We begin to come to the end. I realise that in a lot of way this is "telling" rather than "showing", but I think I can get away with a certain amount of that, because we all know the background to the stories and can visualise everything.
Saska came out of her room in the early evening. She could hear singing from below the terrace, and peered over. A group of young men and a few women were exercising their dragons, and she realised this must be the wing that kept Honshu safe. Thinking that, she looked around for the mature dragons, and saw a large bronze resting in what must be his weyr. Golanth, she thought, and on the thought, the dragon swivelled his head in her direction.
- they are very young
But are they good riders and dragons?
- southern sends its best to guard us
You are very tolerant, when you must want to fight for yourself and your rider
- that is no longer possible, but I can help with the training
I'm glad of that
"Thank you."
Saska faced around, and F'lessan had joined her.
"I see what they mean, that you send good pictures. You have a very strong voice, Golly says."
"What will those youngsters do at the end of the Pass?"
"Find other employment, found their own holds. No one knows. At the end of the First Pass, did the colonists realise this would go on for ever?"
Saska frowned at him.
"I don't know the answer to that, I'm afraid."
F'lessan shook his head.
"I suspect they hoped it would be a one-off event, but they were proved wrong, and society had to rebuild itself."
"In an amazing and unique way, with the help of the dragons."
He smiled at her.
"We are being very sombre this evening?"
"I was meditating, on the way things have gone in both colonies, and the chance that led them to meet."
"So long as my descendants have a hand in it," he replied, his mood lightening.
"Oh yes, I can assure you of that."
"Good! The Lord Holder of Ruatha has returned, in a very bad temper I might add. His meeting at Southern Hold was - acrimonious."
"Then he had better calm himself down," Saska said sharply. "H'rat and Noreth were upset and off balance when we took off from the future Honshu, and I've no desire to be pitched anywhere else in time."
"I quite appreciate that. I've told him to speak to his wife, Lady Sharra, via Ruth. That always puts him back on balance."
"It's her relatives at Southern, rather than his?"
"Yes, I suppose that's right." He glanced at her. "Why did you agree to fly with the blue rider, if you realised he was off balance?"
Saska shook her head as they turned to go back indoors.
"I didn't realise it until after I woke here. I just thought he and Toron had had an argument. I didn't take into account the dynamics of the mind bond between a dragon and rider."
"Do they have a Weyrlingmaster at this Base you speak of?"
"Yes, the set up is exactly as it is in your day, but with less - I won't say urgency - because there are still complex logistics to Search, train, and then employ dragons and their riders."
"But there must be fewer eggs in a clutch?"
"At the moment, yes. That's another question I need to address - what did Kitty Ping engineer for egg clutches."
Tai had been pouring drinks for them, and Lord Jaxom came into the room and went across to her, took her hand and kissed it.
"I have to apologise to you," he said. Tai shook her head.
"And I to you! But you caught me completely off balance with your bold assertion it must be you going into the future."
"And coming back," he reminded her. "Lady Sharra also says I have to apologise."
Tai laughed. "And of course I see you quaking in your boots at the thought of her displeasure!"
They toasted the absent Lady Holder, and then came to the terrace to look out at the sinking sun.
"If you would collect your case, and some flying gear?"
"Did you completely tear my flying suit?"
"The front fastening took a mauling," Tai admitted. "It certainly doesn't close as well as it did before! I've sorted out some leathers for you that should fit."
"That would be best, then."
Saska found it awkward to move in the heavy leather gear, but once she was safely on Ruth's back, with her case strapped to her front, she forgot about it as the white dragon rose into the air. Saska could feel powerful muscles moving smoothly, and there was an instant of non-being, the utter blindness of between, before they came out into an early morning with mist coiling from the warming earth and forest.
Looking down, Saska realised she had not been to Landing in her own time, only seen brief pictures of it which she edited out as she stared at the complex of buildings and shuttles that had been covered by the ash from the gigantic explosion that had started the colonists running north.
Ruth banked lazily and gave her a full view of the place before he back winged and came down to land, raising little puffs of dust. Two fairs of fire lizards immediately popped into view and began to dance around him.
"They always do that," Lord Jaxom said as he helped Saska dismount. "Wild or Impressed, they always appear when he does."
"Those look wild - don't you mark the Impressed ones?"
"Yes we do. I wonder - if they know - that - " he jerked a thumb upwards. "Is on the way out? If they're going to breed and overpopulate?"
"I doubt it, if the natural balance of wild wherries and other predators is maintained. It's only dragons, watch-whers and people that have risen above the natural balance, here and - elsewhere."
"You speak as if from experience," he said as he led her to a building where they could leave their flying gear. Ruth had found a sandy hollow and was stretched out in the early morning sunshine, attended by fire lizards.
Two men came to meet them as they emerged, bowing to Lord Jaxom.
"We had word you were on your way, m'lord. The necessary clearances have come through."
"Thank you. This is Master Saska Freeman."
They bowed as respectfully, and led the way to another larger building.
"There's two journeymen to help you," one said. "Both from Printer Hall, but they show some adeptness in the computer codes AIVAS left us."
"That's good. Once we've done our work, I plan to show Master Saska a little bit of the complex, and perhaps go as far as the mountain."
They nodded, completely uninterested, Saska was amused to note. Lord Jaxom pushed open the door of the main building and showed her through, and Saska took a moment to orient herself.
This AIVAS had been closed down for centuries, she reminded herself. Left on a trickle of stand-by power until the dragonriders - including this dragonrider - had found it again. Once the solar panels were exposed, the AIVAS had charged up again and begun its work of clearing Thread from the skies of Pern.
"This is the main room."
Saska stared at the main screen. Dark, except for the flashing green light in the corner and the words inscribed across the bottom And a time to every purpose under heaven.
"That's all that was left," Lord Jaxom said regretfully. "Masterharper Robinton and his fire lizard were found in here."
"There must be secondary installations you can use?"
"Yes, with useful information for getting back the limited technology the Charter set out for the colonists to use. Hopefully, going forward, that will be enough."
Saska did not comment on that, following him to the working section where two journeymen came to their feet and bowed awkwardly.
"This is Master Saska Freeman," Lord Jaxom said briskly. "You're to help her all you can, to understand the original purposes of Kitty Ping."
"We've been told that, m'lord. This is Tyron and I'm called Clar. We took the liberty of bringing those records to the front - can you operate a computer, Master?"
Saska nodded, surveying the antiquated equipment in front of her. Respite Weyr had the latest equipment, but it was all descended from these very basic modules.
Lord Jaxom took a seat and Saska put her case down and opened it, hoping she had charged it sufficiently. There were no connectors she could discern, so she must operate the two systems as stand-alones, she decided as she watched Tyron call up Kitty Ping's research modules.
"This isn't very well understood," Tyron said apologetically. "We've had some success with the written notes, but the genetic coding, as she called it, is difficult to understand."
"I appreciate that," Saska replied, scanning the coding. "I'll just make a copy of that, if I may, into my own programmes?"
Tyron glanced at Clar, who looked uncertain.
"Is that going to be allowed, m'lord?"
"Yes. Master Saska is to be allowed to work through the genetic coding as you call it, to solve a problem."
Saska rapidly typed in the codes and saved them, and then became absorbed in the work, occasionally asking Tyron and Clar to help her find files. Tyron, she decided, was more adept and more open, Clar was at best a plodder, but whatever she gave him to copy, he did accurately.
"That's it," Tyron said suddenly. "Look there! That sequence and yours match exactly!"
"You're right. That's the overlap I've been looking for. The optimum size for the dragons - and I don't think there's going to be any worries for the foreseeable future, in any of that."
She sat back, staring at the screen, at the notes they had been making.
"Is all this stored?" she asked, waving at the screen. "Kitty Ping's notes and all of this? Is it backed up anywhere?"
Tyron stared doubtfully at her.
"Backed up?"
"Is there a secondary system? Disks? Anything at all?"
"We print it out - is that sufficient? There are several computers elsewhere - there's one at Honshu."
"I don't think it contains all this information," Lord Jaxom said. "I've never heard F'Lessan refer to it."
"It should be copied and put onto another computer," Saska said firmly. "That way, if anything happened to either computer, the information isn't lost."
"Disks - there's some mention of disks in this file," Tyron said, and called it up. Saska scanned it.
"Yes, this is the process. Hmm. AIVAS has a secondary facility - but it's not been accessed since it was shut down. You need to study this protocol - and that one - " she pointed at the screen. "And follow them to back up any work you've been doing. This is, I might add, a very sophisticated system, as you would expect."
Tyron had been staring at her, but Clar looked across at Lord Jaxom.
"Will that be permitted, m'lord?"
"I'll put it to the High Council, but I would think it should be done sooner rather than later," he replied. "Thank you for pointing it out, Master Saska."
"My pleasure," she replied, folding the notes she had scribbled, checking the files were stored safely in her computer. "I hope both of you progress to Master's status."
They bobbed awkward bows, and Lord Jaxom held the door open for her to come out into the daylight. Saska yawned and hurriedly put a hand over her mouth.
"Yes, and we would normally be asleep," Lord Jaxom said with a smile.
"Unless we'd been partying at a Gather."
"With bubbly pies. Did those survive the future?"
"Indeed they did. I love bubbly pies!"
He laughed. "Then we'll go and find some, have something to eat, and go and survey and plot the Red Star's fading image to give us some pointers for the jump."