Anne McCaffrey - Pern 02 - Dragon Quest

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II Evening (Fort Weyr Time).

Meeting of the Weyrleaders at Fort Weyr

III Morning over Lemos Hold

IV Midday at Southern Weyr

V Midmorning at Ruatha Hold

Early Evening at Benden Weyr

VI Midmorning at Southern Weyr

Early Morning at Nabol Hold: Next Day

VII Midmorning at Benden Weyr

Early Morning at the Mastersmith’s Crafthall

in Telgar Hold

VIII Midmorning at Southern Weyr

IX Afternoon at Southern Weyr: Same Day

X Early Morning in Harpercrafthall at Fort Hold

Afternoon at Telgar Hold

XI Early Morning at Benden Weyr

XII Morning at Benden Weyr

Predawn at High Reaches Weyr

XIII Night at Fort Weyr: Six Days Later

XIV Early Morning at Ruatha Hold

Midday at Benden Weyr

men first settled on Rukbat’s third

world and called it Pern, they had taken little notice of the stranger

planet, swinging around its adopted

primary in a wildly erratic elliptical orbit. For two generations, the colo-

nists gave the bright red star little

thought — until the desperate path of the wanderer brought it close to its

stepsister at perihelion.

When such aspects were harmonious and not distorted by conjunctions

with other planets in the

system, the indigenous life of the wanderer sought to bridge the space

gap to the more temperate and

hospitable planet.

The initial losses the colonists suffered were staggering, and it was

during the subsequent long

struggle to survive and combat this menace dropping through Pern’s

skies like silver threads that Pern’s

tenuous contact with the mother planet was broken.

To control the incursions of the dreadful Threads (for the Pernese had

cannibalized their transport

ships early on and abandoned such technological sophistication as was

irrelevant to this pastoral planet),

rock, they could emit a flaming gas.

As the dragons could “fly,” they’d be able to char Thread mid-air, yet es-

cape its worse ravages themselves.

It took generations to develop to the full the use of this first phase. The

second phase of the proposed

defense against the spore incursions would take longer to mature. For

Thread, a space-traveling

mycorrhizoid spore, devoured organic matter with mindless voracity

and, once grounded, burrowed and

proliferated with terrifying speed.

The originators of the two-stage defense program did not compensate

sufficiently for chance nor for

the psychological effect of visible extermination of this avid foe. For it

was psychologically reassuring and

deeply satisfying to the endangered Pernese to see the menace charred

to impotence in mid-air. Also, the

southern continent, where the second phase was initiated, proved un-

tenable and the entire colony was

moved to the northern continent to seek refuge from the Threads in the

natural caves of the northern

small to hold the colonists. Another settlement was started slightly to the

north, by a great lake conveniently

nestled near a cave-filled cliff. Ruatha Hold, too, became overcrowded

in a few generations.

Since the Red Star rose in the East, it was decided to start a holding in

the eastern mountains,

provided suitable accommodations could be found. Suitable accommo-

dations now meant caves, for only

solid rock and metal (of which Pern was in distressingly light supply)

were impervious to the burning score of

Thread.

The winged, tailed, fiery-breathed dragons had now been bred to a size

which required more space

than the Cliffside Holds could provide. The ancient cave-pocked cones

of extinct volcanoes, one high above

the first Fort, the other in the Benden mountains, proved to be adequate,

needing only a few improvements

to be made habitable. However, such projects took the last of the fuel

for the great stonecutters (which had

been programmed for only diffident mining operations not wholesale cliff

excavations), and subsequent

Star was at the other end of its erratic orbit, a frozen, lonely captive. No

Thread fell on Pern’s soil. The

inhabitants began to enjoy life as they had thought to find it when they

first landed on the lovely planet.

They erased the depredations of Thread and grew crops, planted or-

chards, thought of reforestry for the

slopes denuded by Thread. They could even forget that they had been

in grave danger of extinction. Then

the Threads returned for another orbit around the lush planet — fifty

years of danger from the skies — and

the Pernese again thanked their ancestors, now many generations re-

moved, for providing the dragons who

seared the dropping Thread mid-air with their fiery breath.

Dragonkind, too, had prospered during that interval; had settled in four

other locations, following the

master plan of interim defense. Men managed to forget completely that

there had been a secondary

measure against Thread.

By the third Pass of the Red Star, a complicated socio-political-

economic structure had been

time away from the nurture of dragonkind to learn other trades during

peacetime, nor time away from

protecting the planet during Passes.

Settlements, called Holds, developed wherever natural caves were

found; some, of course, more

extensive or strategically placed than others. It took a strong man to

hold frantic terrified people in control

during Thread attacks; it took wise administration to conserve victuals

when nothing could safely be grown,

and extraordinary measures to control population and keep it useful and

healthy until such time as the

menace had passed. Men with special skills in metalworking, animal

breeding, farming, fishing, mining

(such as there was), weaving, formed Crafthalls in each large Hold and

looked to one Mastercrafthall where

the precepts of their craft were taught, and craft skills preserved and

guarded from one generation to.another. So that one Lord Holder could not

deny the products of the Crafthall situated in his Hold to others

of the planet, the Crafts were decreed independent of a Hold affiliation,

each Craftmaster of a hall owing

naturally, to the Dragonriders to whom all Pern looked for protection

during Threadfalls.

The Red Star would swing inexorably close to Pern, but it would also

Pass again, and life could

settle into a less frenzied pattern. Occasionally, the conjunction of

Rukbat’s natural five satellites would

prevent the Red Star from passing close enough to Pern to drop its

fearful spores. Sometimes, though, as

siblings will, Pern’s sister planets seemed to draw the Red Star closer

still and Thread rained relentlessly on

the unfortunate victim. Fear creates fanatics and the Pernese were no

exception. Only the dragonmen

could save Pern, and their position in the structure of the planet became

inviolable.

Mankind has a history of forgetting the unpleasant, the undesirable. By

ignoring its existence, it can

make the source of past Terror disappear. And the Red Star did not

pass close enough to Pern to drop its

Threads. The people prospered and multiplied, spreading out across the

rich land, carving more holds out

disrepute.

When, in the course of natural forces, the Red Star began to spin closer

to Pern, winking with a

baleful red eye on its intended, ancient victim, one man, F’lar, rider of

the bronze dragon, Mnementh,

believed that the ancient tales had truth in them. His half-brother, F’nor,

rider of brown Canth, listened to his

arguments and found belief in them more exciting than the dull ways of

the lone Weyr of Pern. When the

last golden egg of a dying queen dragon lay hardening on the Benden

Weyr Hatching Ground, F’lar and

F’nor seized this opportunity to gain control of the Weyr. Searching

through Ruatha Hold for a strong

woman to ride the soon-to-be hatched young queen, F’lar and F’nor dis-

covered Lessa, the only surviving

member of the proud Bloodline of Ruatha Hold. She Impressed young

Ramoth, the new queen, and

became Weyrwoman of Benden Weyr. When F’lar’s bronze Mnementh

flew the young queen in her first

mating, F’lar became Weyrleader of Pern’s remaining dragonmen. The

three riders, F’lar, Lessa and F’nor

place and another, Lessa discovered that dragons could teleport be-

tween time as well. Risking her life as

well as Pern’s only queen dragon, Lessa and Ramoth went back in time,

four hundred Turns, before the

mysterious disappearance of the other five Weyrs, just after the Last

Pass of the Red Star had been

completed.

The five Weyrs, seeing only the decline of their prestige and bored with

inactivity after a lifetime of

exciting combat, agreed to help Lessa’s Weyr and came forward to her

Turn.

Seven Turns have now passed since that triumphant journey forward,

and the initial gratitude of the

Holds and Crafts to the rescuing Oldtime Weyrs has faded and soured.

And the Oldtimers themselves do

not like the Pern in which they are now living. Four hundred Turns

brought too many subtle changes, and

dissensions mount.

CHAPTER I

Morning at Mastercrafthall, Fort Hold

Several Afternoons Later at Benden Weyr

He fancied the sand begged to be violated with words and notes while

he, Pern’s repository and glib

dispenser of any ballad, saga or ditty, was inarticulate. Yet he had to

construct a ballad for the upcoming

wedding of Lord Asgenar of Lemos Hold to the half-sister of Lord Larad

of Telgar Hold. Because of recent

reports of unrest from his network of drummers and Harper journeymen,

Robinton had decided to remind the

guests on this auspicious occasion — for every Lord Holder and Craft-

master would be invited of the debt

they owed the dragonmen of Pern. As the subject of his ballad, he had

decided to tell of the fantastic ride,

between time itself, of Lessa, Weyrwoman of Benden Weyr on her great

golden queen, Ramoth. The Lords

and Craftsmen of Pern had been glad enough then for the arrival of

Dragonriders from the five ancient

Weyrs from four hundred Turns in the past.

Yet how to reduce those fascinating, frantic days, those braveries, to a

rhyme? Even the most

stirring chords could not recapture the beat of the blood, the catch of

breath the chill of fear and the

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摘要：

IIEvening(FortWeyrTime).MeetingoftheWeyrleadersatFortWeyrIIIMorningoverLemosHoldIVMiddayatSouthernWeyrVMidmorningatRuathaHoldEarlyEveningatBendenWeyrVIMidmorningatSouthernWeyrEarlyMorningatNabolHold:NextDayVIIMidmorningatBendenWeyrEarlyMorningattheMastersmith’sCrafthallinTelgarHoldVIIIMidmorningatSo...

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Anne McCaffrey - Pern 02 - Dragon Quest

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