The spacious living area of the Hold was empty, and calls for Robinton and Sharra went unanswered.
"I wonder where Sharra's gone," Jaxom said, remembering all too clearly how he had left her asleep and diverted Meer. She would be worried. Or angry! And with genuine cause, he thought, wincing.
Lessa grinned at him, understandingly. "You were with us."
"That'll be no excuse," Jaxom said glumly, wondering how he was going to restore himself in Sharra's eyes. Then he gave himself a mental shake and turned to immediate tasks.
As the Benden Weyrleaders collected drawing materials, Jaxom found a pitcher of cold fruit juice in the cooler; they all emptied the large jug while they recorded their visit. When they compared the images, there were few deviations. .
"That's done!" Lessa said, with a sigh of relief.
"You know," Jaxom said, propping his head on one hand and grinning at the other two, "I still don't believe we've been there and back!"
F'lar grinned wryly. "I don't know what I expected especially after F'nor's try-but it's incredible that something as dead as that has threatened us for so long."
"Well, it has!" Lessa said, planting both hands on the table and pushing herself to her feet. She picked up the sketches and thrust them at Jaxom. "Put them somewhere safe until you can show Aivas. Now, I'm going to swim!"
Though he wanted a swim as badly as the others did, Jaxom detoured through the room he had shared with Sharra, hoping that she had left him a message. There was none, and he felt more dejected than ever. He shucked off his clothes, thankful that he always kept a spare change at Cove Hold, and made his way down to the lagoon.
Meer and Talla separated themselves from those scrubbing Ruth and circled his head, chittering happily. Not entirely encouraged by their response, he waded out to Ruth.
Sharra's above. She wouldn't let Meer or Talla go with her. They'd get in the way, Ruth told him.
Jaxom slapped his forehead in dismay: she had told him, too, and he had forgotten about it, once again so immersed in his own business that her doings hadn't quite registered in his brain. He laughed in self-deprecation. At times he knew he didn't deserve a woman like Sharra, and this was one of them. How conceited he was! He missed her. Even if he couldn't have told her about the marvelous journey he had just taken, he missed her.
I'm here, Ruth said in subtle reproach.
Indeed you are, my dearest friend, as you always are! And Jaxom waded out in the warm water to help the fire-lizards give his lifemate a good scrubbing.
16
When Mirrim had come to collect Sharra for the trip up to the Yokohama to begin their own project, she had found Sharra still asleep.
"Sharra? We're to start this dissection business? Remember?" Mirrim said as Sharra groggily roused, plainly disoriented.
"You know about Lamoth and G'lanar?"
Mirrim wrinkled her nose. "I feel sorry for the dragon. Didn't know one would die of shame. You get dressed. I'll get you some klah."
As Sharra quickly dressed, she hoped that Mirrim's feelings would be shared by others. She found some reassurance in the knowledge that Mirrim would not necessarily side with Jaxom if she felt he was wrong.
"You'd better eat, too," the green rider said, returning with the klah. "And let's bring some food, fruit, and juice. I thought I'd faint with hunger during that last session Aivas put us through. Maybe he's sophisticated, but my stomach's not. It's real primitive. It likes to be filled at regular intervals."
Sharra smiled over the rim of her cup. That was Mirrim, talking up a storm to hide her real emotions. The death of any dragon for any reason upset all riders. Sharra just let her friend talk on. Then, with the klah stimulating her, she lent Mirrim a hand to pack provisions.
"No meatrolls!" Mirrim said with a dramatic shudder as Sharra reached into the cupboard for some. "I'll puke if I have to eat any more. Thank goodness Master Robinton likes proper bread and sliced meats and raw vegetables." They placed fresh fruit in the special quilted sacks that were a spin-off product from Hamian's search for space-suit paddings, and filled thermoses with cool drinks. "All right, then, let's lift."
"Isn't Brekke coming with us?" Sharra asked.
"No, F'nor's to do something aboard the Yokohama today." Mirrim grinned. "Probably the same thing Jaxom and T'gellan are doing, only I'm not to ask."
"Is it dangerous?" Sharra spoke casually, but she knew Jaxom well enough to know that he had not been telling her something the previous night-a something that had fretted Meer badly enough to send the little bronze skittering back to Ruatha in fright.
"I doubt it! Riders take good care of their dragons, and the reverse is true. The dragons are all very happy with themselves. I wouldn't let today worry me, Sharra," Mirrim said sympathetically.
More bolstered by Mirrim's breezy tone than by her words, Sharra followed her friend out to where Path awaited them, her .green hide gleaming with undertones of deep blue, her eyes dazzling in a green that exactly matched her hide.
"Does she do that often?" Sharra asked, pointing to eye and hide.
Mirrim flushed and ran a hand over the short front locks escaping the tieback. "Sometimes." Though she had a slight grin on her face, she wouldn't meet Sharra's eye. T'gellan was very good for Mirrim, Sharra thought.
When the two women arrived at the Yokohama, Mirrim left Path to amuse herself at the big window of the bridge, an occupation that would engross the green dragon for hours on end. Hefting their provisions, they made their way to the first level of the coldsleep storage facility where they, and the others Master Oldive had inducted to assist in the project, would attempt to understand the complexities of Thread. It was a project that would take far longer than any of them had estimated; it would occasionally cause them to wonder, over the next few weeks, why they had started such an investigation in the first place.
Whenever she could, Sharra cadged a ride back to Ruatha, to spend a few hours with her sons, whom she missed terribly when she had time to miss anything. She was relieved that Jaxom seemed so involved in his own project that he apparently didn't notice, or mind, her preoccupation. Sometimes, when she and the others found themselves working long hours, they stayed up on the Yokohama. Mirrim, of course, had to fly Threadfall, but the others had been released from any other duties for this important investigation.
Other times, when the team had to perform endless boring tasks, they grumbled about Aivas's obsession with the biology of the Thread organism, especially as once the primary task of shifting the Red Star's orbit was accomplished, Thread would be relegated to a myth with which to threaten disobedient children. But Aivas repeatedly insisted on the necessity of this research: how vital it was to understand the organism. They were all, including Oldive, so accustomed to obeying an Aivas directive that they complied.
Caselon, who now sported journeyman's knots as well as a unique pattern of tiny white scars on his tanned face, did comment about the irony of their grabbing a few hours' sleep in the very capsules that had brought their ancestors to Pern.
Skillfully guided by Aivas, they had sufficient successes to keep a high level of enthusiasm and interest, and to ignore discomforts. As Aivas often reminded them, the routines they were learning in dissecting the very complex organism that had menaced their world for centuries could be applied to other organisms. So the discipline was an end in itself.
Aivas did insist that they bring one ovoid up to "normal" temperatures in an airlock on the far side of the Yokohama, away from the sections that were normally being used. With no friction to destroy the tough outer layer, the ovoid remained inert.