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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 have now had a chance to thoroughly examine the Yoko’s records,” Lord Lytol said, his expression doleful, “and the Fireball was a visible light against the asteroid belt as far back as Turn’s End.”

“When we were occupied with other matters entirely,” G’dened said wearily.

Lytol gave him a repressive glare and continued. “The Yoko has traced its inclination and now suggests that it was probably even then a possibly hazardous object, not merely one near Pern.”

“What’s the difference, Lytol?” Lessa asked.

“Oh, between 100,000 and 400,000 kilometers, Lady Lessa,” Lytol said with a sad smile. “If Pern had been farther on its rotation around Rukbat, the cometary fragment would have passed us by.”

“The point is, Lady Lessa,” Wansor said, leaning toward her earnestly, “that if we had had a sky watch then, we would have known to track it more carefully.”

“What more could we have done about it if we had known?” T’gellan asked wearily.

A depressed silence followed that heartfelt query.

“The situation for dragonriders was once much worse than this,” F’lar said in a quiet but firm voice, “when Benden had only a handful of riders to fight Thread, and you,” he gestured to D’ram, G’dened, and G’narish, “came forward in time to support us. Now we have access to the Ancients’ exhaustive records and, if I remember Aivas’s lectures at the time, he told us that old Earth had its own share of problems in near space. Erragon, how did the Ancients handle that problem?”

Erragon gave a dry chuckle. “They watched through very powerful telescopes augmented by a dedicated group of men and women using lesser instruments. Aivas states that they had mapped the position of stars in their part of the galaxy—and objects in the Earth’s system—with an accuracy measured by microarcseconds. Far beyond the abilities of the telescopes we have, of course. But we need only concern ourselves about Rukbat.”

“Yes, yes,” G’dened interrupted, leaning eagerly in his direction, “but what did they do to things that came too close to Earth?”

“They took—I quote—‘action when required to divert a possibly hazardous object.’ ”

“With what? How?” demanded G’dened.

“That,” Erragon said ironically, “they didn’t say.”

“But they must have done something!” There was a quaver of fear in G’dened’s tone.

“They did have a sky watch,” F’lessan said so firmly that he caught everyone’s attention. “We can be accurate enough and, as Erragon says, we should learn what should be in our skies and track any newcomers.”

“The astronomy files I’ve been studying clearly state that such destructive impacts are rare,” Lytol added.

“Then why do we have to go through all this rigmarole of watching?” G’dened asked, more impatient than ever.