Now we start coming to the climax of the story! It's a pity none of us own any rights to Pern and its wonders, but we can fill in the bits and pieces.
The next time she woke, Saska felt she had turned the corner in her health. Her arm still twinged when she jolted it, but her mind felt clearer. She did not see the earth cartwheeling beneath her, nor hear the terrified pain filled screams of H'rat and Noreth with quite such nerve-searing intensity.
Sitting up and looking around, Saska made first for the bathroom, and found hot water in a covered insulated jug.
"Glass," she murmured. "Good old fashioned vacuum flasks."
She had a thorough wash and then dressed, and sat down to brush her hair.
"Oh good, you are awake."
Saska looked round as Granne came in.
"Am I keeping you from - other patients - or whatever?" Saska asked doubtfully.
Granne laughed.
"They can cope at Healer Hall without me for a while! Do them good, to stand on their own feet."
"You aren't the Masterhealer, are you?"
"Close enough," Granne admitted. "But as I say, they've all trained to the same standard, so they can cope."
Saska smiled ruefully. "So we all say, but secretly I suppose we all hope we're indispensable."
"Are you, in your time frame?"
Saska followed her out of the bedroom and into the sunlit outer room where food and klah had been laid out on the table.
"I don't think so," Saska said at last. "I left copies of my notes."
"I see you've brought your case out of your room - does it need a special key to open it?"
"Sunlight," Saska said. "I'm hoping solar power will activate the emergency override. Once it's open, I can deploy the collectors and charge it up."
Granne stared at her and then laughed and shook her head.
"You sound just like AIVAS, and those youngsters who study what was left after he - it - switched off."
They ate their meal and then Granne checked temperature and pulse, the healing arm, advising the use of the sling, and left to go to other duties.
Saska took the case out onto the terrace and gauged the height of the sun, busying herself propping the case so that the narrow aperture for the EBB was activated.
"Spell it all out to them," she murmured to herself. "Carefully," she added as she narrowed her eyes from the reflected glare on the case.
There were no clouds in the sky, she realised, just that overwhelming brightness and warmth. Southern in summer, perhaps, or just coming into it from the angle of the sun. Once Thread was truly over, this would be a wonderful pastoral world.
The case locks popped, and Saska extracted the solar collectors and set them on the table, adjusting the angle.
"That looks like something out of an AIVAS drawing," a new voice said from behind her, and Saska turned to find a middle aged man watching her. He was well dressed, but his face was reddened in the way that told Saska he had recently flown between.
"It did come partly from AIVAS," Saska admitted. She gasped in surprise as she looked over the man's shoulder because a dragon had raised its head to the level of the terrace, from the ground below. She became aware of the intense scrutiny of two pairs of eyes, one of them multi-faceted and whirling through many colours.
"He's white - that's Ruth - you must be Lord Jaxom of Ruatha!"
"Right on both counts! And you are the mysterious lady from the stars, Saska Freeman?"
He came forward across the terrace, looking at the case and the collectors.
"Yes, very familiar," he said musingly.
"Did you want a drink? Did they offer you a drink?" Saska found she was stammering, because this was a very handsome man, and one used to command as well.
"I expect a procession of drinks and nibbles soon," he agreed. "I'm only two hours ahead of myself here. And a lot warmer," he added as he loosened his jacket. He turned his head to his dragon and at last Saska "heard" a dragon speak.
- I am going to the sands
- mind out for felines
Lord Jaxom turned to Saska.
"You heard that, Ruth tells me? We usually use a very tight mutual hearing band, but he says you heard him speak out?"
"Yes. And I can't tell you how thankful I am. I thought I'd lost the ability with such a long trip between, and everything that's happened."
Lord Jaxom nodded.
"Shall we sit down? I am deputed to come by the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman of Pern, who no doubt are listening in, as Lady Lessa can hear all dragons."
"So can I. I mean - I could - at home - once I'd realised it was dragons and not tinnitus."
"What's tinnitus?"
"Buzzing sounds in the ears."
Lord Jaxom laughed and stood up as F'lessan and Tai came onto the terrace. Saska was interested to see the two men embrace like old friends, and Lord Jaxom peck a kiss onto Tai's cheek.
"I might've realised you'd manage to get in on this," F'lessan said as Tai slid a tray onto the table.
"Of course. Much too interesting to leave to you. The Weyrleader and Weyrwoman send their regards and said to remind you, you owe them a visit."
"I'll go soon. It might even be warm enough by now."
"Thin blood, you Southern types," Lord Jaxom drawled, but with a smile.
F'lessan studied the solar collectors and the charging light.
"Ingenious. But then I must suppose our descendants will be ingenious. Do you claim relationship with anyone on Pern, Saska?"
"I don't come from Pern," she replied. "The only relationship between us, all of us, is that we come from common ancestors who left Old Earth to found colonies in the aftermath of the Nathi Space Wars."
"Are you going to tell us things about the future we shouldn't know?" Tai asked.
"I hope not. I need to tell you how I reached Pern, though, in case there's a chance I can go back and complete my studies."
F'lessan looked at the case.
"You could always leave it in the AIVAS complex, and hope it's found in your time," he pointed out. "Then you could live out the rest of your life here in this time span."
"Your AIVAS is still shut down," Saska replied. "People study what was left on file, but it never restarted, as far as I know."
"Our AIVAS," Jaxom murmured. "There are other ones?"
"There's one on the colony I come from, which is more technological than pastoral," Saska admitted.
"Could you activate our AIVAS?"
Saska stared at him in frowning thought for a moment.
"It's possible," she said at last. "But there's no reason why I should. It would probably violate any Charter set out at the beginning of colonisation."
"But you'd like to go back to your home?"
Saska looked around the terrace, out beyond to the fields and forests.
"Yes," she said at last. "Yes, I would."
"Right answer," Jaxom said. "That's the answer I wanted from you, Saska Freeman, because it means we can work towards getting you home, preferably timing it so that you arrive before anyone even knows you've had this little adventure."