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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?

By the end of the evening, there were over twenty “right-thinking” men and women, discussing in low voices the possibility that the Aivas machine—the “Abomination” seemed as appropriate a name as it had been for the original protestors—might not have the good of real people at heart, it being a machine and all.

No one exchanged names and hold or hall affiliations, but they all agreed to meet at the next Gather, if they could. They agreed to find out who else might wish to organize a protest about undesirable and possibly detrimental changes that were introduced as “progress.”

It surprised First and Second, but not Third, Fourth, Sixth, and Seventh—and especially not Fifth—who continued to use those numbers as their Gather identities, that many people had grievances, small and large, real or fancied, that needed to be aired and perhaps addressed. Fifth never again spoke about the synchronicity of the death of the Masterharper and the Abomination, but that little rumor bound many to the cause who might not have given it much credence. Master Robinton had been very popular, and if—if—that Abomination had been responsible in any way for the Masterharper’s death, then that was cause enough to ally against it. If devices or procedures they couldn’t understand were sponsored or suggested by the Abomination, distrust or fear—along with that damaging rumor of which death had been first—supplied an impetus that could be successfully channeled into action.

There were those who found fulfillment within the group and in the planning, and with a certain perverse joy in subtly thwarting “progress” with minor deeds of damage. But for others, such “minor” deeds—which did not cause real alarm in Hold and Hall, or have deeper consequences in preventing the making and distribution of more and more abominable devices—were not enough.

Though it caused some distress to healers to find the latest shipments of new preparations from the Healer Hall missing from their shelves, it did not immediately occur to them that none of the older remedies were ever stolen.

If a Crafthall, manufacturing parts for new devices, found work damaged by “accidents” or acids spilled on packing crates, they put stronger locks on their hall doors and kept eyes open for strangers visiting in the area.

If the Printer Hall found discarded sheets missing from the bin in which the ruined paper had been placed for recycling, none of the apprentices thought to report the matter.