All The Weyrs of Pern

"Easy now, Jaxom!" F'lar cautioned, raising one hand as if to cancel the experiment.

There was plenty of wing space, and Ruth delicately lowered himself in the thin atmosphere past the lip of the canyon and down onto the first stone sheet. He dislodged a small boulder, which continued to fall. Jaxom listened for a long moment.

Have you got all your weight on this, Ruth? Jaxom asked.

Jaxom could feel Ruth grunting as he bent his knees and pressed downward.

It's not going anywhere. And I don't weigh so much here.

True. "We should have brought some lights," Jaxom told the others, peering along the stone protrusion. "But this shelf looks plenty long enough to hold even the Yokohama's engine. D'you want me and Ruth to see how far down we can go before the canyon closes up?"

"Shards! No!" F'lar said. "What you're doing is dangerous enough."

"How much time has elapsed?" Lessa asked. "The dragons have only so much air in their bodies."

"We're only seven minutes here," Jaxom said after glancing at the built-in suit chronometer. As a leader, he was wearing one of the original space suits, not one of those Hamian had so cleverly contrived.

"C'mon up out of there, Jaxom," F'lar said. "If the jaws of that canyon should snap shut..."

Jaxom, who had been thinking the same thing, was quite willing to comply. Beating his wings much faster than he'd need to on Pern, Ruth rose from the black chasm, facing the other two dragons.

"This would be one likely site then," F'lar said. "I'll go up, you go down. Lessa, see what the other rim is like. How much time, Jaxom?"

"Five minutes! No more!"

Jaxom found it somewhat u

Ramoth says we must return. They have found a third place, Ruth told Jaxom.

Then our mission is accomplished. Let's join 'em and go back.

Ramoth says to jump back from where we are.

Are you all right? Jaxom asked. Are they all right?

I'm all right. They're all right. But it would be good to get back to the Yokohama and breathe.

Let's go, then. And Jaxom thought with longing of his own for the safety of the cargo bay.

A fraction of a breath after Ruth and Jaxom arrived, the two big Benden dragons appeared. Even in the dim light of the cargo bay, Jaxom could see that their colors were grayed. Apprehensively, he looked down at Ruth, but no fading was visible. Then he saw that their journey had had an elapsed time of 12:30:20 minutes.

Are you all right? he asked, leaning forward on Ruth's neck, aware that the white dragon's mouth was wide open as he inhaled and exhaled, great deep breaths. Jaxom could feel him trembling.

"Jaxom? Lessa? F'lar?" Aivas's voice sounded very loud in the helmet.

"We're here," Jaxom replied. "We're all right. We've found three points for the engines. Well down in the chasm, wide ledges. Perfect." He looked at the chronometer. "Twelve minutes, Aivas. Twelve. Strange place," he added, recalling what he had seen of the lifeless surface and the jumbled, tortured terrain, with the vast canyon like a gaping wound that had killed the planet. Had anyone ever lived on it?

I am thirsty and I need a bath, Ruth said so plaintively that Jaxom laughed. Ramoth and Mnementh agree.

"I think we'll just let you get your full breath back, Ramoth dear," Lessa said, unsnapping the riding straps. "There wouldn't be any klah up here anywhere, would there, Jaxom?" she asked, almost as plaintively as Ruth had. "I'm thirsty, cold, and I feel as if I've been gone from Pern for a century."

"Water's all we've got up here," he told her. "But we're not that far from hot klah." He wouldn't mind a pitcherful or two himself. His guts felt cold from his navel to his backbone.

But the water cask proved to be empty, and Jaxom cursed under his breath. He would have a hard word or two for whatever dimwit hadn't had the consideration to refill the on-board cask.

Lessa was furious, too, but that made them quick to shed their suits and rack them carefully away. By then, all three dragons insisted that they were restored and wanted nothing more than a long drink and a longer swim.

"One thing," Lessa said as she remounted Ramoth. "This trip was much farther away, but it didn't take as long as I thought it would. I wonder...

"We've enough to wonder about, Lessa," F'lar said firmly, "and I want to get the details down as soon as possible before they fade."

"My impressions of that sterile place won't fade," Lessa replied emphatically. "I could almost feel sorry for it."

"It has been a dead planet for longer than Pern has been viable," Aivas said.

"That doesn't make me feel any better," Lessa replied.

Meer was waiting at Cove Hold, and he gave both Jaxom and Ruth such a scolding of agitated dives and fierce shrieking that Lessa and F'lar doubled up with laughter.

Ruth calmly reassured the little bronze and, ambling down toward the beach, invited him to help with the dragons' bath. You are not coming? he added plaintively when he saw Jaxom heading in the direction of the Hold.

"Can't, dear heart. Got to put down the details while they're fresh in my mind! Be with you soon enough," Jaxom called as he jogged up to the beach with Lessa and F'lar. Fairs of firelizards erupted into the air, diving for the dragons. "Not that you need us!"

The spacious living area of the Hold was empty, and calls for Robinton and Sharra went unanswered.

"I wonder where Sharra's gone," Jaxom said, remembering all too clearly how he had left her asleep and diverted Meer. She would be worried. Or angry! And with genuine cause, he thought, wincing.

Lessa gri

"That'll be no excuse," Jaxom said glumly, wondering how he was going to restore himself in Sharra's eyes. Then he gave himself a mental shake and turned to immediate tasks.

As the Benden Weyrleaders collected drawing materials, Jaxom found a pitcher of cold fruit juice in the cooler; they all emptied the large jug while they recorded their visit. When they compared the images, there were few deviations. .

"That's done!" Lessa said, with a sigh of relief.

"You know," Jaxom said, propping his head on one hand and gri

F'lar gri

"Well, it has!" Lessa said, planting both hands on the table and pushing herself to her feet. She picked up the sketches and thrust them at Jaxom. "Put them somewhere safe until you can show Aivas. Now, I'm going to swim!"

Though he wanted a swim as badly as the others did, Jaxom detoured through the room he had shared with Sharra, hoping that she had left him a message. There was none, and he felt more dejected than ever. He shucked off his clothes, thankful that he always kept a spare change at Cove Hold, and made his way down to the lagoon.

Meer and Talla separated themselves from those scrubbing Ruth and circled his head, chittering happily. Not entirely encouraged by their response, he waded out to Ruth.

Sharra's above. She wouldn't let Meer or Talla go with her. They'd get in the way, Ruth told him.

Jaxom slapped his forehead in dismay: she had told him, too, and he had forgotten about it, once again so immersed in his own business that her doings hadn't quite registered in his brain. He laughed in self-deprecation. At times he knew he didn't deserve a woman like Sharra, and this was one of them. How conceited he was! He missed her. Even if he couldn't have told her about the marvelous journey he had just taken, he missed her.