Authors Note: The following chapter includes a huge scene featured in The Skies of Pern. If you have not read that book, please be warned that there are a lot of spoilers here. Also please note that this chapter pulls heavily from cannon - any plagiarism is completely unintentional, and I did my damnedest to avoid it at all costs, but since I'm basically rewriting a scene from the book to include characters from my story there are a lot of similarities in some areas. Please don't haunt me Anne McCaffrey.


It felt like Kayta had just fallen asleep when rough hands shook N'kar, startling her awake. She clutched the sleeping furs to her chest and looked up to find D'rean standing over them. "What is it?"

The bluerider spared her a brief glance before turning back to the Weyrleader. "There's a bright star in the sky."

"There's always bright stars in the sky." N'kar mumbled, rolling over and attempting to pull Kayta down next to him. "Go away."

"Not like this there isn't."

"Maybe it's the ghosts."

"No. I mean there's others, but this one is big. And it's getting brighter and bigger."

"It's probably just a comet."

Kayta was tempted to lay back down and cuddle up with the brownrider once more, but something in D'rean's face made her sit up. "Go with him."

"Fine." He finally rolled out of bed, grumbling as he did so. The intelligible complaining continued as he pulled on a pair of discarded pants and stumble followed his friend out of the weyr.

For a moment, the queenrider contemplated taking his newly vacated spot, but that glimpse of fear in the bluerider's eyes still shook her. D'rean might be a clown, but he was not the sort of rider who was easily shaken by things. She slipped out from underneath the sleeping rug as well and found a clean shift to change into, leaving the empty bed to Dolp. The blue firelizard stretched out, oblivious to any danger that might be lurking in the skies above.

Outside, nearly the whole Weyr had gathered in the weyrbowl. Most were either half naked or in their bedclothes like she and N'kar, but some where still dressed… they had probably been drinking in the dining caverns when the cry of alarm had gone out. As one they stood watching as a bright streak of light raced across the evening sky. Larger than any star, but still smaller than the moon, it radiated menace much like the Red Star. As she watched, sparks broke off of it, fading as quickly as they had started much like the Turnover Ghosts did. "What is it?"

"A comet." N'kar replied, pulling her close against him. She shifted so she could lean back against his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her middle. "The smaller pieces are debris burning in the atmosphere. It's beautiful to watch, but nothing to worry about."

"Comets," R'nahl interrupted. "Don't grow brighter and larger this quickly. Did you remember your AVIAS training? They can take days, sometimes even weeks, to reach their peak before fading."

The brownrider glared at the other man. "No," He conceded. "They don't." He glanced back at the sky and frowned, watching as the light show above grew brighter and it's position shifted gradually.

Kayta looked up at him, studying his profile. As much as she might enjoy stargazing in his embrace, she could see that several of the mainland riders who she knew had studied under AVIAS were getting nervous. While N'kar might insist that there was no danger, like R'nahl they seemed to sense that something was wrong. "Maybe you should go to Landing. They might know more there."

He sighed at that. "Good point. R'nahl, N'bel, get your wherhide." He kissed her on the top of her head. "Go back to bed."

"As if I could with that thing hanging above us." She snorted. From the looks of things, she wasn't the only one who was troubled - the fear from the mainlanders had spread to the islanders. She doubted that any of them would be sleeping tonight. Thankfully there was always klah on the night hearth, and she was sure that Berjoui would have the other lower caverns folk up and hard at work on a second round of pastries since it didn't look like anyone was going back to sleep any time soon. She gave N'kar's arm a squeeze. "Fly safe."


Landing was in a state of bedlam.

Fairs of firelizards swooped through the air, their trills echoing through the packed streets. Dragons searched for landing spots – some of their riders resorting to sliding off their great necks and onto roofs in a desperate attempt to reach the ground. Meanwhile people from the holds and halls pressed towards the administration building, shouting for information while guards protected the entrances from unauthorized intrusions.

And high in the sky above, the comet had now turned into a fireball. It loomed over everything, growing larger by the moment, casting weird double shadows on the ground with its odd light.

N'kar directed Elanth to land in a field not too far away from Landing. While time was of the essence, he wasn't about to risk others by dropping onto their heads. R'nahl and N'bel followed suit, and N'kar led them into the maze of streets and avenues that had sprung up around the original Landing over the Turns.

It took some shouting and a lot of pulling rank, but eventually they were able to reach the Hall that housed AVIAS. They slipped in behind F'lessan and followed him into one of the computer rooms. Inside, a number of peopled crowded around the work stations, studying the monitors in front of them. A display on the back wall held a number of data columns, the writing inside of each changing rapidly as the seconds passed away.

"What does PHO stand for?" N'kar asked quietly. While he had been one of the dragonriders to assist in AVIAS's great plan to destroy thread once and for all, he had never taken to technology like the others aside from the more useful objects like binoculars, wrist watches, and books.

R'nahl was at just as much of a loss as he was. "Possible Hazardous Object maybe?"

They studied the screen struggling to make sense of what it all meant; Latitude, longitude, velocity and distance were easy enough. Atmosphere break up and Impact Error were also simple to figure out. Estimated Time to Perigee baffled them though. As they watched, it ticked over to 5800.

When had that timer started counting down and what was it counting down to? N'kar had been so sure that it was just a comet and not an actual threat, but clearly he was wrong.

F'lessan stood near one of Wansor's assistants, intent on a video being transmitted by the starships above. The picture showed a small image of the fireball, surrounded by its cloud of dust. More number heavy data flashed across another screen while a third displayed pictures of space, clearly searching for the source of the asteroid.

"What's it doing?" One man asked another.

"It's searching for any old images of the comet. It is possible, that the comet originated in the Oort cloud." His grin was forced. "It might have even been spotted by the Ancestors at some point."

"Really?"

"Yes." He pointed at the screen running the search. "The material we're seeing was released from the comet two or three weeks ago." he added, but whatever he was about to add was forgotten. He tensed, leaning slightly forward as the data on the second screen shifted.

"That's not good." R'nahl murmured, and N'kar shook his head in agreement. The Estimated Time to Perigee was rapidly decreasing.

"Where will it hit?" F'lessan asked.

"We still don't know that it will," The second man whispered.

"There's a three-hundred-kilometer range error," The first added.

"Where?"

"Near the farther Eastern Island Ring."

"On the islands themselves, or the sea?"

The second took a device from his pocket and punched something. A small window opened in the corner of one screen showing the Eastern Sea as it must be seen from

Yoko, and the scattered islands of both Eastern Rings. A wide circle was superimposed over the upper islands. "Looks like the islands."

Next to N'kar, N'bel breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing even as the Probability Impact percentage continued to climb and the circle narrowed over the islands. As far as anyone knew they were uninhabited, and far away from both the North, Southern, and their own island to be a problem.

The first assistant stiffened though, "I don't like that."

"Why?"

"Those islands are volcanic. An impact on one might trigger eruptions all along the chain."

"Maybe it'll land in the sea," The second laughed nervously.

"That could cause other problems."

F'lessan inhaled sharply and N'kar watched N'bel pale as he processed what they were implying. "Tidal waves. We'll need to evacuate."

R'nahl frowned at that. "But we're sheltered by the other islands. And what about the reef?"

"It's not enough. Even if it doesn't hit us directly, we'll still flood. Our beach is too flat. All of our beaches are too flat."

"It could still just graze us," One of the assistants murmured in a tone that N'kar supposed was meant to be reassuring.

"It's only got a few minutes to change course," F'lessan said. Judging from the numbers scrolling by on the screen, the odds of that happening were growing slimmer by the second.

The assistant glanced at him and at N'kar and the other riders behind him. "The Benden Weyrleaders are in the conference room with Master Wansor."

"I'd rather be in here and know the worst," F'lessan replied.

Meanwhile the Impact Probability, had eased into 60 percent. As N'kar watched, it jumped to 100 percent.

"There's still a possibility of the grazing impact," The man hastened to reassure them yet again, "Can we adjust the visuals?"

Just as he had requested, the video shifted and now showed the fireball at maximum magnification. Now it looked more like a long rock with geysers blowing steam into space as if it were a tuber that had been kept on the hearth too long. Chunks broke off as they watched drifting slowly away despite the great speed that the comet was traveling at.

"It'll miss…" The second man whispered as if he could will it into being. "Just a few more degrees..."

The video grew brighter and brighter until N'kar had to look away or else be blinded by the screen. The data on the other workstation had changed and now read 20 seconds to entry and 40 seconds to impact.

"Forty seconds couldn't have elapsed already," F'lessan spoke as the screen went totally white.

No one replied. The sudden silence was broken only by the printers churning out papers covered in stark black and white writing that fell unnoticed into baskets.

Despite the blinding light coming from the video, N'kar could see that it had indeed hit Pern. The workstation running the search for the comet's origins had switched over and now displayed a radar image showing a rough outline of the Eastern Islands and a series of rings spreading out from the impact site.

Thankfully, it appeared to have struck the ocean just as one of Wansor's assistants had predicted. His eyes were drawn back to the video of the crash as the blazing bright light finally dimmed. A tall tower of water had spewed into the air along with chunks of rock from the seabed below. They fell back into the ocean as a wave, a dark circle of water, raced outward, faster than the steam rising from the crash site.

Some of the Islands near the crash site were burning – great plums of smoke joining the steam clouds in the atmosphere, but his eyes remained fixed on that wave as he recalled what N'bel had said. Their beach was flat. How much of the Weyr would be destroyed by that all that water?

"We were very, very lucky," someone spoke finally. "It didn't hit any land."

F'lessan's tone was grim as he pointed to the map. "No, we weren't. These two islands are on fire, and there will be sea pouring through that gap between them. It'll circle out, spreading, and come down the southern coastline in a wall of water-"

"A tsunami!" Another voice whispered. N'kar turned to find another female greenrider standing with T'gellan and Mirrim at the back of the room. He had been so caught up in the chaos of everything that he hadn't even noticed them arriving.

"That's what a tsunami does to anything caught in it's way." F'lessan continued. R'nahl and N'bel gasped, drawing N'kar's attention back to the video of the crash site. The dark wave had hit the islands, dousing the fire and completely covering them in water until nothing was left. It faded just as quickly as it came, taking any loose vegetation and some of the trees with it.

N'kar sucked in a deep breath as he realized his silent question from moments before had been answered.

Nothing would be left of the Weyr.

Nothing.