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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?

“We’ll have to plan to swing round the holds’ borders and rediscourage the carnivores,” he said, breaking off a piece of bread and offering it to her before taking some for himself. “You’ve about finished curing the last pelts we got, haven’t you?”

“Just about. Someone else must have pegged skins on the wall I’m using,” she said.

“Probably. Hold records suggest they were self-sufficient.” He shook his head. “I’ve never understood what happened to the people who were doing so well here. Why they simply …” he spread out his hands in bewilderment, “… left?”

She felt gravy on the corner of her mouth and used a bit of the bread to remove it, right past her lips. “Plague?” Disease had wiped out so many holdings it was always the first guess.

He shook his head. “No, no skeletons.”

“Vermin would have scavenged the remains.”

“Their effects were all neatly put away.”

“As if they meant to return?” she asked, surprised, but then F’lessan had been researching the history of this weyrhold of his.

“No, as if that was the way they took care of tools and equipment.” He gestured to the kitchen and the utensils visible on the work surfaces.

“As they did in the workshop.” All the shelves and drawers fascinated Tai, the contents neatly packed away in oil or grease and the airless plastic envelopes that the Ancients had had. Even the flying machine—a sled, F’lessan called it—had been cocooned. She’d never had the opportunity to visit the Catherine Caves as F’lessan had, but he’d said that these weren’t thoroughly explored or emptied of treasures. Samples of the things the Ancients had used were on display at Landing, some still encased in the packing used for the voyage to the Rukbat system. She—and others—had puzzled over the use of some items. “Why would they leave such a beautiful place?”

“Once this Pass is over, you may be sure I won’t leave,” he said resolutely. “As it is, I’m here more than I should be,” he added with that irrepressibly engaging grin she so enjoyed. “Eat up, my dear green.”

“Shouldn’t have eaten so much,” he remarked twenty minutes later as she trudged behind him up the steep stairs to the observation room. He was panting, too, she noticed. “As well we don’t have to lug things all the way up these stairs. Only down one level when we get where we’re going.”

F’lessan had explained the almost secretive design of Honshu’s observatory; not all the secrets, he’d said, grinning with a boyish delight, but Kenjo had made sure it was not readily accessible. The first challenge were the stairs that went up six levels inside Honshu’s cliff.