Disclaimer: I don't own anything/anyone from the Pern world books. I do own most of the characters in this story and anything else not from the original series.
Chapter Eight: Time it Right
"Just- how long did you say Thread's been gone?" Despite the tension in her face Lessa's voice was calm. Star was just glad the Weyrwoman from this time had understood, because the Weyrwoman apparently from the future probably wouldn't. Or would she?
Raia looked at her, confused. "Ninty-five Turns, or thereabout. What's going on here? If you're here in Benden Weyr you ought to know that. And Milath says you're a dragonrider as well!" Her eyes unfocused, like Star had noticed rider's did when they spoke to their dragons. She frowned and continued slowly. "And a queenrider? Are you new? No, I haven't heard of any recent Hatchings… It's been a long time since a queen rose, and I'd know if they did…"
Lessa and F'lar looked at each other, then back at Raia. "Welcome to the near end of the Ninth and final Pass of Thread, Raia, Rider of Gold Milath, future Weyrwoman of Benden Weyr," the bronzerider said dryly.
Star leaned forward and put her head in her hands, groaning. "Oh, this is going to be sooooooooo hard to explain…" she muttered.
000
After two hours, during which they met two riders from other times, N'zir and his blue Kairth and Greenrider of Borth Yolia, who had all waited, confused, outside, and the currents Bended Weyrleaders had explained everything, they began to discuss ways to get home again. Pralosa and her green Joozith had been 'summoned' also, as well as Jessica, rider of the only silver dragon, and Tristan, a bronzerider, both who explained to Star that they had come forward in time too, and had wanted to stay.
Lessa suggested that the dragons be given star coordinates for the three rider's different futures, and they requested and received star-maps. Then several of the began charting the course of the stars for their Turns. N'zir, from the past, was utterly confused, for his Turn, as best as they could figure, was during the time when Bended was a lone, scorned Weyr. He sat on a chair, thinking. Jora and Nemoth had just Impressed in his When, and he was shocked and disgusted to see all that Benden could have been. His blue Kairth was just as horrified.
Yolia and her green Borth were not from too far ahead; in fact, a younger girl called Yolia was a Candidate for the next Hatching. She requested that she stay to see her younger self Impress, and said that in her past nothing had been out of the ordinary and she recalled that on her Impression Day she had been greeted and complimented by a strange, familiar woman who then hurried away and she never saw again nor found out her name. Lessa and F'lar said that if that had been the case in her Past, their Present, then it must be so now, and consented.
Raia looked around her Benden Weyr, and confessed to the Present Weyrwoman that she could enjoy being to a Hatching, and seeing an Impression before she went. So all three were to stay, secret and out of contact, in the most remote parts of the Weyr.
"You know," Star commented when she, Lessa and F'lar were again seated alone in their personal weyr, "I really don't like time-travel. Not one bit." She was leaning her chin forward on her hands, propped up from the elbows on the table. "I'll never get used to it."
She sighed and reached out to touch her green fire lizard's wing. "All though I wouldn't miss these pretty things for the world." Star didn't notice as Lessa and F'lar traded looks.
"Do you think I could watch this Hatching thing? Or is it just for the friends and family of the people there?" This time she did see the Weyrleaders exchange glances, this time amused. "What?" she asked suspiciously.
"You may most certainly attend the Hatching," Lessa told her, trying not to smile, "but not as a guest; you are to stand on the Grounds as a Candidate for the eggs. You will make a wonderful Gold- or Greenrider, I'm sure."
For a minute Star just blinked. Then her face lit up and she stared at them. To- Impress? A dragon? It was more than she could have ever hoped for! To ride a dragon, like wonderful Ramoth or Joozith! To be bonded to a dragon for the rest of her days!
But suddenly her face fell. Her green, Vanya, crooned and rubbed her head along her human's jaw as blue Elzin and bronze Nivi watched, eyes spinning softly at her. They understood. However much she wished to be a dragonrider, she could not. Having three miniatures was bad enough –at least they could stay hidden back in Seattle– but a full-sized dragon…
No. She loved her home and it would take more even than a dragon of her own to make her leave it.
"I- thank you, more than you can imagine," she began haltingly. "But I can't stay here. I belong on my own world, with my parents and friends. It will be enough if you would allow me to observe the Hatching."
For some moments none of them said any more. At last F'lar began to laugh. "You know, girl," he told her, still chuckling, "that is probably the first time I've heard a person flat-out refuse to become a dragonrider, especially at Benden Weyr!"
"It shall keep us humble," commented his Weyrwoman dryly.
"I'm sorry, but I can't leave my family," Star told her. "Please understand."
"We do," Lessa told her gently, still smiling crookedly. "But you see, here, on this world, there are so few people who would not give almost anything and everything for the chance at Impression."
"I've got these things," Star waved at her three with an impish grin, "and that's quite enough for me."
000
Star was told she could sleep in an empty weyr for the night. She curled up with her fire lizard friends and fell asleep, touching gently on the thoughts of the dragons of Benden Weyr.
000
It was early morning when she woke. There was no particular reason why she was waken, she just was. No alarm sounded, no crash from an unscrupulous cook; she was just slept out.
The teenager pocked her friends awake and they shifted enough so she could slide out away from them. Vanya looked up at her and cheeped, sending hunger thoughts at her mistress. "Uh-oh," commented the girl, and she headed out of the empty weyr at a trot, trying to put herself in order and not look like she had just rolled out of bed. Which was exactly what she had done.
Within a few minutes she was absolutely lost. She looked around, figuring the first step was to find a set of stairs that would lead her down, hopefully to the Bowl of the Weyr. The strange baskets of small lights, Glows, she remembered they were termed, lit her path, and after wandering around for a while found some stairs leading down.
After a short time, while she tried to keep her fire lizards quiet as they pressed her for food, she could hear someone coming up the steps. "Hello?" she asked hesitantly. A young woman, only a few years older than she was herself, came around the bend. "Excuse me, but do you think I could find someplace my fire lizards and I could get some breakfast?"
The elder girl looked at her strangely, then shrugged, stopping on the stairs and catching her breath for a moment before replying suspiciously. "You don't know how to find the Kitchen Caverns?"
"I'm… not exactly familiar with Benden Weyr." Star shifted from foot to foot impatiently. "We're not from here, and they're only just hatched, you see."
"Still… Anyway, down the stairs and down the corridor, the end empties out into the Weyr Bowl. You do know how to get to the Kitchen Cavern from there?" When Star shifted uncomfortably she sighed. "Straight across the Bowl." The elder girl continued up the stairs past the younger, and Star went on her way down.
Star petted her fire lizards as she looked out from the end of the stairway and could see the outside. It was barely morning, she reflected. But perhaps today she could go home.
The night before she had been overwhelmed by homesickness, and only her fire lizards had kept her from depression. She desperately wanted to return home again as soon as may be. 'Assuming this whole time-travel thing's right, anyway. But as long as they get me back,' she decided, 'I don't really care what time they drop me off in.'
Then she shuddered and giggled. 'Within reason,' she thought. She didn't want to end up in the middle of the Jurassic Era, or during the last Ice Age. 'That would really, really, REALLY suck!'