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"You sound to me a bit like a man convincing himself against the evidence of his own senses," Piemur said, regarding his friend through narrowed eyes.
"Well, it does take getting used to," Jaxom repeated, ru
"I wonder," Piemur went on, "just how Sharra, and Lytol, and Lessa, and F'lar, and Robinton will view your latest escapade."
"Once they've tried it, they'll see that it's not really dangerous. It's just... a different aspect of travel on a dragon!"
Piemur let out an exaggerated sigh. "And if you and Ruth can do it, every other dragon and rider on Pern will feel required to follow your example. Is that what you wanted, Aivas?"
"The result is inevitable, given the friendly competitiveness of dragonriders."
Piemur raised both hands in a gesture of resignation. "As I said, with a friend like Aivas, you don't need enemies!"
Jaxom had let himself in for a series of harangues once they got back to Landing.
"True harper instincts!" he remarked acidly to Piemur, when the journeyman bellowed the news to Lytol on the duty desk. His old guardian turned pale and stern, and Jaxom had the satisfaction of seeing Piemur blanch. "Just let's keep this all in perspective, shall we?" he added, striding to Lytol. "I'm all right, really I am. Ruth wouldn't put me in danger any more than Aivas would. Someone!" He raised his voice. "I need some help here!"
Jancis came ru
"Just don't stand there, Piemur, get some wine. Some of that fortified wine would be best," she called after him as he scurried for the kitchen. "And just what have you been up to?" she demanded of Jaxom.
"Nothing as dangerous as springing news on-" Jaxom caught himself before saying "old man." "-someone with no advance warning or preparation. I gather Aivas did not mention what he had pla
"How could emptying fuel sacks be dangerous?" Jancis asked, her pretty eyes wide with astonishment.
"I'm perfectly all right," Lytol insisted. After he had obediently taken several sips of the hot klah his color had improved.
Piemur burst back into the hall, a wineskin in one hand and several glasses in the fingers of the other. He set these down on the table with more force than needed, but he could see that Lytol was recovering. "I need a drink as much as anyone else," the harper said, splashing wine into the first glass so sloppily that Jancis, uttering a protest, took the skin from his hand.
"Thanks. I needed that!" And Piemur downed the glass he had filled and held it out for a refill.
"You wait your turn," she scolded.
Jaxom gestured for her to pour wine into Lytol's cup and for the older man to drink again.
"Now, whatever made you attempt such a dangerous maneuver?" Lytol demanded.
Jaxom sighed. "It wasn't dangerous. Aivas asked Ruth and me to do an EVA, and we did. Ruth and I were quite safe. He had his claws hooked on that framework around the engine section and I-I was hanging on to him." Jaxom gri
"Dragonriders!" In that tone, Jancis's single word was a profound condemnation.
"Wouldn't you agree, Lytol, that a dragon won't endanger his rider? That a dragon can take himself and his rider anywhere between to safety?" Suddenly Jaxom realized that this was the first time in many Turns that he had asked Lytol to verify draconic abilities. He could see the muscles along his guardian's jaw clench, and wondered if he had overstepped the bounds of tact.
Lytol exhaled. "On occasion I have thought that Ruth acted too much on impulse, but you, Jaxom, have always been cautious; thus the two of you balanced each other. He would no more endanger you than you would put his life in jeopardy. But your extravehicular activity should have been discussed beforehand."
Piemur shot Jaxom a righteous glare, and Jaxom shrugged.
"We did it, and we have proved that it can be done with no harm."
I am going to sleep in the sun, Ruth told him. You're going to be talking for hours. I'm glad we didn't talk about doing it first. It could have taken days to arrive at permission. We might never have gotten to do it.
Jaxom did not repeat Ruth's less than diplomatic remarks or his appraisal of talk to come-talk that grew into harangue as Lessa, F'lar, Robinton, and D'ram were informed of the EVA.
"One more incidence of Aivas's obsession," Lessa said, not at all pleased to be summoned to the hastily convened meeting.
"I wish you would all address the meat of the exercise,"
Jaxom said with more irritation than he had ever before betrayed in the Benden Weyrleaders' presence. "The important fact is that it can be done, has been done, and that Aivas says that EVA by dragons and riders is crucial to his plan."
They were not in the Aivas chamber, but in the conference room.
"Why on earth would he want dragons clinging to that bloody framework, thousands of miles above Pern?" F'lar demanded.
"To accustom dragons to being in space," Jaxom replied.
"That's not all," Robinton said in a slow, thoughtful tone.
"No." D'ram sat erect and alert. "The dragons must move the Yokohama."
"Why?" Lessa asked. "What good would that do?"
"To ram it at the Red Star," D'ram said.
Jaxom, Piemur, and F'lar shook their heads.
"Why not?" Lessa demanded. "That must be why he wanted the fuel in the tanks."
Jaxom smiled wryly at her ignorance. "That drop of fuel would not explode on impact, and ramming the Red Star with the Yokohama, ponderous as it is, would not alter its orbit one bit. But I grant you, he needs the dragons to move something."
"Let's ask him!" Robinton suggested, standing and starting for the door. When the others did not move, he turned back at them. "Well, don't we want to know?"
"I'm not so sure I do," Lessa murmured, but she rose and followed the others as they trooped down the hallway to Aivas's room.
Jaxom, Jancis, and Piemur closed the doors into the various rooms occupied by students and, when all were inside Aivas's chamber, that door was closed. Piemur leaned back against it.
"What do the dragons have to move and where?" F'lar asked with no preamble.
"So you have perceived part of the plan, Weyrleader."
"You mean to use the Yokohama to ram the planet?" Lessa asked, still sure that she had the answer.
"That would be totally ineffectual, and the Yokohama is needed as a vantage point."
"Then what?" F'lar insisted.
A picture came up of the Red Star, with details gleaned from Wansor's patient study of the face the planet presented its viewers. A deep chasm could be seen ru
"You all see this fracture. It is entirely possible that the chasm goes deep into the planet. It is probable that an explosion of sufficient magnitude at this point would have the desired effect of altering the planet's orbit. Especially when the planet is already perturbed by its proximity to the fifth satellite of this system." The visual altered to the familiar diagram of the Rukbat system. "Ordinarily an explosion of this magnitude would be impossible to effect. Not only because of the difficulty of amassing the elements required to make such a blast, but because it is nearly impossible to prevent chaotic elements from entering the equations of motion of the Red Star and even of the other planets.
"It is apparent from Master Wansor's investigations that the fifth planet is devoid of atmosphere and life. It is also at its farthest distance from Pern. There will be some perturbations throughout the system, but these have been calculated as negligible in the face of the desired result, the relief from any further incursions of Thread on this planet."