Chap. 282 The Geologists

Chap.282 The Geologists

“I have to get one of those slickers,” B’rost said, “I don’t mind getting wet but still, I thought we’d have until almost midnight before this came in.”

They were walking to the dining hall. The rain had come in, far earlier than Risal’s apprentice had predicted.

“The slicker is nice and I think there are some for sale. But don’t worry, we’re about there,” K’ndar said. He motioned B’rost to go in ahead of him.

K’ndar stopped just short of entering the building. He removed the slicker and shook it.

“The problem with it is that you still get wet, like right now, because I have to take it off outside. If I take it off indoors, it makes a big puddle, and whomever has the task this week for floors gets rightly pissed. So I’m still getting wet.”

“Just not as wet as me.”

“Aye. Sorry. You can’t control the weather.” He rolled the slicker into a tight bundle and tucked it under his arm, getting the side of his shirt wet.

“Then you have to figure out what to do with it. I wish we…I’ll get with Orlon, see if he has a way of storing these things, like here in this hallway. Maybe he can install some hooks.”

“Who’s Orlon? And what do you mean by whoever is tasked for floors? Landers are maintenance? Isn’t everyone here a specialist, a technician?”

“Orlon’s maintenance chief and a right dinkum man. And yes, the vast majority of folks here are specialists, but, B’rost, we don’t have drudges to do the work. We clean the latrines, we muck out the barns, everyone takes turns sweeping and mopping the floors, we even take our turn at KP and managing waste. My last task was taking food garbage out to the compost piles and turning them. Here, I’m going to drop this slicker at at table over there, see by the end? You go ahead and go through the line and I’ll be right behind you.”

They’d just sat down to their meal when he saw Risal in the serving line. Now might be a good time to ping her regarding being my survey’s geologist.

She looked around. He caught her eye and waved, pointing at the empty space next to him. She caught it and smiled.

“There’s a friend of mine, B’rost, do you mind if she joins us?”

“Nopppf” B’rost said around a mouthful. He may have regained his original weight, K’ndar thought, but he’s still got the appetite of a dragon.

She came over with a loaded tray, looking apologetic. She set it down next to his and sat down.

“Um…your apprentice sort of misjudged the rain, Risal,” he said, teasing.

She shrugged.“Yeah, well…that’s weather. And he’s new, but he’ll get it. He’s pretty sharp.”

“Risal, I’d like you to meet B’rost, rider of blue Rath. We were classmates at Weyrlingschool, our dragons are brothers. B’rost, this is Risal, she works in our Flight Ops but she’s a geologist, just like you.”

B’rost, sitting across from them, looked up and waved his hand to indicate he still had a mouthful of food.

If I’d not seen her face change, I wouldn’t have believed it, he reflected later.

Risal took one look at B’rost and was smitten.

Whoa. Look at his eyes! You can fall into them, they’re sea green, my boot, he’s the best looking man I’ve ever seen in my life, she thought. She felt a pulse of heat rise from her toes to the top of her head. Whoa.

B’rost cleared his throat. “Hello, Risal, pleased to meet you. I’m also a journeyman healer….is something wrong?”

I’m staring, she thought, he’s going to think I don’t like him, oh what AM I doing, oh, wow, he’s so cute.

“Uh, uh, noo. Nothing’s wrong, yes, um, it’s…you’re a geologist, too?” she said, averting her stare. She began to pick at her food, her appetite suddenly gone. Get a grip, girl. Geology. Yes. Rocks. Sedimentation. Volcanoes. Plate tectonics. A stable platform for my suddenly vanished wits.

“I am, since I was a kid. What kind of geology have you done?”

“Uh..” Is he single? Shut up, silly woman, oh, my stars, look at him. Whew. What kind of geology what kind? Geology.

“Um, well, all kinds, I love to go fossil hunting, but ever since I’ve started working in flight ops, I’ve not had much time to do that.”

B’rost’s face lit up. “Have you ever been to Cove Hold? The beach there is covered with marine fossils, even hunks of fossilized limestone. Have you seen the paladen, we recovered it from one of our surveys, it’s enormous. It was exposed on the beach, almost complete. Oh, that beach, the one with the paladen, it isn’t a beach, it’s so high energy! But the boulders there, they’re just loaded with fossils.”

“What kinds?” Risal said, corralling her wits that had scattered like chickens. I hope you can’t hear me thinking like you do a dragon. I’d much rather talk to you about more intimate things but…calm down, girl, you just met him, he may be partnered or married with two kids, oh I hope NOT, he’s, he’s cute. Let’s talk about geology, I DO love it. Whew, it’s warm in here.

“The ones I collected are all of an age, about 50 million years or so. If you like I could take you down there, do you have a hammer? I always carry mine, even if I am a healer…”

“I do! And a collecting bag, it’s old but it’s still in good shape.”

Amazed, K’ndar realized that, once again, B’rost had snared a girlfriend. Snared? Snatched her right from under my nose!

He’s gay! Females! I guess they like gay men? She doesn’t know, does she? Can you tell just by looking? Maybe that’s why I can’t get a girl? But do I want one right now? HOW does he do that? It didn’t take him ten seconds. Ten? My arse. It didn’t take him three. She’s looking at him as if she’s ready to shed her clothes and jump him. I thought she liked me, but listen to them, they’re off talking rocks like they’ve been friends for life. He’s already asked her for a date! Sheesh, he’s smooth as ice. Maybe I’ve misjudged you all these years, B’rost, you work fast. But no, it’s her with the gooey eyes. She didn’t look at me like that.

And I liked her. I still like her. I took her to Kahrain on a date. But it seems I’m just K’ndar, a friend of B’rost?

Are you jealous? Of B’rost? A blue rider? Raventh asked, drolly.

Well…….yeah.

Raventh laughed. Rath says what’s wrong with being a blue dragon?

Suddenly the humor of it all hit him and he began to laugh.

“Oh, I’m sorry, K’ndar, I guess I’m monopolizing the conversation,” B’rost said, “but it’s not often I meet another geologist, other than, oh, you know..”

“That’s okay, geology is just rocks, to me. If I can get a word in edgewise, and it’s about geology, Risal, I’m forming a team to do a survey, and I need a geologist who can also survey. I’ve been told you meet those criteria, would you be interested?”

Risal calmed, realizing she was acting like a lovestruck fool. Come ‘ere, thoughts, stop drooling, think. Think. No, not that kind of thought, think about the question!

“Wow. Yes. I mean, I’d love to, but how long would it be? I have to check on my availability, and I’d have to tell my apprentice how to manage Howel, and now I’m not so comfortable because he DID mistime this rain…”

“Right now it’s just in the planning stages, but Raylan said it would be a few weeks, and they’ve already are working on a sub for you in Ops.”

Okay, she thought, now I can think.

“Yes, I’m up for it. Yes.”

“Wait, wait, K’ndar, what about me? I’m a geologist, too, you know,” B’rost said, suddenly aggrieved.

He met B’rost’s eyes, seeing right through them.

Yeah. I know. You’ve also demonstrated a lack of common sense on more than one occasion. But you seemed to have matured, like F’mart, he thought.

“B’rost, until this morning, I had no idea where you were, or even if you were still alive. So I’ve got to work with the folks available,” he said, just a wee bit too harshly.

The blue rider quailed, than straightened up. “Okay, that’s fair, I guess. You’re right. How many would be going?”

“Right now it’s me as team leader, not as staff biologist. It’s strictly a surveying thing, not a specimen collection. I really didn’t want the job, but I’ve got the experience. I already have D’mitran as engineer. We’ll be surveying the boundaries of Singing Waters Hold, Southern Hold, and all the little cotholds out there.”

“Will D’nis be going?”

“Lord Councilman D’nis would love to go, but he seldom has more than a minute or two of free time.”

B’rost gaped.

“D’nis? Lord Councilman? Like THE Council? For Pern?”

“Yes, didn’t they tell you of the Selection at Healer Hall?”

B’rost shook his head. “If they did, I didn’t hear it. Or care. I’ve been working so hard to gain my journeyman’s badge.”

“So I see. No matter, he’d love to go but he just can’t. And it’s not as extensive as our earlier expeditions. We’d be commuting, no sleeping in the field this time. I’d be taking Risal on Raventh.”

Both of them shook their heads. Sheesh, it’s like they’re already a mated pair, he thought.

“You’ll need someone else,” Risal said, “another geologist, or surveyor.”

“What do you mean?”

“One surveyor isn’t enough. If I’m to do my job, get the data correctly, I need a second person, one to bushwhack, shoot the sun, one to handle the other end of a baseline, a tape, you know, taking readings, azimuths, both forward and back. Both people need to know what they’re doing, otherwise it’s just wasted time. It’s like walking with just one shoe on.”

“Um, I didn’t know that.”

B’rost looked at him with beseeching eyes.

“She’s right, K’ndar, she needs a stikdik, and while I’m not rated as a surveyor, I do know how to do it. I do! So I volunteer as her assistant, you know I’m good at surveys, expeditions, you KNOW me, K’ndar! I can take Risal on Rath. My time is my own, and if someone gets hurt, well, B’rost, Journeyman Healer at your service!”

I’m cornered, he thought, looking at both of them with their eyes aglow. Was it with emotional attraction or true scientific fascination? I don’t have to clear this with Raylan, it’s my choice as team leader. And it does make my job easier. I think. I can handle B’rost. It’s Risal who’s the wild card. Can I trust her to do her job rather than make gooey eyes at B’rost? Well…Flight Ops works like a well oiled clock with her at the helm. She’s got a good head on her shoulders, even if it looks like it’s whirling at the moment.

Oh, what the shaff. Give them a chance.

He shrugged, admitting to defeat.

“Okay. You’re both on.”