One thing was for certain… I had not anticipated nor fully appreciated just how busy my life would become once Robinton Cove was finally realized.
Dear Master Robinton. A silent tear slid down my cheek as I recalled how brief our meetings had been… and how personally priceless they were to me.
What I had not foreseen was how keen the perceptions of the one-time Masterharper of Pern had been. In spite of the brevity of our meetings, he had correctly discerned the strain Tarnaa and I had been under, flitting all over Pern to offer what healing we could. And, in a breathtaking blend of incredible foresight and generosity, in his last will and testament, he had bequeathed to me all the lands that made up Cove Hold… a place that he knew would be ideal for the construction of Pern's first ever teaching hospital!
Caught up in the throes of the Exiles crisis, I had been fearful the project would never reach fruition. But it had. Still, that series of events had cost me in an unexpected way… I still suffered from nightmares brought on by the horrific solution we'd been forced to employ to stop the assault team that had been targeted for Ruatha. Time and again I had gone over in my mind ways we could've done it differently. And with each soul-searching moment, I had come to the same painful conclusion. We really had been left with no other choice. So, the nightmares persisted, leaving me hoping one day I could find a way to make my peace with that gut-wrenching decision.
Now I was faced with a different dilemma… what to do about the discovery F'lessan had made in Kenjo Fusaiyuki's private observatory at Honshu Weyrhold. A P.H.A. – 'Potentially Hazardous Asteroid' – as depicted on the mural found there.
There'd been two meteor strikes on Pern in the recent past… one striking a mine in Crom, the other splashing down in the Eastern Ring Sea triggering catastrophic results. But they would be as nothing if the mural portended the impact of an asteroid on Pern. If the stellar body was of any substantial size and mass, it could trigger a planet-wide life-extinction event, killing off everyone and everything on Pern! We had to determine if the asteroid still existed and the threat it posed to Pern. But how?
We had the answers parked in geosynchronous orbit over Landing… the three colony ships the Ancients had used to reach Pern. We had originally planned to reposition them equidistant around Pern to improve the GPS capabilities of the sat phones and other electronic devices Fandarel and his fellow smiths were working to reintroduce to the people of Pern. Additionally, I had planned to recommission them as orbiting hospitals, expanding the healing capabilities Robinton Cove could provide. And, at Fandarel's behest, to re-explore the zero-grav manufacturing techniques the Ancients had used to manufacture materials that could only be created in a zero-grav environment.
Now, with the potential threat of an asteroid collision looming, those same colony ships, spread equidistant around Pern, could also act as orbiting tracking stations for the asteroid, free from the atmospheric distortions ground-based observations would suffer from.
Unfortunately, Time had not been kind to the three vessels. The ship self-diagnostics I had run on the Yokohama, the Bahrain, and the Buenos Aires during the solar array deployments had not been encouraging. While the Yokohama was still relatively intact, several smaller compartments were venting atmosphere overboard and would have to be repaired before habitation of the vessel could be realized. The Bahrain had suffered a substantial meteor strike resulting in severe damage to a significant portion of the habitation module.
"Think it happened during the recent meteor strikes?" F'lessan wondered as we discussed the planned repairs in my office.
I nodded. "AIVAS plotted out the vessel's orbital position during those strikes. It was right in the debris paths of the two meteors."
"Gravitational forces during the approach may have caused one of the two strike meteors to fragment," Tai remarked.
She'd been busy studying the astronomy tutorials AIVAS possessed.
"Likely," I was forced to admit. "Fandarel, how are your repair teams coming along?"
"We've been practicing at a feverish pace in the Yoko's docking bay," the Mastersmith reported, grinning broadly. "Hardest part has been getting used to moving around in zero-G, but we'll be ready."
"Good," I sighed, nodding. "And the Buenos Aires?"
"We managed to get the onboard security cameras to work again," Rill reported. "Videos we've been able to extract have been worked over and enhanced by AIVAS. Several hull plates scattered about the habitation module blew out. AIVAS thinks it might've been due to lower manufacturing tolerances employed at the shipyard the Buenos Aires was built at. But with the onboard repair supplies you discovered in the ship's records, we should be able to repair the damage."
"Your teams ready?" I asked.
Chuckling, Rill turned to Fandarel, saying, "The Mastersmith can be a ruthless taskmaster in his pursuit of efficiency and perfection."
Fandarel snorted, waving in dismissal.
"Your teams have done better than expected," he admitted, grinning companionably. "Perhaps it's your constant flying about that makes you more adaptable to the lack of gravity."
"Glad to hear it," I said, rising from my desk. "Then, let's get to work!"
The repairs to the ships had to come first. We would need them functional and habitable before they could be moved to their new orbital homes. As much as I wanted to lead the repair efforts, I had a responsibility to the hospital first, so F'lessan and Tai took my place on the Yoko's repair team. It actually proved beneficial to Golanth, as well. The repair team fitted F'lessan's dragon out with a hoist harness, a trio of them lifting the wounded bronze skyward. A heartbeat later, they vanished, materializing seconds later in the vast docking bay aboard the Yokohama.
At first, Golanth was a little disoriented, especially by how easy it was to move about the zero-grav chamber. But with the encouragement of the other dragons, he was soon flitting about the place, giving every appearance of thoroughly enjoying himself!
"You should see this!" F'lessan laughed, calling me on the ship-to-shore video link aboard the Yokohama. "I've never seen him so happy!"
"The fire lizards will keep him company," I chuckled, grinning myself. "You lot have a job to do. Get on it!"
"Aye aye, sir!" F'lessan teased, snapping me a sharp salute before signing off.
As I shut off the comm link, I found my mind wandering back to that recurring dream I'd been having… the one where a queen dragon was performing physical therapy on one of its own… a bronze dragon. Given the explosive emergence of my nascent esper talents upon reaching Pern, I was finding it increasingly difficult to simply dismiss it as just a dream.
A long-forgotten memory from my Academy days suddenly, and quite startlingly, resurfaced; bringing me bolt upright in my chair, reducing my voice to an awed whisper. "Quantum jumping?"
A peculiar psionic talent. One of the numerous esper-gifted instructors at the Star Service Academy had discussed the subject… a method for people to source fresh ideas, answers, and skills from alternate versions of themselves. The technique itself was based upon quantum physics and the idea that an infinite number of alternate universes exist. Was it possible I was somehow connecting with another version of myself in an alternate universe… a place where dragons were, in fact, doing physical therapy on their own kind?
Well, whatever was behind it… simple dream or something admittedly far more exotic… I had my own, critical project to work on.
As I made my way down the hall, Goldie caught up with me, backwinging to my shoulder, broadcasting images of the warm rooftop where she had been sunning herself. Chuckling, I gave her neck ridge a quick scratch before opening the doorway to the stairwell and galloping to the top, taking the steps two and sometimes three at a time.
Not much foot traffic on the top floor. Hardly surprising since most of what was up here related to the solar panels and wind turbines that helped provide the hospital with electrical power. I made my way down the singular hallway to a non-descript doorway near the middle of the building, opened it, went inside, closed the door behind me… and locked it.
Why? Tarnaa silently wondered, curious about my actions. Is something wrong?
I don't want to get everyone's hopes up, I silently replied, opening the first of the crates.
Something's wrong, my dragon rumbled, her tone urgent. Are we in danger?
I had AIVAS run an analysis of Kenjo-san's mural, I replied, mounting the first component in the equipment rack I had assembled. Those two meteor strikes Pern experienced recently were just the beginning. The first salvo.
At that precise moment, my wrist computer started beeping. When I tapped the screen to respond, I felt my knees go weak at what I read.
The hospital?! Tarnaa gasped, able to see the display through my eyes.
Ground zero for the projected debris path of 'Shi no hakobi-te', I replied, shaking my head. Kenjo-san's 'Bringer Of Death'.
Can't the others help you? Tarnaa desperately inquired. The Mastersmith…
Doesn't have the necessary grasp of the deflector technology, I muttered, tears falling from my face as I hurried to desperately assemble the one chance Robinton Cove had of surviving the coming disaster. In the end, this might not be enough to save Pern from what's coming.
One thing was certain. We had to hurry and get the three colony ships repositioned. Pern's survival depended on it!
Once I had finished my work on the hospital deflectors, I activated one special component. Then, making use of my ability to go between, I popped outside to the roof where Tarnaa was anxiously waiting for me.
"Landing, my heart, hurry!" I urged her, Goldie just reaching me in time to wrap her tail about my neck and huddle close before the three of us were airborne, vanishing between after barely gaining wing room.
Putting out a mental call to all the weyrleaders and weyrwomen, I hastily convened an emergency meeting in the main AIVAS room where everyone could see the results of AIVAS' analysis of Kenjo's mural.
"'Bringer Of Death, huh?'" G'dened snorted, visibly shaken after seeing the analysis results. "You're positive about this, Dana?"
Grimly, I nodded. "That's why I summoned you all here. I'll need your combined aid to reposition the colony ships Bahrain and Buenos Aires as quickly as possible so we can more accurately track the inbound path of the asteroid…"
"And its meteoric heralds," Lessa hissed, clenching and unclenching her fists.
"But how can we possibly move the Ancients' vessels?!" Darla wondered, having accompanied her Weyrleader to the meeting since his weyrmate was down with a nasty case of the flu.
"The same way we moved the power cores," F'lar concluded, squarely meeting my gaze. "That's what you have in mind, isn't it?"
I nodded. "If that effort proves successful, it might also give us hope for how we can ultimately deal with the planet killer."
For several seconds, there was nothing but silence… until N'ton broke the moment by pounding his fist on the table. "We shift the damned asteroid!"
"A possibility, Weyrleader," AIVAS responded, surprising everyone. "As your dragons have already demonstrated that they can move whatever they believe they can, no matter the considerable mass of the objects in question, it is conceivable that the combined efforts of every dragon on Pern could do precisely that…"
"By shifting 'Shi no hakobi-te' to the far side of Pern," I concluded, "on a trajectory away from the planet."
"But what good would that do us if the damned thing comes back again?!" Kara groaned, already picturing the destruction the Eastern Islands holds and weyr would endure.
"I wasn't yet on Pern when you and the other dragons and riders," I explained, tapping the display for emphasis, "used the explosive power of the three colony ships' anti-matter power cores to alter the trajectory of the Red Star."
"But we don't have any more of them!" T'bor argued, glancing around the room.
"True enough," I agreed, nodding, "but there is more than one way to nudge that asteroid."
"How?" Pilgra wondered.
It was F'lessan who came up with the answer.
"Our dragons!" he exclaimed, leaping to his feet. "By the First Egg!"
F'nor was the next on his feet. "I get it! This… asteroid… is nowhere near as big as the Red Star!"
"Get to the point!" Lessa cursed.
"TK!" F'lessan enthusiastically replied, grinning over at Tai. "The dragons can give that asteroid a kick in the ass with their mind power… their telekinesis!"
"It doesn't have to be a lot," Tai responded, grinning as she came and stood by her weyrmate. "Just enough to alter its trajectory so that it never threatens Pern again!"
Seems she had been putting her studies of astronomy and astrophysics to good use after all!
"And, even better, F'lessan," I added, grinning at him.
Eyes flying wide, tears of joy welling in them, he whispered, "Golanth can help us!"
"But he can't fly!" Lessa argued.
"In space, he can!" Lessa's only child argued, giving Tai a bone-creaking hug.
I can help?! he soundlessly spluttered, incredulous. To save Pern?!
"Damn straight you can!" F'lessan cheered, pumping his fist in the air.
"We must move with all due haste, dragon riders," AIVAS intoned, bringing the focus back to the problem at hand. "The sooner we can accomplish this task, the sooner we can begin to analyze the trajectory of the asteroid, the meteor field preceding it…"
"And determine the final trajectory necessary to prevent the damned thing from ever threatening Pern again!" Tai grimly declared, fierce determination shining from her face as she looked at F'lessan.
The first difficulty to overcome was determining when we could actually gather together the necessary dragons and riders to perform the colony ship transfers. According to AIVAS' Threadfall scans, there was a period three days hence during a lull in the Falls where we could attempt to pull off this miracle.
In the days leading up to it, the healer-riders from Robinton Cove made numerous trips up and down to the Yokohama retrieving the protective gloves the dragons had used during the power core extractions.
"Aah, some of these are in bad shape," Berd Sheerbro, one of the holders who helped maintain Robinton Cove, declared as he examined the retrieved gloves. "Not to worry, though. We've got techs who know enough about the materials to do a proper repair job."
"Will they be ready in time?" I asked.
"Count on it!" he declared, thumping me soundly on the back.
"Good man!" I responded, pounding him back. "Get on it!"
"You know," he mused, turning to me, "this could actually prove beneficial to the dragonriders."
"How so?" I wondered.
"Well, F'lar's been talking incessantly about exploring space," Berd remarked, looking out across the gathered dragons. "What if the dragons didn't need to be exposed to space in order to move the vessel?"
"Go on," I prodded, my curiosity piqued.
"Well, couldn't the ships be modified to provide the dragons pressurized compartments placed strategically around the vessel?" Berd suggested, pointing skyward. "That way, they wouldn't be subject to the harshness of space or the rigors of oxygen deprivation and could still work together to shift the vessel wherever the dragonriders wanted to go!"
"I see!" I remarked, smiling and giving the holder a thump on the shoulder. "Using the dragons' innate ability to teleport in order to traverse the vastness of space while keeping them shielded from harm."
"An intriguing idea, Holder Berd," F'lar himself remarked, grinning broadly as he came over. "You're our resident star voyager, Dana. Would something like that work?"
"We'll know once the dragons have successfully repositioned the Buenos Aires and the Bahrain," I replied, grinning. "If they can achieve that, then what Berd is suggesting is entirely feasible."
"First, however, we need to survive this latest assault on our world," Tai cut in, F'lessan beside her. "And for that, we need functional vessels to work from."
"Master Fandarel?" I asked, turning to the burly Smith.
"We just finished up the last of the repairs aboard the three ships," he reported, grinning broadly. "I and the rest were keen not to disappoint you, Dana."
"All of Pern is in your debt, Mastersmith," I said, nodding to him.
"It has given me a deeper appreciation of everything the dragonriders of Pern have had to endure to protect our home," he commented, rubbing his chin. "We must succeed in this endeavor if Pern is to survive."
"Are the wings ready, Weyrleader?" I asked F'lar.
Chuckling, he replied, "Chomping at the bit!"
"Holder Berd, how long until the dragon gloves are ready?" I asked.
"Half a day, tops," he assured us, shaking one of them in his hand. "We'll be ready at dawn."
"Then let's put that waiting time to good use," I directed.
The spacesuits the dragonriders had used during the Red Star effort were brought out of storage, Jaxom and I suiting up in the more advanced models I had brought with me on the Quester. Then, with Jaxom and I as guides, we took the besuited riders and their dragons up to the orbiting ships, giving each and every dragon and rider pair a few minutes floating in space to familiarize themselves with where they would need to go when the time came to actually move the Bahrain and the Buenos Aires.
Bright and early the next morning, Berd and his team had successfully completed the necessary repairs on the dragon protective gauntlets. Once Jaxom and I had made the rounds of every dragon and rider pair to be certain everyone was properly prepared, Jaxom boarded Ruth while I boarded Tarnaa.
"Let's do this!" I shouted, pumping my fist in the air once I had clipped myself into Tarnaa's harness.
As one, every dragon leapt skyward, forming into their assigned wings. With one final check to be certain everyone was ready, I circled my begloved hand over my head then brought it down in a rapid cutting motion. The skies above Robinton Cove instantly emptied of dragons!
A few heartbeats later, everyone appeared above the superstructure of the Bahrain, each dragon and rider pair seizing the structure's crossbeams at their assigned positions.
Give them the coordinates, my heart, I silently instructed my dragon.
Once every rider gave me a thumbs up that they had received the coordinates, I once more circled my hand over my head and brought it down in a cutting motion.
Blackness enveloped us, the cold of between just as biting as ever. Seconds later, the dragons and riders involved in the shifting effort rematerialized above Pern, the massive Bahrain miraculously in tow, only now it was positioned in a stable geosynchronous orbit directly over the waters between Southern Boll Hold to the north and Southern Hold to the south!
There was no sound in space, but I could tell by the fervent hand gestures of the riders spread across the Bahrain's superstructure that they were jubilant at the success of our efforts… so far.
"Shifting team… report!" Piemur urgently radioed.
"First shifting complete, Control!" I radioed back, confirming the Bahrain's new position on my wrist computer. "Placement is spot on target!"
"By the First Egg!" Piemur whispered, his hands trembling on the mike button. "And Golanth?"
I could see F'lessan vigorously pounding the neck of his dragon as I reported, "If not for the vacuum of space, you'd probably be able to hear his bellow of triumph all the way back on Pern!"
Flashing my suit's worklights to get everyone's attention, I directed Tarnaa to have everyone move now to the Buenos Aires. First came the blackness of between. With heart-stirring precision, each and every dragon and rider pair materialized at their designated station on the superstructure of the Buenos Aires.
Once everyone had given me a thumbs-up that they were ready, I silently told my dragon, Let's do this, my heart.
Tarnaa passed on the new coordinates for the Buenos Aires. Circling my hand over my head, I dropped it in a cutting motion, and the space where the Buenos Aires had been was suddenly empty. A few heartbeats later, the vessel, the dragons, and their riders collectively appeared over the Western Ring Islands, firmly established at the proper geosynchronous altitude, speed, and direction!
"Whoo hoo!" I jubilantly radioed to Piemur back at Landing as I rechecked the Buenos Aires' position on my wrist computer. "Two for two! Spot on target!"
"Next time, warn me before you try to blow out my ears!" Piemur complained.
Crossing my arms in front of me… the signal that we had completed our task… I pointed vigorously downward then gave everyone an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Dragons and riders waved back, showing their excitement and enthusiasm for a mission well accomplished before vanishing from sight.
Just one last thing to take care of, my heart, I silently told my dragon before giving her visual coordinates for the Buenos Aires docking bay.
We made three stops in total, one on each of the colony ships before Tarnaa and I finally returned to Robinton Cove.
"Why didn't you return with the others?" Ryeena demanded as I slid down Tarnaa's side and removed my helmet.
"Had to set up the quipics," I explained, stripping out of my suit before removing Tarnaa's harness. "Thanks, love! I'll see you at the beach in a little bit!"
Tarnaa was instantly airborne, winging away towards the nearby surf.
"What the hell are qui… qui…" Ryeena stammered, the word unfamiliar to her.
"Quipics," I replied, picking up my gear and heading for the hospital. "It's actually an acronym… Q.E.P.C.. It stands for quantum energy power coupling."
"You lost me," she complained, holding open the hospital door.
"Basically, it's a device that makes use of the fiddling peculiarities of quantum physics and quantum entanglement," I explained as I made my way up to my office, "allowing energy pumped into one Q.E.P.C. device to be transmitted back and forth to a similar device at a different location without the need for heavy cabling, broadcast microwaves or laser energy."
"What's this have to do with repositioning the three colony ships?" Ryeena asked as I set my suit and gear on a table behind my desk in my office.
In the next breath, she gasped, eyes growing enormous in her startled face. "You stopped at all three ships, didn't you?"
I nodded, my smile growing.
"If these… quipics as you call them," she continued on, her expression revealing her growing excitement, "do what you say, then with all three ships coupled with these devices…"
"They can all receive power from the solar arrays," I finished for her, grinning myself, "even when they're on the night side of Pern! I stumbled across the damned things while going over the manifest logs I had AIVAS pull from each ship."
"Now the three ships will have a stable power supply," Ryeena cheered, giving me a hug around the neck, "no matter where they are in orbit!"
What I didn't tell Ryeena was that it also gave me a means to power the hospital's deflectors without having to resort to using the power the hospital might need in an emergency. Given the results of AIVAS analysis of Kenjo-san's mural, Robinton Cove was going to need them… and soon!