The Red Orb of Pern
M.C. Gordon
Disclaimer is attached to the beginning of this series. This is fan fiction written for a friend who enjoys Anne McCaffrey's Pern as much as I do. Comments welcome to quasito_cat@hotmail.com or quasito_cat@yahoo.com
Chapter 24
"A little higher. Now more to the left. Now down a little."
"Make up your mind," M'chell said to Raganth.
"I can't help it," the golden dragon responded. "My itch keeps moving."
"It's been moving for the last twenty minutes." Mitchell gave up. There was so much of Raganth to scratch and oil. At six turns of age the dragon had stopped growing, finally, fortunately. Raganth was now even larger than any golden queen anyone could remember.
M'chell gave a loud whistle and gained Davis's attention. The boy immediately stopped what he was doing, skipping pebbles across the lake, and ran toward the dragon rider.
M'chell watched the lad run toward him. Now twelve turns of age, Davis and Tomin were quickly growing to be quite tall and handsome. Davis had broken away from his brother's leadership the turn before. He made up his mind that he wanted to follow in Andren's footsteps and become a healer, requesting that he be assigned to Fenely during every Fall.
"Whatcha need, M'chell?" he asked when he reached the dragon and rider. The smile that spread to his light blue eyes was infectious and M'chell smiled back and tousled the red hair.
"Would you be so kind as to summon Fith?" M'chell asked. "Raganth has a terrible case of itches today."
"Sure," the boy replied. He closed his eyes and concentrated while his mind made contact with the bronze fire lizard he had accidentally Impressed.
A fair of fire lizards suddenly appeared and started using their claws to scratch away at Raganth's hide. They seemed to carry on a merry conversation among themselves using chirping sounds.
"I told him to bring some friends," Davis explained. "Raganth's awfully big for one fire lizard to scratch. Aren't you, boy?" he asked as he patted one large foreleg.
The golden male turned his head and gazed at the boy with one calm eye. He gently leaned his massive head against Davis, nearly knocking him down.
"Woa, watch it there big fella," Davis gently chided. "I'm just a little guy, remember."
M'chell watched the two. Davis and Tomin had spent two years with N'tan and S'vern while he and L'del tended to their growing dragons. It had been difficult to see the twins pass into someone else's care but neither M'chell nor L'del had the time to give them, and Andren returned to Healer Hall and his training when Threadfall returned to normal. The twins were returned to their care after Raganth rose to mate for the first time.
The entire weyr had been shocked when Raganth began to blood his kill for no one expected the golden male to feel the same urge as the queens. Yet he did, and the only dragon who flew to mate with him had been L'del's bronze Ammorth. Their mating affected not only the weyr for in hold and crafthall the power of their emotion was felt and more than one lady found herself with child; more than one dragon rider found it painful to sit the next day.
M'chell and Davis retreated to a spot of shade and leaned back against a boulder. "You're off to Healer Hall in another seven-day," M'chell remarked. "Are you ready?"
Davis shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I guess so."
"You won't be so far away that we can't keep in touch with you, you know. We can always communicate using Raganth, Ammorth, and Fith. Besides, Andren's a Master now and teaches a class on dragonkind when he's not needed after a Fall."
"I know," Davis said, trying very hard not to cry. He failed quite miserably and the dragon rider saw the tears that fell from his eyes and landed on his legs.
M'chell gathered the boy into a rough embrace and kissed the top of his head. "We'll miss you," he said. "And the worse part? Lurah's probably going to stick us with another set of incorrigible twins."
"Worse than me and Tomin?"
"Who's worse than you and Tomin?" L'del asked as he approached them.
"Nobody," M'chell replied.
"Speaking of, have you seen your brother lately?" L'del queried. "He was supposed to report to M'sel this morning and didn't show up."
"Not since he left this morning," Davis replied. "He told me he had to go to Harper class."
"Well, he didn't show at class or report to M'sel," L'del said.
Chapter 25
Tomin, along with his friends Danel and Lesl, thanked B'ryn, the old and nearly blind blue rider and his dragon, Yoseth, for their assistance.
"We can find our way back to the weyr," Tomin said.
"We'll be home in time for the evening meal. M'chell and L'del won't expect us before then," he added.
"How cool is that?" Danel asked when Yoseth flew away. "You can lie to a dragon rider and he doesn't even know it."
"B'ryn's so old he'll forget before Yoseth gets back to the weyr," Tomin replied.
"Like M'sel won't notice we're missing?" Lesl asked.
"I can twist the Weyrlingmaster around my little finger," Tomin said. "Been able to since I was a kid and took that fall off the Star Stone."
Danel and Lesl gazed at Tomin with all the respect they could muster for the boy who was a turn older. Everyone knew that he was a favorite of his foster fathers, M'chell and L'del. And with his twin leaving soon for Healer Hall, Tomin just knew that he could get away with anything he wanted.
"So, what are we looking for?" Lesl asked.
"I'm not sure," Tomin replied. "There's supposed to be a hidden cave around here somewhere. L'del and M'chell found it when they were they were kids. I heard them talking about it one night when they thought I was asleep. Andren and Juliani were visiting and the four of them were saying how they found some really neat stuff in there."
"Really? What kind of stuff?" Danel asked.
"I don't know; they didn't say. But L'del and Julani almost got into an argument `cause Julani said he didn't think it was fair to seal the cave with everything left in it."
"Can't be a very big cave if they sealed it when they were kids," Lesl said.
"They didn't do it, drudge-head; L'noth had the dragons help seal it."
"I dunno if I want to find it then," Danel said. "If the Weyrleader catches us, we're in big trouble."
"Nobody's going to find out," Tomin bragged. "First, no one knows we're here. Second, nobody else ever comes here anymore."
Danel and Lesl thought about Tomin's logic and finally agreed that he was right. "So?' Lesl asked, "how do we get into the cavern if the dragons sealed it?"
"We use these," Tomin replied as he drew three miner's picks from their hiding place. "I finally found this place last year and I've been bringing supplies up whenever I could sneak away."
It was late afternoon on that rare of things in Benden Weyr, a day of rest. Dragons and riders were well fed and either slept or lounged in the warm sun around the weyr lake. Other weyrfolk took advantage of their peaceful afternoon and lounged around the common eating room, sipping klah and gossiping. No one heard the occasional, muffled sound of picks dislodging boulders near the top of the Weyr.
"Which way do we go?" Danel asked when the boys had finally made a large enough opening for them to enter.
Tomin opened a glowbasket and looked around. "Let's take the right tunnel," he said.
The three boys made their way down the nearly straight tunnel, their footsteps echoing quietly. "I think I see some kind of door," Tomin finally said. "Let's see if we can get it open."
The boys leaned their weight against the door and dug their feet into the tunnel floor. Slowly, ever so slowly, they managed to push the door open just enough to squeeze past it. Tomin picked up his glowbasket and carried it into the room.
Chapter 26
Long hidden from daylight, languishing in the damp cave, several ancient containers had gradually broken down and leaked their contents to the cavern floor. No one knew how many centuries might have passed since the room was closed, sealed from any contact with air and light. No records existed of their existence or content.
The dampness of the cavern, the small micro-organisms that existed in the volcanic dirt, the contents of the containers whose labels had long corroded away, slowly combined as the centuries passed. They altered each other, creating something that had never existed before on Pern. And they waited. Waited as if they had intelligence and knew that one day they would be set free. There was no hurry, and time continued its work on the evolving DNA.
The result lay along the walls of the cavern, hidden in the shadows. The introduction of air and light set yet another, almost immediate, change into effect. The translucent walls of thousands of small cylindrical shaped objects began to pulse. Within moments they burst open, sending untold millions of microscopic spores into the air, freeing something that might prove to be more deadly than Thread.