Chap. 407 I love a rainy night

The message from the cargo transport’s captain appeared on the big screen in the auditorium.

Not a word was said as people read the message. Then, the crowd gasped and moaned, almost in unison.

Data looked out over the crowd. Some of them looked as if they were about to be sick.

Behind him, the Council of Six and Lord Lytol, who’d already read the message in their chambers, put their heads in their hands.

A voice came from the crowd: “Lord Lytol, thank you. You were right.”

“I know,” Lytol said, knowing exactly what the woman meant. “I don’t know why I didn’t trust it, but my gut said it was a dangerous thing, to reveal where Pern is. My gut hasn’t lied to me yet.”

“About what?” said another.

“You’re new here. Last year? the laser beacon for Pern was discovered, right here in Landing,” Chief Evelin said.

“NOOOOOOOO, shut it down shut it down!”

Data held up his hands, finding it didn’t quiet the crowd, so he bellowed, “Quiet, please?” and everyone shut up.

“Don’t worry, please. It was never set up. A vital part of it is missing, well, no, a very few of us know where it is, I won’t say where it is but it’s inaccessible. And undoubtedly useless.”

“Ignorance is bliss in this case,” Lord Cecilia said.

K’ndar kept his mouth shut.

“Whoever said that is right. Lord Lytol advised that we not start up the laser beacon, and for this very reason,” Raylan said.

The crowd clapped and called out thanks, over and over.

“Thank you for your wisdom, my lord,” someone said.

“Again, you’re welcome. But now we have a job to do,” he said. “Lord T’balt?”

The bronze dragonrider stood up.

“The Yokohama warned us, Master Rahman saw it coming and the database put the shutdown into play.  And most important, Captain Singh warned us in the most direct way. The woman deserves a medal. She put that message on loop, so it’s sending over and over again. We got the message and I’m hoping the other colonies hear it too.”

“I didn’t even know there were other colonies. I thought it was just us.”

“There are several. It’s in the archives in my library,” Elene, Chief Librarian and Master Historian, said, “But honestly, no one ever accessed that information. But now we know that at least one of them, is, uh, was …” she shuddered and put her face in her hands.

“That poor woman,” she said, her voice breaking, “I hope she went quickly.”

Data cleared his throat. “Obeying the Incognito warning and shutting down all electronic transmissions that I know of, is the best, and only way to save ourselves.”

He paused. “Now we have proof of what Lord Lytol warned of. This transmission shows us what these aliens are capable of. We suspected that. But now we have to warn all of Pern. And without datalinks or the starship, we have to do it by word of mouth.”

Communications new chief stood up.

“My Lords, I am already on that. My crew is right this moment printing up copies of the message for dissemination to all the Holds, Halls, and Weyrs on Pern.”

People cheered. 

“What I will need is transmission of those papers, and the only way to do it safely is by hand delivering them.”

“Dragon delivering them,” Lord D’nis corrected. His mind was racing. “Kahrain Weyr has been supporting us for messages and such from the beginning. I am going to propose that we ask Weyrleader F’mart to have his wings deliver these messages to the Holds and others here on Southern.”

“It might be better if they send dragons here. That way we can brief them in depth,” Cecilia said.

“Good idea,” D’nis said.

“We’re not going to tell Northern? I’ve got family up north.”

“Of course, Northern. We’ve already contacted Benden Weyr, by fire lizard and dragon, to please arrange to pick up the papers.”

“That must have pissed Lessa off,” someone snarked. Everyone knew Lessa, Benden’s Weyrwoman, did NOT like fire lizards. Not one bit.

“Knowing Lessa since she was a child,” Lytol said, smiling, “I can say that while she can be, um, strong willed, she DOES think things through, and in this case, I’m sure she won’t mind a fire lizard delivering a paper.”

I was going to say pig headed, Lytol laughed behind his eyes, but that wouldn’t be polite.

“My lord,” Commo said, “It should be a dragon doing the delivery. I didn’t do the math, but there will be a lot of papers to be delivered, not just one.”

“Yes. That’s the plan.”

“Once they’re delivered to the Holders et al, we’ll let them do the dissemination. No use wearing out the dragons going from cothold to cothold to tiny crafter.”

“All of the Weyrs can help, that will make everything go so much faster.”

Data looked at the council’s dragonriders.

“My lords? Would you please contact the Weyrs?”

T’balt laughed. “Mondevuth is already talking to Mnementh at Benden.”

“And Corvuth is with Kenth at Kahrain. We’ll know in a minute or two what they want to do,” Lord D’nis said.”

P’jar said from the crowd, “I’ll have Falconth contact Western Weyr.”

“Motanith’s talking to Golanth at Honshu,” Francie said from the middle of the audience. She wanted to, she thought. She always has the hots for bronzes.

“Coastal’s weyrwoman and I were classmates. Raventh will talk to her gold.”

Who was that, Lord D’nis wondered, dismayed. I don’t remember the gold rider he’s talking about. I’ve been here so long I don’t know who is where anymore.

“Dragons,” someone said, “Gotta love ‘em.”

“What about Lord Toric?”

For another long moment, people mused, then a voice said, “He’s still banning all dragon and fire lizards from his Hold. Even Runners are given a hard time crossing his borders.”

“Might not be a bad idea to feed him to the aliens.”

“Aye, one taste of that rank man might just turn the aliens off of humans for good.”

There was laughter, but of a wary type. It was still not considered polite to speak ill of Holders.

“What about the Holdless? And the Wanderers?”

The board was quiet for a moment. Then a man from the crowd said,

“Pardon me, but I’m assuming that this starship is coming at us at a high speed and certainly not at orbital level. The Holdless don’t have datalinks, I believe, and I know the Wanderers certainly don’t.”

“I think they won’t even pay attention. Should they actually attack us, Holdless and Wanderers are too far apart, too scattered, to make an attack worthwhile. The drones purposefully sought out a crowd of people all in one spot. Which may be the survival thing we need. In case they actually find us and attack, we need to scatter.”

“I don’t even want to THINK of that scenario,” someone said, their voice full of dread.

“Agreed,” said a man in the crowd, “But the general population does need to know. I know enough about human nature that some yob here on Pern will hear that this starship is coming looking for us. And I’m betting my boots he’ll go out and put up a big pile of wood and fire it up to attract the attention of the starships, just out of spite.”

“Or maybe he’ll go to the beach and put up SOS in rocks.”

The laughs began softly and turned into roars.

D’nis turned to T’balt and said softly, “We might not want to let Toric know. He’s just the type of sod to do exactly that. And I know he’s got datalinks.”

T’balt’s eyebrows rose. “I’ll get with Data. There’s got to be a way to shut his off permanently. What Toric doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

Data said to the audience, “I don’t think you need to worry. Even at orbital level, which I doubt, one fire, or even a dozen fires won’t be noticed.”

“And I hope he’s caught and thrashed for his stupidity.”

“My lords, and all of you, “Data said, “we know of the crisis we’re in. But we KNOW. Forewarned is forearmed. I am not sure if we’ll know when the starship will pass, and stars, I hope it does. Even without datalinks and the Yokohama being silent, still, let us be curious like the dogs in the night.”

“What did the dogs do in the night?”

“The dogs did nothing, that was the curious thing,” Alfred shouted from the back of the audience. “It’s from Sherlock Holmes. His stories are in the encyclopedia. I think he was real he was what they called a detective but he was…”

SHH FOR STARS SAKES someone shouted.

Commo’s Chief rolled her eyes. He’s a smart kid and he broke the code but good grief he talks.

“Any idea of WHEN this thing gets here?”

“It’s been almost a month from the warning,” Data said, “the database did the math, based on the speed at which the starship is coming.”

“And?”

“That’s two days from now. Hopefully it will be at night.”

“Will they see the Yokohama? If they do, they’ll KNOW we’re here.”

“Stars, I hope not. I don’t know, I really don’t know. But her engines were removed, and while I don’t know if the aliens are seeking nuclear radiation sources, the only ones they’ll find is on the Red Star. And we all know there’s nothing THERE.”

“If they do sight us here, well…we’re going to be in deep caca.”

“They might not find the Yoko,” Chief Kendra said. “She’s in the LaGrange point so she’s not moving. There’s all sorts of space rock at the same point, some of it twice her size.  She’s shut down all transmissions, just like us. And I would be awfully surprised if she doesn’t have a trick up her sleeve. She DID warn us, far in advance. And these..I don’t know what to call these aliens. Fishermen?”

“Butchers,” said a voice.

“That will do. Butchers. They’re coming awfully fast, and listening, listening, listening for signals. If they hear nothing from Pern, they’ll keep going.”

A woman stood up. “My lords, Chief Data, will they see Landing?”

At first, Data thought it was a rather silly question.

“We have no idea if they can see. They’re listening for the aural transmissions produced by civilizations such as ours. It makes sense, really. Animals don’t emit electromagnetic waves or lasers.”

“The reason I ask,” the woman persisted, “is, unlike volcanic caverns like we all grew up in, Landing sticks out like a sore thumb as being MADE. It’s unnatural. It’s all straight lines, corners, it’s like a chess board. It just screams of civilization. Animals don’t make chess boards. If they see Landing, we’re in, oh, worse than deep caca.”

Oh, dear. Moaning broke out again.

Data gulped. NOT such a silly question.

K’ndar felt his guts twist.  No. I can only imagine how bad it will be. Dragons, we have to fight them with dragons. Fire stone, where can we get enough, oh, my stars, no. I thought thread was bad?

Risal stood up. “My lords, I’m as scared as everyone else, especially just after that comment.”

Then she said, “But, even without Yokohama’s weather predictions, I’m Landing’s Chief meteorologist. We’re due for heavy rain with the possibility of thunderstorms. Starting two days from now, for almost all of eastern Southern, Landing will be in the middle of a big, wet, windy system. “

The crowd cheered.

___________________________________________________________

 After worriedly watching the sky until the storm rolled in, K’ndar finally had been able to get to sleep. Siskin woke him up with his regular morning ‘cheep?”

He sleepily reached over to pet the fire lizard…and sat up, overwhelmed by what that meant.

He could hear the rain, slackened, but still coming down.

The storm had been a monster. Thunder that shook the buildings, lightning that lit up the sky for what seemed hours. Later they would find the antenna’s wires so totally wrapped up in knots that it would take a long time to repair. If it ever could be.

Credit: “I love a rainy night” by Eddie Rabbit