A message makes the long journey from the Rukbat system and back to inhabited space. A long message streaming data from a piece of very old technology passed by star and planet as it searched for a colony that could understand such an outdated format. AIVAS had known that such a message would take some time to get anywhere, but its coding required that it try anyway, the Earthen government always wanted to keep track of colonies and to know that one had survived and flourished so long, without paying taxes, would be quite interesting to them. So the message continued on, waiting for the code to be acknowledged and received. Years passed into almost a decade before the message was caught by an old colony out in the fringes of inhabited space. The first note of the message instructed them to decode the information and pass it along to their government; the decoding was simple and done with great excitement by an intern or student of some sort.
However the leaders of this settlement were quite bitter at the fact they were stuck with such old technology to begin with so the message was held back by spite even though it would solve nothing. Eventually cooler mind prevailed and the message was sent on its way again.
This time the trip was short, but had many turns. Debates and votes were had over the information and what to do with it. Many thought it was a hoax, how could it be true? That planet had been avoided for so long it had become myth, a thing of nightmares. Stories of clouds that would eat you alive haunted the ghost stories of children. Pern had been lost for millennia, how long had this message been traveling? Was it even true anymore? Should they even care about one little planet? Officially no decision was forthcoming but secretly the arms of the military took the copies of the information they could find and started to plan their own future.
The best scientists from every colony were gathered onto one small and sparkly populated planet. Parbeth (Parallel Antari, Resources Barely THere) was isolated and as far as they were concerned perfect for what they needed. The information was passed around to be studied, decoded, translated, and recreated.
There was one word that stood out amongst all others.
One word leaked into the mainstream.
One word whispered across solar systems.
This word that threatened to change the world for better or worse.
One word that changed the Myth of Pern forever because now the death-clouds had an enemy, a heroic enemy that would fight to the death and no matter what the cost.
That one word set so much in motion looking back it was hard to see how they could have ever been the same.
One word.
Dragons.