Certainly First and Second, who had thought they were having a private discussion, were annoyed by the intrusion until the big man stepped out of the shadows. As he slowly walked to the table, the others watched his deliberate advance, noting the size of him. He sat down by Third, bringing the number seated there to five. He wore a strangely shaped leathern cap that hid most of his forehead but did not cover the scar on the side of his nose and cheek. He was also missing the top joint of the first finger on his left hand. Something about his scarred face and his purposeful manner compelled the others to silence.

“Pern has lost much lately and gained little.” His unmaimed hand lifted to point to the light. “And all because a voice—” He paused contemptuously. “—said to do so.”

“Got rid of the Red Star,” Second said, shifting uneasily.

Fifth turned his head toward Second, regarding him so unblinkingly that his scorn was nearly palpable.

“Thread still falls,” Fifth said in that deep, disturbing voice that seemed to use no inflection.

“Well, yes, but that was explained,” Second said.

“Perhaps to your satisfaction, but not to mine.”

Two men seated at a table opposite the group looked over with interest, and gestured at First to let them join in. First nodded his head at the two, and Sixth and Seventh hastily climbed into vacant spaces among the others.

“The voice is gone,” First said, when the two newcomers were settled and he was guaranteed the group’s full attention once again. “Terminated itself.”

“As it should have been terminated before it was allowed to pollute and corrupt the minds of so many,” Fifth went on.

“And it has left so much behind,” the woman said in a despairing tone, “so much that can be misused.”

“You mean the equipment and new methods for manufacturing all kinds of things, like the electricity that brightens dark places?” Third could not resist teasing such somber and humorless people.

“There was no good reason for that … thing to turn itself off like that, just when it was beginning to be useful,” First said resentfully.

“But it left plans!” And Fourth sounded as if that was suspicious.

“Too many plans,” Fifth agreed, deepening his voice to a lugubrious and ominous level.

“What?” Third prompted him. Fourth’s eyes rounded with fear and anxiety.

“Surgery!” In that expressive deep voice the three syllables were dramatically drawn out as if he spoke of something immoral.

“Surgery?” Sixth frowned. “What’s that?”

“Ways of mucking inside a body,” First replied, lowering his own voice to match Fifth’s.

Sixth shuddered. “Mind you, sometimes we gotta cut a foal out of its dam or it strangles.” When the others regarded him suspiciously, he added, “Only a very well-bred foal we can’t afford to lose. And I saw the healer once remove a pendix. Woman would’ve died, he said. She didn’t feel a thing.”