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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?

“Benelek’s delighted. The units are easy to build and attach to alarms. I’ve sent some handy apprentices down for a few weeks’ training with him.”

“You’re not worried about them breaking in here, are you?” Pinch was genuinely alarmed.

Sebell laughed, lightening his generally serious manner. “Not with the Fort Hold watch dragon!”

“Who didn’t hear the vandals in the Healer Hall …”

“Because they entered quietly and wearing healer green. Then there’re all the fire-lizards that live here—not just Menolly’s.” Sebell pointed a finger at the roving Harper. “You hear anything of their plans, even a whisper …”

“My hearing’s excellent and Bista’s is better.”

“Send word.” Sebell frowned a little, thinking. “Odd, isn’t it, that those who dislike the advantages Aivas gave us should force us to use his technology to thwart them!”

“Ironic, too.” Pinch rose from his perch on the desk corner. “I’ve read enough in Aivas’s historical files to feel that Pern will never be in danger of becoming over-technical. Takes too long to develop the skills needed, except in special instances like the digital locks, and we certainly don’t have the production systems the Ancients had. As a population, we have been conditioned to this slower, more methodical rhythm of living and only a very small portion will ever feel the urge to aspire to Aivasian heights.”

“A Pinch of philosophy, too, huh?” Sebell said, grinning. “I wonder would such reassurance suffice to content the dissenters.”

“We all have a choice,” Pinch said and rubbed his hands together with an air of anticipation. “What petitions d’you want me to go over? I’m here overnight at least.”

Just as Sebell was deciding which pile, the latch of the Master’s office door was being pulled down. Both men heard a child’s delighted laughter and then the door was pushed inward.

“Da, I learnt ’nother tune. Perfect!”

The child—and Pinch had no difficulty in identifying him by his tangle of dark curly hair as Menolly’s oldest son, Robse—swung in on the door handle, waving his wooden recorder over his head. “Ooops, sorry. Dint know anyone was here.”

“No, come in, come in,” Pinch said, wondering if he could escape being lumbered with petitions.

“Is by Aivas!” Robse announced as if the source made all the difference.

“By Aivas, is it?” Pinch could not resist echoing the phrase.

“By Aivas!” Robse affirmed with a nod that made the curls on his head bounce and his expression turn very stern indeed.

“If it’s by Aivas, then it’s all right,” Pinch said.

“These, Master Mekelroy, are for your perusal,” Sebell said, bowing as he held out one of the larger piles to Pinch.