Moving carefully, Jaxom ducked under Ruth's neck and took a firm hold on the railing. To his surprise, he saw that Piemur was hovering motionless on the wide steps down to the command level of the bridge. Looking up from his circumspect movements, Jaxom, too, was transfixed by what had stunned the harper. Below them lay Pern; its blue seas glistening to port; while to starboard was visible the coastline and vivid greens, browns, and beiges of the Southern Continent.
"By the Egg, it's just like the pictures Aivas showed us," Piemur murmured reverently. "Magnificent!"
Unexpected tears pricked his eyes, and Jaxom swallowed hard as he viewed his world as his ancestors had once seen it at journey's end! That must have been a triumphant moment, he thought.
"It's big!" Piemur added, daunted by the prospect.
"It is a whole world," Jaxom replied softly, trying to reorient himself to the incredible size of it.
With great majesty, the scene was imperceptibly altering as the planet swung toward the dusk line.
"Jaxom? Piemur?" Aivas recalled them to their duties.
"Just admiring the view from the bridge," Piemur said briskly. "Seeing's believing." His eyes still on the wide window, he floated over to the flight of stairs and pulled himself hand over hand along the railing down to the flight deck. From there he used every available handhold to make his way to the console he was scheduled to program. At last he wrenched his gaze from the spectacular view and studied the job at hand.
"I got more red lights than I like," he told Aivas as he strapped himself into his seat.
Jaxom, making his way around the upper level to the science positions, could see the red lights on those boards, as well. He pulled himself into a seat and strapped in.
"I've got them, too!" he said. "But not on the telescope settings."
"Jaxom, Piemur, key in the override commands and then go to manual."
Jaxom's board was immediately cleared of over half of the red dysfunction lights. Three remained, along with two orange lights. But none of those would interfere with the program he was to initiate. A quick glance told him that Piemur was already tapping away at his assigned keyboard.
Jaxom set to work, stopping now and then to flex his fingers and gaze wonderingly at the fantastic view of Pern. Nothing could detract from that spectacle, not even the comical antics of two fire-lizards cavorting in the weightlessness. Oddly enough, their excited squeakings and chitterings as Farli dared Trig to more and more outrageous maneuvers helped dispel the unreality of this bizarre environment.
Once Jaxom began to concentrate on setting the program for the telescopes, Ruth released his tail anchor and drifted with great dignity toward the wide bridge windows, where he could indulge his fascination in Pern and the starlit blackness. The fire-lizards continued their chittering conversation.
I don't know what they are, either, Ruth said. But they're pretty.
What's pretty? Jaxom asked, looking up. Can you see the other two ships?
No. There are things flowing past us.
Things? Jaxom craned across his console to see what Ruth was seeing. However, his view was blocked by the bodies of the dragon and fire-lizards, who had their faces pressed against the far right of the bridge viewport.
Suddenly all three creatures flung themselves back, away from the window, the motion sending them careening toward Piemur and Jaxom.
"Hey, watch out!" Jaxom ducked as Ruth zoomed overhead. At the same moment, there was a distinct rattling sound.
"Something's hitting us! " Piemur cried. Unstrapping quickly, he pushed himself off to the viewscreen.
"What is hitting you?" Aivas demanded.
Piemur bumped against the viewscreen, looking right and left. "Jaxom, ask Ruth what he saw. I can't see anything." Pressing his left cheek to the plasglas, he tried to see beyond the thick curve of the window.
Things-like fire-lizard eggs-coming straight at us, Ruth replied.
"Well, there's nothing out there now," Piemur said. He headed back to his station, grabbing the back of his chair just as he was about to overshoot it.
"Aivas?" Jaxom asked.
"The pinging indicated the screens deflecting a small shower of objects," Aivas replied calmly. "No damage is reported. As you will have learned from your studies, space is not a barren void. Minute particles are in constant motion through space. Doubtless a shower of some sort startled Ruth and the firelizards. You would be wise to continue your tasks before you.
Jaxom noticed that Piemur, too, was not completely reassured by that explanation. But it was true that the icy cold was seeping through their layers of clothing and so, as Ruth and the firelizards cautiously, with much chirping and twittering, returned to their positions at the window, the men returned their attention to their consoles.
Jaxom worked as fast as he could, but still the cold increasingly penetrated the down-lined gloves that had always kept him warm through hours of Threadfall. Maybe space was colder than between, he thought, flexing frozen fingers.
"Aivas, didn't you say there'd be heat on the bridge?" he complained. "My hands are getting numb with cold."
"Readings indicate that the bridge heating is not working as efficiently as possible. It is probable that the resistive ceramic of the units has crystalized. This can be repaired later."
"That's good news," Jaxom said as he double-checked his entries. Then he straightened up. "Mine's done-program ready."
"Activate," Aivas ordered.
Jaxom punched that key with some trepidation-though the Egg knew how he could have gotten it wrong with the endless drills Aivas had put him through in learning the sequences of attitude, exposure, and sectors. With considerable personal satisfaction, he watched the fast-forward scroll of the display as it confirmed his plotting.
"This board's much faster than the ones we've been using," he remarked.
"The equipment on the Yokohama was state-of-the-art when the ship was commissioned by the Pern Charter Group," Aivas said. "High-speed computations would have been essential in astronavigation."
"I told you we were using baby stuff," Piemur murmured.
"Before the infant walks, it must learn to crawl," Aivas said.
"Is everyone hearing all this?" the harper demanded with some indignation.
No.
"I thank your mercy for that! And my program's up and running, too, by the way."
"That is correct. You must now begin phase two of the schedule. You will find the auxiliary oxygen storage behind Bulwark B-8802-A, -B, and -C," Aivas instructed.
Piemur was shaking the fingers of his gloved hands. "My fingers have never been this cold! I'll give you Bitran odds this bridge is colder than between."
"In point of fact," Aivas remarked, "it is not. But you have been in that very cold temperature far longer than you have ever remained between."
"A point," Jaxom reminded Piemur as they pulled themselves up along stair rail. "Remarkable feeling, this weightlessness," he said with a comradely grin at the harper.
Piemur gave him a happy grimace of agreement. Just then Farli and Trig came tumbling end over end above their heads, making them duck-which sent them bouncing off the steps.
"Careful! " Jaxom cried, reaching for the railing as smoothly as he could.
"Ohohohohoh!" Piemur continued to float on up to the ceiling.
By the time Jaxom, securely holding on to the rail with one hand, had grabbed the floating Piemur by the ankle and hauled him down, neither was sure whether to laugh or swear at their clumsiness. However, the slight mishap made them all the more circumspect in their motions. They located, opened, and examined the auxiliary oxygen compartment, then carefully removed the one empty tank, maneuvered the four they had brought with them into the space available, and made the necessary connections to bring the replacements into the system.