Chapter 22: Artifacts, Reminiscence, and Discovery
A half-mile north of Spath's Weyr, June 11, 2032...
Joddy/Solionth were flying with his wingman, Vash/Spamalth, about a half-mile north of Spath's Weyr. It was their boring, weekly duty to keep an eye on the local residents in case of trouble and to try to spot Threadfall if it started outside of the predicted time and place. It was important, but sometimes Joddy felt it was just make-work. He didn't mind too much, though. He and Vash got along well and they both loved to fly.
Suddenly Joddy saw what appeared to be a bright reflection of light below them. He asked Solionth to pass the image he had seen over to Vash to find out if his wingman had seen the same thing … he hadn't.
'It is something different, though,' said Vash. 'I think we should go around and try to see if it repeats.'
'It is within our orders to observe and report,' replied Joddy. 'Alright, Solionth, would you circle around to where we were when I noticed the light, please?'
'We are almost there already, my rider,' said Solionth. 'I thought you would want to take another look and I was curious because I didn't see anything.'
'If you can, look through my eyes as well as your own. It might only be visible to me.'
As they leveled out over the same area Vash, looking through his dragon's eyes, said, 'There is a small stone building down there, but it doesn't appear that anyone is outside.'
"THERE!" yelled Jody, excitedly, as he again saw the bright flash.
'That is odd,' said Solionth. 'I saw it through your eyes, but not mine.'
'Land us as close as you can to the area where the flash occurred, please, Solionth. I want to find out what it is. Vash, please stay up here and keep an eye on us in case something goes wrong, so you can report it.'
Once they landed, Joddy couldn't see anything. Now, instead of him leading Solionth to the object, Solionth, looking through his eyes, led him to it. They both looked at the bushes as carefully as they could, through many different frequencies, and determined there was no other life present. The bushes were just that, bushes. They were not any of the deadly flora of Pern.
After 30 minutes of careful observation, Joddy carefully, with minor direction adjustments from Solionth, started moving closer. He didn't understand why he could see it when airborne and not while on the ground. For that matter, the bushes formed a solid cover over where the object apparently was located. He shouldn't have been able to see anything at all.
Finally, Solionth told him the object was right in front of him. 'Vash, I think we had better ask The Weyrleader to come to look at this.'
'Weyrleader, we have found something odd on our rounds. Jody thinks you need to see it.'
'Very well, I need to get away from the Weyr for a while anyway. Please send a jump image to Chekiath and we will be right there.'
Gingerly, Joddy reached out to try to touch his elusive quarry. Once he touched it, he could see it. Nestled inside the loose clump of bushes was what appeared to be an oddly shaped bowl of water. It appeared to glow with some form of magic he was unfamiliar with. What neither he nor Solionth, since they were both 'seeing' with Joddy's eyes, could see was that he seemed to flicker in and out of visibility when he touched the artifact.
'Joddy, where are you! I can see Solionth, but you aren't visible!'
Solionth, startled by the 'yell' from Vash, snapped his eyes open and couldn't see Joddy either. He started to panic until he thought to look through his partner's eyes again and then saw what Joddy saw.
'Joddy, please come back closer to me,' said Solionth anxiously.
As soon as Joddy removed his hand from the object, he became fully visible again, but he could still see the object.
'Where did you go!?' asked Vash, excitedly. 'I can see you now, but you just disappeared for a minute!'
'I have not gone anywhere,' said Joddy. 'I just touched the cube.'
When Harry arrived, heard their report, and 'saw' the object through Joddy's eyes, he sent for Ronan and a team of engineers. Harry slowly advanced on the area Joddy assured him contained the odd relic and eventually made contact with it. As he touched it, he was also able to see it. It looked almost like it was composed of liquid mercury, somehow held in the unnatural state of being solid at normal temperatures. It was highly reflective of the area around it and Harry could actually see his reflection on the surface.
Harry pressed his hand down a little harder on the object, and his hand slowly seemed to sink into it, with no change in sensation of his hand. It was almost as if his hand was simply moving through the clear air.
'Can you see it too, Cheki?" Harry asked.
'I can see it through your eyes,' replied a very puzzled Cheki, 'but I cannot see it with my own.'
'Reach out and see if you can touch it, as well.'
Cheki delicately reached one of his five retractable claws on his left front paw closer to where Harry's hand was evidently in contact with something. As Cheki's claw made contact, suddenly he could also see the object.
'Cheki, when you touched it, I seemed to see some kind of image, but it's gone now. Did you see anything?'
'I thought I saw something, but it's gone now.'
"Joddy, would you come over here and touch this again, please"
Joddy came over and placed his hand on the odd bowl and suddenly, they all saw a vague, out-of-focus image in the air above the block.
'Solionth, would you please join us as well,' asked Harry.
When Solionth touched the block the image sharpened enough to see it was a representation of Pern as seen from orbit, but it was hard to make out exactly where or from what height. It seemed at once that it was from a height great enough that they could make out the entire globe, yet it was close enough they could make out a great deal of fine detail, at least in the area where they were currently standing. In fact, a tiny light, barely a pixel on a monitor, appeared at a location that appeared on the image to correspond to where they were standing.
Since Harry's hand already seemed to be below the surface of the block, he decided to push in a little further. As he did so, they could make out tiny, dull gleams in additional places around the globe, but everything was very fuzzy and out of focus except where they were.
"Vash, would you join us as well, please?" asked Harry.
When Vash, and later Spamalth added their touch to the block, it didn't seem to make any difference in the display. Finally, after Harry found he couldn't push his hand in any further, they all drew back, away from the block, and broke contact with it. Harry, Cheki, Joddy, and Solionth could still see the block and, if they came close enough, could see the globe hovering above it, but no one else could see it unless they were touching it.
When the engineers arrived, they erected a safety fence around it and proceeded to examine the artifact carefully, though it was awkward trying to study something while one hand maintained contact in order to even see it.
"Joddy, Vash, I have a new mission for you. You saw the other lights on the globe. I want you to try to see if you can find any other devices like this in those corresponding locations on the planet. There appeared to be 10 of them, equally spaced around the planet, all at the same distance from the Equator.
"Joddy, contact your Wing Leader and arrange for someone else to continue your patrol here for the indefinite future. I want to find out what this is."
Spath's Weyr, RTL, June 15, 2032...
"As near as we can determine," said Ronan, "It is invisible until touched. While being touched, it stays visible, but in an ethereal sort of way, almost as if part or most of it isn't even here. It appears that the odd conjunction of house-elf vision at a higher than normal altitude was the only thing that allowed Joddy to initially see the artifact. I've seen a pensieve memory of the sighting, but until I actually touched it, I still couldn't see it. Everyone who touches it seems to disappear for a moment and then slowly fades back into view. The person touching the block at the time doesn't notice anything odd happening. Once they break contact, it becomes invisible again, except you, Joddy, and your dragons can now see it, even when not in contact.
"Nothing physical or magical seems to affect it. We've tried to cut off a small piece for analysis but couldn't. We tried taking X-rays, cutting it with focused dragon fire, even using gamma rays on it, nothing seems to have any effect. We put up a low fence around it, not to protect the artifact, but so we can find the darn thing again if someone new needs to find it. It's all very frustrating. Even Sir Scott is at a loss as to what it may be or why it's where it is."
"Thanks, Ronan," said Harry. "Keep it in mind if you think of any other experiment to perform on it, but try not to let it annoy you too much. I'm sure we will eventually learn more about it."
Spath's Weyr, the edge of the Hatching Grounds, July 12, 2032...
Harry had decided to vary his routine more, so here he was on the Hatching Grounds watching a few of the older and many of the newer Dragonriders training. From the looks of the markings on the coveralls, there were even a few Aurors mixed in with the bunch. It was really amazing to see a house-elf, Joddy, throwing men more than twice his size around as if they were toys.
He started reminiscing about his first introduction to hand-to-hand combat.
Campbeltown Weyr, Mar 24, 1995...
Captain Atkins had found him in his office studying muggle physics and dragged him to the dining hall in hangar 3, where she had a large area covered in exercise mats. She spent a frustrating hour just trying to teach him how to fall.
"But I already know how to fall!" groused Harry. "This is just a waste of time!"
"You really think so?" asked Katherine, giving Harry a look that should have warned him not to challenge her. By now they had quite an audience.
"I really think so," replied Harry, with the assurance of youth and inexperience.
"OK, I'm just going to stand here with my back to you and I want you to run up and put me in a chokehold."
"I don't want to hurt you," said Harry, worriedly. "I've put on a lot of muscle since I've been taking care of Cheki and I outweigh you … a lot."
"Let me worry about that," said Katherine. "Tell you what, if I hurt you, you will start treating this seriously. If you hurt me, I will acknowledge that you might know something and I will leave you alone." Harry tried to get out of the bet but eventually gave in, reluctantly.
Katherine walked off a few paces and stopped. Harry ran for her and started to put her in as loose a chokehold as he thought he could get away with. The next thing he knew, he was on his back on the far side of the mat with no idea how he got there … and he felt like he had been dropped on his back from a ten-story building!
"Ouch!" exclaimed Harry as he painfully regained his feet. "What happened?"
"What happened is I showed you why you need to learn to fall. Are you going to start taking this seriously now? One of these days, you and I will be fighting for real, neither of us holding back and I want you to know how to protect yourself. Are you OK, or do you want to rest up and start again tomorrow?"
"Just let me get my breath back for a minute, please. I want to learn what you did."
"Hey, Captain, want to show him what it looks like when two professionals spar?" asked one of the Army guards just off guard duty.
"Sure, Sarge. You sure you aren't too old for this?"
"I'll do my best not to bend you in two," said the man who was obviously twice as big as she was and heavily muscled as well."
The two combatants squared off against each other and what followed was almost too fast for the Dragonriders to follow, but in the 20 minutes it lasted, the sounds of one body or another hitting the mats was almost non-stop. Harry was sure they were really trying to kill each other. Finally, Captain Atkins got the Sergeant down on the mat and in a hold he couldn't break. He slapped the palm of his hand on the mat twice and they broke apart, stood, and shook hands.
"Good effort, Sarge. Keep up with your training and you might just manage to turn the tables on me one of these days."
"It sure won't be any time soon, ma'am. Thanks for the match. If you're going to be training the kiddies, maybe a few of us should show up and train as well."
"That might be helpful, Sarge. I look forward to next time."
Spath's Weyr, the edge of the Hatching Grounds, July 12, 2032...
The slap of a body hitting the mats followed by a loud groan brought his attention back to what was happening now. Joddy had just thrown one of the larger of the newest class of Dragonriders across the mat, much like he had been thrown that day. He smiled as he remembered a few other times during his training. He was a novice to hand-to-hand combat, but evidently, he was a fast study. Within six months he had finally managed to throw Captain Atkins.
Of course, that was when she had pulled off the silk gloves and shown him the steel underneath. In all, she taught him the rudiments of everything she knew for the next two years of sporadic classes. When he got good enough that she started having trouble teaching him anything she started bringing in 'ringers', Black belts in various different styles of fighting.
Campbeltown Weyr, Dining Hall 'Mats', June 10, 1997...
Spath had only passed on three weeks ago, but Captain Atkins refused to allow Harry to relax his training. They had been sparring for about half an hour when an older Asian gentleman came onto the mats and waited for them to notice him. When they did, Captain Atkins did something really odd. She turned to the old man, bowed, and said, "Sensai."
The old man returned the bow and asked, "Is this the student?"
"He is, Sensai."
"Then let me see if I can teach him anything more."
Moments later, Harry was again on his back across the mats from where he'd started. This time, he knew how to fall and got up immediately.
Spath's Weyr, the edge of the Hatching Grounds, July 12, 2032...
Another body hitting the mat, this time Joddy being the one climbing to his feet. Looks like they were having a good workout. Not quite like his, though. He had gone through a good dozen different 'guest instructors' in the next half dozen years and earned top-level black belts in them all. Now, if he sparred, he insisted that any opponent wear a full flight suit with extra cushioning charms, no matter how good they thought they were. Katherine no longer sparred with him but did use him to teach some of her security personnel when they thought they knew it all.
Harry, knowing there was no one comparable to spar with, had taken up a form of Tai Chi which keep his body fit and limber and allowed him to keep the body memory of the proper moves.
Approximately 400 miles west of Spath's Weyr, Aug 5, 2032...
Hagrid had found a large lake about 400 miles west of Spath's Weyr that held a considerable number of grabbers that were small enough for him to be able to handle and large enough to make a dragon interested in eating them. He had been going there for some time but hadn't had a chance to visit for several months. As he was approaching the eastern end of the lake on Selanth, he noticed a flash of light where there hadn't been any before. Selanth didn't see anything until he had her look through his eyes and then she saw it.
Hagrid eventually found what had caused the reflection. 'Selanth, please ask Harry t' come out here. I think we've found another one o' Harry's mysterious artifacts.'
When Harry and Joddy arrived, they found an artifact that looked like a relief carving of a river valley, evidently made of the same highly reflective material the first was constructed from. When all six of them were touching the artifact, they found the map cleared up even more and now there were two bright spots corresponding to the two artifacts they'd found so far.
"Joddy, the lake to the west of here looks oddly like the artifact you found," mused Harry.
"It does," said the self-assured house-elf. "Could that mean anything?"
"Only discovering more artifacts will tell us that," said Harry, thoughtfully.
Ronan sent out a group to erect a fence around the new artifact. They conducted enough tests to verify that it reacted the same way as the initial artifact. So far, the only common fact in the discoveries was that a dragon had been involved along with their rider.
Spath's Weyr, The Weyrleaders Inner Office...
"Ronan, I want you to get together with Lee Jordan and create as accurate a map as you can indicating where the two artifacts are located and where, as close as possible, we think there may be more," said Harry. "List everything we've found out about each of them so far and who initially found the artifact. Maybe we can generate enough interest that others will be able to help us find the rest."
"Sure thing, Harry. I wonder what the point of all this is though and who could have put them in place."
"Maybe we will find out if we can find the rest."
They had a bona fide mystery on their hands. Soon after the map and information was published on their network, groups of curious treasure hunters started searching to try to find more artifacts. Even though the information clearly stated that the artifacts didn't seem to be able to be moved, most of those hunting thought they would be able to retrieve one and sell it for a lot of money.
Later...
Harry thought to add a cash reward for anyone finding any new artifacts and proving, with a pensieve memory display, how and where they'd found it. As he was thinking of an appropriate reward, he started thinking back to about seven months after his 'marriage' to his wives. He had just finished the final grand training in Yokosuka against all his hand-to-hand instructors at once …
Yokosuka, Japan, July 5, 2003...
Harry was a little sore, but feeling exhilarated. He had just come from an exhibition match, him against all his former trainers and instructors at once. They must have thought he had eyes in the back of his head from the way he had managed to escape many of the attacks from behind while engaged with others in front. In truth, Chekiath had helped a lot. He had been perched on the wall outside the gymnasium where the exhibition took place looking in through a large window there. Every time someone looked like they were going to get the better of him from behind, Cheki had let him know. After a while, he and Cheki had made a game of it, seeing if Harry could duck out of the way at the last minute and get one of his attackers to hit one of his other attackers.
After his initial frustration and alarm at Harry being in a fight with so many opponents, Cheki had actually started to enjoy the match. Now, Harry had availed himself of the hot showers in the gym and was going to just walk for a while to see how this city was different from other cities he had visited. His two wives had been in the audience and had let him know they were very proud of him. They were waiting in their hotel room for his return but knew he was going to explore for a little bit first.
As he walked along, he was passing what looked like a very narrow side street, it being way too clean to call an alley when he heard a faint scream come from at least a block away. Turning into what obviously must be an alley, from the small nondescript doors that opened onto it, he hurried to find out what was going on while Cheki flew on ahead to get a 'bird's eye view'.
'They have a girl cornered at the end, Harry, hurry.'
'Almost there, Cheki. Stay invisible, but try to distract them for a few seconds.'
'Will a dragon fart do?'
'I want you to distract them, not kill them!'
'You're no fun. I will flap my wings and generate a quick wind through the alley, then.'
The wind Cheki generated caused those closest to the girl to step back and rub the grit from their eyes and also gave Harry enough time to arrive at the back of their group.
"I don't think you really want to do that, gentlemen," said Harry in a loud voice as a way of attracting their attention. As he talked, he was casting cushioning and protection charms on himself. He wasn't close enough to the girl to do so for her yet.
Everyone turned to look at the new intruder who was attempting to intrude on their fun. Those at the back of the group flinched so much they almost fell when they jerked around.
"And just who are you?" asked the gang leader from the far side of the group, nearest the girl.
"Just a concerned citizen of the world who thinks you probably have better things to do than terrorize young, defenseless girls."
"Well, concerned citizen, it appears you have decided to take her place as our first entertainment for the night. She can go second."
"Such strong men as yourselves shouldn't be terrorizing anyone, you should be helping others who are less strong."
"And who is going to stop us?"
"I will, if I have to, but I don't really want to hurt any of you."
"Yeah? You and what army?" said the leader, looking warily past Harry. "We are the Dragons. Everyone knows not to mess with us!"
"Just me."
"Get him!" yelled the leader, savagely.
Within the first three seconds of the rout, it couldn't really be called a battle, Harry had knocked out cold three of his ten opponents. They were all armed with knives or broken-off chair legs. The leader even had a short length of pipe he was wielding.
After seeing three of their members defeated so easily, the rest became more wary, which made it a lot easier on Harry. As he fought, he was steadily moving towards the girl so he could surreptitiously cast some protection charms on her. As he moved forward, he started engaging more and more of the group until, finally, all the remaining fighters were fully engaged in a circle around him. Harry's prior fight with help from Cheki proved quite useful, as it allowed Harry to let some of his opponents take themselves out. Harry felt it was hardly even a decent workout for him, most of his opponents took themselves out.
Finally, when he reached the girl, all the gang members were lying on the ground, groaning.
"Hi, my name is Harry. Let me escort you away from this area so I can come back and finish this off," said Harry, bowing to the terrified young girl.
"If it please, honored sir, I am called Oshiro Akio," said the young girl still trembling slightly. "I have no place to go, so I will just leave here before these people wake."
'Harry, she is a potential.'
'Thank you, Cheki.'
"Miss Oshiro, do you not have parents or someone else to look out for you?"
"No, honored sir, I am an orphan of the streets."
"Would you like to go somewhere safe? I know of a place where you can find a new friend for life and no one will ever bother you. If you are interested, I can have my wife come get you."
The girl looked unsure. She had been approached many times by men over the years and knew what they all wanted. This was the first time anyone had gone so far out of his way to protect her, though. She was intrigued and curious to see where this led.
"Will your wife come here?"
"Yes, she is on her way now. Let's move so we are closer to the alley entrance. I don't want any of these young men to escape before I'm through with them."
'Cheki, please ask May to join us at the alley entrance.'
'She's on her way.'
Harry walked her to the alley entrance and met May there. He asked them to wait for him to finish up so they could all return to the hotel together. He walked back and started gathering up all the weapons before his former sparring partners awoke. Then he walked through and healed any major wounds, like broken bones or serious cuts, and cast a wide area enervate to bring them all back to consciousness at once.
As the leader slowly stood, Harry walked over to him, unconcerned that he was in the middle of the ten gang members. "Well, looks like I was the one who got some entertainment tonight, though you all provided very little exercise. As sparring partners, you are useless. Perhaps I can convince you to change your ways."
"And why would we want to do that?" grumbled the gang leader.
"Because I or one of my friends will always be watching you," said Harry. "You say you are the Dragons, but I don't think you do the word justice. Cheki, please let them see you."
Cheki was perched on the roof of a one-story building near the end of the alley. He slowly faded into view and allowed his head to lower towards the ground where he grinned at Harry's former opponents, more than half of whom promptly fainted.
"I am a Dragonrider and the young girl you were going to attack is a potential Dragonrider. We really don't appreciate people attacking others, especially if they are Dragonriders. I would like to suggest that you become protectors instead of aggressors. It's not worth my time to personally watch you, but you can bet that several of my friends will be keeping an eye on you. It's been a long time since they've eaten anyone, I had hoped it would never happen again. Are you willing to find out?"
Those still conscious promptly became a little wetter and timorously assured Harry they would change. Harry just nodded and walked to the alley entrance where Akio was standing next to May watching, wide-eyed.
"How would you like a hot shower and lots of food, Akio?" asked Harry.
She looked at him fearfully and said, "You are a Dragon Master!"
"No, Akio, I am a dragon partner and my dragon tells me you can be one too. Would you like to find out?"
Oshiro Akio had been adopted into the relatively new Japanese Weyr where she had prospered and blossomed. She had only been thirteen when they found her, so she had to wait a few years but she eventually impressed Sallinth and they were now loving life together. She also made sure "the Dragons" continued to help and protect others.
Nutan's Weyr archaeological dig, Sept 12, 2032...
Today Nutan's group of archaeology enthusiasts, along with a few older experts hired from Earth, had discovered their first verified find. The body of what appeared to be an adult male was found curled up in agony not far from the next structure they were due to excavate. Almost the entire city had been dug out so far. Little had been found, though, except for some broken furniture and some still pliable and vivid posters in a few of the buildings. The most interesting had obviously been in a large room used for teaching children.
They wondered what the poor man had come back for and wondered if he really thought it important enough to lose his life over.
As they carefully scraped the volcanic ash from the roof of the huge Quonset hut-shaped building, it quickly became apparent that this was a special building in some way. The roof was entirely covered in a shiny black, seamless matrix of some undefined material. As they cleared it away, they found it almost impossible to scratch and it glittered in the sun.
Admin Annex...
A small light started blinking, indicating there was power running through the circuits once more. The batteries were being charged, though slowly, as the amount of energy available wasn't much as of yet. If this kept up, there would eventually be enough power available for an emergency reboot.
Nutan's Weyr archaeological dig...
They had managed to uncover probably half of the roof before it was time to quit. Tomorrow, they should be able to uncover the rest of the building and open it. Once they had allowed sufficient time for the trapped bad air to exhaust, they would be able to see if there was anything interesting inside. Now it was time to go home and get some food and a well-earned rest.
Admin Annex...
A small dial labeled Batteries showed 10%...
Nutan's Weyr archaeological dig, Sept 13, 2032...
By the time Nutan and his wife Scarlett arrived the new excavation was a hive of activity. The roof had been entirely cleared and seemed to consist of the strange black tiles they had noticed yesterday suspended over white ceramic, heat-resistant tiles attached to a more standard metal roof. The tiles were fitted so closely together that none of the volcanic ash had filtered down to the roof itself. To Scarlett, the white ceramic tiles looked like the tiles used to protect the re-entry vehicles used by Earth's space pioneers.
As Nutan and Scarlett watched, one long side was excavated halfway down and the nearer, narrow side was started on. It didn't take long for the top of an apparent door to appear in the narrow side and the activity intensified. The dragons were getting so excited that the experienced archaeologists were having a hard time keeping them from joining in and potentially destroying something important as of yet uncovered. Fortunately, the ash at this level had not hardened into a monolithic mass yet, so was relatively easy to remove, though it took longer than those watching would have liked. There was a solution for that, however. Soon, no one was watching, they were all down on their knees, carefully sifting through the tiny crystals and lithic particles making up the ash this close to the source.
By the end of the workday, the door had been almost completely uncovered, though there was a bulwark of ash almost head high on either side. The experienced diggers among them just shook their heads at the over-enthusiasm and impatience of the younger participants. They were constantly advising caution in case something important was lost and slowness to ensure nothing was overlooked. They finally managed to stop the efforts when many wanted to continue on into the night.
Nutan set a rotating guard against anyone wishing to continue and plunder the contents of this different find before anyone else was able to get inside.
Admin Annex...
Batteries: 75%, emergency reboot initiated ...
Nutan's Weyr archaeological dig, Sept 14, 2032...
The last few feet of volcanic ash in front of the doors leading into the building were cleared by lunch. As the leaders of the effort, Nutan and Scarlet were given the honor of being the first to open the doors in hundreds of years.
Nutan just stared at the doors. He had no reference to understand how to open them. Scarlet, on the other hand, had grown up on Earth and knew there was any number of ways the doors might open. That they hadn't opened yet indicated there was not an operational photocell to detect approaching people wishing to gain entrance. There was no visible doorknob with which to open the double doors so that only left one viable option to try first … she pushed on the seam where the two doors joined in the middle. She felt the doors flex slightly, but they did not open.
She pushed harder, thinking there may be some obstruction behind the doors. As Nutan realized what his wife was trying to do, he lent his strength to the effort and slowly the doors flexed inward. As they slowly increased the pressure, the doors finally broke free and started to open accompanied by a rush of stale air. Both Nutan and Scarlett coughed at the odd smell and backed away, just as one of their hired archaeologists rushed forward.
"Please don't try to enter just yet," warned Dr. Alice Pieters, one of the more senior archaeologists they had hired from Belgium. "Many early Egyptian tombs were opened and entered immediately only for those entering to die from oxygen starvation. The air currently in this building has had plenty of time for the oxygen it contained to bond with anything possible. Take a deep breath, hold it, and push the doors open as far as you can. If we leave it for a while, the outside air should sufficiently mix with the inside air so we can safely enter in a couple of hours.
"I have a better idea," said Nutan. "Crioyerth, would you please push these doors as far open as you can from out here."
Nutan's dragon walked up to the doors and gently pushed on first the one on the right and then the one on the left until they were both opened to right angles from their original positions.
'The air smells funny and is still coming out,' said Crioyerth so all could hear him.
"That's odd, " said Dr. Pieters. "There would be no airflow unless the inside pressure was higher than the outside pressure. Even then, it should even out almost immediately."
"Perhaps something is constantly replacing the air inside somehow," suggested Scarlett.
"But how?" asked Dr. Pieters. "This installation was buried hundreds of years ago. How can anything still be operating?"
"Rilarth, would you please contact someone at Spath's Weyr and ask them to send someone to test the air for us," asked Scarlett.
'Ronan Clark has said he will be coming himself with a tech,' said Rilarth. 'The tech will test the air. He is just curious.'
Half an hour later, the tech determined that the air was clean and breathable.
"I'm still concerned there may be some unknown pathogen that could possibly harm those entering. We need to conduct further biological tests of the air before anyone enters," said Dr. Pieters.
"You forget, Doctor," said Scarlet. "We have our flight suits that we can seal up with enough air for probably at least a couple of hours before we need to come out. We can sync our helmet cameras to a live feed out here so that everyone can see what we see, as we see it."
It only took a short while for Ronan and the tech to set up the live feed, not just to local monitors, but to the DragonNet network, so everyone on the planet could watch. As soon as it was set up, four people prepared to enter the building; Nutan, Scarlett, Ronan, and the tech, Daniel Potter. Soon the four had their gloves and helmets sealed to the rest of their suits and they were ready to enter.
As he stepped past the curved arc of cleared dust from the opening of the doors, Nutan switched on his external helmet lamp so they could see as they penetrated deeper into the building. Their steps leaving footprints in the thin layer of dust, they walked along a wide corridor with doors on both sides. They passed two doors before they came to an intersecting corridor. They glanced down each side only to see a couple of doors on each side while the end terminated in blank walls.
They continued down the central corridor, occasionally passing doors. After passing eight doors on each side, they came to another cross corridor, but this one only had a single door on the side they were facing. The entire wall and door were covered in white ceramic tiles as if whoever had left this building had wanted to protect the contents of this section from heat more than the rest of the building. A placard on the door read 'AIVAS'. This door, unlike the one used to enter the building, had a doorknob. Scarlett reached out and turned the knob. Once the latch disengaged, she found the door opened outwards instead of inwards as she had expected. The corridor once past the door was twice as wide as on the other side. There they had been able to walk side-by-side. Here, more than twice as many could do the same.
As she stepped into the room, she could feel an increased flow of air against her flight suit. When she looked down, quickly, she noticed there was no dust on the floor. When she looked up, she could see row upon row of doors on the front of almost floor-to-ceiling cabinets. She recognized them as server cabinets for a fairly large computer system. There were rows of them going back to the walls on either side. It took her a moment to realize that there were small green lights on each door she could see.
As she looked around, she could see work tables on either side of the door with two high stools placed under them. On the wall above the tables were charts of the planet with different areas highlighted with various vivid colors. There were various legends under each chart indicating information about what the charts contained.
Opposite the door was a huge display terminal with a keyboard on a desktop and a roller chair in front of it. This must have been the original colonists' computer center!
Scarlett began to notice that she could now clearly see beyond the cone of light from her helmet light, so she turned it off. "The lights in here are on," she said. "I think we can safely turn our helmet lights off."
They all turned their lights off and saw that she was right. The room was comfortably lit, with no glare from apparently hidden lighting. Just then Harry walked in through the door. "I was watching your entrance with interest," he said. "When I saw the installation was actually still active, I thought it might be a good idea to come personally. I have sent word to the old Benden Dragonriders to come, as this is really their heritage. I felt it only proper they should at least be here."
A few moments later a group of leather-clad Pernese Dragonriders appeared, led by H'lok, the Benden Weyrling Master. As H'lok, N'dain, C'hil, T'pel, Z'gon, R'tox, and G'lux looked around in awe, Scarlett realized she was still wearing her helmet and took it off. When she did, the others noticed and took theirs off as well. The larger group of twelve slowly moved into the room, closer to the main console, quietly talking among themselves.
Unnoticed by the group, one of them stepped over a bright red line, drawn on the floor, quickly followed by two more as they continued to drift deeper into the room. Suddenly, a voice sounded from somewhere above them, "Please state ID and access code! Your voiceprints are not on record."
Startled, they all came to an abrupt stop and looked worriedly around. "Who said that?" demanded H'lok, as his hand went to his belt knife.
"State ID and access code, please!" the voice repeated, slightly louder.
"That sounds like a computer-generated voice," said Scarlett.
"State the reason for this intrusion. Unless ID and access code are given, this facility will close down. Its use is restricted to Admiral Benden, ..."
"Benden, I'm from Benden Weyr!" exclaimed H'lok.
"... Governor Emily Boll, Captain Ezra Keroon, ..."
"Benden, Boll, Keroon, all large Holds or Weyrs," said C'hil in a raised voice. "What are you trying to tell us? We and our ancestors have lived here for hundreds of turns, but the reason for the naming of our Holds and Weyrs has become lost to us."
There was a long pause and they all watched in fascination as a range of symbols, letters, and numbers rippled silently across the huge monitor at the back of the room. Finally, a message appeared that was recognizable, if incomprehensible. "Running Emergency Program" appeared on the monitor.
Suddenly, the voice 'spoke' up again, "I am AIVAS, an Artificial Intelligence Voice Address System," the voice said. "To be precise, a Mark 47A computer, programmed to interface the main computer storage banks of the Yokohama and the settlement of Pern."
"From where are you speaking, AIVAS?" asked Harry.
"This system is programmed for voice address. State your name, please."
"My name is Harry Potter," said Harry. "I am the Weyrleader of Spath's Weyr and the recognized leader of all Dragonriders of Pern and Earth."
"Twelve persons are observed to occupy this room, but only one has been properly registered. Will the rest of you please give your names and some information about yourselves to register a voiceprint recording?"
"I am H'lok, Weyrling Master of Benden Weyr. How are we to address you?"
"This is an artificial intelligence voice address system. It does not require personification."
"I am Scarlett Morgan, Weyrwoman for Nutan's Weyr. Personification would make our interaction with you easier. Artificial Intelligence Voice Address System is too much to enunciate when we wish to talk with you."
"The acronym, AIVAS, will be sufficient."
"AIVAS, I am Ronan Clark, Dragonrider in charge of the Research and Technology Lab. You mentioned the Yokohama. Is that one of the Dawn Sisters?"
"Reference to Dawn Sisters is unknown. Please explain."
"The Dawn Sisters are what the native Pernese refer to when talking about the three spaceships in geosynchronous orbit around the planet."
"You refer to the spaceships Yokohama, Buenos Aires, and Bahrain."
"Do the spaceships still support life?" asked Ronan.
"Not at present. All systems are on hold."
The rest of those quickly identified themselves and the entire interaction was recorded by Daniel, as he had left his helmet on, though he did open his faceplate.
"I am Daniel Potter, Second-in-command to the Dragon Nation and Assistant Weyrleader to Spath's Weyr. Can you answer questions?"
"That is the function of this apparatus."
"Would you explain how you came to be here? Start from the beginning, please."
"That is a correct procedure," AIVAS replied. What had been a mostly dark monitor suddenly became illuminated with a 3D planetary diagram, giving the feeling they were hovering in space. "When mankind first discovered the third planet from the sun Rukbat in the Sagittarian Sector of space ..."
Minnewanka Weyr, Sept 14, 2032...
"Yes, Mildred, I know this is exciting," said Harry, "but I do not want all the information to become public knowledge. I don't mind that anyone knows that we found AIVAS, but we are doing our best to disguise the released information so it seems to be of extraterrestrial origin. We especially don't want the exact position of Pern revealed."
"But how can I not try to find at least the sun, now that I know where to look?" pleaded Mildred Lupin. "I can apply for some time on the old Hubble Space Telescope or the newer James Webb Space Telescope or even the Kepler Mission telescope which was expressly designed to help locate extrasolar terrestrial planets. I don't have to explain what I'm looking for!"
"I know viewing that recording was exciting. I nearly panicked when I realized what was being revealed. Even if you only looked others would become curious. Fortunately, Daniel had thought ahead and switched to Local Record Only Mode shortly before entering the Computer room. The recording you saw is considered a Weyr Secret. If I didn't trust you explicitly, you wouldn't even know of its existence.
"How about we fund a special Space Telescope just for you. We can install it at any solar synchronous point you wish and even place it above the plane of the Solar System so there is less chance of interference. We can arrange for there to be huge storage banks for any images taken and you can take a Dragon Egg to retrieve the images and reset the Telescope coordinates any time you wish. I just ask that you not publish anything about Pern.
"The Earth space program is not yet capable of reaching Pern, so we are safe for a while. I want to try to remain safe for even longer if possible by not letting them know how to find us. Any other images you capture would be eligible for distribution."
They spent another couple of hours talking about Space Telescope requirements, but Harry knew Mildred would never willingly release information on Pern.
200 miles east of Spath's Weyr, Jan 28, 2033...
Harry decided he would see if he could find the artifact east of Spath's Weyr. So far neither Joddy nor Hagrid had been able to find another. Since he hadn't been an 'original' finder, he hoped he would be able to find one. He was flying due east of Spath's Weyr and started scanning the ground on either side of their flight path as they approached the area where the next artifact was supposed to be located.
Eventually, he found an object that looked like tall blades of grass waving in the breeze, to the left of their flight path on the bank of a river flowing north towards the sea. It was constructed of the same materials as the first two. All the artifacts found so far formed a straight line, as they were at the same Latitude, spaced roughly 200 miles from each other.
'Cheki, what is the same about everyone who has found an artifact?'
'They are all Dragonriders.'
'How are they different?'
'They are all different species.'
'I have a feeling it is the different species that are most important to finding the artifacts.'
Allonville, France, Feb 13, 2033...
"Daaaaad!" yelled Noël Rousseau, son of the local French Chef.
Roger Rousseau looked up from his research. He had been trying for the last week to find some unique way to thicken his signature soup, with little luck. All the ways he'd discovered so far relied on methods everyone else used. He wanted something different. "I suppose I should see what my son needs. I need to clear my head anyway," thought Roger.
As he walked into his son's room, he saw the boy angrily poking around in a small aquarium filled with some type of thick, clear jell. It was thick enough that the stick his son was using to poke at it stayed upright when he released it.
"What seems to be wrong, son?" asked Roger, looking curiously at the aquarium, which seemed to be empty except for a thick brown, heavily segmented worm about ten inches long, suspended in the middle of the jell. It was much thicker in the middle and tapered down almost to points on both ends. It wasn't readily apparent which end was the front.
His son looked up at him and frowned. "My new friend told me about a neat worm that makes an interesting pet because it doesn't take a lot of work to take care of. It had a nasty-looking sticky, green mucus on both ends, so I thought I would wash it off a bit before putting it in my terrarium. When I stirred the water to get all the slime off of it, the water got really thick and now I can't stir it at all!"
"Who is this new friend of yours?"
"He is English, only here for a few weeks, visiting his Aunt. He told me about these worms and even showed me where they were. If he hadn't shown me, I never would have realized they were there. From a distance, they look just like mud at the bottom of a ditch. He said they prefer to eat lettuce and cabbage, but will eat almost any vegetation and overfeeding will kill them."
"And we have more of these … worms nearby?"
"Yes, the ditch out back of our house is full of them!"
"Let us go collect some more. I have a feeling this is just what I've been looking for."
Roger and his son collected over a hundred worms that day and the mundane world now knew about flobberworms.
Roger went on to experiment and found that only a tiny bit of the flobberworm mucus was required to thicken up his signature soup quite nicely.
Spath's Weyr, Harry's Quarters, Mar 10, 2033...
Today was Tegan Potter's eleventh birthday. Both mothers, her grandmother, her older brothers and sisters, multiple fire lizards, and all six dragons were present for this special day in Tegan's life.
"Tegan Potter, you are 11 years old today. Do you know what that means?" asked Harry, lovingly as he smiled at his youngest daughter.
"Yes, I do. It means I'm old enough to participate in the Family Bonding Ceremony," replied Tegan, eagerly. She had heard of this from her brothers and sisters and was eager to find out for herself exactly what it entailed.
"On Pern, you are now considered a Junior Adult," said Harry. "You will use your time as a Junior Adult to learn how to be a full adult. During this time, you will be taught many things to help you decide what you might want to do later in your life. If you learn enough about as many different subjects as possible, it will open up avenues of interest for you that you had no idea about before. It will help you decide what you want to do as a full, independent adult, who is a constructive member of our society. Do you understand this?"
"Yes, I understand," responded Tegan, excitedly. She had been looking forward to this day for over a year now. While not as life-changing as for a witch or a wizard, it was still one of her life's major achievements up to this time.
The six dragons touched their noses to their bonded partner's backs. The fire lizards landed on various people in the group. The humans joined hands, and Harry invoked the spell which joined them all just a little closer together. Her eyes got wider yet as she felt the magic and love course through her from the others.
"You will continue to attend the school here on Pern, but, as the daughter of The Weyrleader, you will also receive extra instruction which we hope will help you better understand and excel in our mixed magic and non-magic world.
"If you are ever uncomfortable about anything, there are always dragons around. Contact one and get their help if you need it or they can send word to us and we will be there as fast as we can. You probably won't need any help, because of your fire lizards, but it's better to have it available and not need it than need it and not have it.
"We all love you and want you to always be happy, healthy, and a productive member of society."
Tegan smiled broadly as another wave of love surged through her. She was excited to finally become a Junior Adult but this was even better. She would do everything in her power to make her family proud of her. She didn't realize it at the time, but the magic flowing through her, changed her. She was no longer a muggle, she was now like her mother May, a squib, with some ability to see some magic and ghosts.
The Sea of Azov, June 3, 2033...
The fourth artifact was found by Amadeus, a young dolphin who wanted to be able to explore freshwater. He had convinced one of the Dolphineers to rig up a special harness that allowed him to adjust his neutral buoyancy while in freshwater since he had to work harder to stay on the surface. Freshwater wasn't as buoyant as saltwater.
The artifact was discovered north of the Mer village in the Black Rock Lake, just north of Condron Sea Weyr. It looked like a decrepit old boat and was hidden in a patch of seaweed. It was somehow highly reflective to SONAR, therefore easy to find by a saltwater dolphin. This was the first artifact found by a single person and Harry was sure that a different species of intelligent life on Pern would find each new artifact.
Great Bay, Dec 10. 2033...
Following the discovery of an artifact by a dolphin, a young Mer requested help in exploring saltwater locations. Ronan's engineering team developed a freshwater-filled submersible pod that could be entirely controlled by Mer magic. Many unbonded dragons agreed to assist by moving the pod on request to different areas.
On his fifth relocation, Nerio discovered the fifth artifact in the Great Bay west of the Great Numbweed plains. It was next to an old sunken boat, was shaped like a wall next to a plain, and was only visible to Nerio until he let the other seekers know it was there.
As each new artifact was found, all those who had previously found one, gathered around it and touched it. Each time, probably because more people were touching it, the image above the artifact sharpened, the new artifact was marked by a brightened point of light on the image, and the image became less transparent, almost as if it were becoming solid.
Big Lagoon, Apr 27, 2034...
'Weyrleader, Dangerous men are approaching the Big Lagoon dock,' Nekenth sent worriedly. 'They are on three little boats and some of the sailors are afraid of them.'
A few minutes later Harry/Chekiath and his personal Flight of Dragonriders arrived over the Big Lagoon docks. They found Tony Dalsgaard/Giozirth and Libby Roberts/Lorarth there with Nekenth, orbiting the docks at about 1,000 ft.
'What made you suspicious, Nekenth?' asked Harry.
'They come in boats,' replied the Senior unbonded dragon assigned to the Trading Hold. 'Almost all contact between the north and south is now by Egg Transport. When I saw the boats, I thought I would greet them … until I sensed their surface thoughts.'
'Good catch,' responded Harry. 'Everyone maintain full stealth where the boat's occupants can see you but clear all dockworkers out as quickly as you can. Let's see what they do when they find no one there.'
Onboard the lead boat...
Lord Holder Segaul of Nabol Hold had been working hard for almost the last seven years for this day. Ever since his father died and the supposedly magical people from Earth had done nothing to save him. He had plotted and planned since the beginning of 2027, he had created his secret group of like-minded Pernese, and now they were ready to strike. The interlopers would all die and Pern would be for the Pernese again. After clearing the Southern Continent, his Anti-Magic League would then move against the new center at Red Butte where they conducted illegal trials against his fellow Pernese.
He had almost 200 men. All of them trained in fieldcraft and open country survival. They were capable of such stealthy movement that they had all been able to leave their various holds without anyone being the wiser. His men were not going to be missed, as he had carefully cultivated only unmarried men or those without any attachments or special status. None of them would be missed if they were gone for an extended time. He was the only one married and he had told his wife he was going on an extended hunting trip. A month should be more than enough time to bring his plans to a most pleasing culmination.
He had purchased three large boats and equipped them to transport them all to the Southern Continent. Most of the sailors on board the boats were members of his organization. The few that weren't were easy enough to bribe with a little coin.
They were on their way to their first target, Bermorg's Trading Hold, named after that traitor trader who had thrown his lot in with the newest immigrants. To get there, they would have to neutralize the docks they were approaching first. As far as he knew, there were no magic users at the dock or the hold, but it was filled with traitors to Pern that had to be removed.
They would pass themselves off as new laborers until they could mingle with the dock workers, then they would attack. After disposing of the dock workers, they would sail up to the main Hold where they would again take the inhabitants by surprise and slaughter them all for the traitors they were! From there, they would make their way overland to the East and take out every Hold and Weyr they found until the Southern Continent was once again clear of human life.
Big Lagoon Docks...
"No one is there, Lord Holder Segaul," said Fosh, Lord Segaul's second in command. "Maybe they are only here when they have a shipment to go out?"
"Well, there's nothing for it, we will have to continue on South to the Hold. Get everyone back on board the boats and let's get moving."
As soon as the last boat was out of sight, the dock workers were returned to their work.
Bermorg's Hold, Apr 30, 2034...
Bermorg's Trading Hold was only about 20 miles south of the Big Lagoon Docks, but the much stronger flow of the river was north and the boats were trying to go south. With a generally unhelpful wind, they were forced to row their boats almost the entire way. Making only at best two miles an hour, it took them three days to reach their first target. By then, Harry had been able to add temporary muggle repelling charm to the wards all along the river approach to the Hold. When the invaders arrived they could not even find the Hold.
Harry was just happy the invaders hadn't searched further inland from the docks or they would have found a wide clear road, direct to the Hold. Their progress wouldn't have been that much faster on foot, but they wouldn't be as frustrated and worn out as they were now.
Twenty miles South of Bermorg's Trading Hold, May 3, 2034...
"I'm sure we've gone too far, Lord Segaul," said Fosh. "The Hold was only supposed to be about twenty miles south of the docks. I'm sure we've gone much further than that."
"Fine, pull over. It's about time we set up camp for the night anyway. Send out scouts again to see if we can find anyone. How can we destroy these idiots if we can't even find them!?"
It took them most of two hours to offload the boats and set up their camp for the night. They left most of their heavier weapons and assault tools on the boats, just keeping their belt knives, swords, and crossbows with them.
Nearby...
Harry had set up a small camp inland from the invader's camp. If they continued following the same pattern of actions, they would send out scouts to see if they could find anything in the local area. The dragons had carefully cleared a narrow winding path from the river north of their current location to Harry's small camp. He was sure one of their scouts would eventually stumble upon the path and find his camp. He had replaced his Dragon Pendant with one that simply protected him from attack without causing that attack to rebound on the attacker. He had also disillusioned himself to look like an ancient Pernese tracker and his 'camp' reflected that.
Soon a pair of scouts found him and he listened in on their conversation through Cheki, who was quite close to the two.
"Well looky here. Looks like a tracker. Think he will know where the Hold is?" asked the first scout of his companion.
"Don't know, but I think you should stay here and watch him while I go get Lord Segaul."
"Be quick about it then. I don't fancy being out here alone."
With that, one of the scouts went running, as quietly as he could, back to their base camp while his partner squatted down to keep watch.
'Should we capture this one while we have the chance, Harry?'
'May as well,' replied Harry. 'Have Libby come down and stun him. She can then take him back to Spath's Weyr to wait for his fellow invaders.'
Within seconds, the invader on watch was stunned and seconds later in a cell in Spath's Weyr.
Twenty-five minutes later...
"There he is, Lord Segaul. Cofic stayed behind to keep watch, but I don't see him anywhere," said a worried scout.
"He probably moved around to another location to be able to see better. He will probably come out when we confront this tracker." Lord Segaul was confident he would find out all he needed to know from this pitiful member of humanity. After all, he had brought over 150 of his men with him.
'Weyrleader, the boats have been captured, as you ordered. One of the Cheetahs created a diversion on the jungle side of the camp and the boats, and all aboard them, were gone before anyone had a chance to look back at the river. Even now, they don't realize the boats are gone!' exclaimed Libby.
'Great,' replied Harry. 'I will soon give them a reason to realize they are now trapped.'
Shortly later, Lord Segaul made a great disturbance as he ordered his men into the small clearing the camp was located in.
Harry looked up and grinned as large as he could. "Finally! Someone's come to rescue me!" he shouted in glee.
"What are you talking about?" demanded Lord Segaul. "We are here to ask you questions, not rescue you."
"Oh," said an apparently crestfallen Harry. "I been here fer months! Me and four of my friends heard about the rich pickins around here and decided we'd come get some for ourselfs. Onct we gots past the docks, though, we couldn't find anyone or anything else.
"It wouldna been so bad, but our boat disappeared and then my frinds started disappearin soon after. I'm alls that's left now."
Lord Segaul started to look worried. He grabbed the scout who had led them here and whispered to him, "Stay behind and kill him once we are all gone. We don't need thieves in our group.
"Everyone back to the camp. We need to make sure our boats are OK!"
With that, all but the lone scout ran for their camp as if death was at their heels. Once they were all gone, the scout turned to Harry and said, "Sorry about this old-timer, but we don't need your kind around." With that, he raised his crossbow and fired at Harry point-blank.
Harry just stood there and looked at the scout as the crossbow bolt dropped to the ground. As the scout looked at Harry in shock, Harry stunned him. One of his Flight's Dragonriders dropped down to take charge of the prisoner and take him to Spath's Weyr as well, while Harry went full stealth and followed Lord Segaul and his minions.
Ten minutes later...
Lord Segaul skidded to a stop in an undignified manner into their camp, only to see the men he'd left behind calmly preparing a meal. They looked up startled to see everyone back so soon.
Lord Segaul walked over to where the three boats should have been plainly visible, only to find them gone, as he'd feared. "What happened to our boats!" he yelled at the men he'd left behind.
Everyone had to go down to the river to verify for themselves that the boats were, in fact, gone and their Lord wasn't playing a prank on them. Out of their original number of 197, they were now down to 152. Missing were the two scouts sent out, who had found the tracker, the fifteen crew of the boats, the three fighters assigned to guard those crewmen not part of their organization, and the twenty-five men left on the bank of the river to watch the boats so they wouldn't leave without their passengers. He quickly revised his count when he realized that even quite a few of the men who had gone to see the tracker's camp were also missing! They were down to barely over 100 men.
Almost half of their men were missing and they had no more boats or the heavy equipment they held. They were in a strange land, surrounded by fierce creatures, they had no idea why their companions were missing, and they couldn't even find the place they had come to attack!
Twenty miles South of Bermorg's Trading Hold, May 6, 2034...
Fishstar was quietly stalking his prey. The two men were scouts sent out from Lord Segaul's camp looking for anything that would help them find their way to their objective. Right now, they seemed to be more worried about what was around them … which was only right. Harry had suggested to Fishstar that this might be a chance for some of his cubs to earn their second names and Fishstar had agreed. A small hunting pack of 20 of his main pack had been dropped off two days ago. So far, they had managed to capture thirty-six scouts who left the camp, never to return.
Now he and Leafkit were stalking two more. Leafkit signaled he was ready and they both pounced at the same time, taking down their respective targets.
'Silence, humans, or you will not live to make another sound,' said Leafkit to the two prey. One fainted immediately, the other simply voided his bladder.
'Why do they stink so bad once they know they are safe?' asked Leafkit, curiously.
'Because they are afraid of us … Leaf Fear,' replied Fishstar proudly. One of his kits had finally earned his true name.
Fifteen miles South of Bermorg's Trading Hold, May 10, 2034...
Lord Segaul had started sending out groups of five and then ten at a time until to send any more out would have seriously depleted the ranks of those needed to defend him. Then the scouting trips stopped. There were no paths except that leading to the old tracker's camp, no obvious direction to take except back towards the Big Lagoon Dock. He had finally decided to slowly make their way back to where they had first made landfall. The trouble was, with his party spread out in a long line, more and more men started disappearing.
It wouldn't have been so bad if they knew what happened to the men who were no longer with them, but they all disappeared silently. Sometimes something of them was found after the fact, usually for those at the head of the column. A shoe or a belt knife was left lying in the bushes by the side of the newly created path. Usually, nothing was ever found at all. None of the 'superbly trained' men knew enough of stealth-craft to be able to read what had happened even immediately prior to their arrival.
What was even more unnerving were the men who disappeared right out of the middle of the group while they were traveling! At night, after the first night when twenty-five more men had gone missing, they slept in a close compact formation with the men on watch in the middle.
When the watchstanders started disappearing, en-masse, suddenly it became a very unpopular occupation.
They were now down to ten men, including a terrified Lord Segaul. There was a man right in front of him, breaking trail by the simple expedient of using his sword to cut through the underbrush and tree branches in the direction they had decided to move. The other eight were close behind him.
Suddenly Lord Segaul realized he hadn't heard anything from those behind him. He turned to look for his men and found no one behind him. With wide eyes, he turned around to find the one in front missing as well. He was all alone! Where were his men!?
'Think we should take pity on him, Cheki?' Harry asked his companion.
'I think he needs to suffer a little longer,' said his bloodthirsty dragon. 'After all, he told that man to kill you!'
Fifteen miles South of Bermorg's Trading Hold, May 12, 2034...
Lord Segaul had been alone for two days now. He had eaten the last of the food in his pack yesterday and was so poor at survival skills he couldn't even tell that some of the surrounding plants were edible. If he were left out in the wild much longer, he would starve. Even now, he kept hearing things that shouldn't be there, like voices, just on the edge of his hearing.
Like now … "Hello, Lord Segaul. I hope you haven't been too terribly inconvenienced by our hospitality."
He tried to turn but found he couldn't move anything but his eyes.
"I am going to be looking into your mind to find out why you have such hostile feelings towards us. Once I've found what I need, you will be reunited with the rest of your invasion force."
He felt something in his head like it was sifting through his thoughts. He started remembering odd bits and pieces. He was in a total panic now and would have screamed if he'd been able. He began to think it might not have been a good idea to attack so soon, after all. Obviously, seven years and almost 200 men just weren't enough to re-conquer Pern.
Spath's Weyr, The Weyrleader's Outer Office, June 15, 2034...
Hermione had just arrived from Red Butte where she had observed the testimony given at Lord Segaul's trial.
"Evidently Lord Segaul blamed us for not keeping his father alive," she explained. "By the time you got him back here, he was almost totally insane and I'm not sure your little game of cat-and-mouse helped any.
"There were four sailors who were 'impressed' into the crew. They were let off with a warning, though I feel they had very little recourse. Some were allowed to take the Equality Oath and released, though, in one or two cases, it's only a delayed death sentence. All the rest were sentenced to banishment to one of several remote islands in the Western Ocean. They will be sent in groups of about 20 with sufficient supplies for a year along with enough tools and seeds to start their own farm to continue feeding themselves.
"Lord Segaul, himself, somehow managed to overpower one of his Pernese guards and almost escaped. He slipped when trying to climb down the side of the Butte and fell to his death. His mother and wife declined the return of his body."
Harry shook his head sadly. This had blindsided him. He had been doing everything in his power to help the native Pernese. It seemed he hadn't been able to do enough.
300 miles south of Sakushima Weyr, June 15, 2034...
Just north of the new dam holding back the runoff from the Western Barrier Mountains a young Centaur, Cifan, and a young Cheetah, Icepaw, one-time bitter enemies, were exploring. Cifan saw something glint in the slowly fading light and notified his companion. They carefully made their way towards the spot until Cifan was able to touch the next artifact. The sixth artifact to be found, looked like a mirror with a small series of raised patches scattered on the surface.
The treasure hunters now had a name for those who found an artifact, they were known as the Finders.
About 200 miles west of The Great Bay, Dec 20, 2034...
Cnordth had expressed an interest in the artifacts everyone seemed to be finding and asked Remus to accompany him on his search. Since Mildred was back on Earth playing with her new telescope, Remus decided to go along. It would help kill the time until she returned from Earth and he had nothing urgent planned for the next week or so. Cnordth seemed oddly sure about where to look for the next artifact. Whether or not he would be able to see it was another matter.
"Why do you think you will be able to see the next artifact, Cnordth?" asked Remus as they approached their initial search location.
'No dragon has yet to discover an artifact.'
"What about Joddy's Solionth, Harry's Chekiath, and Hagrid's Selanth?"
'They accompanied the finders. They did not do the finding.'
They were now flying at about 1,000 ft above the water and could see for quite a way over the water. They were fast approaching a large group of widely dispersed islands, many simply jagged rocks jutting out of the sea, but quite a few large enough to support hillocks and even small mountains of their own.
As they approached one of the latter, Cnordth abruptly said, 'There is someone living on this island and it looks like they are barely surviving.'
"Think you can circle around the island until we can figure out what is going on?" asked Remus. "It might be possible to rescue them, but not if they are like Lord Segaul and his friends."
As they circled the island it became obvious it was a long-extinct volcano. The caldera was small and almost entirely filled in with a small lake that flowed down the side. It disappeared into the mountainside and reappeared flowing out of an opening large enough for Cnordth to fit into. It also seemed that the opening was inhabited because there was a young boy sitting listlessly at the cave entrance.
Further down, closer to the beach, they saw a large garden plot being tended by an old woman and three others, all younger, apparently, part of a family.
"How do you think we can safely approach them without scaring them half to death?"
'They look very hungry. Perhaps if I land you on the beach, we could start a fire. I can catch a big fish and you can cook it,' suggested Cnordth. 'You should be safe from any attack they can launch, and the thought of extra food should draw them out. That might get them to tell you why they are here.'
"Sounds good," said Remus. "Land near that large rock above the high tide mark and set it to everglow to about 300°. I will conjure an appropriate enclosure to create a permanent oven. Even if we can't rescue them, it will at least give them something to cook on."
Cnordth landed and bathed the rock in an everglow fire to create a hot rock, then flew off to go fishing. Remus immediately started conjuring additional rocks of an appropriate size to surround it with, making sure there was a large opening towards the island's interior. He covered the rock with beach sand so Cnordth could fuse the top of it into a glass baking surface later.
When the dragon returned with a medium-sized grabber, he fused the sand as Remus cleaned the 'fish' and prepared it for cooking. After Cnordth ate the parts of the grabber that Remus wasn't interested in, he lay down on the sand a short distance away and went invisible.
Soon there was a lovely aroma of cooking meat wafting over the island and the inhabitants almost immediately noticed. Soon the woman and the three older children were tearing at the fish while nervously watching Remus. He eventually made his way up to the cave to retrieve the child still sitting there and even had to hand feed him small bites to get him started eating.
When it became clear that the island's inhabitants were not going to attack Remus, Cnordth started looking around. While Cnordth was exploring, Remus smoked the rest of the grabber meat and placed it in airtight plastic boxes that he conjured. He carried it up to the cave the family had been living in and found an obvious place to store it, out of the way, but still within sight. Then he cleaned the cave of accumulated detritus, conjured five beds, mattresses, and linen, and went back down to carefully carry the now soundly sleeping family up to the cave.
After the last one was sleeping in their new bed, he looked at the garden. He used magic to remove all the weeds, but that didn't leave much else. If he was not allowed to rescue the family, he would return later with more seeds and some mature food plants and trees. As he was finishing up his inventory, Cnordth landed next to him.
'Wolf, I have found the next artifact, would you like to see it?'
"Of course," said Remus. "Is it far?"
'The other side of the island. It would be faster if I took you.'
Remus climbed up on his friend and they flew to the west side of the island. There in a small cove was a sheltered beach, but Remus couldn't see anything else. When he got down, Cnordth directed his motion until his outstretched hand finally touched the artifact and he could suddenly see it. It looked oddly familiar.
'Weyrleader,' called Cnordth, 'I have found the next artifact.'
'On my way, Cnordth, well done!' exclaimed Harry. 'I will notify the rest of the Finders.'
Shortly after, everyone who had found an artifact was crowded on the small beach. Cifan had insisted that Icepaw be brought as well since they had been partnered. So far, in order, the seven 'Finders' were: Joddy, Hagrid, Harry, Amadeus, Nerio, Cifan, and Cnordth. Amadeus and Nerio were wearing 'land suits' which allowed them not only to be transported by dragons as an individual but allowed them to join in touching each new artifact.
'Weyrleader, if I am correct, we now know exactly where to look for the next artifact,' said Cnordth.
"Yes, Cnordth. Not only does this artifact look like an exact model of the volcano housing Benden Weyr, but there is a noticeable light in the northern hemisphere. It appears they all aren't in the south.
"Before we leave, Harry, I need to bring something to your attention, if you would follow me and Cnordth, I will show you."
Remus and Cnordth lead Harry and Cheki to the other side of the island where the castaway family were still sleeping after their, for them, huge meal. Remus explained what he had found as Harry followed him up to the cave. Once there, Harry carefully performed a legilimens on the woman.
After learning what he needed to know, Harry turned to Remus and said, "Stay here until they wake up and let them know they've been rescued. Once they realize they are now safe, have Cnordth contact me and I will send a D2 Dragon Egg to pick you all up and bring you back to Spath's Weyr. Their husband was sentenced to banishment about 10 years ago for stealing bread to feed his family. When the Lord Holder said he was going to force the man's family to join him, the man tried to object, only to be executed. The Lord Holder, Lord Binint, is now dead, so I am going to execute some Weyr leniency. This should never have happened!
"I will send Dobby with a tent for you for the night."
About 200 miles west of The Great Bay, Dec 21, 2034...
'Wolf, the castaways are starting to wake and are confused by the beds.'
"That's only reasonable," said Remus. "They probably rationalized what happened yesterday as a dream. I suppose I should get up and make some breakfast."
Remus got up, took a quick shower, and made a huge breakfast using the supplies Dobby had delivered yesterday afternoon.
'They have found your tent,' said Cnordth. 'They are now a little afraid.'
"Let me see where they are," said Remus. After seeing them, through Cnordth's eyes, hiding behind some thick bushes, Remus exited the tent and approached the bushes.
"Come on inside. You can't be expected to eat breakfast while hiding behind bushes, now can you?" asked Remus, smiling at the cowering group.
Slowly they rose from their hiding place since he knew they were there and hadn't hurt them. Remus waved them towards the tent, again telling them breakfast was ready. Slowly they started walking until one smelled the food. Then he, and finally the rest hurried towards the tent.
"Welcome to my home-away-from-home," said Remus as he held open the tent flap for them to enter.
They immediately made for the table that was set for six and looked wondrously at all the food Remus had laid out. They didn't even notice that the tent was larger on the inside than the outside. After his guests had eaten their fill, Remus then set about the task of reassuring them that they were not in any more trouble than they already had been, but were in fact about to be rescued. Once they understood what he was telling them, the woman broke down and started quietly crying.
By the time he had them calmed down again, their transportation had been delivered. An unbonded dragon had brought it and she and Cnordth would transport it back.
"If you will follow me, I would like to introduce you to a couple of my friends," said Remus. "Between the three of us, we are going to take you to a new Weyr where you will be welcomed and given a place to stay and jobs and many other things to try to make up for the terrible injustice visited upon you."
As they left the tent, they were greeted by the sight of a strange building that had appeared on the sand outside. It sat on several all too thin legs, but most worrying of all, there were two dragons on top looking back at them. As one, they all cowered back in fear.
"Now, now, let's have none of that. These are my two friends here and they are going to take us someplace much nicer than this!"
Remus walked over to the entrance, pulled down the loading stairs, and opened the door. He finally got them all into the Dragon Egg and seated in the chairs. He took a while explaining to them where they were going and a little about what had happened while they had been away from civilization. He then opened the door again and ushered them out into their new life.
Even as he was escorting their newest inhabitants toward Spath's Hold, Flights of unbonded dragons were searching all the islands for any more such castaways stranded against their will for little or no good reason.
FF_9879605_308669494 Page 25 of 25