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I'm here, Ruth said in subtle reproach.
Indeed you are, my dearest friend, as you always are! And Jaxom waded out in the warm water to help the fire-lizards give his lifemate a good scrubbing.
16
When Mirrim had come to collect Sharra for the trip up to the Yokohama to begin their own project, she had found Sharra still asleep.
"Sharra? We're to start this dissection business? Remember?" Mirrim said as Sharra groggily roused, plainly disoriented.
"You know about Lamoth and G'lanar?"
Mirrim wrinkled her nose. "I feel sorry for the dragon. Didn't know one would die of shame. You get dressed. I'll get you some klah."
As Sharra quickly dressed, she hoped that Mirrim's feelings would be shared by others. She found some reassurance in the knowledge that Mirrim would not necessarily side with Jaxom if she felt he was wrong.
"You'd better eat, too," the green rider said, returning with the klah. "And let's bring some food, fruit, and juice. I thought I'd faint with hunger during that last session Aivas put us through. Maybe he's sophisticated, but my stomach's not. It's real primitive. It likes to be filled at regular intervals."
Sharra smiled over the rim of her cup. That was Mirrim, talking up a storm to hide her real emotions. The death of any dragon for any reason upset all riders. Sharra just let her friend talk on. Then, with the klah stimulating her, she lent Mirrim a hand to pack provisions.
"No meatrolls!" Mirrim said with a dramatic shudder as Sharra reached into the cupboard for some. "I'll puke if I have to eat any more. Thank goodness Master Robinton likes proper bread and sliced meats and raw vegetables." They placed fresh fruit in the special quilted sacks that were a spin-off product from Hamian's search for space-suit paddings, and filled thermoses with cool drinks. "All right, then, let's lift."
"Isn't Brekke coming with us?" Sharra asked.
"No, F'nor's to do something aboard the Yokohama today." Mirrim gri
"Is it dangerous?" Sharra spoke casually, but she knew Jaxom well enough to know that he had not been telling her something the previous night-a something that had fretted Meer badly enough to send the little bronze skittering back to Ruatha in fright.
"I doubt it! Riders take good care of their dragons, and the reverse is true. The dragons are all very happy with themselves. I wouldn't let today worry me, Sharra," Mirrim said sympathetically.
More bolstered by Mirrim's breezy tone than by her words, Sharra followed her friend out to where Path awaited them, her .green hide gleaming with undertones of deep blue, her eyes dazzling in a green that exactly matched her hide.
"Does she do that often?" Sharra asked, pointing to eye and hide.
Mirrim flushed and ran a hand over the short front locks escaping the tieback. "Sometimes." Though she had a slight grin on her face, she wouldn't meet Sharra's eye. T'gellan was very good for Mirrim, Sharra thought.
When the two women arrived at the Yokohama, Mirrim left Path to amuse herself at the big window of the bridge, an occupation that would engross the green dragon for hours on end. Hefting their provisions, they made their way to the first level of the coldsleep storage facility where they, and the others Master Oldive had inducted to assist in the project, would attempt to understand the complexities of Thread. It was a project that would take far longer than any of them had estimated; it would occasionally cause them to wonder, over the next few weeks, why they had started such an investigation in the first place.
Whenever she could, Sharra cadged a ride back to Ruatha, to spend a few hours with her sons, whom she missed terribly when she had time to miss anything. She was relieved that Jaxom seemed so involved in his own project that he apparently didn't notice, or mind, her preoccupation. Sometimes, when she and the others found themselves working long hours, they stayed up on the Yokohama. Mirrim, of course, had to fly Threadfall, but the others had been released from any other duties for this important investigation.
Other times, when the team had to perform endless boring tasks, they grumbled about Aivas's obsession with the biology of the Thread organism, especially as once the primary task of shifting the Red Star's orbit was accomplished, Thread would be relegated to a myth with which to threaten disobedient children. But Aivas repeatedly insisted on the necessity of this research: how vital it was to understand the organism. They were all, including Oldive, so accustomed to obeying an Aivas directive that they complied.
Caselon, who now sported journeyman's knots as well as a unique pattern of tiny white scars on his ta
Skillfully guided by Aivas, they had sufficient successes to keep a high level of enthusiasm and interest, and to ignore discomforts. As Aivas often reminded them, the routines they were learning in dissecting the very complex organism that had menaced their world for centuries could be applied to other organisms. So the discipline was an end in itself.
Aivas did insist that they bring one ovoid up to "normal" temperatures in an airlock on the far side of the Yokohama, away from the sections that were normally being used. With no friction to destroy the tough outer layer, the ovoid remained inert.
"The friction, then," Aivas observed, "is essential to free the organism."
"Let's not free it," Caselon suggested drolly.
"It is as well," Master Oldive remarked thoughtfully, "to know that it is helpless."
"At our mercy," Sharra added, gri
"The observation will be continued," Aivas said.
"Do let us know if its condition changes," Sharra said.
Besides Caselon, Sharra, Mirrim, and Oldive, Brekke had volunteered and brought Tamara, the unsuccessful queen candidate, for the girl did not seem to mind monotonous tasks as much as others did. Two more healers, Sefal and Durack, and Manotti, a Smithcraft journeyman, completed their staff. There were times when they could have used twice the number, but all had been trained by Aivas and soon worked well together, smoothly and efficiently and in good spirits.
Initially they had the barest essentials for the task at hand. In the laboratory there were two cubicles. On the top of the work benches were disks that lit up with various kinds of light; Sefal, a dour but diligent sort, was fascinated by the effects obtainable during initial demonstrations. Most important for their purpose was the binocular stereo microscope that they all had to learn to use. The x and y dimensions caused no problem, but to learn to use the z proved to be far more difficult. To demonstrate, Aivas had Sharra take a hair from her head and tie knots in it under the microscope-not as easy as it sounded, as each of them learned when they tried it.
To one side of the microscope was a flush drawer with a sliding cover, in which some oddly truncated glass instrument's were found. These, Aivas told them, they had to learn to duplicate in order to do the dissection work required.
Two more workbenches and stools were found and dragged into the two cubicles, although that limited what free space there was.
While Sharra was tying knots in her hair using the binocular microscope, Aivas had Sefal and Manotti take apart one of the two refrigerators to obtain the parts necessary to bring the third one down to -150 degrees, the temperature they would need to work on the Thread organism. They might have to reduce its temperature to that of the Oort Cloud from whence it came, -270C or 3K absolute-but for the present, they could be content with maintaining the Thread's temperature in Pern orbit.