his own right arm tucked against his body, his left held up in case he needed to balance himself.

  Just as she reached the cabin, the Cross pitched again and she fell against him. Instinctively he grabbed and held her close, a life-time of experience helping him to balance them both against the erratic movement. She wrapped her left arm about his waist, hugging herself to him. He could feel her trembling and the smoothness of her skin against his; no one wore more than basic clothing anyway. He tightened his arm, surprised by a number of conflicting and long-forgotten emotions.

  "It won't be as bad a blow as the other one," he said, thinking to reassure her. Though why Theo would need reassurance…

  "I'm not scared, you iggerant old fool," she said in a taut voice. Switching her left arm to around his neck, she hauled his head down to hers and kissed him so thoroughly that he lost his balance and they both tumbled into the cabin as the Cross took part in this matter and pitched them forward. Nor would Theo let go of him even after they had fallen across one of the smaller bunks.

  "Your legs? Your arm," Jim began without lessening the pressure his right arm exerted in keeping them together. "I'll hurt you…"

  "There are ways, dammit, Jim Tillek, there are ways!"

  Despite the rolling and pitching of the Cross, which sometimes worked to their advantage, he discovered that indeed there were ways and very little hurting. In fact, Jim decided that the next hour could be termed therapeutic — among other adjectives which he had had no occasion to employ for too long a time.

  "We're neither of us young," Theo said when the Southern Cross lay calmly at anchor again, "but you're definitely not beyond it, my friend."

  "No," Jim said in drawl, allowing surprise and pride to color his reply, "and glad to prove it. Especially with you!" And he kissed her tenderly.

  The comunit began to buzz and, with a sigh of resignation, Jim rose to answer it.

  "Dart approves of you, you know."

  Theo called after him.

  He let a chuckle answer that sally but he felt a little taller all the same. Dolphins were extraordinarily good readers of human characters and defects.

  * * *

  Beth Eagles gave Jim the go-ahead to undertake 'light' employment. "And I mean light, Jim Tillek, though you do look rested."

  "I am," he said with no inflection and sought Kaarvan to see how he could lightly employ himself to advantage.

  He knew enough of ship design and chandlery so that Kaarvan shared with him the supervision of the repairs. The squall had done little damage to the make-shift boatyard and released a few more errant bundles which the dolphins brought close enough in to be collected by Joel's apprentices.

  Theo also complained that inactivity was driving her nuts so Beth allowed her to come ashore every day and help decipher waterlogged bar codes on the pile of 'mystery' cargo.

  If Jim and Theo preferred to row back out to the Cross for their evenings, no one seemed to regard that as odd, especially when Dart followed.

  "Do they think Dart plays the duenna?" Jim asked slyly. When Theo looked puzzled, he explained the term and she laughed.

  "Not her. You'll notice she doesn't swim between us," she said with a sly grin.

  Jim laughed because he hadn't. "That's good because it'd be awful if she came between us," he said, masking the apprehension he felt at even such a subtle mention of their relationship. He wanted the association to continue but wasn't sure how to broach the subject.

  ' 'You got die Southern Cross, I got Dart."

  "We also have each other?" Jim made the sentence not quite a query, certainly not a statement. He was suddenly rather more anxious than a man his age should be or maybe that was why, to hear her reply.

  "So we do," she said in the most equable of tones, calmly gazing at the Southern Cross as they neared her.

  Grinning with relief, Jim put his back into the last few pulls on his oars.

  * * *

  A happy event — the birthing of Carolina's calf— helped raise the morale of the fleet survivors, tediously repairing storm damage. Malawi and Italia had been her midwives and the three of them brought the new female close enough into shore to be admired. The dolphin nurses and mother were shouting some name between their chuffs and other excited noises. Theo had to stay on the shore but Carolina's swimmer got far enough out to be able to identify what the dolphins were trying to communicate.

  "Atlanta! Atlanta!" Bethann called, between strokes back to the shore. "People don't believe me when I tell them my dolphin knows as much as they do about old Earth."

  Everyone on the beach then began waving at the dolphins and chanting the name to show their approval.

  "Most appropriate. I'm sort of surprised we haven't had one named that before now," Jim said as Bethann joined Theo and him. "Did you help Carolina pick the name?"

  The girl grinned, wringing out her long hair which she usually kept braided. "Sort of. Carrie wanted to name her calf after something big and wet." Jim let out a guffaw. "Well, it's close enough to 'Atlantic'. I tried to tempt her with 'a' ending states and countries and stuff because I couldn't think of any big lakes with 'a' endings. Even the colonies don't have feminine lakes or oceans."

  "You made a good compromise," Jim said with warm approval.

  * * *

  The next day, Ebon, Efram and Toby, assisted by Kibby, Oregon, and Dart 't swam the new mast out to the Cross. With much ceremony and a lot of hard work, it was properly stepped, new mainstays in place, the boom rehung and the patched canvas threaded onto the sheet and dutifully raised to flap in the light breeze.

  In Jim's experience, events had a habit of occurring in 'threes'. The third one came from Paul Benden and his almost incoherent account of the reappearance of the seventeen dragons and their riders. Jim took the call at his makeshift beach office where he was figuring out how and what to load on the ships that would soon be ready to continue their westward journey.

  "They just appeared in the skies above Fort, Jim," Paul said, the astonishment and elation in his voice such a tonic that Jim changed the setting to wide range so that everyone nearby heard his account. Soon everyone was alerted and crowded about to hear the news. "The dragons were spouting flame, charring Thread, diving into tangles, disappearing, and reappearing. The riders of the queens were carrying flamethrowers they'd talked out of Peter Chernoff at Seminole. The males chewed firestone and belched flame until they ran out of stone — just about the time Thread got up into the Range where it can't hurt rock much.

  "And then," Paul went on with a ring in his voice, "those devious young rogues landed and demanded numbweed and medical supplies for their dragons before they paid any attention to my orders to report to me on the double."

  Jim grinned as did many listening. The seaman thought of his ship first, his own safety second: the dolphineer of his mammalian partner, the rider his dragon. He exchanged a significant glance at Theo.

  "That done, damned if young Sean Conne
ll didn't march 'em smartly right up the entrance to the Hold. Then he had the impudence to introduce me to what he called 'the dragonriders of Pern'!"

  Jim laughed as he leaned toward the speaker unit. "Well, that's what they are, aren't they, Paul?"

  "Indeed! Now I'm sure we'll make it, Jim. I'm sure!"

  "So are we all," and Jim circled his hand to raise three cheers from the audience. "Give them our compliments, too. Such news gives us new heart as well."

  He was surprised to see Theo wiping tears from her eyes and, later, when they lay beside each other in the double bunk, asked her why.

  "Look, swimming with Dart is the best thing — well, almost the best thing," and she grinned at him, "that ever happened to me. But I think flying a fighting dragon would be a notch… well, maybe several notches above that, given the fact they're our equivalent of the battle of Dunkirk. So few against so much."

  * * *

  All the work seemed to finish up at the same time which Kaarvan said was the result of good planning and Jim was equally certain was due to the boost in morale. So they loaded the Pernese Ven>turer with the last of the more important items and distributed the remainder, unreadable bar codes notwithstanding, among the ships that were to sail west again.

  At Key Largo, Jim conferred with Paul who had sent all four of the large ships, Pernese Venturer, Mayflower, Maid and Perseus to await their arrival at the jump-off point. It had become a matter of honor to the now well-seasoned skippers of the small craft in his flotilla to bring their ships into the new port. But few of them were capable of sailing across the two Great Currents without some assistance. And for that, the four ships with more powerful auxiliary engines would escort them. Jim had thought long and hard on how to maneuver the flotilla past this hazard and was pleased when Kaarvan, Sejby, Veranera and even the over cautious Per Pagnesjo agreed with him. The plan was to sail in the quieter coastal water from Key Largo, beyond the point where the Eastern Current was at its closest to the Western one. Then turn bravely into the Eastern Current and let it carry the vessels a good day's sail away from their final destination, slip across the current into the calm dividing waters. Then, using outboard engines and the big ships towing the ones that didn't have the speed or bulk to cross the Western Current, maneuver that hazard 'til they reached the safe waters at the end of the Boll peninsula. The coastal sail up to the Fort Harbour ought then to be routine.

  * * *

  They sent dolphins ahead for two days' sail-worth to check on incoming weather. Then, once assured of fair weather and decent wind, they experienced no heart-stopping moments on the Crossing and made the quieter northern coastal waters. Some powered ships even had a little fuel left. Dolphin teams had swum in constant escort in case of engine failure. Then it was plain sailing. Almost anticli-matic, Jim thought, as the Southern Cross slid majestically into the darker northern waters bound for her last port of call.

  Not quite her last, Jim amended. While stopping at Key Largo, he and the other skippers had had a long talk about how to protect their ships during Threadfall.

  "They built us a sort of boat shed under the wharf," Kaarvan said, sketching the facility as he spoke. "Masts have to be un-stepped of course but that's neither here nor there. Venturer just fits with two other big ships or four of the smaller ones."

  " Those'd be enough to supply Fort with fresh fish when there're clear days," Sejby said, scrubbing at the bristle on his chin and gazing thoughtfully at Jim.

  Jim caught the unspoken words. Lifting his gelicast arm, he managed a grin. "Well, this'll keep me out of action for a while."

  "There's good news, too, Jim," Vera-nera said quickly. "Ozzie mentioned a big sea cavern on the eastern end of the Big Island, the one Avril mined on. He said it was large enough to sail into. Deep water even at low tide, and the roof tall enough so the masts needn't be unstepped. We sort of figured we could take it turn and turn about. Keep at least one or two of the big ships on duty and store the others in the cavern.

  Jim hauled the chart of that area to him. The site of the cavern had been marked.

  You're sure it's deep enough? There's no depth indicated…"

  "Ozzie was sure and if he's sure, you can be," Sejby said.

  "I've no objections. In fact, for me and the Southern Cross, it makes a lot of sense. Be a nice easy sail."

  "After what you just did, it would indeed," Per Pagnesjo remarked with unusual levity for him. "I take some shore time or the missus get annoyed with me."

  They decided then that the Cross, the Maid, and the Perseus would spend the first year in the cavern. The Venturer would come, too, to bring the other crews back. Kaarvan wanted to establish whether or not the cavern was big enough to accommodate his ship which was the largest. If it was, he'd rest her the following year.

  "Then we can keep more seamen working because the wharf will shield the smaller ships," Kaarvan said. "That keeps more people happy."

  Jim knew it would but it was odd that Kaarvan should voice such an opinion.

  "You're putting the Southern Cross in… what did they use to call it?" Theo asked when he told her the plan.

  "Mothballs."

  "What're they?"

  "Basically cocoons. Moths came from cocoons. Flying insects that were attracted by flames." Jim wasn't really paying much attention to what he was saying since they were in the nighttime quiet of his cabin.

  "You'll miss sailing, Jim."

  He knew he would but they both knew that his decision was sensible. He tired so easily these days, even doing what he loved most.

  "I will but I'll enjoy it even more when we get back to it."

  "We?"

  "Well, Dart has no problem with becoming official escort to the Cross, does she?"

  "Noooo," and Theo smoothed his hair back from his ears. "You need a haircut."

  "Possibly." She could make totally irrelevant observations but they only endeared her more to him. "Two, with Dart, can handle the Cross on the way to Big Island…" he went on, still resisting in his inner heart the necessity of mothballing his beloved ship.

  "A honeymoon?" And Theo giggled.

  He gave her a quick hug. "Then next year…"

  "There'll be three of us, Jim…"

  He roused up to look down at her. "You don't mean…"

  She laughed in great delight at his astonishment. "Told you you weren't beyond it, man. Thought I might be, but Corazon said I got in under the wire."

  At that point, he forgot what other plans he had intended to discuss with her and knew that his decision to harbor the Cross was for the best possible reason.

  * * *

  It was a cloudy day, mist whisking in and out of the little bays to port as the Southern Cross made her way toward the wharf

  Kaarvan had just announced on the comu-nit was not far ahead now. The jibsail was barely full of wind but a gentle current was helping the forward motion.

  Suddenly the peeling of a bell sounded through the mist. Abruptly every dolphin of the escort broke the surface in ecstatic leaps of unusual height: a couple waking on their tales in their joy. Even Jim could distinctly hear them shouting "bell, bell, bell!"

  Theo looked at Jim in perplexed astonishment. "But you didn't take the Monaco Bell…how…"

  "The Buenos Aires carried more than one bell in her hold," Jim said, putting an arm around her shoulders.

  "Damn," Theo said, sniffing, and he saw tears sliding down her cheeks. "That was damned thoughtful of someone. Look how glad they are that there's a bell for them here, too. Just listen to the noise they're making."

  Jim was beginning to know when the dolphins were 'singing'. He knew, too, that, somehow, they had come across the seas of Pern to… home! Especially when there was a dolphin bell to guide the seafarers home!

  THE END

  About The Author

  Anne McCaffrey is the most successful woman writer of commercial science fiction ever, with more than 14 million books sold—in English alone. Her novel All the Weyr
s of Pern appeared on every single best seller list for weeks, including the New York Times—just like the novel before it, and the novel before that, and every science fiction novel of hers for the past decade. Ms. McCaffrey makes her home at Dragonhold-Underhill in Ireland.