"How?" The old man almost lost his footing in surprise. Jaxom braced him, catching the pack before it could swing around and totally unbalance the healer.
"I don't exactly know." Jaxom shrugged, experiencing another surge of annoyance at being out of things so far that day. "I was hoping to find out more this morning, but I've been otherwise occupied."
Oldive put a sympathetic hand on Jaxom's arm, his expression apologetic. "Conveying the curious to the new wonder?"
"Oh, I don't mind, Oldive." He grinned slyly at the healer. "If you will remember to ask Aivas about those two patients Sharra's so worried about."
"They are first on my list, I assure you, Jaxom. Marvelous woman, Sharra, always giving of her own energies and as selfless as you are yourself!"
Jaxom looked away, his embarrassment made all the more acute by the awareness that he would have preferred to have spent the morning learning new things from Aivas. But he was here at last, and he eagerly anticipated Master Oldive's reaction to Aivas.
Inside the building, Esselin's craftsmen were making an appalling amount of noise with their hammering. There was dust everywhere. Jaxom was amazed at how much had been accomplished. Walls had been washed clean, revealing bright, cheerful colors. He wondered how color had been impregnated into the material, for it didn't look like any painted surface he had ever seen. He could hear lively conversations off to the left; F'lar's voice was recognizable, as were T'gellan's and R'mart's. He guided Master Oldive to the right and relived the thrill of the previous day's discovery as they faced the closed door to Aivas's room.
Jaxom rapped on the door in a courteous warning and then opened it on a scene of great industry, which only served to reinforce his niggling resentment. Seated in front of a table made of a board supported by empty cartons, Piemur, Jancis, and Benelek were crouched over the units that he had helped resurrect from the Catherine Caves. And, adding insult to his sense of injury, the sharding things were working. His three friends were tapping away industriously at the keyboard units in front of them. He inhaled deeply through his nostrils to disperse his pique: a reaction he found unacceptable in himself.
Piemur craned his neck around to see who had entered. "Good day to you, Master Oldive. Welcome to the hallowed Aivas chamber. Where've you been all day, Jaxom?"
"I see you've made good use of your time," Jaxom replied, trying very hard to neutralize his ill feelings and not quite succeeding. He caught Oldive's sideways glance and made himself smile. "But I'm here now, and you can teach me what I need to know."
"No chance of that," Piemur replied with his usual impudence. "You have to start from the same point we did. Aivas's orders."
"I'm quite willing," Jaxom said, trying to see the writing on Jancis's screen, the closest to him.
She had stopped whatever she had been doing to smile at her old friend Master Oldive. Now she wrinkled her nose at Piemur. "You are the limit sometimes. The components are all carefully set out in the next room, Jaxom. I'll help you, even if he won't."
Benelek didn't look up from his work. "He's to muddle through all by himself, Jancis, or he doesn't learn."
She rolled her eyes at Benelek's uncompromising attitude. "Oh, he'll have to do it himself, but a wink is as good a nod at times. Besides, I think wed all better move into the other room. I can't stand it when Master Oldive goes into gory details. And that's what he's here to do with Aivas." She winked at the healer. "Every Craft has its hazards, I suppose."
"Oh, yes, we certainly should allow him some privacy," Piemur agreed, rising from his stool.
"Interruptions, always interruptions," Benelek muttered sourly. But he got up, too, and carefully began to start the transfer.
"I heard the Weydeaders back there," Jaxom began, wanting to effect the introduction protocol for Aivas. "Should I get one in here?"
"Won't be needed," Piemur said. "Special dispensation has already been recorded by Aivas. Just go ahead and introduce Master Oldive."
Which Jaxom did, exceedingly grateful that he would have no further delay in catching up with his friends.
"It is a pleasure to meet a man who is so highly praised by all," Aivas said.
The rich voice, so humanly inflected, caused Master Oldive to stare about in considerable consternation.
"Aivas is, so to speak, all around you in this room," Jaxom said encouragingly when he saw how disconcerted the healer was. "He's a bit much to get used to at first, I agree. Scared the lot of us."
Busy disassembling the makeshift table, Piemur shot Master Oldive an indulgent grin. "You'll get used to a disembodied voice real quick, the kind of sense Aivas talks."
"Go teach yourself to be sensible for me, young Piemur," Aivas said in a jocular tone that startled everyone.
"Yes, sir, good Master Aivas, yes, sir," Piemur quipped, bowing humbly as he backed out of the room, carrying the table board and nearly knocking himself down when he forgot to lower the board to get it through the door.
Jancis, following Piemur and Benelek, pulled the door shut behind her as she left.
"Please make yourself comfortable, Master Oldive," Aivas suggested. "Did you by any chance bring recent Records from your Hall? Those from the Harper, the Mastersmith, and the Woodsmith have already been assimilated, but for a proper assessment of your society's achievements, Records from every Hall, Hold, and Weyr are gratefully accepted."
Master Oldive had absently seated himself, and his satchel, heavy with the notes he had brought with him, began to slide from his shoulder. He caught the strap and, with a shake of his head, recalled his wits.
"Lord Groghe said that-" Master Oldive hesitated briefly, not knowing the appropriate form in which to address the entity, -you know, well, everything."
"The memory banks of this facility contain the most comprehensive data available at the time the colony ships set out for their destination of the Rukbat system. That includes medical information."
"May I ask how that information is organized?"
"Basic anatomy, microanatomy, physiology, autocrinology, medical biochemistry, and many more categories, such as immunology and neuropathology-which, it is fair to suggest, may no longer be known to you."
"In that you are correct. For we have lost so much knowledge, so many techniques." Oldive had never been more keenly aware of the gaps in his Craft.
"You distress yourself unnecessarily, Master Oldive, for all those whom I have met so far are in excellent health and well above what was considered normal weight and height by the medical standards of your ancestors. There is much to be said for a non-industrialized civilization."
"Industrialized? That term is unfamiliar to me, though I recognize the root word."
"Industrialize, " Aivas intoned. "Transitive verb: to organize large industries in; as, to industrialize a community; to introduce the economic system of industrialization into; as, to industrialize a new nation. An industrialized society, in contrast to an agrarian one like yours."
"Thank you. Why would an industrialized society produce less healthy folk?"
"Pollution of the atmosphere and environment by industrial wastes, noxious fumes, chemical effluents, contamination of field-grown edibles, among other evils."
Master Oldive was speechless.
"Those who settled Pern wished to found an agrarian society. To that end they were receptive to many anti-industrial cultures, like the ancient gypsies, as well as retired military types. Their objective has been attained in this, your present," Aivas said.
"It has?" Master Oldive was surprised that Pern had succeeded in anything other than surviving nine Passes of Threadfall.