Contrary to popular opinion, I have not dropped off the face of the planet; it just seems that way! I apologise for the massive delay since my last update, but Christmas is a very busy time of year!

I think this should be pretty obvious by now, but I do not own anything Pern-associated except my original characters.

"How can you have never seen a dragon before?" Drianne asked, staring at Elena in bemusement.

"Where I come from, there are no dragons," Elena explained.

"No dragons!" D'ron exclaimed. "Then who protects you from Thread when the Red Star comes close?"

Elena frowned and shook her head. "I don't understand what you mean by 'Thread' and 'Red Star'," she said. "The only thing we need protection from are Gongadu."

"What exactly are Gongadu?" Drianne asked.

"Like I told D'ron, Gongadu look like us, but they have six fingers on each hand," Elena explained. "They attacked the research team and destroyed our ship. D'ron said they killed his brother too. Haven't you ever seen them?"

Kandriken, who had been listening to the whole conversation with wide eyes, tugged on Drianne's sleeve. "Mamma," he whispered, "what's a research?"

Elena gaped. "You don't know what a research team is?" she exclaimed.

"I've heard the term before…" said B'kennor thoughtfully. "But where?"

"I know!" said Kennoran excitedly. "When you studied with AIVAS! The Ancients used it for groups of people sent to find out about things!"

"That's right!" said D'ron in amazement.

"Are you an Ancient?" Bria asked, staring at Elena.

"An Ancient?" she asked, puzzled.

"What she means is, do you come from Earth?" D'ron explained.

"Of course I come from Earth!" Elena laughed. "Where else would I be from?"

x

"So, all of you are the descendants of the lost Pern colony?" Elena asked incredulously. "We learnt about the colony as children, and how they lost contact with it not long after their arrival despite many searches."

"How could they not have found us?" D'ron asked, puzzled. "By the end of the First Pass, we had a thriving society, or at least so our records tell us."

"But it was in the North!" B'kennor exclaimed. "Remember? The Second Crossing? They would have only searched for survivors in the South, and even if they did search in the North, they wouldn't have looked in the caves our ancestors built the Holds in, because they wouldn't have understood the need to hide from Thread."

"That explains an awful lot," Elena mused. "I always thought it odd that an entire civilisation could disappear. But I still have some questions. First, what is Thread? And how am I going to get home to warn my people?"

"The first one, I'll leave the children to explain to you," Drianne said, standing and helping Elena up. "But they'll have to do it while you're in bed. You still need to rest."

"All right, all right," Elena laughed, waving dismissively. "I'm going!" She shuffled to the door, leaning on Kennoran, who was already beginning his explanation, and they were soon out of earshot.

Drianne sat again and leaned back in her chair. "Her second question, we'll need to figure out," she sighed, rubbing her temples, where faint strands of silver were beginning to appear.

"I would have thought that it was obvious!" D'ron exclaimed, thrusting himself out of his seat and pacing the room. "We need to go back with her!"

"How do you propose to do that, D'ron?" B'kennor snapped, getting frustrated.

"We can get a visualisation from Elena and go there a-dragonback, of course!" D'ron exclaimed.

"We'd need space suits so we could breathe," mused Drianne. "And maybe even tanks for the dragons, if the trip is as long as I think it is."

D'ron waved a hand dismissively. "Dragons can hold their breath for nearly fifteen minutes, Drianne. I don't think anywhere could be so far that it would take longer than that to get there between."

"If the problem is close by, then why do we need to tell Elena's people at all?" B'kennor asked. "It would be much easier to stop it here and never worry or involve them."

"But what about Elena?" D'ron demanded. "She obviously wants to go home. How are we going to get her there?"

"I think that will be a problem for another day," Drianne said gently. "Don't you think she'd want to help with the Gongadu problem before she goes?"

D'ron slumped in defeat, his sudden burst of energy spent. "I suppose so," he muttered.

"Well," B'kennor said, pushing himself to his feet, "I suppose the first step is to ask Elena to tell us as much as she can about the Gongadu. The more we know, the better we can plan."

x

Together, the three of them made their way over to the sickroom, where they found Kirkai, Kennoran and Riannor all competing to say everything they knew about Thread and Elena in the midst of it all, looking a little overwhelmed.

"Kirkai!" D'ron called over the noise, which began to die down as he spoke. "That's enough for now. It's nearly time for the midday meal, so can you please take the others to the kitchens and get enough food for all of us?"

"Sure!" Kirkai replied. "Let's go!"

The children left, Kennoran and Kirkai arguing about who was in charge as Riannor walked ahead of them, nose in the air, and Bria and Kandriken hurried to keep up. Elena slumped in a chair and heaved a sigh of relief.

"Thank you," she said wearily. "I'm not used to that many children around."

"They can be a little much, can't they?" Drianne said with a smile.

Elena fervently nodded her agreement as the others sat, which caused B'kennor to chuckle. Then his face became serious again.

"Elena, what can you tell us about the Gongadu?"

Elena sat up, and frowned in concentration. "Well, like I told you, we came to study the Wanderer's change in course…"

"The Wanderer?" Drianne asked.

"I think it's what you call the Red Star," Elena explained. "We were puzzled by the inexplicable shift in its orbit, and came to investigate possible causes. My ship, the Hispania, was specifically requested for the mission, as our captain was the brother of the research team's leader."

"When we landed, it seemed uninhabited. The only form of life we could find were frozen pods that not even our toughest instruments could break into. But after a day or two, we started to get the feeling that we were being watched. Then, one night, it happened."

"What?" B'kennor asked. "What happened?"

"We returned to the ship after an expedition to find that our guards had been captured, and we were all made prisoners of the Gongadu." She shivered. "When they captured us, they were tall, grey and had only a roughly humanoid shape. They had tentacles instead of arms, and their heads just ended in a blind point."

"I thought you said they looked like us?" B'kennor asked, puzzled.

"Not at first," she answered with another shiver. "They took us into a nearby cave system, and forced us to watch from the entrance as they blew up our ship. Then they demanded the most senior of us step forward, and they took the captain and his sister and… and…" She gulped, a look of nausea in her eyes. "With the information they gathered from the… scan, the Gongadu began to rebuild themselves to look like us."

"Then why do they have six fingers on their hands?" D'ron asked. "We don't."

"No, but the captain and his sister did," Elena explained. "They both had six fingers on each hand; it was a genetic defect that was very common in their family."

"Well, that makes them easier to find, and easier to destroy," said D'ron grimly, getting to his feet. "Let's go get them."

I'm working on the next chapter, and hope to have it finished soon. As always, reviews and ideas are much appreciated!