Chapters (64)
- Other titles by Anne McCaffreyPublished by Ballantine Books:
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- INTRODUCTION
- PROLOGUE
- At a Gather—6.15.30
- Part 1
- Turnover at Landing—1.1.31 Present Pass Aivas—Aivas Adjusted Turn 2553
- Benden Weyr—1.1.31
- Southern Hold—1.1.31
- Healer Hall—1.1.31
- Back at Landing—1.2.31
- Fort Hold—late night—1.1.31
- Fort Hold Runner Station—1.2.31
- Keroon Printer Hall—1.3.31
- Benden Weyr—midday—1.3.31
- Monaco Bay Weyr—five days later—1.8.31
- Part 2
- Ruatha Hold—local time 12:04 in the morning—1.9.31
- Telgar Weyr—local time 4:04 in the morning—1.9.31
- Benden Weyr—local time 6:04 in the morning—1.9.31
- Harper Hall—local time 1:00 in the morning—1.9.31
- Landing—local time 10:12 mid-morning—1.9.31
- In the Conference Room at Landing—1.9.31
- Monaco Weyr—10:22 in the morning—Timing it
- In the Conference Room at Landing—local time 1:10–1.9.31
- Sunrise Cliff Seahold—timed-back
- In the Conference Room—local time 2:12 at Landing—1.9.31
- Back at Landing—local time—3:40
- Harper Hall—5:00 in the morning, and Southern Hold—2:00 in the morning–1.9.31
- Landing—late afternoon—1.9.31
- Same time at Keroon Printer Hall—local time 11:15—1.9.31
- Later, on an unusually bright evening at Landing, Sunrise Cliff, and Honshu Hold—1.9.31
- Part 3
- Honshu—1.10.31
- Circle Runner Station—1.18.31
- Harper Hall
- Benden Weyr—
- Benini Hold—east Monaco and Honshu—1.20.31
- Harper Hall—1.28.31
- Honshu Hold—2.1.31
- Fort Hold—2.13.31
- Printer Hall at Wide Bay—same night
- Honshu Hold—2.9.31
- Night at Wide Bay—2.9.31
- Ruatha Hold—late evening—2.9.31
- Core Hold—two days before Council Meeting—2.26.31
- Part 4
- Honshu Weyrhold—2.26–27.31
- Council Meeting at Telgar Hold—3.1.31
- Honshu Weyrhold—3.01.31
- Interim at Benden and elsewhere
- Honshu Weyrhold—time passing slowly
- Landing—3.21.31
- Honshu Weyrhold—3.21.31
- Southern Hold—3.23.31
- Honshu Weyrhold—3.27.31
- Benden Weyr—3.27.31
- Cove Hold—same day, same approximate time
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“Divert it?” Groghe exclaimed, the smile that had been growing during F’lar’s opening sentences turning into stunned amazement. “But there are no more engines to divert anything since we blew the Red Star up, are there?”
“No engines, Lord Groghe, but dragons and their riders!”
Toric leaped to his feet, face suffused with blood, stabbing his finger at the Benden Weyrleader, and shouted, “So you think you can coerce the Holds to continue to support you forever?”
“Not at all, Lord Toric,” F’lar replied with calm pride. “You cannot perceive how deeply every Weyr—” He paused and the other dragonriders nodded or murmured emphatic agreement with that statement. “—wishes to be as independent as any other person on this planet. Necessity has required our dependence on the holds we protect, but, by the end of this Pass, we shall all have holdings or crafts with which to support ourselves. We shall be journeymen and -women, attracting apprentices to Star Holds and learning to be Masters of the Star Hall. We will study the stars and watch the skies of Pern until we know exactly what might threaten this planet again.”
“And what will you do then?” Toric bawled the question.
F’lar regarded Toric with a smile on his face. “We will divert it.”
“How? How?” Toric pounded the table. “You weren’t able to divert the Fireball.”
“Now that,” and F’lar paused significantly, without a trace of apology, “won’t happen again.” His tone was so confident, his manner so assured that the other dragonriders proudly straightened, so obviously in agreement with his statement, that the Southern Holder was perplexed.
“It is an ability that Aivas perceived in dragonkind,” Jaxom remarked as one chiding his audience to remember something they had not previously considered.
“Indeed, Lord Jaxom,” F’lar said amiably. “The dragons have always had the ability. We have been busy refining it.”
“It takes time and practice,” N’ton said.
“The older the dragon, the more adept, you know,” K’van put in.
“Combined with observatories and a sound knowledge of the Rukbat system and our skies,” F’lar continued, “we’ll know exactly what’s around us and what else the Oort Cloud spawns.”
“As you all have reminded us,” Lessa added, “dragonriders are the caretakers of Pern’s skies. So let us continue to undertake that responsibility.”
“Practicing and preparing for when the need for this potent ability presents itself,” F’lar finished.
As draconic bellow had silenced argument, now everyone heard the carol that trilled the affirmative response of the dragons gathered on the cliffs of Telgar!
“Well, I for one,” Groghe said, beaming at F’lar and the other Weyrleaders, “am deeply relieved to hear all this. Though I can’t remember Aivas …”
“Naturally Aivas only discussed the subject with dragonriders,” Jaxom said in a grave manner.