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Back The Skies of Pern
Chapters (64)
  1. Other titles by Anne McCaffreyPublished by Ballantine Books:
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  7. INTRODUCTION
  8. PROLOGUE
  9. At a Gather—6.15.30
  10. Part 1
  11. Turnover at Landing—1.1.31 Present Pass Aivas—Aivas Adjusted Turn 2553
  12. Benden Weyr—1.1.31
  13. Southern Hold—1.1.31
  14. Healer Hall—1.1.31
  15. Back at Landing—1.2.31
  16. Fort Hold—late night—1.1.31
  17. Fort Hold Runner Station—1.2.31
  18. Keroon Printer Hall—1.3.31
  19. Benden Weyr—midday—1.3.31
  20. Monaco Bay Weyr—five days later—1.8.31
  21. Part 2
  22. Ruatha Hold—local time 12:04 in the morning—1.9.31
  23. Telgar Weyr—local time 4:04 in the morning—1.9.31
  24. Benden Weyr—local time 6:04 in the morning—1.9.31
  25. Harper Hall—local time 1:00 in the morning—1.9.31
  26. Landing—local time 10:12 mid-morning—1.9.31
  27. In the Conference Room at Landing—1.9.31
  28. Monaco Weyr—10:22 in the morning—Timing it
  29. In the Conference Room at Landing—local time 1:10–1.9.31
  30. Sunrise Cliff Seahold—timed-back
  31. In the Conference Room—local time 2:12 at Landing—1.9.31
  32. Back at Landing—local time—3:40
  33. Harper Hall—5:00 in the morning, and Southern Hold—2:00 in the morning–1.9.31
  34. Landing—late afternoon—1.9.31
  35. Same time at Keroon Printer Hall—local time 11:15—1.9.31
  36. Later, on an unusually bright evening at Landing, Sunrise Cliff, and Honshu Hold—1.9.31
  37. Part 3
  38. Honshu—1.10.31
  39. Circle Runner Station—1.18.31
  40. Harper Hall
  41. Benden Weyr—
  42. Benini Hold—east Monaco and Honshu—1.20.31
  43. Harper Hall—1.28.31
  44. Honshu Hold—2.1.31
  45. Fort Hold—2.13.31
  46. Printer Hall at Wide Bay—same night
  47. Honshu Hold—2.9.31
  48. Night at Wide Bay—2.9.31
  49. Ruatha Hold—late evening—2.9.31
  50. Core Hold—two days before Council Meeting—2.26.31
  51. Part 4
  52. Honshu Weyrhold—2.26–27.31
  53. Council Meeting at Telgar Hold—3.1.31
  54. Honshu Weyrhold—3.01.31
  55. Interim at Benden and elsewhere
  56. Honshu Weyrhold—time passing slowly
  57. Landing—3.21.31
  58. Honshu Weyrhold—3.21.31
  59. Southern Hold—3.23.31
  60. Honshu Weyrhold—3.27.31
  61. Benden Weyr—3.27.31
  62. Cove Hold—same day, same approximate time
  63. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  64. What’s next onyour reading list?

“ ‘She didn’t feel a thing,’ ” Fifth repeated, investing that statement with sinister import.

“The healer could have done anything else he liked,” Fourth said in a shocked whisper.

Second dismissed that with a grunt. “Didn’t do her any harm and she’s still alive and a good worker.”

“I mean,” First went on, “there’s a lot of stuff being tried in the Crafthalls, not just the Healers—and when they make mistakes, it can cost a man’s life. I don’t want them fooling around with me, inside or out.”

“Your choice,” Second said.

“But is it always ‘your’ choice?” Fourth wanted to know, leaning forward across the table and tapping her finger to stress her point.

Third also leaned forward. “And what choices are we being given—to decide what we want and need—out of all those files Aivas is supposed to have left us? How do we know we want all this technology and advanced gadgets? How do we know it’ll do what they say it will? Lot of people saying we got to have that; ought to have this. They’re making the decisions. Not us. I don’t like it.” He nodded his head to emphasize his distrust.

“For that matter, how do we know that all that hard work—and I had to work my arse off some days down at Landing—will work?” Seventh asked with some rancor. “I mean, they can tell us that it’s going to work, but none of us will be alive to see if it does, will we?”

“Neither will they,” Third said with black humor. “Then, too,” he went on quickly before Fifth could start in again, “not all of the Masters and Lords and Holders are keen to just latch on to all this new junk. Why I heard Master Menolly herself …” Even Fifth regarded him with interest. “She said that we ought to wait and go carefully. We didn’t need a lot of the things that that Aivas machine talked about.”

“What we do have,” Fifth said, raising his deeper, oddly inflectionless voice above Third’s light tenor, “has worked well enough for hundreds of Turns.”

Third held up a cautionary finger. “We gotta be careful what new junk gets made just because it’s new and seems to make things easier.”

“But you have electricity?” Sixth said enviously.

“It’s done naturally—we use sun panels, and they’ve been around forever.”

“Ancients made ’em,” First said.

“Well, as I said,” Third went on, “some things will be useful, but we’ve got to be very careful or we’ll fall into the same trap the Ancients did. Too much technology. It’s even in the Charter.”

“It is?” Second asked, surprised.

“It is,” Third said. “And we can do something to keep us traditional and unsullied by stuff we aren’t even sure we need.”

“What?” First asked.