"That crater's a fine landmark," Jaxom commented.
This place is strangely familiar, Ruth said, walking forward to peer over the edge.
Watch it! Jaxom warned his dragon as Ruth's feet sank into what appeared to be a mass of oval shapes. "Look, F'lar! Thread ovoids."
F'lar peered over Mnementh's shoulder while the big bronze dropped his head to examine the surface under his feet. He didn't appear particularly concerned.
"I don't like this place," Lessa commented. Ramoth seemed to share her distaste, placing her feet with extreme care as if she were walking through putrid mud.
"And watch that edge, too, Jaxom," F'lar added.
Ramoth was looking straight ahead, trying to see to the other side of the gorge. Jaxom could not see the far side in the dim light available. When he looked over his shoulder toward Rukbat, he had no trouble looking directly at the dim sun, but it did give sufficient light for him to pick out details of the terrain beyond the canyon. Not that there was much to see. The surface of the Red Star was pocked and slagged, minor fissures and fractures spreading out from the immense fault across what looked more like bare rock than sand. The black chasm stretched in both directions into the tenebrous distance. Jaxom looked behind him. There were some jagged projections, from small terraces to great sheets that would have taken up most of Benden's Bowl. An appallingly sterile landscape. Jaxom could almost feel sorry for the battered planet.
It's a long way across, isn't it? Ruth remarked.
You can see across it? Jaxom asked, squinting in the dismal gloom at the shadowy far edge.
There isn't much to see but more of the same.
"See how those levels are situated?" F'lar said, peering down. "We could settle the engines along them."
"Are they stable enough to hold that sort of weight?" Lessa asked.
F'lar shrugged. "I don't know why not. Don't you feel how much lighter we are here? The engines should weigh less, too. And look at the size of the slabs! Gigantic."
"Like teeth. You know, this looks as if some force broke the planet's surface as you or I would open a redfruit," Lessa said, her voice awed.
Ruth, can you drop down to that first level of rock? Take it easy now. We want to see how stable the protrusion actually is.
"Easy now, Jaxom!" F'lar cautioned, raising one hand as if to cancel the experiment.
There was plenty of wing space, and Ruth delicately lowered himself in the thin atmosphere past the lip of the canyon and down onto the first stone sheet. He dislodged a small boulder, which continued to fall. Jaxom listened for a long moment.
Have you got all your weight on this, Ruth? Jaxom asked.
Jaxom could feel Ruth grunting as he bent his knees and pressed downward.
It's not going anywhere. And I don't weigh so much here.
True. "We should have brought some lights," Jaxom told the others, peering along the stone protrusion. "But this shelf looks plenty long enough to hold even the Yokohama's engine. D'you want me and Ruth to see how far down we can go before the canyon closes up?"
"Shards! No!" F'lar said. "What you're doing is dangerous enough."
"How much time has elapsed?" Lessa asked. "The dragons have only so much air in their bodies."
"We're only seven minutes here," Jaxom said after glancing at the built-in suit chronometer. As a leader, he was wearing one of the original space suits, not one of those Hamian had so cleverly contrived.
"C'mon up out of there, Jaxom," F'lar said. "If the jaws of that canyon should snap shut..."
Jaxom, who had been thinking the same thing, was quite willing to comply. Beating his wings much faster than he'd need to on Pern, Ruth rose from the black chasm, facing the other two dragons.
"This would be one likely site then," F'lar said. "I'll go up, you go down. Lessa, see what the other rim is like. How much time, Jaxom?"
"Five minutes! No more!"
Jaxom found it somewhat unnerving to fly over this aperture, knowing that it likely extended to the depths of the planet. He kept his eye open for unusual extrusions to use as landmarks, but the sides had sheared clean for almost four minutes of flight. Then, a dragon-length below the lip, he saw another long, thick sheet of pale mottled rock. He asked Ruth to mark it in his mind.
Ramoth says we must return. They have found a third place, Ruth told Jaxom.
Then our mission is accomplished. Let's join 'em and go back.
Ramoth says to jump back from where we are.
Are you all right? Jaxom asked. Are they all right?
I'm all right. They're all right. But it would be good to get back to the Yokohama and breathe.
Let's go, then. And Jaxom thought with longing of his own for the safety of the cargo bay.
A fraction of a breath after Ruth and Jaxom arrived, the two big Benden dragons appeared. Even in the dim light of the cargo bay, Jaxom could see that their colors were grayed. Apprehensively, he looked down at Ruth, but no fading was visible. Then he saw that their journey had had an elapsed time of 12:30:20 minutes.
Are you all right? he asked, leaning forward on Ruth's neck, aware that the white dragon's mouth was wide open as he inhaled and exhaled, great deep breaths. Jaxom could feel him trembling.
"Jaxom? Lessa? F'lar?" Aivas's voice sounded very loud in the helmet.
"We're here," Jaxom replied. "We're all right. We've found three points for the engines. Well down in the chasm, wide ledges. Perfect." He looked at the chronometer. "Twelve minutes, Aivas. Twelve. Strange place," he added, recalling what he had seen of the lifeless surface and the jumbled, tortured terrain, with the vast canyon like a gaping wound that had killed the planet. Had anyone ever lived on it?
I am thirsty and I need a bath, Ruth said so plaintively that Jaxom laughed. Ramoth and Mnementh agree.
"I think we'll just let you get your full breath back, Ramoth dear," Lessa said, unsnapping the riding straps. "There wouldn't be any klah up here anywhere, would there, Jaxom?" she asked, almost as plaintively as Ruth had. "I'm thirsty, cold, and I feel as if I've been gone from Pern for a century."
"Water's all we've got up here," he told her. "But we're not that far from hot klah." He wouldn't mind a pitcherful or two himself. His guts felt cold from his navel to his backbone.
But the water cask proved to be empty, and Jaxom cursed under his breath. He would have a hard word or two for whatever dimwit hadn't had the consideration to refill the on-board cask.
Lessa was furious, too, but that made them quick to shed their suits and rack them carefully away. By then, all three dragons insisted that they were restored and wanted nothing more than a long drink and a longer swim.
"One thing," Lessa said as she remounted Ramoth. "This trip was much farther away, but it didn't take as long as I thought it would. I wonder...
"We've enough to wonder about, Lessa," F'lar said firmly, "and I want to get the details down as soon as possible before they fade."
"My impressions of that sterile place won't fade," Lessa replied emphatically. "I could almost feel sorry for it."
"It has been a dead planet for longer than Pern has been viable," Aivas said.
"That doesn't make me feel any better," Lessa replied.
Meer was waiting at Cove Hold, and he gave both Jaxom and Ruth such a scolding of agitated dives and fierce shrieking that Lessa and F'lar doubled up with laughter.
Ruth calmly reassured the little bronze and, ambling down toward the beach, invited him to help with the dragons' bath. You are not coming? he added plaintively when he saw Jaxom heading in the direction of the Hold.
"Can't, dear heart. Got to put down the details while they're fresh in my mind! Be with you soon enough," Jaxom called as he jogged up to the beach with Lessa and F'lar. Fairs of firelizards erupted into the air, diving for the dragons. "Not that you need us!"