Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 19:53:48 -0800 (PST)
From: Corrinne S <quasito_cat@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Red Orb of Pern - Part Nine

The Red Orb of Pern

M.C. Gordon

Disclaimer is attached to the beginning of this
series.  This is fan fiction written for a friend who
enjoys Anne McCaffrey's Pern as much as I do.
Comments welcome to quasito_cat@hotmail.com or
quasito_cat@yahoo.com

Chapter 24

   "A little higher.  Now more to the left.  Now down
a little."

   "Make up your mind," M'chell said to Raganth.

   "I can't help it," the golden dragon responded.
"My itch keeps moving."

   "It's been moving for the last twenty minutes."
Mitchell gave up.  There was so much of Raganth to
scratch and oil.  At six turns of age the dragon had
stopped growing, finally, fortunately.  Raganth was
now even larger than any golden queen anyone could
remember.

   M'chell gave a loud whistle and gained Davis's
attention.  The boy immediately stopped what he was
doing, skipping pebbles across the lake, and ran
toward the dragon rider.

   M'chell watched the lad run toward him.  Now twelve
turns of age, Davis and Tomin were quickly growing to
be quite tall and handsome.  Davis had broken away
from his brother's leadership the turn before.  He
made up his mind that he wanted to follow in Andren's
footsteps and become a healer, requesting that he be
assigned to Fenely during every Fall.

   "Whatcha need, M'chell?" he asked when he reached
the dragon and rider.  The smile that spread to his
light blue eyes was infectious and M'chell smiled back
and tousled the red hair.

   "Would you be so kind as to summon Fith?"  M'chell
asked.  "Raganth has a terrible case of itches today."

   "Sure," the boy replied.  He closed his eyes and
concentrated while his mind made contact with the
bronze fire lizard he had accidentally Impressed.

   A fair of fire lizards suddenly appeared and
started using their claws to scratch away at Raganth's
hide.  They seemed to carry on a merry conversation
among themselves using chirping sounds.

   "I told him to bring some friends," Davis
explained.  "Raganth's awfully big for one fire lizard
to scratch.  Aren't you, boy?" he asked as he patted
one large foreleg.

   The golden male turned his head and gazed at the
boy with one calm eye.  He gently leaned his massive
head against Davis, nearly knocking him down.

   "Woa, watch it there big fella," Davis gently
chided.  "I'm just a little guy, remember."

   M'chell watched the two.  Davis and Tomin had spent
two years with N'tan and S'vern while he and L'del
tended to their growing dragons.  It had been
difficult to see the twins pass into someone else's
care but neither M'chell nor L'del had the time to
give them, and Andren returned to Healer Hall and his
training when Threadfall returned to normal.  The
twins were returned to their care after Raganth rose
to mate for the first time.

   The entire weyr had been shocked when Raganth began
to blood his kill for no one expected the golden male
to feel the same urge as the queens.  Yet he did, and
the only dragon who flew to mate with him had been
L'del's bronze Ammorth.  Their mating affected not
only the weyr for in hold and crafthall the power of
their emotion was felt and more than one lady found
herself with child; more than one dragon rider found
it painful to sit the next day.

   M'chell and Davis retreated to a spot of shade and
leaned back against a boulder.  "You're off to Healer
Hall in another seven-day," M'chell remarked.  "Are
you ready?"

   Davis shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I guess
so."

   "You won't be so far away that we can't keep in
touch with you, you know.  We can always communicate
using Raganth, Ammorth, and Fith.  Besides, Andren's a
Master now and teaches a class on dragonkind when he's
not needed after a Fall."

   "I know," Davis said, trying very hard not to cry.
He failed quite miserably and the dragon rider saw the
tears that fell from his eyes and landed on his legs.

   M'chell gathered the boy into a rough embrace and
kissed the top of his head.  "We'll miss you," he
said.  "And the worse part?  Lurah's probably going to
stick us with another set of incorrigible twins."

   "Worse than me and Tomin?"

   "Who's worse than you and Tomin?" L'del asked as he
approached them.

   "Nobody," M'chell replied.

   "Speaking of, have you seen your brother lately?"
L'del queried.  "He was supposed to report to M'sel
this morning and didn't show up."

   "Not since he left this morning," Davis replied.
"He told me he had to go to Harper class."

   "Well, he didn't show at class or report to M'sel,"
L'del said.

Chapter 25

   Tomin, along with his friends Danel and Lesl,
thanked B'ryn, the old and nearly blind blue rider and
his dragon, Yoseth, for their assistance.

   "We can find our way back to the weyr," Tomin said.
 "We'll be home in time for the evening meal.  M'chell
and L'del won't expect us before then," he added.

   "How cool is that?" Danel asked when Yoseth flew
away. "You can lie to a dragon rider and he doesn't
even know it."

   "B'ryn's so old he'll forget before Yoseth gets
back to the weyr," Tomin replied.

   "Like M'sel won't notice we're missing?" Lesl
asked.

   "I can twist the Weyrlingmaster around my little
finger," Tomin said.  "Been able to since I was a kid
and took that fall off the Star Stone."

   Danel and Lesl gazed at Tomin with all the respect
they could muster for the boy who was a turn older.
Everyone knew that he was a favorite of his foster
fathers, M'chell and L'del.  And with his twin leaving
soon for Healer Hall, Tomin just knew that he could
get away with anything he wanted.

   "So, what are we looking for?" Lesl asked.

   "I'm not sure," Tomin replied.  "There's supposed
to be a hidden cave around here somewhere.  L'del and
M'chell found it when they were they were kids.  I
heard them talking about it one night when they
thought I was asleep.  Andren and Juliani were
visiting and the four of them were saying how they
found some really neat stuff in there."

   "Really?  What kind of stuff?" Danel asked.

   "I don't know; they didn't say.  But L'del and
Julani almost got into an argument `cause Julani said
he didn't think it was fair to seal the cave with
everything left in it."

   "Can't be a very big cave if they sealed it when
they were kids," Lesl said.

   "They didn't do it, drudge-head; L'noth had the
dragons help seal it."

   "I dunno if I want to find it then," Danel said.
"If the Weyrleader catches us, we're in big trouble."

   "Nobody's going to find out," Tomin bragged.
"First, no one knows we're here.  Second, nobody else
ever comes here anymore."

   Danel and Lesl thought about Tomin's logic and
finally agreed that he was right.  "So?' Lesl asked,
"how do we get into the cavern if the dragons sealed
it?"

   "We use these," Tomin replied as he drew three
miner's picks from their hiding place.  "I finally
found this place last year and I've been bringing
supplies up whenever I could sneak away."

   It was late afternoon on that rare of things in
Benden Weyr, a day of rest.  Dragons and riders were
well fed and either slept or lounged in the warm sun
around the weyr lake.  Other weyrfolk took advantage
of their peaceful afternoon and lounged around the
common eating room, sipping klah and gossiping.  No
one heard the occasional, muffled sound of picks
dislodging boulders near the top of the Weyr.

  "Which way do we go?" Danel asked when the boys had
finally made a large enough opening for them to enter.

   Tomin opened a glowbasket and looked around.
"Let's take the right tunnel," he said.

   The three boys made their way down the nearly
straight tunnel, their footsteps echoing quietly.  "I
think I see some kind of door," Tomin finally said.
"Let's see if we can get it open."

   The boys leaned their weight against the door and
dug their feet into the tunnel floor.  Slowly, ever so
slowly, they managed to push the door open just enough
to squeeze past it.  Tomin picked up his glowbasket
and carried it into the room.

Chapter 26

   Long hidden from daylight, languishing in the damp
cave, several ancient containers had gradually broken
down and leaked their contents to the cavern floor.
No one knew how many centuries might have passed since
the room was closed, sealed from any contact with air
and light.  No records existed of their existence or
content.

   The dampness of the cavern, the small
micro-organisms that existed in the volcanic dirt, the
contents of the containers whose labels had long
corroded away, slowly combined as the centuries
passed.  They altered each other, creating something
that had never existed before on Pern.  And they
waited.  Waited as if they had intelligence and knew
that one day they would be set free.  There was no
hurry, and time continued its work on the evolving
DNA.

   The result lay along the walls of the cavern,
hidden in the shadows.  The introduction of air and
light set yet another, almost immediate, change into
effect.  The translucent walls of thousands of small
cylindrical shaped objects began to pulse.  Within
moments they burst open, sending untold millions of
microscopic spores into the air, freeing something
that might prove to be more deadly than Thread.