Chap. 394 The Odd Rocks

His datalink beeped.

“K’ndar here, who calls?”

“It’s Raylan, K’ndar. I know you’re knee deep in writing up your reports but please, come to my office.”

No problem, he thought, I needed to get off my butt anyway.

“How’s Francie?” he said, when entering Raylan’s work area. On his desk were several rocks the size of his fist.

“Fussing. She’s like her horse, can’t stand stall rest.” And thanks to you, Raylan thought, she’ll keep the leg. Never mind her life. “The healers think she’ll recover most, if not all of her leg muscle strength, but it’s going to take physical therapy. At least she’s not going to be on antibiotics much longer.”

“She’ll still be able to ride, right? Horses AND dragons?”

Raylan laughed. “That is NON NEGOTIABLE, she says, she doesn’t give a rip what the healer says, she intends to ride Motanith and Donal til her dying day. But that’s not what I called you for.”

He handed one of the rocks to K’ndar. “Do you remember where you got these rocks?”

K’ndar turned it over and over in his hands. “Sir, I don’t do rocks. My specimens have to wiggle.” He put the rock back on the bench top.

Raylan nodded. “Then they must have been brought in by B’rost. Or maybe Risal, but she says she’s never seen anything like them before.”

“Isn’t there a tag indicating where they came from? Who collected them? B’rost would have done that, he may be flighty but he’s a good scientist when it comes to rocks.”

“That’s just it, not a note, nothing. Just these rocks, they’ve been on a shelf in specimen storage for a year now, along with other things you and others have picked up over time. We’ve only now had a chance to really look at them. Jansen is creating a Geology of Pern section for her museum, and scanned them into her computer. Which isn’t really what it was designed to do, so she took them to Chemistry, and they did a mass spectrometer test on one of them.”

“Mass what?”

“It’s a machine that they recently learned to use. It was found in one of the newly uncovered buildings over on Taurus road. It burns up a sample and deciphers its chemical makeup by its spectrum.”

“That’s over my head, boss. To me it’s just a rock.”

Raylan laughed again. He picked up one of the rocks, turning it in the light.

“You’d think that, given that they’re rather dull looking. There’s no precious metals in them, like gold or silver. Chemistry turned the report over to Arr and Dee like always and those folks, you can’t imagine the noise! They were hopping up and down in glee, then started pounding on my desk demanding to know where they came from.“Where did they come from and where can we get more” like they’re about to die.”

“Is there something special about them, that’s got them all fired up?”

“Aye. It’s something we’ve been desperate for. They’re called ‘rare earths’ and it’s what makes our datalinks work, the computers think.”

“They’re rare rocks?”

“Well, that’s what they’re called, although the computer says the minerals aren’t necessarily rare, just not very common.”

“And no indication of where they came from.”

“None. I’ve pinged B’rost hoping that he could tell me where they’re found. But he’s apparently somewhere where there’s no signal or he’s doing something medical.”

“If he collected them, Raylan, he would have made a report, a tag if nothing else.”

Raylan sighed. “They were brought in by SOMEONE, then. Someone a bit careless.”

A face crossed his mind. “I bet I know, boss. Greta.”

“Greta. Green rider? Came here with B’rost? That was a very odd relationship. I thought B’rost was daft until she came along. She was probably a good geologist but I’ve never met someone more, um, flighty. She never did sign in, I never hired her.”

“I know. She was the definition of ‘nomad’. There were no other specimens, no other rocks?”

“Some, but they were obviously fossiliferous or something we all know, for instance, basalt, or limestone.”

“Then I’m pretty comfortable thinking Greta brought them in when we surveyed Western Continent. She did keep records of what she collected there, but I’m sure you remember she died in the Strait and when we emptied her backpack her notebooks were a solid mass of paper mush. And her lidar was useless, too, I think I remember it being said, but I remember, too that she DID upload data to the starship.”

“I’ll ping the Yokohama then,” Raylan said.

“What IS a ‘rare earth’? Should I go bother Jansen and leave you to your work?”

“No. She’s working on her project. But don’t forget I do know how to query the database, too,“he said, not unkindly.

K’ndar said, “Oh, sorry, I am sure you do, I’m just used to Jansen.”

What is a rare earth element and where are they found? Raylan typed.

The computer blinked.

Rare Earth element, (n):

Rare-earth element, any member of the groupof chemical elementsconsisting of three elements in Group 3 (scandium[Sc], yttrium[Y], and lanthanum[La]) and the first extended row of elementsbelow the main body of the periodic table(cerium[Ce] through lutetium[Lu]). The elements cerium through lutetium are called the lanthanides, but many scientists also, though incorrectly, call those elements rare earths.

“Resources are primarily in four geologic environments: carbonatites, alkaline igneous systems, ion-adsorption clay deposits, and monazite-xenotime-bearing placer deposits. Carbonatites and placer deposits are the leading sources of production of light rare-earth elements. Ion-adsorption clays are the leading source of production of heavy rare-earth elements.”

K’ndar’s eyes glazed. “That’s not in Global, is it? Is It?” he begged, “Because I don’t understand a word of it.”

Raylan laughed. “Technically, yes, it’s Global, but actually it’s in Geologish and Chemish. It’s referring to the periodic table of elements but the deposits are beyond me. I’d ping Risal but I know she’s never been on an official collection project. So I hope B’rost responds. I sent him some pictures of the rocks, he might remember seeing these samples. If not, I’m going to task you to transport me to Minecraft Hall at Crom. I’m going to ask the Master Miner if he knows of any deposits of this stuff.”

“Now? It will take me a few minutes to shut down my work and harness Raventh.”

“No, not this moment, I’m still in the middle of other ‘stuff’. After lunch break, if I’m lucky.”

“Maybe bring Risal with? She IS a good geologist, probably as good as she is a meteorologist.”

“I would, but Francie is still grounded, so we can’t use Motanith, and I hesitate to interrupt the Councilmen Lord D’nis and T’balt for use of their dragons. Something big is under discussion with the Council of Six and I am loathe to stick my head in.”

“I bet Lord’s D’nis and T’balt would LOVE to be interrupted. They’ve not had a chance to fly in a week. Why not P’jar?”

Raylan shook his head. “He came in very late yesterday, soaking wet. You took him to Woochick Beach?”

“Am I in trouble? Because yes, I did,” K’ndar admitted. “I wasn’t there for more than ten minutes, max, I took him there on my lunch break. I even signed us out and myself back in.”

“No,” Raylan said, remembering Jansen’s formal report of the botanist’s behavior, “Of course you’re not in trouble. And he DID tell me where he was going. I guess I gave everyone here a lesson in accountability,” he said, looking sheepish.

Like me, K’ndar thought.

“There’s something going on in his life right now, he went to the healer and got some fellis to make him sleep. He’s still sleeping, from what I gather, and he looked so rough I thought I can do without him today,” Raylan said.

“I know what’s going on with him,” K’ndar said, “His weyrmate left him. His dragon told Raventh he’d not slept in a week. He got shirty with me yesterday on the beach, sir, I thought we were going to come to blows. But he backed off, and you’re right, he’s not in a good mind.”

I’m almost sorry he didn’t throw a punch. I was ready, K’ndar thought. I’m no fighter but there are times when a man just have to stand up for himself. But it was odd, even so, added to his treatment of Jansen two days before.

“You said he came in soaking wet?”

Raylan nodded.

“I TOLD him to mind the tides. But I’m sure he did what I’ve done in the past, get so involved with collecting I forget about everything.”

“Which ever it was, scientific interest or relationship stewing, I don’t know what, but he obviously forgot about the tide.”

Falconth told me P’jar wanted to drown himself at the beach Raventh said.

K’ndar’s jaw dropped.

“What? Raventh?” Raylan said, familiar with the facial expressions of a dragonrider when their dragon said something.

K’ndar nodded, shocked. “His dragon reported that P’jar tried to suicide at the beach.”

——————————————————————————–

I’m losing it, K’ndar thought, I memorized the dragonstones for Crom when I was in Weyrlingschool but I’ve never been there. I didn’t have a notebook then, just a slate. I have so many cairns and dragonstones in my head I’m worried that I’ll mix them up, like I did so long ago.

Rath just landed, he is outside of your building.

He hurried outside to see B’rost approaching him. They bumped fists.

“What’s up, brother?” the blue rider said.

“Good to see you, B’rost! How’s Kelso?”

B’rost’s brown fire lizard launched from Rath’s neck and met Siskin in midair. They chittered at each other for a few moments, then side by side, flew south to hunt.

“He’s great. He’s such a help, he makes me laugh, I really find him to be such a good pet. I’m so lucky he decided to make me his new master.”

“Let’s walk up to Science division. Raylan’s got some rocks he needs your help to identify.”

“Ah, rocks. I’ve had quite a day already, looking at rocks will make it a better one,” the blue rider said. He sounded mournful.

K’ndar heard it. “Are you happy being a healer?”

“Well, yes and no. I like helping people, I just don’t like it when sometimes I cause more pain in the process. Then there’s always someone who’s not a healer, he’s breathing down my neck, telling me how to do my job, criticizing my every move with long stories about how they used to do it back in the old times, and I’m not doing it to their satisfaction, or someone insists on screaming, I’m sure you remember me telling you I don’t like being screamed at. And then there’s the hours, only because I told Cove Hold I refused to fly after dark or in a rainstorm have I not done so. Non-dragonriders just don’t get it, I’m afraid.”

“Whew. Sounds like more negatives than positives, B’rost.” They entered the Science Division building.

“Ah, B’rost! Thank you for coming,” Raylan said.

“My pleasure, sir. And those are the rocks you want me to identify?”

“Aye. Arr and Dee discovered what they are. “Rare Earth’ minerals. WHERE they came from is what I would like to know.”

B’rost picked one up. K’ndar was amused to see him sniff each of them.

“No notes? No tag, nothing?” he asked Raylan. The Chief shook his head.

“I always annotated where I found samples,” B’rost said, proudly.

“That’s true, B’rost. Jansen is right now working on creating a Geology of Pern section of her Natural History Museum. Your tagged and databased samples already are on display. While putzing around in the sample storage shed, she found these, nothing to indicate who dropped them off and where from
and that’s why we called you.”

“Well, sir, I honestly don’t really know what rare earths ARE, I’ll have to do some research.”

“I have some data on the screen, please translate it for me,” Raylan said.

B’rost shook his head after reading it.

“I learned geology the hard way, wearing out my pants at the knees and only learned geology as a science once a book was published by the Library,” he said, after reading. “I confess that this makes very little sense to me, it’s more chemistry than geology. As you probably know, the argot is incredibly dense.”

“I think Greta brought them, B,” K’ndar said, “When she was with us on our survey of Western Continent, she had her notebooks in her backpack. Those notes were destroyed when she, um, died in the Strait. I have no idea how the rocks got here, I’m just guessing they were hers.”

B’rost shook his head. “She was a nomad’s nomad, for certain. I’m sorry, Raylan but I haven’t a clue where she got these rocks. I haven’t read the survey of Western Continent. But I bet my boots if you take them to the Minecraft Hall, they can at least tell you what they aren’t. Have you ever been there?”

Raylan said yes, K’ndar shook his head. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to get with you, B’rost. I don’t remember the cairns or dragonstones from Crom Hold.”

B’rost grinned. “That I can help you with. I was there last week. If I hadn’t had a patient to transport I would have loved to go digging around in their waste piles. They have twenty five hundred years of stuff dug out of the mountain and it’s everywhere. Here, give me a pencil and I’ll draw the stones for you.”

K’ndar handed his field notebook to B’rost, who began to draw the stones in it.

The moment he saw the configuration and the shape of the stones, he recognized it. “Oh, DUH,” he said, as B’rost’s drawing took shape, “Yes. Duh. When I learned them we were still using slates and chalk. Using a datalink has made me lazy.”

B’rost laughed.