Beneath Sovereign Skies

by Bobmin356

Harry and the dragons fight to find their place and gain acceptance amidst growing international tensions. Not all is well and good as the Weyrs threaten established powers and offer new opportunities. Follow Harry and the dragons as they try to navigate increasingly turbulent waters of international politics, terrorism and intrigue. On indefinite hiatus.

5. Chapter 5

Standard Disclaimer:

Bob walked out onto the stage with a big box in his hands. "Do you mind telling me why you ordered 5000 athletic supporters?" he demanded.

Alyx looked up at him in confusion, she was struggling to move a large four blade airplane propeller to the corner of the room where a stack of eight propellers were slowly gouging a hole in the floor.

"Oh they finally arrived!" she exclaimed, "Put them in the corner with the other boxes."

Bob looked at the corner and saw a small mountain of boxes, all similar in size to the one he held in his hands, then he shook his head and sighed. "I know I'm going to regret asking, but you bought more than just this box of athletic supporters?"

Alyx grunted and shoved the propeller onto the stack. The floor groaned ominously and Bob moved away from that corner. He wasn't sure, but it did appear as if the stage was starting to tilt in that direction.

"Oh yes, I'm still waiting on the total shipment, they had to backorder it you know."

"Backorder?" Bob repeated weakly. "Couldn't you just write a standard disclaimer like I asked you? The readers will never know we don't own Harry Potter or the Dragonriders of Pern if you keep this up!"

Alyx shrugged. "Don't worry, after we're fabulously rich you'll be able to visit each one personally and tell them yourself. I'm sure the little buggers will be delighted to see you on their doorstep."

Bob glanced down at his outfit and noted the utility belt containing two tazers, an electric drill and a supercooled butt plug. The orange shorts and Aloha shirt didn't help either. "More like terrified," he muttered in reply. "Ok I'll bite, how are we going to become super rich?"

Alyx glared at him. "I'm going to be super rich, you are just going to have to do what I tell you so that you can hope to share some crumbs from my good fortune."

Bob's fists clenched, "Must not hit her," he said to himself while grinding his teeth, then he returned her glare. "Fess up or I'll replace your llamas with Emu's. I know you hate Emu's!"

Alyx placed both hands on her hips and glared back at him. "It's the world cup!" she stated as if no further explanation was necessary.

Bob blinked then he frowned and realized that she made him blink far too much. Too much blinking was bad for you! Just ask the people of Blink Virginia, a town that vanished in... well, a blink. "How is a soccer tournament in South America going to make you rich?"

Alyx paled dramatically. "Soccer? I thought it was the world cup! I never would have bought so many cups..." she trailed off and rubbed her chin thoughtfully for a minute. "I know, instead of cornering the market on cups, we'll market them as sling shots!"

Bob walked over to a wall and started to bang his head against it. A doorbell rang and Alyx looked up happily, "Oh goodie, another prop for my movie project!" she exclaimed.

Bob turned to the audience with a pleading expression. "Enjoy the chapter folks while I try to unload eighty thousand sling shots on Ebay. I wonder if I can sell them to Canada as Chipmunk houses?"

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Beneath Sovereign Skies
Chapter 05
Looming Disasters

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Island of Orø, Denmark, June 1st 1999...

Harry stood silently along with his riders. He had only brought five wings with him today, there hadn't been room enough to bring the entire manned compliment of Campbeltown. Originally the plan had been to bring just one wing, but Lee had convinced Harry that five wings would have a greater impact on the media.

One hundred dragons in a nice neat line that would have made a drill instructor proud, and beside each, their rider, dressed in the formal Campbeltown uniform. Even Harry had to admit, they looked damn good. The only riders not standing with their dragons were a select group standing with Harry on the raised platform in front of the assembled press and dignitaries.

Campbeltown now boasted eighteen wings of riders broken into four divisions. Each division comprised five wings, although division four was currently short by two wings and would remain that way until after the November impression.

It still amazed Harry, they had three hundred and eighty riders. He remembered when they had less than forty riders and seemed like there were so few of them. Still, there were less than one thousand riders even if you included all five manned Weyrs.

"Are you paying attention?" hissed May quietly.

Harry blinked and shook his head. "Sorry," he mumbled. He hadn't been paying attention. This was an important day and he was woolgathering. Today was the grand opening of the very first commercial power plant. It was capable of providing the city of Copenhagen and the surrounding communities with a significant amount of electricity and it would allow the Danish government to begin the ardous task of decomissioning an aging nuclear power plant.

May smiled and edged a little closer to him. Hermione on his other side glanced over at her and smiled. She had contacted May and read her the riot act about what she was doing. May had come to realize that what they had was precious and would only work if all three of them continually made the effort needed to keep it on track.

Hermione knew she could have been selfish and take advantage of May's absence, but she just didn't have that kind of maliciousness in her makeup. As much as Harry was missing May, so was Hermione.

May had returned to the Weyr that very night despite having told Harry she would be away for a few more days. She had been tearful and genuinely unhappy with herself when she arrived home. Harry had forgiven her instantly, but that didn't stop the tear filled three way hugs that ensued.

Since that day she always made it home in time for dinner. It was a painful experience for her and a learning one for everyone as they agreed that they needed to work harder to make sure no one was taken for granted. There would still be nights away on occasion, but everyone vowed to try to make as few as possible.

Harry looked around while the speaker spoke in a language he didn't understand. An interpreter was providing a running translation for the riders, but Harry had tuned her out. He was more interested in the large building in front of him.

It was an imposing building, easily several football field lengths long and taller than the Campbeltown hangars which had been designed to house long range bombers. A pair of cooling towers loomed over the large parking lot.

The bulk of the building was filled with huge turbines that created the electricity. The actual heating chambers that produced the high pressure steam that turned the turbines only took up a small section of the building.

"I thought only nuclear power plants had cooling towers like that," Hermione observed.

Harry smiled and shook his head. "No, according to the book Sir Robert gave me, towers like that are also found at coal powered plants. You just associate their characteristic shape with nuclear plants. Besides, the design was originally modified from a nuclear power plant design."

Hermione looked at him in surprise and he chuckled at her reaction. "What? I do read the material people hand me you know."

She shook her head and stammered, but he just smiled and nudged her with his shoulder. "I'm only teasing you," he said quietly.

She returned the smile and turned back to look at an area that had been set up especially for this day. The single heating chamber lay on the back of a large flatbed truck and a crane was already attached to the chamber. One side of the chamber was opened like a door and in a little bit the several of the dragons would blast the large granite slabs with dragon fire.

Nearby four other trucks held the remaining chambers that were supposed to be installed.

The plant would use a total five heat transfer chambers to power all of the turbines. This first chamber was being used to inaugurate the plant. The remaining four chambers would be moved into position, heated and them lifted into the building over the next four days.

Today was a publicity stunt that Harry had reluctantly agreed to at the prodding of Lord Mills and Lee Jordan. Heating the first chamber so publicly like this was a reminder to the world that this plant was special, it was a clean source of energy that would produce cheap electricity for years to come.

In order to maintain safety Harry had insisted that police and private guards keep everyone back from the heating chamber while the dragons heated the rock slabs. The last thing he wanted was an accident, or worse, to occur. Outside the plant gate a small but vocal group of protesters shouted and marched in circles while the police watched.

Once the rocks were heated to the correct temperature, the door would be closed and sealed and the crane would hoist the chamber up and into the building through a huge access panel in the roof of the building.

The heating chambers were modular and designed to be removed for servicing and repair. These chambers were part of the second set built under contract by the combined efforts of BP and Exxon. The first set were still waiting to be installed at the British power plant.

Harry recalled reading that the minimum life of a heating chamber would be thirty years. The hot rocks would continue to put out heat, but the chamber itself would require maintenance and refurbishing to ensure optimal performance.

The heating chamber was a very boxy affair and no one would call it pretty, but then it wasn't designed to be pretty, it was designed to transfer heat efficiently. The walls of the chamber were extra thick because they contained nearly a mile of piping that would be filled with water. As the water heated, it would turn to steam and build up tremendous pressure that would turn the steam turbines to generate electricity.

For this installation it had been decided that dragons would heat the slabs once they were installed in the chamber, then the chamber would be plugged into the power plant. There were safety concerns about moving loaded chambers, but plans were in place to provide a dragon ferry service for the heat chambers.

Some countries were insisting on ground transportation for the chambers, which limited their size. Harry hoped that in a few years people would become accustomed to dragons moving heavy loads so that they could move them to wherever they were needed.

The speaker up on the stage stopped talking and he gestured towards the flatbed truck containing the heating chamber.

"Weyrleader, when you're ready," said the translator helpfully.

Harry nodded to the woman, then he turned to Draco who stood nearby. "It's your turn Draco," he said softly.

Draco grinned and gestured. Several of the dragons from his wing broke formation and approached the open door of the heating chamber while Sinnath leapt skyward. Harry and Draco planned this carefully. Since this was being done publicly they decided to be a little showy about it.

Multiple TV camera crews strained trying to follow the dragons on the ground and the one in the air.

Two Chinese Fireballs lead the four dragon group that stopped about thirty feet from the truck. A siren sounded and the workers scrambled away from the truck. Even the crane operator left the cab of the crane and took shelter.

Sinnath circled overhead looking to see if any people were still nearby.

"It's all clear," Sinnath called. Draco nodded and signaled to one of the workmen who sounded a siren one last time. When the siren ended both Chinese fireballs spat blue-white balls of fire in rapid succession at the chamber and the metal container filled with fire. The crowd gasped in surprise at the precisely formed balls of fire. The Chinese fireballs split away after sending roughly five fireballs each and the other two dragons stepped forward to bathe the rock slabs with a steady stream of bluish white fire. For nearly a half minute they carefully controlled their fire, then they stopped and stepped back.

Harry nodded in satisfaction at their effort. The blueish electric corona around the dragon fire meant that the dragons wanted these rock slabs to stay hot for ever. Even the lightest fire that the dragons used to heat the pebbles under their sand beds had the tell tale corona.

Inside the metal chamber the rocks glowed a bright yellowish-red. The air in front of the open door roiled and curled, warping the view of the glowing rocks within the chamber.

Sinnath landed by the truck and used his head to swing the massive metal door closed. Once the door was shut workers ran forward and sealed the door with heavy bolts. The heat was still evident by the roiling air escaping from the piping that ran throughout the chamber walls.

It would take another three days of work once the chamber was in place before the power station could start generating power from that chamber. Water had to be carefully pumped into the piping and all the air bled out of the pipes, it was only then that the steam could be used to turn the turbines.

Applause filled the parking lot. This was the first time the public had seen the dragon's fire breathing abilities and the Weyr had made a show of it. The Chinese Fireballs had been there mostly for show, but it was a show that impressed everyone who witnessed it.

Harry smiled and nodded in approval to Draco. His dragons had performed wonderfully and now the Orø plant would soon be adding it's power to the national grid. If everything goes as planned, Denmark had a plan that would see them phasing out all other power plants within thirty five years.

The Special Committee for State Security, The Kremlin...

The man walked over and angrily snapped off the television. It had just repeated the clip from the opening ceremony of the Orø power plant in Denmark. He turned to the Energy Minister. "You are sure of this? They are reducing their order?"

The man nervously nodded and shuffled some papers. The Special Committee for State Security officially didn't exist, but it was the most powerful organization within the Russian government. "Yes Sergei, right now it's only a minor order reduction which could be attributed to the fact that we are going into summer now. Demand tends to flucuate during the transistional months before the summer heat hits."

"But you don't think so?" pressed the Minister of the Foriegn Intelligence Service. Behind the President, he was the most powerful man in the country and everyone knew that the president was terrified of the man. No one except the president understood that the Foriegn Intelligence Service was also a front for the Russian Ministry of Magic. The FIS had been subverted back during the Stalin era when it was still the NKVD and had remained under wizard control throughout the cold war and beyond.

"No Mishka," replied the Energy minister. "I don't think so. There is always some flucuation based on seasons, but this year it is bigger than usual. I think what we're seeing is the first impact from these damned dragon powered power plants. The current Danish plan is to decommission a 650 megawatt nuclear reactor and phase in this new 750 megawatt plant. That extra 100 megawatts allows them to reduce output at one of their natural gas plants. All total we're looking at less than a one percent reduction from their summer purchases. This is the first time I can positively say these dragons have affected us. And I fear it's only going to get worse."

"Without that income our economy will grind to a halt!" exclaimed the Finance Minister. He pounded a meaty fist against the table causing the cups to rattle. Russia was heavily dependent upon its exports of natural gas and oil products to other countries. "What can be done about this?"

"Are there any of these creatures on our soil?" asked the president quietly.

"There were. We have long heard whispers about sightings of these creatures, but until recently have dismissed them as the gibbering of drunks," admitted Mishka Danakov guardily. Danakov was the Minister for Magic and knew that they once had a dragon reserve. Unfortunately he couldn't readily admit that a secret society had been raising the beasts within their territory. "Perhaps we should reexamine those reports and see if they can be located."

The president stood and looked around. "It it too early to say how bad this problem is. If we have any of these creatures perhaps we can catch some and use them to learn how to discredit the others. I know this demands action my friends, but we must be patient and cautious. It would not do to act without due consideration and deliberation. When Russia acts I want us to be able to do so from a position of power and inpunity."

"We will not be alone in our outrage Mister President. Our contacts abroad have suggested that several of the other oil producing nations are greatly concerned," offered the Foriegn Minister.

The president nodded, then he turned to the Energy Minister. "You will monitor this situation carefully. Find out how many of these plants are being built and what nations this will affect. Surely we are not the only ones that will be affected by these creatures and their damned rocks," he ordered.

Turning to Danakov, he lowered his tone. "You will seek out these dragons if they are in our territory yes?"

Danakov looked at him for a long moment, then he nodded. He knew taking this move would turn a great many of the ICW member nations against them. He would have to act and make it seem like the Russian Ministry of Magic was not involved. This was something that would have to be planned carefully, the dragons were garnering a lot of support in the ICW. It would not do invoke that ire on mother Russia.

First things first, find out if the old Russian preserve still housed dragons. It had been warded and hidden, so he'd have to send out people to find and break those wards.

Campbeltown Weyr, August 17th 1999...

It was the sound of the phone ringing incessantly that brought Harry to a waking state.

"Hullo?" May said groggily. She listened for a moment, then abruptly sat up in bed and swung her feet over to touch the floor.

Harry lifted his head and glanced at the clock. It wasn't quite six in the morning but just from May's posture he knew something bad had happened.

"How bad?" asked May, sounding more awake.

Harry frowned and Hermione sat up in the bed.

"I see. The airports are all closed? And the roads too?"

Harry exchanged a worried look with Hermione, she nodded and slid sideways on the bed. Harry moved around her and stood up, slipping his feet into slippers and putting on a robe.

May scribbled something down on a pad next to the phone. "Yes, Hangar twenty two, Heathrow. We'll be there. Is someone sending the jump photographs?"

Harry frowned, that meant they were going to someplace they hadn't been before. This was a new technique, but one that they had worked out with the Royal Coast Guard. Someone would take a digital photograph of an area and email it to the Weyr. Providing the camera had sufficient resolution the picture would be suitable for a lone dragon to make the jump. That dragon would then transmit the live jump imagery to the Weyr and they could be on the scene of a disaster in just seconds after the first dragon arrived.

The technique had already proven itself at sea.

"Yes yes, thank you, we'll be there, don't worry," May said, then she hung up the phone and turned towards Harry. "Turkey has been hit with a heavy earthquake. Airports in the region are too heavily damaged and there's only one open road. The Turkish government is asking for international help; they are predicting thousands of deaths.

She glanced down at her quickly scribbled notes. "The Red Cross will have one hundred containers of emergency supplies at Heathrow in about two hours. As we speak trucks are already heading to the warehouses to pick them up. They are asking for our help in transporting them and rescue workers to the disaster area."

Hermione walked over and turned on the small television they kept in the bedroom. She set it to an all news channel which was airing a report on the disaster. Harry glanced over at the TV noting the wreckage and utter chaos of injured and panicked people and his expression soured. He motioned to Hermione to mute the TV and she did.

"Division three will handle the cargo lift. Division two will help transport rescue workers. Division four is two wings light and has the least experienced people. Let's keep them here as a ferry reserve in case they are needed. We'll take division one directly to the jump site and see if we can find a spot to set up and start relief efforts," he said.

Harry led division one which was made up of the most seasoned riders. Ronan had been promoted to divisional leader for Division two, Wing One. Bob Malwich had replaced Ronan as Harry's wing second.

"Dobby!" Harry called.

Dobby appeared with a pop, yawning. "Harry Potter sir?"

Harry smiled. "I'm sorry for waking you Dobby, but you remember when we practiced that disaster drill a few months ago?"

Dobby's large eyes widened even larger than normal and he nodded. "Is it time then Harry Potter sir?"

"I'm afraid so. Wake up the elves and start them moving the supplies we packed away out to the tarmac," Harry said.

Dobby nodded and vanished with a pop.

"Cheki are you awake big fellow?" Harry called through the open door of the bedroom.

"How can we sleep with you chatting away so loudly this morning," replied his dragon sleepily. "Shall I wake the Weyr?"

Harry turned to May. "Well?"

May nodded slowly, she was thinking furiously. She had been one of the prime people behind the idea of aligning the Weyr with the Red Cross for major disaster relief. But like most disasters, they never happened when you expected them and the suddenness of it caught her by surprise.

"If division one is leaving after getting the jump image we might as well. The elves can't come with us and there's several tons of firewood, food and medical supplies we need to move right away. It'll take at least two hours before Heathrow is ready for us with supplies and people to ferry," she replied slowly.

The Weyr had pre-positioned material that they could use to set up a forward working base, including tents, a small field kitchen and satellite radios to contact the Red Cross back in Britain.

May waited for a moment and wondered why both Harry and Hermione were looking at her. Then it dawned on her. "Oh," she said softly and flushed slightly. She quickly turned and picked up the phone and dialed a three digit number. "Cindy? Oh good, I thought you would have the duty this morning. Yes I know what time it is. Sound the disaster alarm, get everybody up."

She paused and listened for a moment. "Yes I understand, but this isn't a drill. There's been an earthquake; a bad one, in Turkey," May said a little more forcefully.

May paused again and they could hear a loud horn sounding across the Weyr. The same switch that sounded the alarm also activated flood lights in front of the weyr housing complex and the tarmac where the elves were placing supplies.

Harry turned just in time for Hermione to hand him a large color photo. "This just came in; they said they will continue sending an image every couple minutes."

Harry nodded and hurried to throw on his flight suit; the photo had a very limited lifespan. If he waited too long, the jump would involve time travel and he wanted to avoid that at all costs. "I'll send a jump image as soon as you let me know Division One is ready to go," he said.

All three could hear the dragon door opening in the side of their house as their dragons moved out of the build. Chekiath would wait for Harry while the others went to their assigned positions.

Izmit, Northwestern Turkey, August 17th 1999...

Harry and Chekiath popped out of Between over a scene that Dante would have been proud of. Barely a single building was standing and fires were everywhere. Thick heavy smoke choked the air over the city and Chekiath pumped his wings hard, trying to rise above the choking smoke.

He could see stunned masses of people wandering about aimlessly below as if they couldn't comprehend the scope of the disaster that had been visited upon them. The sound of the burning buildings competed with the sound of injured and grieving people below. Hell would sound like this, Harry thought to himself.

"This is bad," Harry murmured. He had never seen such devastation like this before. "Cheki we need to find an open area where we can land supplies. That field hospital they want us to move is pretty big."

"I'm looking Harry, but there are an awful lot of hurt people down there that need help."

Harry shivered and nodded. "I know mate but we can't help anyone until we set up a place to work from."

The dragons as a whole had a hard time with the concept of not helping people in need. In the case of the disaster below them, Harry knew Cheki wanted to go help, but one lone dragon wouldn't be able to help many. Disaster relief needed time to gear up before people could be helped, and the dragons needed their riders to help them focus on that issue. It also explained why Harry had no intention of asking the non-bonded dragons to help.

The large dragon quickly and silently flew over the ruined city. They flew for several minutes more before Chekiath said, "There Harry, to the right, there's a large building and a big open field. It's got a stream running next to the field."

Harry picked up the spot and eyed it through Cheki's eyes. The spot appeared to be a large sports field next to a school and it was on the edge of the city. The school appeared to be mostly intact from what Harry could see, although he doubted there was a single intact pane of glass in the entire building.

There was a major road nearby but it looked heavily buckled, it would be usable only after someone brought in some heavy equipment. On the plus side, assuming the field wasn't a field of mud, there was room for the field hospital and room for helicopters and dragons to land. The stream appeared to be nearly ten feet below the level of the field so he was hoping for a dry field.

"It's the best we've seen so far Cheki, let's land and check the ground. We need to make sure the quake didn't turn that field into a swamp."

As part of the Weyr's Red Cross disaster training, they had been taught what to expect from an earthquake. When the ground shakes, often a process called liquefaction occurs which can turn a dry field into a muddy mess in just a handful of minutes. For the field to be useful, it had to be dry and solid.

Chekiath banked hard and swooped in low across the field before flaring out and dropping lightly to the ground.

"Feels dry and firm," he announced.

Harry nodded and swung a leg over one side to slide down. He lightly dropped to the ground and looked around. He reached down and touched the ground. The field hospital needed dry ground to pound in the stakes; he was relieved to see the ground was firm and very dry. He had been worried that the nearby stream would have meant enough ground water to make the field useless.

Harry looked around, other than the school, most of the nearby buildings were little more than rubble piles and even the school had large cracks in it. He immediately ruled out using the school for anything other than a landmark. The building was mostly intact, but laced with large cracks at one end and probably very unstable.

A large group of people were cautiously approaching Harry and his dragon.

"Harry," Chekiath said in warning.

Harry stepped in front of his dragon and held up his hands. "Does anyone here speak English?" he asked, not expecting anything but blank looks.

"I do," said a soft voice.

Harry turned to see a small boy of perhaps ten or eleven step out of the small crowd. "My father teaches English at the school," said the boy, and then he waved in the direction of the badly damaged building.

The boy was shirtless, wearing only ripped pajama bottoms. A large cut on his shoulder slowly oozed blood and it was surrounded by a heavy purple black bruise and caked with plaster and mud. Harry knelt in front of the boy. "Will you tell the others that help is coming? Soon, there will be a hospital here, and food and clothing. More dragons are coming with doctors, nurses and rescue workers."

The boy nodded and turned to the others. He spoke for a bit then an older gray haired man stepped forward and said something to the boy. He turned to Harry. "He asks what can we do? Everything is gone."

Harry tried to smile reassuringly at the man. "Tell him to just wait for now. Help is coming very soon, doctors, nurses, people and machines to look for survivors. If you aren't hurt you can help us find survivors or help us organize the relief center we'll be setting up. If you are injured, just be patient, medical aid is coming as quickly as possible."

Harry knew that Chekiath could have told the people that, but this wasn't the time to introduce these people to dragon telepathy. He waited until the boy spoke to the others, then the older man turned and gestured to the crowd. He seemed to have some measure of authority because they listened intently to him then they started to move to the side.

Harry nodded in thanks to the man, and then he turned his attention back to the boy. He reached for his canteen and small first aid kit clipped to his belt. He had taken the basic first aid classes that the Red Cross taught and knew he couldn't do much, but he could clean and put a bandage on that wound until a doctor could deal with it.

"What's your name?" he asked gently.

"Malik Demir, my father is Giyas the teacher," replied Malik.

Harry nodded. "I'm going to clean that cut and put a bandage on it Malik. It's going to hurt, but we need to wash the dirt from it."

The boy nodded and looked away while Harry poured some of his water over the wound washing away the grime and plaster. Harry tried to be gentle, but Malik trembled and moaned softly from the pain.

"It will be over soon Malik," Chekiath said. "Harry doesn't want you hurting."

Malik turned and looked at Chekiath with wild eyes. "He spoke to me!" The surprise of the dragon speaking to him was enough to distract the boy from the pain of his injury.

Harry laughed lightly as he dabbed at the wound, then reached for a large bandage. "My friend here is called Chekiath and if you give him the chance he'll talk your ears off. He's my best friend."

"My father is my best friend," Malik replied then he closed his eyes and tried not to let Harry see his tears.

"Where is your father?" Harry asked, but he was fairly certain he already knew the answer.

"The house fell on him," Malik said in a monotone. The boy was suffering from an emotional shock as well as a physical one.

Harry felt a chill run down his back and he wondered just how many houses had fallen on people in this beleaguered city. "And your mum?"

"She works for the Ministry up in Istanbul. I hope she's not hurt."

Harry carefully taped the large gauze pad over the cut, then he peeled off his jacket and wrapped it around the boy. "You are very brave little boy and I know she's going to be very proud of you. I'm going to need your help since I don't speak Turkish. Do you mind staying with Chekiath and me for a bit?"

Malik looked up at Harry, then he looked at Cheki and nodded. He had nowhere else he could go anyway and Harry had told them to wait.

"Harry, May is asking for jump imagery. Division one is already airborne. Divisions two and three will leave for the airplane place once they get word that they are ready for them," Chekiath said.

"Pass them the jump image Cheki," Harry said silently, then he bent over to look Malik in the eye. "Look up there," he said pointing to an empty spot in the sky. "Help is coming, friends are coming to help you and everyone else."

Malik gasped in surprise as the one hundred dragons of division one appeared enmass. Wing one peeled out of formation and started to spiral down to where Harry stood. Harry noted that many of the dragons in his wing were carrying large bundles of wood. They would set up small fires which they would use for their small kitchen. It wasn't much and wasn't meant to replace what the Red Cross was bringing in but it would be enough for them to start passing out cups of hot soup to the survivors while others organized the field for the real help that was still assembling.

The older gray haired man approached and he spoke to the boy. After a minute Malik turned to Harry, "Mr. Aslan wants to know what they can do to help."

Harry turned to the older man, he spoke slowly so that Malik could repeat his words in Turkish. "We are the first of three groups of dragons coming to help. The next group will take an hour or two to get here and will be bringing a field hospital and rescue workers from the United Kingdom. Perhaps an hour after that, there will be another group of dragons bringing in supplies, tents, food, blankets, tools. Right now we need to prepare the field so that the tents can be set up and make space for a helicopter landing site. After that we'll need to start clearing away the rubble from the south side of the field and shoring up that section of the school," he said, pointing to the spot where pieces of the school had collapsed into the field. It was a section of the building where the cracks had grown so big that bits of the building fell onto the adjacent field. The last thing they needed would be for more of the building to collapse into the field.

The man listened to Malik for a moment nodding, then he replied to the boy. Malik turned to Harry. "Mr Aslan says he knows of a business nearby that owns a bulldozer and other heavy machines. He could take some men and see if they can bring them here."

Harry nodded gratefully. "Please, that would be a big help."

Aslan nodded and turned towards the growing crowd shouting to them. Nearly a dozen men separated from the group and trotted after the old man.

Harry watched for a moment then he turned to see May and Hermione standing nearby. Hermione held a large duffel bag with supplies needed to set up a landing marker for helicopters. "Hermione, take five riders from your wing and go over there to set up your landing site. Make sure they clean away the debris by at least one hundred feet," he ordered.

She nodded and moved back towards where the Wing two riders were standing around. Harry couldn't blame them. The scope of the disaster was daunting and even Harry couldn't see how his dragons could help these people enough to matter. "Chekiath, get them moving," Harry ordered then he turned to May. "This is way out of our league May. Lisa Turpin is our best people medic and she's not going to be able to do much more than what I did for Malik here. Find the best spot in the field and put down the markers for where the hospital will go. The same rules apply, clear away the debris, especially anything sharp. Tell Draco to get the kitchen going and set up some fires. We're going to need them when it gets dark."

May nodded and smiled at Malik who watched them all with a bewildered expression. Suddenly comprehension dawned and he looked up at Harry. "I've seen you on television," he stated.

Harry smiled at the boy, "That's right; I've been on TV a few times. Why don't you sit with Cheki and keep him company for now. I have a bunch of people to talk to, but I'm sure I'm going to need you to translate for me again."

Malik nodded and walked over to Chekiath. "Can I sit with you? You are a nice dragon right?"

Chekiath eyed the small boy for a moment, his eyes heavily streaked with green and yellow. Chekiath laid down, stretching his front paws out in front of him. "Of course I'm a nice dragon, but all of us are nice. You can lean against my legs. And be careful of your shoulder."

Harry chuckled, and then he turned and went over to talk to Lee Jordan. He wanted Lee to take some dragons and survey the city from the air. He knew Lee would be videotaping as much as possible and he'd also be able to show on a map where the worst spots were. Although Harry didn't see how anything could be worse than it already was. The city looked like it had been bombed.

Harry kept an eye on Chekiath and Malik as he directed his riders, but when the boy fell asleep Harry let Cheki watch over him until the medical staff arrived; then he brought a nurse over to check him out. Harry was worried that the shoulder might be broken.

He lost track of Malik after a nurse took him into the tent where they were setting up a portable x-ray machine.

For the riders this was one of the most grueling and heart breaking things they had ever done. Once the Red Cross people arrived and took over assembling the hospital and relief center, the dragons and their riders headed out into the city proper to help the search and rescue crews.

Their ability to sense people greatly hastened the search for trapped survivors. Occasionally the dragons would even get the chance to help move the rubble out of the way when the searchers thought it was safe. It wasn't uncommon to see a dragon moving a heavy beam or even lifting some large debris so that rescuers would crawl underneath it looking for survivors.

Nearly eighteen hours later Harry stumbled back into the field along with Bob Malwich. They had spent the day marking buildings that had people trapped. The day had been exhausting physically and emotionally. Despite his heavy gloves, his hands were raw and cut from tearing at loose rubble. Sometimes Cheki would stop by a house and tell him that the person inside was close to dying. He couldn't help himself then, he would tear at the rubble while shouting for others to help him. Normally he was supposed to wait for people who have been trained to extricate trapped victims.

He helped pull three people from the wreckage, but only one of them survived long enough to get medical attention. And the worst part was he would never know if the little old lady had survived or not. She was just another injury among thousands. He had lost count of the number of bodies he had seen, it was like his mind pushed it aside after the first dozen or so. He couldn't help the dead, but finding the living was something they could do.

Flood lights lit the field and the number of people astounded him. A set of tents had been set up for rescue workers to kip out in. Nearby a steady stream of military helicopters landed, unloaded rescue workers or material and loaded wounded then lifted off to head to hospitals that were in good shape.

Other than the field hospitals set up by the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, there wasn't a single operating hospital in the city of Izmit. The Red Crescent was still setting up, they had chosen a parking lot across the city which had to be cleared of damaged cars. In Harry's absence, Ronan had detailed a wing to move the cars out of the lot, and also bring in one of the four working bulldozers they had available.

Not too far from the makeshift helipad a steady stream of dragons arrived bringing containers which were quickly unloaded by volunteers from the uninjured survivors. Empty containers were then lifted by dragons to be returned for refilling. Campbeltown was moving supplies from over a dozen countries, as the scope of the disaster became known, the Red Cross asked the dragons to move more and more supplies from around the world.

The other Weyrs around the world joined the effort by moving material to central collection points where Campbeltown wings could pick them up. Harry would have asked them to help more directly, but space was limited and he already had over three hundred dragons helping in the affected region.

A veritable mountain of supplies was building up nearby and Rescue workers from ten countries handed out blankets and clothing at a frantic pace. Night had fallen and it was getting cold.

Harry averted his eyes away from the activity at the far end of the field. A temporary morgue was set up there and seemed to be doing more business than the field hospital. He had been informed in their disaster preparedness classes that as the day went on, there would be fewer injuries and more corpses. It was the grisly nature of major natural disasters.

Harry shuffled into one of the rest tents and an aid worker looked up and gave him a tired smile. "Would you like something to eat or just want a place to sleep for a bit?" asked the man.

Harry blinked owlishly at him and the man chuckled. "How about you lay down in bunk fifteen for a bit. I'll wake you in about four hours and have something ready for you to eat."

Harry nodded and let the man show him to a bunk and he collapsed into the bunk.

"Sleep Harry, I'll be nearby," Chekiath said softly.

Harry paused with his head just above the pillow. During the day he had lost track of what wing riders had been doing as they fanned out to find and mark places for rescuers to dig. "Is everyone alright mate?" he asked tiredly.

"May and Hermione are sleeping in the other tent. Everyone is fine. Garanoth says Ronan had to order Luna to return to the Weyr several hours ago. She was quite upset."

Harry blinked in surprise. "Trandieth, is Luna still upset?" he sent silently.

"The healer gave her a potion to sleep Weyrleader. She's sleeping now. All those hurt people upset her greatly," replied the dragon up in Campbeltown.

Harry nodded to himself. Luna was a strange duck even among the riders and she had abilities that were hard to define. Her abilities with animals gave her a great deal of empathy and he could understand all the pain and hardship surrounding them upsetting her.

"Call me or Cheki if she's still upset in the morning. I'm sorry, I should have realized this would affect her," he muttered tiredly

"You couldn't have known Weyrleader, even I didn't know it would bother her. But I'll call you if need be. Glamiath is also listening in for Jack"

Harry nodded, Luna's Trandieth hadn't been picked as a consort yet by any dragon, but Jack Bruno's Glamiath seemed likely to win her over. Right now she was enjoying being the Weyr's free spirit too much. Jack and Luna had been together prior to their dragon's first shagging flight and it wasn't uncommon to see her with Jack.

"Right then, I'll just get some sleep," he murmured. "G'night Trandieth, Cheki."

He lowered his head against the pillow and sleep claimed him almost immediately. One of the rescue workers on a nearby bunk looked up from pulling his boots on and shook his head. "Poor bugger is talking to himself. We really need to start looking at the psychological effects disasters have on our people."

Nearly five hours later Harry woke slowly to the smell of someone waving hot coffee under his nose.

"You awake mate?" asked the man in charge of the tent. "I'm sorry to wake you, but we're short on beds and there are others that need to rest also. There's a plate with some sandwiches by the front table."

Harry sat up and nodded. "I'll be more awake after I have that coffee."

The man laughed and handed Harry the cup. He nodded in thanks and stood up. Nearby another man stood looking at Harry and the bed hopefully. He held some clean sheets in his hands.

Harry stepped away from the bed and muttered, "It's all yours," then he walked to the exit. He stopped only long enough to grab a sandwich and quickly down it.

"You awake Cheki?" he asked softly.

"I haven't slept much Harry, it's too noisy with all the machines. I don't really like this place," Cheki replied. "There is so much hurt and unhappiness here."

Harry grimaced and suppressed a chuckle. "I don't think anyone likes this place right now big guy even the people that grew up here. I'm sure it was much nicer before the earthquake."

"I hope so," Cheki said dubiously, "Malik was here for a while, and then a man came by and took him away to one of the helicopter things. Malik says they contacted his mother and she would meet him at the hospital where they are taking the injured. I had May talk to Malik and get his information. He is a potential candidate when he comes of age."

Harry nodded, he had suspected that Malik might be a possible rider candidate, but had pushed that aside. They were there to help with a disaster, not search for rider candidates. Turkey had no native dragons and there were no plans of creating a Weyr in the country. Malik would be listed in their roles and asked if he'd like to attempt impressing when he was old enough.

Harry sipped his coffee and stretched while he stood just outside of the tent. "Good enough, is there anything else?"

"May and Hermione are off with a group that are checking out a village 20 miles from here. They were requesting help. And Lisa says that four riders received injuries trying to dig for survivors. She's sent them all back to the Weyr. The worst injury was Fred Hayes who broke his arm when a wall fell on him."

"And the others?" Harry asked.

"Lisa said two were bad cuts and one bad burn from a fire."

Harry grunted sourly, burns were becoming an occupational hazard in the Weyr. A number of riders had received burns because they had gotten too close to dragons making hot rocks, or heating up other substances. Another source of burns came from part of their training which now included in-flight flaming. It was part of their defensive and weapons training. Occasionally a dragon would flame at the wrong angle and the rider would get badly singed before the dragon could correct the error.

Harry didn't bother to ask, he already knew that a rider had risked himself to rescue someone and had gotten burned for his efforts. He shook his head, but he really couldn't be angry, his own hands were cut and sore from attempting to dig people out from under the rubble. "Alright, ask Lisa to keep me informed. In the meantime I'm going over to the command tent to see what else we can do."

"Alright Harry," replied Cheki. "Most of our wings are out helping, except for those sleeping in one of the tents."

A large tent had been erected next to the field hospital. There were a dozen antennas sprouting from behind the tent and in front someone had rigged up a flag pole that held the Turkish national flag.

Harry grunted in acknowledgment to Cheki and stepped into the darkened interior of the command tent run jointly by the Turkish government and the relief organizations. Both the Red Crescent and the Red Cross had people present helping organize the relief efforts. A group of people were huddled over a table loaded with maps conversing quietly and in one corner a man spoke with someone using a short wave radio. Several televisions were on, but muted, playing out scenes from various locations in the disaster area. The interior of the tent was darkened and strangely quiet compared to the organized chaos outside.

Harry looked around, and then he spotted David Wilson, one of the British Red Cross representatives and the only person he recognized in the room. He stepped over to Wilson who was examining the maps with the others.

"We have to do something," someone said in a British accent. "What about the army? Can't they bulldoze a way through or something?"

Wilson shook his head. "The roadway is too unstable and the bridge is damaged. The aftershocks have damaged it even more and they are afraid to put too much weight on it. An army engineering unit is coming, but they won't be on the scene until the day after tomorrow and it will take weeks to repair the bridge if another aftershock doesn't knock it down first."

Harry stepped closer. "What's the problem?"

The men looked up in surprise and Wilson's expression turned to one of relief. "Weyrleader! Thank goodness, you and your dragons might just be able to solve our problem."

He pointed to a map. "This is the one operational road heading into Izmit. It was damaged but generally intact enough for light traffic and then an aftershock weakened it further. Now the bridge is not safe for any kind of traffic and we have a fifty truck convoy of potable water backed up on the other side of the bridge unable to proceed. The bridge isn't far, but with it being unsafe that water might as well be on the moon. We need to bring in that water, bottled water isn't adequate for all our needs."

Harry looked down at the map. "Is the road on the other side of the bridge safe for the trucks?"

"Yes, it's just this bridge that is blocking the convoy. There have been a number of aftershocks and one of the Army engineers says the bridge is in danger of collapse if we put too much of a load on it. An army engineering unit is rushing to the area that can effect repairs, but they won't be here for few days. And even when they do arrive it will take a week or more to stabilize the bridge for heavy traffic."

"Many of our wings are already busy with rescue duties Harry," Chekiath cautioned. Several of the men in the tent suddenly looked up in surprise.

Harry nodded and then he glanced towards one wall of the tent. "Cheki, is Division four still idle?"

"Yes Harry, they are still in the Weyr."

"Alert them. I'll be sending them jump imagery in a short while. Once that's done, meet me outside the tent and we'll follow the road until we find the convoy," Harry said.

"I'll be right there."

Harry turned back to Wilson and smiled. "We'll move your trucks for you."

Several men exchanged relieved looks. An older man who wore military uniform bowed to Harry. "Allah's blessing on you and your dragons Weyrleader. Turkey is grateful for your help and your friendship."

Harry bowed slightly to the man. "The Weyr is dedicated to protecting mankind sir. It is our duty and our honor to be able to help."

He turned and strode from the tent. The others seemed struck dumb by Harry's words and it was impossible to ignore the sound of huge wings flapping as Chekiath came to an easy landing in front of the command tent.

The old man turned to Wilson and gave him a tight smile. "I was skeptical when your country announced the existence of dragons. But I have heard the stories of dragons helping save lives and have seen for myself their ability to move huge quantities of material. Some nations think that Allah would not approve of such beings, but I think they are very wrong. Your nation blessed the world when you gave us such friends."

Wilson smiled at the Minister of the Interior and personal representative of the Turkish President. "Sir I couldn't agree more with you. The dragons and their riders ask only one thing in return. They want to be friends, and to be treated as equals."

The Interior Minister nodded thoughtfully. "I will tell this to my government. If I have my way, dragons and their riders will be welcome within our borders from now on."

Wilson smiled encouragingly, then he turned back to the map as the discussion turned to the more somber topic of setting up a site for a mass grave.

Campbeltown Weyr, August 25th, 1999...

An exhausted Harry slid down from his position and dropped to the tarmac. Division one was the last group of dragons to leave the disaster zone and he was glad to be home. He looked forward to a long hot soak in his tub and an uninterrupted night's sleep in his own bed.

"Welcome home."

Harry glanced up to see Lord Mills standing nearby. "Welcome home Harry."

Harry smiled tiredly at the man. "Thanks James, but I hope you don't have any pressing business. Right now all I want to do is crawl into a bath and a bed."

James chuckled. "No, no pressing business lad, but I was wondering if you've spoken much with Lee in the past few days?"

Harry's eyes narrowed and he shook his head. "No. Should I have?"

James chuckled and shook his head. "You know Harry; you are just about the only person I know that almost never watches the telly."

Harry frowned. "James, I've been a bit busy to worry about what's on the telly."

James held up a hand placatingly. "I know lad, and your Lee has been recording every second of it and then sharing it with the world press. The earthquake was a disaster and the world viewed the disaster from the back of a dragon. We've been getting mail by the ton since Lee started sharing his video feed with the BBC. They watched as Luna had to return to the Weyr in tears, and watched when Jack Bruno pulled that infant from under the rubble. They saw your tears when one person you pulled from under buildings was dead and they saw dragons pulling carts with drums of drinking water through devastated streets. In short the world saw dragons in a whole new light and you've advanced your cause by an inestimable amount."

Harry smiled tiredly. "That's great James, and maybe tomorrow we can see how we can use the good publicity to our benefit. Right now all I want is a bath and a bed."

"Us too," Hermione said from behind him.

Harry swiveled his head and smiled at her and May. May stepped closer and looped her arm with his. "Sorry James, but I stink and I want to do something about it. Come on Harry, you're getting ripe also." Showers had been available at the relief camp, but it had been nearly three days since Harry had a chance to do more than wash his hands and face.

"And you need a shave," Hermione offered.

Harry had a tendency towards a heavy five o'clock shadow and after nearly a week without shaving he had a respectable start on a heavy beard.

Harry nodded and followed the two girls as they led him towards their quarters. James shook his head in amazement, but he couldn't fault the riders. They had spent the last week working a grueling schedule while he remained here in Scotland and saw the outpouring of world wide support for dragon-kind flood in.

The rescue effort was still ongoing in Turkey and it would take years for the region to recover, but the dragons had done their part while the world watched. James turned and headed for his office in the administration building, he still had more mail to deal with before he could present it to Harry and the others.

Irtysh river Weyr, Central Russia, September 10th, 1999...

Irina Clasovich settled to the ground and stepped off her broom. She stretched and looked around for a moment, just taking in the scenery. It was the bank of the Irtysh river. In this area the river had cut a path between some hills. She stood on a sandy open spot but most of the river banks were stony fields that made footing treacherous.

She listened for a moment but heard nothing to indicate any dragons, or any wildlife for that matter. She reached into her robes and withdrew a wand and cast a few spells then she frowned at the results.

According to her map, the old dragon reserve should be somewhere nearby. The Weyr was unplottable, but in the ministry records, there existed a single small map which contained its location. The Weyr had been erased from the map, but since the map covered such a small region it was possible she could find the wards by doing random spot checks like she was doing now. This was her twentieth casting of the morning.

She cast a stronger sensor spell and it immediately pinged back, signaling there was a heavily warded area nearby. She frowned at her wand, as one of the Ministry of Magic top warding specialists she was unused to getting such a vague reading from her detection spell. There was a ward was nearby, but the spell failed to show a direction. Only the most powerful wards could confuse her sensor spell like this.

Small specks appeared over the hilltop and made their way towards her at high speed. The Ministry wanted to locate the old reserve and they wanted desperately to capture several dragons. The fact that there was a large warded area nearby suggested that the dragons were still here, now it was Irina's job to find them and break down the wards.

She was still casting when twenty more wizards arrived on broom and came to a landing nearby. She nodded to the lead Auror of the ten man squad, then she turned to her assistant. The aurors were armed with weapons similar to strangler globes which the ministry hoped would allow the small force to subdue the beasts.

Originally the plan had been for a force of more than two hundred Aurors, but the ministry felt that a force that size was too easily detectable.

"Katarina, we're going to need to set up a ritual circle. There is a warded zone nearby, but it's obviously unplottable."

"Da Senior Warder Clasovich," replied the small blond woman.

Irina smiled, Katarina was close to becoming her apprentice, she had a lot of talent, but her taste in men was the only thing holding Irina back from taking her under her wing. She preferred her apprentices female and willing bed partners.

Irina turned to the Aurors. "Senior Auror, there is a heavily warded area nearby. I think we are very close to the original site of the reserve and there are dragons here still. Warn your men to be cautious and to keep an eye out, the ability to apparate means the dragons can be on us without warning."

The Auror nodded gravely. He had two different jobs here and he didn't like that. He was supposed to capture some dragons, his men had been practicing with the weapons for that purpose, and his second task was to protect the Ministry's best warding team. The ministry didn't have many ward breakers and these were the very best mother Russia had.

Katarina stepped over to a flat stretch of sand along the river and began to cast the spells needed to prepare the area for a ritual circle.

Feynith turned towards Chekiath. Both dragons sat on a nearby hilltop while Harry observed the wizards below. A few feet away from the two senior dragons sat Ronan and the other divisional leaders of Campbeltown.

"This is troublesome Weyrleader," Feynith observed.

"It is," Harry replied silently. He scowled heavily, it was obvious that the wizards were getting ready to make an attempt at the wards. This was a problem that he had been expecting for a while, but now that it was upon them, he wasn't sure what do to about it.

"What should we do Weyrleader? We can take them Between," Feynith offered.

"No, I don't think I want us to kill if we can avoid it," Harry replied. "If we kill these, they will be back in greater numbers."

"Weyrleader, Ronan says his wing has spotted eight Russian fighters about one hundred miles from here," Garanoth announced.

"Damn," Harry swore under his breath, then he sent a command to the dragons. "Division leaders, let's return to Irtysh where we can discuss this."

The group of dragons leapt skyward and vanished in a blast of frigid air while the unsuspecting Russians continued to work down on the riverbank just a few hundred feet from the Weyr.

A few moments later Harry slid down from his spot on Cheki and walked over to where the division leaders were congregating.

Harry turned to Ronan. "What's this about Russian fighters?"

Ronan nodded. "I don't think it's a coincidence Harry. A group of Mig-31 Foxhounds are doing lazy circles as if they are waiting for something. These things cost too much money to be up there for a early morning flight. From what I saw I think they are fully armed for air to air combat."

Harry looked down and dug a toe into the dirt while he thought about that.

"It's possible," he said slowly, as if he was still ordering his thoughts. "that the jets are there to support the wizards. If that's the case then the Russians are finally making a move against us. How long would it take for those jets to arrive?"

"On after-burner, just a few minutes," Ronan replied.

Harry nodded and glanced around the Weyr. All around there were the dragons of Irtysh river Weyr watching him and listening intently.

Harry sighed and then he turned to Feynith. "Feynith, if we attack those wizards we risk starting a conflict with Russian mundane government. I don't want to start a war with anyone if we can avoid it."

He bent down and scooped up a stone which he sent flying towards the nearby river. It was obvious to everyone that he was angry. "Damn I hate to do this, but I think the smartest thing to do is to evacuate the Weyr."

Feynith bowed his head, "Are you sure Weyrleader? We have lived here for many turns. This is our home."

Harry walked over to the large horntail and gently ran a hand along his neck. "My friend, you know we would not hesitate to fight for your right to live here. But this is not the time for that fight. Someday perhaps you'll be able to return here. In the meantime the Weyrs will help your clan get settled in a new home."

Harry paused and smiled as he remembered something. "In fact I might have just the place already picked out. If all goes well you'll find yourself jumped to the top of the list to become a manned Weyr."

Feynith turned to stare at Harry in amazement and a number of the local dragons reared up on their hind legs and trumpeted their happiness. All of the unmanned Weyrs wanted to transition to manned Weyrs, but they also realized it wasn't as simple as just bringing riders to live with them.

Converting to a manned Weyr took searching for candidates, and setting up proper housing, it took money, time, training and supplies. The money was becoming easier by the day as the manned Weyrs earned their keep, but searching could only be done by bonded riders and dragons and the Weyr needed approval from the country where the search was taking place.

Irtysh River Weyr had always been far down on the list of Weyrs to transition to a manned one because Harry knew they wouldn't easily get the approval of the Russian government. Harry had hoped that tensions with Russia would have eased by the time they were ready to search for riders here.

Now it was necessary to remove the Weyr from Russia, and that opened them up to take advantage of an opportunity that he had to turn down just a month prior.

Harry smiled at the happy dragons. "We'll go to Campbeltown for now. I have some phone calls to make."

Just over a mile away Irina Clasovich paused in her preparations. It was impossible to miss the sound of so many dragons bellowing.

"On guard!" shouted the lead Auror. His team scattered looking for cover while he motioned for Irina and her small team of warders to mount their brooms and flee.

Irina frowned and shook her head. "Nyet," she spat. "We will finish this."

The lead Auror swore to himself then nodded unhappily. He signaled his men to scan the skies for dragon attack, then he reached for the strange machine he had been given. It was ultra-simple. Just a single button on a small cigarette pack sized box with a two inch long antenna. He was told that pressing the button would summon the muggle military.

He stabbed the button and then he joined his men, watching the sky.

Nearly one hundred miles away six MIG fighters turned and engaged their after-burners.

Campbeltown Weyr, September 10th, 1999...

Harry came out of Between over the Weyr. Chekiath bellowed and the Irtysh River Weyr dragons fell into a loose formation behind him.

"Feynith you and your clan can follow me down," Chekiath called.

"Thank you Chekiath," replied the senior Russian dragon.

"Cheki, is Albert Ford in the Weyr today?" asked Harry.

"Norendrath says he's in a meeting with Smelly Dog, Sheep Guy and some people from Turkey hold," Cheki replied.

Harry smiled at his dragon's words. The first time they called a country a hold it created a lot of confusion, but by now the riders were used to the dragons and their insistence to apply Pern terms to Earth. On Pern there were Holds like Benden and Fort which in turn had smaller holds within them, owing allegiance to the Lord Holder. Here, there were still Lord Holders even if they were called Presidents and Prime Ministers and to the dragons, their country was just a hold like Fort or Bol or Ruatha.

"Please ask Albert to contact me when he has a chance," Harry asked. He didn't want to break into what Albert was doing. The delegation from Turkey had arrived on a fact finding mission about the possibility of replacing some of the damaged power stations with dragon powered power stations. It was an outgrowth of their effort to help Turkey after the disastrous earthquake.

"Of course Harry."

He slid down from his position and walked over to where Dronth waited with Feynith. "Dronth, we'll put up Irtysh River here for a while. If all goes well, I hope we'll have a place to move them to. We'll need to reschedule our search to cover more territory so you might want to let Trandieth know about that."

Harry smiled reassuringly at Feynith who watched Harry with wide eyes. "Searching for... us?" asked the large dragon.

"If we can arrange it Feynith. Finland had been talking to us about the possibility of having a manned Weyr and I had to brush them off. Now you need a home and they want a Weyr. At the time I didn't have the dragons to offer them nor did I think you would run into this problem so I had to put them off."

He paused when his mobile phone rang, and then he held up a hand to the large dragon while he answered it.

"Hello?"

"Al, good. Listen can you contact your friend in the Finnish Ministry?" he asked.

"Yes I know what we told them, but I had to relocate the Russian Weyr and now they need a home. Finland wouldn't be all that different than what they are used to."

Harry paused and listened for a moment longer.

Harry shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "Look Al I'm not trying to make your job harder. When we told Finland no, it was because we didn't have the dragons to establish a new Weyr. That changed today. I had two options, evacuate the Weyr or start a war with Russia. I had Russian ward breakers attacking our wards and flight of Russian fighters backing them up. What would you have me do?" Harry asked plaintively.

There was a moment of silence from the phone, then Al spoke in a calmer tone. Harry listened for a moment and smiled. "Excellent Al, I'll leave it in your hands until we're ready to move Irtysh."

Harry pressed a button on the phone and placed it in the bulky belt holder then he turned back to the two dragons. "Albert Ford is a great help to the Weyr, but he dislikes surprises," he said with a smile. "With a little luck you and your clan will have a new home to move into soon Feynith. For now, Campbeltown welcomes you, please accept our hospitality. Tinny!"

Tinny, the head elf appeared with a small pop. "You called Mister Harry?"

"Yes please speak with Dronth and Feynith and help them get set up. We'll need to erect those temporary shelters we bought."

The little elf nodded vigorously, causing his ears to flap.

"I need to call a Weyrleader's council," Harry muttered mostly to himself.

"Go Weyrleader, Tinny and I will see to Feynith and his clan," Dronth said.

Harry nodded absently and started to walk away, his mind already considering the Weyr's next steps.

"The Weyrleader doesn't stay still for long does he?" observed Feynith.

"He wouldn't be Weyrleader if he stood still," Dronth replied. "Come Feynith, let us see to your clan."

Irtysh River Weyr, Central Russia, September 10th, 1999...

Irina Clasovich dropped to her knees in exhaustion. She wearily looked at her team and shook her head in amazement. Most of her warding team were unconscious, drained nearly to death, but they had succeeded.

The last hour had been the most dangerous as the wards snapped and crackled with power. The Aurors had been expecting the dragons to attack during that hour, but no attack materialized.

In the distance she could make out the last disintegrating wards of the Weyr, crumbling before her eyes. The wards were incredibly powerful and it had taken her whole team helping to bring them to this point. Even from this distance she could smell the thick ozone and brimstone smell of a failing ward.

"Team one forward!" shouted the senior Auror nervously. There had been no response from the dragons and that made him uneasy. It had taken four solid hours of effort from the warders to break down those wards and except for the sound of dragons bellowing many hours ago, there had been no sign of dragons.

Irina watched as four aurors cautiously moved forward while the others covered them and the warding team. Overhead the four pair of fighters circled lazily, watching and waiting for the dragons to take to the air. They were eagerly waiting for an opportunity to engage with a dragon, confident that their superior technology would prevail.

A member of team one ran back to the senior Auror and spoke to the man in an urgent tone. The senior auror grimaced and glanced at the warding team then he strode up the hill in the direction that team one had gone.

"What is it Mischka?" asked one Auror to the team one member.

"The dragons, they are gone, fled the reserve."

"Nyet!," Irina Clasovich groaned and closed her eyes. She didn't even feel herself hitting the ground as she slipped into unconsciousness, her last thought was a simple exclamation of 'all that work for nothing!'.

Weyrleader's Council Meeting, Campbeltown Weyr, September 11th, 1999...

Harry waited until all of the Weyrleaders had filed into the room, then he nodded to Sirius who opened a different door to allow Albert Ford and Lord Mills to enter. There were five manned Weyrs now and the Weyrleaders filed in followed by their seconds looking surprised at Harry's call for an emergency meeting.

Harry nodded in greeting to the others then he looked over at Hermione who was setting up a dicta-quill to record the meeting. She glanced up at him and smiled to signal she was ready. It was part of her job to keep an official record of these meetings. After each meeting she condensed the meeting decisions down into a list for Harry to add to his to-do book.

"Thank you all for coming. I know this wasn't our regularly scheduled meeting but believe me when I say it was necessary for us to meet. I have also invited Lord Mills and Albert Ford to attend this meeting. Lord Mills as the British liaison and Albert because I feel his insight would prove useful," Harry stated calmly.

He paused and waited for a moment. English was the language that they used for these meetings, but he knew that in at least two cases, dragons were supplying translation help to their riders. Isikara Yuko of Sakushima Weyr and Alfhild Gustavson of Svartvatn Weyr were both still working on improving their understanding of English.

When they nodded, Harry continued. "Yesterday I was forced to order the evacuation of Irtysh river Weyr from central Russia. Feynith contacted me when the Weyr patrol spotted a group of broom riders criss-crossing the region as if they were looking for something. Shortly after we arrived at the Weyr, the Russian wizards were busy setting up a ritual to drain the wards after detecting the wards."

Harry turned to James and Albert. "Wards are a form of magical protection, but like a wall or a fence, they can be detected even if you can't see what they are protecting. The Russians detected the presence of the wards, and not the Weyr proper. And once they detected the wards, a team of wizards started to tear them down."

The Weyrleaders were a mix of mundane and magical, but they all understood that draining the wards which protected each Weyr was a hostile act.

Harry paused and ran a hand through his hair in frustration, he absently noted the angry looks among his Weyrleaders. "Had it been only wizards we might have tried to scare them off, but weren't alone. There was a flight of Russian fighter jets nearby. Rather than risk creating an incident with Russia I ordered the Weyr to evacuate to Campbeltown. Shortly after we evacuated, the fighters arrived and took up station near the wizards according to the dragon we left to watch the area."

Lobsang leaned forward in his chair, his brow knitted in concern. "Can Campbeltown support the additional dragons?"

Harry sighed and shook his head. "For a short time we can. Irtysh river brought some two hundred and ninety additional dragons. I've spoken with Karen this morning and she's placing orders for additional livestock, but we're not prepared to support the extra mouths for long. Fortunately we may have a solution to the problem of what to do with Irtysh River dragons.

"Last month I spoke personally with Paavo Lipponen, the prime minister of Finland and told him there was no way we could arrange to create a manned Weyr in his country at that time. That was then and Irtysh River was supposedly secure then. Now things have changed and we have nearly three hundred dragons that need a new home. That's why I asked Al to attend today's meeting. A month ago the conditions were against opening a manned Weyr in Finland. If the Finnish government is still willing, we can move the dragons in and begin a search in time for the November hatching."

"Harry?"

"Yes Al?"

Albert Ford popped open a small folder and glanced down at it briefly while he spoke. "I spoke this morning with the Finnish Ambassador to Great Britain and sounded him out on the idea. He was surprised at first, but once I made him aware of what had happened he immediately cabled his superiors. Prime Minister Lipponen is still eager to open up a Weyr in his country. He has a site already in mind, but asks for some of our people to come survey the site and tell them what they need to do to make it usable. From what I understand it's located in North Karelia and would share space with a small commercial airfield called Joensuu.

"I haven't seen the sight myself except for a handful of photos, but I have been told that the airfield is adjacent to a heavily wooded area and the government is willing to allow the Weyr to expand into that area. They are willing to put up some five thousand acres for the Weyr, and more could be made available if necessary."

Albert stood and unrolled a large map of the region with the proposed site circled. Harry noted it wasn't that far from the Russian border.

Harry nodded. "Excellent Al, speak to Draco about taking a hop over there to survey the site. I'll speak to Luna today about beginning a search for candidates."

Al Ford grinned returned to his chair to make a note in his file.

"What's your read on the Russian's Al? You've dealt with them before." asked Skip Taylor, one of the Condron Weyrleaders.

Al frowned and leaned back in his chair and glanced over at Harry who nodded encouragingly. "Russia and the Russian mindset appears to most westerners as hard to fathom, but if you understand their history you would understand that they have a deep seated need to defend their lands. They have been victims of external attacks that they have barely beaten back several times. And at great cost to themselves I might add. Both Hitler and Napoleon cost the Russians dearly, it was a lesson they've taken to heart. Because of that they are willing to do whatever it takes to defend themselves even if that means attacking first."

Al paused and pulled his pipe from his pocket. He didn't light it, but instead used it almost as if he needed a pointer. It was an inside joke of the Weyr, that Albert Ford never actually smoked the pipe that he carried. "We know that the dragons do not represent a threat on a national scale to anyone. We don't have an army of dragons and even if we did, the world would not sit by idly and allow us to conquer some nation."

"We wouldn't do that!" Chekiath said in outrage. Several other dragons bellowed outside in outrage.

Harry chuckled softly. "Easy Cheki, Al is just trying to illustrate a point. Go on Al," he said.

Al nodded. "If we look at this from a slightly different angle everything changes. We can appear to be a threat to the oil and natural gas selling nations like Russia and Saudi Arabia. I have heard some grumblings coming from OPEC circles about the Danes who reduced their natural gas imports from Russia by slightly less than one percent.

"One percent didn't seem like much when I first heard about it, but another source within the Danish ministry told me that amounted to nearly a quarter billion Euros savings over a three year period. The Danes are excited about their new power plant and are accelerating the construction of new plants. Two new plants are planned to be built this year in their country and they have contracted to build one in Germany. Additionally they are looking to close down one aging nuclear plant and two gas fired plants. My sources tell me that closing those additional gas plants will decrease their dependency on Russian gas by three percent."

Skip shook his head. "This is getting confusing."

Harry turned to Skip. "The more plants that are built, the less natural gas and oil Russia and the other OPEC nations can sell. That threatens the Russian economy as much as any invasion would," Harry said quietly. "I don't know how much Russia relies on those exports, but I know they spent a lot of money to build a special pipeline into Western Europe. If enough countries switch over to Dragon power it could push them into economic ruin."

Albert Ford nodded in approval. "So you do see the problem?" he pressed.

"I do," Harry admitted, "and frankly I don't see a solution to it as long as the Russians are hostile to us. If they weren't so against us, we'd be willing to work with them to help them through this problem."

Al grunted softly, he had to agree with Harry. If there was a solution it would have to wait until Russia wasn't hostile to dragon-kind.

"Weyrleader?"

Harry turned to Alfhild. "Alf, please, it's just Harry."

The tall Norwegian grinned, he had a blindingly white smile and an infectious laugh that made him very popular among his riders. "Harry," he said a bit haltingly. "We, no I, would like to offer to train up the first wings for Finnish Weyr. They are neighbors no? It would relieve Campbeltown of the need."

Harry glanced around and saw that no one had any objections so he raised the only possible point of problem for Svartvatn Weyr. Everyone knew Alf was talking about the training that occurred after the new wings were released by the Weyrling masters at Disko.

"Are you sure you'll have space Alf? I thought you were having problems with housing?" Harry asked.

Alf brushed one of his long blond locks from his face and grimaced slightly. "Is true, but situation is getting better. We have lots of machines and people building good strong buildings with many dragon beds. Dragons don't like the noise, but they do like their sand beds and their Gilligan's Island on television."

The other Weyrleaders grinned at each other. Dragons had a love of classic television and invariably they seemed to become fascinated with the old Gilligan's Island show from the 1960s. Even Maziang was taking advantage of it now that they owned one of the first truck portable power generators.

Svartvatn's other issues had been overcome with the construction of a huge dock to offload construction equipment and a ferry. As an island it wasn't developed at all prior to creating a Weyr there, the Norwegian government built the dock and a road inland to the Weyr, they had been eager to convert the Weyr to a manned Weyr. In fact it had been the Norwegian government's offer to build the dock and road that convinced Harry to allow the Weyr to be established. Normally Harry wanted a Weyr that had easy access to local towns so that the Weyr could purchase supplies. Once the island had that small port built, they had their access.

The Weyr had the characteristic military look with it's blocky barrack-like buildings, but they were suitable and there was plenty of space to add the dragon friendly designed apartments.

The Svartvatn ferry at first had provided easy access for the construction workers and building supplies, but a few intrepid individuals had constructed businesses and homes near the dock and a small town was springing up around the small port facility, supplying the Weyr with goods from the mainland and keeping the construction workers fed. One construction company helped expand the town by building temporary housing for its workers.

Svartvatn was starting to generate it's own income stream by supplying a steady stream of heated rocks for use in specially designed space heaters and small generators. The Weyr was already working closely with the Norwegian Coastal Service and had participated in several search and rescue missions.

Norway's first Hot Rock powered power station was under construction, but was still more than a year away from being ready. All in all, Svartvatn was exactly where Harry had hoped it would be, at the start of what would be a long and prosperous life.

"I don't see a problem with it Alf," Harry said, "once the trainee wings are released by Hagrid they can split their time between Svartvatn for training and getting established at Joensuu," Harry said. He was thankful for Alf's offer because Campbeltown was already slated to provide similar services to the other United Kingdom Weyr, Shetland Island.

Given it's location and proximity to a World Heritage site, it had been decided to relocate that Weyr from Mousa island to the big island of Shetland, just south of Leebiten. In fact, Campbeltown had purchased the farm that had been the spot were the HMS Orkney had been laid to rest. Buying several more of the surrounding farms gave ample space to the dragons, and a place for Campbeltown to plan and build a new Weyr.

Harry turned to Lord Mills next. "Lord Mills, by now no doubt you've informed your Prime Minister of what transpired. I would appreciate it if we can get some information from your government. Specifically I am concerned with Joensuu's location. The proposed site is less than fifty miles from the Finnish/Russian border. Once the Weyr goes public, will we risk reprisals from the Russians? Should I ask Minister Lipponen for a site further from the border? Should we warn the Fins about the friction with Russia?"

James hastily scribbled some notes down as he listened to Harry, then when he was done he looked up. "Fifty miles doesn't seem like much to a dragon who can go from London to Tokyo in less than a minute, but it is a considerable distance in diplomatic terms. Any Russian sizable incursion to a depth of fifty miles would be seen by the Finnish as an act of war," he said thoughtfully. "You are asking the right questions, which unfortunately I can't answer. I will say this, when I spoke with Prime Minister Blair this morning he was greatly relieved by your actions. I can easily see him making some inquiries for the Weyr. Shall I coordinate with Albert?"

Harry glanced over at Ford and slowly shook his head. "No, Al is swamped with commercial negotiations and Weyr agreements. I'm glad he was able to use his contacts to see if Finland will accept us, but he's got enough to keep him busy. I will personally handle this until I can turn the Weyr over to an approved Weyrleader, also I'll speak with Sirius about visiting Joensuu and setting up a patrol even before it's manned," Harry replied slowly.

Albert Ford shot Harry a grateful look, he was very busy and wasn't looking forward to dealing with these additional issues since they mainly dealt with Weyr security.

"Very well Harry, I'll contact the Prime Minister's office and see if we can get you some answers," James said.

Harry smiled in thanks and turned back to other Weyrleaders. "This latest development is troubling. Check your commercial contracts, lets make sure Russia isn't being supplied with any dragon products. I think we should add them to the prohibited list."

The prohibited list was very short, and well known. It currently contained only a handful of countries that were openly hostile to dragons. Iran, Iraq and North Korea led off the list when Harry first created it. Since then only one other country had been added to the list, Saudi Arabia. The existence of the list was met with dismay by some world governments and outrage by others. The Weyrleader didn't add to that list without a valid reason. Harry's response to the outrage was simple. The Weyrs would not have anything to do with countries that made public proclamations of hostility.

James looked up in alarm. "Er, Harry? Are you sure you want to take that step?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't see what choice we have James. There were wizards and fighter planes involved and working together yesterday. That says the Russian government was making a move on us."

"You don't know that for sure," James protested. Placing Russia on the list of prohibited countries would be a provocative move on the Weyr's part.

"Actually he does Sheep Guy," Chekiath interjected. "As we evacuated the weyr yesterday those planes turned and headed straight to Irtysh river."

Harry gestured towards James. James' expression soured, he knew Chekiath couldn't lie, so he had to accept the dragon's statement. The presence of the fighters could have been a coincidence, but to alter course and head straight to the Weyr said it was a coordinated effort. He made another notation to stress the seriousness of the situation to the Prime Minister.

Lobsang leaned forward in his chair. His Weyr was prospering, supplying dragon heated rocks to China and other dragon products to India and southeast Asia. "Weyrleader, the safety of our dragons and riders must come first. I agree with the prohibition of goods to Russia. However at some point we should get together to decide how a country can be removed from the list. I do not believe it can be as simple as accepting someone's word although it pains me to say that. In my country a man's word was a measure of his honor, but it seems that countries operate on different rules."

Harry smiled at his fellow Weyrleader. Lobsang was a lot like Harry, growing up as a strong leader. He nodded and glanced over to Hermione who had already recorded Lobsang's suggestion. "I think that's an excellent idea Lobsang, let's make that an item for our next meeting. I hate putting countries on that list and really hope that someday we can remove them from the list."

He paused and looked around. "Does anyone have anything else to add?"

"I do," Kat said quietly. "I think it's important that you order the Irtysh river dragons to avoid their old hunting grounds and Weyr."

Harry looked at the co-leader of Condron and slowly nodded. It made sense and he didn't want a dragon returning to the old region which could result in an incident. "Feynith, have you been listening in?" he asked. He was certain the Irtysh river senior dragon was on the roof with Cheki and Dronth.

"Yes Weyrleader, is it your command that we not return to our old homes and hunting grounds?"

Harry sighed and he leaned against the table. He glanced around at the sour expressions on the other Weyrleaders. No one liked putting restrictions on their friends and he was the only one that could. The other leaders recognized that Harry held the absolute loyalty of the dragons. It was a rare thing for Harry to invoke his absolute authority and he only did it when he felt he had no choice in the matter.

So far Harry had only over-ridden a Weyrleader once and that had been when the Condron Weyrleaders were bickering among themselves shortly after the weyr had been established.

Harry rubbed his chin silently for a moment longer. "I'm sorry Feynith, but I don't see anyway around this. We do not want to fight the Russians. In a matter of weeks you'll have a new home to move into and soon after that, riders of your own," he said tiredly.

There was a long moment of silence that confused the non-riders in the room as the three senior dragons conversed among themselves.

"It has been our home for many many turns Weyrleader. But the promise of riders is worth the sacrifice. Irtysh river does not wish to be the cause of conflict," Feynith said finally. "Perhaps in the future Irtysh river can be a Weyr again. It is a good place to Weyr."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and Harry relaxed against the table. "Thank you Feynith, please pass the message to your clan to avoid the old hunting grounds and Weyr. Soon you will have your own Weyr again, and riders of your own. Thank your clan for me."

Harry turned to the others. "Thank you for coming today," he said quietly. "Your support and advice is very important. This is the main reason why we have the Weyrleader's council."

Skip Taylor looked up from where he was helping Kat shrug into her flight jacket and shot Harry a wide grin. "Hey Harry, we may get the big bucks, but you're still the quarterback calling the plays."

Lobsang chuckled softly and shook his head. He liked the American Weyrleaders, but he really didn't understand them very well. "My strange friend speaks truly Weyrleader. In a way I consider us blessed, you want our advice and help. Another might want to keep all authority to himself."

The others nodded in agreement. Harry set policy for the Weyrs at a very high level and allowed each Weyrleader control over their own Weyr. Harry blushed while the others chuckled and made ready to leave.

The Special Committee for State Security, The Kremlin, October 5th 1999...

"And so our projected sales are expected to be down by as much as two percent. We have offset some of that loss by offering a discount to select nations, but what was a rumor is now a trend. If this continues in twenty years it will cost more to extract the gas and ship it overseas than we will gain from the purchases," said the Energy Minister.

"And what of our Saudi friends?" asked the President.

"They report a similar downturn," replied the Energy minister. "On the other hand, we have noted both the British and American oil conglomerates taking steps to offset potential losses. The London stock exchange saw BP's stock rise by four percent when they announced a diversification effort that included a research and manufacturing contract with the dragons."

"What of the other OPEC nations?" the Finance minister demanded.

The Minister for Energy shrugged his shoulders. "Comrad... friends, you know as well as I that most of the OPEC nations are inherently our competitors, they do not willingly share much information. On the other hand I have had frequent talks with my counterpart in the Saudi government. When you filter out the religious rhetoric you get a feel that they are scared and getting desperate. Their economy relies more on oil than ours does. These new power plants could easily bankrupt them in a few decades."

The President nodded sourly and turned to his Minister for State Security. "What of the dragons that live on our soil?"

Mishka Danakov scowled. "Regrettably I believe someone betrayed us in our attempt to locate them. They knew we were coming and were prepared. The dragons have evacuated and our sources in Finland suggest they may have been given sanctuary there."

Around the room many of the minister's frowned deeply. Finland was a long time enemy of Russia. They had a long and bloody history and the Fins had turned out to be formidable adversaries. No Russian soldier wanted to fight the Fins if they could avoid it.

Danakov glanced down at a piece of paper briefly. "There has been a pronounced increase in dragon activity and while the government hasn't yet formally announced anything. I am informed that they will soon announce the creation of a 'Weyr' based close to a civilian airfield, some eighty five kilometers from the border.

"In the meantime we have arrested fourteen who we suspect of informing the dragons of our plans," Danakov concluded. Danakov would never admit that their mission had failed because the dragons spotted them coming, instead he opted to punish the teams involved by claiming they have tipped off the dragons, thus shifting the blame off him and his organizations.

The various ministers around the table nodded. They understood that the fourteen would be tried in secret and probably executed quietly to protect the State from an embarrassing public trial over what had been a secret mission in the first place.

"Might I offer a suggestion?"

All eyes turned to the Foreign minister.

"It seems to me that a problem shared is a problem lessened. We know of several countries which are not happy with the introduction of dragons and their power plants. Might we not form some sort of coalition in order to combat this problem jointly?"

The President leaned forward in his chair. "Are you suggesting we openly attack dragons?"

The Foreign minister waved his hand, dismissing the President's comment. "Not at all or at least not yet. What I am suggesting is that we can delay and perhaps halt construction of these power plants by employing subversive elements within each country's society."

Everyone turned to Danakov who held the position of Minister for State Security as well as Minister of Magic.

"A covert operation is possible, but I must warn you, we are hampered by the fact that most of our best operatives fled the country. What we have remaining are merely competent," Danakov prevaricated.

Everyone nodded knowingly, it was true across most of the ministries that with the collapse of the Soviet Union most of their best people left for better paying jobs in the private sector or fled to avoid prosecution for crimes they committed under the old Soviet government.

"But it is doable?" pressed the President.

"It is, but like my esteemed colleague suggested, co-opting others to actually perform the work will reduce our risks," Danakov replied.

The President leaned back in his chair and appeared to be thinking deeply. In fact he was listening to what he thought was his own inner monologue, never realizing that Danakov was using legilmency on him.

"Very well then, let us try that. In the meantime let us also explore the possibility of finding other nations that might be willing to join with us against this threat," the President said finally.

"I will speak with the Saudi ambassador as soon as possible," offered the Foreign Minister.

The President smiled approvingly, then he turned back to his Energy Minister. "From here on I want weekly reports on our gas exporting and sales," he ordered.

The Energy minister nodded with a bit of relief evident in his expression. He knew his job was in danger and the fact that the country was taking steps still wouldn't protect his job. He would just be another scapegoat should the situation continue to worsen.

---

Author's Notes and Mockeries...

* Well the last chapter seemed to touch a nerve among a number of people. Mostly people enjoyed what they read, but a fringe group complained that I didn't include more religions etc... I'm only going to say that the story has Hermione as a Catholic, May as a member of the Church of Scotland and Harry represents no one. So they would only converse about the two religions that the girls were involved in and the ONE religion that offered them a solution to their marriage problem.

I was born into a catholic family, went to catholic grade school taught by nuns and attended a catholic high school taught by monks. I know full well how American Catholics nod their heads at Rome and still go about living their lives the way they want to. I know full well how the church is full of old men running the show and highly resistant to change. Needless to say I am no longer a practicing Catholic, I gave it up for Lent. The idea of having someone else tell me what I should believe in and how is something I find rather offensive. I'm fully capable of thinking for myself thank you very much.

Wife Version 1.0 started off as an non-practicing Irish Catholic who a mere three years later decided to become born again. After a number of years of living with that I do think I can say from experience that even the Catholics aren't as narrow minded and prideful as a fundamentalist Christian (or a fundamentalist anything I suspect). Needless to say, Wife Version 2.0 is far superior even if she can be slightly blood thirsty at times. And who can object to dancing naked under a blood moon in the snow?

So no, this story is not going to devolve into a useless argument about religion, nor will these author's notes. The story will touch on religion only in as much as it impacts the lives of our main characters or the Weyr in general.

And finally I will make one additional comment on the topic religious reviews received. We had one reviewer, and personally I'm glad it was only one, that urged me to include Mormonism and stated I should look into it because it founded the state of Utah.

Really? I thought the federal government did that, after they forced concessions from the Mormons. More importantly if the founding of a state is the sole factor of interest, you need to wake up and look around. The Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths have had a far more profound impact on civilization than founding of a single state. Each of those religions can proudly lay claim to helping shape our civilization, and then bow their collective heads in shame for some of the greatest human misery experienced by mankind. At times each of those religions gave great contributions to civilization and promoted great tragedy.

If all you can say, is "Look! We founded Utah!" then you need to take a deeper look at your choices.

So enough said about religion, this isn't a religious debate, it's a STORY. If you don't agree with my personal views that's fine, but I will not engage you in a debate about religion. You have a god given right to practice your beliefs in the privacy of your own home, but not even god gives you the right to force your beliefs on others.

* Abc1507 wonders if the riders pay UK income tax and if the Weyr pays business taxes on deals like helping to build that power plant in Denmark. Of course they do. Dragon Services Ltd is the front company which represents the dragons. It is a UK based company and like other UK based companies, they pay UK taxes. The riders are official residents and as such they also pay their fair share of taxes as well. The Autonomy they were granted isn't total and was never meant to be total.

* Blueberry babe, you're welcome. Did you know your image is slightly disturbing. You have this red hat on and it conflicts with your name. Weird hunh?

* Kudos to everyone one, all three of you, that found the easter egg in the last chapters disclaimer. As a reward we're shipping you each a llama. Unfortunately we can't fit it into a small envelope so expect it to arrive piecemeal. Luckily for you we've included assembly instructions and a dollar store stapler.

* Rhiance, I have managed to pull her away from the beast. I'm solidly over on LOTRO and she's started playing there as well but she still floats back to WOW on occasion.

* Disneypenguin, yes I simplified things. In this tale female dragons bond to female humans and males to male humans. I know the original canon Pern didn't even allow women to bond anything but Queens until late in the series. Since we don't have queens in this tale, the Pern style bonding wasn't needed.

* Lifespans are not going to significantly increase. We know from Pern that the dragons aged just like humans and seemed to have similar lifespans. Magic does have an altering effect on longevity and we'll probably see any group with a witch or wizard having a lifespan extended out to what would be considered wizard normal. In the case of Millicent and her two husbands, the dragons magic may extend out their lifespans to 120-130, but thats about it. Someone like Ronan and Karen who as muggles, do not use the bonding ceremony probably won't see much past 100 to 110, and that would merely be a bleed over effect from their dragon's own magic.