Anne McCaffrey - Pern 12 - First Fall

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The Chronicles Of Pern

First Fall

by: Anne McCaffrey

CONTENTS

The Survey: P.E.R.N.c

The Dolphins' Bell

The Ford of Red Hanrahan

The Second Weyr

Rescue Run

Timeline for The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall

Year 1Landing

6Torene Ostrovksy b.

8.6 First Fall

10 First Hatching

Michael Connell b.

Fort Hold established

Evacuation of Landing--The Dolphins' Bell

16 The Fever Year

Emily Boll dies

17 Pierre de Courcis starts Boll Hold

19 Red Hanrahan's yarn--The Ford of Red

Hanrahan

22 Michael Impresses Brianth at twelve

Ongola moves his people to found hold

25 Jim Tillek dies

Torene Ostrovsky Impresses Alaranth

26 Paul Benden dies

27 Queens' battle-Porth, Evenath, Siglath

20FF 28 Sean announces three new Weyrs

The Second Weyr

20FF = Twenty Years: First Fall

THE SURVEY: P.E.R.N.c

It's the third planet we want in this pernicious system," Castor said in

a totally jaundiced tone, his eyes fixed on the viewscreen. "How's the

hairpin calc going, Shavva?"

Looking up from her terminal, Shavva screwed up her face for a moment

before she spoke. "I'm happy to report that that'll work out fine. Pity we

can't have a look at the edge of the system," she added. "I'd love to have a

look at those heavy-weight planets and the Oort cloud, but that can't be done

when we've got to do an entry normal to the ecliptic. As it is, the slingshot

will only give us ten days on the surface." She cast him an expectant, wry

look. He groaned. "We'll have to double up again." At her half-stern,

half-sardonic glare, he added, "Fardles, Shavva, after so long together we all

know enough of each other's specialties to do a fair report."

"Fair?" Ben Turnien repeated, his quirky eyebrows raised in amazement.

"Fair to whom?"

"Damn it, Ben, fair enough to know when a planet's habitable by

humanoids. None of us needs a zoologist anymore to tell us which beasties are

apt to be predatory. And each of us has certainly seen enough strange

life-forms and inimical atmospheres and surface conditions to know when to

slap an interdict on a planet."

There was a taut silence as the four remaining team members each vividly

recalled the all-too-recent deaths: Sevvie Asturias, the

paleontologist-medic, and Flora Neveshan, the zoologist-botanist, both lost on

the last planet the Exploration and Evaluation team had visited. Castor had

inscribed, in bold letters on the top of that report, D.E. Dead end. Terbo,

the zoologist-chemist, had been felled in a landslide on the first planet of

their present survey tour, but as that world had clearly supported some

intelligent life, the initials I.L.F. ended that report. They'd lost

Beldona, the second pilot and archeologist, on the third world in the same

accident that had injured Castor: a planet initialed G.O.L.D.I.--good only

for large diversified interests. And they'd orbited one that probes had given

them all the information they needed to label it L.A.--lethal, avoid!

To a team that had been together for five missions, the casualties were

deeply felt. And this mission had yet to be completed. The system they had

just reached, five planets orbiting the primary Rukbat, was the fifth of the

seven to be investigated on their latest swing through this sector of space.

"We can handle the geology, the biology, and the chemistry," Castor went

on, frowning at the gelicast on his leg. The compound fractures had not quite

healed. "Well, I can do the analysis when you've brought appropriate samples

back. We might not be able to do the usual in-depth analysis of all the

biota, but we can find the requisite five possible landing sites, regular or

serious meteoric impacts, any gross geological changes, and if there's a

dominant major life-form."

"Hospitable planets are few enough, but Numero Tres does look very

interesting," Mo Tan Liu remarked in his gentle voice. "I get good readings

on atmosphere and gravity. I think probes are in order."

"Send 'em," Castor said. "Probes we got to spare."

"We're in a good trajectory to send off a homer, too, Liu added.

"Federated Sentient Planets ought to know about the D.E. condition of Flora

Asturias." Following the bizarre and perhaps macabre practice of the

Exploration and Evaluation Corps, they had named the last planet after the

team personnel lost during that surface survey. "We are obliged to report

those and that L.A. immediately."

"All right, all right," Castor said irritably.

"Shall I do the report?" Shawa asked.

"I did it," Castor replied in a tone that ended discussion. He called

up the program, and when the copy was ready, he rolled it up into a tube to be

inserted in the homing capsule. It would reach their mother ship some weeks

before their projected return. "They will want to know we've discovered

another Oort cloud, too. Is it five or six?"

"Six, with this one. I still don't buy that space-virus theory," Ben

remarked, relieved to switch to a less depressing topic.

"Number Four System was dead," Shavva said unequivocally.

"Can't prove the Oort cloud affected it in any way. Besides," Ben went

on, "the planet was bombarded by meteors and meteorites, to judge by the

craters and the craterites. Shattered the surface and boiled off a good deal

of the major oceans. Just like Shaula Three. That system had an Oort cloud,

too." "But it had once supported life. We all saw the fossil remains in the

cliff faces," Castor said.

"Like a road sign: Life was here, it has gone hence." Shavva had been

depressed by the landing. Ten days on a dead world had been nine and a half

too many. The atmosphere was barely adequate; to be on the safe side they'd

used support systems. A rough estimate suggested that the damage had been

done close to a millennium earlier. "At the beginning of Earth's Dark Age,

this planet had found the final one."

"Pity, too. It must have once been a nice world. Great balance of land

and water masses," Castor said.

"I don't know what could have stripped it so completely," Ben said.

"You never did like the Hoyle Wickramansingh theory, did you?"

"Has anyone ever found those space-formed viruses? Even a trace in any

Oort cloud?" Ben stuck his chin out with a touch of belligerence. "I won't

buy that space-virus theory, not when a planet is covered with city-sized

craters. To have both would be overkill, and the universe is conservative.

One gets you just as dead as the other."

"I searched the library for data on other stripped planets. Asturias

matches up on every particular," Liu said, his eyes on the screen. "What

particulars there can be, that is!" He rose, stretched, and yawned broadly.

"What we really need is one in the process of being stripped."

Shavva gave a bark of laughter. "Fat chance of that."

Liu shrugged. "Something does it. Anyway, I feel that the virus theory

would be the rarest probability, while meteors are common, common, common.

Look at what happened in our Earth's Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. We were

just lucky! Probes away, Captain," he said formally to Castor. "Now, I'm for

something to eat, then I'll pack the shuttle for the shot."

"I'll give you a hand," Shawa said. "I want to be sure we got what we

need this time," she added in a low, angry voice, bitterly aware that it had

been Flora's own negligence that had cost those two lives. Shavva was now the

default leader of this understaffed team, and she was determined not to repeat

previous mistakes.

As a young biologist with latent qualities as a nexialist, she had

joined the Exploration and Evaluation Corps for the diversity of duty and the

thrill of being the first human to walk on unexplored planets and catalog new

life-forms, but she hadn't counted on losing friends in the process. EEC

teams developed very close bonds, having to rely on each other's strengths and

weaknesses in dangerous, stimulating, and testing circumstances no textbook,

indeed often no other team reports, could imagine. This was her fourth tour

of duty but the first one punctuated by disasters. Now all the fieldwork

would have to be accomplished by three people--herself, Liu, and Ben--while

Castor, still handicapped by his leg injuries, remained on board as the

exploratory vessel did its hairpin turn about the third planet.

Shavva would have to double as botanist on this trip. Fortunately she

had learned enough from Flora to be able to determine a fair amount about the

ecology of the plant life--if there were sufficient pollinators, what sort of

competition there was for the food crops, as well as the nutritional

possibilities of the native forms, and quite likely what disease agents and

possible vectors existed within the ecology.

Ben, as a geologist with some secondary background in chemistry, could

cope with the planet's basic pulse--its air and landmasses, magnetic fields,

mass-cons, continental plate structure, tidal patterns, temperatures, the

general topography, and, especially, any seismic activity--and evaluate the

history of the planetary surface for at least the past million years. If the

survey proceeded without glitches, he'd have a go at the longer-term history,

attempting to detect signs of magnetic reversals and to determine if--and

when--there had been any large extinctions.

Liu, as nexialist, would investigate whatever remaining aspects of this

planet they had time to consider. That is, if the probes brought back reports

that would make a visit worthwhile. Numero Tres did look promising, but

Shavva had discovered that looks could be very deceiving in this business.

The probe sent back reports that were skeptically regarded as being too

good to be true.

"Good balance of land and water masses," Liu said. "Usual ice caps,

mountains, good plains areas Parallels Earth in many respects. Initial P.E.

for starters, Castor."

"Atmosphere is breathable, slightly above normal in oxygen content:

gravity slightly lower at zero-point-nine on the scale," Ben contributed.

"Considerable volcanism in that chain of islands extending from the southern

hemisphere, nothing major at the moment. Rather a nice little planet,

actually."

"Plenty of green stuff down there," Shavva said. "What the hell?" she

added in puzzlement as the computer began decoding topography. "Have a gawk

at these crazy circles!"

The probe was now on a low-altitude vector, sending back more-detailed

sections of the terrain of the southern continent. Clearly visible were

groups of circular patches, like ripples overlapping each other but held

frozen on the planet's surface.

"Ever see anything like this before, Ben?" she asked, fervently

regretting the missing Flora Neveshan, with her years of experience as a

xenobotanist.

"Can't say as I have. Looks like some sort of local fungus on a huge

scale. Seems to hit all vegetated areas, not just what appear to be

grasslands."

"Fairy rings?" Shawa suggested very brightly.

"Ha! What esoteric stuff you been reading recently?" Ben gave her a

jaundiced stare.

"Whatever it is, be bloody careful, will you?" Castor demanded

bitterly. "We've got two more systems to work, and I'm running out of

initials."

"Thin red line of 'eroes?" Ben asked, trying to inject some lightness

into Castor's mood. He knew that Castor would forever fault himself for the

deaths of Asturias and Neveshan. He was the most experienced climber of the

group and would very likely have prevented the disaster if he'd been downside.

The fact that no one blamed Castor did not assuage his feelings of guilt.

Shavva set the shuttle down on the great plain of the eastern part of the

southern hemisphere, several hundred meters from one cluster of the rippling

circles they had observed. She, Ben, and Liu went through the routine landing

procedures, confirming atmosphere, temperature, and wind velocity before

exiting, garbed in their cumbersome protective suits. At least they needn't

resort to face masks and the back-wrenching burden of oxygen canisters. They

all drew in deep lungfuls of the fresh air that a stiff breeze flung at them.

"Good stuff," Shawa said with a pleased grin. "No L.A., this one."

Suddenly, she felt an obsession for this planet to check out as habitable.

From outer space it had had the look of the old Earth pictured in historical

tapes. Such reassurance could be bloody, and bloodily, deceptive, she

reminded herself, but that didn't keep her from wishing!

The grassy plain was springy underfoot, and their heavy boots released

sweet, pungent odors from the bruised vegetation. Silently they walked over

to the first of the ripples, and Ben and Liu hunkered down to eyeball it.

Shavva took out a sampling probe and inserted it deftly into the soil closing

the lid as soon as she had retracted it. Liu poked a plasgloved finger into

the hole, fiddled with the dirt that adhered, and dropped the grains carefully

back into the hole.

"Funny. Feels like dirt. Common everyday dirt. Grainy. Rough,

uneven."

"The empirical test!" Ben chuckled.

"Let's get started, guys," Shawa said. "We've only got ten days to do

eight people's work and clear a planet."

"A snap!" Ben replied, grinning impudently. "I'll start by switching

on my geologist's brain." He moved off to the next arc of the ripple and

collected more samples of the discolored ground. "Hey, we've got ecological

succession here," he added suddenly, pointing to portions now speckled with

new growth.

Shavva and Liu came to his side to see the promising green tufts.

"Great wind systems on this planet. They'd be strong enough to carry

seed as well as dirt," Shawa remarked, facing into the stiff breeze. "'Nother

few decades and this'll all be grass, or whatever, again. Well, we'll see

what the samples say. Take some right by that new growth, will you, Ben? See

what, if anything, is aiding the regeneration."

That first day they concentrated on dirt and vegetation samplings from

the plain, moving on to other sites throughout the day, working from east to

west to utilize as much daylight as possible.

They took several deep cores in the rich soils of the southern plains

and grasslands and, with more effort, drove rock-sampling cores. Inland and

south they went, to points that had shown possible ore sites, though the

initial metallurgy probe readings did not suggest that the planet had any

easily accessible ore or mineral wealth. They made their first nightfall on a

vast headland, on the sands of a great cove.

Marine life seemed to be diverse, with enough interesting variations of

exoskeletons and sea vegetation alone to give a marine biologist a lifetime

employment. Liu scooped up samples of the red and green algae and found some

interesting fungi on the shoreline, some with visible movement. Larger marine

forms were occasionally visible in the deeper waters of the cove at dusk, a

common feeding time. The explorers spent a pleasant evening taking samples

and specimens along the seashore Liu had found enough dead fronds and branches

to build a fire on the sands. Shedding their protective suits, they ate their

evening rations around the fire--occasionally managing to capture various

types of insectoids drawn to the bright flames.

"Possibly the pollinators we need," Liu mused as he peered into the tube

of captured insectoids. One had paused in its frantic flight so that its

double wings were visible. "Little buggers. I'd feel a lot better, though,

if there were bigger things than these to contend with. The probe pictures

should have shown us some sort of ruminants or grazers on these grasslands."

"What about those large flying things we saw awhile back?" Ben asked,

and then snorted. "They looked like airborne barges, squat and fat, and

full.""Yeah, but what do they eat? And what eats them?" Liu asked morosely.

"Maybe we're between ice ages?" Shawa offered hopefully. She really

didn't want to find fault with the planet, though she knew that was a totally

unprofessional attitude to take-and dangerous, as well. But she couldn't

suppress the feeling of "coming home" that was beginning to color all her

perceptions of this world.

Liu snorted, unconvinced. "Ecology is right for 'em. They should be

here.""If they are, we'll find 'em. If we don't. . ." Shavva shrugged

philosophically.

The next day they ventured as far as the ice cap in the southern

hemisphere, taking samples of the frozen crust and as many layers of soil as

the deep corer could manage to reach. Then they turned to the winter-held

north. By then, Liu had become a bit paranoid about the lack of larger

life-forms. So far, all they had seen were some reptiloids, scaled and

basking.

"Quite large enough, thank you," Shavva had remarked, narrowly escaping

the attentions of a ten-centimeter-thick, seven-meter-long example.

They also saw a great many more of Liu's flying barges.

"Wherries, that's what they were called," he said suddenly that

afternoon. "Vessels that were used to ferry stuff between the English isle

and the European continent. Wherries, and call 'em the biggest life-forms

seen in the report. Maybe the term'll stick." Liu rarely exercised that EEC

team prerogative.

There were two identifiable types of the large avians, with raucous

calls and the aggressive manners of predators; brilliantly plumed smaller

fliers, a thousand types of what Shawa called "creepy-crawlies," both inland

and littoral. They had also found eggshells on southern beaches, shards

littering what were apparently sand-buried nests. Of the egg layers, or the

previous occupants, there were no signs.

They did discover interesting fossil remains, a good fifty thousand

years dead and gone, in an extensive tar pit; one specimen was intact enough

to expose the ground-down dental machinery for grazing, suggesting that these

fossils could have been the ruminants Liu wished to see. While the short,

greenish spiky vegetation looked somewhat like grass, it wasn't, for it had no

silicates, was visibly triangular in form, and was more blue than green.

"I want to see those grazers now, too," Liu said firmly. But he was

somewhat relieved to find the necessary variety of life-forms at a different

epoch on the planet.

They also located a diamond pipe just below the surface in the major

rift valley fault. Rough stones, one as large as Shavva's fist, were pried

out of the soil. The team kept several as souvenirs; they were not

particularly valuable otherwise, for the galaxy had produced many gemstones

more exotic than these, though diamonds remained useful in technology for

their durability and strength.

"I find it rather a relief not to have to be constantly on guard," Ben

said on their third night, when Liu began again on the disappearance theme.

"Remember Closto, the L.A. in our last tour? I kept holding my breath,

waiting for something else to latch on to me."

Liu snorted. "Absence is as ominous as presence, in my tapes."

"Could have been an axial tilt, you know, and what's now the ice caps

were their homegrounds," Shawa suggested. "They got caught in the blizzards

and froze. We do have ice cores, which could very well produce tissue and

bone fragments."

"Well, this P.E. has only a fifteen-degree axial tilt; the probes set

the magnetic poles very near the ecliptic north and south, maybe fifteen

degrees away from tilt."

"We'll know when we get back to the ship and have a chance to study

things. Are today's samples ready to go back to Castor?"

"Yeah, but I wish the fardles he'd sent us back his conclusions. He's

had time." Liu scowled as he handed his latest containers to Ben to pack in

the case to be launched back to the spacecraft.

"Maybe they all moved north," Ben said in a spirit of helpfulness.

"To winter?"

"This continent's not in full summer yet."

"Well, it'd never get hot enough to fry things, not with the prevailing

winds this continent's got." Liu refused to be mollified.

On their way north they paused on the largest of a group of islands:

basaltic, riddled with caves, bearing the profusion and lush growth common to

tropical climes. They noted several unusual reptilian forms, more properly

large herpetoids of truly revolting appearance.

"I've seen uglier ones," Ben remarked, examining at a safe distance one

horny monster, seven centimeters broad and five high, which waved tentacles

and claws in an aggressive manner. They could discern neither mouth nor eyes.

The olfactor gave a stench reading; and the creature's back was covered with

insectoid forms.

"External digestive system?" Shawa suggested, peering at the thing.

"And--wow!"

The creature had sped forward suddenly, its nether end now covered with

tiny barbs. At the same time, the olfactor reading went off the scale, and a

repellent stench filled the little clearing.

"Look, it backed into that spiny plant," Ben said, pointing to the

little bush. "And got shot in the ass."

Standing well back and using a long stick, Shavva nudged one of the

remaining spines and was rewarded with a second launching.

"Well, a clever plant. Didn't just let loose in all directions. I

wonder what would deactivate it?"

"Cold?" Liu suggested.

"There's a small one here," Shavva observed. She sprayed it with the

cryo and gave it an exploratory prod. When it did not respond she packed it

in a specimen box.

That evening, as they were readying the day's tube for Castor, Liu let

out a whoop, holding up a glowing specimen tube for the others to see.

"That growth I found in the big cave. Some sort of luminous variety of

mycelium." He covered it with his hand. "Indeed. Now you see it--" He

opened his hand to let the tube glow again. "Now you don't." He closed his

hand again, peering through thin cracks he permitted between two fingers.

"Does oxygen trigger the luminosity?"

"You are not going back into the cave tonight, Liu," Shavva said

sternly. "We don't have the spelunking equipment necessary to keep you from

breaking your damned fool neck."

He shrugged. "Luminous lichens or organisms are not my forte." He

carefully wrapped the tube in opaque plasfilm. "Don't want it to wear itself

out before Castor sees it."

Later that night they were all enticed from their camp by the sound of

cheeping and chittering. Parting the lush foliage that surrounded them, they

peered out at an astonishing scene. Graceful creatures, totally different

from the awkward avians seen in the southern hemisphere, were performing

aerial acrobatics of astonishing complexity. The setting sun sparkled off

green, blue, brown, bronze, and golden backs, and translucent wings glistened

like airborne jewels.

"The seaside egg layers?" Shawa asked Liu in a whisper.

"Quite possibly," Liu replied softly. "Gorgeous. Look, they're playing

a discernible game. Catch-me-if-you-can!"

For a long time, the three explorers watched the spectacle with delight

until the creatures broke off their play as the swift tropical night darkened

the skies.

"Sentient?" Shawa asked, wanting and yet not wanting those beautiful

creatures to be the dominant sentient life form of this planet.

"Marginally," Liu murmured approvingly. "If they're leaving eggs on a

shoreline where storm waters could wash them away, they're not possessed of

very great intelligence."

"Just beauty," Ben said. "Perhaps we'll find large and related types of

the same evolutionary ancestors for you, Liu."

Liu shrugged diffidently as he turned back to their campfire. "If we

do, we do."

They made notes of what they had witnessed and then turned in for the

night. The next day had them examining the reef systems jutting out from the

island, and its smaller companions. A trip to the more tropical eastern

peninsula showed them a complicated system, similar to coral, with fossils of

the same thing going right back, Ben estimated, some five hundred million

years. At least this was a viable ecology, not a stalemated

tropical-rain-forest dense ecology, with the various elements, so to speak,

taking in each other's washing. Such transitory ecologies did reinforce Ben's

theory of a recent meteorite storm rather than an ice-age hiatus in evolution.

The bare circles were planetwide, except at the caps and one small band

of the southern hemisphere, and though the survey team had thoroughly

investigated, they could not find the meteorites that might have been the

cause. Nor, Ben fretted, were any of the circles either deep enough or

overlapping in the pattern caused by a multiple meteorite impact.

The northern hemisphere, though in part blanketed by thick snows, was

duly cored for soil and rock samplings. Mud flats, emitting the usual dense

sulfurous fumes all over the central plain's vast river delta, produced more

regularities than differences, and certainly a plethora of promising bacteria

over which Shavva crowed. Farther inland, up the broad navigable riverway,

they found adequate lodes, of iron, copper, nickel, tin, vanadium, bauxite,

and even some germanium, but none of the generous quantities of metals and

minerals that would interest a mining consortium.

On the next-to-last morning of their survey, Ben found gold nuggets in a

brash mountain stream.

"A real old-fashioned world," he remarked, tossing and catching the

heavy nuggets in his hand. "Old Earth once had free gold in streams, too.

Another parallel."

Shavva leaned over and took one that was an almost perfect drop, holding

it between thumb and forefinger.

"My loot," she said, dropping it into her belt pouch.

She found one extremely interesting plant on the upper section of the

eastern peninsula: a vigorous tree whose bark when bruised in the fingers,

gave off a pungent smell. That evening, she made an infusion of the bark,

sniffing appreciatively of its aroma. Empiric tests showed that it was not

toxic, and her judicious sip of the infusion made her sigh with pleasure.

"Try it, Liu, tastes great!"

Liu regarded the thin dark liquid with suspicion, but he, too, found the

odor stimulating to his salivary glands and wet his lips, smacking to spread

the taste. "Hmmm, not bad. Bit watery. Infuse it a bit longer, or reduce

the liquid. You might have something here."

Ben joined in the sampling, and when Shavva experimented with grinding

the bark and filtering hot water through it, he approved the result.

"A sort of combination of coffee and chocolate, I think, with a spicy

aftertaste. Not bad."

So Shawa harvested a quantity of the bark, and they used it as a

beverage for the remaining two days. She even saved enough to bring back to

Castor as a treat.

Though none of the three made mention of the fact, they were all sorry

to leave the planet and yet relieved that there had been no further accidents

or untoward circumstances. Barring some unforeseen factor, discovered in the

analyses of soil, vegetation, and biological samples, they were all three

quite willing to let Castor initial it P.E.R.N.--parallel Earth, resources

negligible. He added a C in the top corner of the report, indicating that the

planet was suitable for colonization.

That is, if any colonial group wanted to settle on a pastoral planet,

far off the established trade routes, and about as far from the center of the

Federated Sentient headquarters as one could go in the known galaxy.

THE DOLPHINS' BELL

When Jim Tillek activated the red-alert recall sequence on the Big Bell at

Monaco Bay, Teresa's pod, with Kibby and Amadeus leaping and diving right

along with her, was there within minutes, Within the hour, the ones led by

Aphro, China, and Captiva arrived--a total of seventy, counting the three

youngest calved only that year. Young males and solitaries surged in from all

directions, squee-eeing, clicking, chuffing loudly, and performing incredible

aquabatics as they came. Few dolphins had ever heard that particular sequence

on the Big Bell, so they were eager to learn why it had been rung.

"Why ring the red?" Teresa demanded, bobbing her head up in front of

Jim, who stood, legs spread for balance, on the rocking float anchored at the

end of Monaco Wharf. Her nose bore the many scratches and scars of age, as

well as of an aggressive personality. She tended to assume the role of

Speaker for Dolphins.

The float was broad and wide, nearly the length of the end of the wharf,

and was traditionally where the dolphineers held conferences with pods or

individuals. This was also where the dolphins came to report unusual

occurrences to the Bay Watch, or for rare instances when they required medical

attention. The end timbers were smoother than the others, due to the

dolphins' habit of rubbing against them.

Above the float hung the Big Bell, its belfry sturdily attached to a

massive six-by-six molded-plastic pylon well footed on the seafloor below.

The chain the dolphins yanked to summon humans now idly slapped against the

pylon with the action of the light sea.

"We landfolk have trouble and need dolphin help," Jim said. He pointed

inland, where clouds of white and gray smoke curled ominously into the sky

from two of the three previously dormant volcanoes. "We must leave this place

and take from here all that can be moved. Do the other pods come?"

"Big trouble?" Teresa asked, leisurely swimming beyond the bulk of the

wharf to check the direction in which Jim had pointed. She raised herself

high above the water, turning first one, then the other, eye to assess the

situation. Her sides showed the rakings of many years' contact with both

amorous and angry males. "Big smoke. Worse than Young Mountain."

"Biggest ever," Jim said, for a moment wishing that the eternal cheerful

expression on dolphin faces did not seem so out of place right now. Not when

the colony's main settlement, with its labs, homes, vital stores, and the work

of nearly nine years, was going to be covered in ash, at the very least, or

blown completely to bits if they were very unlucky.

"Where you go?" Teresa reversed her direction and stopped in front of

Jim, giving him her complete and seriously cheerful attention. "Back to sick

ocean world?"

"No." Jim shook his head vigorously. Since the dolphins had passed the

fifteen-year journey on the colony ships in cold sleep, they had had no sense

of the passage of time. From an installation in the Atlantic Ocean, they had

entered their water-filled travel accommodations and had not been awakened

until they arrived at the waters of Monaco Bay. "We go north."

Teresa ducked her bottlenose, flinging a spray of water at him as if

agreeing. Then, dropping her head in the water, she gave forth to the members

of her pod a rapid series of word noises too fast for Jim to follow, though

over the past eight years on Pern, he'd learned a good deal of dolphin

vocabulary.

Kibby glided to one side of Teresa, and Captiva bobbed up on the other;

all three regarded Jim earnestly.

"Sandman, Oregon," Captiva said distinctly, "are in West Flow. They

turn, return as fast as the ftux allows.'

Then Aleta and Maximillian abruptly arrived, adroitly avoiding a

collision with the others. Pha pushed neatly in, too, as he was never one to

be left out on the periphery.

"Echo from Cass. They speed back. New sun see them here," Pha said,

and blew from his hole to emphasize the importance of his report.

"Yes, they do have the farthest to come," Jim said. That pod was based

in the waters around Young Mountain, helping the seismic team. But dolphins

could swim all night, and Cass was one of the oldest and most reliable of the

females.

The waters around the sea end of the Monaco Wharf facility were now so

packed with dolphins that, when some of the dolphineers arrived, Theo Force

remarked dryly that they could probably have walked on dolphins across the

wide mouth of Monaco Bay and never got their feet wet.

Some of the nine dolphineers and seven apprentices actually took longer

to arrive than their marine friends, since the humans had to sled in from

their stakeholds. Luckily, both Jim Tillek's forty-foot sloop, Southern

Cross, and Per Pagnesjo's Perseus yawl were in port. Anders Sejby had radioed

that the Mayflower was under full sail and would be there by dusk, while Pete

Veranera thought he'd have the Maid in on the late-night tide. The Pernese

Venturer and Captain Kaarvan had not yet reported in. She was the largest, a

two-masted schooner with a deep draft, and slower than the other four.

Once all the humans reported in, Jim tersely explained that, with one of

the volcanoes about to erupt, Landing had to be evacuated and everyone must

help to get as many supplies as possible to safety around Kahrain Head. The

larger ships would be taking their loads as far as Paradise River Hold;

although that would be too far for the smaller craft, everything that floated

was to be used to shift materiel as far as Kahrain.

"We've got to transport all that?" Ben Byrne cried in aggrieved tone as

he flung an arm toward the wharfside, where enormous piles of materiel were

being deposited by sleds of all sizes. He was a small, compact man with crisp

blond hair nearly white from sun bleach. His wife, Claire, who worked with

him at Paradise River, stood at his side. "There aren't that many ships of

any decent size and if you think the dolphins can--"

"We've only to get it to Kahrain, Ben," Jim said, laying a steadying

hand on the younger man's shoulder.

"Click! Click!" Teresa managed an ear-piercing shout for attention.

"We do that, we do that!" Amadeus, Pha, and Kibby agreed, nodding vigorously.

"Ye daft finnies, you'd burst yerselves," Ben cried, incensed, wagging

his arms at the dolphins facing him to be quiet.

"We can, we can, we can," and half the dolphins crowding the end of the

wharf heaved themselves up out of the water to tailwalk in their enthusiasm.

Somehow they managed not to crash into the seething mass of podmates who

ducked out of the way underwater with split-second timing. Such antics were

repeated by many, all across the waters of the bay.

"Look what you started, Cap'n!" Ben cried in an extravagant show of

despair. "Damned fool fin-faces! You wanna burst your guts?"

Sometimes, Jim Tillek thought, Ben was as uninhibited as any of the

whimsically impetuous dolphins he was supposed to "manage." The difference

between their enthusiasm and the reality of their assistance lay in the fact

that all adult dolphins had spent a period training with human partners,

learning to come to the aid of stranded swimmers and sailors and,

occasionally, damaged sailing craft. They were delighted to have a chance to

practice on such a scale.

Harnesses from the training sessions were available--and more could be

cobbled together--to hitch dolphin teams to any of the smaller sailing craft.

A big yoke already existed, contrived for the ore barge that the dolphins had

several times hauled from Drake's Lake. But never had the settlers had to

call on all the dolphins.

"We've known something big was up," Jan Regan said, her manner much

calmer as befit the senior dolphineer. She gave a snort that was half-laugh.

"They've been squee-eeing like nutters about underwater changes around here,"

she added, flicking her hand at the crowded bay. "But you know how some of

them exaggerate!"

"Hah! With Picchu blowing smoke rings, of course the'd know something's

going to happen," Ben said, having recovered his equilibrium. "Question is,

how much time do we have before Picchu blows?"

"It isn't Picchu that's going to blow," Jim began as gently as possible.

He allowed the startled reaction to subside before he continued. "It's

Garben."

"Knew we shouldn't have named a mountain for that old fart," Ben

muttered.

Jim continued. "More important, Patrice can't give us a time frame."

That stunned even the solid and unflappable Bernard Shattuck. "All he can do

is warn us when the eruption is imminent."

"Like how imminent?" Bernard asked soberly.

"An hour or two. The increasing sulfur-to-chlorine ratio means the

magma is rising. We've two, maybe three days with just sulfur and ash--"

"The ash I don't mind. It's the sulfur that's so appalling." Helga

Duff said, coughing.

"The real problem is--" Jim paused again. "Monaco is also within range

of pyroclastic missile danger."

"Range of what?" Jan screwed her face up at the technical term. She

knew as much as any human could about dolphins, but she tended to ignore

technical jargon.

"Range of what heavy stuff the volcano can throw out at us," Jim said,

almost apologetically.

"Worse than the ash and smoke already coming down?" Efram asked.

Although they hadn't been standing on the wharf that long, their wet suits

were already gray with volcanic ash.

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TheChroniclesOfPernFirstFallby:AnneMcCaffreyCopyright1993CONTENTSTheSurvey:P.E.R.N.cTheDolphins'BellTheFordofRedHanrahanTheSecondWeyrRescueRunTimelineforTheChroniclesofPern:FirstFallYear1Landing6ToreneOstrovksyb.8.6FirstFall10FirstHatchingMichaelConnellb.FortHoldestablishedEvacuationofLanding--TheDo...

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Anne McCaffrey - Pern 12 - First Fall

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