"I'd want to try that journey," F'lar said. Lessa turned on him, but before she could speak, he went on. "Love, if we believe in our dragons, we can believe in our own abilities, as well. Before I ask the Weyrs to undertake such a trip, I must be sure it is feasible, and I won't risk anyone. Not this time!" Everyone knew he was alluding to F'nor's nearly fatal attempt to reach the Red Star so many Turns before. "Is there any air to breathe on the Red Star?"
"No," Aivas replied. "Certainly not breathable atmosphere, but there is some, mostly noble gases and nitrogen. Whatever denser atmosphere it once had would have been lost when it escaped from its original system. There is no water, as repeated circuits past Rukbat have boiled off much of its volatiles, too. F'nor has seen this in process. Gravity on the surface would be not much more than one-tenth of Pern's, so the atmosphere is much less dense than what you are accustomed to."
"You will not take such a perilous expedition by yourself, F'lar," D'ram said, rising to his feet, his expression resolute.
"D'ram..." Robinton reached for the old dragonrider's arm, while Lytol's expression was both pitying and approving.
"D'ram, this is a young man's duty," the ex-warder said, shaking his head sadly. "You have long since done yours."
"F'lar?" Lessa's face was screwed up in an anxious grimace, as if she couldn't deny him but wanted desperately to do so. She shook her head, her gray eyes wide with fright, as she realized that nothing she could say would dissuade him.
"I will go," the Weyrleader repeated.
"Not by yourself," Jaxom said, shaking his head. "I'll go with you." He held his hands up to silence the others, but had little effect. He raised his voice over the uproar. "Ruth. always knows where he is and when he is. No other dragon has that ability, and you all know it. I'll go without permission if you keep on at me like this!" He allowed his anger to be seen as he glared at Lytol, Robinton, and D'ram. Lessa glared back, but she didn't join in the arguments.
"Jaxom, you may not come with me," F'Iar stated. "You've responsibilities-"
"I'm going, and that's that. I trust Ruth as you trust Mnementh. Let's keep this expedition down to as few as possible. Right?"
"What happens, though," Robinton said, his composure recovered, "if the one man"-and he gestured to F'lar-"who can keep this planet united and the young Lord Holder who has earned the respect of Hall, Hold, and Weyr should be lost to Pern at this very critical stage?"
F'lar gave a rueful laugh. "I don't intend to be lost, and if I will not go where I expect the Weyrs to follow, how can I ask them to go?" He took Lessa by the arms, appealing to her. "I must go, Lessa. Surely you see that."
"I do," she snapped. "But I don't have to like it. Furthermore, I'll go with you two fools!" She laughed at the startled reactions. "Why not? There're plenty of queens now to continue dragonkind. Ramoth's still the largest dragon on the planet and the bravest, going where no one dared go before. I think we three deserve the right!" She lifted her chin, haughtily oblivious to persuasions. "When do we go?"
Piemur let go a bark of laughter. "Just like that?"
"Why not? We don't have Threadfall for another two days. Jaxom?"
Three dragons bugled from the mounds beyond the building. Lessa, F'lar, and Jaxom smiled.
"I won't tell Sharra." He paused while Jancis savagely muttered something to the effect that Sharra wouldn't let him go. "I wouldn't be so sure of that, Jancis," he said, giving her a quelling look. "But there are a few things I must put in order. And to be perfectly candid, I'd like a good night's sleep. It's been a busy day!"
"Tomorrow then?" Lessa said, pinning him with a fierce stare.
"Certainly! I'll send Meer to Ruatha with a message that I'm staying over at Cove Hold."
"A good idea," F'lar said, quirking one eyebrow in amusement. "Mnementh is pretty excited... '
"Ramoth, too," Lessa said, and frowned. "We can't risk some other dragon sensing what we plan. There are fortunately no other dragons at Landing right now."
The three riders discussed with Aivas and the others every aspect of their unprecedented leap between. As the riders became more and more confident of success, the others began to cease their opposition, lapsing into nearly morose silence.
"If we do not leave soon," Robinton said into a pause as the three dragonriders were studying their landing site at the highest magnification Aivas could produce, "some of our more perceptive students will start speculating about the length of this meeting."
"A good point," F'lar said cheerfully. "Aivas, can you print out a copy of what's on the screen right now? We can study it further at Cove Hold."
"I'd've thought it was burned in your brains already," Lytol remarked caustically.
"Nearly," Jaxom replied gaily. He was buoyed by the confidence that F'lar and Lessa exuded, not realizing that each was infecting the other. Jaxom had not missed Lytol's frequent brooding looks, but after those first protests, his old guardian had only been silently reproachful.
Aivas printed three copies.
"This facility would not recommend such an exploration if any foreseeable danger was involved," Aivas said to reassure the skeptics.
"Foreseeable is the important word," Lytol said, and walked out.
15
"I've never seen so many fire-lizards!" Jancis exclaimed as she helped Piemur and Jaxom wash Ruth in Cove Hold's lagoon.
Lessa, F'lar, and D'ram were similarly occupied, assisted by other members of the Cove Hold research staff. Lytol and Robinton had gone to oversee the preparation of the evening meal. The atmosphere was tense with anticipation, and Jaxom hoped that the stress would not be communicated to the Hold people; fortunately it was not unusual for the Benden Weyrleaders and the Ruathan Holder to enjoy Cove's hospitality.
Ruth, have the fire-lizards twigged tomorrow's journey? Jaxom asked. He refused to think of it as an "attempt," which implied the possibility of failure.
They're excited because I am. Ramoth and Mnementh are, too. Look at their eyes! But the little ones don't know why they're excited.
Jaxom put some extra effort into scrubbing Ruth's left wing. There were hundreds of questions rattling about in his brain, but to settle on any one of them and find an answer was beyond him. This was not at all like the day that he and Ruth had gone hunting for Ramoth's queen egg. He had been a boy then, struggling to achieve manhood, to be both Lord Holder and dragonrider and to avert a major confrontation between the Southern Oldtimers and Benden Weyr. This also wasn't as spontaneous an acceptance of challenge as that morning's EVA had been. This was a planned expedition to be made in the company of two of the most important people on Pern.
And the three best dragons, Ruth added.
Aware that his roiling thoughts might also leak to the fire-lizards, Jaxom earnestly pulled soothing images to the fore in his mind. Just then a fire-lizard arrived from between with the faint pop of reentry. It was Meer-in all the excitement, Jaxom hadn't even noticed that he had disappeared.
So it did not exactly surprise him when Sharra strode into the Hold while they were finishing their dinner. Still, he had no idea what Meer might have conveyed to her, so he decided he would be best off playing innocent.